When purple things are pulsating on your mind, I'm the one whose clock you want to clean. Aiding is Sparky, the Astral Plane Zen Pup Dog from his mountain stronghold on the Northernmost Island of the Happy Ninja Island chain, this blog will also act as a journal to my wacky antics at an entertainment company and the progress of my self published comic book, The Deposit Man which only appears when I damn well feel like it. Real Soon Now.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
New NASA astronauts will never fly on shuttle
First recruits in 5 years will train for space station, other crafts
collectSPACE.com/NASA
Meet NASA's new 2009 astronaut class, starting on the top row from left; Serena Aunon, Jeanette Epps, Jack Fischer; in the middle row from left, Michael Hopkins, Kjell Lindgren, Kathleen (Kate) Rubins, and in the bottomrow from left, Scott Tingle, Mark Vande Hei, Gregory (Reid) Wiseman.
updated 1:08 p.m. PT,Mon., June 29, 2009NASA on Monday unveiled the nine Americans making up its newest class of astronaut candidates, a group that will never fly on the space shuttle.
The six-man, three-woman astronaut class of 2009 is NASA's first batch of new spaceflying recruits in five years. The candidates are expected to report to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in August to begin two years of training.
"This is a very talented and diverse group we've selected," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's space operations chief, in a statement. "They will join our current astronauts and play very important roles for NASA in the future."
NASA's three aging space shuttles are due to retire in 2010 after completing construction of the International Space Station. The new astronaut candidates, therefore, will likely only train to fly aboard the space station, Russian Soyuz vehicles, and NASA's shuttle replacement - the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and its Ares rockets tapped to ferry spaceflyers to orbit and back to the moon by 2020. The 11 astronauts of NASA's 2004 class are all expected to have flown once on a shuttle by the fleet's retirement next year, NASA officials have said.
"In addition to flying in space, astronauts participate in every aspect of human spaceflight, sharing their expertise with engineers and managers across the country," Gerstenmaier said.
The 2009 astronaut class is a relatively young group, with ages ranging from 30 to 43. NASA selected the nine from a field of 3,500 applicants to make up the new class, its 20th group since the original seven Mercury astronauts were unveiled in 1959.
The group is a mix of military and civilians that includes: a technical intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), two NASA flight surgeons, a space station flight controller, a sprint-running molecular biologist, as well as two Navy test pilots, a U.S. Air Force test pilot and the special assistant to the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.
"I think this is a thrilling time to be part of the space program, and I feel very fortunate to be starting as an astronaut candidate at this particular time," said Kathleen Rubins, 30, the molecular biologist, in a NASA interview.
Here's a brief look at NASA's new astronaut class:
Serena M. Aunon, 33, of League City, Texas; University of Texas Medical Branch-Wyle flight surgeon for NASA's space shuttle, International Space Station and Constellation programs; born in Indianapolis, Ind. Aunon holds degrees from George Washington University, the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, and UTMB.
Jeanette J. Epps, 38, of Fairfax, Va.; technical intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency; born in Syracuse, N.Y. Epps holds degrees from LeMoyne College and the University of Maryland.
Jack D. Fischer, Major U.S. Air Force, 35, of Reston, Va.; test pilot; U.S. Air Force Strategic Policy intern (Joint Chiefs of Staff) at the Pentagon; born in Boulder, Colo. Fischer is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Michael S. Hopkins, Lt. Colonel U.S. Air Force, 40, of Alexandria, Va.; special assistant to the Vice Chairman (Joint Chiefs of Staff) at the Pentagon; born in Lebanon, Mo. Hopkins holds degrees from the University of Illinois and Stanford University.
Kjell N. Lindgren, 36, of League City, Texas; University of Texas Medical Branch-Wyle flight surgeon for NASA's Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Constellation Programs; born in Taipei, Taiwan. Lindgren has degrees from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado State University, University of Colorado, the University of Minnesota, and UTMB.
Kathleen (Kate) Rubins, 30, of Cambridge, Mass.; born in Farmington, Conn.; principal investigator and fellow, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT and conducts research trips to the Congo. Rubins has degrees from the University of California-San Diego and Stanford University. Rubins is not the youngest person to be selected for NASA's astronaut corps. Astronauts Sally Ride and Tammy Jernigan were both 26 at the time of their selections in 1978 and 1985, respectively.
Scott D. Tingle, Commander U.S. Navy, 43, of Hollywood, Md.; born in Attleboro, Mass.; test pilot and Assistant Program Manager-Systems Engineering at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Tingle holds degrees from Southeastern Massachusetts University (now University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) and Purdue University.
Mark T. Vande Hei, Lt. Colonel U.S. Army, 42, of El Lago, Texas; born in Falls Church, Va.; flight controller for the International Space Station at NASA's Johnson Space Center, as part of U.S. Army NASA Detachment. Vande Hei is a graduate of Saint John's University and Stanford University.
Gregory R. (Reid) Wiseman, Lt. Commander U.S. Navy, 33, of Virginia Beach, Va.; born in Baltimore; test pilot; Department Head, Strike Fighter Squadron 103, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, based out of Oceana, Va. Wiseman is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Johns Hopkins University.
Currently, there are about 85 active astronauts in NASA's spaceflying ranks. The nine members of the 2009 class will join the astronaut corps after their two-year training regime.
NASA spokesperson Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters told SPACE.com that the nine NASA recruits will be joined by new astronauts from Japan, Canada and Europe, who will also train with them. In May, the Japanese and Canadian space agencies each added two new astronauts to their small cadre of spaceflyers, while the European Space Agency unveiled six new astronauts representing Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
The new astronauts are all expected to report for training duty in late August, Cloutier-Lemasters said.
"We look forward to working with them as we transcend from the shuttle to our future exploration of space, and continue the important engineering and scientific discoveries aboard the International Space Station," Gerstenmaier said.
Beer company to send contest winner to space aboard Virgin Galactic craft
The company behind the dark Irish beer Guinness will give loyal drinkers a taste of space along with their stout, but only if they win new contest.
Guinness has reserved a seat aboard a suborbital Virgin Galactic spaceliner as one of three experience prizes in an online contest honoring the 250th birthday of the beer's brewery this year.
Founded by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic is a commercial space tourism company that plans to launch passengers on $200,000 trips to suborbital space using a fleet of SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. The spaceliners are designed to be launched from the air by a massive WhiteKnightTwo mothership and send two pilots and six passengers on a weightless joyride.
Virgin Galactic currently plans to launch and land space tourist flights from a terminal at Spaceport America in New Mexico — which began construction earlier this month — as well as from a spaceport in Kiruna, Sweden. The first WhiteKnightTwo carrier ship "Eve" has been flying a series of test flights this year.
Guinness officials said their space trip contest runs through Sept. 24 and promised a thrilling ride for the winner.
The launch will catapult passengers beyond Earth's atmosphere at nearly 2,500 mph — three times the speed of sound — to a point about 68 miles above the planet, Guinness officials said. Once in space, passengers will have a view of the blackness of space and unbroken vistas of the Earth for 1,000 miles in every direction before re-entering the atmosphere and gliding back to its home port, they added.
he beer company announced the new contest on Wednesday to commemorate founder Arthur Guinness's signing of the 9,000-year lease on the St. James's Gate brewery in Dublin, Ireland. Some 250 events are planned in participating countries around the world. They are open to adults of legal drinking age in their respective countries.
"Since 1759, Arthur Guinness and the Guinness brand have been behind some remarkable and hugely momentous achievements," Guinness officials said in a statement. "To continue this legacy and as part of the 250 celebrations, Guinness is giving something back to Guinness supporters around the world by offering the chance to win one of these three remarkable Guinness experiences."
The two other prizes include an undersea trip to a Guinness bar 229 feet below the ocean's surface near the Lofoten Islands in Norway, as well as a private live studio performance by the band The Black Eye Peas.
Virgin Galactic's carrier ships and spacecraft are being built by the California-based company Scaled Composites. The new vehicles build on the firm's SpaceShipOne and WhiteKnight vehicles that won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004.
For more information on the Guinness online contest visit: www.guinness.com.
William Small had been swimming with 3 friends in Columbia
Wednesday, June 24 | 9:51 p.m. BY JOHN BRANTON COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITERA dozen scuba divers Wednesday searched the area in the Columbia River where William Small, 19, is believed to have drowned Tuesday afternoon, but they didn't find him.
"They gave it a great effort, but unfortunately it did not produce any results," said Jim Flaherty, firefighter-spokesman with the Vancouver Fire Department.
Members of Southwest Washington Organization of Rescue Divers and the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office Dive Team worked the area north of the Vancouver Lake flushing channel, and other areas as well, from midmorning to late afternoon.
Divers said they didn't anticipate further searching today.
Flaherty himself arose early Wednesday and, soon after daybreak, walked the shore, popular with fishers and families, in case Small's body was there. Small remained missing Wednesday night.
