Schumer: Supreme Court 'Dangerously Out of Balance'

By Evan Moore

The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts is "the most conservative in memory," and the Senate should not confirm another nominee to the bench from President Bush "except in extraordinary circumstances," in the view of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Schumer said the Senate had been misled by the "charm of nominee Roberts and the erudition of nominee [Samuel] Alito." >LINK<

Dems Desperate to Surrender

by Doug Patton

It is hard to comprehend the fact that there are people in the United States Congress who are so addicted to power they actually want America to lose the war in Iraq in order to obtain it. Yet that is exactly what is happening with Democrats running the show. They couch their cowardice in high-minded lies about supporting the troops but not the mission, but the truth is much less complicated. They cannot stand the idea that “George Bush’s war,” as Hillary Clinton likes to call it, might actually succeed. >LINK< As former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said on Fox News Sunday, “The left wing of the Democratic Party is deeply opposed to American victory and deeply committed to American defeat.”

Daily glass of wine increases risk

By Jeremy Laurance

Conventional medical wisdom has been that moderate drinking - a pint of beer or a couple of glasses of wine a day - boosts health by cutting the risk of heart disease. But new research has muddied the water. A study published yesterday suggests that a daily pint of beer or large glass of wine increases the risk of bowel cancer by 10 per cent. Two pints or two large glasses of wine increases the risk by 25 per cent, according to the results of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study, which questioned almost 480,000 people across 10 European countries about their drinking habits. >LINK<

Ethanol Scam: MUST READ

JEFF GOODELL

some "adult" language

Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption -- yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World. And the increasing acreage devoted to corn for ethanol means less land for other staple crops, giving farmers in South America an incentive to carve fields out of tropical forests that help to cool the planet and stave off global warming >LINK<

Corn is already the most subsidized crop in America, raking in a total of $51 billion in federal handouts between 1995 and 2005 -- twice as much as wheat subsidies and four times as much as soybeans. Ethanol itself is propped up by hefty subsidies, including a fifty-one-cent-per-gallon tax allowance for refiners. And a study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development found that ethanol subsidies amount to as much as $1.38 per gallon -- about half of ethanol's wholesale market price.

Tattoos lessen likelihood of landing a job

By Patricia Kitchen

A new survey shows that employees are getting the message that plenty of bosses find visible tattoos or body piercings objectionable in the workplace. Of 468 employees who responded to Vault's 2007 tattoo and body-piercing survey, 85 percent said, yes, such body decorations impede a candidate's chance of getting the job, a big jump up from the 19 percent who said that in the 2001 survey. >LINK<

No sex, please, you're a carnivore.

By REBECCA TODD

Vegansexuals are people who do not eat any meat or animal products, and who choose not to be sexually intimate with non-vegan partners whose bodies, they say, are made up of dead animals. Many female respondents described being attracted to people who ate meat, but said they did not want to have sex with meat-eaters because their bodies were made up of animal carcasses. >LINK<

Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds unite

"THIS is not just about football, this is more important than that. This has brought great happiness to a whole country. This is not about a team, this is about human beings."
So said Jorvan Vieira, Iraq's national football team coach, yesterday after his side achieved one of sport's great fairytale moments, beating the favourites Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the Asian Cup final in Jakarta to provide a rare moment for celebration in their war-torn homeland. >LINK<

Sex for the motherland:

By EDWARD LUCAS

Remember the mammoths, say the clean-cut organisers at the youth camp's mass wedding. "They became extinct because they did not have enough sex. That must not happen to Russia".
Obediently, couples move to a special section of dormitory tents arranged in a heart-shape and called the Love Oasis, where they can start procreating for the motherland. >LINK<

Woman 108 told to wait 18 months for hearing aid

By STEVE DOUGHTY and NICK McDERMOTT

A woman aged 108 has been told she must wait 18 months before the Health Service will give her the hearing aid she needs.
Former piano teacher Olive Beal, one of the oldest people in Britain, has poor eyesight and uses a wheelchair.
The delay could mean she will be unable to communicate and listen to the music she loves. >LINK<

