News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

Demonstrators Mark Roe V. Wade Anniversary

By MARTIGA LOHN, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Thousands of abortion opponents massed outside Minnesota's Capitol on Sunday in one of several protests nationwide on the 33rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling, amid heightened hopes and fears over what a new face on the Supreme Court will mean for the decision establishing abortion rights.

A crowd of sign-wavers clad in parkas, winter boots and collars turned up against a cutting wind to call for a ban on public funding of abortion.

"We must stop abortion in our state," said Scott Fischbach, head of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. "Things are changing in this country."  (thanks to the ACLU  )

Many abortion opponents said they were heartened by President Bush's choice of Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate who was often the court's swing vote.

Alito, who appears to have solid support from the Senate's Republican majority, refused during his confirmation hearings to agree with assertions by Democrats that Roe v. Wade was "settled law," upsetting supporters of abortion rights and heartening opponents.

"We have a dream today that someday soon this will not be an anniversary of sadness, but an anniversary of justice restored," said Minnesota's Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

In San Francisco, thousands of abortion opponents shouldering signs with slogans such as "Peace Begins in the Womb" marched Saturday, while abortion rights supporters along the march route waved clothes hangers and shouted "Bigots go home."

"Abortion rights have been slowly whittled away while we haven't even been looking," said Kitty Striker, 22, who decorated her hair with small coat hanger replicas for the counter-protest. "That's what's so shocking and so scary to me."

In Idaho, nearly 400 abortion protesters marched at the Statehouse Saturday, including Reid Richardson and his 5-year-old stepdaughter, Allie Zebley, who carried sign with her ultrasound photo and the words, "This is me at 16 weeks."

About half that number gathered Sunday outside the Idaho Capitol in support of abortion rights.

"When American women are barred from accessing health services at the whim of a politician's religious beliefs, we are not in a democracy at all," said Bree Herndon-Michael, a member of the Idaho Women's Network.

The largest abortion demonstration was expected Monday in Washington, D.C., where anti-abortion activists planned to converge on the mall to hear speakers supporting their cause and march on the Congress and Supreme Court.

Many who support abortion rights held a candlelight vigil in front of the Supreme Court Sunday night, waving signs that read: "Alito-No Justice For Women," and "Keep Abortion Legal."

The nation's high court made abortion legal on Jan. 22, 1973. But efforts to restrict or outlaw the procedure have been just as enduring; 34 states have passed laws requiring parents either to be notified or to give consent when their underage daughters seek abortions.

This year, abortion foes in Minnesota will try to encourage the Legislature to ban public funding of abortions for Medicaid recipients, which has been required since a 1995 state Supreme Court decision. They are also campaigning against the re-election of a justice who supported the decision.

In Michigan, a group of ministry leaders used the anniversary to launch a new anti-abortion organization, Michigan Chooses Life. One goal is to support efforts to get a measure on the 2006 ballot that would change the state constitution to legally define a person as existing at the moment of conception. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan has said that even if the measure does succeed, it will be challenged in court.

Demonstrators Mark Roe V. Wade Anniversary

Figures the American Civil Liberties Union would try, and change state law if voted in.

[Shammu]

U.S. Navy Seizes Pirate Ship Off Somalia

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 19 minutes ago

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The U.S. Navy boarded an apparent pirate ship in the Indian Ocean and detained 26 men for questioning, the Navy said Sunday.

The 16 Indians and 10 Somali men were aboard a traditional dhow that was chased and seized Saturday by the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, said Lt. Leslie Hull-Ryde of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain.

The dhow stopped fleeing after the Churchill twice fired warning shots during the chase, which ended 54 miles off the coast of Somalia, the Navy said. U.S. sailors boarded the dhow and seized a cache of small arms.

The dhow's crew and passengers were being questioned Sunday aboard the Churchill to determine which were pirates and which were legitimate crew members, Hull-Ryde said.

Sailors aboard the dhow told Navy investigators that pirates hijacked the vessel six days ago near Mogadishu and thereafter used it to stage pirate attacks on merchant ships.

The Churchill is part of a multinational task force patrolling the western Indian Ocean and Horn of Africa region to thwart terrorist activity and other lawlessness during the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The Navy said it captured the dhow in response to a report from the International Maritime Bureau in Kuala Lumpur on Friday that said pirates had fired on the MV Delta Ranger, a Bahamian-flagged bulk carrier that was passing some 200 miles off the central eastern coast of Somalia.

Hull-Ryde said the Navy was still investigating the incident and would discuss with international authorities what to do with the detained men.

