Nobody makes Christians hide their faith... What you people want to do is IMPOSE IT on everyone.

Looking at these replies from other countries, I think the US citizen is getting screwed big time.

Nope..nope..the actions of the United States Government is there to BETTER the lives of its' American Citizens.



Many of them still think Bushco cares about them too. Neat hu?

St. Paul's human rights director, Tyrone Terrill, asked that the decorations be removed, saying they could be offensive to non-Christians.

Some Marines Declining Extra Body Armor

HUSAYBAH, Iraq - Extra body armor — the lack of which caused a political storm in the United States — has flooded in to Iraq, but many Marines here promptly stuck it in lockers or under bunks. Too heavy and cumbersome, many say.

Marines already carry loads as heavy as 70 pounds when they patrol the dangerous streets in towns and villages in restive Anbar province. The new armor plates, while only about five pounds per set, are not worth carrying for the additional safety they are said to provide, some say.

"We have to climb over walls and go through windows," said Sgt. Justin Shank of Greencastle, Pa. "I understand the more armor, the safer you are. But it makes you slower. People don't understand that this is combat and people are going to die."

Staff Sgt. Thomas Bain of Buffalo, N.Y., shared concerns about the extra pounds.

"Before you know it, they're going to get us injured because we're hauling too much weight and don't have enough mobility to maneuver in a fight from house to house," said Bain, who is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "I think we're starting to go overboard on the armor."

Since the insurgency erupted in Iraq, the Pentagon has been criticized for supplying insufficient armor for Humvees and too few bulletproof vests. In one remarkable incident, soldiers publicly confronted Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld about the problem on live television.

Hometown groups across the United States have since raised money to send extra armor to troops, and the Pentagon, under congressional pressure, launched a program last October to reimburse troops who had purchased armor with their own money.

Soldiers and their parents spent hundreds, sometimes thousand of dollars, on armor until the Pentagon began issuing the new protective gear.

In Bain's platoon of about 35 men, Marines said only three or four wore the plates after commanders distributed them last month and told them that use was optional.

Top military officials, including Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey, acknowledge the concerns over weight and mobility but have urged that the new gear be mandatory.

"That's going to add weight, of course," said Harvey. "You've read where certain soldiers aren't happy about that. But we think it's in their best interest to do this."

Marines have shown a special aversion to the new plates because they tend to patrol on foot, sometimes conducting two patrols each day that last several hours. They feel the extra weight.

In Euphrates River cities from Ramadi and Romanna, lance corporals to captains have complained about the added weight and lack of mobility. But some commanders have refused to listen. In the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, for example, commanders require use of the plates. End of story.

The Marine Corps has said a total of 28,000 sets of the plates, officially called small-arms protective inserts, or side SAPIs, will be in combat zones by April. The Army has said it is hoping to have 230,000 sets of plates in the field this year.

Last year, a study by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner said dozens of Marines killed by wounds to the torso might have survived had the larger plates been in use.

"I'm sure people who ... lost kidneys would have loved to have had them on," said 2nd Lt. William Oren, a native of Southlake, Texas, who wears the plates. "More armor isn't the answer to all our problems. But I'll recommend them because it's more protection."

Some Marines have chosen to wear the plates, particularly those in more vulnerable jobs such as Humvees turret gunners or those who frequently travel on roads plagued by roadside bombs.

But many Marines — particularly those who conduct foot patrols also carrying weapons, extra ammunition, medical equipment, night vision goggles, food and water — say the extra armor is not worth it, especially when the weather becomes unbearably hot.

"When you already have 60, 70 pounds on and you add 10 pounds when you go patrolling through the city or chasing after bad guys, that extra 10 pounds is going to make a difference. You're going to feel it," said Lance Cpl. David Partridge from Bangor, Maine.

Many Marines, however, believe the politics of the issue eventually will make the plates mandatory.

