Dixie Chicks Quacking Up

Once upon a time in the music world the Dixie Chicks were on their way to superstardom. One fateful overseas concert would change all that.

Just days before the Iraq war formally began the country music group was on tour in Europe. "Just so you know," lead singer Natalie Maines yelled at a U.K. concert, "we're ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas."

The band's recordings now receive about 30 percent less radio airplay than they did prior to Maines' anti-Bush screed on foreign soil. To this day there are radio stations that continue to boycott the group.

In an apparent effort to gain publicity and reach a wider rock-oriented audience, the Chicks from time to time have tried to milk the controversy. The three members posed for the cover of Entertainment Weekly with words like "Traitors," "Saddam's Angels," "Dixie Sluts," "Free Speech" and "Brave" emblazoned on their nude bodies.

During the last presidential election, the threesome participated in the "Vote for Change" concerts that targeted swing states on behalf of the Kerry campaign.

The group's new album, "Take the Long Way," is due out in May 2006. Maines would have the public believe that the musical project is a bit of therapeutic catharsis intended to put the past behind.

"This album was total therapy," Maines said. "I'm way more at peace now. Writing these songs and saying everything we had to say makes it possible to move on."

But Maines sings a different tune on the album's single. The title itself, "Not Ready to Make Nice," is revealing and smells a whole lot like an attempt to garner attention for a group that would otherwise be fading.

The chorus has some very non-apologetic and unimaginative lyrics including the following: "I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down, I'm still mad as hell and I don't have time to go round and round and round," ending with the phrase "'cause I'm mad as hell, can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should."

As far as putting things behind her, Maines croons, "Forgive, sounds good, forget, I'm not sure I could. They say time heals everything, but I'm still waiting."

Apparently, radio stations aren't waiting. Many have already indicated that they won't play the tune.

As for the Chicks The Left Coast Report says they apparently recognize that the resuscitation of their career is dependent upon their willingness to walk and talk like DNC ducks.

Sean Penn's Ann Coulter Dolly

Sean Penn apparently has a new plaything.

It seems that the actor-activist and sometimes journalist has a doll to keep him occupied. Or should I say voodoo doll?

Never far from his Spicoli likeness, Penn admits to The New Yorker that he possesses a small Barbie-style dolly that for him represents conservative belle of the Beltway Ann Coulter.

The really weird thing about the tale is the confession by Penn that he enjoys torturing the Coulter doll.

"There are cigarette burns in some funny places," Penn admits. "She's a pure snake-oil salesman. She doesn't believe a word she says."

The Left Coast Report thinks someone should send Sean a new doll to play with - the Bride of Chucky.

Free Magazine

If you like the F.R.A. blogsite, you'll love the magazine. The new issue is out today. You can download it at http://www.angelfire.com/dragon2/future_gop or you can request to be put on the mailing list by e-mailing us. Back issues are available through request.

As said in the title the magazine is completely free, so don't hesitate to check it out!!

Have fun and be enlightened,
Jess

“What Would Jesus Do?”

Selfish capitalists surely have never been so grateful for the political activism of a socially conscious (and ill-informed) Catholic bishop.
Rich Lowery

When it comes to illegal immigration, suddenly liberal Democrats have only one guide to public policy: “What Would Jesus Do?” The target of their Bible-based ire is a border-enforcement bill that recently passed the House and is allegedly the greatest challenge Christianity has faced since the lions in the Colosseum.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.), said “this bill would literally criminalize the good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself.” Note: not figuratively, but literally. The New York Times has attacked the bill with an editorial titled “The Gospel vs. H.R. 4437.” Stoking all the Bible-thumping is Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles, who alleges that the legislation would outlaw acts of charity for illegal immigrants. In making this charge, Cardinal Mahony apparently has no compunction about deceiving his flock.

Even opponents of the bill are careful to stipulate their opposition to illegal immigration. In a New York Times op-ed, Cardinal Mahony laments “the baleful consequences of illegal immigration. Families are separated, workers are exploited and migrants are left by smugglers to die in the desert. Illegal immigration serves neither the migrant nor the common good.”

Just so. If anything is to be done about it, however, there will have to be stricter enforcement. Hillary Clinton herself has said that she wants to strengthen the border and crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. She presumably thinks Jesus — whose views on the nuances of immigration policy are evidently more easily extrapolated than anyone realized heretofore — would wholeheartedly support all of this.

Cardinal Mahony and Sen. Clinton favor amnesty as part of immigration reform. But amnesty will encourage even more illegal entries, thus exacerbating the problems that Cardinal Mahony deplores. In alleging that the House bill would criminalize the acts of good Samaritans, Cardinal Mahony is engaging in typical hardball political tactics — smearing his opponents in an attempt to give his side the better part of an argument.

The provision in question makes it illegal to “assist” an illegal immigrant to “remain in the United States.” This merely tightens language already on the books. If the new language puts nuns at risk of prosecution for providing services to needy immigrants (it doesn’t), they were already in such legal jeopardy. The bill stipulates that to break the law requires assisting an illegal knowingly or in reckless disregard of his status — because it is not aimed at social workers, but at the vicious “coyote” smuggling rings that exploit illegals in the course of bringing them here for exorbitant fees.

David C. Iglesias, a United States attorney in New Mexico, has written in the Washington Times in support of the House bill, “Our existing alien smuggling laws are inadequate, outdated and unnecessarily complicated.” Prosecutors want the law up-dated to help them to punish the smugglers, not to indict someone working at a homeless shelter that happens to house an illegal immigrant. In an attention-getting gesture, Cardinal Mahony has urged his priests and parishioners to defy the law should it make it on the books. To actually break the law, however, Mahony’s resisters would have to become “quasi-coyotes,” setting up rings to sneak Mexicans into the country and harbor them here.

There is much to offend the moral sensibilities of everyone about our current immigration system. The first step to putting it on a more rational and humane basis is to get a better handle on who comes here. The Catholic bishops have affirmed that “sovereign nations have a right to control their borders.” The forces who want to exploit illegal immigrants aren’t those who favor exercising that sovereign right, but the U.S. employers who desperately want Mexicans to keep coming.

In the debate over the House bill, these employers are in a de facto alliance with Cardinal Mahony to try to preserve their access to cheap, low-skill labor without the full rights of U.S. citizens. Selfish capitalists surely have never been so grateful for the political activism of a socially conscious (and ill-informed) Catholic bishop.

The economy: The good news keeps getting worse

Larry Elder

In February, our economy created 243,000 new jobs.

Yet one of our major newspapers tells us almost half of Americans consider the economy in a recession. American Research Group's latest monthly survey found 59 percent of Americans rate the economy as bad, very bad, or terrible. Why are Americans so negative?

Compare the first few paragraphs of this particular story by Investors Business Daily to the way the New York Times reported the story.

Investors Business Daily, paragraph 1: "U.S. companies in nearly every sector increased hiring last month, lifting job growth to better than forecast levels and enticing more people into the labor market."

New York Times, paragraph 1: "American employers added 243,000 jobs in February and workers posted their highest salary gains in more than four years, the government reported yesterday, igniting concerns among many Wall Street economists that higher wages could fuel inflation and increase expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates further. " [Emphasis added.]

