New Hampshire Health News Digest

My Way News Osama bin Laden, addressing the American public four days ahead of presidential elections, said in a video aired Friday that the United States can avoid another Sept. 11 attack if it stops threatening the security of Muslims. Reading a statement, the al-Qaida leader refrained from threats of new attacks and instead appealed to Americans. "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry, Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands," bin Laden said, referring to the president and his Democratic opponent. "Each state that does not mess with our security, has naturally guaranteed its own security." Admitting for the first time that he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, bin Laden said he did so because of injustices against the Lebanese and Palestinians by Israel and the United States. It was the first footage in more than a year of the fugitive al-Qaida leader, thought to be hiding in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The vi...

Russia tied to Iraq's missing arms - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - October 28, 2004 : By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned. John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, 'almost certainly' removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad. "The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units." Mr. Shaw, who was in charge of cataloging the tons o...

PhotoID: 200410246419 Submitted by: 1st Marine Division Operation/Exercise/Event: Operation Iraqi Freedom Caption: Sgt. Joseph D. LaBorde, a scout sniper with the Scout Sniper Platoon, Headquarters and Support Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment sights in with an M82A3 Special Applications Scope Rifle. The .50 caliber rifle has stopping power capable of disabling a vehicle by taking out its engine block from great distances. Photo by: Cpl. Randy Bernard 

Marine Corps News> 1/23 snipers reclaim city from insurgents Marines from Scout Sniper Platoon, Headquarters and Support Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7, won a decisive battle against a heavy insurgent threat recently. The snipers were called to action after they received reports that hundreds of heavily armed insurgents, dressed in black garb, were occupying the city. "We are the eyes, ears and trigger finger for the battalion commander," said Sgt. Herbert B. Hancock, the chief scout sniper for the platoon. "Anything that he sees as a threat, we are sent out to check up on." The snipers were the first Marines to enter the city and observe the threat. Once the snipers had located the insurgents and established positions to assess the situation, the snipers realized just how right the reports had been. "They were all out in the open doing whatever they wanted to," said Hancock, 35, a native of Bryan, Texas. ...

Yahoo! News - Remains of New Species of Hobbit-Sized Human Found : LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in Australia have found a new species of hobbit-sized humans who lived about 18,000 years ago on an Indonesian island in a discovery that adds another piece to the complex puzzle of human evolution. The partial skeleton of Homo floresiensis, found in a cave on the island of Flores, is of an adult female that was a meter (3 feet) tall, had a chimpanzee-sized brain and was substantially different from modern humans. It shared the isolated island to the east of Java with miniature elephants and Komodo dragons. The creature walked upright, probably evolved into its dwarf size because of environmental conditions and coexisted with modern humans in the region for thousands of years. 'It is an extraordinarily important find,' Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum in London, told a news conference on Wednesday. 'It challenges the whole idea of what it is t...

DRUDGE REPORT 2004 - ABCNEWS HOLDS TERROR WARNING TAPE : **Exclusive** In the last week before the election, ABCNEWS is holding a videotaped message from a purported al Qaeda terrorist warning of a new attack on America, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. The terrorist claims on tape the next attack will dwarf 9/11. 'The streets will run with blood,' and 'America will mourn in silence' because they will be unable to count the number of the dead. Further claims: America has brought this on itself for electing George Bush who has made war on Islam by destroying the Taliban and making war on Al Qaeda. ABCNEWS strongly denies holding the tape back from broadcast over political concerns during the last days of the election. The CIA is analyzing the tape, a top federal source tells the DRUDGE REPORT. ABCNEWS obtained the tape from a source in Waziristan, Pakistan over the weekend, sources tells DRUDGE. 'We have been working 24 hours a day trying to authenti...

WorldNetDaily: Discovered papers: Hanoi directed Kerry from Worldnetdaily.com Recovered Vietnam documents 'smoking gun' researchers claim The first documentary evidence that Vietnamese communists were directly steering John Kerry's antiwar group Vietnam Veterans Against the War has been discovered in a U.S. archive, according to a researcher who spoke with WorldNetDaily. One freshly unearthed document, captured by the U.S. from Vietnamese communists in 1971 and later translated, indicates the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese delegations to the Paris peace talks that year were used as the communications link to direct the activities of Kerry and other antiwar activists who attended. Kerry insists he attended the talks only because he happened to be in France on his honeymoon and maintains he met with both sides. But previously revealed records indicate the future senator made two, and possibly three, trips to Paris to meet with Viet Cong leader Madame Nguyen Thi Bi...

