As of Saturday, Sept. 16, 2006, at least 2,681 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,131 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is five more than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 118 deaths; Italy, 32; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, El Salvador, four each; Slovakia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania, one death each.

Source here

Diana Krall, Temptation

Dozens of Volkswagen Beetles - also known as bugs - have converged on the Kathmandu area for the sixth rally run by An-Bug - the Association of Nepal Beetle Users Group. photos here

VW denies report of more job cuts.

A senior Volkswagen executive has denied a report that the firm may cut an extra 10,000 jobs, but admitted the situation at the company was “serious”.

VW personnel chief Horst Neumann insisted he had never suggested any plans to extend February’s warning of a possible 20,000 cuts over three years.

“There is no reason to panic, and certainly no reason to create panic,” he told the Reuters news agency.

VW has warned that 20,000 job cuts may be needed to boost productivity.

BBC article here

VW’s Mexico staff may cut demands.

The union representing striking workers at Volkswagen’s (VW’s) Mexico factory has said it is prepared to reduce its wage demands to help end the dispute.
As workers prepared to down tools for a fourth day on Tuesday, the union said it was ready to lower its 8.5% pay rise demand, but gave no exact details.

Managers at the Puebla factory, which makes all VW’s Beetle cars, have so far only offered a 4% increase.

In 2004, workers at the plant won a 4.5% pay rise after a four-day strike.

Another walkout at the Puebla facility in 2001 lasted 18 days before the two sides reached agreement.

BBC article here

The Englishman who saved Hitler’s Beetle.

Ferdinand Porsche is credited with creating the VW Beetle - with a little prompting from Adolf Hitler. But it was Ivan Hirst, a British soldier, who started the production line running. Without him the world would not be about to see the 21,529,464th and final Beetle leave the paint shop.

BBC article here

Search through national polls and you’ll find some that are more to your liking and others that will ruin your day. If you study them to understand the mood of the country, one makes about as much sense as another.

Rasmussen Reports today sets GWB’s approval/disapproval at 44/54. Of those approving, 23% strongly approve, 21% somewhat approve. Of those disapproving, 40% strongly disapprove, 14% somewhat disapprove.

PollingReport monitors the mainstream polls and among many other findings, today offers these:

This story saddens me and makes me sick. I’m glad her death was declared a homicide. Because it was.

The Associated Press
Posted September 16 2006

WAUKEGAN, Ill. · A coroner’s jury has declared the death of a heart attack victim who spent almost two hours in a hospital waiting room to be a homicide.

Beatrice Vance, 49, died of a heart attack, but the jury at a coroner’s inquest ruled Thursday that her death also was “a result of gross deviations from the standard of care that a reasonable person would have exercised in this situation.”

More here

West Bank churches firebombed as Islamic world condemns pontiff’s speech

REUTERS
Updated: 8:16 a.m. ET Sept. 16, 2006

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict told Muslims on Saturday he was sorry they had found his speech on Islam offensive, expressing his respect for their faith and hoping they would understand the “true sense” of his words.

“The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in a statement.

The statement came amid mounting anger from Muslims over remarks by the Pope in a speech in his native Germany on Tuesday that was seen as critical of their faith. Calls for him to apologize had spread beyond the Islamic world.

In that speech, the Pope appeared to endorse a Christian view, contested by most Muslims, that the early Muslims spread their religion by violence. Islamic fury erupted on Thursday and has cast doubt on a visit the Pope plans to Turkey in November.

But the Vatican statement said: “Confirming his respect and esteem for those who profess the Islamic faith, he (the Pope) hopes they will be helped to understand his words in their true sense.”

Before the statement, the tide of Muslim criticism of the Roman Catholic leader swelled on Saturday.

Yemen’s president became the first head of state publicly to denounce him and threatened to review ties with the Vatican unless he apologised. Ali Abdullah Saleh, campaigning for re-election, told voters at a rally Benedict had wronged Islam.

Two churches — neither of them Catholic — were fire-bombed in the West Bank, although no one was hurt.

But Chancellor Angela Merkel and other German politicians defended his comments, saying he had been misunderstood.

“It was an invitation to dialogue between religions, she told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper in an interview. “What Benedict XVI emphasized was a decisive and uncompromising renunciation of all forms of violence in the name of religion.”

Article link

“What Benedict XVI emphasized was a decisive and uncompromising renunciation of all forms of violence in the name of religion.”
Yeah… sure… RIGHT! Like that will ever happen. Religion is the number-one exporter of violence. Always has been, always will be. Hell, religion and violence are basically synonymous!

PETER J. SAMPSON and MITCHEL MADDUX
The RECORD
Saturday, September 16, 2006

John A. Lynch Jr., a former state Senate president and one of New Jersey’s most powerful Democratic bosses, admitted Friday that he took thousands of dollars in payoffs from a company seeking state approvals.
…

State Republican Party chief Tom Wilson was quick to make political hay of the news.

“John Lynch isn’t just symbolic of the Democratic Party in New Jersey: He was the literal hub of the Democratic Party in New Jersey,” Wilson said. “Another Democratic Party leader sent to jail, another black eye for New Jersey’s reputation.”

Democratic State Committee Chairman Joe Cryan fired back: “These types of things happen in both parties, whether it’s Republican mayors in Monmouth County or Republican congressmen around the country. Tom should know better than to make these kinds of allegations.”
…

Lynch, a former New Brunswick mayor, admitted his guilt before a packed courtroom as part of a plea agreement that brings a close to a four-year investigation. Under federal guidelines, he faces 33 to 41 months in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 19.

Article link

See what happens when you touch a republican… it rubs off on you!

This is a great video. I love that Jonathan Turley. I think he’s got it spot on…..it’s all about retroactive legislation to cover his ass for waterboarding and torture!