Hmmmm.

From the DNC’s Associated Press:

Supreme court judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada holds a copy of Bible that belongs to Abdur Rahman, who converted from Islam to Christianity.

Afghan Convert Vanishes After Release

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity quickly vanished Tuesday after he was released from prison, apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding his death.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said he would ask his government to grant Abdul Rahman asylum. Fini was among the first to speak out on the man’s behalf.

Rahman, 41, was released from the high-security Policharki prison on the outskirts of Kabul late Monday, Afghan Justice Minister Mohammed Sarwar Danish told The Associated Press.

"We released him last night because the prosecutors told us to," he said. "His family was there when he was freed, but I don’t know where he was taken."

Deputy Attorney-General Mohammed Eshak Aloko said prosecutors had issued a letter calling for Rahman’s release because "he was mentally unfit to stand trial." He also said he did not know where Rahman had gone after being released.

He said Rahman may be sent overseas for medical treatment.

On Monday, hundreds of clerics, students and others chanting "Death to Christians!" marched through the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif to protest the court decision Sunday to dismiss the case. Several Muslim clerics threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed, saying that he is clearly guilty of apostasy and deserves to die.

"Abdul Rahman must be killed. Islam demands it," said senior Cleric Faiez Mohammed, from the nearby northern city of Kunduz. "The Christian foreigners occupying Afghanistan are attacking our religion."

Rahman was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible during a custody dispute over his two daughters. He was put on trial last week for converting 16 years ago while he was a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He faced the death penalty under Afghanistan’s Islamic laws.

The case set off an outcry in the United States and other nations that helped oust the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 and provide aid and military support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. President Bush and others had insisted Afghanistan protect personal beliefs.

If he never re-appears, I think it will be clear how the clerics really decided this.

Here's a study in objective journalism from the French AFP:

Students from high schools in the Los Angeles area march after walking out of class Monday, March 27, 2006, as immigrant supporters continued nearly a week of street protests against proposed immigration reforms.

At least 14,000 LA students walk out in immigration law protest

Mar 27, 2006

At least 14,000 mostly Hispanic students stormed out of school classes across Los Angeles in a snowballing protest against Washington's plans for a draconian crackdown on illegal immigration.

Local news reports said that "tens of thousands of students" were taking part in the protest that was spreading through schools across the country's second largest city ahead of a US Senate debate on a divisive immigration reform bill.

"At least 14,000 students are protesting in the streets in Los Angeles city alone," Monica Carazo, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District told AFP.

The latest protest came after one of the biggest protests in recent US history Saturday when more than 500,000 people marched in Los Angeles against the immigration reform bill that would make it a felony criminal offence to be in the United States illegally.

Smaller protests took place in a number of cities around the country as well over the weekend and on Monday against the draft laws.

Los Angeles pupils pursued the protest Monday by walking out of class in at least 21 schools across the city and its surrounding areas, prompting education officials to lock down some campuses to keep the angry students inside.

But they leaped fences and marched through streets brandishing US and Mexican flags and chanting slogans against the immigration bill.

"If we don't leave school today, half of the school who don't have papers will have to leave soon if this law passes, and they won't come back, ever," shouted Huntington Park High School student Anita Benitez.

The Los Angeles Police Department put officers on a "city-wide tactical alert" as a precaution because of the wave of protests that included a crowd of at least 1,500 students who were demonstrating outside city hall.

The protests target a bill, already passed by the US House of Representatives, that would crack down on employers hiring illegal workers and people smuggling illegal immigrants into the country.

The bill would also require employers to verify social security numbers with the Department of Homeland Security, beef up penalties for immigrant smuggling and stiffen penalties for undocumented immigrants who reenter the United States after having been removed.

At least 11 million illegal immigrants, most of them from neighbouring Mexico, live in the United States and are responsible for keeping the human machinery of US cities humming.

I didn't know that.

How did we ever get along without them before?

I guess this is why his attorneys and his fans in our one party media didn’t want him to testify.

From the DNC’s Associated Press:

Moussaoui Says He Was to Hijack 5th Plane

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified Monday that he and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane and fly it into the White House as part of the attack that unfolded Sept. 11, 2001.

Moussaoui’s testimony on his own behalf stunned the courtroom. His account was in stark contrast to his previous statements in which he said the White House attack was to come later if the United States refused to release a radical Egyptian sheik imprisoned on earlier terrorist convictions.

On Dec. 22, 2001, Reid was subdued by passengers when he attempted to detonate a bomb in his shoe aboard American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami. There were 197 people on board. The plane was diverted to Boston, where it landed safely.

Moussaoui told the court he knew the World Trade Center attack was coming and that he lied to investigators when arrested in August 2001 because he wanted it to happen.

"You lied because you wanted to conceal that you were a member of al-Qaida?" prosecutor Rob Spencer asked.