Note the New York Times felt compelled to add a "but" or a "cautionary note" to the economic expansion. Someone made a decision to add a cautionary note, not that the proviso is wrong, or necessarily inappropriate, but it absolutely changes the tone of the story. But couldn't one also accuse Investors Business Daily of failing to provide balance by omitting this cautionary note?

No, for America's economy, by virtually any standard, remains an incredible economic powerhouse. From 2003 to now, the economy created 5 million jobs. Payrolls expanded for 30 straight months. Following Bush's 2003 tax cuts, federal tax revenues grew from $1.9 trillion in 2004 to $2.1 trillion in 2005. The monthly inflation rate for February 2006 stood at .20 percent. And 68.6 percent of Americans own their homes, a historical high.

Investors Business Daily, paragraph 2: "Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 243,000 in February, topping views of 210,000 and boosted by hiring in construction, financial services and health care, the Labor Department said Friday."

New York Times, paragraph 2: "But , [emphasis added] some economists cautioned that employment is benefiting from the exceptionally mild weather in January and the beginning of February, and that employers' demand for workers is unlikely to remain as strong in the coming months." (In other words, oh, sure, things look good now, but just you wait, says the New York Times. Expect things to get worse.)

Investors Business Daily, paragraph 3: "The jobless rate, based on the separate household survey, edged up to 4.8 percent from January's 4.7 percent, a 4 1/2-year low. That's due to more people looking for work."

New York Times, paragraph 3: "'This report is good, but it does not say the economy is booming,' said David Kelly, senior economic adviser at Putnam Investments, the mutual fund concern in Boston." (So we exist in a non-booming economy — an economy that withstood the 9-11 terrorist attacks, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and hurricanes Rita and Katrina.)

Media Research Center (MRC) examined the year 2005, specifically how ABC, NBC and CBS covered employment news. In 2005, the economy created 2 million jobs. According to the MRC, however, more than 50 percent of the stories involved job losses rather than gains.

Professor John Lott, economist and resident scholar at American Enterprise Institute, and Kevin A. Hassett, the Institute's director of economic policy studies, examined, among other things, newspapers' economic political bias as reflected by their headlines: "We found that newspaper headlines reporting economic news on unemployment, gross domestic product (GDP), retail sales, and durable goods tended to be much more frequently negative when a Republican was in the White House. And this was true even after accounting for the economic numbers on which the stories were based and how those numbers were changing over time."

In other words, all other things being equal, positive economic news under a Democratic president becomes even more positive news. Positive economic news under a Republican president suddenly becomes less positive news. And, on the other hand, negative economic news under a Democratic president becomes less negative news, while negative economic news under a Republican president becomes even more negative.

Consider the Investors Business Daily and New York Times headlines about the 243,000-jobs-created story.

Investors Business Daily: "243,000 New Jobs in Feb.; Wage Gain Best in 4 1/2 Years."

New York Times: "U.S. Says [emphasis added] Employers Added 243,000 Jobs in February." (The U.S. "says"? As opposed to whom? The Taliban? In other words, the Bush Administration claims or asserts or advances the notion. Can you really trust what the Bush Administration "says"?)

Hassett and Lott write, "We also found that positive headlines explained whether people thought that the economy was getting better more than the economic variables themselves. Newspapers are indeed important." Few of us read dry, economic articles A-Z. Headlines matter.

Sometimes good economic news is simply good economic news — unless, of course, a tax-cutting Republican sits in the White House.

Paddle the French Fanny

They sure need it.
Larry Kudlow

Why is it that so many French people would rather riot than work?

For nearly a fortnight, French students repeatedly have taken to the streets in protest of a modest labor reform proposed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. It seems that Villepin had the audacity to suggest that companies hiring workers under the age of 26 have the ability to fire those workers in the first two years of employment. Villepin’s far-from-Draconian reform is a reaction to the country’s government-planned entitlement state, overregulated labor laws, and sky-high jobless rate.

But French students apparently prefer their little worker’s paradise just the way it is. The overall jobless rate in France hovers around 10 percent, so-called “youth unemployment” is 23 percent, and in some of the Muslim-heavy suburbs, joblessness is nearly 50 percent. Some paradise.

In France, you see, companies don’t grow because it’s too costly to hire while it’s against the law to fire. Hence, since they rarely add jobs, French businesses under-perform, under-produce, and under-employ. Think of it: It’s awfully tough to increase output without a growing workforce to produce it.

The Villepin reform, of course, would make it a lot easier for firms to hire since they would no longer have to lock-in high wages and benefit costs without first confirming worker productivity, at least for two years. But in response to this mild capitalist reform, a reported 500,000 students have emerged in angry protest. There’s now even a threat of a general strike, with government unions, trade unions, and student unions possibly teaming together to shut down the entire French economy (or what’s left of it).

Of course, it wasn’t all that long ago that young Muslims rioted and vandalized urban centers across France. Their beef was cultural in nature, but it was also rooted in the fact that France is anti-opportunity, anti-wealth, anti-jobs, anti-markets, anti-work, and anti-capitalism.

Indeed, at the heart of the French problem is a statist-run socialist economy that is massively overtaxed and overregulated. France’s public government sector, for instance, accounts for more than 50 percent of GDP. In other words, private business in France is in the minority.

Added to this, France’s top personal tax rate is 48 percent, with a VAT tax of nearly 20 percent. So that means French laborers face a combined 68 percent tax rate on consumption and investment. No wonder France has created less than 3 million jobs over the past twenty years, compared to 31 million in the United States. Economic growth in “cowboy capitalist” America has exceeded that of France’s worker paradise by nearly 50 percent.

In a dramatic speech to the European Parliament last summer, British Prime Minister Tony Blair hit the mark when he criticized all Western European economies for their inability to compete on an acceptable global level. Asked Blair, “What type of social model is it that has 20 million unemployed in Europe? Productivity rates falling behind those of the USA? That, on any relative index of a modern economy — skills, R&D, patents, information technology — is going down, not up?”

Financial Times international editor Olaf Gersemann blames French and European unemployment on high minimum-wage requirements and overly strict employment-protection laws. Gersemann, who scathingly criticized Western Europe in his book “Cowboy Capitalism,” says these labor-market regulations have created millions of involuntary unemployed throughout Europe, affecting immigrants in particular. He writes, “Most French, German, and Italian voters simply refuse to accept the necessity of a Thatcher-Reagan style economic revolution.” He notes that per capita income in the U.S. now exceeds that of France by close to 40 percent, with Germany and Italy lagging even further behind.

All of this is reminiscent of the British disease of the 1960s and ’70s. Back then, striking labor unions closed down the English economy again and again, and it took until the early 1980s for Margaret Thatcher to put an end to it. At one point, the Iron Lady actually called in tanks and troops to stop the print unions from shutting down Fleet Street. (This is what turned media-magnate Rupert Murdoch into a pro-capitalist Thatcherite.)