Algerian Islamists Rattled by Sexual Scandals, Resignation of Leaders JEDDAH/ALGIERS, 26 October 2004 — Algeria’s largest Islamist political party is teetering on the brink of disintegration amid reports of sexual scandals and the resignation of five of its top leaders. A spokesman for the Harkat Al-Islah (Movement for Reform) confirmed the resignations yesterday but blamed them on “intrigues by outsiders.” Led by Abdallah Jaballah, Islah is the second political bloc in the Algerian Parliament. Last April it fielded Jaballah as its candidate in the presidential election, which the incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won in a landslide. Jaballah came in third. Scandals surrounding the party broke out earlier this week when a member of the leadership, who must remain anonymous for legal reasons, filed a lawsuit claiming that his wife had been “sexually assaulted” by Sadiq Sulayemah, another party leader. The plaintiff has accused the party’s leadership of trying to ...

DRUDGE REPORT 2004 - 60 MINS PLANNED BUSH MISSING EXPLOSIVES STORY FOR ELECTION EVE : "XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUE OCT 26 2004 11:02:38 ET XXXXX In 1992 it was the Iran Contra charges brought days before the election... In 2000 it was the DUI charges a few days before the vote... And Now... 60 MINS PLANNED BUSH MISSING EXPLOSIVES STORY FOR ELECTION EVE News of missing explosives in Iraq -- first reported in April 2003 -- was being resurrected for a 60 MINUTES election eve broadcast designed to knock the Bush administration into a crisis mode. Jeff Fager, executive producer of the Sunday edition of 60 MINUTES, said in a statement that 'our plan was to run the story on October 31, but it became clear that it wouldn't hold...' Elizabeth Jensen at the LOS ANGELES TIMES details on Tuesday how CBS NEWS and 60 MINUTES lost the story [which repackaged previously reported information on a large cache of explosives missing in Iraq, first published and broadcast ...

This Just In—Kerry's IQ Likely Lower than Bush's! By Steve Sailer "Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I'm sure the candidates' SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead." Howell Raines - Former Executive Editor of the New York Times "The 'Dumb' Factor" Washington Post, August 27, 2004 Oh yeah? On this tenth anniversary of the publication of the much-denounced The Bell Curve, it's amusing to reflect on one of the enduring ironies of American political life. Liberals tend to believe two things about IQ: bullet First, that IQ is a meaningless, utterly discredited concept. bullet Second, that liberals are better than conservatives because they have much higher IQs. Thus back in May, hundreds of liberal websites, and even the prestigious Economist magazine, fell for a hoax claiming to show that states that voted for Al Gore in 2000 have higher average IQs—by as much as an i...

Weekly Reader Presidential Poll The students who read Weekly Reader’s magazines have made their preference for President known: they want to send President Bush back to the White House. The results of this year’s Weekly Reader poll have just been announced, and the winner is President Bush. Hundreds of thousands of students participated, giving the Republican President more than 60% of the votes cast and making him a decisive choice over Democratic Senator John Kerry. Since 1956, Weekly Reader students in grades 1-12 have correctly picked the president, making the Weekly Reader poll one of the most accurate predictors of presidential outcomes in history. President Bush was a strong winner in the student poll; the only state Senator Kerry won was Maryland. Senator Kerry was also in a statistical dead heat with President Bush in New York, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C. and Vermont. President Bush won most grades, although Senator Kerry did win among tenth-graders.

DRUDGE REPORT 2004 - EDWARDS WIFE: NO RIOTS IF WE WIN The wife of Dem vice presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday there will be no riots around the election -- if Kerry/Edwards wins! C-SPAN cameras captured spouse Elizabeth Edwards making the startling comments to a supporter during a Kerry Campaign Town Hall Meeting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Supporter: Kerry's going to take PA. Liz Edwards: I know that. Supporter: I'm just worried there's going to be riots afterwards. Liz Edwards: Uh.....well...not if we win." Democrats planning to steal election, or throw country into chaos if they don't win. This is treason.

Early voting brings cries of bullying On Election Day, voters will be protected from campaign pressures by a 50-foot cone, an invisible barrier that campaign workers cannot breach. Not so for early voters. While the Voter’s Bill of Rights in state law says they have a right to “vote free from coercion or intimidation by elections officers or any other person,” a glitch in the newer early voting law does not include the same 50-foot guarantee. As a result, with early voting taking place in busy public places like City Halls and libraries, voters are voicing complaints of being blocked by political mobs, or being singled out for their political views. Others say they have been grabbed, screamed at and cursed by political partisans of all stripes. Republican Rep. Tom Feeney of Oviedo said the antagonizers are “Kerry thugs” out to harass Bush voters. “If you ask me whether I believe there is an organized effort to intimidate Republican voters, the answer...

Local Bush/Cheney headquarters robbed : "Local Bush/Cheney headquarters robbed The Enquirer DOWNTOWN - Cincinnati's headquarters for the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign was broken into overnight. Money and a sign were taken from the office, on Seventh Street near Court Street. The thieves got in by breaking out a window. The office was also ransacked, officials said. It also houses other Republican organizations. No one had been arrested." A chilling climate of fear settles across the country as Democrats brand half the country "un-American" for not supporting Kerry, and use physical intimidation and destruction of property to threaten free speech.