"The disposition of people and vessels involved in acts of piracy on the high seas are based on a variety of factors, including the offense, the flags of the vessels, the nationalities of the crew, and others," Hull-Ryde said in an e-mail.

Piracy is rampant off the coast of Somalia, which is torn by renewed clashes between militias fighting over control of the troubled African country. Many shipping companies resort to paying ransoms, saying they have few alternatives.

Last month, Somali militiamen finally relinquished a merchant ship hijacked in October.

In November, Somali pirates freed a Ukrainian ore carrier and its 22 member crew after holding it for 40 days. It was unclear whether a US$700,000 ransom demanded by the pirates had been paid.

One of the boldest recent attacks was on Nov. 5, when two boats full of pirates approached a cruise ship carrying Western tourists, about 100 miles off Somalia and fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.

The crew used a weapon that directs earsplitting noise at attackers, then sped away.

Somalia has had no effective government since 1991, when warlords ousted a dictatorship and then turned on each other, carving the nation of 8.2 million into a patchwork of fiefdoms.

U.S. Navy Seizes Pirate Ship Off Somalia

[Shammu]

 January 22, 2006     
States Step Up Fight on Abortion

Anticipating a more conservative Supreme Court, lawmakers are proposing bans in hope of forcing the justices to revisit Roe vs. Wade.

By P.J. Huffstutter and Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writers

INDIANAPOLIS — Taking direct aim at Roe vs. Wade, lawmakers from several states are proposing broad restrictions on abortion, with the goal of forcing the U.S. Supreme Court — once it has a second new justice — to revisit the landmark ruling issued 33 years ago today.

The bill under consideration in Indiana would ban all abortions, except when continuing the pregnancy would threaten the woman's life or put her physical health in danger of "substantial permanent impairment." Similar legislation is pending in Ohio, Georgia and Tennessee.

The bills are in direct conflict with the Supreme Court's 1973 rulings establishing abortion as a constitutional right. Roe vs. Wade and its companion case, Doe vs. Bolton, asserted that doctors could consider "all factors … relevant to the well-being of the patient," including emotional and psychological health.

In the years since, states have adopted a variety of laws designed to restrict access to abortion or force women to think through alternatives. Those efforts are expected to continue this year, with states considering proposals to impose new licensing standards on abortion clinics, or to require women seeking abortions to first view ultrasound images of their fetuses and discuss with a counselor the pain a fetus might feel during the procedure.

About 50 such bills were passed in 2005 — twice as many as in 2004, according to the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America.

In California, a fetal pain bill was introduced last year but never made it out of committee. Voters narrowly rejected a November ballot initiative that would have amended the state's constitution by requiring parental notification before a minor could obtain an abortion.

Increasingly, lawmakers opposed to abortion are seeking bolder measures.

Republican Rep. Troy Woodruff, serving his first term in the Indiana Legislature, wrote House Bill 1096 knowing it would conflict with Roe vs. Wade.

That was precisely his point: He wants his ban appealed to the Supreme Court, in hopes that the justices will overturn Roe and give states the power to make abortion a crime. "On an issue that's this personal, it should be decided as local as possible," he said. "We either want these procedures, or we don't…. And I don't."

The debate unfolds as the Senate prepares to vote on Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr., a federal appellate judge. As a Reagan administration lawyer, Alito laid out a plan to overturn Roe vs. Wade. In his confirmation hearings this month, he declined to call the case "settled law," suggesting that he might be willing to reverse or modify it.

If confirmed, Alito would succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who supports abortion rights. He would join another conservative justice appointed by President Bush: John G. Roberts Jr., who was confirmed as chief justice in September.

Even if Alito and Roberts prove to be staunch antiabortion votes, a bare majority of justices would still support the core principle of a woman's right to end an unwanted pregnancy. But a retirement or illness among the more liberal justices could change that balance.

In anticipation of that day, antiabortion activists have been focusing their efforts on establishing policy at the state level.

Louisiana sets out that "the unborn child is a human being from the time of conception." The Nebraska Legislature has said that it "expressly deplore the destruction of unborn human lives." Pennsylvania seeks "to extend to the unborn the equal protection of the laws." Utah, Missouri and Illinois are among several other states with similar language in their constitutions or statutes.

Such statements are merely philosophical; they don't have the force of law. But at least a dozen states have criminal laws banning abortion. They can't be enforced as long as Roe vs. Wade remains binding. In theory, though, they could take effect immediately upon a reversal, subjecting abortion providers to penalties ranging from 12 months' hard labor in Alabama to 20 years' imprisonment in Rhode Island.

