Raid on Bin Laden, full Details

Gizmodo says that anonymous government sources have leaked the full details of the Bin Laden raid to the AP. Hopefully, this won't negatively impact future operations. I for one, did not need the WH to confirm for me that the SEALs and their dogs are badass. I really just hope politics didn't just trump operations with this story. Read the original here.

Sources: Raiders Knew Mission A One-Shot Deal - Navy News | News From Afghanistan & Iraq
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/05/ap-raiders-knew-mission-a-one-shot-deal-051711/

By Kimberly Dozier - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 17, 2011 5:41:30 EDT

WASHINGTON — Those who planned the secret mission to get Osama bin Laden in Pakistan knew it was a one-shot deal, and it nearly went terribly wrong.

The U.S. deliberately hid the operation from Pakistan, and predicted that national outrage over the breach of Pakistani sovereignty would make it impossible to try again if the raid on bin Laden’s suspected redoubt came up dry.

Once the raiders reached their target, things started to go awry almost immediately, officials briefed on the operation said.

Adding exclusive new details to the account of the assault on bin Laden’s hideout, officials described just how the SEAL raiders loudly ditched a foundering helicopter right outside bin Laden’s door, ruining the plan for a surprise assault. That forced them to abandon plans to run a squeeze play on bin Laden — simultaneously entering the house stealthily from the roof and the ground floor.

Instead, they busted into the ground floor and began a floor-by-floor storming of the house, working up to the top level where they had assumed bin Laden — if he was in the house — would be.

They were right.

The raiders came face-to-face with bin Laden in a hallway outside his bedroom, and three of the Americans stormed in after him, U.S. officials briefed on the operation told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a classified operation.

U.S. officials believe Pakistani intelligence continues to support militants who attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and actively undermine U.S. intelligence operations to go after al-Qaida inside Pakistan. The level of distrust is such that keeping Pakistan in the dark was a major factor in planning the raid, and led to using the high-tech but sometimes unpredictable helicopter technology that nearly unhinged the mission.

Pakistan’s government has since condemned the action, and threatened to open fire if U.S. forces enter again.

On Monday, the two partners attempted to patch up relations, agreeing to pursue high-value targets jointly.

The decision to launch on that particular moonless night in May came largely because too many American officials had been briefed on the plan. U.S. officials feared if it leaked to the press, bin Laden would disappear for another decade.

U.S. special operations forces have made approximately four forays into Pakistani territory since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, though this one, some 90 miles inside Pakistan, was unlike any other, the officials say.

The job was given to a SEAL Team 6 unit, just back from Afghanistan, one official said. This elite branch of SEALs had been hunting bin Laden in eastern Afghanistan since 2001.

Five aircraft flew from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, with three school-bus-size Chinook helicopters landing in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way to bin Laden’s compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, two of the officials explained.

Aboard two Black Hawk helicopters were 23 SEALs, an interpreter and a tracking dog named Cairo. Nineteen SEALs would enter the compound, and three of them would find bin Laden, one official said, providing the exact numbers for the first time.

Aboard the Chinooks were two dozen more SEALs, as backup.

The Black Hawks were specially engineered to muffle the tail rotor and engine sound, two officials said. The added weight of the stealth technology meant cargo was calculated to the ounce, with weather factored in. The night of the mission, it was hotter than expected.

The Black Hawks were to drop the SEALs and depart in less than two minutes, in hopes locals would assume they were Pakistani aircraft visiting the nearby military academy.

One Black Hawk was to hover above the compound, with SEALs sliding down ropes into the open courtyard.

The second was to hover above the roof to drop SEALs there, then land more SEALs outside — plus an interpreter and the dog, who would track anyone who tried to escape and to alert SEALs to any approaching Pakistani security forces.

If troops appeared, the plan was to hunker down in the compound, avoiding armed confrontation with the Pakistanis while officials in Washington negotiated their passage out.

The two SEAL teams inside would work toward each other, in a simultaneous attack from above and below, their weapons silenced, guaranteeing surprise, one of the officials said. They would have stormed the building in a matter of minutes, as they’d done time and again in two training models of the compound.

The plan unraveled as the first helicopter tried to hover over the compound. The Black Hawk skittered around uncontrollably in the heat-thinned air, forcing the pilot to land. As he did, the tail and rotor got caught on one of the compound’s 12-foot walls. The pilot quickly buried the aircraft’s nose in the dirt to keep it from tipping over, and the SEALs clambered out into an outer courtyard.

