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To Key West Housing Authority officials it was seen as a necessary task, the chopping down of banana trees Richard "Diver" Overman nurtured daily with his fingerless hands, outside the windows of his public housing apartment on Amelia Street. To Overman it was a massacre. "They were just nubs when I planted them," the 67-year-old retired lobster diver said. "Now I am so disappointed. That was my pastime -- the only pastime I've got. Now they took them away and I feel like nothin'." Housing Authority Director Manuel Castillo said he and his staff tried to work with Overman, but...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" is off the air and it's a mystery why. An expected live version of the show was replaced by a repeat on Wednesday. Comedy Central said Thursday's live show will be off, too. The network said it was airing the repeats "due to unforeseen circumstances," but offered no other explanation.

Too beautiful not to post. What you're looking at is a close-up shot up of the central bulge of a giant spiral galaxy viewed edge on. Can you see it? The bulge, that is? It's that glowing lens-shaped mass that's trying unsuccessfully to hide behind those dark foreground clouds. Yes, of course, it's the central bulge of our own Milky Way Galaxy! :-) We're looking at the "lens" edge-on from our vantage point here in the Orion Spur (a minor spiral arm) of the Milky Way, 30,000 light years from the galaxy's center. Some "close-up," huh? We see the central...

Amid commemorations marking 70 years since the 1941 deportation of the Russian Germans to Central Asia, there is a palpable sense that the community is disappearing. In Bishkek, roughly 30 people gather each Sunday to pray at the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Empty seats are abundant in a room that once was routinely filled to overflowing. Although the pastor is from Germany, services for the past 10 years have been held in Russian. Congregants say perhaps one-third of the worshippers have any German heritage, and only a handful can speak the language. According to the German Language Center in Bishkek, a...

A sculptor who shot a dog for an art film in the 1970s has won a $750,000 contract to create public art for the Central Subway. Tom Otterness, a Brooklyn-based artist, has created public art all over Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States, with an emphasis on New York City. But he garnered notoriety in 1977 when he adopted a black-and-white dog from an animal shelter and shot it to death with the camera rolling. The footage ended up in his avant-garde movie "Shot Dog Film." Otterness has since apologized, telling the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 2008, "Thirty years...

Windows blown out in PM's office

If the President of the University of Central Florida (UCF), Dr. John Hitt, were arrested tomorrow for material support of terrorism, he might finally begin to understand the irresponsible and dangerous actions he continues to allow his university to take in giving terrorist supporters a platform. We can begin this discussion with the UCF Muslim Students Association (MSA). The MSA was created by the Muslim Brotherhood at the University of Illinois in 1963. The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is an international revolutionary organization whose objectives are (1) the re-establishment of the global Islamic state (Caliphate) and (2) the global implementation of...

Ruins of a fire temple dating back to the Sassanid era have recently been discovered during a series of archaeological excavations in the Vigol region near Kashan in central Iran. The discovery was made during the latest season of excavations, which are being carried out by a team of archaeologists led by Mohsen Javeri and began in mid-June, the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization announced in a press release on Monday. The cruciform temple has four entrances leading to the ruins of a fireplace embellished with unique stucco designs, Javeri said. The team has also unearthed pieces of ornate...

Last month, the Public Service Commission rejected Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s "smart grid" proposal. From start to finish, the whole affair demonstrated everything that is wrong with Maryland's socialized electricity industry. To begin with, BGE's plan was a dud. The whole idea of "smart grid" is to inform customers how much electricity costs in real time so that they have an incentive to use less electricity during times of peak demand (usually hot summer afternoons), when electricity is expensive to generate and transmit. There are a number of ways to achieve this price signal, but BGE chose an ill-defined,...

Around the same time they were caving in to pressure to delete all Mohammed references from an episode of "South Park," the geniuses at Comedy Central posted an online video game containing truly staggering anti-Semitic images. This abomination was originally called "I.S.R.A.E.L. Attack!" due to the lead character being a murderous robot named "I.S.R.A.E.L." -- "Intelligent Smart Robot Animation Eraser." As the game opens, the villain says, "You lied to me, Jew Producer"...

TFP Student Action is urging Comedy Central to cancel the production of a new cartoon series called JC that mocks Our Lord Jesus Christ. According to press reports, Comedy Central writers are describing the new series JC as “a playful take on religion and society with a sprinkle of dumb.” For example, God the Father is shown as someone who is lazy, plays video games and neglects his son. In turn, Jesus is distant from his powerful and lazy father, and tries to become a regular guy in New York City. Since final approval at Comedy Central for JC is...