Salary, Gender and the Social Cost of Haggling

By Shankar Vedantam

About 10 years ago, a group of graduate students lodged a complaint with Linda C. Babcock, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University: All their male counterparts in the university's PhD program were teaching courses on their own, whereas the women were working only as teaching assistants. "The dean said each of the guys had come to him and said, 'I want to teach a course,' and none of the women had done that," >LINK<

Cheney chimes in: Ain't no superhighways

By Jerome R. Corsi

"The administration is not engaged in a secret plan to create a 'NAFTA super highway,'" asserts Cheney in a recent letter to a constituent, according to a copy of the message obtained by WND. "The Department of Transportation will continue to cooperate with the State transportation departments in the I-35 corridor as they upgrade this vital interstate highway to meet 21st century needs. >LINK<

NASCO

Economists predict U.S. bound international containerized cargo will increase 350% by 2020. United States, Mexico, and Canadian exports to one another and the world are at an all time high.
We are literally facing a trade tsunami and U.S., Mexico, and Canadian infrastructure is unable to handle the burden.

NASCO’s purpose is to boost economic development activity by supporting:
Multi-modal (rail, truck, ships, air cargo) infrastructure improvements
Technology and security innovations on existing infrastructure to improve security and efficiency
Enhanced visibility, security, and accountability of supply chains critical to every day life
Environmental projects to preserve quality of life and allow for future growth
Strengthened security in cross-border trade flows

LINK

Worried, frustrated immigrants headed back home

By Liz Mineo

For years, illegal immigrants from Brazil have coped with the uncertainty of life here and the threat of deportation because of a favorable exchange rate. When the dollar hit its lowest level in three years this month compared to the Brazilian real, a result of the real's strengthening due to Brazil's export boom, many people decided to take the plane home. "Last year, we'd see four or five per day," said Basilio at the center sponsored by St. Tarcisius Church. "Now, we have more job offers than workers. We're seeing more people leaving than coming in." >LINK<

Swat somebody's butt.........

By MARK STEYN

Do you know Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison?
If you do, don't approach them. Call 911 and order up a SWAT team. They're believed to be in the vicinity of McMinnville, Ore., where they're a clear and present danger to the community. Mashburn and Cornelison were recently charged with five counts of felony sexual abuse, and District Attorney Bradley Berry has pledged to have them registered for life as sex offenders.
Oh, by the way, the defendants are in the seventh grade. >LINK<

Universal health care: Is it worth the long waits?

By Henry L. Davis

After battling brain cancer, Lindsay McCreith is ready for his next fight: He’s taking on the Canadian health care system.
His case has potential repercussions on both sides of the border as pressure grows for health reform.
It started when McCreith, a resident of Newmarket, north of Toronto, suffered a seizure last year. He was told in Canada he would have to wait more than four months for an MRI to rule out a malignant tumor. >LINK<

Hurricane Central

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

The number of tropical storms developing annually in the Atlantic Ocean more than doubled over the past century, with the increase taking place in two jumps, researchers say.
The increases coincided with rising sea surface temperature, largely the byproduct of human-induced climate warming, >LINK<

Just Drill, Baby

BY PETE DU PONT

America's domestic oil production is declining, importation of oil is rising, and gasoline is more expensive. The government's Energy Information Administration reports that U.S. crude oil field production declined to 1.9 billion barrels in 2005 from 3.5 billion in 1970, and the share of our oil that is imported has increased to 60% from 27% in 1985. The price of gasoline has risen to $3.02 this month from $2 in today's dollars in 1985. >LINK<

Washington politicians will tell you this is an "energy crisis," but America's energy challenges are far more political than substantive.