The other aircraft did not even attempt hovering, landing its SEALs outside the compound.

Now, the raiders were outside, and they’d lost the element of surprise.

They had trained for this, and started blowing their way in with explosives, through walls and doors, working their way up the three-level house from the bottom.

They had to blow their way through barriers at each stair landing, firing back, as one of the men in the house fired at them.

They shot three men as well as one woman, whom U.S. officials have said lunged at the SEALs.

Small knots of children were on every level, including the balcony of bin Laden’s room.

As three of the SEALs reached the top of the steps on the third floor, they saw bin Laden standing at the end of the hall. The Americans recognized him instantly, the officials said.

Bin Laden also saw them, dimly outlined in the dark house, and ducked into his room.

The three SEALs assumed he was going for a weapon, and one by one they rushed after him through the door, one official described.

Two women were in front of bin Laden, yelling and trying to protect him, two officials said. The first SEAL grabbed the two women and shoved them away, fearing they might be wearing suicide bomb vests, they said.

The SEAL behind him opened fire at bin Laden, putting one bullet in his chest, and one in his head.

It was over in a matter of seconds.

Back at the White House Situation Room, word was relayed that bin Laden had been found, signaled by the code word “Geronimo.” That was not bin Laden’s code name, but rather a representation of the letter “G.” Each step of the mission was labeled alphabetically, and “Geronimo” meant that the raiders had reached step “G,” the killing or capture of bin Laden, two officials said.

As the SEALs began photographing the body for identification, the raiders found an AK-47 rifle and a Russian-made Makarov pistol on a shelf by the door they’d just run through. Bin Laden hadn’t touched them.

They were among a handful of weapons that were removed to be inventoried.

It took approximately 15 minutes to reach bin Laden, one official said. The next 23 or so were spent blowing up the broken chopper, after rounding up nine women and 18 children to get them out of range of the blast.

One of the waiting Chinooks flew in to pick up bin Laden’s body, the raiders from the broken aircraft and the weapons, documents and other materials seized at the site.

The helicopters flew back to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and the body was flown to a waiting Navy ship for bin Laden’s burial at sea, ensuring no shrine would spring up around his grave.

When the SEAL team met President Obama, he did not ask who shot bin Laden. He simply thanked each member of the team, two officials said.

In a few weeks, the team that killed bin Laden will go back to training, and in a couple months, back to work overseas.

Two U.S. Marshals, One Cop Wounded in St. Louis Shootout

Read original story here.

Two U.S. marshals and a St. Louis police officer were wounded in a shootout with a suspect they were attempting to arrest today. 

The standoff ended with the suspect shot to death and the three law enforcement officers taken to the hospital, St. Louis police said. 

The officers were attempting to serve an arrest warrant at the suspect's home in the St. Louis suburb called Dutchtown, when the man opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol as the officers tried to enter the home.

One marshal was shot in the head, sources told ABC News. He is alive but in critical condition. The second marshal is believed to have been shot in the leg or foot. 

A shot fired at the St. Louis police officer ricocheted off his bullet-proof vest and entered his shoulder. He appears to have suffered a broken shoulder, sources said. 

When authorities arrived at the suspect's home, he told them, "I'm only going out in a body bag," ABC News radio affiliate KTRS reported. 

Three children were removed from the home before shots were fired. 

"Two Deputy U.S. Marshals and one task force officer from the Eastern District of Missouri were serving an arrest warrant this morning at a residence in St. Louis when they were involved in a shooting – all three were struck by gunfire and have been taken to a local hospital," Jeff Carter, spokesman for the U.S. Marshals said in a statement. 

The shootings of U.S. marshals and police are the latest in a string of police casualties this year. 

As of March 8, 36 law enforcement officials have been killed in the line of duty nationwide. Of those four were federal agents, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. 

Last month, Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller was killed in West Virginia while attempting to serve an arrest warrant to suspected drug dealer.

Japan Halts Vaccines After Children Die

Read original article here.

Japan has temporarily stopped using vaccines from U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis SA of France while it investigates the deaths of four children who were inoculated, the health ministry said Monday.

The decision to halt the vaccines against pneumonia, some types of meningitis and other infections was made Saturday. The government is hearing from experts at a meeting Tuesday, the health ministry said.