Along with the perennial calls for “land for farmers” and “factories for workers,” Communists who marched in Moscow on the Saturday anniversary of the 1917 revolution offered a slogan of more recent vintage: “Russia without Putin.”

Energy experts generally agree that the electrical grid in the United States needs to be upgraded if the country is to increase its use of renewable-energy sources like wind power and significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. But plans to string new high-voltage lines to bring wind power from the midsection of the country to the coasts, where most of the demand is, could be expensive and unnecessary, and a distraction from more urgent needs, some experts say.

Central banks are likely to launch new coordinated emergency action this week to calm panic in financial markets, which could be rocked further by data pointing to global recession. The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to cut rates sharply following share selloffs and currency collapses in developed economies and the emerging markets of Asia and Latin America. Advance third-quarter U.S. economic growth data due on Thursday is expected to show a 0.5 percent contraction in gross domestic product after 2.8 percent growth the previous quarter. "Increasingly, the signs point to a deep and synchronized global recession," JPMorgan economist Bruce Kasman...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2007 – “Terrorists are under no illusion about the importance of the struggle in Iraq,” so freedom-loving people can’t be either, Vice President Richard B. Cheney told members of the Marine Corps League yesterday. Vice President Richard B. Cheney receives a welcome to the 84th National Convention of the Marine Corps League in Albuquerque, N.M.. Aug. 6, 2007. The Marine Corps League is the only federally chartered U.S. Marine Corps-related veterans organization and credits its founding in 1923 to World War I hero Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune. White House photo by David Bohrer...

Ancient burial urns found in central Vietnam Archaeologists have discovered 30 burial jars belonging to the 2,500-year-old Sa Huynh civilization in central Vietnam. The graves together with many artifacts were unearthed at the Con Dai archaeological site in Thua Thua-Hue province’s Huong Tra district. Of the jars, 25 contained ritual offerings like small trays, agate balls, and earrings, all of them still intact. They will be displayed at the Museum of Vietnamese History and the province’s museum. The archaeologists said the excavation provided further evidence that an early Metal Age culture had once existed in central Vietnam. The Sa Huynh...

Stone Age cave in central Vietnam has neighbor Vietnamese researchers, studying a grotto discovered a decade ago in which Paleolithic period tools were found, a few days ago stumbled upon another nearby also containing ancient tools. Experts from the Vietnam Archaeology Institute and the Quang Tri Museum in central Vietnam were researching the Hang Doi (bat) cave in Cam Lo district’s Dragon mountain when they found “Hang Doi 2”. The grotto is 65 meters underground and its vault is 10-20 meter high. They found 11 stone tools inside. Hang Doi was acknowledged as a provincial relic in 1996 and recently...

Plan accordingly. We have many folks who vacation in Canada, Mexico and the Carribean. Please note, travel to these countries will require passports in the future. More detailed information on the requirements for each country and how to get a passport can be found at the State Dept website: http://travel.state.gov/index.html . New Requirements for Travelers The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 requires that by January 1, 2008, travelers to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada have a passport or other secure, accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States. In order to facilitate...

Reuters WARSAW -- Poland will ask the United States to back efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies in exchange for agreeing to allow a U.S. anti-missile defense system on its territory, a Polish newspaper reported Monday. Rzeczpospolita cited diplomatic sources as saying Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski would discuss ways the United States could help increase Poland's access to Central Asian supplies when he visits Washington later this month. Poland, a U.S. ally in Iraq, hopes the United States will push through a project to build a gas pipeline across the Caspian Sea that could link Kazakh and...

BANGALORE - Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov's five-day visit to India that ended on Thursday might not have grabbed much media attention in New Delhi, but it is in Tajikistan that India is taking quiet strides toward furthering its ambition of becoming a global player: India's first military base abroad will become operational in Tajikistan soon. During Rakhmonov's visit, the two countries signed pacts on strengthening cooperation in the fields of energy, science and technology, foreign-office consultation, and cultural exchange. India also offered to rehabilitate the Varzob-1 hydropower plant in Tajikistan. [...] This cooperation is, however, just the tip of the...

A man who was shot to death inside a car early Tuesday became the city's 37th homicide victim of the year, breaking a record set in 1982, according to police. Investigators said the unidentified man died in a car off Central Boulevard and N. Dollins Avenue near Lorna Doone Park at about 2 a.m. Officers said someone drove up beside the driver and opened fire. The victim sped off after being shot and crashed his car into a wall, according to police. There was no description of the car the gunman was driving. Meanwhile, the search continues for the killer...

