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Minister speaks out on Obama
Black Minister talks about Obama robbing America and we must stop him. What do you think?
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McCain Residences, he owns 10-13 residences
In an interview the other day McCain was asked how many houses he owns, he wasn't sure but said he would have someone from his team find out. Meanwhile Jed was nice enough to find out and put together a video tour of his places, I suggest googling the addresses separately on your own, most of them you can see from street view. Needless to say he has 10-13 really nice houses. In an interview the other day McCain was asked how many houses he owns, he wasn't sure but said he would have someone from his te... more
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Medical marijuana use gets a boost
A federal judge ignited the medical marijuana debate further yesterday after upholding a lawsuit brought by the city of Santa Cruz and various marijuana growers against federal drug enforcement agents that seized their crops in a 2002 raid.
In 1996, California voters approved by referendum a new law allowing individuals to grow and use marijuana with their doctor's approval. But federal drug agents and prosecutors have failed to recognize California's right to pass such a law, and have continued to shut down medical marijuana dispensaries and seize all products.
The U.S. Supreme Court have upheld the actions of federal officials in the past, but U.S. Federal District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel said the plaintiffs in the current case may be able to show that the federal government exceeded its constitutional authority by trying to force California to repeal its marijuana law.
The Santa Cruz lawsuit claims that federal prosecutors attempted to disrupt the California law by enforcement that targeted critical participants in the state system such as doctors who prescribed marijuana, officials who issued medical marijuana cards and approve permits for marijuana shops, and the growers.
Justice Department lawyers argued that the suit, if successful, "would unlawfully inject the courts into considerations of how the government is enforcing federal law, matters which the Constitution vests in the executive branch."
Judge Fogel argued that the plaintiffs "may be able to show that (federal officials) are deliberately seeking to frustrate the state's ability to determine whether an individual's use of marijuana is permissible under California law" and have thus created unconstitutional attempts to cripple the state's right to self-regulate. A federal judge ignited the medical marijuana debate further yesterday after upholding a lawsuit brought by the city of Santa Cruz and... more -
Hemp: the new choice for farmers – and it's legal
Cannabis crops could create financial highs for area farmers.
While marijuana might be the obvious, illegal cannabis cash crop, the drug’s non-munchie-inducing cousin, hemp, could be a viable choice for local farmers.
John Baker, president and founder of Stonehedge Bio-Resources Inc., said Eastern Ontario has the ideal climate and soil to grow hemp crops.
“This crop has potential to be a good reward to the agriculture sector,” Baker said. “It’s just the perfect environment for growing hemp.”
Participants in the sixth annual Eastern Lake Ontario Regional Innovation conference (ELORIN), held in Trenton Aug. 13-14, were able to tour one of Baker’s Grafton-area hemp farms.
Baker has licences for 19 hemp fields with the majority located in Hastings and Northumberland counties. He currently is researching the plant to determine its use as a biomass.
According to his findings, hemp could be a leader in a growing environmentally friendly economy.
“We can use this as a vehicle to drive this whole new sector,” said Baker, who lives in the Oak Hills area of Quinte West.
Baker believes hemp products will result in profits for farmers and producers of materials, and benefit the consumer.
“It’s a win every way for everyone that is using it,” he said.
Hemp can be used to make bio-masonry and bio-plastic products as well as food supplements and textiles.
“There are hundreds of uses,” Baker said. “They are already using it in Europe. It is just a matter of bringing it here and actually doing it.”
BMW and Mercedes have started using hemp as insulation in their automobiles.
Hemp contains minimal amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the active ingredient in marijuana.
“They could smoke this stuff until the cows come home and nobody would get high,” Baker said. “There is another chemical that would provide a terrible headache.”
However, the two plant varieties look and smell the same. The only way to tell the difference is through chemical testing. Even potheads can’t believe it’s not reefer. Baker’s crops have caused cannabis connoisseurs to temporarily trade their pipes and papers for pruning shears in attempts to raid his farms.
“In my first couple of years, they probably stole two acres from a 10- acre site,” Baker said.
Growing hemp in Canada is legal, but regulated. It requires a licence from Health Canada and is controlled by the Bureau of Drug Surveillance. Plants must have less than 0.3 per cent THC and they are regularly tested. “The worry is hemp will be used as a blind for other plant material,” Baker said.
While hemp farmers have to find their way through a maze of regulations, laws in other countries can be used to Canada’s advantage.
“That same barrier is what’s keeping the Americans out of the market,” Baker said.
