Proof Chinese were Cheating at Olympic Gymnastics

The questions is whether the Olympic powers that be will take action. Don't count on it.

A determined U.S. computer expert has delved into cached pages on the Internet to unearth Chinese official documents showing a gymnast who took gold in the uneven bars competition, edging the U.S.'s Nastia Liukin, may indeed be underage.

Controversy over whether He Kexin is under the minimum age of 16 has surrounded her participation in the Beijing Olympics. The latest challenge over the age of the tiny Olympian comes from the discovery through a cyberspace maze of Chinese official documents listing her date of birth.

She may not look as if she has reached the minimum competing age of 16, but China said her passport, issued in February, gives her birthday as Jan. 1, 1992. The International Olympic Committee said proof from her passport is good enough.

The latest unofficial investigation was carried out by computer security expert for the Intrepidus Group, whose site, Stryde Hax, revealed a detailed forensic search for He’s age.

Related Post:
- Chinese Cheating in Olympics: Lying About Gymnast Age

UPDATE:
I was wrong the International Olympics Committee will be investigating the scandal.

Bush Agrees to a Timetable for U.S. Troops to Leave Iraq

Why isn't this a major story? The Bushies are doing that which they accuse the Democrats of - Defeatism. This is a complete flip by the White House. And the press is letting them get away with it. You would think the Obama campaign would also point out the glaring hypocrisy.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States and Iraq have agreed to a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the battle-scarred country.

Appearing with her Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari (HOH'-shayr zuh-BAH'-ree), Rice acknowledged at their joint news conference Thursday that the two parties have not yet finalized the deal. She said it close at hand, however.

Rice called her talks with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "very good and fruitful" and said an agreement is near that would "solidify the significant gains" in security in Iraq over the last year.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Iraqi leaders Thursday to agree quickly to a U.S.-Iraq security deal that outlines the withdrawal of American troops, including a pull-out from cities by next June 30.

Flying into Baghdad on an unannounced trip, Rice said the two sides were nearing an agreement after months of painstaking negotiations but stressed there were still unresolved issues, including when U.S. soldiers will leave and what their operations will consist of until then.

"The negotiators have taken this very, very far," she told reporters aboard her plane. "But there is no reason to believe that there is an agreement yet."

"There are still issues concerning exactly how our forces operate," Rice said, adding that "the agreement rests on aspirational timelines."

Huh? Can someone explain to me the contradiction? Bush negotiates a timetable but then blasts Obama for supporting a timetable.

President Bush fired his most direct shot yet at Democratic nominee Barack Obama yesterday, warning against political promises to set timetables for withdrawal from Iraq.

"The commander in chief must always listen to the commanders, and not the latest opinion polls," Bush told a gathering of the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Orlando, Fla.

Although Bush did not mention Obama by name, his comments were widely interpreted as his most pointed criticism in a campaign during which he's remained largely on the sidelines.

Could someone please ask McCain whether he thinks Bush is unAmerican for negotiating a timetable with the Iraqis:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain told voters on Wednesday he is not challenging Barack Obama's patriotism in criticizing his call to pull out of Iraq, only the judgment of his Democratic rival.

"He's making these decisions not because he doesn't love America, but because he doesn't think it matters whether America wins or loses," McCain said.

[...]Obama proposes to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months; McCain opposes any timetable for withdraw. Meanwhile, Iraqi leaders have been pressing the U.S. for a timetable.

McCain Unsure How Many Houses he Owns

This sounds suspicious. Do we want a president who has no sense of his finances? McCain's wife's business dealings have already been under legal scrutiny. Or is he trying to portray himself as not being part of the economic elite in this country? He would like you to believe that he is like you and suffers your financial hardships. Instead McCain keeps sounding out of touch.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

"I think - I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told us in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you."

The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.

In recent weeks, Democrats have stepped up their effort to caricature McCain as living an outlandishly rich lifestyle – a bit of payback to the GOP for portraying Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as an elitist, and for turning the spotlight in 2004 on the five homes owned by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Then there is McCain's illegal compaign finances.

Letter Contends FEC Consideration of McCain Withdrawal From Primary Funds Program Without an Investigation into DNC Complaint is Illegal
The following release was issued today by the Democratic National Committee:
With the Federal Election Commission scheduled to address John McCain's decision to unilaterally withdraw from the federal matching funds program on Thursday, the Democratic National Committee today called on the Commission to remove that item from its agenda and instead proceed with a full investigation of the charges made against McCain in the administrative complaint filed by the DNC in February. In a conference call with reporters this morning, DNC General Counsel Joe Sandler discussed a letter he sent to the FEC last night that argued that the Commission should not consider McCain's decision to withdraw from the matching funds program because there is no request for permission pending and the Commission hasn't yet conducted an investigation as required by the law.

McCain is very comfortable with the wealthy and big business, especially if they are lobbyists.

John McCain broadcasts his affection for Theodore Roosevelt, but his opposition to regulating the local telephone industry suggests that he may not share the former president's passion for busting huge corporate trusts.

Unlike Roosevelt, who railed against "malefactors of great wealth," McCain's positions frequently have echoed those of the giant regional Bell phone companies, now consolidated as AT&T, Verizon and Quest, the big survivors of the telecommunications wars of the last quarter-century.