The four children, from under six months to 2 years old, died between March 2 and March 4. The deaths occurred the same day to three days after the vaccines were administered, the ministry said.

The vaccination began in Japan about a year to two years ago. The vaccines have been administered to 1 million to 1.5 million children, according to the ministry.

Pfizer in Japan said the company was cooperating with the investigation on the Prevenar vaccine. The U.S. has been using Prevenar for about 10 years, the company said.

Sanofi-Aventis in Japan said its ActHIB vaccine was approved in France in 1992, and a year later in the U.S.

So angry that I can hardly type...

The News has an article about the recently passed House energy bill.

What makes me so angry?

1. All Michigan Democrats voted for the bill, even though it will kill Michigan jobs and continue our one-state recession.
2. The authors claim that Americans would save $2 billion in gas taxes without mentioning that Americans would spend $4 billion a year in costs to implement.
3. The authors claim that consumers would save "as much as $1,000 a year" in fuel costs, without mentioning that they would spend between $5,000 and $7,000 more for a new car - or between $1,000 and $2,300 a year (plus interest payments) for a car.

What kills me about this is, first, the dishonesty. This is not going to provide net financial savings for consumers. There is not a single hybrid on the market which is a net financial savings over the same vehicle with a standard power train. Eliminating the ability of GM and Ford to sell the only vehicles they make a profit on will not mysteriously "save" the companies by "forcing" them to "get with the times."

I hate to break it to the hippies, but no one in this country buys a car based on mileage. Even those who buy hybrids generally do it based on cosmetic reasons and precious few Americans buy hybrids. Cars in America are sold based on power, performance, safety, and utility - all items which will need to be reduced in order to comply with these guidelines.

Secondly, the solution to emissions problems is being placed primarily on Michigan. Cars account for about 25% of emissions but are expected to account for 90% of the solution. I'm still waiting to see the bills demanding a reduction in the emissions from California beef farmers or mandating "no-till" farming, even though agriculture dwarfs the automotive sector in emissions and switching strictly to "no-till" farming would have the same net effect as raising average fuel economy to 50 mpg.

Either way, we in Michigan have been betrayed by members of our representation. The UAW, the Union workers, the employees and management at GM, Ford, and Chrysler have placed their faith in Michigan's Democrats to protect them. They then turned on them, stabbed them in the back, and are working actively (knowingly or not) to destroy the auto industry and further wreck Michigan's economy. Is it too much to ask that Michigan voters hold these individuals accountable? They are: John Dingell, Sander Levin, John Conyers, Dale Kildee, Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, and Bart Stupak.

When the next round of Union layoffs comes around, know that these men and women actively worked to make it happen.

House OKs 35 mpg rule
But energy bill faces Senate, Bush opposition
The Detroit News

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House approved a landmark energy bill Thursday that increases fuel economy standards by 40 percent by 2020 but the measure faces substantial hurdles in the Senate and a likely veto by the White House.

"Democratic leaders in the House today pushed a partisan bill that members had very little opportunity to study before the vote, which they knew was unacceptable to the president and had no chance of being signed into law," the White House said. It is "a misguided approach and if it made it to the president's desk, he would veto it."

Raising fuel efficiency requirements to an average 35 miles per gallon for the total fleet of cars and light trucks built in the United States is the centerpiece of the bill approved by the House in a 235-181 vote.

The bill also requires the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022 and forces utilities to produce 15 percent of electricity from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power. The measure will be funded by rescinding $21 billion in tax breaks, largely for oil companies.

What happened to fighting global warming?

This is why I hate the 'environmental' lobby: so-called environmental groups in Texas are desperately trying to derail the construction of wind farms. Too many environmentalists are just using environmental issues to try to push an anti-corporate, anti-capitalist agenda.

Coalition sues Land Office over wind farms
Groups, including King Ranch, want to require extensive environmental review of wind projects
The Austin American-Statesman

The famed King Ranch and a coalition of environmental groups sued Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson in federal court Tuesday, seeking to require extensive environmental review and public comment on two planned wind power projects along the Gulf Coast in Kenedy County.

The coalition, the Coastal Habitat Alliance, also sued over the wind project in state District Court in Travis County. That suit claims that the state's Public Utility Commission illegally denied the alliance's request to participate in permit hearings for the wind project's transmission time.

The lawsuits threaten to delay or stop the two massive wind projects, which could place more than 600 turbines on 60,000 acres near Laguna Madre, south of Corpus Christi. Part of the wind projects would place about 250 turbines just east of a portion of the sprawling King Ranch.