Is there a Thatcher that can save Gaul? Perhaps. French Interior Minister Nick Sarkozy is a strong law-and-order man. He’s the one who ended the Muslim riots. More, he is reputed to be pro-market and pro-American. The question is, can Sarkozy wake up this nation of economic sleepwalkers and bring them into the 21st century? He ought to take a big paddle to the collective French fanny. They sure need it.

U.S. Hiring Hong Kong Firm to Check Cargo for Nukes

In the aftermath of the Dubai ports dispute, the Bush administration is hiring a Hong Kong conglomerate to help detect nuclear materials inside cargo passing through the Bahamas to the United States and elsewhere.

The administration acknowledges the no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. represents the first time a foreign company will be involved in running a sophisticated U.S. radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present.

Freeport in the Bahamas is 65 miles from the U.S. coast, where cargo would be likely to be inspected again. The contract is currently being finalized.

The administration is negotiating a second no-bid contract for a Philippine company to install radiation detectors in its home country, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. At dozens of other overseas ports, foreign governments are primarily responsible for scanning cargo.

While President Bush recently reassured Congress that foreigners would not manage security at U.S. ports, the Hutchison deal in the Bahamas illustrates how the administration is relying on foreign companies at overseas ports to safeguard cargo headed to the United States.

Hutchison Whampoa is the world's largest ports operator and among the industry's most-respected companies. It was an early adopter of U.S. anti-terror measures. But its billionaire chairman, Li Ka-Shing, also has substantial business ties to China's government that have raised U.S. concerns over the years.

Three years ago, the Bush administration effectively blocked a Hutchison subsidiary from buying part of a bankrupt U.S. telecommunications company, Global Crossing Ltd., on national security grounds.

And a U.S. military intelligence report, once marked "secret," cited Hutchison in 1999 as a potential risk for smuggling arms and other prohibited materials into the United States from the Bahamas.

Hutchison's port operations in the Bahamas and Panama "could provide a conduit for illegal shipments of technology or prohibited items from the West to the PRC (People's Republic of China), or facilitate the movement of arms and other prohibited items into the Americas," the now-declassified assessment said.

The CIA currently has no security concerns about Hutchison's port operations, and the administration believes the pending deal with the foreign company would be safe, officials said.

Supervised by Bahamian customs officials, Hutchison employees will drive the towering, truck-like radiation scanner that moves slowly over large cargo containers and scans them for radiation that might be emitted by plutonium or a radiological weapon.

Any positive reading would set off alarms monitored simultaneously by Bahamian customs inspectors at Freeport and by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials working at an anti-terrorism center 800 miles away in northern Virginia. Any alarm would prompt a closer inspection of the cargo, and there are multiple layers of security to prevent tampering, officials said.

"The equipment operates itself," said Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the U.S. National Nuclear Safety Administration, the agency negotiating the contract. "It's not going to be someone standing at the controls pressing buttons and flipping switches."

A lawmaker who helped lead the opposition to the Dubai ports deal isn't so confident. Neither are some security experts. They question whether the U.S. should pay a foreign company with ties to China to keep radioactive material out of the United States.

"Giving a no-bid contract to a foreign company to carry out the most sensitive security screening for radioactive materials at ports abroad raises many questions," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

A low-paid employee with access to the screening equipment could frustrate international security by studying how the equipment works and which materials set off its alarms, warned a retired U.S. Customs investigator who specialized in smuggling cases.

"Money buys a lot of things," Robert Sheridan said. "The fact that foreign workers would have access to how the United States screens various containers for nuclear material and how this technology scrutinizes the containers - all those things allow someone with a nefarious intention to thwart the screening."

Other experts discounted concerns. They cited Hutchison's reputation as a leading ports company and said the United States inevitably must rely for some security on large commercial operators in the global maritime industry.

"We must not allow an unwarranted fear of foreign ownership or involvement in offshore operations to impair our ability to protect against nuclear weapons being smuggled into this country," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. "We must work with these foreign companies."

A former Coast Guard commander, Stephen Flynn, said foreign companies sometimes prove more trustworthy - and susceptible to U.S. influence - than governments.

"It's a very fragile system," Flynn said. Foreign companies "recognize the U.S. has the capacity and willingness to exercise a kill switch if something goes wrong."

A spokesman for Hutchison's ports subsidiary, Anthony Tam, said the company "is a strong supporter in port security initiatives."

"In the case of the Bahamas, our local personnel are working alongside with U.S. customs officials to identify and inspect U.S.-bound containers that could be carrying radioactive materials," Tam said.

However, there are no U.S. customs agents checking any cargo containers at the Hutchison port in Freeport. Under the contract, no U.S. officials would be stationed permanently in the Bahamas with the radiation scanner.

The administration is finalizing the contract amid a national debate over maritime security sparked by the furor over now-abandoned plans by Dubai-owned DP World to take over significant operations at major U.S. ports.

Hutchison operates the sprawling Freeport Container Port on Grand Bahama Island. Its subsidiary, Hutchison Port Holdings, has operations in more than 20 countries but none in the United States.

Contract documents, obtained by The Associated Press, indicate Hutchison will be paid roughly $6 million. The contract is for one year with options for three years.

The Energy Department's National Nuclear Safety Administration is negotiating the Bahamas contract under a $121 million security program it calls the "second line of defense." Wilkes, the NNSA spokesman, said the Bahamian government dictated that the U.S. give the contract to Hutchison.

"It's their country, their port. The driver of the mobile carrier is the contractor selected by their government. We had no say or no choice," he said. "We are fortunate to have allies who are signing these agreements with us."

Some security experts said that is a weak explanation in the Bahamas, with its close reliance on the United States. The administration could insist that the Bahamas permit U.S. Customs agents to operate at the port, said Albert Santoli, an expert on national security issues in Asia and the Pacific.

"Why would they not accept that?" said Santoli, a former national security aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. "There is an interest in the Bahamas and every other country in the region to make sure the U.S. stays safe and strong. That's how this should be negotiated."

Flynn, the former Coast Guard commander, agreed the Bahamas would readily accept such a proposal but said the U.S. is short of trained customs agents to send overseas.

Contract documents obtained by the AP show at least one other foreign company is involved in the U.S. radiation-detection program.

A separate, no-bid $4 million contract the Bush administration is negotiating would pay a Manila-based company, International Container Terminal Services Inc., to install radiation detectors at the Philippines' largest port.

The U.S. says the Manila company is not being paid to operate the radiation monitors once they are installed. But two International Container executives and a senior official at the government's Philippine Nuclear Research Institute said the company will run the detectors on behalf of the institute and the country's customs bureau. U.S. officials said they will investigate further how the Filipinos plan to use the equipment.

Mel Gibson on Bush's 'Fearmongering'

NewsMax

Time magazine is running an exclusive feature on Mel Gibson's forthcoming film "Apocalypto," shooting right now in Mexico. For those of you who haven't heard about this film, it's a $50 million action picture dealing with the collapse of Mayan civilization some 500 years before Europeans arrived in the Americas. The film will star mostly Mayan locals, who will speak the Yucatec Mayan language in the film.

The film's trailer looks quite exotic and compelling, and this is actually one of the very few films this year we're looking forward to seeing. According to the Time article, Gibson apparently "... wants to 'shake up the stale action-adventure genre,' which he feels has been taken hostage by computer-generated imagery, stock stories and shallow characters. To rattle the cage, he says, 'we had to think of something utterly different.'"

