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This just came out to the HHS press list: DATE: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 FOR RELEASE: Immediately Contact: AoA Press Office (202) 357-3507 HHS to Create a National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced plans to establish the nation's first national resource center to assist communities across the country in their efforts to provide services and supports for older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals.

Sen John McCain has taken an active role in recruiting center-right candidates to run for office in 2010. From the Politico Fresh from a humbling loss in last year’s presidential election, Sen. John McCain is working behind-the-scenes to reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image.

I came across a news item in the USA Today website, dated August 18, that got my attention. It concerns "Dark Energy", the mysterious force that seems to be speeding up the expansion of the universe, that no one can find or explain. Two scientists say is doesn't exist now because of a "mathematical solution they have produced, that suggests it is a natural result of the Big Bang. Part of the article is reproduced here. "What's the answer? It doesn't exist, suggest mathematicians Blake Temple and Joel Smoller, in a study released Monday by the Proceedings of the National...

The Araby Youth Center formally opened during a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Aug. 30. The center is a result of the efforts of the Gulf Region Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq, and its partnership with the local Iraqi government. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo. BAGHDAD — The conflict in Iraq has had a dramatic effect on many Iraqi children, but the children of Shaab now have a fun, safe place to play with the recent opening of the Araby Youth Center here.The center is a result of the efforts of the Gulf Region Division, U.S. Army Corps of...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Aug. 12, 2009 – U.S. Soldiers, airmen and civilians here are taking part in a special opportunity to learn Arabic. Army 2nd Lt. Noel Cronin converts an Arabic word to its feminine form during the first Introduction to Arabic class offered by the Basra Education Center, Basra, Iraq, Aug. 5, 2009. U.S. Army photo by 1st Sgt. Larry Mears  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. On the first day of the first Introduction to Arabic class offered here through the Basra Education Center, their teacher, an Army interpreter known as Ms. Lucy, wasted no time with...

In their first unified voice on the subject, Texas Medical Center leaders Monday sent a message to Congress as it tries to reform America's troubled health care system: slow down. Appearing at a news conference sponsored by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, many of the medical center's biggest names said the issue is too important to rush through legislation that could have unforeseen harmful consequences. “This is a monumental piece of legislation that is going to impact people for many years, both the 300 million people who have insurance and the 47 million who don't,” said Dan Wolterman, CEO...

The Ruzh Hallat Primary Health Care Center will provide medical services for 30,000 residents of the Humer Kwer quarter of Sulaymaniyah province. USACE photo by Mike Scheck. SULAYMANIYAH — For the 30,000 residents of the Humer Kwer quarter of this province, access to healthcare just got a lot easier with the completion of the Ruzh Hallat Primary Healthcare Center. The $540,000 construction project was managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in Iraq. The U.S. Economic Support Fund provided funding for the project, and the USACE’s Sulaymaniyah Resident Office was the on-site construction manager.Dr. Ousman Younes, the Kurdistan...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, June 19, 2009 – Weeks of planning and hard work came to fruition as the Basra Education Center officially opened here June 15. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Robert L. Meeks, left, discusses education center programs with soldiers at Contingency Operating Base Basra, Iraq, June 15, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Derek M. Smith  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Robert L. Meeks, 41st Fires Brigade, said it took weeks of sunup to sundown work to bring his vision to life. Working with the outgoing British forces’...

WASHINGTON – On both economic and national-security fronts, President Barack Obama is giving ground and crossing swords with political allies. Caught in the worst economic downturn in generations, Obama has had to temper his stance on trade and lower his expectations for trimming charitable tax breaks for the wealthy and for taxing greenhouse-gas polluters. He's not the first president to be pulled toward the political center after being elected. But the recession and two wars abroad put him in a particularly tough spot — with smaller margins for error. With the deficit mushrooming, lawmakers in both parties are worrying more...

