By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
from Yahoo! News
Well, now! It was OK for you neo-cons when Rush, Hannity and all the others were on YOUR side after your God Almighty Ronald Reagan repealed The “Fairness Doctrine” for radio, wasn’t it? What’s wrong? Did something come back to bite you in the arse? - JS
WASHINGTON - Immigration has supplanted Iraq as the leading issue on television and radio talk shows, complicating the prospects of a Senate bill desperately wanted by President Bush.
Conservative talk radio’s impact on the immigration debate reached new heights last week, with one host effectively writing an amendment for when the Senate returns to the imperiled bill this week.
National talk show hosts have spent months denouncing the bill as providing amnesty for illegal immigrants. Some top Republicans who support the legislation have defied the broadcast pundits. Others GOP lawmakers have tried to placate them, even to the point of accepting their ideas for amendments.
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the key conservative negotiator behind the compromise bill, told reporters Friday that California-based radio host Hugh Hewitt “had several ideas” that “we are trying to include” in amendments to be offered in an upcoming series of crucial votes.
Hewitt, a conservative who has criticized many aspects of the bill, had Kyl as a guest on Thursday and asked: “Does the bill provide for any separate treatment of aliens, illegal aliens from countries of special concern?”
Kyl replied: “It’s going to, as a result of your lobbying efforts to me.”
People seeking entry the U.S. from countries that the U.S. has designated as state sponsors of terrorism will get a higher level of scrutiny, Kyl said Friday.
Other Bush allies have tried more confrontational approaches to the talk hosts, sometimes with bruising results.
RUDY RUDY RUDY! Drug dealers, child molesters…… this guy employs some real class folks! NOT! This is not a guy we want in the White House……for sooooooo many reasons!!!
Giuliani employs his childhood friend Monsignor Alan Placa as a consultant at Giuliani Partners despite a 2003 Suffolk County, N.Y., grand jury report that accuses Placa of sexually abusing children, as well as helping cover up the sexual abuse of children by other priests. Placa, who was part of a three-person team that handled allegations of abuse by clergy for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, is referred to as Priest F in the grand jury report. The report summarizes the testimony of multiple alleged victims of Priest F, and then notes, “Ironically, Priest F would later become instrumental in the development of Diocesan policy in response to allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.”
Five years after he was suspended from his duties because of the abuse allegations, Placa is currently listed as “priest in residence” at St. Aloysius Church in Great Neck, N.Y., where close friend Brendan Riordan serves as pastor, and officially lives at the rectory there with Riordan. In addition, Placa co-owns a penthouse apartment in Manhattan with Riordan, the latest in a half-dozen properties the two men have owned in common at various times since the late 1980s.
Placa has worked for Giuliani Partners since 2002. As of June 2007, he remains on the payroll. “He is currently employed here,” Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel confirmed to Salon, adding that Giuliani “believes Alan has been unjustly accused.” Mindel declined to discuss what role Placa plays with the consulting firm, or how much he is paid. Says Richard Tollner, who testified before the grand jury that Placa had molested him, “[Giuliani] has to speak up for himself and explain himself. If he doesn’t, people shouldn’t vote for him.” Adds Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks suspected priest abuse, “I think Rudy Giuliani has to account for his friendship with a credibly accused child molester.”
Well, they got one thing right. The bloodshed of our troops will increase. They got that right. Do they get a point for that? 28 U.S. troops killed since Monday. Oh, and I have no doubt they will be right about extending tours again, “worst case scenario.” No doubt we’ll hit that worst case scenario some time soon. And isn’t it amazing that we didn’t hear anything about Iran supplying weapons to Iraqis for how many years…….and all the sudden this year it’s all Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran. Dick wants it bad, and congress is going to let him have it. Lord help us.
BAGHDAD - Roadside bombs killed seven American troops in [tag]Iraq [/tag]on Saturday, including four in a single strike outside Baghdad, the military said, as U.S. and Iraqi troops captured two senior al-Qaida militants in Diyala province.
Separately, a predawn operation by U.S. forces working with Iraqi informants in Baghdad’s main Shiite district of Sadr City netted three other militants suspected of ties to Iran, the military said.
The Americans have accused Iran of providing mainly Shiite militias with training and powerful roadside bombs known as explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs, that have killed hundreds of U.S. troops in recent months.
Roadside bombs, including EFPs and other makeshift devices used by Sunni and Shiite militants alike, are the No. 1 killer of foreign troops in Iraq and Saturday’s deaths were no exception.
EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 23 (UPI) — A Scottish woman has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for a “grievous breach of trust” — participating in the sexual exploitation of her daughter.
Caroline Dunsmore of Edinburgh pleaded guilty to the rape of her daughter, admitting that she participated with her husband, William King. King has since died.
A friend of King, John O’Flaherty, also received a 12-year sentence, The Scotsman reported. Another man, Morris Petch, who allegedly organized the pedophile activities, faces a possible life sentence.
Dana Fowley, Dunsmore’s daughter, ran out of the courtroom during the Friday sentencing hearing. She has allowed her name to be used in news accounts of the case.
“It was a justified sentence,” she said. “My whole life has been hell. Going through a trial has been hell and today has been hell.”
Fowley was sexually abused from the age of 6 to 15, while the defendants molested at least one other girl. Dunsmore’s father, William Dunsmore, who received a 5-year sentence last year, was also involved.
