Firefighters Battle 4,000-Acre Calif. Fire

By JEFF WILSON
The Associated Press
Saturday, November 19, 2005; 10:35 AM

VENTURA, Calif. -- Calming winds have helped firefighters battle a 4,000-acre wildfire that prompted a voluntary evacuation of about 200 ridge-top homes.

Fierce Santa Ana winds fanned the late-season blaze that started early Friday in School Canyon _ a hilly, rocky area between Ventura and Ojai, about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The blaze was 15 percent contained late Friday and officials hoped to make significant progress through the night as crews dug around the fire's borders and the winds died down, said Inspector Ron Haralson of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

"We still have a few hot spots, but the fire is mostly laying down," he said.

The origin point and cause of the fire were under investigation.

At midmorning, a wall of flames as high as 30 feet snaked along hillsides, and by early afternoon a huge plume of whiskey-brown smoke carried ash to the nearby Pacific Ocean.

In just a few hours, the wind-driven fire tripled in size. But the fire calmed down in the early evening as a cooler onshore breeze helped decrease winds and temperatures.

The National Weather Service canceled a wind advisory, but forecasters cautioned winds would continue in the area through early Sunday at 15 to 25 mph with isolated gusts near 35 mph.

The fire roared down School Canyon heading to the northern edge of Ventura. At one point, it burned to the backyards of several large homes.

"We have a lot of crews up there and are making every effort to protect those structures," said Joe Luna, a spokesman with the Ventura County Fire Department. "But we are confident that the winds _ when they calm down _ will allow us to put this out."

Many of the stucco homes in the area have tile roofs, and fire officials said requirements that brush be cleared around houses had helped.

Still, firefighting equipment was headed to Ventura from throughout the state. Bulldozers and hotshot crews worked their way up Highway 101 from Los Angeles. Water-dropping helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft also were called in to assist firefighters on the ground.

Late Friday, FEMA authorized the use of federal funds to help the state battle the fire.

Florida Fears Tropical Storm
# The south of the state, still recovering from Hurricane Wilma, could be vulnerable to Gamma, forming in the western Caribbean.

By Ken Kaye, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

MIAMI — This can't be happening again. Can it?

Just as South Florida comes up for air, it could be under attack again in a scenario extremely similar to that of Hurricane Wilma.

 Forming in the western Caribbean on Friday, Tropical Storm Gamma was projected to hit southwest Florida by Monday afternoon. It could bring winds as high as 65 mph, heavy rains and a high potential for tornadoes — almost exactly one month after Hurricane Wilma.

The good news, at this point: Gamma was not expected to grow into a hurricane. In addition, a cold front could weaken it or guide it south of the state, said meteorologist Jamie Rhome with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The bad news: Even if it arrives as a weak, sloppy system, it could be devastating to the thousands of homes in the region with blue tarps and roof damage after Wilma, said Tony Carper, Broward County's director of emergency management.

"We have a lot of homes that are in a weakened condition," he said. "There's a lot of patchwork roofs all over the place, and it could severely impact those. And that's not to mention mobile homes."

Rhome says residents shouldn't panic.

"While we want people to pay really close attention to this system, we don't want mass hysteria — given South Florida's sensitivity to tropical systems," he said.

South Florida already has been struck twice this year, first by Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 25, then by Wilma on Oct. 24.

Late Friday, Gamma, the 24th named storm of what already was the most active hurricane season on record, was southeast of Belize City, wobbling northwest at 5 mph. It had maximum winds of about 45 mph, barely tropical storm strength.

It was expected to graze Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula by Sunday and get pushed toward Florida by a cold front.

"What you have here is a Midwest cold front versus a tropical system, clashing," Rhome said, adding that the course of the storm would be determined by "whichever one is stronger."

If the forecast track holds, Gamma could dump widespread rains of three to five inches over South Florida, starting as early as Sunday. Some areas could get more than six inches, said meteorologist Dan Gregoria of the National Weather Service in Miami.

Gamma's track had much uncertainty because "the models are all over the place," said Paul Milelli, Palm Beach County director of public safety.

His greatest concern: The storm's rapid forward speed combined with the cold front means that "the potential for tornadoes is very great." Tornadoes can cause severe damage beyond the winds and rain in a tropical system.

Tropical Storm Gamma Forms Near Honduras

Tropical Storm Gamma Forms Off Central America, May Threaten Florida by Start of Next Week

MIAMI Nov 18, 2005 — Tropical Storm Gamma the 24th storm of the busiest hurricane season on record formed Friday off the coast of Central America, and forecasters said it could threaten Florida by the beginning of next week, perhaps as a hurricane.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for the coast of Belize and the Bay Islands of Honduras. Mexico issued a tropical storm watch for the eastern Yucatan Peninsula, which was hit hard in October by Hurricane Wilma. Six to 15 inches of rain were possible.