5/13/2009 - TUCSON, Ariz. (AFNS) -- In the Southern Arizona desert, three C-130 Hercules aircraft recently rumbled over the saguaros and airdropped training bundles to a waiting combat controller. The historic drop was conducted digitally with a tactical data link known as the Situational Awareness Data Link, or SADL. It was the first time an aircrew in a C-130, in cooperation with a joint terminal attack controller on the ground, used digital technology to work as a team. The mission was part of an operational utility evaluation run by officials in the Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve Test Center, or...

A national debate has raged among those on the Right, the former Right, and the never Right over how to approach the future. Even though the Republican Party just nominated a moderate who was thrashed by the most liberal-left Democrat nominee in history, who should have been eminently beatable for that reason, there are some who insist that future success lies in dumping conservatism and following the moderates ever more extremely. The Winning Strategy: Dump the Christians, Raise Taxes Colin Powell recently took the lead in making this case. He says the party has become too conservative, and Republicans should...

This computer rendering shows the planned $2.6 million state-of-the-art Zakho Emergency Hospital and Trauma Center. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing the project, with completion scheduled for August 2009. Rendering courtesy of USACE. ZAKHO — Car accidents and trauma injuries account for a large percentage of the medical care administered in this Kurdish border town.  Although the town has adequate medical facilities, the treatment of trauma patients has placed a heavy burden on hospital medical staff.To ease the strain, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division is overseeing the construction of a $2.6 million state-of-the-art medical...

A gunman walked into an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton on Friday, killing an unknown number of people, wounding at least six and taking as many as 41 hostage, officials said.

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2009 – The U.S. strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan must “put the Afghan people at the center,” as the United States and coalition provide them the support they need to build their country, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said during a Pentagon Channel podcast interview he applauds the comprehensive strategy review under way and expects it to wrap up “in the next week or two at most.” “We have to recognize where we are in Afghanistan,” Mullen said. “We are in a position where the security for...

DIWANIYAH — Local townspeople joined Iraqi and American officials here to mark the opening of the new Jumhoury Primary Healthcare Clinic, March 8. During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Dr. Abdulameer al-Obaidy, Diwaniyah’s director general of health, thanked the local Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division (GRD), and the Iraqi contractor for their efforts in building such a quality facility. Ahmed A. Razak, a senior Iraqi deputy resident engineer with GRD, pointed out that the state-of-the-art clinic includes four doctors’ offices with adjoining exam rooms, two dental exam rooms, an x-ray room, a laboratory, a...

Assailants threw an explosive at a Jewish community center on Thursday, but nobody was hurt in the blast - the second assault against Venezuela's Jewish community this year. Jewish community center attacked in Venezuela Abraham Garzon, president of the Jewish Community Center, told the local Globovision television news channel that a small explosive resembling a pipe-bomb was lobbed at the building in Caracas before dawn on Thursday. The explosion damaged the doors to the center. "It seems there are people in the country dedicated to sowing terrorism," Garzon said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which immediately reignited fears...

Some 250 teenage boys will pile onto the carpet of the Islamic Center of Passaic County on Sunday to catch the Super Bowl on a big screen. But when the much-buzzed-about commercials come on, they won't be watching. A youth leader manning the projector slaps a piece of paper over the lens, blocking out images the center considers inappropriate, such as beers and bikinis. "The purpose is to keep them away from bad influences," said Emad Hamdeh, the youth committee director. "The beer commercials show people happy while drinking; that's not reality." During the self-imposed blackouts, the boy fans don't...

SAFWAN — A newly renovated agricultural center in Safwan, a town in southern Iraq’s Basrah province, was dedicated Dec. 7. Members of the Safwan Agricultural Society Board, the Agricultural Society president and Coalition representatives were on hand for the celebration. The newly renovated facility, seeds, tractors, generators, greenhouse kits and plastic sheathing were part of the $1.5 million investment the Coalition made to get the community’s economy back on its feet. “This project has jumpstarted the agro-business for farmers,” said Sgt. Adam Kirschner, project management officer for the agricultural center. “With 50 percent of the local population in the business,...