"That’s correct," Moussaoui said.

Spencer: "You lied so the plan could go forward?"

Moussaoui: "That’s correct."

The exchange was key to the government’s case that the attacks might have been averted if Moussaoui had been more cooperative following his arrest.

Moussaoui told the court he knew the attacks were coming some time after August 2001 and bought a radio so he could hear them unfold.

Specifically, he said he knew the World Trade Center was going to be attacked, but asserted he was not part of that plot and didn’t know the details.

Nineteen men pulled off the Sept. 11 attacks on New York in Washington in the worst act of terrorism ever on U.S. soil.

"I had knowledge that the Twin Towers would be hit," Moussaoui said. "I didn’t know the details of this."

Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son Christian died at the World Trade Center, said "at least there would have been a chance" to head off the attacks if Moussaoui had told investigators in August 2001 what she heard him admit in court Monday.

"I was convinced that this man was only a heartbeat away from taking the controls of a plane," she said.

Asked by his lawyer why he signed his guilty plea in April as "the 20th hijacker," Moussaoui replied: "Because everybody used to refer to me as the 20th hijacker and it was a bit of fun."

Before Moussaoui took the stand, his lawyers made a last attempt to stop him from testifying, but failed. Defense attorney Gerald Zerkin argued that his client would not be a competent witness because he has contempt for the court, only recognizes Islamic law and therefore "the affirmation he undertakes would be meaningless."

Moussaoui at first denied he was to have been a fifth hijack pilot but under cross examination spoke of the plan to attack the White House. He said Reid was the only person he knew for sure would have been on that mission, but others were discussed.

Reid, a self-proclaimed member of al-Qaida who has pledged support to Osama bin Laden, pleaded guilty in October 2002 to trying to blow up Flight 63 and was sentenced to life in prison.

Moussaoui testified that at one point he was excluded from pre-hijacking operations because he had gotten in trouble with his al-Qaida superiors on a 2000 trip to Malaysia. He said it was only after he was called back to
Afghanistan and talked with Osama bin Laden that he was approved again for the operation.

"My position was, like you say, under review."

Previous testimony indicated that Moussaoui had irritated his hosts in Malaysia who were members of an al-Qaida affiliate. Although al-Qaida was a well-financed group, he had asked his Malaysian hosts for money to take flight training.

The 19 terrorists on Sept. 11 hijacked and crashed four airliners, killing nearly 3,000 people in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on the planes. The intended target of the plane that crashed into a Pennsylvania field remains unknown.

Before Moussaoui took the stand, the court heard testimony that two months before the attacks a CIA deputy chief waited in vain for permission to tell the FBI about a "very high interest" al-Qaida operative who became one of the hijackers.

The official, a senior figure in the CIA’s Laden unit, said he sought authorization on July 13, 2001, to send information to the FBI but got no response for 10 days, then asked again.

As it turned out, the information on Khalid al-Mihdhar did not reach the FBI until late August. At the time, CIA officers needed permission from a special unit before passing certain intelligence on to the FBI.

The official was identified only as John. His written testimony was read into the record.

"John’s" testimony was part of the defense’s case that federal authorities missed multiple opportunities to catch hijackers and perhaps thwart the 9/11 plot.

His testimony included an e-mail sent by FBI supervisor Michael Maltbie discussing Moussaoui but playing down his terrorist connections. Maltbie’s e-mail said "there’s no indication that (Moussaoui) had plans for any nefarious activity."

He sent that e-mail to the CIA even after receiving a lengthy memo from the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui and suspected him of being a terrorist with plans to hijack aircraft.

Prosecutors argue that Moussaoui, a French citizen, thwarted a prime opportunity to track down the 9/11 hijackers and possibly unravel the plot when he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration violations and lied to the FBI about his al-Qaida membership and plans to hijack a plane.

Had Moussaoui confessed, the FBI could have pursued leads that would have led them to most of the hijackers, government witnesses have testified.

To win the death penalty, prosecutors must first prove that Moussaoui’s actions — specifically, his lies — were directly responsible for at least one death on Sept. 11.

If they fail, Moussaoui would get life in prison.

Oh, and thanks again to Jamie Gorelick and the rest of the brainiacs behind "the wall."

If you ever wondered how far our one party media would go to try to hurt our countries interests and get our troops killed — now you know.

From the DNC’s Associated Press:

At least 16 Iraqis were killed in a U.S.-backed raid in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital Sunday evening.

Shiites Denounce U.S. Over Raid

By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq – New violence flared Monday in northern Iraq with 40 dead in a suicide bombing, while Shiite leaders cut off political talks and denounced the United States over a weekend raid that they said killed worshippers in a mosque.

Although the United States said no mosque was attacked, Shiites blamed the military for killing 22 people Sunday. Jawad al-Maliki, a lawmaker from the United Iraqi Alliance, said the Shiite bloc had canceled Monday’s session of negotiations to form a new government because of the raid.