Small, a Vancouver resident, graduated in 2008 from Skyview High School.
Tuesday, he'd been swimming with three friends between the flushing channel and Frenchman's Bar Regional Park when the four became tired. A boater found them struggling in the water and managed to rescue three, but couldn't locate Small, officials said.
After the boater called 911 about 4:40 p.m. Tuesday, a massive interagency search ensued, including several rescue boats, tethered fire department rescue swimmers using grid tactics, scuba divers and a U.S. Coast Guard MH-60 rescue helicopter crew from Astoria, Ore.
The effort continued for about four hours Tuesday before being called off around sunset.
On Wednesday, Vancouver police had not yet identified the boater who rescued three of the swimmers.
"We wish him the best and thank him a hundred times over for getting involved," Flaherty said. "Everybody's thoughts are with the family, that's for sure."
It wasn't known Wednesday why Small and his friends were in distress in the water.
But rescue swimmers said the murky water ranged from 3 to 8 feet deep, indicating the possibility that someone who was wading could fall into deeper water.
In September, the same area claimed the life of 20-year-old Samuel D. Garvin of Vancouver. He'd been trying to swim across the flushing channel when he went under, according to The Columbian's files.
VANCOUVER, Wash. – Rescue crews returned to the Columbia River on Wednesday to recover a teenager who presumably drowned, according to Vancouver police.
Clark County officials and dive crews on Tuesday were called to a section of the Columbia in the 8800 block of NW Lower River Rd in Vancouver.
Officials said four older teenagers, two males and two females, were in the water somewhere between the Flushing Channel and Frenchman’s Bar when 19-year-old William Small went under.
Small was a graduate of Skyview High School in Vancouver and had plans to attend the University of Washington in the fall. Friends unsuccessfully tried to find him in the swift current.
A nearby boat picked up the other three but did not find Small. Fuck Fuck Fuck!
FILE -- This undated file photo released by NASA April 28, 1992 shows Charles Bolden Jr. President Barack Obama on Saturday named the former shuttle commander to lead NASA. If the Senate confirms Bolden, he would be the space agency's first black administrator and the second astronaut to hold the post. (AP Photo/NASA)
HOUSTON — The nation's turbulent space program will be run by one of its own, a calming well-liked former space shuttle commander.
President Barack Obama on Saturday chose retired astronaut Gen. Charles Bolden to lead NASA. He also named former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver as the agency's No. 2. If confirmed, Bolden, who has flown in space four times and was an assistant deputy administrator at one point, would be the agency's first black administrator.
Bolden would also be only the second astronaut to run NASA in its 50-year history. Adm. Richard Truly was the first. In 2002, then-President George W. Bush unsuccessfully tried to appoint Bolden as the space agency's deputy administrator. The Pentagon said it needed to keep Bolden, who was a Marine general at the time and a pilot who flew more than 100 sorties in Vietnam.
"Charlie knows NASA and the people know Charlie; there's a level of comfort," especially given the uncertainty the space agency faces, said retired astronaut Steve Hawley, who flew twice in space with Bolden.
Bolden likely will bring "more balance" to NASA, increasing spending on aeronautics and environment missions, working more with other nations in space, and emphasizing education, which the president often talks about when it comes to space, said former Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey, a longtime friend.
"He's a real leader," Abbey said Saturday. "NASA has been looking for a leader like this that they could have confidence in."
Bolden's appointment came during the tail end of the space shuttle Atlantis' mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope one final time. He was the pilot on the flight that sent Hubble into orbit in 1990.
Bolden, 62, would inherit a NASA that doesn't look much like the still-somewhat-fresh-from-the-moon agency he joined as an astronaut in 1980. NASA now "is faced with a lot of uncertainty," Abbey said.
Bush set in motion a plan to retire the space shuttle fleet at the end of next year and return astronauts to the moon and then head out to Mars in a series of rockets and capsules that borrows heavily from the 1960s Apollo program. The shuttle's replacement won't be ready until at least 2015, so for five years the only way Americans will be able to get in space is by hitching a ride on a Russian space capsule. And some of NASA's biggest science programs are over budget.
Earlier this month, the White House ordered a complete outside examination of the manned space program. The Obama administration hasn't been explicit about its space policy, with White House science adviser John Holdren saying the policy would come after a NASA chief was named.
"These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America's space program," Obama said of Bolden and Garver in a statement.
Bolden, a native of Columbia, S.C., and his wife donated $750 to the Obama campaign in 2008.
At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Bolden spent about a decade, his impending appointment was quietly cheered on all week long.
The diminutive salt-and-pepper haired Bolden, who lives only a few miles from the space center, on Saturday morning said he couldn't talk until after Senate confirmation. He was busy answering congratulatory e-mails from home. He has his own consulting firm in Houston and sits on corporate boards.
Those who have flown or worked with Bolden can't praise him enough.
Retired astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz interviewed to become an astronaut the same week as Bolden, was picked at the same time, and they flew together on their first flights.
Soon after that much-delayed launch of the space shuttle Columbia in January 1986, Chang-Diaz looked at his friend Bolden and saw that the shuttle pilot had a "big, big smile... we were kind of like kids in a candy store."
Hawley and then-U.S. Rep. Bill Nelson were also aboard that 1986 flight. Nelson, now the chairman of the Senate subcommittee on space that will oversee Bolden's nomination and one of the people pushing Bolden's nomination to the White House, commented: "I trusted Charlie with my life - and would do so again."
Kathryn Sullivan was the payload commander on the 1992 flight of Atlantis, which was Bolden's first of two shuttle commands. She said Bolden has all the aspects of leadership that a good chief requires. That includes experience, wisdom and the ability to listen to all sides. She called him "one of the finest people I've ever known."
"Charlie's a great leader," Chang-Diaz agreed. "He takes care of his team." ___
Newspaper cuts have left cartoonists struggling. Some are looking at the Web and animation too.
By Yvonne Villarreal May 22, 2009
Picture the scene: a room full of cartoonists, sipping cocktails and making small talk. What might each of their text balloons say about the state of cartooning today?
Lalo Alcaraz's would be succinct. "We're going to hell in a handbasket," said the creator of the comic strip "La Cucaracha."
Alcaraz suspects that will be the consensus this weekend at the National Cartoonists Society's annual convention in Hollywood. It's usually a time for fun, culminating in a black tie dinner where the best comics are given Reuben Awards. But like so many others in this changing economy, cartoonists are suffering. With newspapers cutting space and in some cases folding, print comic strip illustrators are finding their livelihoods threatened. "We live and die by our newspapers," said Cathy Guisewite, who created the comic strip "Cathy" in 1976. "We've all built our careers on trying to be content for newspapers. If newspapers are struggling, then we're struggling as well."
Readers of several major newspapers have seen the comics reduced or re-sized in the last few months.
In late March, the Washington Post announced it was dropping five print comics, including "Little Dog Lost" and "Zippy the Pinhead" -- though, all five are still available on the Post’s website.
A month earlier, the Oregonian announced it was dropping 10 comics to cut back on costs.
In December, the Florida Times-Union cut eight strips from both its daily and Sunday comics. The paper instituted a "Comic Strip Survivor" voting drive through which readers could pick which eight of the 16 strips would be eliminated.
Some newspapers that have moved to a Web-only format, such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Capital Times in Madison, Wis., have kept their comics in online form.
But cartoonists whose strips survive are forced to be even more succinct in their storytelling as newspapers shrink their allotted space for comics.
"There's less you can do in the size of the panel that current newspapers provide," said Stephan Pastis, creator of "Pearls Before Swine."
"In the old days, comics were often full pages. Now, they're squeezed down into tiny little boxes that don't give much more room than what it takes to do a talking head. It's sad to see something that was so important to cartooning becoming marginalized."
The un-funny reality has made the print comics scene a challenge for newcomers, according to the Post's Michael Cavna, TV/theater editor and the man behind its Comic Riffs blog.
"I think it's brutally hard to break into print comics right now," Cavna said. "It's like 'Star Wars,' when you're trying to shoot to get the Death Star . . . that tiny little room of error -- that's where cartoonists are left in the print world. The window is yet narrower to succeed."
Lisa Wilson, senior vice president and general manager of United Media press syndicate, says the syndicate receives hundreds of submissions each year, of which roughly eight are selected for syndication. That doesn't mean those eight will be distributed to newspapers; some may get a Web-only launch.
"It's very difficult for a newly launched strip to reach its potential than if it had been launched 10 to 20 years ago," Wilson said.
"New comics aren't getting the attention they should be. But I still think newspapers are a good place for exposure. And we will continue to try to feed the best comics to the newspapers despite the fact that they're in a difficult place right now."
Historically, comic strips were used to build readership and lure readers from competing papers, said Stephen Worth, director of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive. But there are few markets left with competing papers.