"The reason they issued (the plates), I think, is to make people back home feel better," said Lance Cpl. Philip Tootle of Reidsville, Ga. "I'm not wishing they wouldn't have issued them. I'm just wishing that they wouldn't make them mandatory."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060326/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_unused_armor

Volunteer helping in hurricane-damaged home finds $30,000 hidden in wall

NEW ORLEANS -- Trista Wright was spending her spring break cleaning out hurricane-damaged homes when she discovered some unusual papers among the moldy plaster board and debris.

"I started raking it out of the air conditioner vent. I thought it was garbage and I was going to shovel it up, but I bent down to pick it up, and it was a stack of $100 bills, and then more and more kept coming," the 19-year-old said today on CNN.

By an unofficial count, it was more than $30,000.

Wright and fellow students notified the organizers of their church mission, who told the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office.

The woman who owned the house, who has asked that she not be identified, was as shocked as Wright.

"She was speechless," said Wright, an Armstrong Atlantic State University student was among 175 Georgia college students spending their week off volunteering in the city's Arabi area.

Deputy Gary Adams verified the identity of the woman who owned the home.

Adams said it's not uncommon to find weapons or medications behind the walls of homes, but this was the biggest sum of hidden money he had heard of. "It's good to see someone find something like that and turn it over to proper authorities and the rightful owner," he said.

The homeowner said she suspects the money belonged to her father, who was wary of banks. The home had been in the family for generations, she said.

"I had my suspicions about the money at first, but once I met the family and talked to the woman, I have no doubt she's telling the truth," said Aaron Arledge, one of the organizers of the mission. "She said her father grew up during the Depression and must not have told anyone in the family about it before he died."

The one-story house was flooded to the eaves by Katrina and, aside from the hidden money, none of its contents could be saved, church officials said.

"To see that woman's face when we told her about the money, that's the kind of positive story that makes all the hard work worthwhile," said the Rev. Warren Jones Jr. of New Salem Baptist Church in the Ninth Ward, which has served as a base for church missions. "She said it was a miracle. And when you think about it, it was."

Haley Barton, a fellow student who was in the house with Wright, said there was never a question of keeping the money.

"I think that it's expected of us as young people, or people of any age this day, to go in and take it and not be faithful or trustworthy in turning it in, but that wasn't even an option for us," she said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3737691.html

There is a firewall between religion and government for a good reason.

It's a religious holiday Foxefire... whether your an animist (rabbit) or a Christian. The government should have nothing to do with it.

I don't know why Castro is paranoid,
We've only been trying to kill him for 40 years.

^^^If that "evidence" exists this President deserves impeachment for not acting upon it.

Afghan Convert May Be Unfit for Trial

KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan man facing a possible death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity may be mentally unfit to stand trial, a state prosecutor said Wednesday.

Abdul Rahman, 41, has been charged with rejecting Islam, a crime under this country's Islamic laws. His trial started last week and he confessed to becoming a Christian 16 years ago. If convicted, he could be executed.

But prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said questions have been raised about his mental fitness.

"We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn't talk like a normal person," he told The Associated Press.

Moayuddin Baluch, a religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, said Rahman would undergo a psychological examination.

"Doctors must examine him," he said. "If he is mentally unfit, definitely Islam has no claim to punish him. He must be forgiven. The case must be dropped."

It was not immediately clear when he would be examined or when the trial would resume. Authorities have barred attempts by the AP to see Rahman and he is not believed to have a lawyer.

A Western diplomat in Kabul and a human rights advocate — both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter — said the government was desperately searching for a way to drop the case because of the reaction it has caused.

The United States, Britain and other countries that have troops in Afghanistan have voiced concern about Rahman's fate.

The Bush administration Tuesday issued a subdued appeal to Kabul to let Rahman practice his faith in safety. German Roman Catholic Cardinal Karl Lehmann said the trial sent an "alarming signal" about freedom of worship in Afghanistan.

The case is believed to be the first of its kind in Afghanistan and highlights a struggle between religious conservatives and reformists over what shape Islam should take there four years after the ouster of the fundamentalist Taliban regime.

Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which is interpreted by many Muslims to require that any Muslim who rejects Islam be sentenced to death. The state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has called for Rahman to be punished, arguing he clearly violated Islamic law.

The case has received widespread attention in Afghanistan where many people are demanding Rahman be severely punished.

"For 30 years, we have fought religious wars in this country and there is no way we are going to allow an Afghan to insult us by becoming Christian," said Mohammed Jan, 38, who lives opposite Rahman's father, Abdul Manan, in Kabul. "This has brought so much shame."

Rahman is believed to have converted from Islam to Christianity while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

He then moved to Germany for nine years before returning to Kabul in 2002, after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime.

Police arrested him last month after discovering him in possession of a Bible during questioning over a dispute for custody of his two daughters. Prosecutors have offered to drop the charges if Rahman converts back to Islam, but he has refused.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060322/ap_on_re_as/afghan_christian_convert

Well, Saddam was telling the truth in this, at least, but the US refused to believe him AND the UN inspectors, so they could pursue their own agenda in the region.

Is the motto constitutional?
The "In God we Trust" motto promotes theistic religion at the expense of non theistic religion and a secular lifestyle. It promotes the belief in a single, male deity which is followed by the main Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; however, it is foreign to the beliefs of many other religions: Buddhists do not believe in a personal deity; Zoroastrians and Wiccans believe in two deities; Hindus believe in many. It would seem to violate the principle of separation of church and state. Many Agnostics, Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, other Neopagans, and others are offended by the motto. However, the religious motto has been challenged by three lawsuits and has been found to be constitutional. The courts basically found that the motto does not endorse religion.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/nat_mott.htm

I am confident that another idiot will be elected to the white house. so for us it does not matter who is elected. you can in fact have a 12 year old kid and it won't make any difference. the office of president of the us has not been the real center of power for decades now. corporate america rules.

Now that they are back in virtual control they have no need to want warfare
For most articles warfare is bad for business

Rice: China Must Explain Military Buildup

SYDNEY, Australia - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that China must be more open about its military buildup and play by international economic rules as its influence grows around the world.

"I heard that there's going to be a 14 percent increase in the Chinese defense budget. That's a lot," Rice said during a diplomatic visit to Australia, a country with broadening economic ties to China.

"China should undertake to be transparent about what that means," Rice said following a meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

China's parliament on Friday approved a 14.7 percent increase in its annual military budget to $35 billion. The Beijing government said the money would go toward salaries, new equipment, training and higher fuel costs.

Rice's visit to Australia will include three-way talks among the United States, Australia and Japan. China is the main topic for those discussions.

Australia's government and business leaders often take a less guarded view of China's rapid rise as a political, military and economic force in the Pacific and beyond. Downer, however, sought to downplay any differences.

"We've never had a concern that the United States is pursuing a policy of containment with China," Downer said.

Although she noted U.S.-Chinese cooperation on international problems such as the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, Rice ticked off a list of U.S. complaints about Chinese behavior.

"It's economy needs to continue to open, it needs to pay attention to intellectual property rights, it needs to pay attention to the effect of not having at this point a currency that is market based," Rice said, adding that much of the country's economy is still controlled by the state.

"There are reasons to be concerned about whether that really reflects an open trading policy," Rice said.

Rice also said the United States' landmark nuclear energy agreement with India strengthened global security.

The deal will open most of India's reactors to international inspections and provide the nation with U.S. nuclear technology. Subject to U.S. congressional approval, the United States will share its nuclear know-how and fuel with India to help power its fast-growing economy.

"Everyone understands a growing economy like India needs energy supply, and civil nuclear energy is clean, it protects the environment, it can be plentiful," Rice said.

The U.S. secretary declined to say whether she thinks Australia should supply uranium to India. Australia has welcomed the deal, but said it will not change its policy of blocking sales to countries that fail to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Later Thursday, Rice defended the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and other Bush administration policies since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that are broadly unpopular in Australia and much of the rest of the world.