While Barack Obama introduced the first members of his economic team, a wailing noise could be heard somewhere in the background. That was the sound of complaining liberals, who worry that the president-elect is already surrendering the progressive moment to centrists -- the kind of post-election disappointment with which they are all too familiar. Looking over the names of the new Obama appointees to important positions in the Treasury and the White House, critics on the left have dismissed them as "Clintonite retreads" or worse. According to this gloomy analysis, the incoming administration is poised to repeat the mistakes of...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2008 – Wounded warriors who call into the Marine Wounded Warrior Call Center near Quantico, Va., find truth in the motto, “once a Marine, always a Marine.” That’s because their calls are answered by people like Alfredo Soto, who fondly remembers the camaraderie he experienced during his service in the Marine Corps. “We were always being told to look out for and take care of your buddy,” Soto, 36, said. He is one of several veterans and military family members who work the phones at the call center in Dumfries, Va. “I know I’m out of...

BAGHDAD — For years, the western Baghdad District of Abu Ghraib has been synonymous with violence and unrest. Tales of prisoner abuse, convoy ambushes and Soldiers missing in action were associated with the small Baghdad suburb. With the security situation becoming more stable in Baghdad and the surrounding areas, and the Iraqi security forces assuming more security responsibility each week, efforts to improve and revitalize areas such as Abu Ghraib are now starting to move forward. Local tribal and religious leaders, along with Government of Iraq, Iraqi security forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad leaders, gathered to celebrate one such...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, Nov. 13, 2008 – The Warrior and Family Support Center located steps away from Brooke Army Medical Center here is one packed place. Retired Army Lt. Gen. Glynn Mallory talks about the new $4 million, 12,000-square-foot Warrior and Family Assistance Center that opens Dec. 1, 2008, on the Brooke Army Medical Center complex at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. It is stuffed from floor to ceiling with homey decorations, leather furniture, stacks of snacks, baskets of books, computer work stations, a video library...

The National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia is dedicated to "increasing public understanding of, and appreciation for, the Constitution, its history, and its contemporary relevance." So naturally, it has named Bill Clinton its next chairman. In "Dereliction of Duty: The Constitutional Record of President Clinton," the Cato Institute examined Mr. Clinton's record: Though he "has expressed support for an 'expansive' view of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, he has actually weakened a number of fundamental guarantees, including those of free speech and the right to trial by jury and that against double jeopardy. He has also supported retroactive taxes,...

Americans migrate back to the cities By Tom Leonard in New York Last Updated: 2:23AM BST 19/06/2008 Americans are choosing to abandon the suburban sprawl in favour of a more comfortable, cheaper and greener life in the city centre. Americans flocked to the suburbs after the WWII. Soaring energy prices and the sub-prime crisis are driving them back to the cities The mass migration of America's middle classes from urban areas to the suburbs amounted to a demographic revolution in the years after the Second World War. But the so-called "driveable suburb" is becoming increasingly unfeasible as soaring fuel costs...

Knollenberg Introduces Legislation to Prohibit Federal Funding of the Carter CenterBill in response President Carter’s meetings with terrorist leaders Washington, Apr 16 - Congressman Joe Knollenberg (MI-09) today introduced legislation that would prevent the federal government from giving taxpayer money to the Carter Center, headed by former President Jimmy Carter. “America must speak with one voice against our terrorist enemies,” Knollenberg said. “It sends a fundamentally troubling message when an American dignitary is engaged in dialogue with terrorists. My legislation will make sure that taxpayer dollars are not being used to support discussions or negotiations with terrorist groups.” Former President...