And, Cavna adds, with rival forms of humorous entertainment, a cartoonist's funniness can often feel bland.
"If you're being exposed to 'The Daily Show' or 'Funny or Die' videos online and then go to the comics page, even the best writers can just feel tame or sweet," Cavna said. "There are edgy comics out there, but newspapers aren't, for the most part, going to risk running them. They're not going to risk scaring their more traditional and established readers."
But like their newspapers, cartoonists are finding other ways to distribute their content. Though cartooning online may still be in its infancy, some cartoonists have found a way to generate enough revenue to make a living at it.
Jeph Jacques, 28, operates QuestionableContent.net, an online comic strip. The first strip appeared in August 2003; by the next year, Jacques was able to support himself and his wife from the revenue generated from merchandise and ad space sold on the website.
"There seems to be, among some of the older, more established cartoonists, this sense of incredulity that people can make a living doing comics online," Jacques said. "Online comics have the advantage. We're getting a more diverse crowd; a younger crowd. And word of mouth is a lot quicker."
Neither cartoonists nor syndicate representatives interviewed for this story provided figures for how much money a syndicated cartoonist makes. A cartoonist's contract with a syndicate is determined on an individual basis. Typically, the more clients a cartoonist has and the bigger the newspaper's circulation, the more money a cartoonist can expect to make.
And those not entirely convinced by the revenue stream generated online are looking to animation as their next target. Alcaraz has dabbled with producing "somewhat animated" editorial cartoons and has pitched an animated version of his comic to Fox. Pastis also expressed an interest in getting "Pearls" animated.
Cartoonists should explore all options to avoid producing content that makes readers squint their eyes, Cavna said.
"Soon, they'll have to start including plastic magnifying glasses for free with every comics page," he said. "Shrinking them anymore becomes almost pointless."
yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com Honestly - the nation would have been better served if she had the balls to go after Cheney in 2006. I've no patience for excuses.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz told POLITICO he thought the video was 'reprehensible, irresponsible and unpersuasive.'
Photo: AP
At least one Republican doesn't think it's OK to compare Nancy Pelosi to Pussy Galore.
After viewing an RNC video that juxtaposed the speaker with the James Bond villainess, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told POLITICO Saturday:
"I thought it was reprehensible, irresponsible and unpersuasive. If we're going to regain the credibility of the American people, we're going to have to stop with silly antics like that. It may get a snide chuckle inside the Beltway, but it offends most people. We have to get away from the politics of personal destruction," he said of the video.
The RNC declined repeatedly to explain the Pelosi/Galore connection, saying only that the video was about the speaker's "lack of leadership." Chaffetz is the only Republican thus far who has been willing to comment on the video.
"Policy and public comments are fair game, and there are creative ways to amplify it, but I despise it when Democrats and organizations like MoveOn.org use these types of tactics," Chaffetz said. "I would like our party to be more consistent in calling out inappropriate behavior like this. We've got to show some leadership and get serious about the issues at hand. It just bothers me that we have someone in the bowels of the organization on payroll working on stuff like this."
MoveOn.org took flak for its "General Betray Us" newspaper ad that implied that Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus was disloyal to the country. Chaffetz added that such stunts are not only inappropriate, but in the case of Pelosi and the CIA waterboarding flap, also unnecessary:
"All we have to do is show the videos [of Pelosi's explanations] side by side, and that should be enough for people to recognize that she's been terribly inconsistent. I think some people have shown some real leadership here — I think John Boehner has been doing a good job with it. We need others in this party to recognize that this is not a winning tactic."
The length of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's opening remarks at a press conference often correlates to the political barometric pressure level. The longer the opening, the worse the pressure.
If the Pelosi-Pressure-Correlation-Matrix is any guide, she was feeling it Friday morning. Her regular Thursday morning briefing with reporters had been pushed to Friday. Pelosi, well aware that the assembled scribes were ready to lob who-lied-to-whom-and-when questions at her, entered the room with a phalanx of what one reporter jokingly referred to as human shields.
On April 23rd, as Republicans pounded her with questions about when she was first briefed about waterboarding and why she didn't object more forcefully, she first took questions from every child in the room for take-your-kids-to-work day; she even asked a few who didn't raise their hands to come up with some.
When she finally took questions from grownups, she responded with an answer that has had Capitol Hill distracted ever since. Pelosi said that she and the others briefed by the CIA "were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used." Three weeks later, she expanded on that denial, saying that the CIA lied to her and others in a September 2002 briefing when they said they hadn't waterboarded detainees yet.
On Friday, she took the podium to hail the accomplishments of Congress and lay out the agenda going forward: health care, energy, financial sector reform. Then she deployed her human shields. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) took the podium, and offered a soliloquy about the unity of the Pelosi-Hoyer team.
"When do we just start shouting out questions?" wondered one reporter as the minutes ticked by.
Hoyer finished and Pelosi retook the podium, then yielded to Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) who waxed prolific about consumer debt, brandishing a letter he'd received from his credit card company cutting his limit.
Batting cleanup -- and warming up his filibuster skills for his eventual ascension to the Senate -- was Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who had a full page of notes to guide his talk. A recent government report, he said, had found cost overruns in the Defense Department. Those cost overruns must be addressed.
A reporter squeezed in the room from the back, telling colleagues he'd been watching the spectacle on TV but had to see it for himself.
He was there in time to hear Van Hollen share his thoughts on climate change, health care, credit card reform and fraud in the financial markets. Pelosi added a remark on the need for a commission to study the financial crisis and the importance of education. Then she offered to take a few questions, 30 minutes after the scheduled start of the presser.
She chose her first mark wisely. The press corps groaned as a reporter asked who Pelosi would like to appoint to the financial collapse commission, a question she took her time in answering.
The second question was on the CIA issue. Pelosi stood by her earlier statement but declined to elaborate. "I have made the statement I'm going to make on this. I don't have anything more to say about it. I stand by my comment. And what we are doing is staying on our course and not be distracted from going forward in a bipartisan way on jobs, health care, energy for our country. On the subject that you asked, I made the statement I'm going to make. I don't have anything more to say," she said.
Should the CIA officers resign?
"I don't have anything more to say," she said again. "Another subject?"
The next question, straight from left field, asked whether Democrats were hatching their own "K Street Project" modeled after former Majority Leader Tom Delay's fundraising scheme.
There isn't one, she said. With Delay safely dispatched, a Pelosi aide called out "last question!" Laughter erupted from the press corps.
The final question was on her impending trip to China. Pelosi, a fierce critic of Chinese government oppression, will be there for the tenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. She'll face intense pressure from human rights activists to stay firm in her tough stance and will be pushed the opposite direction by the Chinese government.
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon announce that gay American diplomats will be given benefits similar to those that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy, U.S. officials said Saturday.
In a notice to be sent soon to State Department employees, Clinton says regulations that denied same-sex couples and their families the same rights and privileges that straight diplomats enjoyed are "unfair and must end," as they harm U.S. diplomacy.
"Providing training, medical care and other benefits to domestic partners promote the cohesiveness, safety and effectiveness of our posts abroad," she says in the message, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
"It will also help the department attract and retain personnel in a competitive environment where domestic partner benefits and allowances are increasingly the norm for world-class employers," she says.
"At bottom, the department will provide these benefits for both opposite-sex and same-sex domestic partners because it is the right thing to do," Clinton says.
Among the benefits that will now be granted gay diplomats: the right of domestic partners to hold diplomatic passports, government-paid travel for their partners and families to and from foreign posts, and the use of U.S. medical facilities abroad.
In addition, gay diplomats' families will now be eligible for U.S. government emergency evacuations and training courses at the Foreign Service Institute, the message says.
The announcement, expected this week, was provided to the AP by a State Department official who is a member of the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies organization. Two department officials not affiliated with the organization confirmed its accuracy.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the changes.
Previously, the State Department had withheld some benefits from the families of gay diplomats, citing the Defense of Marriage Law, which had restricted federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
One former ambassador, Michael Guest, resigned from the foreign service in 2007 to protest the restrictions. Guest was a part of the Obama administration's State Department transition team and played a major role in lobbying for the changes.
Clinton told members of Congress last week that she would soon announce the revisions.
Shoppers leave the Beverly Center parking structure as Los Angeles police investigate the scene of a shooting in which Atlanta-based rapper Dolla was killed.
Shooting in the valet area of the upscale mall sends diners diving for cover. The rapper had flown to L.A. Monday morning to work on his first album, slated to be out this summer.
By Sam Quinones, Rong-Gong Lin II and Andrew Blankstein May 19, 2009
An Atlanta-based rapper was fatally shot in the valet waiting area of the Beverly Center mall Monday by a suspect who fled in a silver Mercedes SUV, according to police. Officers later detained a "person of interest" as he approached the ticketing area at Los Angeles International Airport armed with a gun.
