Mood:  silly

Anti-cheese campaign is seen as 'nannying gone mad'

New advertising rules which will brand cheese as "junk food" were yesterday criticised as "dietary nannying gone mad" by a leading farming industry figure.

"To suggest there is anything inherently harmful about cheese is absurd," said the National Farming Union's national director of communications, Anthony Gibson.

He said the rules would be "thoroughly unhelpful to farmers" at a time when the dairy industry had been going through a very difficult 12 months.

"Any wounds inflicted by our own authorities we can very well do without," said Devon-based Mr Gibson.

"It is not going to do anything to encourage the sales of cheese."

The new regulations, being introduced this month by the television regulator Ofcom, will ban broadcasters from advertising cheese during children's TV programmes, or shows with a large number of child viewers.

They are part of a government clampdown on junk- food TV adverts and aimed at reducing the exposure of children to food high in fat, salt and sugar.

•

The ban comes in the wake of evidence that television commercials have an indirect influence on what children eat and are contributing to obesity in the young.

The Food Standards Agency used a nutrient profiling model to distinguish junk food from healthy food.

The model officially labelled cheese as more unhealthy than sugary cereals, full-fat crisps and cheeseburgers.

It assessed the fat, sugar and salt content in a 100g or 100ml serving of food or drink. But the British Cheese Board said the typical portion size of cheese was between 30g and 40g - not the 100g used in the FSA model.

The Scotsman - UK ~ Chris Court **
Anti-cheese campaign is seen as 'nannying gone mad'

Dang cheese conspiracies!!!

Posted by yaahoo_ at 4:08 PM EST

Updated: Tuesday, 2 January 2007 4:48 PM EST

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LIBTARD'S "NEW ERA OF BI-PARTISANSHIP" INDEED...

Democrats To Start Without GOP Input

Quick Passage of First Bills Sought

By Lyndsey Layton and Juliet Eilperin

As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking.

House Democrats intend to pass a raft of popular measures as part of their well-publicized plan for the first 100 hours. They include tightening ethics rules for lawmakers, raising the minimum wage, allowing more research on stem cells and cutting interest rates on student loans.

But instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing their party to trumpet early victories.

Nancy Pelosi, the Californian who will become House speaker, and Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who will become majority leader, finalized the strategy over the holiday recess in a flurry of conference calls and meetings with other party leaders. A few Democrats, worried that the party would be criticized for reneging on an important pledge, argued unsuccessfully that they should grant the Republicans greater latitude when the Congress convenes on Thursday.

The episode illustrates the dilemma facing the new party in power. The Democrats must demonstrate that they can break legislative gridlock and govern after 12 years in the minority, while honoring their pledge to make the 110th Congress a civil era in which Democrats and Republicans work together to solve the nation's problems. Yet in attempting to pass laws key to their prospects for winning reelection and expanding their majority, the Democrats may have to resort to some of the same tough tactics Republicans used the past several years.

Democratic leaders say they are torn between giving Republicans a say in legislation and shutting them out to prevent them from derailing Democratic bills.

"There is a going to be a tension there," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "My sense is there's going to be a testing period to gauge to what extent the Republicans want to join us in a constructive effort or whether they intend to be disruptive. It's going to be a work in progress."

House Republicans have begun to complain that Democrats are backing away from their promise to work cooperatively. They are working on their own strategy for the first 100 hours, and part of it is built on the idea that they might be able to break the Democrats' slender majority by wooing away some conservative Democrats.

Democrats intend to introduce their first bills within hours of taking the oath of office on Thursday. The first legislation will focus on the behavior of lawmakers, banning travel on corporate jets and gifts from lobbyists and requiring lawmakers to attach their names to special spending directives and to certify that such earmarks would not financially benefit the lawmaker or the lawmaker's spouse. That bill is aimed at bringing legislative transparency that Democrats said was lacking under Republican rule.

Democratic leaders said they are not going to allow Republican input into the ethics package and other early legislation, because several of the bills have already been debated and dissected, including the proposal to raise the minimum wage, which passed the House Appropriations Committee in the 109th Congress, said Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi.

"We've talked about these things for more than a year," he said. "The members and the public know what we're voting on. So in the first 100 hours, we're going to pass these bills."