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2006 – Iraqi security forces are increasingly taking the lead in operations as Baghdad becomes the focal point in the fight for Iraq, a senior U.S. military officer told reporters today. Iraqi soldiers and police are at the forefront of operations "to make their capital safer, to set the stage for their capital to emerge as a center not of violence and strife, but some day for business and learning, for commerce and for culture," Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV said at a Baghdad news briefing Insurgents have blanketed Baghdad with bombings, murders and kidnappings...

Jade find in Antigua produces links to Central America Tuesday June 20 2006 A discovery of ancient jade could shake up old notions of the New World before Columbus. Scientists say they have traced 1,500-year-old axe blades found in the eastern Caribbean to ancient jade mines in Central America 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) away, New York’s American Museum of Natural History announced late last month. The blades were excavated in the late 90s by a Canadian archaeologist on the island of Antigua in the West Indies But the jade used to make the blades almost certainly came from Maya mines...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The Central Criminal Court of Iraq convicted 12 security detainees May 10 through May 16 for various crimes including organizing, heading, leading, joining armed groups, murder and possessing illegal weapons. The trial court found Mahdi Ahmed Musa Ali al Jabouri guilty of violating Article 194 and Article 406 of the Iraqi Penal Code for organizing, heading, leading, joining armed groups and murder, and sentenced him to death. Coalition Forces apprehended him for leading a terror cell in Mosul. The defendant said he believes in killing Coalition Forces, Iraqi Police and Iraqi National Guard members because he says...

SAN FRANCISCO - The question of whether documents obtained during the Bush administration's domestic spying program should remain under seal is one of the central issues in a lawsuit challenging the program. The lawsuit, brought in U.S. District Court by privacy advocate Electronic Frontier Foundation, accuses AT&T Inc. of illegally cooperating with the National Security Agency to make communications on AT&T networks available to the spy agency without warrants. The goal of the lawsuit is to dismantle warrantless eavesdropping on Americans in the United States, a practice the Bush administration confirmed in December. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker set a...

Imagine a country within the greater Middle East ambit that has successfully made the transition to electoral democracy with multiparty municipal, presidential, and, most recently, parliamentary polls. Moreover, imagine that despite virtually all of its citizens being Sunni Muslims, the country's national elections commission designates a progressive, foreign-based Christian non-governmental organization to coordinate the international monitoring of its parliamentary elections. And imagine that the incumbent president's party takes a drubbing at the polls, winning barely a third of the seats. Most audiences, if I were to tell them that I was not conjuring up Utopia, but describing a real life...

It’s Prom season, when many parents worry about drinking and driving. But one school is taking a proactive approach to keep its students safe. Elkhart Central High School recently started giving random alcohol breath tests to prom-goers. Roughly, 10-20% of the students will be given the tests, for prom next week, as they drive up to the event. The school says in two years that they have done it, no students have tested positive. “I feel that kids need to be aware that this is going on, so that there’s no drunk driving on prom night,” senior Sarah Fischer told...

In the leak scandal that led to five indictments for a top-level White House official, reports this week cite that former US Central Intelligence Agency employee Valerie Plame was allegedly following Iran's nuclear activities before her identity was revealed. Democrat Party Senator Frank Lautenberg, in a letter to CIA Director Porter Goss, asked for an evaluation of the harm outing Plame has caused. In the letter, the Senator reminds Director Goss of recent news stories which report that before Plame was outed, she participated in intelligence works on the Iranian nuclear dossier, and her subsequent outing gravely jeopardized the US’...

AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar, April 19, 2006 – The new Joint Intelligence Operations Center here looks like what Hollywood's conception of what a "war room" should look like. The center is the heart of U.S. Central Command Forward, based here. Everything the command can do at its Tampa, Fla. Headquarters also can be done here, officials said. The center is capable of running coalition operations from Kenya to Kazakhstan and Egypt to Pakistan, a senior Central Command official who gave a tour of the facility said. The center is also closely connected with command's headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla....

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2006 – Negative media reports on continuing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan make it hard for people to recognize political and economic progress being made there and in surrounding countries, the senior enlisted advisor to the commander of U.S. Central Command said here. Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. Curtis L. Brownhill said progress in the Central Command region -- which runs from Kenya in Africa to Kazakhstan in Central Asia and includes Egypt and Pakistan -- includes more than just what is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq. Progress is measured in many countries taking steps toward...

Comedy Central Censored Mohammed I'm not sure if it's been reported yet, but for what it's worth, I just got off the phone with a Comedy Central spokesman. I asked him about last night's episode of South Park in which, at a moment right before the prophet Mohammed was supposed to make a cameo, the words, "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network" appeared on the screen. I asked him whether this truly was Comedy Central's decision or whether this was just another gag (with South Park, you never know). He said: They reflected...