Sgt. Amanda E. Timmer, head of the Women’s Initiative for the Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team, speaks with an Iraqi woman with the help of an interpreter at the new women’s sewing center at Muafiqiyah, Iraq April. 10. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Carlos J. Lazo. AL-KUT — A women’s sewing center officially opened in Muafiqiyah village April 10, providing both employment and training for female residents.The center will serve as a means for local women to earn income to support their families, said Sgt. Amanda E. Timmer, head of the Women’s Initiatives program for the Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team.The...

State Rep. Jim McReynolds has sent a letter to the Texas Department of Transportation saying he thinks TxDOT should drop the idea of tying the Trans-Texas Corridor in with plans for routing Interstate 69 through East Texas. McReynolds says tremendous negative outcry from his constituents and other East Texas residents has made it clear to him no one wants infrastructure that massive and disruptive to the quality of life to be built, taking big swaths out of the Pineywoods countryside. "Within the past several weeks, I have personally attended every TxDOT hearing held in my district regarding this proposed corridor,"...

A big protest is planned for Monday afternoon, ahead of the latest public hearing on the proposed statewide tollway. Lots of landowners are upset about the state’s plan to build a tollway from Mexico to northeast Texas. There have already been several town hall meetings about the Trans-Texas Corridor. Most of the people who have spoken out about the plan say it will put them out of business. But state officials argue the tollway is necessary to keep up with the growing population in Texas. Monday’s meeting is being held in Huntsville. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Walker...

CAMP RIPPER, AL ASAD, Iraq (Jan. 27, 2008) (Jan. 27, 2008) -- The Hammurabi Training Center held a ribbon cutting ceremony here today to celebrate the opening of a permanent training center for Iraqi Police officers. For the past year, the Hammurabi Training Center had to move around to different sites and didn’t have a permanent home. Now, officers in the Iraqi Police have a place to come and train. While at the training center, IP officers will receive a variety of training to include criminal investigation, logistics and leadership courses. The unique part of the training at the Hammurabi...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2008 – Army Col. (Dr.) Loree Sutton is a woman on a mission. Army Col. (Dr.) Loree Sutton, chief of the newly created Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, sits in her temporary Rosslyn, Va., office suite. The Defense Department created the center in its effort to step up the quality of care for wounded warriors and their families. Photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The military psychiatrist has, for the last month, ricocheted across the Capital Beltway landscape and beyond, setting up a Defense...

[...snip...] But on to antimatter, a cloud of which has been known to exist around the galactic center since the 1970s, when balloon-based gamma-ray detectors first located it. Gamma rays are significant in terms of antimatter because electrons encountering positrons (their antimatter equivalent) annihilate each other, with their mass converted into high energy gamma rays. So the cloud’s presence is well established. The question since its detection is what could have caused it. Now a new paper in Nature may offer an answer, noting the asymmetric distribution of the antimatter cloud, which extends further on one side of galactic center...

The State's Transportation Department has nearly 50 public meetings scheduled to hear from people along the proposed I-69 portion of the Trans-Texas Corridor. The corridor is planned as a superhighway with separate car and truck lanes, freight and commuter rail and utility lines. Parallel to I-35 [actually, that's the I-35 portion. --TSR] and the future I-69, today's US 59 are the planned routes. TEX-DOT's Randall Dillard says that several citizen's advisory committees are being set up along the I-69 and I-35 routes to get feedback. Opponents say the corridor will put Texas in a security risk and damage the economy....

Sheikh Ali Majid Mushir al-Dulaymi, leader of the Hawr Rajab Concerned Local Citizens, shakes hands with local Iraqis at the Arab Jabour governance center, Dec. 27. Photo by Sgt. Luis Delgadillo. FOB KALSU — It was a great day for leaders and citizens in Arab Jabour when the Arab Jabour Governance Center officially opened Dec. 27 with a large ceremony on the grounds of the center. More than 250 people were in attendance. The center will function similar to a city hall for Arab Jabour. It will be the headquarters for the Arab Jabour Governance Council and the Concerned Local...