McCain's opposition to the 1996 Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act, intended to spur competition by pressuring the Bells to lease their lines and switches to competitors cheaply, offers a window into how he might view regulation of other markets as president.

The Arizona senator characterizes his unsuccessful stand against the measure, and his later attempts to thwart its implementation, as in keeping with his commitment to free markets and his maverick positions on behalf of American consumers. He was the only Republican senator to vote against the legislation.

Critics charge, however, that McCain backed an approach to telecommunications that's limited competition and kept prices high. They note that executives of the big three telecommunications giants and their lobbyists have raised and donated millions of dollars for his political committees.

After Decades, Iran Buys U.S. Wheat

Isn't this a basis for negotiating with the Iranians? If Obama is smart he will bring up this story to put McCain on the defensive.

Iran this summer resumed buying U.S. wheat after a 27-year hiatus, a sign of the limited options for importers seeking large quantities of high-quality grain.

Since the 2008-09 marketing year began on June 1, Iran has bought more than one million tons of hard red winter wheat directly from the U.S., which is "a very large amount," said Bill Nelson, analyst for Wachovia Securities. The purchases mean at least 3% to 4% of domestic wheat exports for the marketing year will go to a country the U.S. hasn't done business with for more than a generation. Government sanctions don't prohibit U.S. agricultural exporters from doing business with Iran.

Drought is expected to slash Iran's domestic production by one-third this year. Iran is forecast to produce 10 million tons of wheat this year, down from 15 million tons in 2007-08, and to import 4.5 million tons, up from 200,000 tons last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

NY Times: "Afghanistan on Fire"

Could somebody please ask McCain what he would do to save Afghanistan from falling to the Taliban, again.

The news out of Afghanistan is truly alarming. This week, Taliban forces staged two of their most complex and audacious attacks of the war. Nearly 100 insurgents killed 10 French paratroopers in an attack near Kabul. At least 10 suicide bombers mounted a coordinated assault on one of America’s largest military bases, wounding three American and six Afghan soldiers. An earlier attack at the base killed 12 Afghan workers.

The number of United States and NATO casualties is mounting so quickly, that unless something happens soon this could be the deadliest year of the Afghan war. Kabul, the seat of Afghanistan’s pro-Western government, is increasingly besieged. And Taliban and foreign Qaeda fighters are consolidating control over an expanding swath of territory sprawling across both sides of the porous Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Let us be clear about why this is so dangerous. The more territory the Taliban controls, the more money it can raise from narcotics and black-market activities to mount an even fiercer challenge against the foundering civilian governments in Kabul and Islamabad. And the more territory the Taliban controls, the more freedom Al Qaeda will have to mount new terrorist operations against this country and others.

There is no more time to waste. Unless the United States, NATO and its central Asian allies move quickly, they could lose this war. The following steps need to be taken in the coming weeks.

Senator Biden Writing his VP Acceptance Speech

This only means that Biden will not be the nominee. Why would they allow this story to become public. It should be a highly kept secret. Biden has also said publicly that he didn't think that he would be the pick. This seems like a strange about face. Obama has probably already informed Biden that he wouldn't be his choice.

In an indication that he expects to be Barack Obama's vice-presidential pick, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del) has begun writing a 50,000-word acceptance speech, aides to the senator confirmed today.

The address, which Mr. Biden has been working on around the clock, is an abridged version of a 200,000-word acceptance speech that Mr. Biden wrote when he ran for President in 1988.

According to those familiar with the speech, if Mr. Biden is tapped as Mr. Obama's vice presidential choice the Delaware senator would begin delivering the speech on Wednesday night of the Democratic convention and conclude it on Thursday night.

Representatives of television news divisions said they were undecided as to how to cover the Biden speech, but none were willing to commit to covering the speech live in its entirety.

John McCain VP Pick: Neocon Joe Lieberman?

It would be a stupid Vice Presidential choice. Senator Lieberman brings nothing to the McCain campaign. But like Bush, McCain puts personal friendship above logical political decision making. And the Conservatives are not having it. This from Hotair:

Lieberman’s endorsement did not win John McCain the primary, either. His friendship with McCain probably hurt him among Republicans as much as it helped among independents voting in GOP primaries. It certainly lent some heft to the RINO charge, especially since Lieberman’s liberal record is very plain to see. By the time the official endorsement came on February 3rd, McCain had already won more primaries than his rivals (New Hampshire, South Carolina) and held a slim lead in delegates over Mitt Romney.

The addition of Joe Lieberman will not convince independents that McCain is a maverick; it will convince an already-skeptical GOP base that McCain is a RINO. Patrick knows better than most how essential enthusiasm is to the GOTV efforts and fundraising. McCain appears to have finally generated some of that enthusiasm, and picking Lieberman would snuff it out for good. Republicans respect Lieberman, but they don’t want a liberal Democrat as the person who would succeed to the Presidency if something happened to McCain — which is the entire point of the Vice Presidency.

Lieberman may not be the worst choice, but he’s close to it. If McCain wants a Democrat, let him pick John Breaux, whose positions really do reflect conservative values. Otherwise, the Republican Party has plenty of options for a Republican ticket.