But because the details of the Democratic proposals have not been released, some language could be new. Daly said Democrats are still committed to sharing power with the minority down the line. "The test is not the first 100 hours," he said. "The test is the first six months or the first year. We will do what we promised to do."

For clues about how the Democrats will operate, the spotlight is on the House, where the new 16-seat majority will hold absolute power over the way the chamber operates. Most of the early legislative action is expected to stem from the House.

"It's in the nature of the House of Representatives for the majority party to be dominant and control the agenda and limit as much as possible the influence of the minority," said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. "It's almost counter to the essence of the place for the majority and minority to share responsibility for legislation."

In the Senate, by contrast, the Democrats will have less control over business because of their razor-thin 51-to-49-seat margin and because individual senators wield substantial power. Senate Democrats will allow Republicans to make amendments to all their initiatives, starting with the first measure -- ethics and lobbying reform, said Jim Manley, spokesman for the incoming majority leader, Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

Those same Democrats, who campaigned on a pledge of more openness in government, will kick off the new Congress with a closed meeting of all senators in the Capitol. Manley said the point of the meeting is to figure out ways both parties can work together.

In the House, Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.), who will chair the Rules Committee, said she intends to bring openness to a committee that used to meet in the middle of the night. In the new Congress, the panel -- which sets the terms of debate on the House floor -- will convene at 10 a.m. before a roomful of reporters.

"It's going to be open," Slaughter said of the process. "Everybody will have an opportunity to participate."

At the same time, she added, the majority would grant Republicans every possible chance to alter legislation once it reaches the floor. "We intend to allow some of their amendments, not all of them," Slaughter said.

For several reasons, House Democrats are assiduously trying to avoid some of the heavy-handed tactics they resented under GOP rule. They say they want to prove to voters they are setting a new tone on Capitol Hill. But they are also convinced that Republicans lost the midterms in part because they were perceived as arrogant and divisive.

"We're going to make an impression one way or the other," said one Democratic leadership aide. "If it's not positive, we'll be out in two years."

House Republicans say their strategy will be to offer alternative bills that would be attractive to the conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats, with an eye toward fracturing the Democratic coalition. They hope to force some tough votes for Democrats from conservative districts who will soon begin campaigning for 2008 reelection and will have to defend their records.

"We'll capitalize on every opportunity we have," said one GOP leadership aide, adding that Republicans were preparing alternatives to the Democrats' plans to raise the minimum wage, reduce the interest on student loans, and reduce the profits of big oil and energy companies.

Several Blue Dog Democrats said they do not think Republicans can pick up much support from their group.

"If they've got ideas that will make our legislation better, we ought to consider that," said Rep. Allen Boyd Jr. (D-Fla.), leader of the Blue Dogs. "But if their idea is to try to split a group off to gain power, that's what they've been doing for the past six years, and it's all wrong."

To keep her sometimes-fractious coalition together, Pelosi has been distributing the spoils of victory across the ideological spectrum, trying to make sure that no group within the Democratic Party feels alienated.

Blue Dogs picked up some plum committee assignments, with Jim Matheson (Utah) landing a spot on Energy and Commerce and A.B. "Ben" Chandler (Ky.) getting an Appropriations seat. At the same time, members of Black and Hispanic caucuses obtained spots on these panels, as Ciro Rodriguez (Tex.) was given a seat on Appropriations and Artur Davis (Ala.) took the place of Democrat William J. Jefferson (La.) on Ways and Means.

Democrats acknowledge that if they appear too extreme in blocking the opposing party, their party is sure to come under fire from the Republicans, who are already charging they are being left out of the legislative process.

"If you're talking about 100 hours, you're talking about no obstruction whatsoever, no amendments offered other than those approved by the majority," said Rutgers's Baker. "I would like to think after 100 hours are over, the Democrats will adhere to their promise to make the system a little more equitable. But experience tells me it's really going to be casting against type."

"The temptations to rule the roost with an iron hand are very, very strong," he added. "It would take a majority party of uncommon sensitivity and a firm sense of its own agenda to open up the process in any significant degree to minority. But hope springs eternal."