Arizona Daily Sun Flag GOP office vandalized : "Political motivations turned criminal Thursday night or early Friday when vandals smashed a large glass door with a section of cinder block at the Republican Party headquarters in downtown Flagstaff. A pile of shattered glass joined egg shells filling the entryway to the GOP offices, located on Humphreys Street across from Wheeler Park. Fliers with information criticizing President Bush were staked up outside the door. It joined a spate of torn and damaged signs reported by both Republicans and Democrats throughout the Flagstaff area. On Sunday, the campaign for 1st Congressional District Democratic challenger Paul Babbitt reported a dozen signs torn and damaged at its volunteer office on Verde Street." Our socialist amigos love their "direct action", don't they? Guess they don't have the intellectual firepower to debate about ideas, so they throw eggs. Or maybe ideas don't count since everyt...

Guardian Unlimited | US elections 2004 | Reaction from the US to the Guardian's Clark County project :Dear Limey assholes : Last week G2 launched Operation Clark County to help readers have a say in the American election by writing to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio. In the first three days, more than 11,000 people requested addresses. Here is some of the reaction to the project that we received from the US " Dear wonderful, loving friends from abroad, We Ohioans are an ornery sort and don't take meddling well, even if it comes from people we admire and with their sincere goodwill. We are a fairly closed community overall. In my town of Springfield, I feel that there are some that consider people from the nearby cities of Columbus or Dayton, as "foreigners"- let alone someone from outside our country. Springfield, Ohio Have you not noticed that Americans don't give two shits what Europeans think of us? Each email someone gets from som...

Yahoo! News - Kerry Looks to Avoid Gore Recount Errors WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kerry, bracing for a potential fight over election results, will not hesitate to declare victory Nov. 2 and defend it, advisers say. He also will be prepared to name a national security team before knowing whether he's secured the presidency. In short, the Democratic presidential candidate has a simple strategy for Nov. 3 and beyond: Do not repeat Al Gore's mistakes. The Democratic vice president prematurely conceded the 2000 race to George W. Bush in a telephone call, then had to retract his concession after aides said Florida wasn't lost. He never declared victory, an omission Kerry's advisers — many of whom worked for Gore — now believe created a sense of inevitability in voters' minds about Bush's presidency. Gore didn't plan for the legal showdown, though few could have predicted it before Election Day. And he watched as Bush seized political advantage during the ...

Yahoo! News - Putin: Terror Attacks Aimed at Bush DUSHANBE, Tajikistan - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that terrorists are aiming to derail U.S. President George W. Bush’s chances at re-election through their attacks in Iraq. “I consider the activities of terrorists in Iraq are not as much aimed at coalition forces but more personally against President Bush,” Putin said at a news conference after a regional summit in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. “International terrorism has as its goal to prevent the election of President Bush to a second term,” he said. “If they achieve that goal, then that will give international terrorism a new impulse and extra power.” Still, Putin didn’t say which candidate he favored in the Nov. 2 U.S. presidential election. “We unconditionally respect any choice of the American people,” he said. “I don’t want to spoil relations with either candidate.”

FOXNews.com - FNS w/ Chris Wallace - Transcript: Many States Bracing for Fight Over Presidency CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS: News of election fraud and voter intimidation are making front-page news weeks before any voter actually walks into a polling place. So what's behind the allegations, and is it possible that several states will need the courts to declare a winner? Fox News correspondent Major Garrett begins our coverage. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MAJOR GARRETT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Will the candidates or their lawyers decide who wins this year's knock-down, drag-out fight for the presidency? (UNKNOWN): It's not what America wants to hear, but this may make the Afghan election look like a walk in the park by the time we're through. GARRETT: Legal analysis have already developed in three states crucial to both sides' victory strategy.

FOXNews.com - Views - Saddam, Syria Colluded Under U.N. Watch So flagrant was Syria’s cooperation with Saddam that in October, 2002, while the U.S. was trying to reason with the U.N. Security Council, Syria, according to the Duelfer report, was helping Saddam import from a Ukrainian military manufacturer an entire massive pontoon bridge set. All this was made much easier by a setup in which, despite the reassuring label of sanctions on Iraq, the United Nations in practice did nothing to police the Iraqi-Syrian border. Under the 1996-2003 Oil-for-Food program, which was supposed to restrict Saddam’s trade exclusively to humanitarian goods (expanded early on to include oil industry equipment), the U.N. Secretariat collected $1.4 billion in commissions on Saddam’s oil sales, to monitor and ensure the integrity of the U.N. program. But, as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) ran the program, the U.N.-hired inspectors were tasked only to check whether shipments into Iraq qu...