All well and good - that's certainly the impression one gets from the film's trailer, and from some of the film's production stills. At the same time, Gibson seems motivated by other factors. Thus, we read:

"[Gibson] likes to confound expectations - he wears a cross containing relics of martyred saints, but he can swear like a Quentin Tarantino character - and those who peg him as a reactionary may be surprised to learn that his new film sounds warnings straight out of liberal Hollywood's bible.

"'Apocalypto,' which Gibson loosely translates from the Greek as 'a new beginning,' was inspired in large part by his work with the Mirador Basin Project, an effort to preserve a large swath of the Guatemalan rain forest and its Maya ruins.

"Gibson and his rookie co-writer on 'Apocalypto,' Farhad Safinia, were captivated by the ancient Maya, one of the hemisphere's first great civilizations, which reached its zenith about A.D. 600 in southern Mexico
and northern Guatemala.

"The two began poring over Maya myths of creation and destruction, including the Popol Vuh, and research suggesting that ecological abuse and war-mongering were major contributors to the Maya's sudden collapse, some 500 years before Europeans arrived in the Americas.

"Those apocalyptic strains haunt 'Apocalypto,' which takes place in an opulent but decaying Maya kingdom ... Gibson, who insists ideology matters less to him than stories of 'penitential hardship' like his Oscar-winning 'Braveheart,' puts it more bluntly: 'The fearmongering we depict in this film reminds me a little of President Bush and his guys.'"

Now, it's disappointing to read this for any number of reasons. Let us begin by saying we've generally avoided referring to Gibson himself as a conservative, focusing instead on the content of his film "The Passion"
and on the justifiably positive reception the film had among conservative audiences.

We've actually never been under the impression that Gibson was a conservative in the political sense, nor do we think that's deeply relevant to his filmmaking. Gibson appears to be an iconoclast, with a healthy rebellious streak in him, all of which is fine - in fact, it's the best thing possible within an increasingly conformist Hollywood.

Here's the problem, however: A great many of President Bush's supporters in "The Passion's" audience just made Mr. Gibson a very rich man, essentially purchasing the creative freedom he now enjoys to make "Apocalypto." Is it asking too much that he now not gratuitously insult their sensibilities?

Gibson did not mind appearing on Rush, Hannity and O'Reilly's shows, etc., in order to promote his product at the time. He cried persecution at the hands of the Hollywood system and then threw himself on conservative audiences to bail himself out. Are we to assume now those audiences are no longer useful to him?

Frankly, with his film being set about a thousand years ago on the Mayan peninsula, "Apocalypto" would appear to have exceptionally little to do with American politics of today. Could Mel and everyone else just possibly leave the domestic politics alone for a while? For example, are we soon to be told that Wolfgang Peterson's "Poseidon" is actually a metaphor for Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina? Or that "Superman Returns" is a meta-narrative of the Barak Obama presidential campaign? Where does this lunacy end?

It's infinitely frustrating that the storyline of every film these days - from "V For Vendetta" to "Syriana" to "Good Night, and Good Luck" to now, apparently, "Apocalypto" - must be contorted by its creators into a sub rosa diatribe against the Bush administration. This practice is becoming extraordinarily tedious, creatively stultifying, and we'd hoped Gibson was above it. Apparently he isn't.

Liberals Sour on Nancy Pelosi

A poll by a major left-wing blog, Daily Kos, shows that liberals strongly support Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean - but turn thumbs down on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Results of the ongoing poll on March 21 showed that a solid 84 percent of respondents approved of the way Dean is doing his job.

Only 50 percent said they approved of the job Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid was doing.

And when it came to Pelosi, a paltry 19 percent approved.

Daily Kos notes: "A critic might say that Pelosi's numbers are suffering because of the beating she's taken on this site and the larger blogosphere the past week or two. However, Reid is very much praised around these parts, yet he got a bare majority approval rating."

A beating, indeed. Kossack Matt Stoller has chastised the congresswoman from California a number of times, including this posting: "Nancy Pelosi isn't doing a good job as minority leader... She doesn't stand up for her fellow members when they are fighting the Republicans. She creates incentives against aggressive behavior. She enforces an ethics truce, and lies about it. Despite all of this, she can still come around and be a good leader. And if she doesn't come around and start leading, it could cost us in 2006."

Another posting reads: "Pelosi and Reid are part of the old school that sits tight and waits for the results of the focus groups before getting on an issue. Good politicians and great leaders, like Dean, have a nose for where the important issues are and know how to get out in front of them."

Yet another: "She's two steps behind and never has a plan for what's obviously coming down the pipe. Find somebody who really wants to do the job, not somebody who likes having the title on her business card."

Chief Russian Communist Blames U.S. for Bird Flu

For the second time this year, the head of Russia's Communist Party has made a wild accusation against the U.S., saying America is responsible for the spread of bird flu in Europe.

"The forms of warfare are changing. It's strange that not a single duck has died in America - they are all dying in Russia and European countries," Gennady Zyuganov said at a press conference in Moscow.

"This makes one seriously wonder why."

Zyuganov said he learned about biological warfare during his time in the Russian Red Army.

"I tested all kinds of war gases at a range myself," he was quoted by UPI as saying.

Asked whether he thinks the bird flu outbreak could be a deliberate attack by the U.S., Zyuganov declared: "I not only suggest this, I know very well how this can be arranged. There is nothing strange here."

An outbreak of bird flu was first reported in Central Siberia in August 2005. Russian researchers, unlike Zyuganov, believe the flu was carried into Russia by migratory birds.

This is the same Zyuganov who told a news conference in February that the publication of cartoons offensive to Muslims was part of a U.S. plot.

He said the publication of the cartoons was a "well-thought-out major provocation using newspapers and magazines to aggravate the situation, the relationship between the European countries and the Muslim world."

He claimed that the riots sparked by the cartoons could only benefit the U.S. and said "those who have raised this hysteria, insulted religious feelings of one and a half billion Muslims, are pushing Europe into the arms of the American military clique."

Report: China Selling Prisoners' Body Parts

Chinese doctors are "harvesting" kidneys, corneas and other organs from live concentration camp inmates and selling them for up to $100,000 apiece.

That's the shocking report from a former employee at Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, where the organ removal has allegedly been taking place.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, the ex-employee said the Sujiatun Concentration Camp in Shenyang City is part of the hospital and since 2001 has secretly detained approximately 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners - none of whom has left the camp alive.

"The hospital removed many kidneys, livers, and corneas from the practitioners," according to The Epoch Times, a New York-based news organization specializing in Chinese coverage.

"After the organ removal, the practitioners were thrown into an incinerator, which was converted from a boiler. Their ashes were dumped together with burned charcoal."

The Chinese Communist Party persecutes Falun Gong, but medical personnel were told Falun Gong practitioners were facing death because they killed people, or they had become insane from practicing Falun Gong, the former staff member at the hospital said.

