Santana
Corazon Espinado

I had to look far & wide, but here’s nice news

This photo shows a new bird that has been discovered in a previously unexplored Andean cloud forest, conservation groups have announced, in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Oct. 9, 2006. The bright yellow and red-crowned Yariguies brush-finch was named for the indigenous tribe that once inhabited the mountainous area. (Photo/ Blanca Huertas)

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and LEE KEATH

Associated Press Writers

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Gatherings of Iraq’s top politicians start with polite greetings and dinner. But once tea is poured after the meal, the tone changes: Sunnis and Shiites lash out, accusing each other of supporting death squads.

Mistrust is deep in what was once lauded as Iraq’s national unity government. The tensions between them mount with each new tragedy - and it is even worse when the bloodshed becomes personal, as it did this week with the slaying of a brother of Iraq’s most prominent Sunni Arab politician, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi.

Sunnis blamed Shiite militias for the killing - the third sibling of al-Hashimi to be gunned down. The political leaders had been planning to meet to flesh out a plan to stop the sectarian violence, but now it will likely have to be put off a few days until tempers cool, Shiite lawmaker Bassem Sherif said Tuesday.

Read more at Guardian Unlimited

Olbermann talks to Ambassador Wendy Sherman about Bush’s North Korean policy. But according to McCain (I dislike this guy more and more everyday), it’s Clinton’s fault. ha!

“Separation of church and state was certainly part of American law when many of today’s public opinion makers were in school. But separation of church and state is no longer the law of the land.”
(John Witte Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at the Emory University Law School).

The obvious is made more powerful when stated bluntly. When opinion is given by an expert in a field of study, in this case a professor of law, the blunt becomes startling.
The phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the constitution, but rather it came from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists (1802) in which he affirmed this principle of the First Amendment of the Constitution as a “wall of separation.” James Madison, the main drafter of the Bill Of Rights, likewise wrote of “total separation of the church from the state.” (Madison quotes on religion) In successive years, these founding fathers voices are but two of the many defining this aspect of the First Amendment.
Why then do those who most loudly proclaim their patriotism fight this established principle? If one believes, as I do, that fundies are for the most part mindless followers, what motivates their leaders to seek recognition (read: favoritism) in law for their respective religions?
Along with protecting their assets from tax collection, here are other answers from two current NYT articles:

As Exemptions Grow, Religion Outweighs Regulation

At any moment, state inspectors can step uninvited into one of the three child care centers that Ethel White runs in Auburn, Ala., to make sure they meet state requirements intended to ensure that the children are safe. There must be continuing training for the staff. Her nurseries must have two sinks, one exclusively for food preparation. All cabinets must have safety locks. Medications for the children must be kept under lock and key, and refrigerated.

The Rev. Ray Fuson of the Harvest Temple Church of God in Montgomery, Ala., does not have to worry about unannounced state inspections at the day care center his church runs. Alabama exempts church day care programs from state licensing requirements, which were tightened after almost a dozen children died in licensed and unlicensed day care centers in the state in two years.

The differences do not end there. As an employer, Ms. White must comply with the civil rights laws; if employees feel mistreated, they can take the center to court. Religious organizations, including Pastor Fuson’s, are protected by the courts from almost all lawsuits filed by their ministers or other religious staff members, no matter how unfairly those employees think they have been treated.

continue reading here

Where Faith Abides, Employees Have Few Rights

J. Jeffrey Heck, a lawyer in Mansfield, Ohio, usually sits on management’s side of the table. “The only employee cases I take are those that poke my buttons,” he said. “And this one really did.”

His client was a middle-aged novice training to become a nun in a Roman Catholic religious order in Toledo. She said she had been dismissed by the order after she became seriously ill - including a diagnosis of breast cancer.

In her complaint, the novice, Mary Rosati, said she had visited her doctor with her immediate supervisor and the mother superior. After the doctor explained her treatment options for breast cancer, the complaint continued, the mother superior announced: “We will have to let her go. I don-t think we can take care of her.”