The American Drug Enforcement Agency has its foot firmly in the soil against U.S. farmers producing hemp, leaving manufacturers south of the border looking for a source of the plant’s products.
“They can’t get it unless they bring it on a boat from Europe,” Baker said. “The Americans have no problem with us sending hemp fibre.”
The Quinte region’s suitable soil and proximity to Toronto, Ottawa, and the American border could translate into a “huge economic boost.”
A connection first must be made between the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
“There is no use getting the farm community engaged until we have a market well-defined and a processing plant that can buy it,” Baker said.
He hopes hemp’s possible profits will spark investment interest throughout the private sector. However, provincial and federal support will be needed to start construction of the region’s first processing plant.
“There is a strong indication this could be a major development for this area,” Baker said. “But we need government assistance to get the first plant up off the ground.” Cannabis crops could create financial highs for area farmers. ... more -
California motorist seeks return of $11,000 seized in NM
ALBUQUERQUE— A California man wants the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department to return $11,000 that a deputy seized from him when he was pulled over but not ticketed on Interstate 40.
But sheriff's Lt. Matt Thomas said the "totality of circumstances" justified seizing the money from Dennis Ducre, an African-American who contends he was racially profiled.
Thomas declined to elaborate on the circumstances, the Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday.
A small amount of marijuana was found in Ducre's car, which sheriff's officials said gave Deputy Peter Roth reason to believe the money might be suspect.
The money was confiscated through civil forfeiture. Thomas said the money will be returned to Ducre "if he shows that it's legitimate income."
"I worked for the money. I shouldn't have to prove that it's mine," said Ducre, 48, of Pasadena.
He said he has a prescription for the marijuana because he has chronic back and knee pain, an ulcer and hypertension. California has a law allowing medical use of marijuana.
Ducre was driving a car at 67 mph in the fast lane of a 75 mph zone on I-40 west of Albuquerque when he was stopped Friday and was issued a written warning for driving too slowly.
Ducre said he slowed down to change lanes just before he was pulled over. Roth asked Ducre whether he had anything illegal in his car, and Ducre said he told the deputy he had a small amount of medical marijuana and a large amount of cash.
Ducre said Roth asked to see the money, confiscated it without explanation and gave Ducre a receipt, confirming that $11,000 and a half-gram of marijuana was seized.
Ducre said he recently had received the money as a loan to buy property.
He was not charged with a crime, and Thomas said deputies can use their discretion when someone has a small amount of drugs. ALBUQUERQUE— A California man wants the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department to return $11,000 that a deputy seized from him wh... more -
U.S. demands Russia leave Georgia "now"
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Washington demanded on Friday that Russia pull its troops out of Georgia "now", but Moscow said it would be another 10 days before the bulk of its force left Georgian soil.
In a sign of growing tension between Moscow and the West over the conflict in Georgia, a Russian news agency reported that Russia had temporarily frozen cooperation with the NATO alliance, though there was no immediate confirmation.
In some of Washington's toughest comments to date, the White House declared Russia in violation of its commitments to leave the territory of Georgia after routing Georgian forces in a war that erupted two weeks ago. SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Washington demanded on Friday that Russia pull its troops out of Georgia "now", but Moscow said it... more -
McCain unsure how many houses he owns
By: Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen
August 21, 2008
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.
"I think — I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."
The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.
In recent weeks, Democrats have stepped up their effort to caricature McCain as living an outlandishly rich lifestyle — a bit of payback to the GOP for portraying Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as an elitist, and for turning the spotlight in 2004 on the five homes owned by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.
Pro-Obama labor groups have sent out mailers highlighting McCain’s wealth, and prominent Democrats have included references to it in comments to reporters.
Twice in the past two weeks, those Democrats have focused on McCain’s houses.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Politico’s Ben Smith that it was McCain “who wears $500 shoes, has six houses and comes from one of the richest families in his state."
And David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, referred in an interview with Adam Nagourney of The New York Times to an imagined meeting of McCain strategists “on the portico of the McCain estate in Sedona — or maybe in one of his six other houses.”
The Obama campaign seized on the house issue Thursday with an ad called "Seven," claiming that's the number of houses McCain has. The ad closes with a shot of the White House and the narration: "Here's ONE house American can't afford to let John McCain move into."
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in response: "Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people 'cling' to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who’s in touch with regular Americans?
“The reality is that Barack Obama’s plans to raise taxes and opposition to producing more energy here at home as gas prices skyrocket show he’s completely out of touch with the concerns of average Americans.”
