Mood:
cheekyTopic: Yahoo Chat Stuff
Iraqi Infrastructure Attacks Down 60 Percent in Last Three Months
Decrease due to presence of 250,000 Iraqi security forces, U.S. general says
Washington -- Attacks against Iraq's vital infrastructure have decreased by 60 percent over the past three months, the spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq said April 13.
Army Major General Rick Lynch, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon via teleconference from Baghdad, said the decrease is directly due to the presence of 250,000 trained and equipped Iraqi security forces operating all across the country, conducting important missions.
To emphasize the effect of this increased Iraq-wide security presence, Lynch gave examples of recent operations in three different regions.
In the northern city of Tarmia, local officials came to the coalition forces and asked them to get rid of the terrorist insurgents there. On March 25 Iraqi forces, assisted by coalition troops, cordoned off the city, established two checkpoints, and then "worked through the city" to eliminate the terrorists, Lynch said.
On March 27, coalition forces set up a medical clinic, which treated 375 citizens on its first day. City leaders then called for volunteers to join the Iraqi police force to give the city a permanent security presence. Two thousand Iraqis volunteered, Lynch said, and 225 of those were selected to be trained and equipped a police academy in Jordan.
In the west, insurgent attacks in al-Anbar province have decreased from an average of 27 per day in October 2005 to about 18 a day now. The residents continue to volunteer for police and army service, Lynch said. Since October 28, 2005, weapons caches have been found, he added.
In Baghdad, because the enemy considers it to be the most important target, security force patrols have risen from 12,000 in February to 20,000 in March -- a 45 percent increase, Lynch said.
On March 27, a raid near the Abu Ghraib area resulted in the death of a high-ranking al-Qaida leader in Iraq: Abu Omar al-Kurdi. According to Multi-National Force-Iraq officials, his real name was Rafid Ibrahim Fattah, and his ties to al-Qaida dated to 1999, including personal contact with Osama bin Laden. He was called "ambassador" in al-Qaida circles, and he established liaison between terrorist networks, and also became an operations officer in Iraq, Lynch said.
For additional information, see Iraq Update.
Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.
Department of State ~ Bureau of International Information Programs ** Iraqi Infrastructure Attacks Down 60 Percent in Last Three Months
Posted by yaahoo_2006iest
at 12:47 AM EDT
silly
Sen. Joe Biden: 'No One Believes the President'
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., says President Bush has no credibility among leaders of foreign nations when it comes to discussions of foreign policy.
Biden, appearing on MSNBC's "Imus in the Morning" show, said Bush lost credibility when weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq and his reluctance to apologize for "coming clean on Iraq" is hurting the nation's reputation abroad.
"The president has yet to be straight with the American people on what the deal in Iraq is," Biden said. "All the way back since Abu Ghraib, the president has yet to be straight about the mistakes he has made ... He has no credibility. No one believes the president of the United States on matters of foreign policy."
On the recent White House personnel moves, Biden doesn't think the changes will do much to change policy, unless Bush does something "big," like fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"It's about the fact that no one has faith in the United States of America as long as Rumsfeld is running the show," Biden said. "Look where we are now: Nobody in the world is prepared to trust the president of the United States, led by Donald Rumsfeld leading the military to use military force against Iran.
"We can't sustain this lack of credibility for the next 2 1/2 years," Biden said.
Biden said it would be a big mistake for the U.S. to launch a military strike against Iran, especially since he believes Iran is 5-10 years away from being able to launch nuclear missiles of their own.
"There are 70 million people in Iran," Biden said. "These guys are not Iraq. They have ways in which they can make it very painful for the United States."
d'oh
Census: Americans Are Fleeing Big Cities
WASHINGTON -- Americans are leaving the nation's big cities in search of cheaper homes and open spaces farther out.
Nearly every large metropolitan area had more people move out than move in from 2000 to 2004, with a few exceptions in the South and Southwest, according to a report being released Thursday by the Census Bureau.
Northeasterners are moving South and West. West Coast residents are moving inland. Midwesterners are chasing better job markets. And just about everywhere, people are escaping to the outer suburbs, also known as exurbs.
"It's a case of middle class flight, a flight for housing affordability," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "But it's not just white middle class flight, it's Hispanics and blacks, too."
The Census Bureau measured domestic migration - people moving within the United States - from 1990 to 2000, and from 2000 to 2004. The report provides the number of people moving into and out of each state and the 25 largest metropolitan areas.