The Epoch Times ran a transcript of the interview with the ex-staffer. Her comments read in part:

"Organs harvested from live bodies are worth far more than organs taken from dead bodies. Many Falun Gong practitioners were still alive when their organs were taken. After their organs were cut out, some of these people were thrown directly into the crematorium to be burnt, thus leaving no evidence.

"For some others, after their organs were stolen, the doctor sewed up the wound and asked the family or family representative to give a signature for cremation. Family members did not know at all that the dead had their organs taken out...

"It is also said by the employees in the hospital [that] some were still alive when being thrown into the boiler...

"Three-quarters of these 6,000 people have died, having their hearts, kidneys, retinas, and skins harvested and their bodies disposed of. I think now about 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners are still in this hospital."

The harvested organs "are mainly sold to Thailand, but I believe they are also sold to other regions of the world. Nowadays, there are many patients in China who need human skin, corneas, and kidneys for organ transplant surgeries."

Currently, a kidney can be sold for $30,000 to $100,000, the former employee added.

"The profit from selling organs is simply too great. The people who benefit from this are not only the top leaders of hospitals and the officials of the Chinese Communist Party's Heath Department ... People ranging from government officials to doctors to organ sellers are all involved in this and are profiting greatly.

"I am not a Falun Gong practitioner. But as a former staff member of the hospital, I have the responsibility to expose the truth, and let the world save those Falun Gong practitioners who are still alive."

Tom Cruise Less Popular Than Saddam

Could actor Tom Cruise be even less popular than a mass murderer?

Respondents in a poll said they’d rather spend the night with deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein than the "Mission Impossible” star.

Stuff Magazine asked readers who among four personalities they would least like to share a camping tent with overnight. Cruise took the prize with 41 percent, with Saddam trailing at 39 percent. Sportscaster/celebrity reporter Pat O’Brien got 15 percent and actress/comedienne Kathy Griffin, 5 percent.

It’s been a bad few weeks for Cruise. He recently "won” an unwanted Razzie award at a ceremony acknowledging the year's worst films and stars.

Cruise - who is engaged to pregnant actress Katie Holmes - was given the Most Tiresome Tabloid Target prize for his embarrassing behavior last year, which included the now infamous "couch jumping” incident on Oprah Winfrey’s show, proposing to Holmes at the Eiffel Tower and his gushing pregnancy announcement.

Alec Baldwin v. Sean Hannity in Radio Donnybrook

Hollywood liberal Alec Baldwin stormed out of an in-studio radio interview Sunday night after he was confronted on the phone by radio hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.

Baldwin was 30 minutes into a planned two-hour-plus sitdown with WABC Radio's Brian Whitman when Hannity called in.

The fireworks commenced almost immediately.

HANNITY: Alec, I wanted to give you an official WABC welcome considering you were supposed to come on my program last week and you didn't show up. What happened?

BALDWIN: No, I wasn't supposed to come on your program, Sean Hannity.

HANNITY: No, actually you were supposed to come on the program because a deal was made with your agent that if you were going to come on with Brian, first you'd come on with me.

BALDWIN: I wouldn't dream of coming on your program, Sean Hannity. I'm here with Brian. I'm here with a really talented broadcaster.

HANNITY: [Crosstalk] that you are, you don't tell the truth.

BALDWIN: Why would I want to come on the show with a no-talent, former construction worker hack like you?

HANNITY: Are you the guy that said of our vice president, while we're at war, while we're leading troops in harm's way - are you the reckless, third-rate Hollywood actor who said that Dick Cheney is a terrorist? Are you the guy . . .

BALDWIN: Yes I am.

HANNITY: ... who said to stone Henry Hyde to death? Are you the guy who said our president is a CIA mass murderer? I wanted you to come on the program and defend that, you gutless coward.

BALDWIN: At first I thought this was a joke. But you can hear all the acid venom spewing hatred. It is Sean Hannity. [END EXCERPT]

The exchange got even hotter when Mark Levin joined in.

LEVIN: We've only just begun - are you 40 or 50 pounds overweight now?

WHITMAN: Oh, C'mon now . . . .

HANNITY: Once and for all you need to be challenged. You want to call our vice president a terrorist - fine. You want to talk about stoning people to death, say it on my program. If you want to be irresponsible and call our president a mass murderer while he's at war leading troops in harm's way ...

BALDWIN: And what are you gonna do about it, Sean Hannity?

HANNITY: You don't have the courage to answer questions.

BALDWIN: And what are you gonna do? And what are you going to do about it, Sean Hannity. If I come on your program, what are you going to do?

LEVIN: He's going to show that you have a two digit IQ - that's what he's gonna do.

BALWIN: What are you going to do?

LEVIN: I just told you - you've got a two digit IQ.

BALDWIN: And who's that - who's your little cabin boy there with you.

LEVIN: I'm not a cabin boy, butt-boy.

BALDWIN: What are you doing there, cabin boy? ... I now dub you Sean Hannity's cabin boy.

LEVIN: And you know what you are? You're "Brokeback" Alec. [END EXCERPT]

The confrontation continued to spiral out of control, with Whitman intermittently trying to make peace and Baldwin repeatedly urging him to move on to other callers.

BALDWIN: Listen, Sean - you incredibly ignorant boob from Long Island ...

HANNITY: Oh, ouch, Alec.

BALDWIN: No, no, no, you've spoken, let me talk, Sean. Cause you've been spewing your ...

HANNITY: You're a third-rate Hollywood egomaniac.

BALDWIN: You're a no-talent, ignorant fool from Long Island. You should go back to building houses in Hempstead.

LEVIN: Why was your [former] wife [Kim Basinger] so pissed off at you, anyway?

WHITMAN: Now, c'mon guys.

BALDWIN: OK. We're done. [Gets up and leaves the studio]

WHITMAN: Come back. Come back. Alec? They're gone. Alec? Alec has walked out of the studio. Alec, please come back.

Scalia Criticizes Europe on Gitmo

Justice Antonin Scalia reportedly told an overseas audience this month that the U.S. Constitution does not protect foreigners held at America's military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Scalia also told the audience at the University of Freiberg in Switzerland that he was "astounded" at the "hypocritical" reaction in Europe to the prison, said this week's issue of Newsweek magazine.

The comments came just weeks before justices were to take up an appeal from a detainee at Guantanamo Bay.

Justices will hear arguments Tuesday on Salim Ahmed Hamdan's claim that President Bush has overstepped his constitutional authority in ordering a military trial for the former driver of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, held at the prison for nearly four years.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the detainees could use U.S. courts to challenge their detention. Scalia disagreed with that ruling, and in the recent speech repeated his beliefs that enemy combatants have no legal rights.

"War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts," Newsweek quoted Scalia as saying in the speech. "Give me a break."

Scalia's dissent in the Rasul v. Bush case in 2004 said:

"The consequence of this holding, as applied to aliens outside the country, is breathtaking. It permits an alien captured in a foreign theater of active combat to bring a petition against the secretary of defense ... Each detainee [at Guantanamo] undoubtedly has complaints — real or contrived — about those terms and circumstances ... From this point forward, federal courts will entertain petitions from these prisoners, and others like them around the world, challenging actions and events far away, and forcing the courts to oversee one aspect of the executive's conduct of a foreign war."