"We have no desire to be the world's jailer," she said in response to a university student's question about whether the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba undermines U.S. moral authority around the world. "We would be more than pleased if we had some other way to deal with dangerous people, but I can guarantee you the day they're let out on the street and commit another crime the question will be quite different."

Rice was twice shouted down by anti-war protesters as she spoke to students from several Australian universities gathered at Sydney University's music school.

"Condoleezza Rice, you're a war criminal," a young man shouted minutes after Rice began her address. "Iraqi blood is on your hands and you can't wash that blood away," he repeated until guards led him away.

Rice drew applause with her response: "I'm glad to see that democracy is well and alive at the university," she said, adding that democracy is now also alive at universities in Kabul, Afghanistan and Baghdad, Iraq.

A second protester stood later and yelled that Rice is a murderer.

Rice's remarks echoed President Bush's defense of U.S. policy in Iraq this week, as the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion approaches.

A day before Rice arrived, Australia said it would keep troops in Iraq at least well into next year and announced a larger mission for about 450 troops now stationed in southern Iraq.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060316/ap_on_re_au_an/rice_15

4,000 new USD$ millionaires per month in China
That is insignificant given their population
But it shows just how quickly their middle class is growing
No other country comes remotely close to that figure

here's a country which can launch its own satellites and send people to orbit the earth. some people just cannot see that as a major achievement because bush did not tell them it was so

Reading someone else's 'thoughts' in a paper or online does not make it true.

I don't understand, why are people on this thread trying to flame tom?

Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which states that any Muslim who rejects their religion should be sentenced to death.

"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam. ... The prosecutor is asking for the death penalty."

when the The US begins to financially collapse you will solve the problem the same way you solve every problem and you just go ahead and blow everything up.

Yes, I can really see oil companies rushing to develope technologies that will put themselves outta business.

Spoken like a Democrat, well done fox

Oil Companies, Experts Discuss Alternative Energy Development

Around 1,800 oil and gas company executives, government energy ministers and other players in the world energy sector have gathered in Houston for the annual Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) conference, known as CERAWeek. This year's meeting will have a special emphasis on developing new sources of energy.

The theme for this year's conference is "The New Prize: Energy's Next Era," and that encompasses everything from extraction of oil from Canada's extensive tar sands to development of solar power and ethanol.

CERA Senior Advisor James Rosenfield is one of the three men who founded the conference in 1983. He tells VOA that many of the big oil companies represented here are already investing a lot of money in alternative energy programs.

"A lot of the new economy of energy is going to be driven by the international oil companies such as Shell, BP and Exxon, who are really investing billions and billions of dollars in R and D (Research and Development) for new sources of supply, solar alternatives, fuel cells, distributed generation, really across the spectrum," Rosenfield said. "In the case of BP, their focus has been on electric power, actually, using a lot of their technology to look at alternative and renewable sources of electric power generation."

Rosenfield says using CERAWeek to focus on such issues as alternative energy, non-conventional oil sources and conservation could have important consequences worldwide because participants represent every aspect of the international energy business.

"We will have exploration and production companies, national oil companies, integrated oil companies, but also utilities, energy end users, consumers such as Dow and Boeing and some of the automotive companies as well and then the financial institutions that provide the capital, in many cases, for the industry," he said.

Included in the mix of participants are representatives from several member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, known as OPEC. One of the chief speakers at the opening ceremony Tuesday will be Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister, Ali Naimi.

OPEC leaders have at times expressed concern over US and European efforts to develop alternative energy because it could divert investment from development of conventional energy sources. In an appearance here in Houston last year, the head of the Saudi oil company, Aramco, said his nation's vast oil reserves represent a reliable supply of energy that alternative energy programs are not likely to equal any time soon.

But Rosenfield says he does not believe the Saudis are against development of other energy sources.

"I think that the Saudis actually take a view that we are in this together, that we need to build the world's oil and energy supply, to build a stable and diversified supply base," he added. "We will hear from Mr. Naimi and what he has to say, but, while they are committed to an oil and hydrocarbon economy, they also recognize that over multi-decades we are going to be looking towards a lot of different sources of supply as well."