Lieberman is McCain's political guru. Remember the whispering into the ear when the Republican nominee couldn't answer a simple question on the war in Iraq? This is why all the talk about a pro-choice pick:

The McCain campaign is not shooting down reports to Washington Whispers that senior aides are polling top donors, delegates, and even radio talk show hosts for their reaction to a pro-choice running mate. "We are in constant contact with our donors and supporters and it wouldn't be at all surprising if people were soliciting their thoughts about any aspect of the campaign," said a McCainiac on background. Our sources suggest that the questions were a way to float the possibility that former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was in the running for the No. 2 slot, though Republican Party officials said later that Ridge was not on the veep list. Others believe that the pro-choice question is an indication that McCain is seriously considering independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, a close friend and former Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Or talk about choosing Lieberman could be a clever tactic. It could be Romney, the most talked about candidate:

HALPERIN: I don't think he will in the end. In fact I think a lot of this may well be, some of my sources say, just a feint in order to set up the pick of someone like a Mitt Romney who is pro-life but has not had a long history of being pro-life, and that this focus on perhaps Joe Lieberman, perhaps someone else who's pro-choice is a way to make people who are pro-life happy with the eventual choice and to send a message that he's considering people from all parts of the party.

The problem with Lieberman is he is not a Republican:

GOP strategist adds that a Lieberman pick would require the waiving of a RNC rule that currently says VP nominee must be a registered Republican for at least 60 days.

This from the NY Times:

• But other conservatives said that Mr. McCain, who has long been in step with the Republican Party platform in opposing abortion, was unlikely to be the first Republican presidential nominee in decades to select such a candidate. They said that Mr. McCain’s recent public flirtation with Tom Ridge, a former Pennsylvania governor who supports abortion rights, was as much to give the appearance that Mr. McCain had an open mind on the issue as it was an embrace of Mr. Ridge.

• The campaign has refused to comment on who is under consideration, but current conjecture has settled largely on three possibilities: Mr. Ridge, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut and a McCain ally, is also said to be under consideration.

• Some Republicans said that Mr. McCain could still choose Mr. Ridge and get around the problem with social conservatives by assuring them that the vice-presidential candidate would support the position of the presidential candidate and the party, no matter his personal views.
  
  Such a formulation would be unlikely to satisfy Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk show host and longtime McCain nemesis, who on Tuesday sounded a siren for his listeners. “If he picks a pro-choice running mate, it’s not going to be pretty,” Mr. Limbaugh warned, adding that Mr. McCain would have “effectively destroyed the Republican Party and pushed the conservative movement into the bleachers.”
  
  Republicans said Mr. Romney remained a contender, although the two were bitter rivals in the primary campaign and do not have strong chemistry. In addition, Mr. Romney, a Mormon, could be a difficult sell to Christian conservatives. A person associated with Mr. Romney said Tuesday that he had detected no strong interest from the McCain campaign in recent weeks.
  
  Republicans said Mr. Pawlenty, an evangelical Christian, was also a strong possibility. His main drawback is that he has little name recognition outside of Minnesota.

It seems more like that Lieberman will become McCain's Secretary of State:

McCain men Joe Lieberman (a rumored veep choice) and Lindsey Graham are leaving today for a two-day tour of Poland, the Ukraine and Georgia, where they will meet with President Mikhail Saakashvili. The Senate Armed Services Committee Codel comes in the wake of (rumored veep choice) Joe Biden's ballyhooed trip last weekend. It was in the works for a week -- probably before Biden's excursion was announced, a Graham staffer said.

The schedule includes stops in Kiev, Warsaw, Tblisi and a bank of microphones.

The purpose of the trip, says Lieberman, is to discuss the Russian invasion with local leaders and assess its impact on NATO and future U.S.-Russia relations. They return late Thursday.

Will McCain listen to Rush? McCain's arrogance could lead him to resist the pressure from Conservatives and pick his own man. And that person is Lieberman:

Referencing reports McCain advisors are seriously considering both former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and former Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman — both of whom favor abortion rights — Limbaugh said picking either of those men would ensure a GOP defeat, and damage the party’s brand for years to come.

"How about some discussion from the McCain campaign about a conservative who can be counted on across the board, who can help lead the country in the right direction?" said Limbaugh. "Who can help rebuild the Republican Party? Lieberman can’t do that — and rebuild the conservative movement? McCain nor Lieberman nor Ridge can do that.”

The comments come amid reports senior advisors to McCain are floating both Lieberman and Ridge's names among key social conservatives in an effort to measure the blowback the Arizona senator will face if he names either man to the ticket. One party insider tells CNN that McCain campaign manager Rick Davis has called several state party chairs and indicated Ridge will be the Republican vice presidential pick this cycle.

Limbaugh said Tuesday that the drawbacks of choosing either man far out-weighed any potential benefits.

"McCain has already seen to it that he can walk across the aisle that he’s the top of the ticket," Limbaugh said. "If anybody is going to attract moderates, it’s going to be the top of the ticket guy. He’s not going to help himself any additional way, he’s going to hurt himself by putting a liberal or a liberal Republican on this ticket, particularly pro-choice.”

UPDATE:
- Lieberman will be speaking at the Republican Convention. But in what capacity? And we don't know what night he will be speaking, which would tell us if he were the vp pick.

More U.S. Women Having Fewer Kids, If Any

This news is dangerous for the future of our country.

More American women in their early 40s are childless, and those who are having children are having fewer than ever before, the Census Bureau said Monday.

In the last 30 years, the number of women age 40 to 44 with no children has doubled, from 10 percent to 20 percent. And those who are mothers have an average of 1.9 children each, more than one child fewer than women of the same age in 1976.