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Tawhid and Jihad Declares Al Qaeda Alliance BAGHDAD, Iraq — The most feared militant group in Iraq, the movement of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (search), declared its allegiance to Usama bin Laden (search) on Sunday, saying it had agreed with Al Qaeda over strategy and the need for unity against "the enemies of Islam." The declaration, which appeared on a Web site often used as a clearinghouse for statements by militant groups, began with a Quranic verse encouraging Muslim unity and said al-Zarqawi considered bin Laden "the best leader for Islam's armies against all infidels and apostates." The statement, whose authenticity could not be independently confirmed, said the two had been in communication eight months ago and "viewpoints were exchanged" before the dialogue was interrupted. "God soon blessed us with a resumption in communication, and the dignified brothers in Al Qaeda (search) unde...

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - U.S. Battles Militants Near Fallujah : "Separately, the most feared militant group in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's (search) Tawhid and Jihad, said in an Internet statement that it would take orders from Usama bin Laden (search) and Al Qaeda from now on. Throughout the day, the crackle of automatic weapons fire and the thud of artillery echoed across Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, as fighting between American troops and insurgents raged on the eastern and southern edges of the city, witnesses said. Clashes blocked the main road leading to Baghdad, and plumes of smoke rose above the flat-roofed houses in the city's Askari and Shuhada neighborhoods in eastern and southern Fallujah....... American forces have stepped up attacks around Fallujah since peace talks between the Iraqi government and Fallujah clerics broke down last Thursday after city leaders rejected Allawi's demand to hand over "foreign terrorists," ...

Rocky Mountain News: Election - Democrat playbook opened to criticism Leaked page reveals push to use tactic of 'pre-emptive strike' : Democrats got caught with their election playbook open Thursday when a leaked page was published urging operatives to lodge a 'pre-emptive strike' of claiming voter intimidation, whether it's true or not. Gleeful Republicans quickly called a press conference after the page from The Drudge Report went online, in which they denounced 'a new low in gutter politics' that 'played the race card.' 'They want to rile up the minorities to denounce tactics that do not exist,' said Ted Halaby, chairman of the Colorado GOP. Halaby said it was 'a criminal act to falsely allege something that does not exist.' He called on the state Democrats to 'denounce and renounce' the manual's teachings. But Democrats, who verified as authentic the page from a playbook called 'Colorado Election Da...

Rapper: Blacks 'cheered when 9-11 happened' : If Osama bin Laden ever buys a rap album, he'll probably start with a CD by KRS-One. The hip-hop anarchist has declared his solidarity with al-Qaida by asserting that he and other African-Americans 'cheered when 9-11 happened,' reports the New York Daily News. The rapper, real name Kris Parker, defiled the memory of those who died in the terrorist attacks as he spouted off at a recent New Yorker Festival panel discussion. 'I say that proudly,' the Boogie Down Productions founder went on, insisting that, before the attack, security guards kept Blacks out of the World Trade Center 'because of the way we talk and dress. 'So when the planes hit the building, we were like, 'Mmmm - justice.' ' The atrocity of 9-11 'doesn't affect us the hip-hop community,' he said. '9-11 happened to them, not us,' he added, explaining that by 'them' he meant 'the ric...

My Way News U.S. Probes if GIs Refused Iraq Mission : " WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army is investigating reports that several members of a reservist supply unit in Iraq refused to go on a convoy mission, the military said Friday. Relatives of the soldiers said the troops considered the mission too dangerous. The reservists are from the 343rd Quartermaster Company, which is based in Rock Hill, S.C. The unit delivers food and water in combat zones. According to The Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Miss., a platoon of 17 soldiers refused to go on a fuel supply mission Wednesday because their vehicles were in poor shape and they did not have a capable armed escort. The paper cited interviews with family members of some of the soldiers, who said the soldiers had been confined after their refusals. The mission was carried out by other soldiers from the 343rd, which has at least 120 soldiers, the military said. Convoys in Iraq are frequently subject to ambushes and roadsid...

My Way News U.S. Warplanes Pound Iraq's Falluja : FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes launched sustained and fierce attacks on the rebel-held Iraqi town of Falluja on Thursday, witnesses said. They said explosions could be heard in the attacks, a day after interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi warned the town would face an offensive unless it handed over Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers. There was no immediate word on casualties. U.S. warplanes have been attacking suspected guerrilla positions in Falluja every night in a bid to root out militants. But residents said Thursday's bombing, which follows the breakdown of peace talks between the interim administration and representatives of the city's 300,000 residents, was much fiercer than previous operations. Witnesses said helicopters were also attacking parts of the town, which the interim government hopes to capture before elections scheduled for January."

My Way News 28 U.S. Troops Implicated in Afghan Abuse : " WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Army investigators have recommended that the service consider charges ranging from manslaughter to conspiracy against 28 soldiers in the deaths of two prisoners in Afghanistan in 2002, the Army said on Thursday. The announcement followed charges filed earlier against a U.S. military police sergeant in the alleged abuse deaths of the two detainees at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. It marked the latest step by the American military against soldiers involved in the abuse of prisoners in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The brief announcement said the Army Criminal Investigation Division had 'identified 28 soldiers with possible culpability in these two cases, meaning that they may have committed one or more offenses punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.' It did not name the troops but said a detailed report had been passed to commanders listing potential offenses i...

