Who Says Feinstein Doesn’t Want War?

Can you say Halliburton real slow?

Let’s see how the Democrats try to use the veteran hospitals to show military incompetance when the person responsible is the Democratic senators.

Peter Byrne’s article on Senator Diane Feinstein (D – California) abruptly resigns due to a funded exposé that highlighted her husband’s company profiting from military equipment showcases the hypocrisy of the Democratic party.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum’s ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.

As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband’s companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.

[…] As of December 2006, according to SEC filings and http://www.fedspending.org, three corporations in which Blum’s financial entities own a total of $1 billion in stock won considerable favor from the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs:

• Boston Scientific Corporation: $17.8 million for medical equipment and supplies; 85 percent of contracts awarded without benefit of competition.
• Kinetic Concepts Inc.: $12 million, medical equipment and supplies; 28 percent noncompetitively awarded.
• CB Richard Ellis: The Blum-controlled international real estate firm holds congressionally funded contracts to lease office space to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It also is involved in redeveloping military bases turned over to the private sector.

You would think that, considering all the money Feinstein’s family has pocketed by waging global warfare while ignoring the plight of wounded American soldiers, she would show a smidgeon of shame and resign from the entire Senate, not just a subcommittee.

Conversely, you’d think she might stick around MILCON to try and fix the medical-care disaster she helped to engineer for the vets who were suckered into fighting her and Bush’s panoply of unjust wars.

I wonder how many networks and newspapers will run this nightly as the headlines as they did when they tried to topple Karl Rove with his legitimate and entirely legal association with Halliburton? Read Byrne’s article for the rest of Feinstein’s negligent responsibility for veterans.

"Santo Subito"

Update: Mysterious Nun Named:

Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre is the French nun whose testimony of a mystery cure from Parkinson’s disease will likely be accepted as the miracle the Vatican needs to beatify Pope John Paul II, an official at the Paris maternity hospital where she works said Wednesday.

The identity of the nun has been one of the Catholic Church’s most closely guarded secrets. The nun says that she was cured of Parkinson’s after she and her community of nuns prayed to John Paul.

The nun, a member of the “Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Motherhood” in Aix-en-Provence in southeast France, works at the Sainte-Felicite hospital in Paris, the official said on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was expected Sunday.

Living in an age of miracles is miraculous when society wants science to prove everything. If there is a God, then John Paul II is in heaven. All Catholics know this but we still have to go through the paperwork.

Now a clandestine case of a nun’s Parkinson’s disease cured with the intercession of John Paul II, his canonization may move forward but unless she wants her name to be included, she will remain anonymous.

Next Monday, the second anniversary of his death, the Rome diocese will officially give the Vatican tens of thousands of pages of documentation and transcripts which propose that John Paul should be beatified, the last step before sainthood.

The documentation includes the case of a French nun who was suffering from Parkinson’s — the same disease that the late Pope had — until it inexplicably disappeared on June 2, 2005.

“The nun will be at the ceremonies in Rome and the Vatican on April 2, but so will thousands of others,” Monsignor Slawomir Oder, who is in charge of promoting the sainthood case for the late Pope, told reporters on Tuesday.

On Monday, Pope Benedict will lead a solemn mass at the Vatican to remember his predecessor.

Before the papal events, a bishop somewhere in France will disclose that it was in his diocese where the “miracle” took place, but he is not expected to reveal the nun’s name.

The nun, whose identity is known to only a handful of clerics and doctors, wrote anonymously of her experiences in a magazine published by the Italian Catholic Church.

“I was losing weight day by day. I could no longer write and if I did try to, it was difficult to decipher. I could no longer drive … because my left leg became rigid,” she wrote.

She describes how she and her fellow nuns in her religious community prayed to the late Pope for her healing.

On June 2, 2005, exactly two months after the Pope’s death, she said she felt the sudden urge to pick up a pen.

“My handwriting was completely legible … my body was no longer pained, no longer rigid … I felt a profound sense of peace,” she wrote.

Her neurologist and other doctors and psychologists who later examined her were at a loss for a medical explanation. She had earlier been diagnosed as suffering from Parkinson’s.

If Vatican experts and doctors concur that the healing of the nun was a miracle — which experts said is likely — Pope Benedict can then beatify John Paul.

According to Church rules, another miracle would be necessary after the beatification in order for him to be declared a saint.
But as supreme leader of the Catholic Church, Benedict could decide to waive beatification and move directly to sainthood.