In his state of the union address last week, President Bush called for programs that would lessen U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil and gave special emphasis to the development of biofuels like ethanol. Brazil, which has a successful ethanol program based on fuel from sugar cane, is also represented at CERAWeek and Rosenfield says he expects a lot of discussion among participants about such programs.

The conference wraps up on Friday.

http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-02/2006-02-07-voa1.cfm?CFID=15497616&CFTOKEN=29045277

Lehner, it's one perspective. But why are you narrowing your scope to whether
this is a major operation or not - it's irrelevant; anyway it's the US Military that is describing

"I wouldn't characterize this as being anything that's a big departure from normal or from the need to prosecute a target that we think was lucrative enough to commit this much force to go get," he said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/03/16/international/i110546S28.DTL&feed=rss.news

cable companies may also have (Link TV) but I would know what channels they are on so youd have to find them yourselves.

Did I slip in to a reading impaired board?

remember that there was not a single insurgent before the war in iraq.

so here's a question for you. how did they come to be?

Since s/he didn't, do you have some other corroborating source to verify the information contained in this article?

is kiiling people by the 1000's your idea of putting them on the road to democracy?

Number of Countries Iran has invaded in the last 60 years: 0
Number of Countries United States has Invaded in last 60 years: 50 (approximately)
Who is the threat to world peace?

This is how countries voted in September 2005, when the IAEA agreed that Iran was in violation of the NPT and that it was a matter within the competence of the Security Council.

Voting for: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, UK, US.

Against: Venezuela.

Abstaining: Algeria, Brazil, China, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Vietnam.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4662676.stm

NY Times says it erred in Abu Ghraib photo report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The New York Times said on Saturday it had identified the wrong man as the hooded prisoner standing on a box in a photograph that came to symbolize U.S. military abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

The newspaper's March 11 profile about Ali Shalal Qaissi was challenged by online magazine Salon.com, which said an Army investigation had concluded the prisoner was a different man.

"The Times did not adequately research Mr. Qaissi's insistence that he was the man in the photograph," The Times said in an editor's note accompanying a front page story on the misidentification.

"A more thorough examination of previous articles in The Times and other newspapers would have shown that in 2004 military investigators named another man as the one on the box, raising suspicions about Mr. Qaissi's claim," it said.

The Times, one of the most respected U.S. newspapers, was stung in 2003 when former reporter Jayson Blair was found to have fabricated and plagiarized dozens of articles. Last year, the resignation of star reporter Judith Miller amid questions about her reporting in the run-up to the Iraq war further damaged the paper's standing.

In last Saturday's article, Qaissi, a former Baath Party official, described how he was arrested in October 2003 and held for nearly six months at Abu Ghraib. It said prison records confirmed he was in detention at the time.

The Times said other media outlets, including PBS and Vanity Fair, had accepted Qaissi's account and identified him as the prisoner in the photograph, which shows a man wearing a hood and a poncho with wires attached to his outstretched arms.

The paper said Qaissi did appear with a hood over his head in other photographs seized by Army investigators.

"However, he now acknowledges he is not the man in the specific photograph he printed and held up in a portrait that accompanied the Times article," the Times article said.

But, Qaissi told the newspaper, "I wore that blanket, I stood on that box, and I was wired up and electrocuted."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060318/ts_nm/media_abughraib_dc

New Documents from Saddam Hussein's Archives Discuss Bin Laden, WMDs

March 16, 2006 — Following are the ABC News Investigative Unit's summaries of four of the nine Iraqi documents from Saddam Hussein's government, which were released by the U.S. government Wednesday.

The documents discuss Osama bin Laden, weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda and more.

The full documents can be found on the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office Web site: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/IraqCoverage/story?id=1734490&page=1

... and further: would 911 have happened if we hadn't been bombarding Iraq with impunity for ten years before that?

They are not connected at all, Fox. Don't try to link it.