By Michael D. Shear and Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writers
Twelve weeks ago, after raising less money than two other Republican candidates in the first three months of 2007, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the early favorite for his party’s presidential nomination, declared that it was his fault, said he hoped “to get better” at it and reorganized his finance team.
This week he said it hasn’t worked out too well, acknowledging that raising money is “very tough” and allowing that “we weren’t going to win this campaign on money anyway.”
On the Democratic side, former senator John Edwards of North Carolina had vowed that he, too, would improve on a weak first-quarter showing. But this week, Joe Trippi, a senior aide, e-mailed supporters with news that the campaign is only two-thirds of the way to its relatively modest fundraising goal.
Edwards and McCain are two prominent victims of the widening money gap between the front-runners and the rest of the field, a separation that will be apparent when the campaigns file their fundraising reports on the second quarter, which ends next Saturday.
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are each expected to hit the $25 million mark — at least — for money raised since April 1, a feat that reflects their continuing ability to reach deep into their Democratic constituency. Among the Republicans, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani are said to be repeating their impressive first-quarter takes.
Former senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who is not yet officially a GOP candidate, seems on track to reach his goal of raising about $5 million in just one month, according to advisers. And New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is barely registering in most polls, has told other Democrats that he expects to raise more money than Edwards this quarter.
By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer
from Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON - For the first time, manufacturers of vitamins, herbal pills and other dietary supplements will have to test all of their products’ ingredients. The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it is phasing in a new rule that is designed to address concerns that existing regulations allowed supplements onto the market that were contaminated or didn’t contain ingredients claimed on the label.
Last year, the agency found that some supplements contained undeclared active ingredients used in prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction. In the past, regulators found supplements that didn’t contain the levels of Vitamin C or Vitamin A that were claimed.
If, upon inspection, the FDA finds that supplements do not contain the ingredients they claim, the agency would consider the products adulterated or misbranded. In minor cases, the agency could ask the manufacturer to remove an ingredient or revise its label. In more serious cases, it could seize the product, file a lawsuit or even seek criminal charges.
Dietary supplements - pills, liquids or other products - are a $22 billion industry.
Most companies already test their raw ingredients, said Steve Mister, president and CEO for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association representing about 65 manufacturers.
By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer
from YAHOO! NEWS
BAQOUBA, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi troops captured two senior al-Qaida militants and seven other operatives Saturday in Diyala province, an Iraqi commander said, as an offensive to clear the volatile area of insurgents entered its fifth day.
The U.S. military also cracked down elsewhere in Iraq, saying in a statement that seven other al-Qaida fighters were killed and 10 suspects detained in raids in Tikrit, east of Fallujah, south of Baghdad and in Mosul.
Three other militants suspected of having ties to Iran were detained in a predawn operation by U.S. forces working with Iraqi informants in Baghdad’s main Shiite district of Sadr City, the military said separately.
The Americans have accused Tehran of providing mainly Shiite militias with training and powerful roadside bombs known as explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs, that have killed hundreds of U.S. troops in recent months.
“Coalition forces are determined to counter Iranian influence in Iraq, pursuing those suspected of smuggling arms and other forms of lethal aid into Iraq,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said in a statement. “Disrupting the bombing network in Baghdad remains a high priority for us, and we will continue to target the cells’ leaders and members.”
Roadside bombs, including EFPs and other makeshift devices used by Sunni and Shiite militants alike, are the No. 1 killer of foreign troops in Iraq. At least 20 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq this week - all but five from wounds suffered from improvised explosive devices, the term the military uses for roadside bombs.
By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer
from YAHOO! NEWS
WASHINGTON - Little-known documents now being made public detail illegal and scandalous activities by the CIA more than 30 years ago: wiretappings of journalists, kidnappings, warrantless searches and more.
The documents provide a glimpse of nearly 700 pages of materials that the agency plans to declassify next week. A six-page summary memo that was declassified in 2000 and released by The National Security Archive at George Washington University on Thursday outlines 18 activities by the CIA that “presented legal questions” and were discussed with President Ford in 1975.
Among them:
_The “two-year physical confinement” in the mid-1960s of a Soviet defector.
_Assassination plots of foreign leaders, including Fidel Castro.
_CIA wiretapping in 1963 of two columnists, Robert Allen and Paul Scott, following a newspaper column in which national security information was disclosed. The wiretapping revealed calls from 12 senators and six representatives but did not indicate the source of the leak.
_The “personal surveillances” in 1972 of muckraking columnist Jack Anderson and staff members, including Les Whitten and Brit Hume. The surveillance involved watching the targets but no wiretapping. The memo said it followed a series of “tilt toward Pakistan” stories by Anderson.
_The personal surveillance of Washington Post reporter Mike Getler over three months beginning in late 1971. No specific stories are mentioned in the memo.
_CIA screening programs, beginning in the early 1950s and lasting until 1973, in which mail coming into the United States was reviewed and “in some cases opened” from the Soviet Union and China.
The documents provide a glimpse of nearly 700 pages of materials that the agency plans to declassify next week. A six-page summary memo that was declassified in 2000 and released by The National Security Archive at George Washington University on Thursday outlines 18 activities by the CIA that “presented legal questions” and were discussed with President Ford in 1975.
Email QuestionGirl