The report, Fertility of American Women: 2006, is the first from the Census Bureau to use data from an annual survey of 76 million women, ages 15 to 50, allowing a state-by-state comparison of fertility patterns.

About 4.2 million women participating in the survey (which was conducted from January through December 2006) had had a child in the previous year.

The statistics could be used by state agencies to provide maternal care services, the report said.

The survey found that in 2006 women with graduate or professional degrees recorded the most births of all educational levels. About 36 percent of women who gave birth in the previous 12 months were separated, divorced, widowed or unmarried.

Afghanistan Clash Kills 10 French Soldiers

It's no wonder McCain doesn't mention Afghanistan. We are losing in that country because we are bogged down in Iraq. It is also the reason why the Russians are taunting us.

The French government said Tuesday 10 of its soldiers died in fighting near Kabul, while U.S. and Afghan forces killed several insurgents in other clashes.

The French defense ministry said its soldiers, part of the 1,670-strong French contingent with NATO forces in Afghanistan, had been engaged in fighting Taliban militants since Monday, CNN reported.

Other reports said the fighting had been heavy but further details were not immediately available.

Elsewhere Tuesday, the CNN report said several suicide bombers and militants tried to attack the Forward Operating Base Salerno, a U.S. base north of Khost in eastern Afghanistan, but were beaten back.

Khost is about 12 miles from the border with Pakistan. The report said seven insurgents, including three suicide bombers, were killed.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said the approaching militants had been observed by U.S. and Afghan troops at the base.

A Taliban spokesman claimed 15 suicide bombers inflicted heavy casualties at the base, which was dismissed both by ISAF and local officials, the report said.

The latest incident follows a suicide car bombing Monday outside the base in which 10 Afghan civilians died.

F.B.I. Details Anthrax Case, but Doubts Remain

The FBI will never succeed in putting this matter to rest. They have convicted the wrong man and have destroyed any hope that we will find those truly responsible.

Federal Bureau of Investigation officials on Monday laid out their most detailed scientific case to date against Bruce E. Ivins, the military scientist accused of being the anthrax killer, but they acknowledged that the many mysteries of the case meant an air of uncertainty would always surround it.

[...]Dr. Ivins, a longtime anthrax researcher at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Maryland, killed himself last month as the Justice Department was preparing an indictment against him. Since his death, a number of scientists have said that the limited forensic evidence that the F.B.I. made public in linking the attacks to Dr. Ivins is inconclusive.

The unusual presentation by the bureau on Monday was intended to quell those doubts, but some scientists remained skeptical. They said it would be months before they were able to evaluate fully the strength of the forensic evidence, and the new process used, in an independent setting.

At the briefing, F.B.I. officials disclosed that they first obtained a sample of a unique strain of anthrax from Dr. Ivins in 2002, one that could have led them back to the strain used in the 2001 attacks. But the bureau destroyed the sample because Dr. Ivins did not follow protocol in the way it was submitted, making it more difficult to use in court.

It was not until 2006, after a backup copy of Dr. Ivins’s sample was found by another scientist working with the F.B.I., that the bureau’s scientists realized it was the same strain used in the anthrax mailings. That crucial finding helped confirm other evidence pointing to Dr. Ivins.

Report: Tainted Peppers Didn't Alarm FDA

It is clear that this administration doesn't give a damn about the safety of the food supply of Americans.

Federal inspectors at U.S. border crossings repeatedly turned back filthy, disease-ridden shipments of peppers from Mexico in the months before a salmonella outbreak that sickened 1,400 people was finally traced to Mexican chilies.

Yet no larger action was taken. Food and Drug Administration officials insisted as recently as last week that they were surprised by the outbreak because Mexican peppers had not been spotted as a problem before.

But an Associated Press analysis of FDA records found that peppers and chilies were consistently the top Mexican crop rejected by border inspectors for the last year.

Since January alone, 88 shipments of fresh and dried chilies were turned away. Ten percent were contaminated with salmonella. In the last year, 8 percent of the 158 intercepted shipments of fresh and dried chilies had salmonella.

On Friday, Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's food safety chief, told reporters peppers were not a cause for concern before they were implicated in the salmonella outbreak.

"We have not typically seen problems with peppers," Acheson said. "Our import sampling is typically focused on areas where we know we've got problems or we've seen problems in the past, which is why we're now increasing our sampling for peppers."

On Monday, the FDA said Acheson's comment was in relation to outbreaks or illness associated with Mexican peppers, not the rejection of pepper shipments at the borders. Calls to the FDA seeking elaboration were not immediately returned.

Still, food-safety advocates question why the agency did not pay more attention to the peppers being stopped at the border and why it took the nation's largest foodborne illness outbreak for the agency to ratchet up its screening of companies known for shipping dirty chilies.

Oil Price Rises on U.S. Hurricane Fears

Just when you thought it was safe to drive.

Oil prices rose Monday in Asia on concerns that Tropical Storm Fay may disrupt oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose 56 cents to $114.33 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Singapore. The contract fell $1.24 on Friday to settle at $113.77 a barrel.

"There could be some supply disruption issues there so the market is watching this closely," said Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at ANZ Bank in Melbourne.