Whose Ox Is Gored

When Republicans win elections, liberals are quick to cry fraud. But when actual fraud is found, they are just as quick to deny it, if Democrats are the ones who benefit.
Just before the 2004 election, the influential blog DailyKos.com warned of a "nationwide" wave of voter fraud against John Kerry. >LINK<

Hilton's inheritance seized by fed up grandfather

Paris Hilton’s recent behaviour has sent her billionaire grandfather into fury — so much so that the hotel heiress-cum-jailbird will not see a cent of her $59 million inheritance. >LINK<

Conrad ‘Barron’ Hilton, has instead decided to plough his fortune into a charitable foundation in an effort to carry on family tradition

Senate adds $3 billion for border security

By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT

WASHINGTON — Eager to demonstrate to a skeptical public that Congress is determined to tackle illegal immigration, the Senate today added $3 billion to a homeland security spending bill to pay for thousands more Border Patrol agents, 700 miles of border fencing and sophisticated technology designed to bring the U.S.-Mexico boundary under operational control within two years. >LINK<

Oscar The Cat Predicts Patients' Death

(AP) PROVIDENCE, R.I. Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live."He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," >LINK<

Stacking the Court

By JEAN EDWARD SMITH

WHEN a majority of Supreme Court justices adopt a manifestly ideological agenda, it plunges the court into the vortex of American politics. If the Roberts court has entered voluntarily what Justice Felix Frankfurter once called the “political thicket,” it may require a political solution to set it straight . >LINK<

Latino Leaders Outraged

PHOENIX — Latino leaders and faith-based organizations in the U.S. state of Arizona want a local sheriff to disconnect the hotline he created for people to report information about illegal immigrants, saying it raises the chance of racial profiling.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Wednesday, however, that he would not disconnect the hotline, and stressed that deputies would investigate people only if authorities had probable cause, >LINK<

Political website cited for crime of 'offending'

By Bob Unruh

A website featuring comments by, for and about "principled conservatism" is being investigated by the Canadian government, and could be fined or ordered shut down for some postings about Islam and homosexuality. >LINK<

Flight 93 memorial: 'Giant mosque'

The planned crescent-shaped "memorial to heroes" of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania is nothing less than a huge outdoor mosque that pays homage to Islam, charges the author of a new book. >LINK<

Attack 'Could Happen Any Day'

The U.S. military commander in charge of defending the U.S. homeland said Tuesday that he believes there are al-Qaida cells in the United States"I believe there are cells in the United States, or at least people who aspire to create cells in the United States," Renuart said in an interview with The Associated Press. "To assume that there are not those cells is naive and so we have to take that threat seriously."
He added, "Am I concerned that this will happen this summer, I have to be concerned that it could happen any day." >LINK<

Next Attack ‘Bigger Than 9/11'

Dave Eberhart

If al-Qaida does launch an attack inside the U.S., as the U.S. government suggests, "it will be much bigger than 9/11."
This prediction of a nightmarish terror attack comes from Michael Scheuer, the retired CIA veteran who headed the agency's secret unit dedicated to capturing Osama bin Laden. >LINK<

Virginia eyes plan to deport illegals

By Natasha Altamirano

RICHMOND — Virginia lawmakers yesterday proposed a mandate for state sheriffs and jail wardens to initiate deportation proceedings for illegal aliens.
The proposal was one of several made by a State Crime Commission task force trying to crack down on illegal immigration.
Right now, police and jail officials must wait for federal immigration agents to decide whether to take custody of a suspect. >LINK<

Guard numbers on border to be halved

By Brady McCombs

As the presidentially mandated Operation Jumpstart mission begins its second year in support of the U.S. Border Patrol, the number of troops is being reduced as planned. It will be trimmed from 6,000 to 3,000 nationally and from 2,400 to 1,200 in Arizona, said National Guard Capt. Kristine Munn. The pullout began July 1 and is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 1. >LINK<

judge vs. judges

MICHAEL MILSTEIN

In an unusually blunt and wide-ranging opinion on a lawsuit over a small Idaho timber sale, Milan D. Smith Jr. blamed his own court for taking the law too far and causing much of "the decimation of the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest" and the loss of legions of timber jobs. >LINK<

BBC to teach its stars honesty

By Andrew Pierce

John Humphrys and Jeremy Paxman will be required to join Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, on a mandatory new training programme to teach honesty to BBC staff.
The Safeguarding Trust course is being set up as part of the damage limitation exercise by the corporation after the revelation that six children's and charity television programmes had misled viewers. "Everyone must be reminded about what the BBC stands for and what trust is."