In May, 2005, Pope Benedict put John Paul on the fast track to sainthood by dispensing with Church rules that normally impose a five-year waiting period after a candidate’s death before the procedure that leads to sainthood can even start.

Many Catholics are convinced of John Paul’s holiness. Crowds at his funeral chanted “Santo Subito” (“Make him a saint now”).
However, Oder, who is Polish like the late Pope, said he expected the procedure to run its normal course.

Oder said that his office has received numerous reports from people who say they have been healed — most of them from cancer — after praying to John Paul.

Like The Fourth Estate Doesn’t Hate Bush?

In response to President Bush citing two Baghdad blogs as being upbeat about what’s going on in Iraq, Associate Press report Ben Fuller was a little perturbed and made the following biased report.

Bush made a surprising reference to the blogosphere during a spirited defense of his war strategy on Wednesday. The mention seemed even more unusual because the president didn’t identify whom he was quoting, so he seemed to be leaning on anonymous commentary.

“They have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we’ve got here,” Bush told the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

Then he began to quote: “Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed.”

His point was that Iraqi people are seeing signs of progress—and what better example of their unbridled expression than blogs.

It turns out, the White House made clear hours later, that he was quoting two brothers, Mohammed and Omar Fadhil. They write an English- language blog from Baghdad called IraqTheModel.com. […]

Associated Press reporter Ben Fuller just didn’t cotton to Bush’s use of actual Iraqis talking about the situation in which they live? How dare bloggers think they have anything to do with truth or facts? It’s only just opinion? So what is this jealous member of the Fourth Estate’s opinion?

Blogs are Web sites that tend to be narrow in focus and directed at a niche audience. Most operate without editors and give instant reaction to the news. Their freewheeling, open nature makes them popular but also ripe for unverified statements.

Unverified statements? Like the drive by media only prints factual, well-researched and accurate news? The Associated Press doesn’t print their own liberal biased opinion?

Let’s cite just a few times in just the last year that fauxtography and misrepresentation of the facts has been used by the loony leftist press to push their agenda:

• Fauxtography On Parade
• Media Scandal Continues
• NBC’s Today Show Caught Grounded Trying To Embarrass Bush

If you believe anything the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Associated Press and Reuters prints, without checking out the author and the facts, then you’ll also believe that Maureen Dowd has a heart-shaped framed autographed picture of George W. Bush on her desk that says: “Love ya, Maureen, your friend George.”

As for me… I’ll take the word of Hugh Hewitt, Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Reilly, and the Fadhil Brothers anyday over liberal extremists.

It’s Just Spring Training but…

Boston Red Sox win 5-4 against Minnesota Twins! Opening day is Monday! Life is good…

Dog Performs Heim-lick Manuever On Owner

You’ll get an argument from me if you say dogs aren’t capable of reasoning and don’t understand what is happening around them.

Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman’s chest. The dog’s owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.

Debbie Parkhurst, 45, of Calvert told the Cecil Whig she was eating an apple at her home Friday when a piece lodged in her throat. She attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself but it didn’t work. After she began beating on her chest, she said Toby noticed and got involved.

“The next think I know, Toby’s up on his hind feet and he’s got his front paws on my shoulders,” she recalled. “He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest.”

That’s when the apple dislodged and Toby started licking her face to keep her from passing out, she said.

“I literally have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest. I’m still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I’m OK,” Parkhurst said.

“The doctor said I probably wouldnt be here without Toby,” said Parkhurst, a jewelry artist. “I keep looking at him and saying ‘You’re amazing.'”

Read the entire dog-gone good story.

What About The Women?

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Phyllis Zagano, a senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University and author of “Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church” writes an opinion on women’s ordination.

The billion-member Catholic Church is arguably half-female. Women are honored in “Sacramentum Caritas” as “created in God’s image and likeness.” Honored as well is “the unique mission of women in the family and in society.” But there is not the slightest hint that women will be put on an equal footing in the hierarchy with ordained men. Nor is there any suggestion of a wider married priesthood, which would help overcome old prejudices that consider women “unclean.”

The largest part of the Catholic Church — the Latin, or Roman Catholic Church — ordinarily disallows married priests. Despite a number of strong suggestions by bishops at the 2005 Synod, Benedict XVI reaffirmed celibacy as the norm. The older tradition — married priests — is adhered to by most Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Eastern bishops are celibates — typically from monasteries — but parish priests are usually married. Their wives and children are legitimate in the eyes of both state and church.