The federal suit, filed in U.S. Western District Court in Austin, said the turbines could kill untold numbers of migratory birds and damage the bay. It seeks to overturn the decision by the Texas General Land Office, which Patterson heads, to allow the projects to be built without environmental review or input fro the public. The suit contends that the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 and the Texas Coastal Management Program require a permit process for an energy generation facility on the coast, including wind farms.

Good news, bad news on Iran

By now you've likely heard about the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report and its statements on Iran. If you haven't, the short of it is this: the consensus among the U.S. intelligence agencies is that Iran had a nuclear weapons program but in the fall of 2003, about six months after the invasion of Iraq, Iran gave up their direct weapons program. MSNBC had a pretty good article yesterday on a summary, including some nuanced provisions. Key items from the report that MSNBC brings up:

• "Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons."
• "We do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons."
• "Iran probably would be technically capable of producing enough HEU (highly enriched uranium) for a weapon sometime during the 2010-2015 time frame."
• "Iranian entities are continuing to develop a range of technical capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so..."
• "We do not have sufficient intelligence to judge confidently whether Tehran is willing to maintain the halt of it's nuclear weapons program indefinitely..."

While there is good news that Iran decided to end their pursuit of nuclear weaponry right after the U.S. entered Iraq, deposed of the Baathist government, annihilated the Iraqi military, and forced the government either into hiding or prison, we need to keep a close eye on their uranium enrichment program. While we currently do not have to fear an eminent nuclear weapon, the idea of a radical theocratic regime hostile to the U.S. and desiring the eradication of Israel should give every Presidential candidate pause, even Sen. Barack Obama, who somehow thinks this isn't that bad of an option.

Capitol Hill tries to fathom Iran intelligence
Spy agencies can't say whether Tehran will halt nuclear effort indefinitely
MSNBC

WASHINGTON - Members of Congress tried to figure out Tuesday how to respond to the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released Monday which said that "Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program" in 2003.

The previous NIE, in 2005, said Iran was "determined to develop nuclear weapons."

On one level, the congressional reaction was hurt feelings and puzzlement that the Bush administration hadn't given a heads-up to key players in Congress.

Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Committee member Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., indicated by their comments that they felt crossed up.

"I was on a show Sunday on CNN and made some comments about Iran which I believed were true and basically are true, but I would have made them more conditional, more qualified had I known there was change coming," Levin told reporters.

Brian Williams is not among the deep thinkers...

Time Magazine has some suggestions from a few people about who should be Person of the Year.

You have people like John Kerry (LCpl James Crosby, who is outreach coordinator for the Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services) and Aretha Franklin (Bill Cosby) who are making salient, informed, intelligent, well-thought out suggestions; you have Stephen King (Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears) who is making a very intelligent, astute observation about the situation of media in our country, and then you have Brian Williams making a ridiculously inane suggestions: Mother Earth. I'm not sure which is worse - that's he's making such an idiotic, mentally void statement or that he appears to think it's insightful in some way.

The Final Betrayal

John Dingell has completed his sell-out of the American Auto Industry. The auto fuel economy standards will increase 40% over the next 13 years, which will cost the auto industry - and let's be honest, that means it will cost Michigan - $4 billion a year. Dingell has completely surrendered the entire battle without a fight, something I have been predicting for months. He wants to avoid a contentious debate in the House, he wants to avoid giving up the power he has in his party, and he has made it clear that his power and his party come before his constituents.

Lawmakers Reach Gas Mileage Boost Deal
Fox News

WASHINGTON - An agreements among congressional Democrats - including those from auto industry states - to support a 40 percent increase in vehicle fuel efficiency is likely to be the tonic needed to push energy legislation through Congress before Christmas.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., a longtime protector of the auto industry, settled their differences in an agreement late Friday on the fuel economy, or CAFE, issue, clearing the way for a House vote on a broader energy bill, probably on Wednesday.

Automakers would be required to meet an industry wide average of 35 miles per gallon for cars and light trucks, including SUVs, by 2020, the first increase by Congress in car fuel efficiency in 32 years.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada called the compromise "good news" and said he hoped to take up the legislation quickly after the House acts.

A mixed weekend for democracy

Jubilant news in our hemisphere, as Chavez's attempts to stack the vote in Venezuela to make him dictator for life have failed. Unfortunately, in the Eastern hemisphere, Putin's perversion of democracy has kept his party in charge of the government.