George S Patton's New Speech-Iraq

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$100-a-barrel oil

By Mark Shenk

(Bloomberg) -- The $100-a-barrel oil that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said would prevail by 2009 may be only a few months away.
Jeffrey Currie, a London-based commodity analyst at the world's biggest securities firm, says $95 crude is likely this year unless OPEC unexpectedly increases production, and declining inventories are raising the chances for $100 oil. Jeff Rubin at CIBC World Markets predicts $100 a barrel as soon as next year. >LINK<

Secret memo:SPP summit

By Jerome R. Corsi

The memo shows a secondary focus of the leaders' meeting in Montebello, Quebec, Aug. 20-21, will be to prepare for a continental avian flu or human pandemic and establish a permanent continental emergency management coordinating body to deal not only with health emergencies but other unspecified emergencies as well.

President Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexico's President Felipe Calderon will attend the third SPP summit. >LINK<

Posse rides to help jailed border agents

By Jerome R. Corsi

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., plans to introduce an amendment tomorrow intended to get former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean released from prison immediately. "Americans have been waiting months for the president to right this wrong, and I am not going to wait any longer," Tancredo said in a press release. "It's time that the Congress took matters into its own hands." >LINK<

French Think Too Much

By ELAINE SCIOLINO

PARIS, July 21 — France is the country that produced the Enlightenment, Descartes’s one-liner, “I think, therefore I am,” and the solemn pontifications of Jean-Paul Sartre and other celebrity philosophers. “France is a country that thinks,” she told the National Assembly. “There is hardly an ideology that we haven’t turned into a theory. We have in our libraries enough to talk about for centuries to come. This is why I would like to tell you: Enough thinking, already. Roll up your sleeves.” >LINK<

Woman raped before "honor killing"

LONDON (Reuters) - A Kurdish woman was brutally raped, stamped on and strangled by members of her family and their friends in an "honor killing" carried out at her London home because she had fallen in love with the wrong man.
Banaz Mahmod, 20, was subjected to the 2-1/2 hour ordeal before she was garroted with a bootlace. >LINK<

Israel Offers 'Politically Correct' Textbook

The textbooks for the upcoming school year give the Jewish narrative of the events of 1948 and 1949 when Israel's creation drew an invasion by Arab armies in a conflict that displaced some 700,000 Palestinians. They point out Jews' historical connection to the Holy Land and their need for a state because of persecution in Europe, said Dalia Fenig, an Education Ministry inspector. >LINK<

But for the first time, the book also explains why the war was a tragedy from the Palestinian perspective, referring to the Arab defeat as "al-Naqba," Arabic for catastrophe and the common Arab term for the war.

Why right-wing radio works

Butch Mazzuca

Why does conservative talk radio in America flourish while liberal talk radio fails to gain traction? I have my own opinion on the matter, but I think it’ll be much more fun to read the Wisdom from the Web comments and Letters to the Editor which surely will follow my observations. Conservative talk radio flourishes because its listening audience buys the products its sponsors advertise. No one is compelled to listen to conservative talk-show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham; just as no one forces people to watch liberal television personalities such as Jon Stewart, David Letterman and Bill Maher. >LINK<

Romney Continues Assault on Democrats

By PHILIP ELLIOTT

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) - Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took aim at Democratic rivals on Sunday, calling them all unprepared to lead the country and comparing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's economic plan to that of Socialist Karl Marx.
"It would be helpful to have a person leading the country who understands how the economy works and has actually managed something," the former Massachusetts governor told reporters after a GOP fundraiser. >LINK<

Muslim Workers in Neb. Allege Harassment

By OSKAR GARCIA

Supervisors at a meatpacking plant have fired or harassed dozens of Somali Muslim employees for trying to pray at sunset, violating civil rights laws, the workers and their advocates say.
The five- to 10-minute prayer, known as the maghrib, must be done within a 45-minute window around sunset, according to Muslim rules. The workers at the Swift & Co. plant in Grand Island say they quit, were fired or were verbally and physically harassed over the issue. >LINK> The Council on American-Islamic Relations has drafted a complaint to be filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“Scott Thomas”