"We suspended today’s meetings to discuss the formation of the government because of what happened at the al-Moustafa mosque," al-Maliki said, adding that the alliance was expected to decide Tuesday when to resume the talks.

President Jalal Talabani said he called U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and they decided to form an Iraqi-U.S. committee to investigate the attack.

"I will personally supervise, and we will learn who was responsible. Those who are behind this attack must be brought to the justice and punished," Talabani said.

Monday’s bomber struck an army recruiting center, which is in front of a joint U.S.-Iraqi military base between Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, and the ancient city of Tal Afar.

The attack shortly after noon killed 40 people and wounded 30 others — civilians and military personnel — who had gathered among a crowd of recruits for the Iraqi army, the Defense Ministry said.

The U.S. military said no American troops were hurt in the bombing and reported only 30 dead.

Iraqi army Lt. Akram Eid told The Associated Press that many of the injured were taken to the Sykes U.S. Army base on the outskirts of Tal Afar, about 40 miles west of Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city.

U.S. troops helped secure the area after the attack and treat the wounded, the U.S. military said.

In continuing sectarian violence, at least 21 more bodies were found — many with nooses around their necks — and mortar and bomb attacks killed 11 people in Baghdad and other towns.

Details of a joint U.S.-Iraqi Special Operations attack in northeast Baghdad late Sunday continued to filter out, with Iraqi officials angrily disputing a U.S. account of what happened.

Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said the Mustafa mosque was attacked with worshippers killed, while a U.S. statement said the operation focused on "a compound of several buildings and that "no mosques were entered or damaged during this operation."

The military said the joint operation "killed 16 insurgents and wounded three others during a house-to-house search on an objective with multiple structures."

"They also detained 18 other individuals, discovered a significant weapons cache and secured the release of an Iraqi being held hostage," the statement said.

Jabr angrily denounced the operation and rejected the U.S. account.

"Entering the Mustafa Shiite mosque and killing worshippers was unjustified and a horrible violation from my point of view," Jabr said on the Al-Arabiya TV news network. "Innocent people inside the mosque offering prayer at sunset were killed."

Police said gunmen fired on the joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol from a position in the neighborhood but not from the mosque. Police and representatives of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who holds great sway among poor Shiites in eastern Baghdad, said all those killed were in the complex for evening prayers and none was a gunmen.

AP reporters who visited the scene Monday morning said the site of the attack was a neighborhood Shiite mosque complex.

TV video shot Monday showed crumbling walls and disarray in a compound used as a gathering place for prayer. It was filled with religious posters and strung with banners denouncing the attack.

Other video from Sunday night showed dead male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor of what was said by the cameraman to be the imam’s living quarters, attached to mosque itself. The compound, once used by Saddam Hussein’s government, consists of a political party office, the mosque and quarters for the imam.

The video showed 5.56 mm shell casings scattered on the floor. U.S. forces use that caliber ammunition. A grieving man in white Arab robes stepped among the bodies strewn across the blood-smeared floor.

Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman, said the operation was only launched after observation of the site convinced the military it was being used as a kidnapping cell.

"In our observation of the place and the activities that were going on, it’s difficult for us to consider this a place of prayer," Johnson said. "It was not identified by us as a mosque, though we certainly recognized it as a community gathering center. I think this is frankly a matter of perception."

Hundreds of people turned out for the funerals of those killed in the raid. The mourners, many carrying Iraqi flags, walked alongside coffin-laden trucks.

Baghdad Gov. Hussein Tahan said the local government had cut ties to the U.S. military and diplomatic mission "because of the cowardly attack on the al-Moustafa mosque."

In the capital, a bomb exploded in a bus headed for the Sadr City slum, killing two passengers and wounding four others, police Col. Hassan Jaloob said. The bomb had been left in a bag, he said.

A rocket that hit the headquarters of the Shiite Fadhila party in southeast Baghdad killed seven people and wounded 13, including children, police Capt. Ali Mahdi said.

The latest violence came a day after 69 people were reported killed in one of the bloodiest 24-hour periods in weeks. Most of the dead appeared to be victims of the shadowy Sunni-Shiite score-settling that has torn at the fabric of Iraq since Feb. 22 when a Shiite shrine was blown apart in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Thirty victims of the continuing sectarian slaughter — most of them beheaded — were found dumped on a village road north of Baghdad.

Among the 21 bodies reported Monday, nine were found in west Baghdad that were handcuffed, blindfolded and with ropes around their necks, police Lt. Akeel Fadhil said. Three bodies, of two men and a woman shot in the head, were found late Sunday in east Baghdad, police said.

At a farm east of Baghdad, the bodies of nine men kidnapped a day earlier were discovered by relatives, police said. All had been shot in the head.