The shooting occurred about 3:10 p.m. in the parking garage of the popular Westside mall, sending diners in nearby restaurants diving for cover.
Dolla, a rapper whose real name is Roderick Anthony Burton II, was shot in the head as he and several other people stood near the center's La Cienega Boulevard entrance, according to police, witnesses and Dolla's publicist, Sue Vannasing. A friend of the rapper's who was at the Beverly Center and a Los Angeles Police Department official also confirmed the victim's identity to The Times.
Burton, 21, arrived at LAX from Atlanta earlier in the day and went to the Beverly Center to shop, Vannasing said. After the shooting, Burton was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center a few blocks from the mall, where he died, police said.
The LAPD has not announced a motive for the attack or identified any suspects. Detectives are questioning a woman they detained at the scene and a man who allegedly drove from the mall to LAX in a rented silver Mercedes SUV.
About an hour after the shooting, the LAPD issued a bulletin for a 20-year-old man considered a "person of interest" in the shooting. Los Angeles Airport Police officers spotted a man fitting the description in the ticketing lobby of Terminal 1.
"The suspect was detained without incident [and] discovered to be armed," said Los Angeles World Airports spokeswoman Nancy Castles.
Police later found the Mercedes in an airport parking lot. LAPD officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the continuing inquiry, said they are investigating whether the man was trying to get a flight out of L.A.
Burton was an up-and-coming rapper who had recorded several singles. He was in town to work on his first album, slated to be released this summer on Jive Records, Vannasing said.
His first single, released in 2007, was "Who the . . . Is That?"
The killing comes 12 years after another shooting in Los Angeles threw the rap music business into turmoil. In that case, the rapper Notorious B.I.G. was shot to death outside the Petersen Automotive Museum, about two miles from the scene of Monday's killing. Theories over the motivation for that killing have caused controversy ever since.
The LAPD has not released a narrative of what happened in the mall garage.
But Vannasing said Burton apparently had a dispute with some people, perhaps at the airport.
"They followed him to the mall because they knew he was coming," Vannasing said. She added that Burton was at the mall with another rapper, D.J. Shabbazz.
Police officials said they could not confirm or deny that account.
Burton was born in Chicago in 1988 and moved with his family to the Los Angeles area and then to Atlanta, according to a biography on his MySpace.com page. The biography said he witnessed his father commit suicide at age 5 and turned to crime to support his family at 10. He began rapping at 12 and formed a group called Da Razkals Cru, according to the biography.
The group impressed rappers P. Diddy and Missy Elliot. They signed a record contract in 2001. But within two years, Burton -- who was modeling for P. Diddy's clothing line, Sean John -- began a solo career. A song of his was included on the soundtrack for the 2006 dance movie "Step Up."
The shooting rattled shoppers and diners. At a Chipotle restaurant near the valet area, 10 people were eating when the shots rang out.
"The customers were yelling, 'Close the store, close the store, because somebody is shooting!' " said Elsa Hernandez, general manager of the restaurant.
The center is normally quite peaceful, said Hernandez, who has worked at the restaurant for six years.
"This is the first time this has happened here," she said.
Newton Cacho, 31, who works across the street from the Beverly Center, was stunned by the violence.
"I'm very surprised something like this happened here. You come to a nicer part of town and you don't expect this," Cacho said.
Del Vaughn Walker, 44, had just left his car with valets and was heading to P.F. Chang's for lunch when he walked by a woman and three men, one of whom was Burton.
There was no sign of an argument. But moments later he heard two gunshots, then three more. He ducked and ran into the restaurant.
"I never would have expected this," he said. "You would have expected some kind of verbal confrontation."
[Updated at 6:30 p.m. The man shot at the Beverly Center mall this afternoon was identified as Atlanta-based Dolla, whose real name is Roderick Anthony Burton II, according to his publicist, Sue Vannasing. She said Dolla was shot in the head around 3:10 p.m. while he and another rapper, D.J. Shabbazz, waited in the area after shopping at the popular Westside mall. A friend who was with the rapper at Beverly Center also confirmed his identity to The Times.
About two hours later, Los Angeles police detained a “person of interest” as he attempted to board a plane out of Los Angeles International Airport. The man allegedly drove his silver Mercedes SUV from Beverly Center to the airport. Vannasing said Dolla had gotten into an altercation with other passengers on a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles, but it's unclear if that was related to the violence.]
[Updated at 5:15 p.m.: Police have arrested one "person of interest" in connection with the shooting but were looking for a second suspect.]
[Updated at 5:40 p.m.: The arrested suspect, who fled from the mall in a silver Mercedes, was detained at Los Angeles International Airport while trying to board a flight. Police said the shooting took place in the valet waiting area of the mall].
The shooting occurred just after 3 p.m. at the La Cienega Boulevard entrance to the popular Westside shopping center. All entrances and exits to the popular Westside shopping mall were sealed off as police swarmed the scene.
LAPD officials said that officers were sent to the mall on a report of a group fight, possibly involving a knife. LAPD Sgt. Ronnie Crump said two suspects ran in the direction of Beverly Hills.
At a Chipotle restaurant in the mall, several people were eating when the shots rang out.
“The customers were yelling 'close the store, close the store, because somebody is shooting,' ” said Elsa Hernandez, general manager of the restaurant.
An employee who was behind the restaurant, near the mall’s valet parking service, saw the tail end of the dispute, Hernandez said. “He saw a lady ... shooting a handgun,” Hernandez said.
The center is normally quite peaceful, said Hernandez, who’s worked at the restaurant for six years. “This is the first time this has happened here,” she said.
-- Andrew Blankstein and Sam Quinones
Photos: Shoppers leave the parking structure at the Beverly Center (top photo) as LAPD personnel investigate the scene of the Monday afternoon shooting. Credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times
Police today identified the man who allegedly shot and killed Atlanta rapper Dolla at the Beverly Center as Aubrey Louis Berry, 23, of Georgia.
Berry was arrested on suspicion of murder Monday afternoon at Los Angeles International Airport as he attempted to board a plane, said officials with the Los Angeles Police Department. He is accused of killing up-and-coming rap artist Roderick Anthony Burton II, 21, known as Dolla, who died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Berry was being held on $1-million bail. He was identified as one of two suspects who allegedly fled from the mall in a silver Mercedes-Benz SUV after the 3 p.m. shooting at the La Cienega Boulevard entrance of the Westside shopping center.
Burton was shot in the head as he and another rapper, D.J. Shabbazz, waited in the valet parking area, according to his publicist, Sue Vannasing. She said Burton had been involved in an altercation with other passengers on a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles, but it was unclear if that was related to the shooting.
LAPD officers were called to the mall on a report of a group fight, possibly involving a knife. Authorities said two suspects were seen fleeing before officers arrived.
HERNDON, Virginia (CNN) – Bill Clinton jokingly laughed off a question Wednesday about former Vice President Dick Cheney and his recent claims that the country is less safe under the Obama administration.
"I wish him well," Clinton told CNN while greeting voters after a campaign stop with Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. "It's over," he added, apparently a reference to the Bush administration.
"But I do hope he gets some more target practice before he goes out again," Clinton said with a grin before moving along the ropeline.
The former president was alluding, of course, to Cheney's infamous 2006 hunting accident in which he mistakenly fired birdshot into the face of a campaign contributor during a South Texas quail hunt.
If 3,000 Americans had been killed on your watch, in an attack that could have been prevented, perhaps you'd be a little hesitant to accuse anyone else of endangering America. And if you had advocated torture, and the torture produced false information that you used to mislead America into an unwise, unjust and unwarranted war, you might be a tad sheepish about defending the use of torture.
Not Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney has stepped up his attack on Pres. Obama's security strategy, telling CBS's Bob Schieffer that Obama's refusal to use waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" (i.e., torture) endangers American lives.
The truth is the Bush-Cheney policies did not keep us safe, and Mr. Cheney is not a credible spokesman on issues of national security.
First, this awkward fact. When it came time to risk his hide to serve our country during the Vietnam War, Cheney got five draft deferments. He later told the Senate, "I had other priorities in the sixties than military service." John Kerry did not. Nor did John McCain. Nor Gen. Colin Powell, nor Gen. Jim Jones, nor Gen. Wes Clark, nor Jim Webb. These warriors - and so many others - strongly oppose the use of torture. They were willing to die to protect America. It is insulting for a doughy draft dodger like Mr. Cheney to suggest they would endanger us today.
Indeed, the public record offers evidence that torture has endangered American security. Not only by breeding more terrorists, but by producing false intelligence - which Mr. Cheney and President Bush used to mislead America into invading Iraq.