Washington Post ~ Lyndsey Layton, Juliet Eilperin ** Democrats To Start Without GOP Input

Haven't these same libtards been whining for six years, that they have been excluded from all sorts of things? That Bush, the supposed "Unifier" hasn't been working with them in a "bipartisan" fashion (meaning, of course, that he do what they want, and never the opposite)?
And so now they're going to act without GOP input? So its not OK for the GOP to supposedly do it, but its fine and dandy for the Dems to do it?
My reply to this would be to tell President Bush to do two things... Veto Early, and Veto Often.

Posted by yaahoo_ at 6:09 AM EST

Updated: Tuesday, 2 January 2007 6:41 AM EST

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Somali PM: Islamic Stronghold Captured

KISMAYO, Somalia -- Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets captured the last major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement Monday, while hundreds of Islamic fighters - many of them Arabs and South Asians - were seen fleeing the town.

Hundreds of gunmen, who apparently deserted from the Islamic movement, began looting the warehouses where the Council of Islamic Courts had stored supplies, including weapons and ammunition.

Gangs skirmished in the streets and the southern coastal city was descending into chaos, businessman Sheik Musa Salad said.

"Everything is out of control, everyone has a gun and gangs are looting everything now that the Islamists have left," he said.

Well-armed troops drove into Kismayo after clearing roads laced with land mines that had been left by Islamic fighters fleeing a 13-day military onslaught by government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and MiG fighter jets.

"We have entered and captured the city," Maj. Gen. Ahmed Musa told The Associated Press while riding aboard a truck into Kismayo, where an estimated 3,000 hardline Islamic fighters had vowed to make a last stand but melted away under artillery fire.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi offered amnesty to hundreds of Islamic fighters if they gave themselves up, but made no such offer to leaders of the group. He also ordered a countrywide disarmament that goes into effect Tuesday, an immense task in Somalia, which is awash with weapons after a 15-year civil war.

"The warlord era in Somalia is now over," Gedi said at a news conference in the recently captured capital, Mogadishu, giving a three-day deadline for the handover of all weapons.

Among those sought were three al-Qaida suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies who were being sheltered by the Islamic group. The government hoped to catch them before they slipped out of the country.

Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said the government had asked the United States to provide air and sea surveillance to prevent suspected extremists from escaping.

The Islamic forces have a base near the Kenyan border on a small peninsula called Ras Kamboni, where there is a pier and traditional oceangoing boats known as dhows. Ethiopian MiG fighter jets flew low over the ocean looking for boats that might be carrying the escaping Islamic fighters.

Meanwhile, senior Western diplomats were pushing for the deployment of an African-led peacekeeping force in Somalia as soon as possible to help stabilize the country, said a U.S. government official on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak to the media.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, in his New Year's message, called for an urgent summit of the east African regional body IGAD to discus the Somali crisis.

The Islamic forces began to disintegrate after a night of artillery attacks at the front line and following a mutiny within its ranks, witnesses said.

Islamic leaders had vowed to make a stand against Ethiopia, which has one of the largest armies in Africa, or to begin an Iraq-style guerrilla war.

"Even if we are defeated we will start an insurgency," said Sheik Ahmed Mohamed Islan, the head of the Islamic movement in the Kismayo region. "We will kill every Somali that supports the government and Ethiopians."

Gedi said three al-Qaida suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in east Africa that killed more than 250 people were hiding in Kismayo.

Somalia's interim government and its Ethiopian allies have long accused Islamic militias of harboring al-Qaida, and the U.S. government has said the 1998 bombers have become leaders in the Islamic movement in Africa.

"If we capture them alive we will hand them over to the United States," Gedi told the AP. "We know they are in Kismayo."

Islamic movement leaders deny having any links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.

But in a recorded message posted on the Internet Saturday, deputy al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Somalia's Muslims and other Muslims worldwide to continue the fight against "infidels and crusaders."

Gedi accused al-Zawahri of trying to destabilize Somalia and its neighbors.

In the past 10 days, the Islamic group has been forced from the capital, Mogadishu, and other key towns in the face of attacks led by Ethiopia.

The military advance marked a stunning turnaround for Somalia's government, which just weeks ago could barely control one town - its base of Baidoa - while the Council of Islamic Courts controlled the capital and much of southern Somalia.

The Council of Islamic Courts, the umbrella group for the Islamic movement that ruled Mogadishu for six months, wants to transform Somalia into a strict Islamic state.