The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News - 13-Oct-04 - Afghan Whigs: Democracy takes root, Big Media yawn SINCE THE British relinquished control of Afghanistan in 1919, the remote, mountainous nation has been ruled by kings, Soviet puppets and Islamist tyrants. On Saturday its residents cast ballots, unharmed, for a new kind of government — one chosen and operated by the people. Faced with the prospect of attacks at polling places, the people showed up anyway. They were undeterred, and perhaps their bravery disheartened the would-be terrorists lurking in the shadows. United Nations observers contradicted the claims of opposition presidential candidates who said the elections were compromised by irregularities. Those candidates have since dropped their unsubstantiated charges. As England's Whigs joined together to empower Parliament at the expense of the king, so Afghanistan's people have taken to the polls to weaken the remnants of totalitarianism. Saturday...

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Babies found in Iraqi mass grave : A mass grave being excavated in a north Iraqi village has yielded evidence that Iraqi forces executed women and children under Saddam Hussein. US-led investigators have located nine trenches in Hatra containing hundreds of bodies believed to be Kurds killed during the repression of the 1980s. The skeletons of unborn babies and toddlers clutching toys are being unearthed, the investigators said. They are seeking evidence to try Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity. -Tiny bones, femurs - thighbones the size of a matchstick It is believed to be the first time investigators working for the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) have conducted a full scientific exhumation of a mass grave. 'It is my personal opinion that this is a killing field,' Greg Kehoe, an American working with the IST, told reporters in Hatra, south of the city of Mosul. 'Someone used this field on significant occasions over ti...

ThisisLondon - Bodies of babies found in Saddam's 'killing field' A mass grave containing the bodies of children, babies and their mothers has been unearthed in Iraq. Shocked investigators reported finding "thighbones the size of matchsticks" at what they believe is the site of one of Saddam Hussein's atrocities. Among the findings-were the skeletons of unborn babies and toddlers clutching toys. A baby had been shot in the back of its head and was found still being clutched by its mother, who had been shot in the face. The discovery was reported as Tony Blair came under mounting pressure to apologise to Parliament for the misleading intelligence claiming Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. It will strengthen the Prime Minister's case that despite the intelligencefailures the war to topple the Iraqi dictator was justified by his record as a mass killer of his own people. Mr Blair is facing MPs for the first time since the Iraq Survey Group ...

FT.com / World / Europe - Germany in rethink on Iraq force deployment US, German and Iraqi flagsGermany might deploy troops in Iraq if conditions there change, Peter Struck, the German defence minister, indicated on Tuesday in a gesture that appears to provide backing for John Kerry, the US Democratic presidential challenger. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Struck departed from his government’s resolve not to send troops to Iraq under any circumstances, saying: “At present I rule out the deployment of German troops in Iraq. In general, however, there is no one who can predict developments in Iraq in such a way that he could make a such a binding statement [about the future].” Mr Struck also welcomed Mr Kerry’s proposal that he would convene an international conference on Iraq including countries that opposed the war if he were to win next month's election. Germany would certainly attend, Mr Struck said. “This is a very sensible proposal. The situation in I...

WBIR-TV, Knoxville, TN New photos: Shots fired into Knox Bush/Cheney headquarters : An unknown suspect fired multiple shots into the Bearden office of the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign Tuesday morning. The headquarters are located at 4618 Kingston Pike, between Nouveau Classics and Lenny's submarine sandwich shop in the same shopping plaza as Long's Drugstore. According to Knoxville Police Department (KPD) officers on the scene Tuesday, it is believed that the two separate shots were fired from a car sometime between 6:30 am and 7:15 am. One shot shattered the glass in the front door and the other cracked the glass in another of the front doors. Bush-Cheney volunteer campaign coordinator Suzanne Dewar says she originally planned to be in the office early Tuesday morning. 'If I had gotten here a couple hours earlier, I'd have been inside,' Dewar explains. 'And we don't turn the lights on until we open, so they wouldn't have know som...

CBS News | Afghan Candidates Boycott Election (AP) Afghanistan's first direct presidential election was thrust into turmoil hours after it started Saturday when all 15 candidates challenging interim leader Hamid Karzai said they'd boycott the results, alleging fraud over the ink meant to ensure people voted only once. Electoral officials rejected the candidates' call to abandon the rest of the balloting, saying it would rob millions of voters of their chance to cast ballots and that they would rule later on the legitimacy of the election. "Halting the vote at this stage is unjustified and would deny these people their right to vote," said Ray Kennedy, the vice chairman of the joint U.N.-Afghan panel overseeing the election. "There have been some technical problems but overall it has been safe and orderly." Karzai said the fate of the vote was in the hands of the electoral body, but he added that in his view "the election was free and fa...