Not so in the Latin Church. There priests, with few exceptions, must be celibate at ordination and for life. Catholic law, both east and west, is that a married man may be ordained, but an ordained man may not marry. Still, there are a few married Latin Catholic priests in the United States and elsewhere who were married Protestant ministers who converted to Catholicism.

The other problem with the pope’s “report” of the Synod, on women in ministry, collides with both history and logic. While women priests are out of the question given the current trajectory of thought in Rome, the church still could have women clergy. (Last summer’s women’s ordinations in Pittsburgh are not considered valid — or even Catholic — by Rome.) Aside from women priests, the Catholic Church could revisit its tradition of women deacons, ordained clergy who minister in charity.

Women served as ordained deacons in antiquity and beyond, and there is a treasure trove of evidence to prove it. There are women deacons in some Eastern churches the Vatican recognizes as in “imperfect communion” (related but not fully joined), and Catholic tradition, scripture and outright need argue for the widest restoration of the tradition of ordained women deacons.

What would happen if the tradition was restored? Ordained clergy act “in persona Christi” — in the person of Christ. The ordained represent Christ; ordination announces that the individual is made in the image and likeness of God. No matter how many times the church repeats that phrase, all-male assemblies of celibate Catholic clergy broadcast around the world drill in the not-so-subtle message: Women cannot come near the holy.

Only Fisherman, Tent-Makers, and Tax Collectors, Are Worthy

Update On Women’s Ordinations

Pope Changes Previous Statements On Hell

The eternal debate about hellfires and brimstone, sulfur fumes, pain and suffering keeps most Catholics on the straight and narrow, scares the pants off of parochial school children, and was the visual nightmare of many saints and martyrs. What does Pope Benedict XVI say? He says Hell is a real place.

Vatican officials said that the Pope — who is also the Bishop of Rome — had been speaking in “straightfoward” language “like a parish priest”. He had wanted to reinforce the new Catholic catechism, which holds that Hell is a “state of eternal separation from God”, to be understood “symbolically rather than physically”.

Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a Church historian, said that the Pope was “right to remind us that Hell is not something to be put on one side” as an inconvenient or embarrassing aspect of belief.
It had been misused in the Middle Ages to scare the impressionable with “horrific visions” of damnation, as described in Dante’s Inferno.

It had a pedigree, however, that went back to Ancient Egypt and the Greek idea of Hades, and was described by St Matthew as a place of “everlasting fire” (Matthew xxv, 41).

“The problem is not only that our sense of sin has declined, but also that the world wars and totalitarianisms of the 20th century created a Hell on Earth as bad as anything we can imagine in the afterlife,” Professor Bagliani said.

In 1999 Pope John Paul II declared that Heaven was “neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but that fullness of communion with God which is the goal of human life.” Hell, by contrast, was “the ultimate consequence of sin itself . . . Rather than a place, Hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy”.

In October the Pope indicated that limbo, supposed since medieval times to be a “halfway house” between Heaven and Hell, inhabited by unbaptised infants and holy men and women who lived before Christ, was “only a theological hypothesis” and not a “definitive truth of the faith”.

Okay, lets’ talk about the Devil now…

Wanted: President With Experience With Pardons

Who better than Clinton to testify before a committee on the appropriateness of pardons. In the last hours before he left office, he pardoned the following guilty felons.

Remember Clinton has a lot of experience with pardons…

Just to remind the good folks: a pardon is what the President administers when the person is GUILTY!! I wonder how many of these criminals were Republicans… orrrrrrrrrrrrr Democrats?

Oh, and count how many are from Arkansas… wait, you say there’s plenty from Texas, too? What are you implying???