The long-term track from the National Hurricane Center indicated that Gamma may take a path similar to Wilma's and head northeast toward the Florida Peninsula. Wilma sliced across the southern portion of the state Oct. 24, causing widespread power outages and more than 20 deaths.

At 10 p.m. EST, Gamma's maximum sustained winds were near 45 mph and it was located about 45 miles north-northwest of Limon, Honduras, and about 175 miles east-southeast of Belize City, Belize, moving northwest at near 5 mph.

The storm causing flooding and landslides in Honduras that killed at least two people and prompted the government to evacuate hundreds from coastal towns. President Ricardo Maduro said soldiers were bringing in food, water, medicine and blankets.

In Belize, a small plane belonging to the exclusive Blancaneaux Lodge resort, owned by filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, disappeared Friday shortly after taking off with two passengers, whose names were not released. A search was also under way for five fisherman whose boat capsized.

Gamma extended the Atlantic's record-breaking storm season. The previous record of 21 named storms had stood since 1933, and for the first time, officials had to turn to the Greek alphabet for names.

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

New Dead Sea Scroll Fragments
There is only one place on earth where an unending stream of evidence substantiating the Bible is discovered year after year. Granted, it’s been 40 years since the major discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls thrilled biblical archaeologists and others who love the Word of God.

The latest discovery—two small fragments of animal skin, brown with age, with Leviticus 23:38-39 and 43-44 inscribed in ancient Hebrew—are now in the hands of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). How they got there is an intriguing story in itself. About a year ago, Professor Chanan Eshel, an archaeologist at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, was summoned to an abandoned police station near the Dead Sea for a clandestine meeting with a Bedouin Arab. After explaining that he’d been offered $20,000 on the black market, the man asked Eshel to evaluate the fragments. It would be hard to describe the emotions that surged through the professor’s heart as he examined the skins. “I was jealous that he had found them instead of me,” said Eshel, who has worked in the Judean Desert for nearly 20 years. “I was also very excited, though I didn’t believe I would ever see them again.” Months later, after learning that the fragments had not left the country, Eshel bought them with $3,000 provided by Bar Ilan. The skins were turned over to the IAA, which is now testing them for authenticity. They are the 15th find in this area and date to the Second Revolt against the Romans under Bar-Kochba.

The discovery sparked renewed hope among biblical archaeologists that the Judean Desert has much yet to yield. “No scrolls have been found in the Judean Desert since 1965,” said Eshel. “This [find] encourages scholars to believe that if they bother to excavate, survey and climb, they will still find things in the Judean Desert. The common perception has been that there is nothing left to find there, but that is clearly wrong.”

Al-Zarqawi Threatens to Kill Jordan's King

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - An audiotape purportedly from the head of al-Qaida in Iraq Friday threatened to kill Jordan's King Abdullah II and bomb more hotels and tourist sites.

The speaker on the tape, identified as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also said the group's suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week, killing about 30 people.

Al-Zarqawi said the bomber who detonated his explosives in the Radisson SAS hotel on Nov. 9 was targeting a hall where he claimed Israeli and American intelligence officials were meeting.

That bomb caused part of the roof to fall in the wedding hall.

Al-Zarqawi accused the Jordanian government of hiding casualties among Israeli and American intelligence agents, and he insisted al-Qaida in Iraq was not targeting fellow Muslims.

"We want to assure you that ... you are more beloved to us than ourselves," al-Zarqawi said, addressing Jordanians.

Amen Brother Tom,

This is indeed a beautiful study and you are right, there is much that can be written on this subject and it doesn't ake long for it to become a whole book after all the entire Bible covers this entire topic and it does cover a lot of studying.

I never grow tired of studying this subject so I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

Section of Plymouth Mass. hit by minor earthquake

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — A small-scale earthquake shook a section of Plymouth on Thursday.

Officials with the Weston Observatory, which monitors earthquake activity, say the 2.5 registered tremor was centered two miles south of the center of town.

The quake was felt just after 12:30 p.m., according to the observatory's Web site.

A quake of that magnitude is the smallest generally felt by people and not severe enough to cause damage.

"We deal with about half a dozen earthquakes a year felt somewhere in the New England region," said the observatory's director, John Ebel.