Chavez was making the largest push for more power, trying to institute a government which would allow him to have unilateral control over choosing election officials, allow him to stand as "President" indefinitely, and allow him unilateral control to declare states of emergency, which would give him the ability to stridently curb civil rights.

Putin's win was a perversion of democracy, as his government imprisoned dissidents and opposition leaders, bribed and threatened to get votes, and limited the access available to election monitors. The win will keep his party in power but he will be forced to step down as President and instead take a position as Prime Minister - a much weaker post in Russia. The only slight positive news is that this opens the opportunity for a strong, democracy-focused candidate to take over the Presidency.

Chavez: Plan may have been too ambitious
Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - Humbled by his first electoral defeat, President Hugo Chavez said Monday he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist state.

"I understand and accept that the proposal I made was quite profound and intense," he said after voters narrowly rejected the sweeping constitutional reform by 51 percent to 49 percent."

Opposition activists were ecstatic as the results were announced shortly after midnight - with 88 percent of the vote counted, the trend was declared irreversible by elections council chief Tibisay Lucena.

Some shed tears. Others began chanting: "And now he's going away."

and...

Monitors say Russian vote unfair
Associated Press

MOSCOW - Foreign election observers and Russian opposition groups accused authorities Monday of manipulating a sweeping parliamentary victory for the party of President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the vote as a validation of his leadership.

"Of course, it's a sign of trust," Putin said in televised remarks. "Russians will never allow the nation to take a destructive path, as happened in some other ex-Soviet nations."

The victory of the United Russia party sets the state for Putin to stay in charge as a "national leader" even after he steps down as president next spring because of term limits.

The presidential candidate to be named by his party this month is expected to be a figurehead who would take orders from Putin or even step down early to let Putin regain his seat. Any candidate who has Putin support could be expected to win easily amid tight Kremlin's control over media and official harassment of opposition groups.

Funniest story of the day...

This is one of the most idiotic stories I've recently read.

Tom Baldwin of The Times of London accused Matt Drudge of conspiring with Hillary Clinton to bolster her campaign while taking cheap shots at The Times of London.

Could you ever imagine Matt Drudge trying to help out Hillary Clinton? Hasn't The Times of London heard of Monica Lewinski? Could you ever imagine Hillary Clinton, of all people, looking to Matt Drudge as an ally?

It must be the guilt, fermenting within him, of directly causing the impeachment of our country's best President (well, at least the best President that was in office when Clinton was impeached).

Even better - this is an author who is defending his paper against a perceived accusation of spreading innuendo. How does this author mount a defense? By spreading innuendo: "Why would a 'Hillary confidante' do such a thing? The mind boggles. Could it be to provide cover for other - alleged - activities at Camp Clinton and its surrounding outposts?"

History according to a "Hillary confidante" (and Matt Drudge)
The Times of London

My collegue, Tim Reid, travelled down to South Carolina last week where he soon found himself up to his ankles in what he described as the "foulest swamp of electoral dirty tricks in America".

Tim wrote about some of the smears and innuendos already floating by in the Palmetto state. His second paragraph reported some of the extraordinary allegations being spread about Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, Fred Thompson and, oh yes, Hillary Clinton.

The purpose of this report (read it for yourselves) was not to suggest these claims were true, but to provide a measure of their nasty. For instance, I'm pretty sure Obama is not a "Muslim extremist".

Tim's article was duly picked up on Thursday by the Drudge Report and that, we thought was that.

A win for democracy in Michigan...

The Michigan Supreme Court has reinstated Michigan's January 15th primary.

Michigan court OKs early primary
USA Today

LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan's Jan. 15 presidential primary is a go again.

Overturning a pair of lower court rulings, a majority of the state Supreme Court Wednesday morning found the law setting the primary date and granting exclusive access to voter lists from it to the Democratic and Republican parties was not unconstitutional.

The 4-3 decision, after a string of setbacks for the seemingly star-crossed election, means the vote can be held as planned.

State election officials had said they needed to know the primary's fate by noon Wednesday to have time to prepare and deliver absentee ballots.

The court majority said reserving lists of voters (sorted by which primary ballot is chosen at the polls) to the two parties was within the authority of the Legislation and governor when they approved the primary bill last summer.