Brig. Gen. Muhammad Ali Jassim al-Frejee, commander of the 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, speaks with children of Luitifyiah, Iraq, upon the re-opening of their school Oct. 1. Al-Frejee's troops and those of the 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., secure the Mahmudiyah, Lutifiyah, and Yusufiyah areas. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Angela Mc Kinzie. LUTIFIYAH — Attending schools with basic amenities such as libraries, restrooms and desks seems like a given to Americans.However, many Iraqi children have not been afforded the opportunity to attend...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, Sept. 20, 2007 – A new Warrior and Family Support Center being built here will be 10 times the size of the current facility. U.S. senators, representatives, post and community leaders, and wounded warriors help break ground Sept. 15, 2007, for the new Warrior and Family Support Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Photo by Charles Parish  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. A Sept. 15 groundbreaking ceremony marked the start of construction on the new 12,000-square-foot facility located across from the post’s Fisher Houses, where many wounded warriors and their families stay during long...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2007 – The new Military Advanced Training Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here represents “an evolution in how we embrace, treat and honor,” wounded warriors, the Army vice chief of staff said at yesterday’s opening ceremony. (Video) Gen. Richard A. Cody said the new center demonstrates the military’s commitment to doing everything within its power to help wounded troops heal and go on to live productive lives. The 31,000-square-foot, $10 million center offers some of the most state-of-the-art care found anywhere in the world and makes good on the military’s promise to take care...

(IsraelNN.com) A special report by the government's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center shows that Great Britain continues to serve as a center for publications of Hamas incitement. The report notes that despite the terrorism the British themselves have experienced of late, they are not preventing the use of their country as a center for the dissemination of publications that include incitement and hatred towards Israel and the west, and the encouragement of suicide terrorists. The report's introduction states that the Hamas terrorist movement attributes great importance to the media, both written and electronic, as a major tool in its struggle...

Improvements Keep Coming at Iraq’s Busiest Trauma Center Corps of Engineers oversee $21 million in repairs, improvements at Ibn Sina Hospital By Norris JonesGulf Region Central DistrictU.S. Army Corps of Engineers BAGHDAD, June 4, 2007 — It’s the U.S. military’s busiest trauma center in the world. Ibn Sina Hospital, built in 1964 and located in Baghdad’s International Zone, has been operated by the U.S. Army since October 2003. It has handled more than 13,000 emergency room visits, air evacuated more than 10,000 patients, taken more than 60,000 X-rays, accomplished 14,500 surgical hours, and given more than 33,000 units of...

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2007 – The Department of Defense is establishing a home for human intelligence at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. Defense Intelligence Agency Director Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples participated in ceremonies opening the new Joint Center of Excellence for Human Intelligence Training today. The center will answer a need for developing and exploiting intelligence from human sources. “Human intelligence within the Department of Defense needs a home,” said Steve Norton, chief of the Defense Human Intelligence Management Office at DIA. The home of infantry in DoD is Fort Benning, Ga., he said. “Where’s the home for human intelligence?...

A bomb was detonated outside a Jewish community center in Montreal, Canada, during the weeklong Jewish holiday of Passover, police reported Wednesday

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, March 23, 2007 – When Army Sgt. Antonio Autrey was burned in Iraq by a blast that destroyed his Bradley fighting vehicle almost a year ago, all the former high school football receiver wanted to do was to be able to hold a football again. Army Sgt. Antonio Autrey checks out the weightlifting equipment at the Center for the Intrepid. Photo by Nelia Schrum  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Now, after almost a year in recovery at the Burn Center here, the 4th Infantry Division soldier has set his sights on bench pressing, with...