In Massachusetts, Ebel said, a majority of the seismic activity happens in the eastern portion of the state, usually concentrated north and northeast of Boston. The third area of activity is from Plymouth to the South Coast.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, according to the Plymouth police and officials at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

Peter Judge, a spokesman for MEMA, said the quake caused no problems at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in the town.

A local cultural institution, Pilgrim Hall Museum which houses many artifacts from the 17th-century, was also safe.

"Pilgrim Hall has not fallen," said Peggy M. Baker, the museum's director.

Strong earthquake jolts northern Chile, Bolivia

SANTIAGO, Nov. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- A strong earthquake hit northern Chile and southern Bolivia on Thursday, causing panic among local residents and cutting utilities, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, officials in Chile and Bolivia said.

    The quake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter Scale, occurred at 16:29 p.m. (1929 GMT) and triggered panic along the border in the Andes mountains, according to Chile's National Emergency Office (ONE).

    The epicenter of the quake was 40 kilometers southeast of the northern Chile resort town of San Pedro de Atacama, near the Bolivian border, at a depth of 155.4 kilometers, it said.

    In the Pacific coastal city of Antofagasta, 1,100 km north of Chile's capital, hundreds of residents rushed to the streets out of fear of a tsunami.

    Despite the subterranean shaking, there were no reports of casualties yet, according to Chilean officials.

    Officials in Bolivia also said there were no immediate reports of injury or damage there and that the earthquake zone was sparsely populated.

    The University of Chile Seismology Institute put the magnitude at 6.8 on the Richter Scale, still the second most intense quake registered in northern Chile.

    A more powerful quake in June left 11 Chileans dead and destroyed hundreds of houses in the Andes mountains along the border with Bolivia. Enditem

Hi air,

A little busy the last two days but I'm doing fine. My brother is home now but he has a long way to go for recovery yet. A simple walk from his living room to the kitchen (about 10 ft) is still quite a challenge but that will improve as time goes on.

I'm glad the hear that you are doing better. Pain can be quite a debilitating factor. I know it has been for me. I used to run marathons and the 1 1/2 mile run for the Navy physical fitness test was a breeze. Now it is a challenge just to do anything.

page two

However, this isn’t the end. The American Civil Liberties Union and 12 other national non-profit organizations successfully challenged Office of Personnel Management’s Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) requirements that all participating charities check their employees and expenditures against several government watch lists for “terrorist activities” and that organizations certify that they do not contribute funds to organizations on those lists. This is something the ACLU finds worthy of celebrating. In my opinion this is reason to be suspicious of what the ACLU does with its funds.

It isn’t a far fetched idea to wonder if the ACLU uses its funds to support terrorism. The ACLU’s history is tainted in this arena.

    In 1985 Samuel L. Morrison, an employee of the Naval Intelligence Support Command was convicted and sentenced for stealing classified spy satellite photographs from his office, cutting off the “secret” designation and selling them to a foreign publication. The ACLU claimed that Morrison had the right to steal and sell these classified documents and the under the First Amendment.

    Positions like these might be easier to understand if we look at ACLU Policy #117. They title this policy “Controlling the Intelligence Agencies”. ”

    Limit the CIA, under the new name of the Foreign Intelligence Agency, to collecting and evaluating foreign intelligence information. Abolish all covert operations. Limit the FBI to criminal investigations by eliminating all COINTEL-PRO-type activity and all foreign and domestic intelligence investigations of groups or individuals unrelated to a specific criminal offense.

    Prohibit entirely wiretaps, tapping of telecommunications and burglaries. Restrict mail openings, mail covers, inspection of bank records, and inspection of telephone records….”

The ACLU Defends the P.L.O.

    “I’m afraid even the good guys on civil liberties are going to be against us on this one.” Those are the words of ACLU Executive director Ira Glasser on the ACLU’s decision to represent an agent of Yassir Araftat’s Palestine Liberation Organization.
    I wonder if his definition of “good guys” meant American citizens who care about their country and are not willing to grant sworn terrorists complete freedom within our borders. If so, he is absolutely correct. We are against that one.
    “Arafat’s group of ruthless murderers had set up an “information office” in Washington D.C, only a few blocks from the White House.

The ACLU Defends “Mad Dog” of Libya, Muammar Qaddafi.

    “In 1985, the ACLU learned of an alleged plan by the CIA to engineer Qaddafi’s overthrow. Outraged, they put together a “strenuous” public protest against this proposed action.

    In a letter fillled with self-righteous indignation, Morton Halperin, Director of the ACLU Washington office, expressed his opinion of that plan to Sen. David Durenberger, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, with copies to everyone imaginable.