The states that attracted the most new residents: Florida, Arizona and Nevada. The states that lost the most: New York, California and Illinois.
Among the 25 largest metropolitan areas, 18 had more people move out than move in from 2000 to 2004. New York, Los Angeles and Chicago - the three biggest metropolitan areas - lost the most residents to domestic moves. The New York metropolitan area had a net loss of more than 210,000 residents a year from 2000 to 2004.
Richard Florida, a professor of public policy at George Mason University, said smaller, wealthier households are replacing larger families in many big metropolitan areas.
That drives up housing prices even as the population shrinks, chasing away even more members of the middle class.
"Because they are bidding up prices, they are forcing some people out to the exurbs and the fringe," Florida said. "Other people are forced to make moves in response to that. I don't have any sense of this abating."
The metropolitan area that attracted the most new residents was Riverside, Calif., which has been siphoning residents from Los Angeles for years. The Riverside area, which includes San Bernardino and Ontario, had a net gain of 81,000 people a year from 2000 to 2004.
Riverside has grown to become the 13th largest metropolitan area in the nation. It's a short drive to several mountain ranges, and it's within driving distance of the beach. Locally, it is known as the Inland Empire.
"When you look at housing prices in Southern California, along the beaches and coastlines, you're able to obtain a very large home for a much lower price" in Riverside, said Cindy Roth, president and CEO of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce.
Homes in Riverside aren't cheap. The median price - the point at which half cost more and half cost less - was $374,200 in 2005. But they are less expensive than Los Angeles, where the median price was $529,000.
Other areas that attracted a lot of new residents also have relatively inexpensive homes, even if they are not the cheapest in the country. Phoenix, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth round out the top five metropolitan areas.
On The Net: 
celebratory
Libtards all over America are suffering in silent mourning...
Taliban commander shot in night raid
QALAT, Afghanistan (April 18) -- A Taliban senior commander has been killed and two other militants have been captured during a raid by police in the southeastern Afghan province of Zabul.
The police, having received a tip that the militants were planning an attack on Qalat, the provincial capital, surrounded the band Monday night, shooting Mohamad Haleem and arresting two of his accomplices, China's Xinhua news agency reported
.
Local authorities said Haleem and his men were responsible for many attacks on government officials and schools in the province.
Zabul province, which borders Pakistan, has been the site of numerous attacks in recent months and even now has many Taliban supporters. Mullah Abdul Salim "Rocketi," a notorious Taliban commander, ran and won a seat in Parliament from Zabul province
.
Popular Nonsense
An unfair and ill-conceived attempt to ditch the Electoral College.
Opponents of the Electoral College have conjured up yet another scheme by which they hope to undermine America's unique system of electing presidents. If they are successful, the Electoral College could essentially be eliminated at the behest of a handful of states, without the bother of a constitutional amendment.
As Ronald Reagan might say, "There they go again!"
This latest anti-Electoral College effort, the 
NPV touts the ease of this change as one of the plan's best features. Electoral College opponents have tried and failed many times in their efforts to obtain a constitutional amendment. Such a process requires the consent of two thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states. It's much easier to obtain the consent of a mere eleven states. And if eleven states get to change the rules of the presidential-election game, without so much as a nod to the remaining thirty-nine states, then why should NPV supporters care? After all, presidential elections can already be won with the votes of only eleven states. So any unfairness in the NPV plan merely reflects the inherent unfairness of the Electoral College system.
It is true that America's presidential-election system technically could allow the eleven largest states to pick the president. But the incentives inherent in the Electoral College work in the opposite direction, making such an outcome extremely unlikely. The Electoral College encourages presidential candidates to build national coalitions of voters. The compromises that a presidential candidate would have to make to obtain the votes of, say, California and Texas, guarantee that any candidate who manages to obtain the votes of the eleven largest states will also obtain the votes of a majority of states. The last presidential candidate to accomplish this feat was Reagan in 1984, and he obtained the votes of every state except Minnesota. (He also lost the District of Columbia.)
NPV's legislation, on the other hand, does not ensure national coalition building. To the contrary, the proposal gives the eleven largest states incentives to work against the remaining states: Getting rid of the Electoral College would allow presidential candidates to win with positions that are not at all in the interest of less populous states. To be sure, and as NPV points out, candidates now focus largely on battleground states, but the only reason other states aren't battlegrounds is because they are, by and large, happy with one of the candidates positions. Moreover, so-called "safe" and "swing" states change constantly. As recently as 1988, California voted consistently Republican. Texas was a safe Democrat state until it began voting Republican in 1980.