The case of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi is instructive. Al-Libi was a senior al Qaeda operative captured trying to make his way out of Afghanistan into Pakistan. In US custody, he initially said he knew of no connection between Saddam and al Qaeda, and, according to Newsweek, "he had difficulty even coming up with a story about the relationship between the two." An FBI agent urged that al-Libi be read his rights and be treated with respect, "as a shining example of what we feel is right." There was a practical, as well as moral, reason not to torture al-Libi: veteran interrogators believe establishing a rapport with a prisoner is the key to obtaining actionable intelligence. There are reports that, after hours of bonding with his FBI interrogator through discussions of religion, al-Libi provided useful information about alleged shoe-bomber Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker" who was arrested just before 9-11.
But even after the bonding experience, al-Libi continued to deny a link between Iraq and al Qaeda. He was rendered to Egypt, where he faced certain torture. "You're going to Cairo, you know," a CIA agent reportedly told al-Libi at the airport. "Before you get there I'm going to find your mother and I'm going to f*** her."
So much for building rapport.
In Egypt, al-Libi was placed in a coffin-sized box for 17 hours, then beaten. Al-Libi cracked. He gave the information Cheney and his crowd most wanted: a direct link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Al-Libi, (who reportedly died this week in Libya), said Iraq had provided al Qaeda with training in the use of chemical and biological weapons.
Bingo! Vice President Cheney and others cited the information to justify the war in Iraq. Trouble is, it turned out to be false. As early as February, 2002 - just two months after al-Libi's "confession" -- the Defense Intelligence Agency reported to the White House and the National Security Council that it had doubts about al-Libi's charge. The DIA's Defense Intelligence Terrorism Summary (DITSUM) all but destroyed al-Libi's credibility. The report said, in part:
"However, he (al-Libi) lacks specific details on the Iraqis involved, the CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) materials associated with the assistance, and the location where training occurred. It is possible he does not know any further details; it is more likely this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers. Ibn al-Shaykh has been undergoing debriefs for several weeks and may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he knows will retain their interest.
"Saddam's regime is intensely secular and is wary of Islamic revolutionary movements. Moreover, Baghdad is unlikely to provide assistance to a group it cannot control." (Emphasis added.)
The timing here matters. In December, 2001 al-Libi, under torture, claims Iraq trained al Qaeda in chemical and biological weapons. Two months later, the Pentagon's intelligence agency says he was probably lying. And yet on September 25, 2002, Condoleezza Rice continued to spread the myth, telling PBS's The News Hour, "We know too that several of the (al Qaeda) detainees, in particular, some high-ranking detainees, have said that Iraq provided some training to al Qaeda in chemical weapons development." Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, President Bush and several other leading Administration officials kept banging the al-Libi drum.
In January 2003, the CIA joined the chorus of skepticism about al-Libi's claim that Iraq trained al Qaeda in chemical and biological weapons, noting al-Libi "was not in a position to know if any training had taken place."
More than a year and a half after al-Libi's claim was discredited by the DIA, and nine months after it was poo-pooed by the CIA, Dick Cheney was still sighting it as Gospel, appearing on Meet the Press on the week of September 11, 2003 and telling Tim Russert, "We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s, that it involved training, for example, on BW [biological weapons] and CW [chemical weapons], that al-Qaeda sent personnel to Baghdad to get trained on the systems that are involved."
It may well be that torture was used to advance the Bush-Cheney march to war in Iraq rather than to obtain intelligence about al Qaeda plots against the American homeland. A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the interrogation issue told McClatchy Newspapers, "Cheney's and Rumsfeld's people were told repeatedly, by CIA . . . and by others, that there wasn't any reliable intelligence that pointed to operational ties between bin Laden and Saddam, and that no such ties were likely because the two were fundamentally enemies, not allies." Senior administration officials, however, "blew that off and kept insisting that we'd overlooked something, that the interrogators weren't pushing hard enough, that there had to be something more we could do to get that information," he said.
Next, consider this inconvenient truth: 9-11 happened on Mr. Cheney's watch. Tom Kean, the Republican co-chair of the 9-11 Commission, has said the attacks could have been prevented. He's right. That fact ought to weigh heavy on Mr. Cheney's conscience. As should these:
Before they took office, senior Bush administration officials were briefed repeatedly about the al Qaeda threat. Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger told incoming National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, "I believe that the Bush administration will spend more time on terrorism in general, and on al Qaeda specifically, than any other subject.''
Richard Clarke, the counterterrorism chief under both Clinton and Bush, presented the new Bush-Cheney administration with a plan to roll back al Qaeda. He briefed Dr. Rice on the plan. Nothing. In February, 2001, he briefed Vice President Cheney on the plan. Nothing. Time magazine has reported, "Some counterterrorism officials think there is another reason for the Bush administration's dilatory response. Clarke's paper, says an official, "'was a Clinton proposal.'" If true, Bush and Cheney were allowing partisan politics to endanger America.
On May 8, 2001 - three months after being briefed by Clarke - Cheney was instructed to chair a task force on terrorism. It did not meet before the 9-11 attacks.
The FBI asked the Bush-Cheney Justice Department for58 million to beef up its domestic counterrorism capacity by hiring more translators, more field agents and more analysts. The Bush-Cheney Administration told the FBI no.
Congressional Democrats sought to shift 800 million in the Pentagon budget from Star Wars (the Bush-Cheney faith-based missile defense system) into counterterrorism. The Bush-Cheney administration threatened to veto the entire defense budget. Congressional Republicans sided with Bush and Cheney, and blocked the Democrats from transferring the funds.
In July, 2001, an FBI agent in Phoenix reported that Middle Eastern men - possibly al Qaeda - were taking flying lessons. He suggested that al Qaeda operatives might be trying to infiltrate the US civil aviation system. His warning was not acted on.
On August 6, 2001 Pres. Bush received a classified briefing, the President's Daily Brief. On that day, the headline blared: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, Bush told the briefer, "All right. You've covered your ass, now." Dick Cheney, who has called the President's Daily Brief "the family jewels," presumably received the same briefing. Neither Bush nor Cheney acted on it. The "family jewels" were pearls before swine.
And the attack came. Over three thousand Americans were killed. In the heartache and rage that followed, Bush and Cheney instituted their "enhanced interrogation techniques." Uncovering a pending plot against the homeland was, doubtless, an important motivator. But the al-Libi case is a cautionary one. Rather than finding a ticking time bomb, the al-Libi torture may have been used to build a spurious case for war - a war that has weakened America.
Perhaps what's most galling about Mr. Cheney is how, without irony, humility or apology, he holds himself out as someone who has protected America when in fact he shirked his responsibility before 9-11 and misled us into war after. The closest Dick Cheney has ever come to fighting for America is when he shot his lawyer in the face.
Aside - As Guru Readers know - the reason Dick shot Whittingham is he was afraid he'd spill the beans about Funeralgate. Anyone claiming otherwise is a GOP dupe: “... Improper handling of corpses in Virginia and Maryland
On April 5, 2009, the Washington Post reported that the National Funeral Home, a facility owned by Service Corporation International in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County, Virginia (which also acts as a regional central care for embalming and body preparation for other nearby SCI-owned operations (Arlington Funeral Home, Danzansky-Goldberg Memorial Chapel and Demaine Funeral Home)), was storing naked bodies in stages of decomposition in conditions described as "disgusting, degrading and humiliating." The story went on to report that as many as 200 bodies were stored on "makeshift gurneys in the garage," and "at least half a dozen veterans destined for the hallowed ground at Arlington National Cemetery were left in their coffins on a garage rack." The Post reports that documentation describing these conditions has been reported to the Virginia Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers.
A few days later, the Post reported that family members of a deceased Army veteran whose remains were stored in an unrefrigerated garage at National Funeral Home have asked the Fairfax CountyCommonwealth's Attorney to investigate the actions of National and its parent company, SCI, as crimes.
The Post further reported that family of retired U.S. Army Col. Andrew DeGraff filed a lawsuit in Fairfax County, alleging that SCI mishandled and failed to treat the late Col. DeGraff's remains with dignity and respect. According to the article, an SCI spokesman said that the company is conducting an internal investigation.
On April 26, 2007 the Post reported that an SCI owned and operated cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia had improperly buried the remains of the stillborn daughter of Nsombi Hale in a grave too shallow (in a grave about 8 inches deep). Nsombi Hale is now filing suit aginst SCI. ... ”
The FBI is investigating allegations that former Senator Norm Coleman had clothing and other items purchased on his behalf by a longtime friend and businessman Nasser Kazeminy, according to a source in Minnesota who was interviewed recently by federal agents.
E.K. Watkins, a spokesman for the Minnesota FBI, would neither confirm nor deny the report. The source provided details of the interview to the Huffington Post, in addition to copies of business cards left by the agents.
The FBI has also been conducting interviews in Texas, according to media reports, in regards to different allegations that Kazeminy tried to steer $75,000 to Coleman through his wife's employer. Up to this point, there have not been reports of any FBI work taking place in Coleman's home state.