Some months later Ms. Rosati was told that the mother superior and the order’s governing council had decided to dismiss her after concluding that “she was not called to our way of life,” according to the complaint. Along with her occupation and her home, she lost her health insurance, Mr. Heck said.

continue reading here

This guy has to have THE worst foreign policy of any President……EVER.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration rejected anew Tuesday direct talks with North Korea and said it would not be intimidated by a reported threat from Pyongyang that it could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the U.S. acts to resolve the standoff.

“This is the way North Korea typically negotiates by threat and intimidation,” said U.S. Ambassador John Bolton. “It’s worked for them before. It won’t work for them now.”

The White House said, meanwhile, there is a “remote possibility” that the world never will be able to fully determine whether North Korea succeeded in conducting a nuclear test Monday. While acknowledging that the action was provocative, White House press secretary Tony Snow suggested that it’s possible that the test was something less than it appeared.

“You could have something that is very old and off-the’shelf here, as well, in which case they’ve dusted off something that is old and dormant,” he said. The comment appeared to indicate that the White House was attempting to downplay the significance of the test, but Snow said later that he was merely posing a hypothetical question.

Read more at The Guardian

No civil war here………. things are going swimmingly. 300,000 have fled to other parts of Iraq. 890,000 have fled to Jordan, Iran and Syria. Yeah, I bet if you asked them, they’d say things are really progressing for the good.

Tuesday October 10, 2006 4:31 PM
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - More than 300,000 Iraqis have fled their homes to other parts of the country to escape violence since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein, with the rate swelling in the past six months of Shiite-Sunni killings, the immigration minister said Tuesday.

In addition, some 890,000 Iraqis have moved to Jordan, Iran and Syria since Saddam’s fall, Immigration Minister Abdul-Samad Sultan told reporters.

The flight is solidifying the sectarian divide in this country of around 30 million people. He said those who moved within Iraq went to areas where their own community dominates - Shiites leaving Sunni-majority or mixed areas for Shiite ones and vice versa.

Full article at The Guardian

It was unclear whether the man was suspected of posting the messages on the Web himself or of having circulated messages that already were online
Lucky for this guy he wasn’t in the U.S.!

BERLIN An Iraqi man suspected of spreading messages by Al Qaeda leaders on the Internet over the past year was arrested in Germany on Tuesday, federal prosecutors said.

The 36-year-old, who was identified only as Ibrahim R., was arrested near the western city of Osnabrueck, prosecutors said in a statement. His apartment was searched.

He was accused of spreading audio and video messages by leaders of Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in Iraq on the Internet from his home “in several cases since Sept. 24, 2005″ - and “in doing so of having supported these groups in their terrorist activities and aims.”

The prosecutors said the messages were from Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and former al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad in June.

Prosecutors did not elaborate on the man’s alleged activities or say how he got the messages.

It was unclear whether the man was suspected of posting the messages on the Web himself or of having circulated messages that already were online, and there also was no word on whether he was believed to have acted alone.

Prosecutors gave no details of the contents of the messages.

Read more at the International Herald Tribune

How low will they go?
About 17 percent of the first-time recruits, or about 13,600, were accepted under waivers for various medical, moral or criminal problems, including misdemeanor arrests or drunk driving.

WASHINGTON The U.S. Army recruited more than 2,600 soldiers under new lower aptitude standards this year, which helped the service beat its goal of 80,000 recruits in the throes of an unpopular war and mounting casualties.

Last year the Army missed its recruitment target by the widest margin since 1979, which triggered a boost in the number of recruiters, increased bonuses and lowered standards.

The Army recruited 80,635 soldiers, roughly 7,000 more than last year. Of those, about 70,000 were first-time recruits who had never served before.

According to statistics obtained by The Associated Press, 3.8 percent of the first-time recruits scored below certain aptitude levels. In previous years, the Army had allowed only 2 percent of its recruits to have low aptitude scores. That limit was increased last year to 4 percent, the maximum allowed by the Defense Department.

Full article at International Herald Tribune