Proponents of national presidential elections point out that the president almost always wins the popular vote anyway. But the question is how these votes were won. Changing the system would change the way in which presidential candidates campaign. NPV proponents make much of their slogan "Every Vote Equal." It's a nice sounding slogan which appeals to a sense of fairness. But if every vote counted exactly the same, the system would end up being quite unfair to the less populous states. The true question here is whether the nation should vote in a state-by-state presidential election or a national presidential election. Changing from one process to the other would have significant ramifications.
John F. Kennedy once stated that America's presidential election system is like a solar system of governmental power. If one aspect of the solar system is changed, others will inevitably be impacted. If the gravitational pull of the sun is changed, then the Earth will be pulled out of its orbit. In the same way, if the Electoral College is removed from the nation's system of electing presidents, then other aspects of the political system will inevitably change. For example, the two-party political system will likely be seriously undermined. Also, presidential candidates will have less incentive to build national coalitions, and they will instead campaign primarily in high population areas.
If NPV succeeds in passing its legislation, citizens living in a majority of states will likely have been denied the opportunity to have a say in the decision about whether America will live in this political solar system or a new one. If getting rid of the Electoral College is such a great idea, then why do its proponents seem to want to bypass the people in enacting it? If it is such a great idea, and one that will serve our interests, why not go national with their case? Apparently they're not so into voting after all.
Tara Ross is the author of 
chillin'
USA records largest drop in annual deaths in at least 60 years
ATLANTA - In a powerful testament to U.S. health improvements, the annual number of deaths in the country dropped by about 50,000 in 2004 - the largest such decline in more than 60 years.
Drops in the death rates for heart disease, cancer and stroke accounted for most of the surprising development, health officials said.
Overall, age-adjusted death rates fell to a record low of 801 deaths per 100,000 population in 2004, down from almost 833 deaths per 100,000 in 2003.
"These are preliminary data," said Paul Terry, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Atlanta's Emory University. "But if it holds up, it's obviously very good news."
The government also said Wednesday that U.S. life expectancy had inched up again, to a record high of 77.9 years.
The total number of U.S. deaths recorded for 2004 was 2,398,343, according to preliminary mortality data released by the National Center for Health Statistics.
That represents a 2% decline from the 2,448,288 recorded for 2003. The last decline in annual deaths occurred in 1997, a modest drop of 445 deaths from 1996, said Arialdi Mini Ino, the statistician who is lead author of the report.
The last drop in deaths of this magnitude occurred in 1944, when the number of deaths dropped about 48,000 from the previous year, he said.
"We were surprised by the sharpness of the decrease (in 2004). It's kind of historical," Mini Ino said.
spacey
Whatever the case, 
Apparently, Garofalo either didn't understand or didn't care about the often-reported links between the privately-funded "New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project" touted on her Friday night show and Scientology.
CultNews began reporting about the Scientology-linked project more than two years ago and the story was later picked up by the New York Times and Associated Press.
The so-called "Purification Rundown," which is a Scientology religious ritual, is at the heart of the program. Hubbard invented the process, which includes large dosing of niacin, sweating in a sauna and ingesting cooking oil.
Apparently, Janeane's not alone:
Scientology frequently uses its celebrities to get media time for essentially what can be seen as an infomercial promoting its programs, services, and of course its founder the late L. Ron Hubbard.
CultNews previously reported how TV talk show host Montel Williams was beguiled by Scientology celebs Juliette Lewis, Anne Archer, Catherine Bell and Kelly Preston (Mrs. John Travolta). Williams consumed two of his hour-long program slots promoting celebrity Scientology-linked projects.
But of all people has the seemingly cynical Janeanne Garofalo now been bitten by the celeb bug and followed in Montel's footsteps?
Could I Hate Myself Productions, the name of her company, provide a key clue? Garofalo, a notoriously unhappy person, would seem an easy target for these groups.
Gen. Anthony Zinni: USS Cole Blunder Is My Fault
Former CENTCOM Commander, Gen. Anthony Zinni - who has called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign because of Rumsfeld's alleged incompetence in running the Iraq war - admitted six years ago that he made the disastrous decision to have the USS Cole use the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling, where the ship was blown up by al-Qaida terrorists.