At a campaign appearance in Chester, Va., on Thursday morning, Obama said: "Somebody asked John McCain, 'How many houses do you have?’ And he said, I’m not sure. I’ll have to check with my staff. True quote: I’m not sure, I’ll have to check with my staff. So they asked his staff and he said, at least four. At least four! ...
"If you’re like me and you’ve got one house – or you were like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so that they don’t lose their home — you might have a different perspective. By the way, the answer is: John McCain has seven homes. So there’s just a fundamental gap of understanding between John McCain's world and what people are going through every single day here in America."
McCain’s comments came four days after he initially told Pastor Rick Warren during a faith forum on Sunday his threshold for considering someone rich is $5 million — a careless comment he quickly corrected.
In the interview, McCain did not offer an alternate number, but had a new answer ready.
“I define rich in other ways besides income,” he said. “Some people are wealthy and rich in their lives and their children and their ability to educate them. Others are poor if they’re billionaires.”
McCain, by anyone's measure, is well-off, if you account for his wife's fortune. Cindy McCain inherited control of her father’s beer distributorship, the largest in Arizona, and has an estimated worth of more than $100 million. By: Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen August 21, 2008 ... more -
Couple to sue over police destroying pot
A Fort Collins couple is planning to sue the city and Larimer County for more than $200,000 after police officers destroyed their 39 marijuana plants two years ago.
Last year in court, James and Lisa Masters successfully showed that city police illegally seized their plants following a raid at their home on Aug. 2, 2006. Judge James Hiatt in December ordered the city to return the seized pot plants, which by then were dead.
The couple said they use the marijuana for medicinal reasons, growing some for their personal use and dispensing the rest to other people registered under the state's medical marijuana law.
And they say that state law, enshrined in the state Constitution as Amendment 20, required the government to maintain their plants, in much the same way a dog seized as evidence would be fed and cared for.
"The Masters suffer from debilitating medical conditions that were made worse by the stress of this lengthy case," their lawyer, Rob Corry Jr., wrote in a letter to the city and county declaring plans to sue. "Their valuable medical marijuana was taken away and killed in violation of Colorado law."
City and county officials say federal law requires them to destroy the plants, or at the very least not care for them. A spokesman for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said questions about whether agencies must care for live plants would be best answered by the Colorado Department of Public Health, which runs the state's medical marijuana registry. A CDPHE spokesman referred questions to Suthers' spokesman.
The case could end up having statewide implications, by forcing a judge to decide whether the state or federal law takes precedence.
For James Masters, however, it has much more important considerations. Lisa Masters has been hospitalized for five weeks with a life-threatening blood disorder that may be related to the fibromyalgia for which she uses marijuana. That medical care has cost the family more than $600,000, James Masters said.
"It's been a real struggle, but we're not giving up on it," he said this week. "I've committed my life to this."
The couple runs one of the city's first marijuana dispensaries, selling what they consider to be medical-grade pot for about $45 an ounce.
They used the federal government's estimates of what marijuana is worth to settle on the approximately $202,000 they are seeking, or $5,200 per plant.
City officials are set to meet in the next two weeks to determine a response to the Masters' pending lawsuit. The city could offer the couple a settlement, offer to pay the entire claim amount, or decide to fight the claim in court. Pending that decision, city officials declined to comment.
Larimer County sheriff's deputies last week seized more than 200 live marijuana plants from another local couple who said they were growing it for medicinal purposes, their second arrest in two years under the same circumstances.
Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said he had no plans to maintain the plants while the courts rule on the new case.
20, required the government to maintain their plants, in much the same way a dog seized as evidence would be fed and cared for.
"The Masters suffer from debilitating medical conditions that were made worse by the stress of this lengthy case," their lawyer, Rob Corry Jr., wrote in a letter to the city and county declaring plans to sue. "Their valuable medical marijuana was taken away and killed in violation of Colorado law." A Fort Collins couple is planning to sue the city and Larimer County for more than $200,000 after police officers destroyed their 39 m... more -
Federal war on medical pot challenged
A federal judge breathed new life Wednesday into medical marijuana advocates' effort to ward off the federal crackdown on medical pot in California, saying enforcement of U.S. drug laws can go too far if it seeks to interfere with state authority.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose denied a Bush administration request to dismiss a lawsuit by Santa Cruz city and county officials and members of a medical marijuana collective whose drugs were seized by federal agents in a 2002 raid.