Beginning on January 31, 1971, an anti-war group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), spent three days in Detroit, Mi compiling what they called testimony of US military atrocities in Vietnam. They then went to Washington, DC to hold a series of protests, the most famous of which was “Dewey Canyon III”. This launched the lamentable career of John Kerry, but more importantly, it slandered hundreds of innocent soldiers who served in the US Marine Corps in Vietnam, by falsely accusing them of war atrocities. >LINK>

This mission has seemingly fallen to New Republic Magazine blogger, “Scott Thomas.” Thomas posts under a pseudonym and supposedly soldiers in the vicinity of Operating Base Falcon, in Baghdad. He posts a blog about his war experience in Iraq entitled “Shock Troops”.

"Baghdad Diarist"

By John Tabin

Last week the New Republic raised eyebrows across the Internet by publishing a "Baghdad Diarist" column titled "Shock Troops," under the byline of "Scott Thomas," identified as "a pseudonym for a freelance writer and soldier currently serving in Baghdad." The piece made some startling claims about the behavior of U.S. troops in Iraq. "Thomas" wrote that he and men he knew had loudly and publicly mocked a badly-disfigured woman, desecrated children's bones found during the construction of a combat outpost, and run over dogs with a Bradley Fighting Vehicle for sport. >LINK>

Three Amigos summit

Les Whittington

Rising concerns about continental integration and opposition to U.S. President George W. Bush's war in Iraq may bring protesters to Montebello, Que., in large numbers next month when Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets with his American and Mexican counterparts. >LINK< Thousands of demonstrators turned out in Ottawa the last time Bush visited Canada in 2004.

Hispanic group aims to stop 'wave of hate' ie: Talk Radio

By Stephen Dinan

The nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group says it must come up with a strategy to combat "a wave of hate" its leaders say came from talk radio's efforts to sink the Senate's immigration bill. "That had an extraordinary impact in the Senate, and as a nation, I don't think we should be comfortable with the fact that the United States Senate responded to what was largely a wave of hate," Cecilia Munoz, the National Council of La Raza's senior vice president, >LINK<

“inmates-are-running-the-asylum”

by Doug Patton It Depends on the Meaning of ‘Rape’

Tory Bowen, a 24-year-old Lincoln, Nebraska, woman, has alleged that Pamir Safi, a 33-year-old Army reservist, raped her. Of course, Safi alleges that what occurred between the two was, in fact, consensual sex. The judge in the case apparently agrees, even before any testimony is given. Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront has banned certain words and phrases from the trial on the grounds that they could be prejudicial to the defendant. Those terms include “rape,” “assailant,” “victim,” “sexual assault,” and “sexual assault kit.” The judge did not indicate what words are supposed to be left for the prosecutor to put on his case. >LINK<

Pentagon Rebukes Sen. Clinton on Iraq

By DEVLIN BARRETT

The Pentagon told Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton that her questions about how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq boosts enemy propaganda.
In a stinging rebuke to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman responded to questions Clinton raised in May in which she urged the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of American forces. >LINK<

NOAA Cover up

Since 2002 (see the AASC 2002 Annual Meeting minutes), we have been seeking to have photographs of the US Historical Climate Network (HCN) sites made available. The HCN sites are used as part of the diagnosis of the surface temperature anomalies. NOAA, however, has consistently failed to provide these photographs. >LINK<

Intel Director Worried About Terror Sleeper Cells

By JOHN HENDREN

The nation's top intelligence official yesterday went further than ever before in outlining what he described as a heightened threat of an al Qaeda attack on American soil. "Their attempt is to cause mass casualties," said Adm. Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, >LINK> "I worry that there are sleeper cells in the U.S.," McConnell said.

Elite hypocrisy, gangsta culture, and failure in black America

Myron Magnet

Two April days threw a clarifying light on the state of race in America. On the 11th, North Carolina’s attorney general exonerated three white Duke students of the rape charges that a black stripper had lodged with much press fanfare a year earlier. The next day, CBS fired shock jock Don Imus for calling black Rutgers women’s basketball players “nappy-headed hos.” Between them, these events suggest an explanation for America’s most vexed social question: >LINK<