    And to make sure no one was left out, the ACLU also issued a press release trumpeting it’s opposition to any attempt to oust Qaddafi.”

    The ACLU has also shown itself a willing tool of the terrorists, waging a massive anti-anti-terrorism legal campaign. This pillar of the legal Left denounced the government’s requirement that men aged 16-25 holding “temporary visas” from nations with known ties to terrorism register with the INS; represented Sami al-Arian, the North American fundraiser and co-founder of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (filing a brief upholding his inalienable right to fresh briefs!); rallied on behalf of convicted al-Qaeda benefactor Maher Mofeid Hawash; urged local communities not to cooperate with federal anti-terror investigations; and opposed the FBI’s monitoring Islamist mosques. As David Horowitz notes in his book Unholy Alliance, radical Center for Constitutional Rights lawyer Ron Kuby notes the “passionate…identification” most lawyers feel with their clients, such as that of convicted terror enabler Lynne Stewart for World Trade Center bomber Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Given her aid for international Islamic terrorism, the government is right to keep a watchful eye on those who perpetually side with the enemy. Front Page Magazine

They have fought hard for the release of Abu Ghraib images depicting sickening torture of our enemies, further inflaming the propaganda war on the side of the enemy. The ACLU also submitted a 37-page report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee describing specific U.S. breaches of the political and civil rights covenant.

The report included sections on “Excessive Government Secrecy”; “Racial Profiling of the U.S. Arab, South Asian, and Muslim Communities”; “Criminalization of Political Protest”; “Increased Surveillance Powers”; and “Random Searches.”

Recently the ACLU have decided to represent two detainees who claim the U.S. Military threw them into lions dens. Somebody is lion alright. They have also accused the U.S. military of outright murdering 21 detainees. They have even advised the majority of the prisoners at Gitmo that they did not have to answer questions from military interrogators.

Actions like these have enraged groups like The American Legion, and Christians for Reviving American Values, who are asking Congress to investigate the ACLU. The American Legion is already mobilizing its members to fight the ACLU over issues such as the Boyscouts. The sympathy for the enemy also has them fired up. To many of these groups, and to many Americans, the perception is that The ACLU cares more about terrorists than it does about America.

As you can see, balancing national security interests with a respect for civil liberties is not the goal of the ACLU. Its goal is the absolute pursuit of civil liberties, without regard for its consequences. Gone are the the carefully worded policies that guided Union thinking during World War II. Gone, too is any kind of talk about the enemies of the United States. It is hard to imagine a person vile enought, or a crisis serious enough, to shake the ACLU from its absolutist position during wartime. The tragedy is it is not just the nation’s security that stands to lose as a result, it is the cause of liberty itself.

ACLU’s War Against National Security

    In conjunction with the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the ACLU has lobbied hard against Arab-profiling at airports for years. “Profiles are notoriously under-inclusive,” says ACLU legislative counsel Gregory Nojeim. “Who knows who the next terrorist will appear as? It could be a grandmother. It could be a student. We just don’t know.”Source

    The airline industry’s fear of such lawsuits is based on solid historical precedent. In 1993, for instance, the ACLU joined forces with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) to sue Pan American World Airways for having detained a man of Iranian descent during the first Persian Gulf War.

So, the ACLU says political correctness trumps common sense. They block that route of securing ourselves from being blown up. What to do? Hmmm.. I’ve got it! Lets do random searches!

    ACLU Files Suit Over Random Subway Searches.The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), the New York chapter of the ACLU, has announced that they intend on filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan today. The suit claims that the random bag searches before boarding the subway system is unconstitutional.

City lawyers have noted that an al-Qaida training manual advising terrorists to avoid police checkpoints gives the city some justification for its random searches of bags entering the subway system.

Ok, so the ACLU says no profiled searches, and no random searches. What about searches across the board? Nope. Raymond James Stadium tried it, and the ACLU sued. So, where does that leave us with searches? I think we can conclude that the ACLU are against all searches. Is this because they stand by the principle of the fourth amendment? The irony and hypocrisy here is that, the NYCLU HQ has a sign warning visitors that all bags are subject to search. Apparantly their war against searches is not based on principle.

But searches are not the only that brings criticism on the ACLU on the topic of National Security.

The ACLU and CAIR have actually taken up quite a number of cases together. In 2003, the Ohio chapter of the ACLU awarded its yearly “Liberty Flame Award” to the Ohio chapter of CAIR “for contributions to
the advancement and protection of civil liberties.” This same Ohio chapter, in August of this year, refused contributions from the United Way, as to not complete a required counterterrorism compliance form.

But it isn’t isolated to one rouge chapter.