Much of the recent killing is seen as the work of Shiite militias or death squads that have infiltrated or are tolerated by police under the control of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry.

In an audiotape broadcast Monday, Saddam’s fugitive chief deputy purportedly called for Arab leaders to back Iraq’s Sunni-backed insurgency. The tape, which Al-Jazeera television said was made by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, appeared to be an address to the Arab League summit in Khartoum, Sudan, this week.

The voice said the Sunni-led insurgency was "the sole legitimate representative of the Iraqi people." It was impossible to determine the tape’s authenticity.

Al-Douri had been Revolutionary Command Council vice chairman and a longtime Saddam confidant.

Of course we see the AP in there, doing their best to fan the flames:

AP reporters who visited the scene Monday morning said the site of the attack was a neighborhood Shiite mosque complex.

Maybe these "reporters" should have taken some photographs, as proof.

I’m kidding, of course. The word of the AP is good enough for me.

When have they ever lied to us before?

Of course the Associated Press feels the same way. Not only do they hate Christians, but they believe it shows how wrong the war in Afghanistan was.

Afghani Christian convert Abdul Rahman holds a Bible.

Afghans Protest Decision on Christian

By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan – Hundreds of people protested in Afghanistan on Monday against a court's decision to drop a case against a man who converted from Islam to Christianity, while an official said discussions were underway to determine when he would be released.

Officials said the case was dropped Sunday partially because of concerns that Abdul Rahman is mentally unfit to face trial. The move also followed strong pressure from Western governments.

Prosecutors have said they want doctors to examine Rahman, but they have not confirmed that he would be released. Prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said state attorneys were working on the case Monday and an announcement would be made later in the day. He declined to elaborate.

An Afghan official closely involved with the case told The Associated Press that the 41-year-old man would be released, but authorities were debating how and when it would be done.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, had earlier said that a decision may be made by Monday and that Rahman would not have to remain in jail while prosecutors investigate whether to bring another case against him to the courts.

Rahman is being held at Kabul's high-security Policharki prison. He was moved there Friday after inmates at a police detention facility reportedly threatened him.

A warden at Policharki said Rahman was still at the jail Monday, detained in a concrete cell by himself.

Muslim clerics have threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed, saying that he is clearly guilty of apostasy and deserves to die.

Monday's protest ended peacefully about two hours after it started in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, said police commander Nasruddin Hamdrad. The protesters chanted "Death to Bush!" and other anti-Western slogans, while the police stood guard.

Authorities have barred journalists from seeing Rahman. But on Sunday, officials gave an AP reporter an exclusive tour of Policharki, which houses some 2,000 inmates, including about 350 Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Prison warden Gen. Shahmir Amirpur said Rahman had been asking guards for a Bible but they had none to give him. "He looks very calm. But he keeps saying he is hearing voices," Amirpur said.

A senior guard said inmates and many guards had not been told of Rahman's identity because of fears they might attack him.

But Amirpur vouched for the prisoner's safety. "We are watching him constantly. This is a very sensitive case so he needs high security."

Rahman's case set off an outcry in the United States and other nations that helped oust the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 and provide aid and military support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. President Bush and others have insisted that Afghanistan protect personal beliefs.

A Supreme Court spokesman, Abdul Wakil Omeri, said the case had been dismissed because of "problems with the prosecutors' evidence." He said several of Rahman's relatives testified he is mentally unstable and prosecutors have to "decide if he is mentally fit to stand trial."

Rahman was being prosecuted for converting to Christianity 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible."

Of course our one party media has long believed it is wrong for any people anywhere to have a say in their own government.

Especially in the US.

The fix is in.

If the NAACP and the other professional poverty pimps don’t have their chosen elected, there will be no end to costly legal challenges.

Once you go black, you can never go back.

From the DNC’s Associated Press:

Former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, center, flanked by Rev. Jesse Jackson, left, and Rev. Al Sharpton, gestures during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Friday, March 24, 2006. Morial joined a national coalition calling for the Justice Department and the State of Louisiana to protect the rights of over 150,000 New Orleans’ black voters and to enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by providing satellite voting outside of Louisiana.

Judge Hears Challenge to New Orleans Vote

By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS – With less than a month before New Orleans’ first elections since Hurricane Katrina, the voting plan and even the date are still in dispute.

Civil rights groups returned to federal court Monday morning to try to block the April 22 mayoral election, arguing that too many black residents scattered by Katrina won’t be able to participate.

U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle agreed to reconsider their petition after initially turning aside pleas for a postponement.

The election has turned into a test of government’s ability to hold an election in the midst of rebuilding a major urban center where more than half of the population has been displaced.

The results are expected to heavily influence how the city is rebuilt.