"What the public doesn't realize is that the building blocks are already in place to re-criminalize abortion if Roe is overturned," said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York.

She and other abortion rights activists predict that abortion would remain legal on the East and West coasts and in a few states in between — among them Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico. They expect that at least 19 states across the Midwest and South would ban abortion.

Abortion opponents say such predictions are just scare tactics.

"They're way overestimating our potential," said Mary Spaulding Balch, state legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee. "They're trying to scare the American people into thinking we're going back to the back-alley, coat-hanger days, but that's not the case."

"Much as we'd like to see it all end … I think it's a chipping-away process," said Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life.

States Step Up Fight on Abortion

[Shammu]

I have no idea why, some of my last post, is struck out.

[Shammu]

Sympathy for al-Qaida Surges in Pakistan

By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer Sun Jan 22, 3:37 PM ET

DAMADOLA, Pakistan - Sympathy for al-Qaida has surged after a U.S. airstrike devastated this remote mountain hamlet in a region sometimes as hostile toward the Pakistani government as it is to the United States.

A week after the attack, villagers insist no members of the terror network were anywhere near the border village when it was hit. But thousands of protesters flooded a nearby town chanting, "Long live Osama bin Laden!"

Pakistan's army, in charge of hunting militants, was nowhere to be seen.

The rally was the latest in a series of demonstrations across Pakistan against the Jan. 13 attack, which apparently targeted but missed al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri.

The military still mans numerous checkpoints in the area, but it appears to be keeping a low profile so it will not inflame villagers still seething over the deaths of 13 civilians, including women and children, in the attack.

Pakistani intelligence officials believe that four top al-Qaida operatives may have also been killed in the strike including al-Qaida's master bomb maker, Midhat Mursi, who has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head.

The men had gathered for dinner on the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha to plan attacks for early this year in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said.

"This attack has increased our hatred for Americans because they are killing innocent women and children," said Zakir Ullah, one of 5,000 demonstrators in Inayat Qala, a market town about three miles from Damadola.

"We support jihad (holy war). Jihad is the duty of every Muslim," he said.

The assault has caused friction between Islamabad and Washington and widespread outrage in this Islamic nation of 150 million, but few are as angry as the people who live in the virtually lawless tribal region that borders Afghanistan. The area is a hotbed of Taliban and al-Qaida sympathizers — and a possible sanctuary for bin Laden himself.

Damadola residents deny any links to the militants.

"We don't have anything to do with al-Qaida, and it was a cruel act of the Americans to attack my house without reason," said Bacha Khan, a flour mill worker whose house was among the three destroyed.

A relative of Faqir Mohammed, a pro-Taliban cleric who intelligence officials believe hid the bodies of the four suspected al-Qaida militants killed in the attack to prevent their identification, was arrested Sunday in Damadola, a security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Pakistani authorities say they are looking for fighters who might have survived the attack, but they have not visibly stepped up maneuvers in the area.

While the military has about 70,000 soldiers along the border with Afghanistan, an Associated Press reporter who has visited Damadola three times since the attack has not seen a single uniformed soldier there.

Army spokesman Brigadier Shahjehan Ali Khan said there has been no change in the military's policy of fighting terrorism.

"Whenever we get a tip-off, we always conduct operations," he said.

Khan could not estimate how many militants are hiding among the border region's 3.2 million residents. Officials in the past have said hundreds of Arab, Central Asian and Afghan fighters are among them.

Outrage at the United States and at the government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for backing Washington's war on terrorism has reached its highest pitch since the U.S. ousted Afghanistan's Taliban regime after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on America.

Back then, a local cleric in Bajur, the region surrounding Damadola, rallied 8,000 villagers to fight with the Taliban against U.S.-led forces.

Bajur and Afghanistan's neighboring Kunar region have since served as hideouts because of their rugged mountains — and the sympathies of residents. Many are Pashtuns, the same ethnic group as the Taliban.

The Jan. 13 attack was believed to have been launched by a Predator drone from Afghanistan, where some 20,000 U.S. troops are based. Pakistan does not allow U.S. forces to pursue militants across the border or launch strikes without permission. Government officials have said they were not informed ahead of time.

Many of Sunday's protesters called for Musharraf's resignation.

"As a president he has failed to protect the people and as chief of the army staff he has failed to protect the frontiers," said Maulana Mohammed Sadiq, a lawmaker in the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, which helped organize the rallies.

In a show of solidarity, the opposition Jamaat Islami, or Islamic Party, marshaled 50 volunteers Sunday to help the village rebuild.