Iraqi Village Builds Women’s Center Individuals from all sects work together to make clothing for children. By Norris Jones Gulf Region Central District BAGHDAD, Jan. 30, 2007 -- A small town in north Baghdad Province provides a positive glimpse of Iraq’s future. Assriya Village, located outside Camp Taji, has about 4,600 residents representing all sects.“Assriya” in Arabic means “modern” and its name exemplifies the way residents treat each other. They worked together to build a Women’s Center that officially opened in August and today that facility is producing apparel for children.The $230,000, 400-square-meter facility includes 12 sewing machines and...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, Jan. 29, 2007 – With the star-studded grand opening just a day away, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard A. Cody yesterday officiated over the first awards ceremony at the Center for the Intrepid here. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard A. Cody helps Master. Sgt. Daniel Robles, who lost both his legs after an attack in Iraq, stand Jan. 28 during the first awards ceremony at the Center for the Intrepid, a new, state-of-the-art rehabilitation center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Cody awarded Robles the Purple Heart and Bronze Star as his...

Volunteers Spark Warmth at Burn Center Troops deployed to Afghanistan give there off time to help local burn victims. By Sgt. Victoria Willoughby 345th Mobile Public Affairs FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan, Jan. 16, 2007 -- An all too familiar call echoed through the Forward Operating Base Salerno burn clinic and medical staff and hospital volunteers scrambled to receive two young Afghan sisters badly burned in a heater explosion at their home. "A heater in their home had a malfunction and it exploded, burning all four of the children and burning down the entire house. Two of the children...

KISMAYO, Somalia (AP) - Fighting erupted Sunday on the outskirts of the last remaining stronghold of Somalia's militant Islamic movement, as thousands of residents streamed from the area ahead of the feared battle with Ethiopian-backed government troops. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said the militants in the coastal city of Kismayo were sheltering three men wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 250 people. "If we capture them alive we will hand them over to the United States," Gedi said. The fighting broke out in Helashid, 11 miles northwest of the...

I need help and advice from my fellow FReepers. I just found out that an Islamic Education Center (Alabama Islamic Center to be precise) has opened about a block from my home. I'm not in the least bit happy about this and want to see them GONE! It is located in a commercially zoned area. BTW, the location of this place isn't more than a few miles from an Army base. Other than phoning my city councilman and protesting its existence, any suggestions on what can be done to get them to close their doors?

FORT HUACHUCA — A federal judge has approved a lawsuit settlement in which the post and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will renegotiate a biological opinion. “Fort Huachuca’s proactive decision to re-initiate consultation was instrumental in the Center for Biological Diversity and the Army agreeing to settle the lawsuit involving activities at Fort Huachuca and the impact of these activities on the San Pedro River basin,” post spokeswoman Tanja Linton said Tuesday. Jeff Humphrey, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman in Phoenix, said the settlement was signed Friday by U.S. District Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson, who is assigned to...

I guess my question is, how do we expect to defend ourselves against terrorism? We're fighting a war overseas and we can't even keep it together here! Sure, there have been incidences of foreign terrorists (specifically the WTC in '93 and of course on 9/11 along with the Pentagon and the downing of Flight United 93), but there is domestic terrorism! Does anyone remember Timothy McVeigh or Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris? With the latter mentioned, these were two sick individuals who were planning on a wide scale attack on their school. Fortunately, they weren't able to pull it off...

She was there when it all began, They arrived in boats from foreign lands, She was moved to behold their new-found pride, But she held her tears, she never cried. She saluted her beloved sons, As they boarded ships and manned their guns, To defend her name despite the cost, She still calls the names of the sons she lost. In war and peace she held her post, Torch in hand, steadfast, composed, Until the day horror filled her eyes, That Autumn day when Liberty cried. She squinted at every piercing scream, Each broken home, each shattered dream. The twisted...

netWMD is proud to participate in the 2,996: A Tribute to the Victims of 9/11 project. Stuck to the top until Sept. 12. Sareve Dukat kept her composure, even though the United States was under attack by Islamo-fascists, drunk on religion, hatred, and a lust for power. The date was September 11, 2001. An airliner full of civilians was just cynically rammed into tower #1 of the World Trade Center in New York City. Ms. Dukat would not survive the day that has become the defining moment for a generation of Americans, myself included. Dukat, who was working on the...