San Francisco, sanctuary city for identify thiefs

San Francisco is issuing ID cards to any individual who lives in the city. These would be usable for a variety of services and would exclude gender identification, would be issued without regard to legal immigration status, and would require only a very simple determination of residence such as a bill. According to some reports, they may even exclude photographs. They would not be matched with legal name identifications, so even if you change your name legally you could obtain an id with your old name or even with a completely different, made-up name.

What's really upsetting about this has to do with how it will affect banking. I have serious issues with ID cards that are accepted for banking which:

1. Are so easy to obtain that you only need a phone bill to obtain one.
2. Do not have a photograph.
3. Do not match the name on state issued ID cards.
4. Are issued to individuals who the Federal government has not had a chance to ensure are not terrorists or drug smugglers.
5. Are not subjected to ensuring that the name matches the legal name of the card holder.

This is such a ridiculously large hole in financial protections afforded to banks that it's shocking. The ability for con artists, identity thieves, and defrauders to operate easily in San Francisco leads one to expect massive increases in white collar crime.

San Fransisco approves ID cards that exclude gender
USA Today

Next year, San Francisco will issue municipal identifications cards showing the usual name, birthday, and photo.

What the card won't include: gender.

When other cities considered issuing ID cards without regard to legal status, the debate was over illegal immigrants. In San Francisco, where the Board of Supervisors approved such an ID on Tuesday, transgender activists added gender to the discussion.

"Transgender" is a broad term for people who do not identify with their birth sex. Those who refer to themselves as transgender include cross-dressers and transsexuals.

Yellow journalism is alive and well

The Independent (a London, U.K. based newspaper) reports that scientists there are about 10 years away from curing mitochondrial disease by merging the egg of one woman with mitochondria from a second woman, then using these to merge with a sperm to create an embryo. The Independent, in one of the most ridiculous cases of yellow journalism I've seen outside of the New York Time's "Al Qaeda in Iraq" euphemism*, calls this "Babies made by cloning techniques from the DNA of two women could be born within 10 years as ministers prepare to give the green light for embryos produced by biological material from three 'parents'."

Oh, come on. This has nothing to do with cloning, genetic alteration, or even DNA. They're talking about taking mitochondria; these aren't part of the human DNA. They're a separate organism that complex life has absorbed hundreds of millions of years ago. This has nothing at all to do with cloning or genes. It's horrifyingly irresponsible for the writer of this article to get such a ridiculously basic biological fact wrong.

*The New York Times requires its reports to refer to Al Qaeda in Iraq as "Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown Sunni extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners" every time they refer to the group, despite the fact that it was created by a Jordanian and consists principally of Saudis, Jordanians, Pakistanis, and Syrians (thus, not "homegrown") and pledges allegiance to (and is accepted by) Osama bin Laden. They do this principally to discredit the U.S. operations in Iraq, also referring to action there as "occupation" even though the U.S. is there at the behest of a democratically elected government, is operating under U.N. Security Council resolutions, and does not control the government.

The cloning revolution: Ministers to back controversial change to law
The Independent

Babies made by cloning techniques from the DNA of two women could be born within 10 years as ministers prepare to give the green light for embryos produced by biological material from three "parents". A new law, to be debated in the House of Commons tomorrow, opens the door for such hybrid eggs to be implanted in women.

The novel procedure is designed to find a cure for mitochondrial disease, a range of life-threatening conditions that affect one in 10,000 people.

The development has delighted scientists who say it will usher in a new wave of groundbreaking genetic research that could prevent thousands of children from being born with debilitating diseases.

But Christian groups and campaigners concerned about developments in human genetics have reacted with horror at what they see as the beginning of human cloning and the approval of "Frankenstein science."

The novel procedure is designed to find a cure for mitochondrial disease, a range of life-threatening conditions that affect one in 10,000 people.

Squander your water like this and don't ask for ours

In Arizona, a developer is planning to create a 125-acre water park in the middle of the desert. What's particularly galling about this is two-fold: 1) This adds to the massive number of golf courses which waste water, throwing it up into the atmosphere instead of using it for drinking water, crop irrigation, or erosion management; 2) Arizona's congressional representation have a long history of pushing for "nationalizing" water resources, code-works for diverting water from the Great Lakes to Arizona.

Thankfully, the representation of the Great Lakes states have been very clear about opposing diversion of Great Lakes water; however, a time may come in the future where this sort of ridiculous waste will lead the rest of the nation to divert water from the upper-Midwest to the rest of the nation. We must immediately move to make this legal.