Worse still, at least one report indicates that Gen. Zinni may have played a role in an August 1998 leak that tipped off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack - allowing the top terrorist to escape.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in October 2000, a week after the Cole attack, the then-recently retired Zinni said: "I pass that buck on to nobody."
The Rumsfeld critic explained that he personally signed off on berthing the Cole in Yemen even though "their coast is a sieve for terrorists."
"The threat conditions in Aden were better than elsewhere," he insisted, citing risk assessments for Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
Gen. Zinni said that cutbacks in the size of the Navy's fleet during the Clinton years made it necessary to use regional ports for refueling, noting: "Ten years ago, we did all refueling at sea" using Navy oilers.
Still, prior to the Cole attack,
there's no record that Gen. Zinni ever complained about Clinton era defense cuts.
In what may be an even more troubling development, a report indicates that the leading Rumsfeld critic may have inadvertently played a role in tipping off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack two years before the Cole episode.
Two days after President Clinton ordered the attack on bin Laden's encampment in Khost Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported:
"Kuwait's Al-Watan newspaper, quoting unidentified sources in London today, reported that Pakistan leaked to bin Laden news about an impending U.S. strike. The sources said the leak was aimed at limiting casualties, so that bin Laden would have less justification for a counterattack.
"A Pakistani government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, was in Peshawar the day before the attack to meet with Pakistani officials.
"Other Pakistani sources said Zinni came with a team of U.S. intelligence experts whose task was to pinpoint the camps and determine bin Laden's exact whereabouts."
Soviet Communism as Fashion Statement -- Again
Given Vincent's identical attire and the same background of Rockefeller Plaza, NBC's headquarters, I'd presume both segments were taped at the same time last week.
Video clip from April 17 (23 seconds): 
The 
Vincent, a veteran of the BBC as detailed in 
bright
Black-Owned Businesses Thriving in U.S. 
The number of businesses owned by black entrepreneurs grew more than four times the national rate for all businesses from 1997 to 2002, the federal government said Tuesday.
Black entrepreneurs owned 1.2 million businesses in 2002, an increase of 45 percent from 1997, according to a report by the Census Bureau.
"It's encouraging to see not just the number but the sales and receipts of black-owned businesses are growing at such a robust rate, confirming that these firms are among the fastest-growing segments of our economy," Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon (right) said in a statement.
Revenues from black-owned businesses increased by 25 percent during the period, to about $89 billion.
The report is the third in a series of Census Bureau reports on businesses owned by women, Hispanics and blacks. Together, the reports show that the three groups are underrepresented in business ownership but are narrowing the gap with white men.
From 1997 to 2002:
♠ The number of all U.S. businesses grew by 10 percent, to about 23 million.
♠ The number or female-owned firms grew by 20 percent, to 6.5 million.
♠ The number of Hispanic-owned businesses grew by 31 percent, to nearly 1.6 million.
Overall, black entrepreneurs owned 5 percent of U.S. businesses in 2002, Hispanics owned about 7 percent, and women of all races and ethnicities owned 28 percent, according to the Census Bureau.
The overwhelming majority of black-owned businesses were small - 92 percent had no employees other than the owners. By comparison, about three-fourths of all U.S. businesses have no employees.
"I'm proud," said Harry Alford (right), president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. "We're the fastest-growing segment."
Alford said black entrepreneurs have been helped by improved education levels and increased incomes among black consumers and business owners.
Blacks as a group still trail whites in education and income, but they have made gains in the past half-century. In 1950, only 14 percent of black adults had high school diplomas, compared with 36 percent of whites, according to the Census Bureau. The gap narrowed by 2000, when 72 percent of black adults had at least a high school diploma, compared with 84 percent of whites.
"We've got the first generation of significantly educated people," Alford said. "There's a black middle class like never before."
The report is based on administrative records and a survey of 2.4 million businesses. The Census Bureau defines black-owned businesses as private companies in which blacks hold at least 51 percent of stock or interest. The report does not classify public companies, with publicly traded stock, because they can be owned by many stockholders of unknown races and ethnicities.
Black-owned businesses are not concentrated in any sector. The largest sector was health care and social assistance, with 246,000 back-owned firms. The second largest was other services, such as personal services, repair and maintenance, with 210,000 firms.
However, in some states, black-owned firms are concentrated in urban areas. About 80 percent of all black-owned businesses in Illinois were in Cook County, home to Chicago. Los Angeles County was home to nearly half the black-owned firms in California.
New York state had the most black-owned firms, with 129,324. It was followed by California, Florida, Georgia and Texas
.