Islamic officials said they still had fighters in the capital and were ready for warfare. Late Saturday, an unexplained blast in the capital left one woman dead and two others wounded and stirred fears of a guerrilla war.

News Max.com ~ Associated Press ** Somali PM: Islamic Stronghold Captured

Posted by yaahoo_ at 8:26 PM EST

Updated: Monday, 1 January 2007 8:41 PM EST

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Middle School Girls Gone Wild

It’s hard to write this without sounding like a prig. But it’s just as hard to erase the images that planted the idea for this essay, so here goes. The scene is a middle school auditorium, where girls in teams of three or four are bopping to pop songs at a student talent show. Not bopping, actually, but doing elaborately choreographed re-creations of music videos, in tiny skirts or tight shorts, with bare bellies, rouged cheeks and glittery eyes.

They writhe and strut, shake their bottoms, splay their legs, thrust their chests out and in and out again. Some straddle empty chairs, like lap dancers without laps. They don’t smile much. Their faces are locked from grim exertion, from all that leaping up and lying down without poles to hold onto. “Don’t stop don’t stop,” sings Janet Jackson, all whispery. “Jerk it like you’re making it choke. ...Ohh. I’m so stimulated. Feel so X-rated.” The girls spend a lot of time lying on the floor. They are in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

As each routine ends, parents and siblings cheer, whistle and applaud. I just sit there, not fully comprehending. It’s my first suburban Long Island middle school talent show. I’m with my daughter, who is 10 and hadn’t warned me. I’m not sure what I had expected, but it wasn’t this. It was something different. Something younger. Something that didn’t make the girls look so ... one-dimensional.

It would be easy to chalk it up to adolescent rebellion, an ancient and necessary phenomenon, except these girls were barely adolescents and they had nothing to rebel against. This was an official function at a public school, a milieu that in another time or universe might have seen children singing folk ballads, say, or reciting the Gettysburg Address.

It is news to no one, not even me, that eroticism in popular culture is a 24-hour, all-you-can-eat buffet, and that many children in their early teens are filling up. The latest debate centers on whether simulated intercourse is an appropriate dance style for the high school gym.

What surprised me, though, was how completely parents of even younger girls seem to have gotten in step with society’s march toward eroticized adolescence -- either willingly or through abject surrender. And if parents give up, what can a school do? A teacher at the middle school later told me she had stopped chaperoning dances because she was put off by the boy-girl pelvic thrusting and had no way to stop it -- the children wouldn’t listen to her and she had no authority to send anyone home. She guessed that if the school had tried to ban the sexy talent-show routines, parents would have been the first to complain, having shelled out for costumes and private dance lessons for their Little Miss Sunshines.

I’m sure that many parents see these routines as healthy fun, an exercise in self-esteem harmlessly heightened by glitter makeup and teeny skirts. Our girls are bratz, not slutz, they would argue, comfortable in the existence of a distinction.

But my parental brain rebels. Suburban parents dote on and hover over their children, micromanaging their appointments and shielding them in helmets, kneepads and thick layers of S.U.V. steel. But they allow the culture of boy-toy sexuality to bore unchecked into their little ones’ ears and eyeballs, displacing their nimble and growing brains and impoverishing the sense of wider possibilities in life.

There is no reason adulthood should be a low plateau we all clamber onto around age 10. And it’s a cramped vision of girlhood that enshrines sexual allure as the best or only form of power and esteem. It’s as if there were now Three Ages of Woman: first Mary-Kate, then Britney, then Courtney. Boys don’t seem to have such constricted horizons. They wouldn’t stand for it -- much less waggle their butts and roll around for applause on the floor of a school auditorium.

NY Times (Jihad Journal) ~ Lawrence Downes ** Middle School Girls Gone Wild

Posted by yaahoo_ at 12:01 AM EST

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Oops! Unruly flier slaps undercover air marshal

WASHINGTON -- A US Airways passenger faced charges of interfering with a flight crew Thursday after he apparently unknowingly slapped an undercover federal air marshal, said an official familiar with the case.

The man, who'd been drinking liquor, threw a mid-air temper tantrum Wednesday night after attendants refused to serve him any more alcohol during his flight from Washington's Reagan National Airport to Fort Myers, Florida, the official said.