Mayor Ray Nagin, criticized in some quarters for his response to the hurricane, is running for re-election in what was a mostly black city of nearly half a million people before Katrina reduced it to well under 200,000 inhabitants. The 49-year-old mayor faces nearly two dozen opponents, including Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu and Audubon Institute chief executive Ron Forman.

The state is implementing an emergency election plan that includes polling stations set up in 10 Louisiana cities, a national advertising campaign to inform displaced voters, and an easing of voting rules to allow displaced residents to cast ballots.

But civil rights groups say the plan does not do enough to reach out to displaced black voters.

Election procedures in Louisiana and many other Southern states are subject to Justice Department approval because of their history of racial discrimination.

Monday’s hearing was called after the NAACP and other civil rights groups argued that the election plan contained the equivalent of a poll tax — a voting fee that was banned after it was abused in the South to disenfranchise blacks. They said displaced residents would have to pay for transportation to vote in New Orleans and the expenses would be the "modern equivalent of a poll tax."

Fewer than 10,000 registered voters have requested absentee ballots, said Dale Atkins, who is campaigning for re-election as civil district court clerk.

Other complaints include cumbersome absentee ballot procedures, frequent movement of precinct locations and a refusal to share information about how candidates can reach the displaced voters.

"We are seeing people from Iraq being treated better than people from New Orleans," the Rev. Al Sharpton said.

Several black leaders argued Friday for satellite voting locations outside Louisiana, though a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Al Ater, the state’s top election official, said state law doesn’t allow out-of-state voting operations.

"This is a Florida in the making," said Urban League President Marc Morial, a former New Orleans mayor, referring to Florida’s extensive voting problems in the 2000 elections. "If you see an election train wreck coming, why not do something to prevent it before the wreck occurs?"

It’s funny. I can remember back to when the slogan of the Civil Rights movement was "one man, one vote."

Not any more. Some people’s votes count a lot more.

Mother Courage is going to brave that long flight despite her self-diagnosed rotator cuff injury. (The things people will endure for an all expenses paid week-long vacation and nice juicy speaker’s fee.)

This will be the peace martyr’s second vacation in the Aloha State in four months.

The joyous tidings are brought to us by the Maui News:

Despite her hellish injuries, Cindy Sheehan manages to pose with fSusan Saradon. The former actress will portray Mother Sheehan in an upcoming TV movie.

Cindy Sheehan to speak following film on April 23

WAILUKU – Peace activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son’s death in Iraq prompted her to protest the war, will give a talk following the screening of the documentary, “Sir! No Sir!” at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center at 6:30 p.m. April 23.

“ She’s very charismatic when she speaks, but she’s really an ordinary woman,” said Arnie Kotler of Maui’s Koa Books, which published Sheehan’s book, “Not One More Mother’s Child.”

“She speaks from the heart and has become a real lightning rod,” Kotler said. “She angers some people, and others praise her.”

Koa Books is among the sponsors of Sheehan’s Maui appearance. Other sponsors include the Maui Film Festival, Maui Peace Action, the American Friends Service Committee, the Hawaii Institute for Human Rights, Maui Community College’s Peace Club, and Annie and Willie Nelson.

Sheehan’s son, Casey, was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004. She rose to international prominence a year ago when she and supporters camped outside President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, demanding to meet with the commander in chief. Earlier this month, Sheehan was arrested with some other women when they tried to deliver a petition to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The petition contained 60,000 signatures that called for the withdrawal of troops and foreign fighters in Iraq.

Kotler said he got to know Sheehan through a mutual friend. Impressed with some of Sheehan’s writings about the war and her loss, Kotler said he suggested that her essays be compiled into a book. Sheehan agreed and wrote an introduction. The book was released last October. It’s available on Maui at Border’s Books & Music and Maui Booksellers.

Sheehan will be in Hawaii for a week.

“Sir! No Sir!” is an award-winning documentary about the resistance to the Vietnam War.

Tickets are $10, with students under 18 to be admitted free. There is no charge for Sheehan’s talk."

She is so charismatic they can’t even charge admission to hear her babble.

Of course the poor slobs in Cleveland weren’t so lucky. Mother Sheehan has denied them her sacred presence. (I suppose they didn’t offer enough of the green stuff.)

These grievous tidings are from Cindy’s tireless fans at the Associated Press:

Cindy Sheehan cancels stop in Cleveland

Monina Wagner
3/26/2006

CLEVELAND (AP) — An organizer says Cindy Sheehan could not appear in Cleveland today to meet with the families of those who have died in military service because of an illness.

Sheehan, of California, gained international attention last summer with her month long protest outside President Bush’s Texas ranch.

She held the vigil after the death in Iraq of her 24-year-old son, Army Specialist Casey Sheehan.

Say what you will, but Cindy has great timing when it comes to illnesses and cell phone trouble.

A cop-out worthy of Solomon.