Fay, the sixth storm of the 2008 Atlantic season, was slowing down early Monday and moving erratically, but forecasters still expected it to strengthen slowly to a hurricane. Fay has already killed at least five people after battering Haiti and the Dominican Republic with weekend torrential rains and floods.

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has evacuated about 360 staff from the Gulf of Mexico over the past two days.

Early Monday, Fay was centered about 275 kilometers (170 miles) southeast of Havana and 375 kilometers (235 miles) south-southeast of Key West, Florida, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

It had maximum sustained winds near 85 kph (50 mph) and was moving west-northwest at 17 kph (10 mph).

Forecasters expected the storm to begin moving more to the northwest later on Monday. Current models show the storm moving up the western coast of Florida, although forecasters still didn't know exactly where it would make landfall.

So far during this year's hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, no storm has significantly damaged oil installations in the Gulf.

Russia Begins Georgia Troop 'Pull Back'

This story will only serve as an excuse for the desperate Bushies and McCain to saber rattle. It is why Bush should have been impeached. Through his ineptitude he has singlehandedly rekindled the Cold War.

Russia's military "pull back" from Georgia has begun, says Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of staff of the Russian armed forces.

Nogovitsyn said that Russia's deputy foreign minister had presented the U.S. ambassador to Russia with a timetable of the events that led to Russia's actions and clearly indicated Georgia's responsibility.

As stipulated by a cease-fire agreement, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday that his troops would begin withdrawing to a buffer zone and into South Ossetia on Monday.

The six-point cease-fire gives no timetable for a Russian withdrawal, nor any other specifics, according to a copy of the agreement provided by Georgia's government.

Meanwhile, Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev, head of the parliament's foreign affairs committee, said Moscow would completely withdraw only when it was "assured that Georgians would not continue to use military force" in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russian troops will leave "sooner or later," Kosachev said, saying the timetable depends "definitely on how Georgians will continue to behave."

Survivor of Rwandan Genocide Beaten to Death

The world is becoming increasingly chaotic and lawless. And we seem helpless to stop the madeness.

A woman who lost nearly all her family in the Rwandan genocide has herself been murdered, a local villager told AFP Monday, in what is the latest of several killings of survivors of the 1994 slaughter.

Jozefina Zaninka, 75, was beaten to death overnight Friday in the Muhanga district in the south of the country, Radio Rwanda, the official government broadcaster reported.

"Her body was found Saturday morning in her stable by a young man who had come, as usual, to milk the cows for her," Benoit Kaboyi, executive secretary of Ibuka, the main organisation for the genocide survivors, told AFP.

"We buried her yesterday (Sunday) after the autopsy and some suspects have already been arrested by the police," he added.

Zaninka had been claiming compensation before one of the semi-traditional courts, known as gacacas, for the pillaging of and damage to her possessions during the genocide.

Her murder might have been linked to the court action she initiated, Kaboyi added. Zaninka, who lived alone, had lost nearly all her family, in 1994.

According to Ibuka, 167 survivors of the genocide have been murdered between 1995 and mid-May 2008.

Murders of survivors of the genocide are frequent in the region, Radio Rwanda reported: in May, a survivor in her 90s was burned alive by villagers.

Chinese Officials Seize Bibles from U.S. Christians

Another embarrassment for China during the Olympic games. This is another case in point that shows China will be no more free after the Beijing Olympics than they were before.

Chinese customs officials confiscated more than 300 Bibles on Sunday from four American Christians who arrived in a southwestern city with plans to distribute them, the group's leader said.

The Bibles were taken from the group's checked luggage after they landed at the airport in the city of Kunming, said Pat Klein, head of Vision Beyond Borders. The group, based in Sheridan, Wyoming, distributes Bibles and Christian teaching materials around the world to "strengthen the persecuted church," according to its Web site.

The group arrived in China on Sunday and had intended to distribute the Bibles to people in the city, Klein told the AP in a telephone interview while still at the airport.

"I heard that there's freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring Bibles?" Klein said. "We had over 300 copies and customs took all of them from us."

The move comes as China hosts the Olympics in Beijing, where false media reports last year claimed Bibles would be banned from the games. The state-run China Daily reported last month that 10,000 bilingual copies of the Bible would be distributed in the Olympic Village, which houses athletes and media.

Bibles are printed under the supervision of the Communist government. The officially atheistic country only allows them to be used in government-sanctioned churches and in some big hotels catering to foreigners.

A woman who was on duty at Kunming airport's customs office confirmed over the telephone that 315 Bibles were found in the passengers' checked baggage.

The officer, who would only give her last name, Xiao, denied confiscating the Bibles. She said authorities were just "taking care" of them and provided no further details. She later said she was not authorized to speak to the media and referred questions to the national customs headquarters in Beijing, which did not answer phones on Sunday.

Transcript: Rice, Ridge on FOX News Sunday (8-17-08)

Condoleeza continues her trash talking on the White House's news channel, FOX News. Also, potential McCain presidential candidate, Tom Ridge. Read the entire transcript.

WALLACE: Clear up some confusion, if you will, for us, Secretary Rice. Under the cease-fire, what will the Russians be allowed to do inside Georgia proper? And will they be allowed to keep peacekeepers in the so-called breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia?

RICE: Well, let's remember that there were Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia — or in South Ossetia, which is really the zone of conflict that we're talking about here. They were there as — in an agreement that goes all the way back to 1992. Those peacekeepers will be permitted to stay.