The passenger then slapped a fellow passenger, who happened to be an undercover air marshal assigned to the flight, said the official.

"He had a bad night last night," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous and isn't authorized to reveal specifics of the case. The passenger is expected to be arraigned Thursday.

The air marshal detained the man for the remainder of the flight and arrested him after the aircraft arrived in Fort Myers. The man is expected to be charged with interfering with a flight crew.

CNN.com ~ Jeanne Meserve **
Oops! Unruly flier slaps undercover air marshal

Yikes all mighty --
Flight attendants refused to serve him any more so he slapped a fellow passenger??? 
What was that all about? Guess he picked the wrong guy. It just cracks me up how some people aren't aware of the limits of their own stupidity.

Posted by yaahoo_ at 9:06 AM EST

Updated: Friday, 29 December 2006 9:51 AM EST

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Intern in Obama's office linked to indicted fundraiser

CHICAGO -- An intern in Sen. Barack Obama's office last year was recommended by an Illinois Democratic fundraiser later indicted for seeking kickbacks on government deals.

Obama has denied doing any favors for Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him. The internship was one of 98 Illinois spots filled from a pool of 350 applicants.

John Aramanda, a 20-year-old student, served in Obama's Capitol Hill office from July 20 to Aug. 26, 2005, and was paid an $804 stipend, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs told the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times in reports published Sunday.

Gibbs said Rezko recommended the intern to Obama but contended that the internship did not contradict Obama's statements about not doing any favors for Rezko.

"I think that it's fairly obvious that a few-week internship is not anything of benefit to Mr. Rezko or any of his businesses," he said.

The intern's father, Joseph Aramanda, a businessman in the Chicago suburb of Glenview, once served as chief operating officer of a Rezko company and had a long-term business relationship with Rezko, according to court records and business filings.

The intern's father said there was no relationship between the internship and his business with Rezko.

Rezko has pleaded not guilty to charges he plotted to squeeze millions of dollars in kickbacks out of investment firms seeking state business. He also has pleaded not guilty to obtaining a $10.5 million loan from GE Capital through fraud and swindling a group of investors.

Rezko's wife bought a vacant lot next door to Obama on the same day last year that Obama and his wife, Michelle, closed on their home, according to published reports last fall. In January, Obama paid Rezko $104,500 for part of the lot to balance the space between his house and the fence.

Obama, who is weighing a run for president, has said the arrangements were ethical, but he also acknowledged he "misgauged" the implications suggested by his purchase of the additional land.

Messages left Tuesday by The Associated Press for Obama's representatives and Rezko's attorney, Joseph J. Duffy, were not immediately returned.

USA Today ~ Associated Press ** Intern in Obama's office linked to indicted fundraiser
Also at:
Discover The Network.org ** Former Intern in Sen. Obama's Office Linked to Indicted Fundraiser

Posted by yaahoo_ at 3:14 PM EST

Updated: Thursday, 28 December 2006 3:19 PM EST

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Lonely, I'm Mr. Lonely

By Michelle Malkin

I linked to this photo of lonely John Kerry spurned by the troops in Iraq last night via Power Line, but the photo is going viral and it's worth re-posting as a stand-alone.

Thank radio talk show host Scott Hennen for sharing the image. He tells Power Line he'll be talking more about the picture and the story behind it during his guest stint for Sean Hannity today and tomorrow. More background at Ben of Mesopotamia's blog:

On Saturday night, a colleague emailed me and told me to bring my camera, as Senator Kerry was scheduled to give a press conference here in the Palace. At 2100, he entered a conference room wearing his leather flight jacket. Unfortunately, there was no media there, except for the enlisted soldiers from AFTN (Armed Forces Television Network) who had to be there. His aide looked around, saw that this just wasn't happening, and quickly escorted Kerry out before I could take a picture.

Finally, the next morning, Senator Kerry ate chow at the Dining Facility. Normally when a Senator/Representative visits, he is joined by a contingent of soldiers/Marines/airmen from his home state. Despite the fact that the MP unit responsible for Green Zone security is an Army Reserve unit from Massachusetts, not a single soldier went to sit with him. (By contrast, Bill O'Reilly, host of that terrible shoutfest on Fox, had over 400 soldiers waiting in line to meet him on Saturday).

Blackfive has more on Kerry's visit.