Newsweek said Scalia was challenged by an audience member in Switzerland about whether Guantanamo detainees have protection under the Geneva or human rights conventions. He shot back: "If he was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son, and I'm not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it's crazy," Newsweek said.

Scalia's son Matthew, served in Iraq.

Sharon Stone: Hillary Has 'Sexual Power'

It's "too soon" for Hillary Clinton to run for president because she still has "sexual power," says sexually powerful actress Sharon Stone.

"This may sound odd, but a woman should be past her sexuality when she runs," the "Basic Instinct" star told Hollywood Life magazine.

"Hillary still has sexual power and I don't think people will accept that. It's too threatening."

Madonna expressed similar thoughts in an Out magazine interview reported in the Baltimore Sun.

She said men "are still afraid" of a woman leading the U.S., adding: "And I don't think women are too comfortable with the idea of a female in charge. I find that really amazing."

Cheney: Don't Listen to Kennedy

Sen. Ted Kennedy is the last person to listen to in matters of national security, Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday.

Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," Cheney responded to host Bob Schieffer's remark that Kennedy, D-Mass., had said on the third anniversary of the Iraq war: "It is clearer than ever that Iraq was a war that we never should have fought. The administration has been dangerously incompetent and its Iraq policy is not worthy of the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.

"President Bush continues to see the war through the same rose colored glasses he's always used. He assures the American people we are winning while the lives of our troops hang so perilously on the precipice of a new disaster."

Said Cheney: "I would not listen to Ted Kennedy for guidance and leadership on how we ought to manage national security. I think what Senator Kennedy reflects is sort of the pre-9/11 mentality about how we ought to deal with that part of the world. We used to operate on the assumption before 9/11 that a terrorist attack, a criminal act, was a law enforcement problem.

"We were hit repeatedly in the '90s and never responded effectively. When the terrorists came to believe not only could they strike us with impunity but if they hit us hard enough that we'd change our policy."

Cheney explained that "we changed all that on 9/11. After they hit us and killed 3,000 Americans here at home we said enough's enough, we're going to aggressively go after them - go after the terrorists where we can find them and go after those states that sponsor terrorism and go after people who provide them with weapons of mass destruction.

"That kind if aggressive forward-leading strategy is one of the main reasons we haven't been struck again. Senator Kennedy's approach is pack [up] and go home and retreat behind the ocean and assume we can be safe. It was learned on 9/11 that in fact what's going on 10,000 miles away in a place like Afghanistan has a direct impact on the United States when we lost 3,000 people.

"We know now that the biggest threat of all that we face is not just another 9/11 but a 9/11 where the terrorists have something like nuclear weapons or deadly biological agents.

"The Iraq situation has to be seen in the broader context of a global war on terror. It is a global contest. You can't look just at Iraq and make decisions there with respect as to how that's going to come out without having major consequences.

"I think we are going to succeed in Iraq. I think the evidence is overwhelming. I think Ted Kennedy been wrong from the very beginning, he's the last man I'd go to for guidance as to how we should conduct national security policy."

N.M. Democrats Call for Bush Impeachment

The New Mexico Democratic Party is calling for President Bush's removal from office.

Party Chairman John Wertheim said Tuesday that delegates to Saturday's state party convention supported a call for the president's impeachment largely because of "perceived abuses of power and corruption in the Bush administration."

He listed as examples of abuses of power, warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens, the misstatement of facts preceding the invasion of Iraq, and the scandal surrounding the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide in connection with the leak of the identity of a covert CIA operative.

"Everyone understands President Bush is not going to be impeached," Wertheim said. "But these abuses of power and corruption in the administration are deeply serious matters and there should be more talk about this abuse of power."

The one-sentence amendment, added from the floor to the platform's section on political and election reform, reads: "Resolved, that the Democratic Party of New Mexico supports the impeachment of President George Bush and his lawful removal from office."

Marta Kramer, executive director for the Republican Party of New Mexico, said Tuesday the Democrats "foolishly" voted to "to impeach and punish our president for aggressively waging the war on al-Qaida and terrorist organizations."

"How will dragging the country into impeachment hearings protect Americans?" she asked. "How will censuring the president protect Americans?"

The amendment, suggested by Bernalillo County convention delegate Robb Chavez, was accepted on a show of hands by about 80 percent of the nearly 1,400 registered convention delegates, Wertheim said. It required support by at least two-thirds of the delegates.

Kramer said the action proved the only plan the Democrats have "is to attack our president, undermine American resolve and demoralize our troops."

Wertheim said Democrats perceive a double standard between President Bush and former President Clinton. Concerns raised about Bush's actions are "much more serious than anything that was said about President Clinton," he said.

The Democrats met to nominate candidates for the June 6 primary election and to pass a party platform.

The delegates also approved a resolution concerning religious freedom in light of a lawsuit against the Air Force by an Air Force Academy graduate from Albuquerque.

The resolution states: "We believe no member of the armed services should be coerced, forced, manipulated or evangelized to any particular religion nor to any religious beliefs at all."

Mikey Weinstein, who is Jewish, sued last October, alleging the academy was unconstitutionally imposing evangelical Christianity on cadets. The lawsuit, joined by active-duty officers, asked the court bar illegal proselytizing throughout the Air Force. The group's lawyers recently asked to amend the lawsuit to also seek a declaration that the service's new guidelines on religion are unconstitutional.

Hillary Clinton: I'm Not Muzzling Bill

2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is denying that she's put her foot down over her husband's tendency to make pronouncements that contradict her own positions.

"The story is not true," Mrs. Clinton's spokesman Philippe Reines told Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the New York Daily News frontpaged the story under the headline: "Zip It: With Eye on 2008, Hill Tells Bill: Say Nothing Without my OK."

The report claimed that "the former president agreed to give his wife a veto to avoid his habit of making controversial headlines that could hurt her chances of returning to the White House."

In response, Reines and Mr. Clinton's spokesman, Jay Carson, issued a joint statement:

"The anonymous sources [quoted in the News' report] are anonymous for a reason; they're wrong. We have two better-placed and more definitive sources: President & Senator Clinton. So we can tell you that this story is not true."

However, not all the News' sources were anonymous.

Responding to claims that Bill had been ordered to zip his lip, Hillary spokesgal Ann Lewis told the paper, "She is the elected official. She makes the ultimate decisions."

Bill Clinton: Hillary's the Boss

Ex-president Bill Clinton has agreed that when it comes to speaking out on controversial issues, his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, will have the last word from here on out.

Mr. Clinton has promised to clear all future pronouncements with his wife after he embarrassed her by lobbying for the Dubai Ports World deal, which she publicly opposed.

"He knows it's Hillary's time now," an adviser close to both Clintons told the New York Daily News, which said Mrs. Clinton invoked her veto power out of fear that her husband's wayward comments might hurt her 2008 presidential bid.

"Hillary has final say," said the adviser, explaining that even Bill's staff has been warned not to comment on anything without first clearing it with Hillary's office.

"That was true in the White House during [Hillary's 2000] Senate campaign," another longtime aide told the News. "If he said the sky was blue and she said the sky was purple, then the sky was purple."