The Minnesota source said the FBI questioning focused on whether Kazeminy had purchased clothing on Coleman's behalf, reports of which surfaced in October. At the time, Coleman vehemently denied the allegations. "Nobody but me and my wife buy my suits," he said.
The source, who requested to speak anonymously to discuss the matter more frankly, said that payments made to the company that employed the former senator's wife, Laurie Coleman, were also addressed.
In April, Norm Coleman requested permission from the Federal Election Commission to use his remaining Senate campaign funds to pay legal fees resulting from the lawsuit filed against Kazeminy.
A request for comment from Coleman's office went unreturned. The receptionist, upon hearing the topic of inquiry, called the matter "old news." In the past, both Coleman, who is engaged in the final stages of a lengthy election recount battle, and Kazeminy, a longtime benefactor of the Minnesota Republican, have denied any wrongdoing.
The possibility exists that the sole target of the FBI's work is Kazeminy and not Coleman. The prominent businessman stands accused of fraud for his handling of the company Deep Marine Technology. As part of that suit, former Deep Marine CEO Paul McKim alleged that he was forced to overlook $75,000 in payments to Hays Company, the employer of Coleman's wife.
Separately, it has been reported that Kazeminy made purchases on behalf of Coleman himself. Ken Silverstein of Harper's magazine was the first to report that suits had been bought on the then-Senator's behalf. A the time, Coleman's chief of staff would only rebut the charge by saying that he "has reported every gift he has ever received."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele's fill-in stint as the host of Bill Bennett's radio talk show has produced a handful of quasi-embarrassing moments -- most notably his claim that Mitt Romney's Mormonism helped doom him in the Republican Primary.
At the very end of the nearly two-hour segment, it turns out, was another whack Steele took at his fellow Republicans. Responding to a caller disparaging the National Council for a New America -- the new Republican re-branding effort -- the RNC Chairman joined the fray, saying he had "a problem" with the notion, as put forth by former Gov. Jeb Bush, that the party needed to move beyond the legacy of Ronald Reagan.
"This tour is not about bringing minorities to the Republican Party," Steele said, correcting his caller. "This listening tour that these individuals have put in place is their way, as they said, to look forward, bring about a grassroots caucus and to bring moderates and like-minded Democrats to a series of public forums around the country where we can have a debate of ideas. Now, on its face I see nothing wrong with that. But if you are going to go and start this and start slamming Ronald Reagan, I have a problem. And it is going to be an issue. Because you can't blame the past particularly when that past contributed to the success of the party."
In offering his objections to the messaging coming from the NCNA, Steele joins a host of other Republican officials. Still, it remains rare to see the head of a national political committee disparage major players in his own party. In addition to Bush, the NCNA includes former Gov. Mitt Romney, Rep. Eric Cantor, and Sen. John McCain.
Later in the program, Steele was told that he should have run against Barack Obama in 2008, to which he responded, "It would have been an interesting race." When another caller lamented the media's treatment of Gov. Sarah Palin, he said the issue was endemic to all true conservatives, before saying he preached a type of political philosophy that has people "looking over their shoulders and wondering whether or not Michael Steele is standing there."
"Look, the fact that Sarah is a conservative," he said. "Michael Steele is a conservative, Bill Bennett is a conservative, a Jack Kemp was a conservative. We were a target, we were a ready target for these guys... but the strength of conservatism is that it is real and in its realism it has a way to go out to talk to people and connect to people. That's the biggest threat that we offer. And that's the threat I want to take to the streets everyday. I want them looking over their shoulders and wondering whether or not Michael Steele is standing there. Because I will be, with you [caller] standing right next to me and a whole lot of other conservatives."
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs speaks to reporters, Tuesday, May 12, 2009, during his daily press briefing in the White House Pressroom at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is seeking to block the immediate release of hundreds of photos showing U.S. personnel allegedly abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
An Obama administration official said Wednesday that the president told his legal advisers last week that releasing the photos would endanger U.S. troops. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.
Obama wants the issue to go back to the courts, although federal appeals judges have ruled the photos could be released.
The top military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan have told Obama that their troops could be in greater danger if new detainee abuse photos are released this spring.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The top military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan are telling President Barack Obama that their troops could be in greater danger if new detainee abuse photos are released this spring.
The Pentagon has said it will release the pictures this month. But the Pentagon now says that the three top commanders have weighed in with concerns.
Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell says that Defense Secretary Robert Gates shares those concerns. He says lawyers are looking at their options.
=========================================
Be open, tell the world that you've not objections to Bush or Cheney being brought to the Hague. Tell the world fear mongering opportunists tricked us and that we''ll do better next time.
I think the pure “tool-hood” of Dick Cheney (whom the “aware” know made nice to the Taliban a month before 9/11) invokes the previous “Dick” of the GOP - Nixon; ‘Draft Deferment Dick’ Cheney was too cowardly to serve the nation as a soldier whereas Nixon the Quaker was a Conscientious Observer and did his service anyway.
If one can't see what a puppethead Bush II was; Nor, the evil of someone nicknamed “Poppy” (for God's sake!) who likely sabotaged Operation Eagles Claw for his own political gain (rumors suggest Ollie North was the actual Op); They'd be blind to how freaking EVIL the Bush Crime Clan is still; Then, one can't see how Reagan the Rapist was a bad president. Worse than Bush (who had all the bad aspects of Reagan and Nixon blended with arrogant stupidity) because Bush II would have been impossible without Ronnie.
It's akin to the simple statement - you don't get Nazis without Xtianity. People now will refuse to see the lies. And History will be less kind to him than I. Nixon got the approach to China right and we'll honor that side of him. ========================================= And Done! - Sparky
President Obama, speaking this afternoon, made a direct statement to both the Tamil Tigers as well as the Sri Lankan government regarding the enduring civil war and widespread civilian devastation in that country. Obama asked that the Tigers lay down their arms and surrender to the Sri Lankan government, and he asked that the Sri Lankans cease "the indiscriminate shelling" with heavy artillery that has been decimating civilians. The growing humanitarian crisis has captured international attention for weeks now.
Obama's statements Wednesday came shortly after Amnesty International (AI) -- one of many humanitarian groups who has been vocal about the growing humanitarian crisis -- issued an official plea, saying: "While U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice have voiced concern, President Obama himself must speak out publicly and forcefully over the wanton disregard for human rights in Sri Lanka."
Amnesty International also reached out the the United Nations Security Council, writing in their statement: "The Council must convene without any further delay to discuss the latest disturbing developments and immediately require that attacks on civilians by the Sri Lankan army or the LTTE be stopped; that the LTTE allow all civilians to leave the conflict area; and that the Sri Lankan government provide immediate access to international monitors and humanitarian agencies."
Earlier today, Sri Lankan shells rained down on the last remaining hospital in the northern region, killing at least 50. According to the Associated Press:
The military has denied firing any heavy weapons in recent weeks, but Human Rights Watch says both sides are using the estimated 50,000 civilians packed into the last rebel-held territory as "cannon fodder." The Red Cross said one of its workers was killed in shelling Wednesday.
In calling for the violence to end, Obama this week joins the ranks of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who said he is "appalled at the killing"; and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who described civilians in Sri Lanka as, "victims of what at the moment is a war without witness,"according to Bloomberg. Additionally, the US State Department has issued its own statement, describing the death toll in Sri Lanka as "unacceptably high."
It is estimated that 50,000 civilians remain trapped in the Tamil Tiger-controlled, besieged northern area.
Just moments after being told she could retain her beauty pageant crown, Miss California Carrie Prejean renewed her commitment to her mission, telling reporters, "From this day forward I promise I will use my naked breasts for good."
Ms. Prejean blasted the critics whom she claimed tried to silence her for her views on gay marriage, saying, "I intend to fight back with the two greatest weapons I have: my naked boobies."
The embattled pageant winner said she would be both "tireless and topless" in her efforts to fight same-sex unions.
She added that she plans to tour the country to speak out against gay marriage and hopes to draw attention to the issue by displaying her naked torso wherever possible.
"I will go anywhere, anytime, anyway to make my case," she said. "These breasts are made for walking."
Ms. Prejean refused to answer questions about another controversial topic, enhanced interrogation techniques, but she did remark, "I have always been in favor of enhancement."
Donald Trump, who owns the Miss USA pageant, praised Ms. Prejean for her fearlessness in the face of harsh criticism, adding, "I like what I've seen of Carrie and I hope to see much more of her."
==== tmz.com:
These pics were taken just last year -- meaning Carrie was the ripe ol' LEGAL age of 20.
This time, Carrie dropped her top for a professional photo shoot ... another partially nude gig that she forgot to tell the Miss California officials about.
The suspect had been disarmed after an earlier incident at the center but returned with another weapon, according to a senior military official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into the shootings was ongoing.