Taliban-style radicals are gaining strength along Pakistan's border partly because they intimidate anyone who disagrees, said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general.

The military often relies on tribal justice to turn people over and avoids large-scale operations that could cause civilian casualties, he said.

Sympathy for al-Qaida Surges in Pakistan

[Soldier4Christ]

I have no idea why, some of my last post, is struck out.

Behind the words "expressly deplore" there is an s in [] but I don't see the ending function for it??

[Shammu]

Jan. 23, 2006 5:17
Nasrallah warns Hizbullah not to cooperate with US
By JPOST.COM STAFF

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah called upon the Hizbullah to refrain from cooperating with the United States' actions against the organization.

He warned that whoever would be caught aiding the US would "regret his error."

Nasrallah accused the United States of interfering with Lebanon's domestic affairs, Israel Radio reported.

Nasrallah warns Hizbullah not to cooperate with US

The title is almost as long as the story.

[Shammu]

Bin Laden hailed as 'Pancho Villa of Islam'
Radical Hispanic group compares him to elusive U.S. enemy
Posted: January 21, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

A radical Hispanic group that claims the southwestern United States belongs to Mexico is hailing elusive al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden as the "Pancho Villa of Islam."

Writing for the website "The Voice of Aztlan," Ernesto Cienfuegos recalled the telegraphed message sent by Gen. John J. Pershing after failing to capture the Mexican revolutionary nearly a century ago, "Villa is everywhere but Villa is nowhere."

Villa, after raiding a small New Mexico border town in 1916, outlasted Pershing after an 11-month search. The Mexican leader, Cienfuegos said, "knew every rock, every stream, every cave, and every cactus of the immense sierra of Chihuahua."

Today, Cienfuegos said, "we are hearing similar accounts" concerning the search for bin Laden by U.S. special forces.


Osama bin Laden

Thursday, the Arab television news network Al-Jazeera broadcast a new audiotape purported to be from bin Laden that came after several reports suggesting the al-Qaida leader was dead. The tape warns that al-Qaida is preparing new attacks inside the United States and says the need for preparations, not heightened security measures, is the reason there have been no attacks since 9-11.

"Like Pancho Villa, it looks like Osama bin Laden has outsmarted the U.S. military generals," Cienfuegos wrote in a piece posted Sunday.

Cienfuegos noted media reports saying bin Laden had deceived U.S. operatives by planting videos and voice recordings used by Taliban fighters over mobile phone communications to make them think he was at a certain location.

"General Villa utilized similar tactics to fool Pershing, he said, who was "chasing phantom Villas all over Chihuahua and finally became exhausted and gave up."

Cienfuegos said thee are "other uncanny similarities" between bin Laden and Villa.

"Both are revered by the common people of each respective community," he said. "Both are seen as Robin Hoods by the poor and oppressed. Both were construction contractors at one time in their lives. Francisco Villa was a general contractor on the construction of the railroad through Chihuahua's majestic Copper Canyon. Both Osama bin Laden and General Francisco Villa were indirectly fighting those whom they perceived to be lackeys of the United States.

Villa, Cienfuegos said, "was fighting Venustanio Carranza, who had a cozy 'sellout' relationship with (President) Woodrow Wilson, and Osama bin Laden is fighting the Saudi royalty who have a very cozy relationship with U.S. oil interests to the detriment of the overall disenfranchised Arab population."

The U.S. military expedition to capture Villa was "doomed to failure," he said, because Pershing and his expedition were "unfamiliar with the territory, were up against a very clever military genius, and were operating within a very hostile local population who had come to see the revolutionary as a folk hero and national symbol of defying America."

Villa, said Cienfuegos, "was seen by Mexicans as a clear winner, emerging triumphant from a battle with the powerful United States and assumed legendary status that endures till this day."

"It certainly appears today, that Osama bin Laden is headed for the very same legendary and folk hero status in Islam."

Bin Laden hailed as 'Pancho Villa of Islam'

[Shammu]

January 20, 2006 09:45 am

Witches fight for symbols on gravestones
By Ben Casselman
The Salem News (Salem, Mass.)
SALEM, Mass. —

There are witches in foxholes. But unlike their peers in more mainstream religions, when Wiccan veterans die, they cannot get the symbol of their religion, the pentacle, inscribed on their government-funded headstones.

Now, witches, including some on Massachusetts' North Shore, are trying to change that. Two separate groups have asked the federal government to approve their star-in-circle symbol for use on deceased veterans’ grave markers.

“We have a fair number of people who’ve served in the U.S. military, too, and given their lives for this country or served it,” said Jerrie Hildebrand, a Salem resident and Wiccan priest. “They have just as much right to have their symbology on their headstone as anyone else does.”