    In October of 2004, the ACLU turned down $1.15 million in funding from two of it’s most generous and loyal contributors, the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, saying new anti-terrorism restrictions demanded by the institutions make it unable to accept their funds.

    “The Ford Foundation now bars recipients of its funds from engaging in any activity that “promotes violence, terrorism, bigotry, or the destruction of any state.”

    The Rockefeller Foundation’s provisions state that recipients of its funds may not “directly or indirectly engage in, promote, or support other organizations or individuals who engage in or promote terrorist activity.

What is this all about?

    Although its website proclaims that it does not receive “any government funding,” it does get money from a program that allows federal employees to make charitable contributions through payroll deductions. Last year it got $470,000 from the program. (The ACLU’s 2002 annual budget, the most recent available, was $102 million.)

    Now it had a choice: give up the money, or sign a promise certifying that the ACLU “does not knowingly employ individuals or contribute funds to organizations found on” government watch lists of suspected supporters of terrorism.

    Trouble was, the ACLU had strongly opposed the lists, saying they were often inaccurate and violated the constitutional rights of some people.

    But it really hated the idea of giving up the money.Source

So what did they do? Well, at first they decided they would try to trick the government. They decided to keep the money, AND keep hiring anyone they pleased, by what Nadine Strossen called a “clever interpretation.” Their solution was that if they remained ignorant of who was on the list, then they couldn’t “knowingly” hire anyone on the list. Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU’s executive director, tells the New York Times: “I’ve printed [the lists] out. I’ve never consulted them.”

To make a long story short, when The New York Times outted them, they caved in. But they didn’t cave in to the government, they just decided to forgoe the money, so they could still ignorantly hire people on the government watchlist. Isn’t that nice?

cont'd on page two

Hi again di,

Yes children are such a blessing. I have a daughter that is now 21 yrs old that is educationally handicapped and now has a daughter of her own. She has always been a blessing to us.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 /Christian Wire Service/ -- The Reverends Rob Schenck (pronounced SHANK) and Patrick J. Mahoney will visit ACLU headquarters today to hand-deliver more than 20,000 petitions demanding that the left-leaning liberal attack group back off of terrorizing communities and individuals who seek to affirm America's Judeo-Christian values.

Schenck, who heads up Faith and Action in the Nation's Capital, and Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, asked their respective members to sign the statements after the ACLU sued a small rural school district in Adams County, Ohio, over four displays of the Ten Commandments in front of public schools there. The ACLU won an order for the Commandments to be removed, then demanded that the school reimburse them for legal expenses. After Christian ministers in the community stepped forward with a pledge to replace the money taken from the school budget, the ACLU settled for $80,000.

"The ACLU is this generation's Ku Klux Klan," said Rev. Rob Schenck. "They gallop into small towns with legal hoods over their heads and terrorize good people by threatening to harm children by draining the coffers of local schools if they so much as dare to recognize our nation's true heritage. These ACLU bullies are nothing more than psychological terrorists."

The Reverends Schenck and Mahoney plan to arrive at the offices of the ACLU around 3:00 P.M.

[It's not possible to use it for military purposes]

Iran admits satellite can spy on Israel

November 17, 2005

BY ALI AKBAR DAREINI

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said the satellite would be purely scientific. But a month after its launch -- and only weeks after the president said Israel should be wiped off the map -- the head of Tehran's space program now says the Sina-1 is capable of spying on the Jewish state.

The launch of the Russian-made satellite into orbit aboard a Russian rocket last month marked the beginning of Iran's space program. Officials say a second satellite -- this one Iranian-built -- will be launched in about two months, heightening Israeli concerns.

The Sina-1's stated purpose is to take pictures of Iran and to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation. But as it orbits the Earth, with controllers able to point its cameras as they wish, Sina-1 gives Iran a limited space reconnaissance capability over the entire Middle East.

''Sina-1 is a research satellite. It's not possible to use it for military purposes,'' said Deputy Telecom Minister Ahmad Talebzadeh, who heads the space program.

But he agreed it could spy on Israel.

''Technically speaking, yes. It can monitor Israel,'' he said. ''But we don't need to do it. You can buy satellite photos of Israeli streets from the market.''

Iran also has said its nuclear program is peaceful, aimed at producing electricity -- though the United States believes the program secretly aims to produce nuclear weapons.



(My Notes: This is not entirely true. It is capable of low level Military useage such as reconnaissance and UHF and VHF communications. Something else to note here is that it has a shelf life of three years.)

And remember...we're all works in progress.

Amen, Allinall and yes my Dad really had it.