***UPDATE***
The American soldier who shot dead five fellow soldiers at a U.S. base in Baghdad is in custody. "The shooter is a US soldier and he is in custody," US marine corps lieutenant Tom Garnett, a US military spokesman in Iraq, told reporters. The New York Times adds some perspective to the tragedy:
The killings appeared to be the worst case of soldier-on-soldier violence among the American forces based in Iraq since the invasion more than six years ago.
The shootings, which took place at a stress clinic, highlight the problem of post-traumatic stress disorder among U.S. soldiers, notes the Guardian:
Stress is one of the biggest killers of US soldiers in Iraq. About a fifth of all US troops are thought to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, contributing to high divorce and suicide rates. An estimated one fifth of the 4,292 members of the US force in Iraq have died from non-combat causes, either in accidents or from suicide.
***UPDATE***
According to Fox News, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs Monday relayed President Obama's response to the tragedy. Obama expressed shock and sadness and is promising to fully investigate what exactly transpired at Camp Liberty, so as to prevent such incidents in the future. ***UPDATE***
Pentagon officials say five Americans are dead after a U.S. soldier opened fire at a U.S. base in Baghdad. They say the attacker is in custody. The officials say the shootings happened on Camp Liberty at a stress clinic, where troops can go for help with the stresses of combat or stress from personal issues. One senior military official in Washington says it's unclear whether those killed are workers at the clinic or were there for counseling. He says officials also are unsure whether all the dead are members of the military.
***UPDATE***
ABC News reports that the U.S. soldier who attacked fellow troops on a U.S, base in Iraq has killed five of them and is now in custody. Initial reports suggested that he had turned the gun on himself after his rampage. ***UPDATE***
AP now reports that the U.S. soldier who went on a rampage against his fellow troops in Iraq may have survived the incident:
Pentagon officials say five U.S. soldiers are dead after an American soldier opened fire at a U.S. base in Baghdad.
The officials say the shootings happened Monday at Camp Liberty near Baghdad's airport.
One senior military official in Washington said it was not yet clear whether the shooter was among the dead. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the circumstances surrounding the deaths are under investigation.
Initial reports indicated the Army soldier shot several others, then turned the gun on himself. But it was unclear whether he, too, had died.
***UPDATE***
CNN reports that 3 other U.S. soldiers were wounded during the friendly fire incident that has left 5 U.S. troops dead. An American soldier killed 4 of his fellow troops before killing himself.
According to the Washington Post, it is the single greatest loss of life in a single incident involving U.S. soldiers since a truck bomb last month took the lives of 5 American soldiers.
***UPDATE***
CNN has just sent out a breaking news alert reporting that senior defense officials have told the network that a US soldier killed 4 of his fellow troops before killing himself. Check back for more information. McClatchy is reporting that a shooting at a U.S. base in Baghdad has left 5 soldiers dead. The shooting occurred at Camp Liberty, a base near the Baghdad airport.
I can't remember wanting to love a movie as much as I wanted to love the new Star Trek.
I grew up watching the original series in re-runs, entranced by the hard-charging, womanizing captain of the Enterprise, his coolly logical (but underneath the exterior, tormented and passionate!) first officer, and its egalitarian vision of the future.
I watched every episode. I went to all the movies. I devoured every paperback that detailed the further adventures of the Enterprise's crew. When I was thirteen, I even -- oh, this is painful -- convinced my parents to take me to a Star Trek convention in downtown Hartford. (My parents were not the most socially adroit people, but even they somehow realized that this was a severely nerdy undertaking. They dropped me off at the corner).
When the ads for the new film started running, I should have been suspicious. "Not your father's Star Trek?" What was wrong with my father's Star Trek? I liked my father's Star Trek! But still, there I was, on opening day, with a bucket of popcorn, surrounded by what looked like the entire staff of several area comic-book stores.
There was much to love about the movie. Kirk was hot, and Spock was cool, and their relationship felt just right, at once edgy and familiar. Unlike the earlier outings, where a shaken camera connoted a collision, danger, and/or black holes and time warps, the special effects were, indeed, special.
I'm not so much of a nerd that I couldn't handle the way the film chucked continuity and ignored some of the original show's rules of the road (although, note to J.J. Abrams: if a Vulcan is bonded and his spouse suddenly dies, he either dies, too, or ends up in mortal agony, and should not be depicted just calmly hanging out on a transporter pad. Okay, fine, maybe I am that much of a nerd).
I was even okay with the way the plot recycled Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (in "Khan," the villain deploys a Doomsday weapon because he believes Kirk was responsible for the death of his wife. In "Trek," the villain deploys a Doomsday weapon because he believes Spock was responsible for the death of his wife....and let me just add that, in the all-important categories of "pecs," and "scenery chewing," Eric Bana is no Ricardo Montalban.)
Honestly, I didn't have a problem until about midway through the film...at which point I realized that every single lady on screen was either a mother, a ho, or an intergalactic hood ornament.
We begin with mama Kirk. As the film opens, she screams and grunts her way through labor, pops out young James T., bids her doomed husband a weepy farewell, and is never seen or heard from again. How does she feel when her reckless son runs off to join Starfleet? We don't know. The movie doesn't ask.
Next up: the luscious Andorian Kirk beds at Starfleet Academy. She's green. That's about it...except somewhere, Eddie Murphy is smiling (I'd link to his bit about the dubious hygiene of green-faced girls, but it's filthy. Filthy!)
Even though Romulan war ships were, in the original series, frequently commanded by women, there's nary a chick aboard rogue Romulan Nero's vessel. This, perhaps, explains why he and his crew are in such a bad mood.
The film throws the ladies a few bones in the form of a couple of female members of the Vulcan High Council. There's a woefully underutilized Winona Ryder as Spock's human mother, and a tossed-off reference to Leonard McCoy's ex (the bitch took everything, don'tcha know, leaving him with just his...well, never mind).
Finally, there's Uhura...and what Abrams and company do with the Enterprise's communications officer will not be warming the cockles of any feminist hearts.
We first meet her at a bar, all ponytail, miniskirt, and long legs. Kirk hits on her. She brushes him off. He persists, prompting Uhura's fellow cadets to mop the floor with him (couldn't she have kicked his ass herself? Probably. So why didn't the movie let her?)
We are told, rather than shown, that Uhura is an extraordinarily capable linguist. We are told, rather than shown, that she's intercepted an important transmission, the plot device that jump-starts the film's action...as soon as Kirk tells Captain Pike about it. But Uhura's primary function isn't professional. Her job, in this brave new universe, is to look cute in a red dress, and to humanize (and by "humanize" I mean "mack on") her coolly logical, eminently reasonable mate.
In other words, she's Michelle Obama in outer space.
I'm willing to be patient here. I understand that, to attract an audience glutted on testosterone-heavy summer flicks, you need a certain amount of the old ultraviolence to get butts in seats, and that the lofty, utopian ideals of the original have to make way for a few brute shoot 'em ups. I understand the value of simply showing audiences an (allegedly) strong black woman, even if most of what she does is stand around looking worried; the same way I know that Michelle Obama has to tread carefully as she makes the role of First Lady her own. And hey, maybe organic gardening and pairing J. Crew twin sets with kicky belts and cute pins aren't bad places to start. Baby steps.
In spite of my disappointment, I've still got high hopes for the new Trek franchise. In a few years, my daughters will be old enough to watch TV and movies the way I watched them: for entertainment, yes, but for inspiration, too, for a vision, or a series of competing and overlapping visions, of how their future could look.
Plus, if the guy who gave us Sydney Bristow and Kate Austin can't serve up any kick-ass, take-charge ladies, then who can? It's only logical.
UPDATE - Here is the official Star Trek 2009 trailer.
An inspection of the space shuttle Atlantis has uncovered some "minor" damage to the vehicle's right side, Nasa officials say.
Nasa's annotation highlights the damage along the shuttle's right side
Atlantis appears to be in good overall shape, but Nasa engineers in Houston are still studying the 53cm (21in) line of chips on the shuttle's right side.
More analysis is required to evaluate the case for another inspection.
Atlantis was launched on Monday to begin a risky repair mission intended to save the stricken space observatory.
Hubble has been hit by failures to its science instruments and to gyroscopes.
These gyros are used to point the observatory at targets in the sky. If successful, the mission could extend Hubble's lifetime beyond 2014.
During their first full day in orbit, Atlantis's crew used a laser-tipped boom to look for any damage to the orbiter in a 10-hour inspection.
The chips could have been caused by debris seen during the launch
The line of chips uncovered by the astronauts are in thick tiles that make up the protective heat shield on Atlantis' starboard side.
The damage is located where the right wing joins the shuttle's fuselage. Nasa said the chips could be related to a "debris event" detected by the wing's leading edge sensors 104-106 seconds into the lift-off.
Officials said the damage did not appear to be serious: "To my untrained eye... I would think [the chips] were minor," lead flight director Tony Ceccaci told reporters at a news conference in Houston.