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2006 – Iraq is not on the verge of a civil war, and sectarian issues in the country are controllable, the commander of U.S. Central Command told the House Armed Services Committee here today. Army Gen. John Abizaid testified about CENTCOM's posture. He told the representatives he believes a government of national unity will emerge in Iraq and that the Iraqi security forces will continue to improve. Abizaid said he was concerned about sectarian violence in Iraq since the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra on Feb. 22. He said he believes fugitive Jordanian terrorist Abu...

BAGHDAD – (Army News Service, Feb. 24, 2006) – The 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, assumed responsibility for areas in central and southern Baghdad during a battle space transfer of authority ceremony from 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, at Forward Operating Base Honor Feb. 20. The ceremony took place after many months of training and combined missions between the two units, in which the Soldiers of the 4th BCT assisted the soldiers of 5th Brigade in preparation to assume the battle space inside and around the International Zone. Col. Mohammed Wasif, 5th Bde. commander took the reins...

Worship of phoenix may start 7,400 years ago in central China New archaeological discoveries show that the worship of the phoenix by ancient Chinese can be dated back as early as 7,400 years ago in central China. A large amount of pottery, decorated with the patterns of beasts, the sun and birds have been excavated at the Gaomiao relics site in Hongjiang, Huaihua City of central China's Hunan Province, according to a report by the Guangming Daily. "The patterns of birds should be the phoenix worshipped by ancient Chinese," said He Gang, a researcher with the Hunan Institute of Archaeology....

Iraqi Brigade Assumes Responsibility for Central Baghdad By Pfc. Jason Dangel, USASpecial to American Forces Press Service BAGHDAD, Feb. 21, 2006 – The 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, assumed responsibility from 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, for areas in central and southern Baghdad yesterday during a battlespace transfer-of-authority ceremony at Forward Operating Base Honor. Soldiers from the 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, march during the Feb. 20 battlespace transfer-of-authority ceremony between their brigade and the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Photo by Pfc. Jason Dangel, USA   The ceremony took place after many months...

ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq (Army News Service, Feb. 10, 2006) – Iraqi Army and coalition forces discovered three large roadside bombs, killed two terrorist suspects and captured 12 others during patrols and raids south of Baghdad this week. Iraqi Army soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 8th Iraqi Division, along with U.S. Soldiers from 2/8th Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, found the first roadside bomb Feb. 7 in Iskandariyah, located about 25 south of Baghdad. The bomb consisted of four 82mm rounds, one 155mm round and three rockets near Iskandariyah. The second roadside bomb, discovered near the same area,...

Comedian wants credit for coining ‘truthiness’ Joel Jeffries / AP file NEW YORK - Stung by a recent Associated Press article that didn’t credit him for coining the word “truthiness,” Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert has struck back. The world’s oldest news organization, Colbert says, is the “No. 1 threat facing America.” On Wednesday evening, Colbert placed the AP atop the Threat Down segment of “The Colbert Report” show. What was No. 2? Bears. In October, on Colbert’s debut episode of the “Daily Show” spinoff, the comedian defined “truthiness” as truth that wouldn’t stand to be held back by facts. The...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2005 – Just as terrorists "regard Iraq as the central front in the war on humanity," the United States must recognize it as "the central front in our war on terror," President Bush said in a speech here today to the National Endowment for Democracy. The president painted a connection between Operation Iraqi Freedom and the ongoing global war on terror and vowed that the United States won't retreat with anything less than all-out victory. Bush dismissed claims that the coalition's actions in Iraq are flaming the radicals' rage against the United States and its coalition partners....

The last 10 days of September were pivotal in the transition saga of the "post-Soviet space". The events in their rush seemed like a delayed summer storm blowing across the immense deserts of the Central Asian steppes, smashing up the debris of fanciful notions accumulated over the past decade and a half, and offering clarity to the landscape. It all began in Ukraine in the midriff of Eurasia, where by early September the signs of what many had already anticipated began appearing - the inevitable unraveling of the eight-month-old "Orange" revolution. There was scarcely any foreplay in what was happening....

Where were John Gosek’s friends? by Vincent R. Caravan Shades of Bill Clinton! Who would ever believe Oswego County would have a sexual scandal to equal — or surpass — the escapades of our recent president, whose extra-marital sexual experiences would be aired for the whole world to know. The recent arrest of Oswego Mayor John Gosek and his ultimate resignation — on a proportionate basis — received as much notoriety as Clinton’s indiscretions. Mr. Gosek’s accusers were not as forgiving, however. The most notable difference is in the outcome. Mr. Clinton was allowed to stay in office and outlast...