Other noteworthy pardoned felons on this list:

• Patricia Hearst
• Susan McDougal
• Marc Rich
• Roger Clinton

  Pardon Grants January 2001

• ALLEN, Verla Jean Everton, AR, False statements to agency of United States
• ALTIERE, Nicholas M., Las Vegas, NV, Importation of cocaine
• ALTSCHUL, Bernice Ruth. Sherman Village, CA, Conspiracy to commit money laundering
• ANDERSON, Joe, Jr.Grove Hill, AL, Income tax evasion
• ANDERSON, William Sterling Spartanburg, SC ,Conspiracy to defraud a federally insured financial institution, false statements to a federally insured financial institution, wire fraud
• AZIZKHANI, Mansour T., Huntsville, AL, Conspiracy and making false statements in bank loan applications
• BABIN, Cleveland Victor, Jr, Oklahoma City, OK
• Conspiracy to commit offense against the United States by utilizing the U.S. mail in furtherance of a scheme to defraud
• BAGLEY, Chris Harmon, Harrah, OK, Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine
• BANE, Scott Lynn, Mahomet, IL, Unlawful distribution of marijuana
• BARBER, Thomas Cleveland. Hampton, FL, Issuing worthless checks
• BARGON, Peggy Ann, Monticello, IL, Violation of the Lacey Act, violation of the Bald Eagle Protection Act
• BHATKA, Tansukhlal, Income tax evasion
• BLAMPIED, David Roscoe, Ketchum, ID, Conspiracy to distribute cocaine
• BORDERS, William Arthur, Jr., Washington, D.C., Conspiracy to corruptly solicit and accept money in return for influencing the official acts of a federal district court judge (Alcee L. Hastings – D), and to defraud the United States in connection with the performance of lawful government functions; corruptly influencing, obstructing, impeding and endeavoring to influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice, and aiding and abetting therein; traveling interstate with intent to commit bribery
• BOREL, Arthur David, Little Rock, AR, Odometer rollback
• BOREL, Douglas Charles, Conway, AR, Odometer rollback
• BRABHAM, George Thomas, Austin, TX, Making a false statement or report to a federally insured bank
• BRASWELL, Almon Glenn, Doravilla, GA, Conspiracy to defraud government with respect to claims; perjury
• BROWDER, Leonard, Aiken, SC, Illegal dispensing of controlled substance and Medicaid fraud
• BROWN, David Steven, New York, NY, Securities fraud and mail fraud
• BURLESON, Delores Caroylene, aka Delores Cox Burleson, Hanna, OK, Possession of marijuana
• BUSTAMANTE, John H., Cleveland, OH, Wire fraud
• CAMPBELL, Mary Louise, Ruleville, MISS, Aiding and abetting the unauthorized use and transfer of food stamps
• CANDELARIA, Eloida, False information in registering to vote
• CAPILI, Dennis Sobrevinas, Glendale, CA, Filing false statements in alien registration
• CHAMBERS, Donna Denise, Memphis, TN, Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, use of a telephone to facilitate cocaine conspiracy
• CHAPMAN, Douglas Eugene, Scott, AR, Bank fraud
• CHAPMAN, Ronald Keith, Scott, AR, Bank fraud
• CHAVEZ, Francisco Larios, Santa Ana, CA, Aiding and abetting illegal entry of aliens
• CISNEROS, Henry G.
• CLINTON, Roger
• COHN, Stuart Harris, New Haven, CT, 1. Illegal sale of gold options, 2. Illegal sale of silver options
• COOPER, David Marc, Wapakoneta, OH, Conspiracy to defraud the government
• COX, Ernest Harley, Jr., Pine Bluff, AR, Conspiracy to defraud a federally insured savings and loan, misapplication of bank funds, false statements
• CROSS, John F., Jr., Little Rock, AR, Embezzlement by a bank employee
• CUNNINGHAM, Rickey Lee, Amarillo, TX, Possession with intent to distribute marijuana
• DE LABIO, Richard Anthony, Baltimore, MD, Mail fraud, aiding and abetting
• DEUTCH, John, Described in January 19, 2001 information
• DOUGLAS, Richard, False statements
• DOWNE, Edward Reynolds, Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and tax evasion; securities fraud
• DUDLEY, Marvin Dean, Omaha, NE, False statements
• DUNCAN, Larry Lee, Branson, MS,Altering an automobile odometer
• FAIN, Robert Clinton, Aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false corporate tax return
• FERNANDEZ, Marcos Arcenio, Miami, Florida, Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana
• FERROUILLET, Alvarez, Interstate transport of stolen property, money laundering, false statements