Huge Water Park Planned for Ariz. Desert
Developers Plan Massive Water Park in Arizona Desert; Project Would Use 100M Gallons a Year
ABC News

MESA, Ariz. (AP) - By tapping rivers and sucking water from deep underground, developers have covered Arizona with carpets of Bermuda grass and dotted the parched landscape with swimming pools, golf courses and lakeshore homes.

Now another ambitious project is in the works: A massive new water park that would offer surf-sized waves, snorkeling, scuba diving and kayaking - all in a bone-dry region that gets just 8 inches of rain a year.

"It's about delivering a sport that's not typically available in an urban environment," said Richard Mladick, a Mesa real-estate developer who persuaded business leaders in suburban Mesa to support the proposal called the Waveyard.

Artists' drawings of the park show surfers gliding through waves that crash onto a sandy beach and kayakers navigating the whitecaps of a wide, rolling river. Families watch the action from beneath picnic umbrellas. If constructed, the park would use as much as 100 million gallons of groundwater a year.

Mladick, 39, said he wanted to create the kind of lush environment he remembers from growing up in Virginia Beach, Va., and surfing in Morocco, Indonesia, Hawaii, and Brazil.

"I couldn't imagine raising my kids in an environment where they wouldn't have the opportunity to grow up being passionate about the same sports that I grew up being passionate about," he said.

GM = "Green Motors?"

A Detroit Free Press article this morning reports that the Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid has won the Green Car of the Year award at the L.A. auto show. Of the five finalists, three were GM vehicles - the Tahoe, the Saturn Aura Hybrid, and the Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid. GM appears to be abandoning the small-car hybrid market to Toyota in order to concentrate on midsize cars, trucks, and SUVs. Being the first to market with a full-size hybrid SUV (the Tahoe) combined with their other hybrid products (the Saturn VUE, Aura, and Malibu) should help encourage consumers on the coasts to give GM a try once again. Here's to hoping that this helps the company's - and Michigan's - turnaround.

Green In A Big Way
Hybrid Tahoe's honor helps Chevy redo image
The Detroit Free Press

LOS ANGELES - Chevrolet's new campaign to establish itself as an environmentally friendly brand got an early endorsement when its Tahoe hybrid full-size SUV was named Green Car of the Year at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Thursday.

The hybrid Tahoe is a revolutionary vehicle that combines the room and capabilities SUV owners need with a 50% increase in city fuel economy to 21 m.p.g., Green Car Journal editor and publisher Ron Cogan said. The hybrid is to go on sale early next year. No price has been set.

"This is a milestone in many respects", he said. "People don't think green when SUVs are concerned and generally for good reason. Chevrolet's Tahoe hybrid changes this dynamic."

The Tahoe's win capped a strong performance for General Motors, which also placed its Saturn Aura and Chevrolet Malibu hybrid midsize sedans among the five finalists. The Nissan Altima sedan and Mazda Tribute SUV were the other finalists for the award, which is given by the editors of Green Car Journal and a panel of outside judges that includes performance-car legend Carroll Shelby and undersea explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau.

Biggest non-story of the year

Why is anyone writing this story? It must have been a ridiculously slow news day.

Falling Flags
Political Radar for ABC News

It's been a rough stretch for Hillary Clinton -- a tough debate performance, a lost voice, and the revelation that the Clinton campaign had been coaching questioners at events.

Then, on Sunday, everything started falling down around her.

After a very Presidential-esque news conference - Clinton turned around to leave the reporters and their peppering questions. A staffer swooped open a curtain, and chaos ensues. Four large American flags came crashing in front of Senator Clinton as she headed for the door. In a controlled panic, the staffers and the Senator attempted to catch the flags before they fell to the ground.

"I think the bases are not weighted enough," Clinton said as she propped flags back up. One of Clinton's aides quickly summoned the advance man in charge to assist in the crisis.

Good news? CNN still can't help but take a dig on the Administration.

CNN has a positive report about dramatically declining rates of chronic homelessness in America. Note that before President Bush was elected, there were Democratic partisans who were attacking President Bush and Republican economics, saying that they would result in "armies" of the homeless. It turns out that the Administration's focus on moving people from temporary housing to permanent housing had reduced chronic homelessness by about 12%.