The Santa Cruz raid was one of many actions by federal authorities against suppliers of marijuana in California since the state's voters approved a 1996 initiative allowing individuals to grow and use pot with their doctors' approval. Federal prosecutors have shut down medical marijuana dispensaries, threatened to sue the dispensaries' landlords, won convictions against growers for violating federal narcotics laws and sought to punish doctors for recommending marijuana.
The U.S. Supreme Court and other courts have upheld the federal actions, except for the government's attempt to strip federal prescription licenses from the doctors. But Fogel said the plaintiffs in the current case may be able to show that the federal government exceeded its constitutional authority by trying to force California to repeal its medical marijuana law.
The suit claims federal prosecutors have tried to disrupt the California law by enforcement that targeted critical participants in the state system - doctors who approved their patients' marijuana use, local officials who issued state-approved identification cards to medical marijuana users, local governments whose zoning allowed pot dispensaries, and marijuana suppliers who cooperated with local governments.
Federal authorities' goal, the plaintiffs alleged, is to make it impossible for the state to distinguish between medical and recreational use of marijuana and render the state law unenforceable, interfering with California's constitutional power to enact its own laws.
Government lawyers denied any such intention and said the suit was baseless. Neither the federal drug law nor any enforcement action has required the state to change its marijuana law or enforce federal laws, they said.
The suit, if successful, "would unlawfully inject the courts into considerations of how the government is enforcing federal law, matters which the Constitution vests in the executive branch," Justice Department lawyers said in court papers.
But Fogel said Wednesday that if the plaintiffs can prove all their claims, "they may be able to show that (federal officials) are deliberately seeking to frustrate the state's ability to determine whether an individual's use of marijuana is permissible under California law."
He cited an opinion by Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in the 2002 ruling on doctors who recommended marijuana. Although the federal government may prefer that California prohibit medical marijuana, Kozinski said, "it cannot force the state to do so."
Medical marijuana advocates and their lawyers called the ruling a potential breakthrough.
"For the first time, a court has recognized that a calculated plan by the federal government to undercut state medical marijuana laws is patently unconstitutional," said Graham Boyd, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer.
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/21... A federal judge breathed new life Wednesday into medical marijuana advocates' effort to ward off the federal crackdown on medical... more -
Campaign Update 08/18/08
Barack Obama makes some money, John McCain has a good night at the Saddleback forum, and underwear-related political news.
CAMPAIGN UPDATE knows that election news and weird jokes go together like a popped-collar meathead and a vacant-eyed blonde. Created by Mark Ganek and Brett Erlich, Campaign Update strives to be dumbest smart show on television.
Bookmark us and check us out every weekday at current.com/campaignupdate Barack Obama makes some money, John McCain has a good night at the Saddleback forum, and underwear-related political news. ... more -
Sniffer dog trial a failure
A NSW trial using sniffer dogs to target drug couriers has been branded a failure.
Illicit substances were found in just two per cent of the cars pulled over, and the entire exercise resulted in only one conviction.
The 18-month trial cost taxpayers more than $300,000.
A total of 7,527 vehicles were pulled over by traffic police who used the dogs to sniff out illegal drugs.
NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour said drugs were found in just 133 vehicles, with cannabis the most commonly detected drug - generally in "extremely small'' quantities.
"Despite the best efforts of police, the trial powers were ineffective in assisting police to apprehend drug couriers on a sustained basis,'' Mr Barbour said in a statement today.
"I have considerable reservations about whether these, or similar powers, will ever result in the cost-effective detection of person involved in road-based drug trafficking.''
Of the 133 cases in which drugs were found, just three cases were considered by police to involve an "indictable'' quantity of drugs.
These involved the seizure 40 ecstasy tablets, about 30 grams of amphetamines, about seven grams of cocaine, and under two grams of a party drug called "Nexus''.
Mr Barbour said the limited availability of drug sniffer dogs in rural areas may have hampered the trial, while mobile phones and CB radios meant police often quickly lost the element of surprise over the location of their check sites.
The 2007-08 trial followed a similar sniffer dog crackdown on roads in NSW's border areas in 2004-05, which also returned poor results, the ombudsman said.
"Overwhelmingly, drug detection trial operations resulted in the detection of persons involved in minor possession offences, rather than those involved in the supply or trafficking of indictable quantities of drugs,'' Mr Barbour said.
The latest trial led to 78 people being issued with a caution for cannabis possession, while 60 people were charged.
After appearing in court, one person has been handed a 12-month good behaviour bond and 47 people received fines ranging from $75 to $750.