But more analysis by engineers would determine whether a "focused inspection" was needed in that specific area. If so, astronauts would use sensors to determine the exact depth of the damage to the heat shield tiles.
Nasa has placed the space shuttle Endeavour on stand-by to rescue the crew of Atlantis if they are endangered.
If something goes wrong on this mission, Atlantis's astronauts will not be able to shelter on the International Space Station (ISS).
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
Named after the great US astronomer Edwin Hubble
Launched in 1990 into a 600km-high circular orbit
Equipped with a 2.4m primary mirror and five instruments
Impacts from micrometeoroids and space debris present one of the most pernicious threats to the astronauts.
There is more space junk - from old satellites and rocket stages - at Hubble's altitude than at the ISS's.
But a successful mission would make Hubble up to 90 times more powerful than it was in its original guise.
Atlantis roared up into the sky at 1901 BST (1401 EDT) on Monday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Nasa discovered a surprising amount of damage from Monday's launch at the pad used by Atlantis.
Managers wanted to make sure none of the material blasted off during launch hit Atlantis.
Atlantis is due to rendezvous with Hubble just after 1700 BST (1200 EDT) on Wednesday.
As the shuttle approaches Hubble, astronaut Megan McArthur will use the shuttle's robotic arm to grab the 13.2m- (43ft-) long telescope.
She will then mount the observatory on a work platform in the shuttle's cargo bay to allow the spacewalkers easy access to Hubble.
The next day, astronauts will begin the first of five gruelling spacewalks planned for the 11-day mission.
Crew members will install new instruments and thermal blankets, repair two existing instruments, replace gyroscopes, batteries and a unit that stores and transmits science data to Earth.
Astronauts will remove the existing Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 instrument to make way for the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
This camera, able to take amazingly sharp images over a broad range of colours, will enable astronomers to carry out new studies of dark energy and dark matter, searching for remote galaxies previously beyond Hubble's vision.
Spacewalkers will also swap the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (Costar) device for the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS).
COS is designed for ultraviolet spectroscopy and will probe the origins of large scale structure in the Universe as well as the formation and evolution of galaxies.
Nasa plans to make repairs to the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), which suffered a power failure in 2004, and to the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which was hit by an electrical short in 2007.
After the work to Hubble is complete, Atlantis will boost the telescope to a higher altitude, ensuring that it survives the tug of Earth's gravity for the remainder of its operating lifetime.
Launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope is now regarded as one of the most important instruments in the history of astronomy. It has made a remarkable contribution to our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe.
Following the Columbia disaster in 2003, which claimed the lives of seven astronauts, another mission to service Hubble was considered too hazardous.
The reason was astronauts would not be able to use the space station as a safe haven if the shuttle sustained damage on launch.
Nasa has now accepted the risk of the mission, but will have the shuttle Endeavour ready to launch immediately to bring the crew home if the servicing mission is put at risk.
Hubble set for repairs in space
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/8046219.stm
Sparky from the BBC: Saberi 'had classified document'
Roxana Saberi was freed on Monday after four months in prison
A lawyer for US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi says she was convicted of spying for the US partly because she had obtained a classified document.
Her lawyer said she had access to a confidential Iranian report on the US war in Iraq - but had not used it.
The lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, said the report had been prepared by a research centre of the Iranian presidency.
Ms Saberi was freed on appeal on Monday, after four months in prison in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
She was originally sentenced to eight years but her term was cut on appeal to two years suspended.
She denies the spying charge.
'No bad intentions'
Mr Nikbakht did not say how Ms Saberi had gained access to the document, prepared by Iran's Centre for Strategic Research.
"Because she did not have bad intentions and did not use it, she was sentenced to a two-year suspended jail term," he told Reuters news agency.
Ms Saberi, whose parents live in the US, is now able to leave Iran. She has been banned by the Iranians from working as a journalist there for five years.
On Tuesday, in her first public comments since being released, she said she was very happy to be free, and she thanked people around the world who had supported her.
Her case had attracted international attention. The White House in Washington said Iran's decision to free her was a "humanitarian gesture".
She originally faced a less serious accusation of buying alcohol, and later of working as a reporter without a valid press card.
The spying charge was introduced later, and she was tried and sentenced behind closed doors.
Ms Saberi worked as a freelance journalist for news organisations, including the BBC and the US-based National Public Radio.
Professional Accreditation Guide College Degree Equivalency Program Form Name of Applicant for ASA Accreditation: ___________________________________________________________ Chapter Name and Number: ___________________________________________________________ A college degree represents four years of education beyond the secondary (high school) level. In terms of hours, such a degree means that the individual has completed approximately 120 semester hours, or 180 quarter hours, of college courses, or the equivalent of 1,800 hours of classroom instruction time. This total does not include class preparation, laboratory time, study time or the time required to do term papers and the special projects required by some courses of study. In other words, 450 hours of equivalency equals one year of college.
ASA’s equivalency policy attempts to equate business/work experience (other than that required for accreditation as an appraiser—two years for AM and five years for ASA) and other noncollege educational courses to a four-year college program. This policy is similar to that of many colleges and universities that give credit for business/work/life experiences toward an undergraduate degree. Most such institutions limit such credit to an equivalency maximum of two years. Attach to this application all appropriate documentation to support your equivalency as described below: A. College/university courses completed 1 ______ years B. Professional designations earned 2 ______ C. Seminars, courses, conferences, institutes, lectures, etc., attended 2 ______ hours D. Articles, papers and/or books published ______ E. Two years of appraisal experience can be credited for one year of college over and above ______ years the two-year Accredited Member and five-year Accredited Senior Appraiser requirement. F. Business/work experience that is not appraisal/valuation related cannot be counted toward ______ years the society’s full-time appraisal experience requirement but can be credited toward degree equivalency; the same is true for teaching, administrative or supervisory positions (other than those of appraisal functions), personal property acquisition and retailing, museum or gallery supervision, etc. Such experience, for equivalency, may be credited at the rate of one year of equivalency for two years of degree equivalency.
I hereby certify that the above equivalencies are a true and correct representation of my applicable education and experience. I understand that misrepresentation may result in a denial of my application for accreditation or other appropriate disciplinary action under ASA’s constitution, bylaws and administrative rules.
Signature ______________________________________________________ Date _________________ 1 Attach transcripts or other appropriate documentation. 2 Need not be related to the appraisal profession.
Option 1: Via the Internet - Save time! Order Online!
MiraCosta College has retained Credentials, Inc to accept transcript orders on the Internet through their secured site. TranscriptPlus will facilitate your request up to five different addresses per order.
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Option 2: How to Request An Official Transcript Via Mail or In-Person
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Scientists have found more evidence that the Indonesian "Hobbit" skeletons belong to a new species of human - and not modern pygmies.
The 3ft (one metre) tall, 30kg (65lbs) humans roamed the Indonesian island of Flores, perhaps up to 8,000 years ago.
Since the discovery, researchers have argued vehemently as to the identity of these diminutive people.
Two papers in the journal Nature now support the idea they were an entirely new species of human.
The team, which discovered the tiny remains in Liang Bua cave on Flores, contends that the population belongs to the species Homo floresiensis - separate from our own grouping Homo sapiens .
They argue that the "Hobbits" are descended from a prehistoric species of human - perhaps Homo erectus - which reached island South-East Asia more than a million years ago.
Over many years, their bodies most likely evolved to be smaller in size, through a natural selection process called island dwarfing, claim the discoverers, and many other scientists.
However, some researchers argued that this could not account for the Hobbit's chimp-sized brain of almost 400 cubic cm - a third the size of the modern human brain.
Disease theory
This was a puzzle, they said, because the individuals seem to have crafted complex stone tools.
They said the Hobbits were probably part of a group of modern humans with abnormally small brains.
One team led by William Jungers from Stony Brook University in the US analysed remains of the Hobbit foot.
They found that, in some ways, it is incredibly human. The big toe is aligned with the others and the joints make it possible to extend the toes as the body's full weight falls on the foot, attributes not found in great apes.
But in other respects, it is incredibly primitive. It is far longer than its modern human equivalent, and equipped with a very small big toe, long, curved lateral toes, and a weight-bearing structure that resembles that of a chimpanzee.
So unless the Flores Hobbits became more primitive over time - a rather unlikely scenario - they must have branched off the human line at an even earlier date.
In another study, Eleanor Weston and Adrian Lister of London's Natural History Museum looked at fossils of several species of ancient hippos. They then compared those found on the island of Madagascar with the mainland ancestors from which they evolved.
"It could be that H. floresiensis' skull is that of a Homo erectus that has become dwarfed from living on an island, rather than being an abnormal individual or separately-evolved species, as has been suggested," said Dr Weston, a palaeontologist at the museum.
"Looking at pygmy hippos in Madagascar, which possess exceptionally small brains for their size, suggests that the same could be true for H. floresiensis , and that (it could be) the result of being isolated on the island."