From the French AFP:

Afghan court drops trial of Christian amid doubts over his mental state

KABUL (AFP) – An Afghan court has dropped its case against a Christian who faces execution for converting from Islam, referring the matter to Kabul's top prosecutor for a final decision.

The Supreme Court had decided not to pursue its case against Abdul Rahman after hearing testimony that he was mentally disturbed, court spokesman Wakil Omari told AFP.

The attorney general's office in the capital would now decide if the case against Rahman, 41, should be pursued or dropped. Its investigation was likely to include medical tests, Omari said Sunday.

"The attorney general has the authority to either send back the case to this or any court or even can decide" to release him, Omari said.

Officials said at the weekend that Rahman was likely to be released within a few days.

The Supreme Court last week said that Rahman must revert to Islam or face death according to Sharia Islamic law on which the country's constitution is partly based.

He was arrested two weeks ago after his parents went to the authorities, reportedly following a family dispute.

"According to his relatives, his cousin Abdul Munir … and his daughter, Maria, he's not mentally fit. He's mad," Omari said.

"He himself has said that he hears strange voices in his head. His files have been sent back to the attorney general for further investigations."

Rahman, who is being held in a maximum security jail on the outskirts of Kabul, converted 16 years ago in Pakistan and spent many years in Germany before returning to
Afghanistan around 2002.

His case has provoked a storm of protest from many of the Western nations providing Afghanistan with military and financial support vital to battling an insurgency led by remnants of the former Taliban regime and rebuilding after years of war.

They have called on Afghanistan to honour its constitutional obligations to uphold human rights.

Many in Afghanistan point out that the constitution states "no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam".

President Hamid Karzai met Saturday with a range of parties to discuss the matter, which an official said he regarded as a "serious crisis".

But there was no let up in pressure from his Western allies, with Australian Prime Minister John Howard expressing "disgust" at Rahman's possible execution and linking the issue to his country's troop presence in Afghanistan.

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday added his voice to a chorus of criticism from the US, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United Nations.

Discussions continued Sunday "among high-ranking officials of the government to find a way to meet the expectations of the international community and the internal expectations," an official said.

"We do understand the concerns of our friends abroad and we hope we could reach an agreeable solution."

Afghanistan became a byword for medieval punishments under the Taliban, removed in 2001 in a US-led campaign, with women stoned to death for adultery and thieves' hands amputated.

Besides being a test of how far the country has moved on since then, the case is also seen as a major challenge for Karzai — forcing him to choose between his country and his international friends.

"It is like a two-side drum. Beating any side makes a noise," a Supreme Court judge not involved in the Rahman case said.

"You have got the international community on one end and the Afghan community on the other end. Either way Karzai is a loser: if he takes the side of one, he has the other party standing against him."

This could lead to whole wave of converts in the Middle East.

If being a Moslem is sane, I would hope a lot of people would prefer to be crazy.

From those champions of the gorgeous mosaic at the DNC’s Associated Press:

Thousands Decry Immigration Bill in L.A.

By PETER PRENGAMAN, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES – Tens of thousands of immigrant rights advocates from across Southern California marched Saturday in protest of federal legislation that would build more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border and make helping illegal immigrants a crime.

The march followed rallies on Friday that drew throngs of protesters to major cities around the nation.

On Saturday, demonstrators streamed into downtown Los Angeles for what was expected to be one of the city’s largest pro-immigrant rallies. The crowd was estimated at more than 100,000, said police Sgt. Lee Sands.

Many of the marchers wore white shirts to symbolize peace and also waved U.S. flags. Some also carried the flags of Mexico and other countries, and even wore them as capes.

Elger Aloy, 26, of Riverside, a premed student, pushed a stroller with his 8-month-old son at Saturday’s Los Angeles march.

"I think it’s just inhumane. … Everybody deserves the right to a better life," Aloy said of the legislation.

The House of Representatives has passed legislation that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border. The Senate is to begin debating the proposals on Tuesday.

President Bush on Saturday called for legislation that does not force America to choose between being a welcoming society and a lawful one.

"America is a nation of immigrants, and we’re also a nation of laws," Bush said in his weekly radio address about the emotional immigration issue that has driven a wedge into his party.

Bush sides with business leaders who want legislation to let some immigrants stay in the country and work for a set period of time. Others, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, say national security concerns should drive immigration reform.

" They say we are criminals. We are not criminals," said Salvador Hernandez, 43, of Los Angeles, a resident alien who came to the United States illegally from El Salvador 14 years ago and worked as truck driver, painter and day laborer.

Francisco Flores, 27, a wood flooring installer from Santa Clarita who is a former illegal immigrant, said, "We want to work legally, so we can pay our taxes and support the country, our country."

On Friday, thousands of people joined in rallies in cities including Los Angeles, Phoenix and Atlanta and staged school walkouts, marches and work stoppages.