Bryan Preston sums it up: "I've never seen a snubbing so richly deserved."

I'm sure the Wall Street Journal will call this another of the blogosphere's "second-order distractions." But the troops think it's newsworthy and snort-worthy. And so do I.

Words have consequences.

***
Speaking of the Wall Street Journal blog-bashers, you really must read/listen to Hugh Hewitt's interview with--and schooling of--WSJ journalism expert, Joseph Rago. It's simply brilliant. Almost as good as the Joel Stein interview.

Michelle Malkin.com ** Lonely, I'm Mr. Lonely

Posted by yaahoo_ at 6:11 PM EST

Updated: Wednesday, 27 December 2006 6:49 PM EST

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Baker sought to cover-up illegal trade with Saddam's Iraq, Israeli charges

Former Secretary of State James Baker was involved in a cover-up of illegal trading by his law firm with the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, according to a former contractor who did work for Mr. Baker’s firm.

Mr. Baker used non-Americans to help acquire funds from Iraq in violation of the United Nations embargo and U.S. law, the former contractor said.

Nir Gouaz, an Israeli security veteran, said that in 1999 Mr. Baker's leading deputy at the law firm of Baker Botts ordered him to destroy all documents that detailed how he obtained from Iraq more than $250 million for a client.

Mr. Baker's firm has denied Mr. Gouaz's account.

But the Israeli said he has documents that could destroy Mr. Baker's reputation. He said he has been angered by Mr. Baker's attempt to press the Bush administration to impose an anti-Israeli policy in an attempt to win Arab cooperation to help stabilize Iraq. Mr. Baker, appointed by President Bush in 2003 as his envoy to recover debts from Iraq, has also co-chaired the Iraq Study Group, which on Dec. 6 issued 79 recommendations on U.S. policy in Iraq.

"When I heard the Baker recommendations, I couldn't stand the hypocrisy," said Mr. Gouaz, president of Caesar Global Securities, who worked for Mr. Baker's law firm in Washington for two years. "In his eyes, the diplomatic vision for the Middle East is actually an economic vision. A person like that wouldn't stop at anything to reap profits and dictate to Israel how to behave."

Mr. Gouaz said he began working for Baker Botts, a leading Washington firm with more than 700 attorneys, in the late 1990s. He was assigned a case by Mr. Baker's aide, Jeffrey Stonerock, to help recover an $880 million Iraqi debt to South Korea's Hyundai Engineering, which completed infrastructure projects in Iraq.

Iraq cited the United Nations’ Oil for Food program, which permitted Baghdad to buy only food and vital requirements, for its failure to pay the debt. The United States also froze Iraqi bank accounts abroad.

Mr. Gouaz said he personally maintained what he termed a "superficial relationship" with Mr. Baker. But he said Mr. Baker was informed on everything that took place regarding international transactions at Baker Botts.

Mr. Gouaz said he was hired because he was discreet and not a U.S. national. He said a U.S. national could have been prosecuted for dealing with the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

"At that point, I thought I was doing work for Hyundai," Mr. Gouaz recalled. "I didn't think deeply about this. I didn't think that James Baker was doing something abnormal. It is very acceptable to sell debts at a very low price. They took me because I was discreet and not American. He [Baker] knew this very well."

In the end, Mr. Gouaz said, he acquired $273 million for Hyundai and helped save the company from bankruptcy. He said Mr. Baker's law firm arranged a meeting with Shaiker Tawfik Fakoury, the president of the Bank of Jordan. In July 2000, Mr. Fakoury purchased the Iraqi government bonds from Hyundai at a discount and resold them to Saddam’s government in exchange for $450 million worth of oil.

Mr. Gouaz said he estimated that Mr. Baker's firm received between 10 and 15 percent. Mr. Gouaz said he received much less, but would not specify. The Israeli said he dealt with everybody from a Chinese liaison to Jordan's royal family to help recover the debt.

The Israeli investigator did not hear from Mr. Baker's office until late 2001, after the al Qaeda suicide strikes on New York and Washington. Mr. Gouaz said Mr. Stonerock asked him to destroy the documents relating to the Hyundai-Iraq deal.