A sunset clause means the Police Powers (Drug Detection Trial) Act will be automatically repealed tomorrow, thus ending the searches. A NSW trial using sniffer dogs to target drug couriers has been branded a failure. ... more -
Chinese may have killed 140 Tibetans this week: Dalai Lama
PARIS (AFP) — Chinese security forces opened fire on a crowd this week in eastern Tibet and may have killed 140 people, the Dalai Lama told a French daily on Thursday. PARIS (AFP) — Chinese security forces opened fire on a crowd this week in eastern Tibet and may have killed 140 people, the Dalai Lama... more
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Obama on the Attack: McCain's 7 Homes
A nice blog entry that exposes why McCain and his cronies think the economy is doing fine. Here's an excerpt of the article and a part of Obama's speech. .
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Obama Counts McCain’s Houses
By Katharine Q. Seelye AND Kitty Bennett
Updated CHESTER, Va. — If John McCain had tried to play into Barack Obama’s strategy of sounding out of touch with ordinary people, he could not have done better than to say in an interview that he didn’t know how many houses he had.
“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” Mr. McCain told reporters for The Politico in an interview in New Mexico on Wednesday. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”
Mr. Obama seized on the remark at his first event here today to bolster his case that Mr. McCain is too rich to understand what’s going on with the economy and had recently said that it was “fundamentally strong.”
..... A nice blog entry that exposes why McCain and his cronies think the economy is doing fine. Here's an excerpt of the article and a... more -
Spanish plane that crashed had overheated gauge - Bodies identified from plane cra...
MADRID, Spain: A gauge that indicated overheated air was entering a Spanair jetliner just under the cockpit forced pilots to scuttle a first attempt at takeoff, about an hour before the plane crashed in flames.
But airline officials refused to speculate Thursday on what caused the crash that killed 153 people, and aviation experts said the gauge was probably not a factor.
As investigators tried to reconstruct the last, hellish minutes of the MD-82's flight, relatives crushed by grief went to a makeshift morgue to identify loved ones. Officials said many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition. MADRID, Spain: A gauge that indicated overheated air was entering a Spanair jetliner just under the cockpit forced pilots to scuttle a... more -
Crisis in the Caucasus. What Were They Smoking in the White House?
by Eric Margolis
The Bush administration appears to have pulled off its latest military fiasco in the Caucasus. What was supposed to have been a swift and painless takeover of rebellious South Ossetia by America’s favorite new ally, Georgia, has turned into a disaster that left Georgia battered, Russia enraged, and NATO badly demoralized. Not bad for two days work.
Equally important, Russia’s Vladimir Putin swiftly and decisively checkmated the Bush administration’s clumsy attempt last week to expand US influence into the Caucasus, and made the Americans and their Georgian satraps look like fools.
We are not facing a return to the Cold War – yet. But the current US-Russian crisis over Georgia, a tiny nation of only 4.6 million, and its linkage to a US anti-ballistic missile system in Eastern Europe, is deeply worrying and increasingly dangerous.
On 7 August, Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, ordered his US and Israeli-advised and equipped army to invade the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has been struggling for independence from Georgia since 1992. Most of its people were Russian citizens who wanted union with Russian North Ossetia.
If not directly behind Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia, Washington had to have been at least fully aware of Saakashvili’s plans. The Georgian Army was trained and equipped by US and Israeli military advisors stationed with its troops down to battalion level. CIA and Israel’s Mossad operated important intelligence stations in Tbilisi and coordinated plans with the Saakashvili, whose political opponents have long accused him of being very close to CIA and the Pentagon.
Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia was launched while the world was absorbed by the Beijing Olympics, and Prime Minister Putin was in the Chinese capital. The attack was clearly planned to be a lightening strike that would occupy all of South Ossetia and then Abkhazia before Moscow could react, presenting the Kremlin with a fait accompli.
Who in Bush’s or Cheney’s office approved this stupid adventure? Why did the very smart Israelis get sucked into this imbroglio?
Saakashvili’s stealth "coup de main" quickly turned into a disaster. Russia’s 58th Army responded by routing Georgian forces and delivering a humiliating strategic and psychological blow to the Bush administration. Saakashvili fell right into Moscow’s trap.
Georgia and Russia have been feuding since 1992 over two Georgian ethnic enclaves, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, whose people differ in ethnicity and language from Georgians and who wanted to rejoin Russia.
The young, US-educated Saakashvili became Georgia’s president in 2003 after an uprising, believed organized by CIA and financed by US money, overthrew the former leader, Eduard Shevardnadze. I came to know and respect Shevardnadze in Moscow when he was Mikhail Gorbachev’s principal ally and architect of Soviet reform.