• FUGAZY, William Denis, Harrison, NY, Perjury in a bankruptcy proceeding
• GEORGE, Lloyd Reid, Mail fraud
• GOLDSTEIN, Louis, Las Vegas, NV, Possession of goods stolen from interstate shipment
• GORDON, Rubye Lee, Tampa, FL, Forgery of U.S. Treasury checks
• GREEN, Pincus, Switzerland
• HAMNER, Robert Ivey, Searcy, AR, Conspiracy to distribute marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute
• HANDLEY, Samuel Price, Hodgenville, KY, Conspiracy to steal government property
• HANDLEY, Woodie Randolph, Hodgenville, KY, Conspiracy to steal government property
• HARMON, Jay Houston, Jonesboro, AR, 1. Conspiracy to import marijuana, conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute, importation of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, 2. Conspiracy to import cocaine
• HEMMINGSON, John, Interstate transport of stolen property, money laundering
• HERDLINGER, David S.St. Simons Island, GA, Mail fraud
• HUCKLEBERRY, Debi Rae, Ogden, Utah, Distribution of methamphetamine
• JAMES, Donald Ray, Fairfield Bay, AR, Mail fraud, wire fraud, and false statement to a bank to influence credit approval
• JOBE, Stanley Pruet, El Paso, TX, Conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and bank fraud
• JOHNSON, Ruben H., Austin, TX, Theft and misapplication of bank funds by a bank officer or director
• JONES, Linda, Conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other offenses against the United States
• LAKE, James Howard, Illegal corporate campaign contributions, wire fraud
• LEWIS, June Louise, Lowellville, OH, Embezzlement by a bank employee
• LEWIS, Salim Bonnor, Short Hills, NJ, Securities fraud, record keeping violations, margin violations
• LODWICK, John Leighton, Excelsior Springs, MS, Income tax evasion
• LOPEZ, Hildebrando, San Isidro, TX, Distribution of cocaine
• LUACES, Jose Julio, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Possession of an unregistered firearm
• MANESS, James Timothy, Conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance
• MANNING, James Lowell, Little Rock, AR, Aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false corporate tax return
• MARTIN, John Robert, Gulf Breeze, FL, Income tax evasion
• MARTINEZ, Frank Ayala, Elgin, TX, Conspiracy to supply false documents to the Immigration and Naturalization Service
• MARTINEZ, Silvia Leticia Beltran, Elgin, TX, Conspiracy to supply false documents to the Immigration and Naturalization Service
• McCORMICK, John Francis, Dedham, MA, Racketeering conspiracy, racketeering, and violation of the Hobbs act
• McDOUGAL, Susan H.
• MECHANIC, Howard Lawrence, 1. Violating the Civil Disobedience Act of 1968, 2. Failure to appear, 3. Making false statement in acquiring a passport
• MITCHELL, Brook K., Sr., Conspiracy to illegally obtain USDA subsidy payments, false statements to USDA, and false entries on USDA forms
• MORGAN, Charles Wilfred, III, Little Rock, AR, Conspiracy to distribute cocaine
• MORISON, Samuel Loring, Crofton, MD, Willful transmission of defense information, unauthorized possession and retention of defense information, theft of government property
• NAZZARO, Richard Anthony, Winchester, MA, Perjury and conspiracy to commit mail fraud
• NOSENKO, Charlene Ann, Phoenix, AZ, Conspiracy to defraud the United States, and influencing or injuring an officer or juror generally
• OBERMEIER, Vernon Raymond, Belleville, IL, Conspiracy to distribute cocaine, distribution of cocaine, and using a communications facility to facilitate distribution of cocaine
• OGALDE, Miguelina, Glendale, CA, Conspiracy to import cocaine
• OWEN, David C., Olathe, KS, Filing a false tax return
• PALMER, Robert W., Little Rock, AR, Conspiracy to make false statements
• PERHOSKY, Kelli Anne, Bridgeville, PA, Conspiracy to commit mail fraud
• PEZZOPANE, Richard H., Palo Heights, IL, Conspiracy to commit racketeering, and mail fraud
• PHILLIPS, Orville Rex, Waco, TX, Unlawful structure of a financial transaction
• POLING, Vinson Stewart, Jr., Baldwin, MD, Making a false bank entry, and aiding and abetting
• PROUSE, Norman Lyle, Conyers, GA, Operating or directing the operation of a common carrier while under the influence of alcohol
• PRUITT, Willie H. H., Jr., Port Richey, FL, Absent without official leave