The most amusing part of the article (I love the first line): "The Federal Government is taking credit for..." They can't help but put a dig on the Administration. What's particularly amusing is that the advocates for the homeless that they've spoken with have largely agreed that it's the new Administration initiatives which have reduced the chronically homeless.

Report: 20,000 fewer chronically homeless on streets
CNN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government is taking credit for what it says is a nearly 12 percent drop in the number of people who are chronically homeless, according to government estimates being released Wednesday.

About 20,000 fewer chronically homeless were on the streets from 2005 to 2006, says the Department of Housing and Urban Development citing its programs designed to move homeless people into permanent housing.

HUD says people are chronically homeless if they have been continuously living on the streets for a year or more, or if they have been homeless at least four times in the past three years. They also have to have a disability, often mental illness or substance abuse.

The number of chronically homeless people dropped from 175,900 in 2005 to 6,502 in 2006, HUD reported. In Miami-Dade County, Florida, the number dropped from 831 in 2005 to 577 the following year. In Washington, D.C., the number increased from 1,773 to 1,891, though city officials told HUD they believed the change was caused in part by better counting methods.

Nothing to see here...

Yet another report, this time from MSNBC, that the war is going well. More than 46,000 people have come back home to Iraq in October, a rate described by the left-leaning MSNBC as "streaming home." Of course, expect liberals like John Dingell, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton to ignore this success and call for a 'change' from our current, successful strategy back, essentially, to the failed pre-2007 strategies.

Iraqis reportedly streaming home from abroad
Spokesman says more than 46,000 return; 17 bodies found in mass grave
MSNBC

BAGHDAD - The number of Iraqis returning to their country after fleeing abroad is growing, with more than 46,000 people coming home last month, an Iraqi government spokesman said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Army said 17 bodies were discovered in a mass grave northeast of Baghdad in an area troops have only recently been able to enter because of a downturn in violence.

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the Iraqi spokesman for a U.S.-Iraqi military push to pacify Baghdad, said border crossings recorded 46,030 people returning to Iraq in October alone. He attributed the large number to the "improving security situation."

"The level of terrorist operations has dropped in most of the capital's neighborhoods, due to the good performance of the armed forces," al-Moussawi told reporters in the heavily-guarded Green Zone. Al-Moussawi did not give numbers of Iraqis returning home before October.

A shameful statistic

A quarter of the homeless in America are war veterans. This is absolutely unacceptable. Everything the government could possibly do to help these vets must be done. I hate taxes and I hate government spending, but we owe these man and women an incredible amount of appreciation and gratitude for their sacrifice, and we absolutely must do whatever is necessary to help them.

Study: 1 Out of 4 Homeless are Veterans
Out of Uniform and on the Street: Study Finds That Veterans Are a Quarter of the Homeless
ABC News

Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a study to be released Thursday.

And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.

The Veterans Affairs has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its reports on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,252 out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.

How dumb are thieves these days?

Five Washington, D.C. employees were arrested for stealing and laundering $16 million from the city. What blows my mind is that they stole an average of $3 million each and were still working for the city. I'm an honest man; however, if I were going to become a thief and managed to steal a few million dollars from the city, you can bet I wouldn't be spending it an Neiman Marcus - where defendant Harriette Walters is accused of spending more than $1.4 million. If I had just stolen $1.4 million, I'd be in a nice little villa in Bermuda with the money invested in some nice Bermuda insurance company making myself a ridiculous sum of money.

D.C. Hit by Costliest Corruption Scandal in History
City Employees Charged With Taking $16 Million; Using Money to Buy Luxury Goods
ABC News

Federal law enforcement and Washington D.C., city officials announced arrests and charges Wednesday in the costliest public corruption scandal to ever hit the district's government.

Five individuals are in custody for a scheme that allegedly defrauded the D.C. government out of more than $16 million. Charges against them include mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.

Officials say Harriette Walters, a manager of the D.C. Real Property Tax Administration Adjustments unit and Diane Gustus at the D.C. Office of Tax Revenue, were at the center of the operation. The pair allegedly approved and issued fraudulent property tax refund checks, that averaged $388,000 per check.

Investigators say the funds were used to buy luxury goods, including jewelry, homes and clothing. According to affidavits filed in the case, Walter's annual salary as a District of Columbia employee was $81,000. From September 2000 to the present, Harriette Walters spent more than $1.4 million at Neiman Marcus.

"They abused the trust the district placed in them," U.S. attorney Jeff Taylor of the District of Columbia said at a news conference announcing the charge.