My Way News - current events in Iraq and Falluja : "U.S. and Iraqi authorities are using a combination of persuasion and force to try to curb a mounting insurgency in time for elections in January. Some U.S. military commanders have expressed doubt that voting will be possible in all parts of the country. Among those areas where voting is unlikely is Fallujah, an insurgent bastion 40 miles west of Baghdad believed to be a stronghold of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad movement. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's interim government, which is determined that all Iraqis should be able to vote, said it was nearing agreement on a plan to bring its forces back into Fallujah after weeks of U.S. airstrikes aimed at militants in the city. Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said the broad outlines of a deal had been agreed with city representatives, including tribal leaders and clerics. The plan calls for a three-day halt to attacks, after which Iraqi troops will be all...

My Way News Australia Re-Elects Howard Prime Minister : "SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Prime Minister John Howard scored a convincing victory in Australia's federal election Saturday, winning a historic fourth term in a vote ensuring the staunch U.S. ally keeps its troops in Iraq. With more than 70 percent of votes tallied, Howard appeared likely to increase his government's majority in parliament - exceeding most analysts' predictions that the result would be very tight.......... The election was widely seen abroad as the first referendum for the three leaders who launched the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, with President Bush facing a ballot next month and British Prime Minister Tony Blair probably facing voters next year. The Labor Party had vowed to bring the roughly 900 Australian troops deployed in and around Iraq home by Christmas, while Howard insisted they will stay until Iraqis ask them to leave. Australian troops have not suffered any casualties and n...

Reuters AlertNet - Cuba's hurricane handling is example to all-U.N. : GENEVA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Cuba's system of preparing for hurricanes is an example to all, including the U.S. state of Florida, the United Nations' top official for humanitarian affairs and disasters said on Thursday. While over 3,000 people were killed in Haiti last month by hurricane Jeane, nobody died in Cuba when it was struck earlier by an even more powerful storm, said Jan Egeland, the U.N.'s coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs and Humanitarian Relief. While Havana was lucky the storm did not hit the most populated part of the Caribbean island, the main reason nobody died was that Cuba was well prepared, he told journalists. 'The number one in terms of social organisation in having people respond responsibly when there is a hurricane alert in the region is Cuba and then maybe Florida is number two,' Egeland said. 'In this case, Florida could probably learn from Cuba, ...

youthography : "Slang is da flava by Daphne Gordon, The Toronto Star, Tuesday, January 28, 2003 Wassup with all the slang on TV these days? Seems like corporate North America has increasingly been copping youthful slang in advertising campaigns, on television shows and newscasts, in product names and on corporate Web sites in an attempt to cash in on the increasingly powerful youth market. A few prime examples: A television ad announces the release of Star Wars: Episode II DVDs with the question "Who's da man?" and answer "Yo da man," while showing scenes of Yoda the Jedi elder fighting bad guys. A new spot for Visa that aired on Superbowl Sunday in the U.S. riffed on the word "Yo," putting the word in the mouths of famed Chinese basketball player Yao Ming and baseball icon Yogi Berra. A raft of youth-oriented products with the word "X-Treme" in the name has hit the market, ranging from potato chips to soft drinks, vid...

Belmont Club : "I should emphasize that a limited, compartmentalized response may actually be the most appropriate policy under the circumstances, given the vast power of the United States and the military weakness of its enemies. The Global War on Terror has been just that: a proportionate, measured response using a mere fraction of American military strength. Whittle quotes George Bush: Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. But providing the underlying rigidity was deterrence: an America that could literally annihilate the enemy society and had the willingness to use those means if sufficiently provoked. ...

ABCNEWS.com : Iraq Link Focuses School Worry on 6 States School Plans, Security Information Gathered by Suspected Iraq Insurgent Focus Concern on Schools in Six States - School Warning Oct. 7, 2004 — Schools in six states in particular are being watched closely based on information uncovered by the U.S. military in Baghdad this summer, law enforcement and education officials told ABC News. A man described as an Iraqi insurgent involved in anti-coalition activities had downloaded school floor plans and safety and security information about elementary and high schools in the six states, according to officials. School officials in Fort Myers, Fla.; Salem, Ore.; Gray, Ga.; Birch Run, Mich.; two towns in New Jersey; and two towns in California have been told to increase security in light of the discovery. Officials in the New Jersey towns, Franklinville and Rumson, were notified by counterterrorism officials last month that their schools had been possibly singled out. "...

Yahoo! News - U.S. Alerts Schools About Terror Threat WASHINGTON - The Education Department has advised school leaders nationwide to watch for people spying on their buildings or buses to help detect any possibility of terrorism like the deadly school siege in Russia. The warning follows an analysis by the FBI (news - web sites) and the Homeland Security Department of the siege that killed nearly 340 people, many of them students, in the city of Beslan last month. "The horror of this attack may have created significant anxiety in our own country among parents, students, faculty staff and other community members," Deputy Education Secretary Eugene Hickok said in a letter to schools and education groups. The safety advice is based on lessons learned from the Russia incident. But there is "no specific information indicating that there is a terrorist threat to any schools or universities in the United States," Hickok said. Federal law enforcement offic...