Mr. Clinton was clearly in the doghouse last week, when he tried to claim that he and his wife were in complete agreement over the ports controversy.

"I supported Hillary's position, and the news reports to the contrary were wrong," he insisted during an interview with NY1. But he didn't deny a report that he tried to recruit his former spokesman Joe Lockhart to help the deal sail through.

The Dubai ports episode isn't the first time Bill's comments caused trouble for his wife. Last September, while addressing a group of Arab students in Dubai, Mr. Clinton called the Iraq war a mistake.

Then, in a separate interview with the Ladies Home Journal, he said he thought the U.S. would lose.

"The odds are not great of our prevailing there," he predicted, calling the war his wife voted for "a quagmire."

Hillary spokeswoman Ann Lewis confirmed that the senator is now in the driver's seat, telling the News: "She is the elected official. She makes the ultimate decisions."

Mr. Clinton's spokesman Jay Carson tried to put the best face possible on his boss's new second banana status, explaining: "Anyone who says he is doing everything he can to help her get re-elected is absolutely right."

Jessica Simpson and Dad Are 'Huge Fans' of Bush

Funny how a piece of news can make an abrupt about-face.

Recently, some on the left were giddy over reports that singer/actress Jessica Simpson had snubbed George W. Bush by passing on meeting with the president, speculating that Jessica had joined the anti-Bush brigade.

One Boston Herald headline read "Simpson Disses Dubya." A Chicago Tribune caption read "Simpson has G.O.P. Frowning." And a U.K. Telegraph title read "Bush Fails to Woo Ms. Simpson."

The response by Jessica and her father to the press reports, though, has libs and Bush-haters smarting.

Jessica's dad and manager Joe Simpson said that his famous daughter "loves the heck out of him [Bush]."

Not only is Jessica not among those in Hollywood who are following the lead of George Clooney and routinely slamming the president, she's actually a fan of our current commander in chief.

"He's a very personable guy, he's a Texas guy. His ranch is four doors down from my aunt and uncle's ranch. We have lots of Texas stuff to talk about," Simpson said.

The Simpson/Bush "controversy" began when the "Dukes of Hazzard" star visited the nation's capital to lobby on behalf of Operation Smile, a group that provides plastic surgery to children with facial deformities.

Reports circulated that Jessica had turned down an invitation to attend a Republican fund-raiser with President Bush. It was thought to be a snub.

"We went back and forth and we could never get the details worked out," Jessica's father explained. "When it became obvious that it was not just a state dinner, it was more of a fund-raising event, that is the wrong purpose of why we are here." So says The Associated Press.

Evidently, Joe made sure that Bush's enemies would be stopped in their slaphappy tracks when he added, "We are huge fans of him and of his family, his girls. Jessica loves the heck out of him."

Joe and Jessica were trying to find a way to meet with President Bush for the entire duration of their visit. Joe described the attempt to reschedule the meeting as "trying to get in and out."

Jessica said she was "so excited because the President asked for a special meeting."

Prior to the Simpsons' positive Bush comments, the left and the mainstream press were elated. They thought they had a younger, more attractive Cindy Sheehan on their hands.

But a Jessica turnabout like that would be Texas-sized since she has performed at Bush's inauguration, visited the White House four times and has relatives who live near the president's Crawford ranch.

The Left Coast Report knows that hell hath no fury like a disappointed press, so Jessica best beware.

WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE MATH IN HIGH SCHOOL

by Espen Andersen, Associate Professor, Norwegian School of Management and Associate Editor, Ubiquity


[The following article was written for Aftenposten, a large Norwegian newspaper. The article encourages students to choose math as a major subject in high school - not just in preparation for higher education but because having math up to maximum high school level is important in all walks of life. Note: This translation is slightly changed to have meaning outside a Norwegian context.]

Why you should choose math in high school

A recurring problem in most rich societies is that students in general do not take enough math - despite high availability of relatively well-paid jobs in fields that demand math, such as engineering, statistics, teaching and technology. Students see math as hard, boring and irrelevant, and do not respond (at least not sufficiently) to motivational factors such as easier admission to higher education or interesting and important work.

It seems to me we need to be much more direct in our attempts to get students to learn hard sciences in general and math in particular. Hence, addressed to current and future high school students, here are 12 reasons to choose lots of math in high school:

Choose math because it makes you smarter. Math is to learning what endurance and strength training is to sports: the basis that enables you to excel in the specialty of your choice. You cannot become a major sports star without being strong and having good cardiovascular ability. You cannot become a star within your job or excel in your profession unless you can think smart and critically -- and math will help you do that.

Choose math because you will make more money. Winners of American Idol and other "celebrities" may make money, but only a tiny number of people have enough celebrity to make money, and most of them get stale after a few years. Then it is back to school, or to less rewarding careers ("Would you like fries with that?"). If you skip auditions and the sports channels and instead do your homework -- especially math -- you can go on to get an education that will get you a well-paid job. Much more than what pop singers and sports stars make -- perhaps not right away, but certainly if you look at averages and calculate it over a lifetime.

Choose math because you will lose less money. When hordes of idiots throw their money at pyramid schemes, it is partially because they don't know enough math. Specifically, if you know a little bit about statistics and interest calculations, you can look through economic lies and wishful thinking. With some knowledge of hard sciences you will probably feel better, too, because you will avoid spending your money and your hopes on alternative medicine, crystals, magnets and other swindles -- simply because you know they don't work.

Choose math to get an easier time at college and university. Yes, it is hard work to learn math properly while in high school. But when it is time for college or university, you can skip reading pages and pages of boring, over-explaining college texts. Instead, you can look at a chart or a formula, and understand how things relate to each other. Math is a language, shorter and more effective than other languages. If you know math, you can work smarter, not harder.

Choose math because you will live in a global world. In a global world, you will compete for the interesting jobs against people from the whole world -- and the smart kids in Eastern Europe, India and China regard math and other "hard" sciences as a ticket out of poverty and social degradation. Why not do as they do -- get knowledge that makes you viable all over the world, not just in your home country?

Choose math because you will live in a world of constant change. New technology and new ways of doing things change daily life and work more and more. If you have learned math, you can learn how and why things work, and avoid scraping by through your career, supported by Post-It Notes and Help files -- scared to death of accidentally pressing the wrong key and running into something unfamiliar.

Choose math because it doesn't close any doors. If you don't choose math in high school, you close the door to interesting studies and careers. You might not think those options interesting now, but what if you change your mind? Besides, math is most easily learned as a young person, whereas social sciences, history, art and philosophy benefit from a little maturing -- and some math.

Choose math because it is interesting in itself. Too many people - including teachers - will tell you that math is hard and boring. But what do they know? You don't ask your grandmother what kind of game-playing machine you should get, and you don't ask your parents for help in sending a text message. Why ask a teacher -- who perhaps got a C in basic math and still made it through to his or her teaching certificate -- whether math is hard? If you do the work and stick it out, you will find that math is fun, exciting, and intellectually elegant.