The Los Angeles demonstration led to fights between black and Hispanic students at one high school, but the protests were largely peaceful, authorities said. More than 2,700 students from at least eight city high schools and middle schools poured out of classrooms to join the protest.

In one of the largest protests in city history, Phoenix police said 20,000 demonstrators marched Friday to the office of Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., co-sponsor of a bill to step up enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border and create a temporary guest-worker program that would require illegals to leave after five years.

Activists in Georgia said tens of thousands of workers did not show up at their jobs Friday to protest a bill passed by the state House that would deny state services to adults in the U.S. illegally and impose a 5-percent surcharge on wire transfers from illegal immigrants.

I thought if you committed a crime you were perforcea criminal?

Maybe it doesn’t work that way in Spanish.

Can Mother Sheehan account for where she was Thursday?

From the DNC’s Associated Press:

Vandals Deface Mass. Sign Honoring Soldier

CHESHIRE, Mass. (AP) — The family of a Green Beret who was one of the nation’s first casualties in the war on terror in Afghanistan was outraged after discovering vandals had defaced a sign honoring the soldier with anti-war graffiti.

"I felt like I was going to vomit," said Michael Petithory, the brother of Army Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory.

"It was just pure rage," he told the North Adams Transcript.

Daniel Petithory was killed Dec. 5, 2001, along with two other soldiers when a U.S. bomb landed about 100 yards from their position north of Kandahar.

Michael Petithory discovered the vandalism on Thursday as he biked along the Ashuwillticook Trail.

The words "oil," "Bush" and "Christian Crusade" and other phrases were written in black marker on the brown metal sign.

Family and friends cleaned the sign, which is one of three along a stretch of the trail that honors the Cheshire native. The other two signs were not vandalized.

Daniel Petithory was a recipient of the Silver Star and Purple Heart. He joined the Army shortly after graduating from Hoosac Valley High School in 1987. He is buried near family members in Cheshire Cemetery.

Police in Cheshire and Lanesborough are investigating, but there had been no arrests as of Friday evening. Cheshire, a town of approximately 3,500 residents, is about 140 miles west of Boston.

Sadly, I’m sure there is a lot more of this going on than what gets reported.

We all know all how tolerant and loving America-haters are.

Well, it’s about time.

Anybody who would even let the professional grifters of the Veterans For Peace within ten miles of their operations was clearly incompetent or worse.

From those champions of integrity at the New York Times:

Red Cross Fires Administrators in New Orleans

By STEPHANIE STROM
March 25, 2006

In a major shake-up of its relief operations in New Orleans, the American Red Cross dismissed two key supervisors yesterday as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into the improper diversion of relief supplies after Hurricane Katrina, a Red Cross official said.

The supervisors — volunteers, as are 95 percent of Red Cross personnel — were in charge of the organization’s kitchens and shelters, which have assisted tens of thousands of the hurricane’s victims.

The move came a day after the interim president of the Red Cross said the organization was investigating accusations of impropriety, including possible criminal activity.

"We have relieved certain volunteers of their duties in connection with our investigation," said a senior Red Cross official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the actions.

Three volunteers currently working in the area identified one of the officials who was dismissed as Patrick Keena, the senior official responsible for the organization’s food and shelter operations in the disaster area. They said he was fired early yesterday.

The identity of the other dismissed supervisor could not be determined.

Mr. Keena, who has been affiliated with the Red Cross for 25 years, told volunteers in the disaster area that he was leaving because of a medical emergency.

He could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Several volunteers who had served in the area complained over the last four months that Mr. Keena had ignored Red Cross rules, overridden efforts to establish procedures to keep track of relief supplies and interfered with internal investigations into the diversion of supplies.

Two volunteers assigned by Red Cross national headquarters last fall to look into those and other accusations of wrongdoing urged the removal of Mr. Keena and other senior managers in a report they filed with senior organization officials on Dec. 5.

A second supervisor, Jill Paul, who was in charge of the kitchens where meals were prepared for delivery to the needy, told volunteers yesterday that she had elected to leave the operation, several volunteers said. But it could not be determined if Ms. Paul was the second worker ordered out of the area.

She could not be reached for comment.

Teala Brewer, a former Secret Service agent who is the Red Cross’s director of ethics and compliance, was in New Orleans yesterday with volunteers who had pointed out problems.

One of the accusations they are investigating is that supervisors in charge of the kitchens have been ordering more food than is needed, raising questions about where the extra food is going.

In one case highlighted by the volunteers, Ms. Paul recommended sending 1,500 meals a day into the New Orleans neighborhood of Bywater because residents had only limited access to utilities, potable water and a small convenience store.

Eight days after she filed her recommendation, volunteers assigned to go street by street in Bywater to estimate the number of meals needed said they came up with an assessment of only 500 meals needed on the route every day.