For decades, the Department of Veterans Affairs has provided deceased veterans with headstones or grave markers that include an “emblem of belief.” Veterans can receive the markers regardless of whether they are killed in action and wherever they are buried.

The Christian cross and the Jewish Star of David are by far the most commonly requested emblems, but the VA has also approved symbols for 36 other religious groups, including Islam, Buddhism and even atheism. Even little-known groups such as the United Church of Religious Science and Eckankar have managed to meet the VA’s standards.

But Wiccan leaders have had trouble getting the VA to approve the pentacle, a five-pointed star surrounded by a circle that many pagan groups have adopted as their symbol. They say they have been trying to get the pentacle approved for nearly a decade but have continually been told that the VA is revising its application process.

“Everybody’s application kept getting put on hold,” Hildebrand said.

That may finally be changing. In November, the VA provided a new list of requirements to Circle Sanctuary — a national pagan group of which Hildebrand is a leading member. Earlier this month, the group submitted an application, including the name of a recently deceased veteran whose family wanted his grave marked with a pentacle.

Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary’s senior minister, would not disclose the name of the veteran for privacy reasons. But she said that if the pentacle is approved, other veterans will make the same request.

“There are other people right now connected with our organization that when this gets approved ... they will make that choice,” Fox said. “Our church not only has a need, it’s an immediate need.”

Hildebrand suspects political motives are behind the government’s delay, but a spokeswoman said the VA had not received a complete application in the past. She said she did not know whether the agency has received one now.

Angela Brin, a practicing witch who lives in Marblehead, said she hopes the VA does not delay any further. Especially during wartime, she said, the government should do all it can for those who serve.

“If a person serves their country, and if having a religious symbol is available and being offered to veterans, why should one group, no matter who they are, be excluded?” Brin asked. “If something’s being offered to one group, it should be offered to everyone.”

Hildebrand agrees.

“There are practicing covens in Iraq right now,” she said. “We have people who are dying, too.”

Witches fight for symbols on gravestones

[Shammu]

Belafonte accuses Bush of Gestapo tactics
Singer who called president a ‘terrorist’ takes new swipe at White House

Updated: 9:34 p.m. ET Jan. 21, 2006

NEW YORK - Entertainer Harry Belafonte, one of the Bush administration’s harshest critics, compared the Homeland Security Department to the Nazi Gestapo on Saturday and attacked the president as a liar.

“We’ve come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo of Homeland Security lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended,” Belafonte said in a speech to the annual meeting of the Arts Presenters Members Conference.

“You can be arrested and not charged. You can be arrested and have no right to counsel,” said Belafonte.
Story continues below ↓ advertisement

Belafonte’s remarks on Saturday — part of a 45-minute speech on the role of the arts in a politically changing world — were greeted with a roaring standing ovation from an audience which included singer Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, and members of the arts community from several dozen countries.

He had called President Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world” during a trip to Venezuela two weeks ago. Belafonte, 78, made that comment after a meeting with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

The Harlem-born Belafonte, who was raised in Jamaica, said his activism was inspired by an impoverished mother “who imbued in me that we should never capitulate to oppression.”

He acknowledged that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks demanded a reaction by the United States, but said the policies of the Bush administration were not the right response.

“Fascism is fascism. Terrorism is terrorism. Oppression is oppression,” said Belafonte, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Bush, he said, rose to power “somewhat dubiously and ... then lies to the people of this nation, misleads them, misinstructs, and then sends off hundreds of thousands of our own boys and girls to a foreign land that has not aggressed against us.”

Belafonte accuses Bush of Gestapo tactics

My note; What does he call terrorism?

[Soldier4Christ]

Belafonte accuses Bush of Gestapo tactics

A communist accusing someone else of Gestapo tactics??

 

[Shammu]

A communist accusing someone else of Gestapo tactics??

 

Funny it ain't, if I had room in my sig line, I would put. "If you can't support your country, then leave it and go to another."........

[nChrist]

Funny it ain't, if I had room in my sig line, I would put. "If you can't support your country, then leave it and go to another."........

Well, it seems that it is time to offer my free graphic again. 

I made it, and it is FREE. Take it and use it.

[at_the_Cross]

Well, it seems that it is time to offer my free graphic again. 

I made it, and it is FREE. Take it and use it.

lol

[Shammu]

Well, it seems that it is time to offer my free graphic again. 

I made it, and it is FREE. Take it and use it.

Thank you brother, as you can see I have it in use already.