The Russians also had talked about some special security measures that their peacekeepers could take in a very limited area outside of the zone of conflict. They will be permitted to do that for a limited period of time in a very proscribed way.

They're not to go into urban centers. They're not to tie up the east-west highway. That's the clarification, Chris, that President Sarkozy gave to President Saakashvili when I went from France to Tbilisi.

But even that Russian activity outside of the zone of conflict is only until there are monitors in, international monitors.

The other thing the Russians said to the French is that they are now prepared to let the monitors from the OSCE enter the zone of conflict. That should be about 100 additional monitors, and that should happen also within days.

WALLACE: Let's turn, if we can, Secretary Rice, to the bigger issue. There's been a lot of tough talk this week from President Bush and other top officials, including yourself, about viewing the whole range of U.S.-Russia relations. Let's take a look at what Secretary Gates, Defense Secretary Gates, had to say this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT M. GATES: My personal view is that there need to be some consequences for the actions that Russia has taken against a sovereign state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Secretary Rice, if Russia complies with the cease-fire, do relations go back to normal or, as Secretary Gates says, do there have to be consequences for the action that Russia has already taken in the last 10 days?

RICE: Well, I think there's no doubt there will be further consequences. I would note that there have already been significant consequences for Russia.

You know, any notion that Russia was the kind of responsible state, ready to integrate into international institutions of the political, diplomatic, security, economic kind, that this was a different Russia — a Russia, by the way, that President Medvedev himself described about a month ago — this forward-leaning, modern Russia, well, you know, that reputation's, frankly, in tatters, and so that in itself is a significant consequence.

And also, by the way, if the Russians intended this as intimidation, they have done nothing but harden the attitudes of the small states around them, as witnessed by Ukraine's defiance in going to Georgia, Poland, the fact that we are moving forward on missile defense.

I think the Russians have made a significant mistake here.

WALLACE: Just following up directly on that, does the U.S. still want to see Georgia and Ukraine as part of NATO? And are we prepared, if they become part of NATO, to defend their territorial sovereignty with American troops?

RICE: Well, first of all, the NATO alliance has made clear in the Bucharest Declaration that Georgia and Ukraine will be members of NATO.

What the United States is advocating for right now with others is the Georgians and Ukrainians would become part of something called the Membership Action Plan, which is not membership, but it is an umbrella under which numerous states of Eastern and Central Europe have been able to resolve their differences, have been able to make important domestic reforms, civil-military relations, reform their militaries.

That's what we're advocating. We continue to believe that that would be important for Georgia and Ukraine.

Transcript: Rice, Kaine on Meet The Press (8-17-08)

Condoleezza Rice appeared on the Meet The Press to tell the American people that the administration expects the Russians to do as they say not what they do. Also appearing was Obama's potential VP pick, Governor Tim Kaine. Read the entire transcript.

SEC'Y RICE: Well, I just know that the Russian president said several days ago Russian military operations would stop. They didn't. The Russian president told President Sarkozy that the minute that cease-fire was signed by President Saakashvili, Russian forces would begin to withdraw. They didn't. Now he has said that tomorrow, midday, Russian forces will withdraw and withdraw to their pre-August 6, 7 lines. This time I hope he means it. You know, the, the word of the Russian president needs to be upheld by his forces. People are going to begin to wonder if Russia can be trusted. I, I think it's really very much time for them to do what they say they're going to do.

MR. GREGORY: Well, given that lack of trust, as this was all coming together why didn't you go directly to Russia to look them eye to eye to broker this agreement, rather than simply going to Georgia?

[...]MR. GREGORY: Let's talk about the future of the separatist regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Who will control those regions now?

SEC'Y RICE: David, this has been a zone of conflict for well over a decade now, almost 20 years. And in fact, there has to be an international negotiation to determine the security and political and stability arrangements for these two regions. Those negotiations have gone on sporadically for the last several years. But those negotiations will begin from the premise that the territorial integrity of Georgia must be respected, that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are indeed part of--are, are within the internationally recognized boundaries of Georgia and that we will proceed from the basis of Security Council resolutions that recognize that.

MR. GREGORY: Well...

SEC'Y RICE: But there will have to be a negotiated solution to, to these two regions which have been in dispute for a long time.

MR. GREGORY: Will U.S. troops be part of those peacekeeping troops who will be responsible for ensuring that territorial integrity?

SEC'Y RICE: Well, what is first contemplated is that there will be monitors of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, the OSCE, that will go in now to make sure that the cease-fire is working. And the Russians also told the French that they are prepared to have those monitors come in immediately. So those monitors need to come in immediately. There will then have to be a negotiated solution a part of which will be to get international peacekeeping forces that will have to be neutral peacekeeping forces. And I think the European Union is likely to be one of the lead elements along with others, but that's for future negotiations.

Based on the following answers, it doesn't sound like Kaine will do much to help Obama on his perceived weakness, foreign policy:

MR. GREGORY: Let's get right to it. We both heard Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talking about the situation in Georgia, Governor Kaine. Senator Obama was criticized by the McCain campaign this week, particularly for his comments that there should be restraint on both sides after the invasion. Was he too weak in his initial response?