• PURSLEY, Danny Martin, Sr., Goodlettsville, TN, Aiding and abetting the conduct of an illegal gambling business, and obstruction of state laws to facilitate illegal gambling
• RAVENEL, Charles D., Charleston, SC, Conspiracy to defraud the United States
• RAY, William Clyde, Altus, OK, Fraud using a telephone
• REGALADO, Alfredo Luna, Pharr, TX, Failure to report the transportation of currency in excess of $10,000 into the United States
• RICAFORT, Ildefonso Reynes, Houston, TX, Submission of false claims to Veterans Administration
• RICH, Marc, Switzerland
• RIDDLE, Howard Winfield, Mt. Crested Butte, CO, Violation of the Lacey Act (receipt of illegally imported animal skins)
• RILEY, Richard Wilson, Jr., Possession of cocaine with intent to distribute
• ROBBINS, Samuel Lee, Cedar Park, TX, Misprision of a felony
• RODRIGUEZ, Joel Gonzales, Houston, TX, Theft of mail by a postal employee
• ROGERS, Michael James, McAllen, TX, Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana
• ROSS, Anna Louise, Lubbock, TX, Distribution of cocaine
• RUST, Gerald Glen, Avery, TX, False declarations before grand jury
• RUST, Jerri Ann, Avery, TX, False declarations before grand jury
• RUTHERFORD, Bettye June, Albuquerque, NM, Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute
• SANDS, Gregory Lee, Sioux Falls, SD, Conspiracy to distribute cocaine
• SCHWIMMER, Adolph, Conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, conspiracy to export arms and ammunition to a foreign country and related charges
• SERETTI, Albert A., Jr., McKees Rocks, PA, Conspiracy and wire fraud
• SHAW, Patricia Campbell Hearst, Wilton, Connecticut, Armed bank robbery and using a firearm during a felony
• SMITH, Dennis Joseph, Redby, Minnesota, 1. Unauthorized absence, 2. Failure to obey off-limits instructions, 3. Unauthorized absence
• SMITH, Gerald Owen, Florence, MISS, Armed bank robbery
• SMITH, Stephen A.
• SPEAKE, Jimmie Lee, Breckenridge, TX, Conspiracy to possess and utter counterfeit $20 Federal Reserve notes
• STEWART, Charles Bernard, Sparta, GA, Illegally destroying U.S. Mail
• STEWART-ROLLINS, Marlena Francisca, Euclid, OH, Conspiracy to distribute cocaine
• SYMINGTON, John Fife, III
• TANNEHILL, Richard Lee, Reno, NV, Conspiracy and restraint of trade
• TENAGLIA, Nicholas C., Lafayette Hill, PA, Receipt of illegal payments under the Medicare program
• THOMAS, Gary Allen, Lancaster, TX, Theft of mail by postal employee
• TODD, Larry Weldon, Gardendale, TX, Conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S. in violation of the Lacey Act and the Airborne Hunting Act
• TREVINO, Olga C., Converse, TX, Misapplication by a bank employee
• VAMVOUKLIS, Ignatious, Exeter, NH, Possession of cocaine
• VAN DE WEERD, Patricia A., Tomahawk, WI, Theft by a U.S. Postal employee
• WADE, Christopher V.
• WARMATH, Bill Wayne, Walls, MISS, Obstruction of correspondence
• WATSON, Jack Kenneth, Oakridge, OR, Making false statements of material facts to the U.S. Forest Service
• WEBB, Donna Lynn, Panama City, FL, False entry in savings and loan record by employee
• WELLS, Donald William, Phenix City, AL, Possession of an unregistered firearm
• WENDT, Robert H., Kirkwood, MS, Conspiracy to effectuate the escape of a federal prisoner
• WILLIAMS, Jack L.,Making false statements to federal agents
• WILLIAMS, Kevin Arthur, Omaha, NE, Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine
• WILLIAMS, Robert Michael, Davison, MI, Conspiracy to transport in foreign commerce securities obtained by fraud
• WILSON, Jimmie Lee, Helena, AR, Converting property mortgaged or pledged to a farm credit agency, and converting public money to personal use
• WINGATE, Thelma Louise, Sale City, GA, Mail fraud
• WOOD, Mitchell Couey, Sherwood, AR, Conspiracy to possess and to distribute cocaine
• WOOD, Warren Stannard, Las Vegas, NV, Conspiracy to defraud the United States by filing a false document with the Securities and Exchange Commission
• WORTHEY, Dewey, Conway, AR, Medicaid fraud
• YALE, Rick Allen, Belleville, IL, Bank fraud
• YASAK, Joseph A., Chicago, IL, Knowingly making under oath a false declaration regarding a material fact before a grand jury
• YINGLING, William Stanley, Interstate transportation of stolen vehicle
• YOUNG, Phillip David, Little Rock, AR, Interstate transportation and sale of fish and wildlife