"A month or two after 9/11, I got a phone call from the office of James Baker and they told me 'Remember the deal we did?' I said 'Of course,'" Mr. Gouaz recalled. "He asked 'Do you have any documents from this deal?' I said I don't remember. He said 'If you do, destroy them.'"

"It is in a safe," he added. "At that moment, I knew that I would have to preserve the documents and even photographs [of meetings]. I gave it to somebody from the Israel Security Agency."

Mr. Gouaz said since then he has felt pressure from Mr. Baker's office. He indicated that since 2002 he began experiencing difficulties with acquiring permits from the U.S. government.

"There were no threats," said Mr. Gouaz, who returned to Israel in 2003. "But I was under lots of pressure after 9/11 to get rid of the documents. They asked me to again sign a secrecy document, which I didn't do. I felt under a lot of pressure regarding anything I did that required approval from the administration."

Mr. Gouaz has allowed outsiders to see some of the documents. They included a copy of a July 11, 2000 letter from Hyundai that thanked Mr. Gouaz for his efforts in collecting money from Iraq, an Iraqi government bond for $11 million and photographs of what Mr. Gouaz said was a signing ceremony in 2000 in which Hyundai's Iraqi government bonds were sold to the Bank of Jordan.

Mr. Stonerock, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, heads the Korea practice group at Baker Botts and advises non-U.S. clients on U.S. corporate matters. The firm cited Mr. Stonerock's services for Hyundai Motor Co., but did not refer to the Iraqi file.

"Mr. Stonerock's practice concentrates on applying both law and public policy to create value for clients," Baker Botts said on its Web site. "He has brought this dual focus to supporting the Hyundai Motor Company in the site selection for its first U.S. manufacturing facility, representing Korean companies in major international arbitrations as well as patent-infringement litigations, working for major Korean energy companies in projects in several countries, and advising on the impact of U.S. trade policy, nuclear nonproliferation issues, and other U.S. governmental processes and matters."

Mr. Gouaz is certain that Mr. Baker knew of every aspect of the Hyundai-Iraq case. In 2005, Mr. Baker, who counseled the firm's clients for more than 20 years, became a partner in charge of the Washington, D.C. office of Baker Botts.

Over the last year, Mr. Gouaz said, he has been approached by some in the U.S. media to discuss his allegations against Mr. Baker. Mr. Gouaz, who has begun meeting reporters, said he is prepared to present evidence against Mr. Baker in any official U.S. inquiry.

"It could be that I will land in the United States and talk to an investigatory committee," Mr. Gouaz said.

Insight Mag.com ** Baker sought to cover-up illegal trade with Saddam's Iraq, Israeli charges
Related: (The Libtarded) Iraq Study Group: United States Institute of Peace - Cast of Characters

Posted by yaahoo_ at 12:01 AM EST

Updated: Wednesday, 27 December 2006 5:39 PM EST

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Family celebrating birth of tiny miracle baby

By Mary Jimenez

A Shreveport baby born 16 weeks early is only the length of a piece of paper and weighs less than a bottle of water, but Abigale Grace-Ann Dorsey is a fighter.

"She's my little miracle; she's really working hard," said grandmother Debber Dorsey, of her grandchild born at 24 weeks.

Forty weeks is full term.

Born 11 inches and 14.6 ounces, Abigale came into the world during an emergency Cesarean at 11:45 a.m. Dec. 15 at Willis Knighton South.

"She's already a little feisty," said mom Brooke Parkman, who was only able to kiss Abigale's forehead before they whisked the tiny girl away. "She breathed on her own for four days. She was getting tired, so now they have her on a ventilator, but she keeps trying to breath all on her own."

Attending physician neonatologist Bharti Manchandia is hopeful.

"She's stable, very small, and still has a long way to go," Manchandia said. "When a baby is born at that age, everything can be a complex issue. But her skin has held very well. Her kidneys are functioning well and her heart is functioning well. All that is a plus."

If being pushed out into the world early wasn't stressful enough, conditions for baby Abigale in the preceding three weeks of birth were not ideal.

"She started having problems at 20 weeks," said Dr. Paul Crawford, Parkman's doctor, "then two weeks before birth, her bag broke and she lost her fluid."

The placenta was also bleeding behind it and losing its function as a life support system for the baby.

Doctors didn't give Parkman's baby much more than a 5 percent chance of survival.