GOV. KAINE: I think the senator gave a very measured response, which is the tone that we should take. As the secretary made plain, the goal is to use diplomatic means to get Russia to live by the cease-fire. And if diplomacy is the strategy at this point, measured tones is the way to go. And I think that kind of balance is what the situation needs. It is very heartening to hear that there's going to be the--this withdrawal in a day, but we have to check and make sure that Russia lives up to its word.

MR. GREGORY: You don't hear really measured tones out of Secretary Rice. She's pretty tough this morning.

GOV. KAINE: Well, she is, you know, and I think this, this is an issue where there is, there is tough talk. The question is, has there been the kind of action on behalf of the United States over the last years that has been necessary to check Russia's ambitions? My, my significant concern is that we have, through an intensity of focus on Iraq, taken our eye off the ball in other parts of the world like Russia and its bordering states, like Afghanistan. And that is one of Senator Obama's main points, that we need to focus on the significant challenges of the world. And that's why the drawdown in Iraq is so important, so that we can focus and not be stretched so thin.

McCain, Obama at the Saddleback Church Forum (8-16-08)

John McCain and Barack Obama shared the stage briefly at a forum held by the Saddleback Church. It was largely a pro religious-right crowd. This from the NY Times:

• Asked what their biggest moral failings were, Mr. Obama referred to his “difficult youth” when, he said, he experimented with drugs and drank alcohol. “I trace this to a certain selfishness on my part,” he said. “I couldn’t focus on other people.”

  Mr. McCain pointed to his first marriage, which he almost never does publicly.

• Mr. Warren asked Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, which of the sitting Supreme Court justices he would not have appointed. Mr. Obama quickly named Justice Clarence Thomas, saying he was not qualified for the top court at the time.
  
  “I don’t think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation, setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretations of the Constitution,” Mr. Obama said.
  
  Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, named all the liberal judges on the court and noted that there might be several vacancies soon. “This nomination should be based on the criteria on a proven record of strictly adhering to the Constitution and not legislating from the bench,” he said.

• Asked what was the most significant issue he had changed his mind on in the last 10 years, Mr. Obama cited the 1996 welfare reform bill signed by President Bill Clinton. He said that he initially opposed it because he believed it would have “disastrous results,” denying millions of women economic support, but that he now believed the law had been largely successful.

  Mr. McCain pointed to offshore drilling. “We’ve got to drill now; we’ve got to drill here,” he said, and took a poke at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican of California, who opposes it. “I know there are some here in Cal-eee-fornia that disagree with that position,” he said, mimicking the governor’s accent.

• Mr. Obama skirted a question about when life begins, saying that determining such a thing was above his pay grade and sending murmurs throughout the audience. Mr. McCain said simply, “At the moment of conception.”

• Asked to define marriage, Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain gave the same answer: that it is the union between a man and a woman.

• On abortion, Mr. Obama declared: “I am pro-choice, I believe in Roe vs. Wade, not because I’m pro-abortion but because ultimately I don’t think women make these decisions casually.” He also said, “I am in favor on limits on late-term abortion if there is an exception for the woman’s health.”
  
  Mr. McCain said he was “pro-life” and would be a “pro-life president.”

This from the Dallas Morning News:

• Mr. Obama said the biblical injunction to care for the disenfranchised “applies to poverty, it applies to racism and sexism, it applies to not thinking about providing ladders of opportunity for people.”

  Mr. McCain recalled how his religious faith sustained him in the face of torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

  “It took a lot of prayer,” he said.

• “If I’m president of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of hell, I will get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice,” he said.

• Asked their most difficult decision, Mr. Obama recalled his vote against the war in Iraq. Mr. McCain cited his decision to refuse early release as a POW.

• East Texas evangelist Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America Action, said Mr. McCain offered concise, conservative answers that should help win over religious voters.

  He took Mr. Obama to task for not answering when life begins.

  “This brilliant Harvard grad could not say the obvious,” said Mr. Scarborough. “He’s the most radically pro-abortion candidate our country has ever fielded.”

• Richard Land, who heads the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that although Christian conservatives are lukewarm about Mr. McCain, most will vote for him in November because they find Mr. Obama unacceptable.

Bush, McCain Uproar over Georgia: Political Opportunism

If you believe that the outrage by George Bush and John McCain over Russia's attacks on Georgia are motivated by humanitarian concern, I have some WMDs I'd like to sell you. It is the height of hypocrisy for Mr.Bush to berate the Russians for dealing with a country on it's border. What's to stop Putin from demanding that the U.S. pull out of Iraq? That was just as illegal and immoral. No, the outrage is about diverting attention from failing presidencies and campaigns, as the case may be. It is a desperate attempt to take attention away from Iraq, Afghanistan and the economy. It is also a way for McCain to look like a commander-in-chief and create a contrast with his opponent, Barack Obama. Let's not forget that Bush became very popular after 9-11 when it was he who failed to protect us from the al Qaeda attacks. The danger is that the exaggerated rhetoric from the White House could escalate into a serious rift between the U.S. and Russia. America is no position to picking another fight in the world.

Both John McCain and Barack Obama will be paying particularly close attention to the polls early next week to see what impact the Russia-Georgia crisis has had on the US presidential race. Most analysts expect that Mr McCain, who on Wednesday trumpeted "We are all Georgians now", will be the beneficiary.

Mr McCain's robust response at the start of the crisis eight days ago preceded by several hours what Mr Obama and, indeed, President George W. Bush had to say.