UK Nurses Set To Perform Abortions

Women dying from abortions in the back alleys was the complaint as to why abortion should be legalized. Now nurses in the back alleys will be able to kill babies.

An analysis of the existing Abortion Act and subsequent case law suggests a nurse could perform early operations as long as a doctor is in overall charge – but not necessarily present.At the moment, nurses working as part of a team often administer medications to induce abortions.

But now, Vincent Argent, a consultant gynaecologist with legal training and Lin Pavey, a nurse and former bpas clinic manager in Brighton, argue that nurses should also be able to perform early surgical abortions.Their analysis is published in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care.

They said: “Our analysis of the Abortion Act 1967 and the RCN v DHSS case shows that registered nurses and midwives could currently perform surgical abortions themselves as long as a medical practitioner is in overall charge even if the medical practitioner is not physically present.

“In an accompanying commentary, Professor Gill Wakley said the analysis should be examined by the Department of Health, General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council.She said: “An expansion of the role of nurses could offer improvements in the quality and access of provision for early termination of pregnancy.

Using the word quality and early termination of pregnancy in the same sentence makes me sick to my stomach.

“Madelaine Ward, a family planning nurse and former chairperson of the Abortion Law Reform Association said: “In so many areas of health provision, nurses have provided improvements in access to and quality of care.

“The time is now right for nurses to be trained to perform early surgical abortions under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner. I hope lobbying by the professions will now happen without delay.”

What a tragedy that even women don’t respect life.

Liberals Drooling While Watching Venezuela’s Steep Decline

While Chavez creates a descent into socialism hell for his country, I bet liberals are thinking he’s a great leader.

Chavez said Sunday that his administration plans to create “collective property” as part of sweeping reforms toward socialism, and that officials would move to seize control of large ranches and redistribute lands deemed “idle.”

The Venezuelan leader, speaking on his television and radio program “Hello President,” said the government was “advancing quickly” with a concept of “social, or collective, property” to be included in forthcoming constitutional reforms.

“It’s property that belongs to everyone and it’s going to benefit everyone,” said Chavez, who vowed to undermine capitalism’s continued influence in Venezuela.

Chavez did not elaborate, but stressed that collective property must benefit workers equally.

“It cannot be production to generate profits for one person or a small group of people that become rich exploiting peons who end up becoming slaves, living in poverty and misery their entire lives,” he said.

Government advisers preparing a blueprint for pending constitutional reforms have floated proposals that would roughly define collective property as state-owned assets such as farms that are managed by workers who share profits.

Venezuela’s government already helps organize and finance thousands of cooperatives, but the state does not have full ownership of the real estate or infrastructure used by most co-ops.

Chavez, who hosted Sunday’s program from a ranch in Venezuela’s sun- baked plains, said his government planned to seize control of large ranches and farms spanning more than 740,000 acres and redistribute “idle” lands to the poor under a nationwide agrarian reform.

Re-elected to a fresh 6-year term in December, Chavez has accelerated his push toward socialism by nationalizing Venezuela’s largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, and imposing greater state control over the oil and natural gas industries.

The leftist leader also plans to slap new luxury taxes on the wealthy and do away with presidential term limits that would otherwise bar him from running again in 2012.

Since reform began five years ago, officials have redistributed more than 4.6 million acres of land that had been classified as unproductive or lacked property documents dating back to 1847, according to a recent government census.

Critics say reform has failed to revive Venezuela’s agriculture industry, which does not produce enough food to satisfy domestic demand. The government has been forced to import food amid shortages of staples such as meats, milk and sugar.

“If Mr. Chavez really wants to help Venezuela’s poor farmers, he must offer them technical assistance and sufficient financing because land doesn’t become productive without investment,” said opposition leader Alfonzo Marquina. “We’re only seeing increasing shortages and more expensive products.”

Opponents accuse Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, of steering oil-rich Venezuela toward Cuba-style communism, becoming increasingly authoritarian and dangerously dividing the country along class lines.

Supporters say Venezuela’s democracy is as healthy as ever under left- leaning Chavez and applaud president’s initiatives to improve living conditions for the poor.

Jimmy Carter will be so proud of Chavez.

Chavez Nationalizes Three Oil Companies