Chirac calls for lifting arms ban on China - (United Press International) : "French President Jacques Chirac is calling on the European Union to lift a long-standing arms embargo against China. 'France supports lifting the embargo,' Chirac said in an interview with China's official news agency, Xinhua, adding it no longer reflected present day realities. The European Union imposed the weapons' ban following China's 1989 crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, in Beijing. Today, European countries are divided over lifting the embargo, with Sweden and the Netherlands opposed to doing so. The United States is also against it. Chirac noted 'stong reservations' on the part of Washington, but said Paris would push for a swift lifting of the embargo. His remarks were posted on the French presidency's Web site, and came ahead of Chirac's trip to China on Friday."

Saddam paid off French leaders - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - Saddam paid off French leaders : "Saddam Hussein used a U.N. humanitarian program to pay $1.78 billion to French government officials, businessmen and journalists in a bid to have sanctions removed and U.S. policies opposed, according to a CIA report made public yesterday. The cash was part of $10.9 billion secretly skimmed from the U.N. oil-for-food program, which was used by Iraq to buy military goods, according to a 1,000-page report by the CIA-led Iraqi Survey Group. According to a section of the report on Iraqi weapons procurement, the survey group identified long-standing ties between Saddam and the French government. One 1992 Iraqi intelligence service report revealed that Iraq's ambassador to France paid $1 million to the French Socialist Party in 1988. "

FOXNews.com - Special Report w/ Brit Hume - Political Grapevine - Reagan Redux? Scalia Didn't Say That? : "It turns out the uproar over comments by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (search) last week was based on a distorted quote. The Harvard Crimson quoted Scalia as saying at an on-campus event, 'I take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.' But, in fact, Scalia never said he believed that, only saying 'I even accept for the sake of argument that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.' The Harvard Crimson has since issued a correction."

CNN.com - Report links U.N. to Iraq bribes - Oct 6, 2004 : NEW YORK (AP) -- The top U.S. arms inspector has accused the former head of the $60 billion U.N. oil-for-food program of accepting bribes in the form of vouchers for Iraqi oil sales from Saddam Hussein's government. The report by Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, alleges the Iraqi government manipulated the U.N. program from 1996 to 2003 in order to acquire billions of dollars in illicit gains and to import illegal goods, including acquiring parts for missile systems. The alleged schemes included an Iraqi system for allocating lucrative oil vouchers, which permitted recipients to purchase certain amounts of oil at a profit. Benon Sevan, the former chief of the U.N. program, is among dozens of people who allegedly received the vouchers, according to the report, which said Saddam personally approved the list. The secret voucher program was dominated by Russian, French and Chinese recipients, in...

Saddam Told Interrogators of Iran Fixation "Saddam Hussein was obsessed with his status in the Arab world, dreaming of weapons of mass destruction to pump up his prestige. And even as the United States fixated on him, he was fixated on his neighboring enemy, Iran. That is the picture that emerges from interrogations of the former Iraqi leader since his capture last December, according to the final report of the chief U.S. arms inspector, which gives a first glimpse into what the United States has gleaned about Saddam's hopes, dreams and insecurities. The report suggests that Saddam tried to improve relations with the United States in the 1990s, yet basked in his standing as the only leader to stand up to the world's superpower. It says Saddam was determined that if Iran was to acquire nuclear weapons, so was Iraq."

Republican Party of Wisconsin PRO-KERRY FORCES INVADE GOP VICTORY CENTER (MILWAUKEE) – More than 50 demonstrators supporting Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry stormed a Republican campaign office in West Allis at mid-day today, trespassing, creating a disturbance through the use of a bullhorn in the office and then refusing to leave when asked. The Chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW) condemned the action by Kerry supporters, and asked the Kerry campaign and the Democrat Party of Wisconsin to do the same. “Do John Kerry and Wisconsin Democrats really believe this is conduct becoming of a presidential candidate and his campaign?” RPW Chairman Rick Graber asked. “It is unfortunate that Team Kerry feels the need to engage in such childish and obnoxious behavior. “The President and his campaign will continue to talk about the issues in Wisconsin,” Graber added. “Let’s hope that someday soon, the Kerry campaign and Wisconsin Democrats will join us and...

FOXNews.com - Views - ifeminists - Individual Rights vs. Identity Politics The theory underlying the "Vote Your Vagina" assumption is that women have a shared political interest. The theory has many labels, but it is commonly referred to as "identity politics." A fairly standard definition of the term is: "Identity politics is the politics of group-based movements claiming to represent the interests and identity of a particular group, rather than policy issues relating to all members of the community. The group identity may be based on ethnicity, class, religion, sex, sexuality or other criteria." Identity politics divides society into distinct political classes and declares them to be antagonistic to each other’s interests: blacks against whites, women against men, gays against heterosexuals. The focus is on the "rights" of the specific group— that is, those things the group claims to deserve and wishes to acquire by law. The "rig...