His statement, in which he warned Russia of "severe long-term negative consequences", also exceeded what either Mr Obama, who returned yesterday from a week-long holiday in Hawaii, or Mr Bush, who was attending the Beijing Olympics, could produce.

[...]Yet not everybody admires Mr McCain's confrontational stance towards Russia or, by extension, the position Mr Bush has now adopted. A number of Mr Obama's advisers privately express concern that their candidate has been railroaded by campaign politics into talking a similar - although more modulated - stance to Mr McCain on the crisis. "The whole tone is slipping much too easily into cold war rhetoric," says one.

[...]Given the prominent role both Mr McCain and Mr Scheunemann played in beating the drums for the invasion of Iraq, many cringed this week when the Republican contender said: "In the 21st century nations don't invade other nations."

McCain is exaggerating the significance of what is happening in Georgia. It isn't World War III.

Apparently John McCain thinks the Russian invasion of Georgia is "the first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War." This is, pretty obviously, factually wrong, since you could trot out the Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, the al-Aqsa Intifada, 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq at a minimum as other serious international crises since the end of the Cold War. But in a way, that doesn't matter. What this demonstrates is McCain's urgent, deep-seated desire to believe that he, John McCain, is right smack in the middle of world historical events, a desire remarkably similar to one we've seen from George Bush since he took office. That temperament hasn't worked out so well for the past few years, and I'm not sure the country is ready for a repeat.

Bush's belligerent style could create a dangerous situation, much worse than he's made it over the last 7 years.

“Realist” diplomats from Henry Kissinger downwards are pointing out that America can’t do both because a contained Russia won’t be a cooperative Russia. However, if Georgia were to join Nato, the consequence could be a much more serious confrontation with Moscow, as the alliance works on the understanding that an attack on one member is an attack on all. Is the invasion of Georgia the first step towards an armed confrontation between America and Russia?

On Friday, Russia even threatened Poland with nuclear retaliation for agreeing to host US rockets as part of its antimissile shield.

Georgia didn't even exist in the media until recently. American's at this point do not care about what's happening in that control. We have too many things to worry about right now to even worry about what is happening along the Russian border. Don't we have enough problems along our own border? And there is another factor: oil. It was a major factor for the Bush/neocon invasion of Iraq.

In fact, that expectation of restraint by the Russians toward their 'independent' neighbor is what the U.S. has been counting on from the instance they decided to encourage and support the construction of the oil pipeline which runs through Georgia from Azerbaijan to Turkey. The expectation was that the West could have a potential control over the flow of oil out of the former Soviet state which supplies Russia's allies (like Bush's nemesis, China). That, undoubtedly, is what has the Bush administration so jazzed about the Russian military incursion.

Bigfoot Capture Hoax and the Press Coverage

The media can't pass up a good story regardless of how untruthful. Even from the earliest reports it was clear this was a hoax. The NY Times reported it this way:

Results from tests on genetic material from alleged remains of Bigfoot, made public at a news conference in Palo Alto held after the claimed discovery swept the Internet, failed to prove the existence of the mythical half-ape and half-human creature.

[...]One of the two samples of DNA said to prove the existence of the Bigfoot came from a human and the other was 96 percent from an opossum, said Curt Nelson, a scientist at the University of Minnesota who performed the analysis.

To MSNBC's discredit they have 3 references (as of 5:47pm) to this hoax, including:

• "Sasquatch hunters claim hairy corpse is Bigfoot"
• "Bigfoot 'Proof' Revealed In Palo Alto"

Of course, FOX has it on it's site. Their attempt at some journalism:

The much-anticipated Bigfoot press conference Friday afternoon in Palo Alto, Calif., revealed little more than two men — introduced by a self-styled Sasquatch seeker — claiming to possess the 7-foot "body" of a "bipedal creature" on ice in a secret location, awaiting an autopsy.

They shouldn't even mention these clowns names. But they do. I will not:

******** showed reporters two blurry photos, claiming one was the mouth of the "creature" while the other was another creature running through the Georgia woods. The men claimed they "stumbled on the creature," but would not reveal more because they were concerned about it being an "endangered species."

******** reiterated his invitation to FOX News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly to come to Georgia and view the body, and plugged his Internet radio show.

He said there wouldn't be anything more revealed Friday, but promised that he would "assemble" a group of scientists to examine the alleged corpse.

******** recounted how he and ******** found the "body," and said that more Bigfoots "paralleled" them as they were loading it onto a flatbed truck.

Here's the AP coverage:

Two men who claim to have stumbled across a Bigfoot corpse in the woods of northern Georgia indignantly stood by their story at a news conference in Palo Alto during which they offered an e-mail from a scientist as evidence and acknowledged they wouldn't mind making a few bucks from the "find" they have kept stuffed in a freezer for over a month.

"Everyone who has talked down to us is going to eat their words," predicted ********

[...]******** and ********, a former [...] announced the discovery in early July on YouTube videos and their Web site. Although they did not consider themselves devoted Bigfoot trackers before then, they have since started offering weekend search expeditions in Georgia for $499. The specimen they bagged, the men say, was one of several apelike creatures they spotted cavorting in the woods.

As they faced a skeptical audience of several hundred journalists and Bigfoot fans that included one curiosity seeker in a Chewbacca suit, the pair were joined Friday by ********, head of a group called ********. Other Bigfoot hunters call ******** a huckster looking for media attention.