Freedom, Order, and Complexity: Calhoun's New Science of Politics and the New Science of Systems Michael C. Tuggle This paper is excerpted from Confederates in the Boardroom, which will be released in Summer, 2003 by Traveller Press, and is printed with the permission of the author and publisher. Central planners have always claimed their efforts benefit their target population. This assumes the population being managed is incapable of either choosing or implementing its best course of action. Without the genius of the central planners, the people would descend into chaos. As Thomas Hobbes assured us, central planners, by whatever name...

Where in the world is Osama bin Laden? Let's face it. He shouldn't be hard to find, especially from a Predator, an aerial reconnaissance vehicle that can read the minute hand of a wristwatch from an altitude of 26,000 feet. Bin Laden is very tall – slightly over 6'6" – and incredibly thin, less than 150 pounds. He wears shalwart kameez – the loose-fitting tunics and baggy pants of al-Qaida and Taliban soldiers – and, when the weather is cold, he dons a camouflage jacket. Although he was born in 1957 and far from retirement age, the al-Qaida chieftain appears...

BISHKEK, Aug 3 (Reuters) - France has deployed fighter jets in Tajikistan as part of international efforts to boost security during a September parliamentary election in next-door Afghanistan, a French military official said on Wednesday. "Six Mirage fighters have been deployed in (the Tajik capital) Dushanbe," Major Frederic Lemoine, deputy French military attache to Central Asian neighbour Kyrgyzstan, told reporters at U.S.-led air base Ganci near the capital Bishkek. Shortly after he spoke, two large-body C-135 FR refuelling planes landed at Ganci. "These refuelling jets are due to support the Mirage fighters in Tajikistan," he said, adding that the operation...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

Here is the list so far for sponcers to this hate America fest: ANSWER Code Pink UFPJ NION Al Awda World Workers Party Ruckas Revolutionary Communist party Moveon.org ACORN Campus Antiwar Network International Socialist Org Greens Party Muslim Student Association CPUSA

At its 20th anniversary dinner, Accuracy in Academia will make its first annual presentation of its Little Churchill awards, named after Ward not Winston, for dubious academic achievement. Just as the colorful Ethnic Studies professor has distinguished himself for calling the victims of the World Trade Center attacks of 9-11-01 Little Eichmanns, thus comparing them to the notorious Nazi from the Second World War, so too have a host of academics distinguished themselves by their ethnic sensitivity in an age of "tolerance." But Ward Churchill's achievements do not end there. He has also produced scholarship that either already appeared elsewhere...

June 21, 2005 Dear Mr. President: We the undersigned represent companies and industries that have made an outsized contribution to America’s national security and prosperity. We are a critical part of America’s domestic manufacturing base. Our enterprises support a large segment of the broad middle class, one of America’s singular economic and political achievements. Today our companies in particular and the nation’s middle class in general are under constant attack from predatory foreign trade practices. Our companies and industries still make most of their products in the United States, ensuring that our revenues flow to American working families in the...

When terms like mergers and acquisitions find mention in editorials of the People's Daily, it is time to sit up and notice. The CPC mouthpiece was asking Chinese home appliance giant, Haier, to explain its go-slow on the purchase of American home appliances firm Maytag. Earlier, of course, Lenovo had set the ball rolling by bidding successfully for IBM's PC unit in a $1.75 billion deal. And now, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is engaged in a tug of war over American energy firm Unocal with another energy giant, ChevronTexaco. If Washington's displeasure over the IBM deal was...

July 13, 2005 Will the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) finally force you to get a doctor's prescription just to buy vitamin C, or E, or other dietary supplements you currently pick up "over the counter" in America? Powerful special interests are banking on it. Since 1995, Big Medicine has spent billions of dollars trying to get Washington to regulate your dietary supplements just as European governments do. So far, that effort has failed in America. But you may lose the battle for health freedom if CAFTA entangles the U.S. in Europe's infamous Codex Alimentarius (Codex). And if you...

Drafted By: Dr. Michael A. Weinstein Overshadowed in the Western press by the G8 summit of leading industrialized nations and the complications to it caused by the London transit bombings, another summit -- the July 5 meetings in Astana, Kazakhstan of the heads of government of the six members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (S.C.O.) -- promised to have greater geostrategic significance than the more widely reported events. Created with its present membership of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2001, the origins of the S.C.O. date back to 1996 when Beijing initiated the Shanghai Five, which included...