FOXNews.com - You Decide 2004 - Trail Tales - Trail Tales: Prepping for a Recount John Kerry's campaign is gearing up for another recount, just in case. Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill sent out a fund-raising e-mail Monday night asking for donations to make sure the Democratic presidential candidate is not at a legal or financial disadvantage if the race must go to a recount, as it did during the 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. "Right now I need all of you to join me and make a pledge: The mistakes of the 2000 election will NEVER be repeated again," Cahill wrote in the e-mail. "The day after the election, as the recount began, Al Gore's campaign was already outgunned, outmanned and outmatched — we learned one lesson: be prepared." For months, the Kerry camp has boasted about the 500-plus lawyers it has waiting in various states across the country to work should voting irregularities occur. Kerry aides say they have stud...

local6.com - Politics - Protestors Ransack Bush/Cheney Headquarters In Orlando 2 People Receive Minor Injuries During Protest : POSTED: 6:05 pm EDT October 5, 2004 UPDATED: 9:10 pm EDT October 5, 2004 ORLANDO, Fla. -- A group of protestors stormed and then ransacked a Bush-Cheney headquarters building in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, according to Local 6 News. Orlando protestors face possible assault charges after the group forced their way inside the Republican headquarters office. While in the building, some of the protestors drew horns and a mustache on a poster of President George W. Bush and poured piles of letters in the office, according to the report. 'We told them to leave, they broke the law,' Republican headquarters volunteer Mike Broom said. Two protestors received minor injuries when the crowd stormed the building, including a Republican volunteer. One of the protestors said she wanted to send a message."

Iran says it has missile with 2,000km range By Gareth Smyth in Tehran Published: October 5 2004 12:39 | Last updated: October 5 2004 12:39 Iran flagAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran's influential former president, on Tuesday added to the war of words with Israel and the United States by claiming Iran had developed a satellite-launching rocket with a range of 2,000km. Mr Rafsanjani used a speech on 'space and national security' to warn that Iran was determined to improve its military capabilities. Tehran used recent military manoeuvres to test a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of 1,300-km that could already reach Israel and US bases in the Gulf. Iran's past statements about the longer-range rocket, known as the Shahab 4, have been contradictory. It has previously only said that the missile was in development and the defence ministry said last November that it did not intend to manufacture it. Tension between Tehran and US and Israel has...

DRUDGE REPORT 2004 POLISH PRESIDENT SLAMS KERRY AFTER DEBATE SNUB : Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski has slammed Dem president hopeful John Kerry for not recognizing Poland's contributions and sacrifice to the war in Iraq. 'It is sad that a senator with 20 years of experience does not recognize Polish contribution. This is immoral,' Kwasniewski told FACTS in an interview commenting on the US Presidential Debate. 'It is sad that a senator with 20 years of experience underestimates Polish sacrifice, this is sad.' The Polish President added however that one should consider this was a part of the ongoing electoral campaign. 'I do not think this was out of ignorance,' the president emphasized on the TVN Facts. 'There is one thing which should be stated clearly: this coalition is not just the United States, Great Britain, Australia alone; it also involves participation of Polish, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Spanish soldiers who have die...

I'd rather have Poland as an ally than France any day! 

U.S. Army soldiers patrol in Samarra, Iraq (news - web sites), Monday, Oct. 4, 2004, on the fourth day of a major U.S. and Iraqi military incursion into the city. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan) 

Exclusive: Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties -- CNSNews.com10/04/2004 : (CNSNews.com) - Iraqi intelligence documents, confiscated by U.S. forces and obtained by CNSNews.com, show numerous efforts by Saddam Hussein's regime to work with some of the world's most notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target Americans. They demonstrate that Saddam's government possessed mustard gas and anthrax, both considered weapons of mass destruction, in the summer of 2000, during the period in which United Nations weapons inspectors were not present in Iraq. And the papers show that Iraq trained dozens of terrorists inside its borders. One of the Iraqi memos contains an order from Saddam for his intelligence service to support terrorist attacks against Americans in Somalia. The memo was written nine months before U.S. Army Rangers were ambushed in Mogadishu by forces loyal to a warlord with alleged ties to al Qaeda. Other memos provide a list of t...

USATODAY.com - Polygamy laws expose our own hypocrisy : "Tom Green is an American polygamist. This month, he will appeal his conviction in Utah for that offense to the United States Supreme Court, in a case that could redefine the limits of marriage, privacy and religious freedom. If the court agrees to take the case, it would be forced to confront a 126-year-old decision allowing states to criminalize polygamy that few would find credible today, even as they reject the practice. And it could be forced to address glaring contradictions created in recent decisions of constitutional law. For polygamists, it is simply a matter of unequal treatment under the law. Individuals have a recognized constitutional right to engage in any form of consensual sexual relationship with any number of partners. Thus, a person can live with multiple partners and even sire children from different partners so long as they do not marry. However, when that same person accepts a legal commitm...