Had the able, clever Shevardnadze still been in power, this misadventure would never have happened.
Saakashvili quickly became the golden boy of US rightwing neoconservatives and their Israeli allies, who held him a model of how to turn former Russian-dominated states into "democratic" US allies. Georgian critics claim Saakashvili kept power by intimidation, bribery, and vote rigging. The youthful Georgian leader, his head swelled by promises of US support and NATO membership, launched a war of words against Moscow.
Amazingly, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a supposed Russian expert, even publicly assured Saakashvili that the US would "fight" for Georgia. Washington’s latest fiasco falls squarely into her lap.
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Read the whole article at link. by Eric Margolis ... more -
Will the Real Elitist Please Stand Up?
For all of McCain's Obama-bashing, he really ought to figure out who the real elitist is in this election.
Hint: It's him. For all of McCain's Obama-bashing, he really ought to figure out who the real elitist is in this election. ... more -
Shoppers injured in cheap food rush
BEIJING (Reuters) - At least a dozen shoppers, many of them retirees, were injured in a rush to buy cheap cooking oil and eggs on offer at a supermarket in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, according to a local newspaper.
Four were taken to the hospital, including a 58-year-old woman who broke several bones. The oldest, a woman surnamed Wu, was 81, the Yangtze Evening News reported on Wednesday.
A stampede at a store in Chongqing last year killed three and injured dozens. The Chinese government responded by ordering supermarkets to control special promotions. BEIJING (Reuters) - At least a dozen shoppers, many of them retirees, were injured in a rush to buy cheap cooking oil and eggs on offe... more -
The Global Fight Against Religious Facism Continues
Click on the url to this article in the Guatemala Times for yet more news on the battle between organised religion and reason. It just goes to show you that we Americans don't have a corner on the market when it comes to a Religious Right and their attempts to control and dictate people's lives, based on age-old superstitions. Click on the url to this article in the Guatemala Times for yet more news on the battle between organised religion and reason. It jus... more
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Obama Lives in "a Frickin' Mansion"
SEDONA, Ariz. -- A spokesman for Sen. John McCain vowed to retaliate against today's story about how many houses the GOP candidate owns with a renewed focus on Sen. Barack Obama's ties to a Chicago developer and charges that Obama is an elitist.
"We're delighted to have a real estate debate with Barack Obama," said spokesman Brian Rogers, adding that the press should focus on Obama's house. "It's a frickin' mansion. He doesn't tell people that. You have a mansion you bought in a shady deal with a convicted felon."
The felon reference was to Tony Rezko, a former Obama friend and financial backer who was convicted on fraud and bribery charges this year. Rogers vowed to intensify efforts to link Obama to Rezko in the coming days. SEDONA, Ariz. -- A spokesman for Sen. John McCain vowed to retaliate against today's story about how many houses the GOP candidat... more -
Russian maestro: Georgian attack is Ossetia's 9/11
Russia's most famous conductor, Valery Gergiev, said on Thursday Georgia's assault on South Ossetia was comparable to the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Gergiev, an ethnic Ossetian, drew the parallel after seeing the bombed and burnt out houses of Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital which was shelled by Georgian forces earlier this month.
Feted as one of the world's top conductors, Gergiev -- who grew up in the neighboring Russian region of North Ossetia -- visited the devastated Jewish Quarter of Tskhinvali before conducting a special concert on the town's central square.
"When the U.S. lost three and a half thousand people on September 11th, Russia became the first country to express its support," said Gergiev, referring to the al Qaeda attacks in 2001 which in fact killed nearly 3,000.
"For South Ossetia to lose 1,500 or 2,000 people today is a terrible tragedy but no one knows about it," he said. "To shoot at kids, at children from a tank, it's a shame and the world should know about this shame."
Gergiev looked shocked as he was shown around the ruins of houses reduced to mangled rubble.
Russian forces repelled the invasion and then pushed further into Georgia, provoking an storm of international criticism. Washington said Moscow's actions had evoked Cold War memories of the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe.
But South Ossetia and Russia say Georgian troops went on the rampage during their attack and accuse Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of genocide against the Ossetians, who are ethnically distinct from Georgians.
Currently director of the Mariinsky Theatre in Russia's northern city of St Petersburg, Gergiev was born in Moscow but spent his childhood in North Ossetia.
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Whole article at link. Russia's most famous conductor, Valery Gergiev, said on Thursday Georgia's assault on South Ossetia was comparable to the Se... more
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