"They found that not only did a great portion of the route have full utilities, they also had a major grocery store up and running and public transportation," said a volunteer who had seen their report but requested anonymity because she said she had been physically threatened by a supervisor. "Much of the area was back to pre-Katrina, and the rest of it was so bad that no one was living in it."

Volunteers delivering meals said investigators from national headquarters had been trailing them over the last week and interviewing people living along their routes.

The interim president of the Red Cross, John F. McGuire, acknowledged this week that the organization was investigating accusations that relief supplies had been improperly diverted and that procedures for tracking inventory had been ignored.

Initially, according to those raising such concerns, their warnings were ignored.

In fact, Jerome H. Nickerson Jr. and Michael A. Wolters, who wrote the report recommending that the supervisors in New Orleans be removed, said they were relieved of their responsibilities.

Mr. Nickerson, a Maryland lawyer, said his name disappeared from the Red Cross database of trained disaster volunteers, and Mr. Wolters, a security guard, said his local chapter was told that he was forbidden from entering disaster areas on orders of the Red Cross’s general counsel.

"When I first came out of New Orleans, I couldn’t sleep for about a month because I just couldn’t figure out why people weren’t moving on this," Mr. Nickerson said yesterday. "But now people are paying attention, and the people who were doing this bad stuff are being called to account."

According to Red Cross publications, Mr. Keena has assisted with disaster response for the last 12 of his 25 years as a volunteer, working at 26 major disasters. The Colorado Springs Gazette reported last year that Mr. Keena, whose wife is in the Air Force, worked at the Double Eagle Casino in Cripple Creek, Colo.

The Gazette said Mr. Keena volunteered at the local Pikes Peak Chapter of the Red Cross, but Paul Koch, the financial director there, said yesterday that he did not know Mr. Keena.

Mr. Keena was on an elite team of paid Red Cross volunteers, known as temporary disaster reserves, who have extensive experience in disaster relief work. They are called out at the onset of an emergency and paid because they are needed for an extended period.

This criminal investigation will surely reach down the the receivers of the pilfered supplies.

Which reminds me, anybody heard from Malik Rahim or Andrea Garland lately?

Hey, Gordo, old buddy. Gotten any calls yet?

Like they had to tell us.

From the DNC’s Associated Press:

Cindy Sheehan and friend pose in front of the VFP’s Impeachment Tour bus.

Red Cross Probes Katrina Misconduct, Theft

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Pressed by Congress, the American Red Cross said Friday it is investigating claims that volunteers engaged in widespread theft in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"Any conduct that violates either the law or Red Cross code of conduct is not tolerated," said spokesman Chuck Connor, adding that any criminal wrongdoing uncovered by the group’s conduct and ethics office will be turned over to law enforcement officials.

Allegations of wrongdoing go far beyond what the statement said were "inevitable … departures from standard procedures" after such a catastrophe, according to the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has said volunteers may have committed criminal fraud. The accusations include improperly diverting relief supplies and violating Red Cross rules by using felons as volunteers in the disaster area. Grassley has threatened to rewrite or revoke the organization’s charter if it does not overhaul its operations.

In a statement Friday, Grassley said he hopes the Red Cross’ investigation will embrace whistleblowers and provide a top-to-bottom review of the group’s leadership, oversight and openness.

Especially worrying, Grassley said, was the Red Cross’ failure to take seriously the concerns of volunteers reporting the thefts "until I drew attention to them."

"The Red Cross needs to change its mind-set so it addresses volunteers’ concerns swiftly and appropriately, regardless of whether a Senate committee chairman is asking questions," Grassley said.

The New York Times reported Friday that more than a dozen Red Cross volunteers described an organization that had few cost controls, little oversight of its inventory and no system of basic background checks for its volunteers.

The volunteers cited little direct evidence of criminal activity, but the magnitude of the missing goods had convinced them that the operations were being manipulated for private gain.

In one case, a kitchen manager swapped 300 prepared meals for parking spaces for Red Cross emergency response vehicles without creating any record of the transaction.

The Red Cross had 235,000 volunteers working in the Katrina disaster area, nearly six times the previous peak of 40,000. The sheer number collapsed the normal vetting process, the volunteers said.

The charity has said it responded to Katrina the best it could in circumstances almost unimaginable, while acknowledging that it stumbled in "technology, logistics and coordination."

That admission was not good enough for Grassley, who said he is set to meet next week with American Red Cross board of governors chairwoman Bonnie McElveen-Hunter.

"I hope to understand better what the timeline is for a complete review and reforms," Grassley said.

The inquiry comes after the Red Cross has seen two presidents resign in a little more than four years. Both resignations came after clashes with the board of governors on the tail of major disasters: Dr. Bernadine Healy stepped down shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and, more recently, Marsha Evans quit following Hurricane Katrina.

I know the Red Cross is already investigating them. But it can’t hurt to remind them.

Three words: Veterans For Peace.

(Thanks to Groovygrl for the heads up.)