"The whole time I just had a feeling that I would know if something was wrong, that somehow she would let me know if she was ready to come out," said Parkman, who has a 6-year-old son, Hunter, which was a textbook pregnancy. "I didn't know why this was happening."

Doctors wanted to allow the pregnancy continue for as long as possible, but at 24 weeks and one day, Abigale begin to show signs she was in severe stress, her heart rate dropped dramatically from 170 to 96 beats per minute.

"It just became more hostile inside the uterus than outside, and we decided it was necessary to deliver," Crawford said.

Parkman said she begin shaking immediately after the decision was made and held hands with Abigale's father, Daniel Dorsey, as their daughter came into the world. At that moment Grace became part of Abigale's name.

"There were people all over praying for us, and I felt like it was the grace of God that brought us through so we added Grace to her name," Parkman said.

Doctors don't expect Abigale to go home before her full term due date of April 5; the very small baby girl still faces day to day challenges. But so far there have only been improvements. Abigale has gained .3 ounces since birth.

Prayer and faith are getting her through, said Parkman, who is looking forward to holding her daughter when she's big enough.

Prayer is important, agrees Manchandia.

"Prayers are probably going to do the best, even though medical technology helps a lot," Manchandia said.

Comments
Shreveport Times ~ Mary Jimenez ** Family celebrating birth of tiny miracle baby

Posted by yaahoo_ at 11:15 PM EST

Updated: Monday, 25 December 2006 11:54 PM EST

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Mood:  cheeky

Libtalk Cancelled In Columbus Ohio, WTPG

ANOTHER ONE

Ohio Station Drops 'Progressive' Talk

As yet another station drops liberal talk radio for more successful programming, it seems even Christmas can't put a stop to this increasingly- common format switch.

This time, as WTPG radio in Columbus dumps Franken and Friends, it's an especially significant blow for "progressives", as Air America will be replaced by conservative programming!

Thanks to Ironman and Robert S in Columbus for their tips on this one.

From the Columbus Dispatch, here's the latest on WTPG's fate:

Station’s format to turn right

Tim Feran -- THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Liberal listeners in central Ohio will lose their only radio voice next month when WTPG (1230 AM) drops its format of "progressive talk" and makes a hard right turn.

Out: Al Franken, Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes.

In: Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham and a mix of sports and consumer shows featuring Jim Rome and Dave Ramsey.

The station will change its call letters to WYTS on Monday; the new format will begin at 9 a.m. Jan. 9.

WYTS will be promoted as "the Talk Station in Central Ohio," said Bruce Collins, program director of Clear Channel Columbus stations WTPG and WTVN (610 AM).

"Whether it’s politics or sports, financial information or general advice, central Ohio listeners will have the opportunity to talk about it on Talk 1230," he said.

Most of the new shows have larger national audiences -- and, therefore, promise higher local ratings and profits -- than any in the previous lineup.

The progressive-talk format, in place at WTPG since September 2004, never took off here despite live broadcasts in Columbus by Franken, Miller and Schultz.

One of the main program suppliers, Air America Radio, filed for bankruptcy reorganization in October. Afterward, some affiliates -- including one in Cincinnati also owned by Clear Channel -- announced plans to drop the progressivetalk format.

In Savage and Ingraham, the station will have hosts familiar with controversy.

Savage was fired from a short-lived weekend TV show on MSNBC after referring to a caller as a "sodomite" and saying he should "get AIDS and die."

Ingraham raised a furor when she criticized reporters covering the Iraq war just two months after ABC anchorman Bob Woodruff and his cameraman were seriously injured.

Note the story's emphasis on pointing out the controversies behind WTPG's new conservative hosts. How about some background on the self- destructive flaps that helped to kill off Air America's talkers?

Fresh off their station- restoring victory in Madison, one wonders whether we can expect funeral processions and other protests from their fellow- travellers in Ohio. Stay tuned.

Technorati tags: columbus ohio columbus liberal talk radio libtalk air america al franken

The Radio Equalizer ~ Brian Maloney ** Libtalk Cancelled In Columbus Ohio, WTPG
Related: TWO MORE -- Libtalk Dumped In Buffalo, NY and Albany, Oregon

Posted by yaahoo_ at 9:36 PM EST

Updated: Monday, 25 December 2006 10:38 PM EST

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