Choose math because you will meet it more and more in the future. Math becomes more and more important in all areas of work and scholarship. Future journalists and politicians will talk less and analyze more. Future police officers and military personnel will use more and more complicated technology. Future nurses and teachers will have to relate to numbers and technology every day. Future car mechanics and carpenters will use chip-optimization and stress analysis as much as monkey wrenches and hammers. There will be more math at work, so you will need more math at school.

Choose math so you can get through, not just into college. If you cherry-pick the easy stuff in high school, you might come through with a certificate that makes you eligible for a college education. Having a piece of paper is nice, but don't for a second think this makes you ready for college. You will notice this as soon as you enter college and have to take remedial math programs, with ensuing stress and difficulty, just to have any kind of idea what the professor is talking about.

Choose math because it is creative.* Many think math only has to do with logical deduction and somehow is in opposition to creativity. The truth is that math can be a supremely creative force if only the knowledge is used right, not least as a tool for problem solving during your career. A good knowledge of math in combination with other knowledge makes you more creative than others.

Choose math because it is cool. You have permission to be smart, you have permission to do what your peers do not. Choose math so you don't have to, for the rest of your life, talk about how math is "hard" or "cold". Choose math so you don't have to joke away your inability to do simple calculations or lack of understanding of what you are doing. Besides, math will get you a job in the cool companies, those that need brains.

You don't have to become a mathematician (or an engineer) because you choose math in high school. But it helps to chose math if you want to be smart, think critically, understand how and why things relate to each other, and to argue effectively and convincingly.

Math is a sharp knife for cutting through thorny problems. If you want a sharp knife in you mental tool chest - choose math!

*This point was added by Jon Holtan, a mathematician who works with the insurance company If.

Source: Ubiquity Volume 7, Issue 11 (March 21, - March 27, 2006) www.acm.org/ubiquity

The Spring Equinox at Mnajdra temples

Sunrise on the first day of the four seasons enters the southern temple Mnajdra and lights up its interior. On the Equinox days, sunlight not only enters the temple but its beam also lights up the temple's main axis.

Heritage Malta took the opportunity this morning to open the temples for the public to view extraordinary event on the spring equinox, from 0600CET. Around 40 people witnessed this event this morning.

The particular astronomical alignment that is featured at the Mnajdra Temple allows for the sun to pass directly through on the March 20 and September 22.

Situated near the village of Qrendi, the temples lie in a unique coastal position in a small valley between two sections of cliff and overlooking the islet Filfla. Their isolated location gives them a special fascination. Mnajdra temples, comprising three temple remains, were probably built between 3,600 to 2,500 B.C. The two main buildings are oriented East and South-East.

Bob Dole: Moussaoui Judge in 'Clinton Hall of Shame'

The Clinton-appointed federal judge who tossed out half the government's death
penalty case against convicted 9/11 "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui on
Tuesday has a history of liberal rulings and was once named by Sen. Bob Dole
to the "Clinton Hall of Shame."

Even before Judge Leonie Brinkema decimated the government's case by ruling that evidence from key witnesses had been tainted by prosecutorial misconduct, veteran terrorism prosecutor Andrew McCarthy warned Brinkema not to overreact.

Writing about the furor over the prosecution's blunder on NationalReviewOnline Monday, McCarthy said: "It is a tempest in a teapot that is obviously being blown out of proportion - as frequently happens with people philosophically opposed to the death penalty, who often portray every run-of-the-mill error in death-penalty proceedings as if it were Armageddon."

McCarthy added that he wasn't sure that the liberal justice indeed held those views, but noted, "This is only a big problem if Judge Brinkema, for whatever reason, decides to turn it into one."

That's exactly what the Clinton appointee did with her ruling the next day - a move that fits the pattern of liberal decisions that prompted Sen. Dole to name Brinkema ten years ago to what he called the "Clinton Hall of Shame."

Dole cited a 1995 case in which Brinkema gave a mere 21 month sentence to a convicted murderer, instead of the seven-to nine-year term called for by federal guidelines.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit later overturned her ruling.
Dole isn't alone in blasting Brinkema for her judicial activism. "It's my impression that she is highly ideological," complained Delaware State Representative Richard Black three years later.

According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Black was outraged by a 1998 Brinkema decision, that barred the Loudoun County, Va., public library from using filters to prevent adults from viewing sexually explicit material on the Internet.

Condi's Close Adviser Is 26-year-old 'Kid'

When Condoleezza Rice steps out on the world stage, she most likely delivers lines written by a 26-year-old redheaded "kid" - her speechwriter Christian Brose.

One year ago, Brose was the most junior speechwriter at the State Department. When Rice was nominated to be secretary of state, she assembled the department's speechwriting team - including Brose - at the White House to discuss her confirmation hearings.

"The conversation meandered and seemed uninspired," Rice aides said, until Brose "shyly raised his hand and offered a suggestion that, for Rice, crystallized her foreign policy themes," the Washington Post reports.

Rice asked one of her senior advisers afterward: "Who is that red-haired kid? Let's keep an eye on him."

Brose was recently named Rice's chief speechwriter, and he often accompanies her when she travels overseas so they can work together sharpening the secretary's speeches.

"Chris can write her voice better than anyone," senior adviser Jim Wilkinson told the Post.

"He's become one of her closest advisers on policy and communications."

Condi's Close Adviser Is 26-year-old 'Kid'

When Condoleezza Rice steps out on the world stage, she most likely delivers lines written by a 26-year-old redheaded "kid" - her speechwriter Christian Brose.

One year ago, Brose was the most junior speechwriter at the State Department. When Rice was nominated to be secretary of state, she assembled the department's speechwriting team - including Brose - at the White House to discuss her confirmation hearings.

"The conversation meandered and seemed uninspired," Rice aides said, until Brose "shyly raised his hand and offered a suggestion that, for Rice, crystallized her foreign policy themes," the Washington Post reports.

Rice asked one of her senior advisers afterward: "Who is that red-haired kid? Let's keep an eye on him."

Brose was recently named Rice's chief speechwriter, and he often accompanies her when she travels overseas so they can work together sharpening the secretary's speeches.

"Chris can write her voice better than anyone," senior adviser Jim Wilkinson told the Post.

"He's become one of her closest advisers on policy and communications."

Gore Falls Flat in Florida - Again

"I'm Al Gore and I used to be the next president of the United States."

That's one of the zingers the former vice president tossed out as he addressed the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Media Conference in Florida.

But a commentary in the trade publication Broadcasting & Cable said the one-liner was a stale joke:

"The number of times Gore has wrung applause" from the joke "in the past five years is roughly double the margin of popular votes he won over George W. Bush in 2000."

Gore also quipped: "I'm on step nine on the road to becoming a recovering politician."

Another old stand-by, according to B&C.

Gore addressed the group as a media mogul, but vowed that he wouldn't talk about his new Current TV cable channel, then went ahead and did anyway, B&C reports.

Gore also delivered a lecture on global warming, complete with slides. But the presentation got a poor review from B&C, which said it was reminiscent of his failed presidential campaign:

"Sure, he was passionate, and we learned a thing or two, but did we really want to spend the next four years with him, let alone four minutes past his allotted speaking time?"

Chinese Training Military in Latin America

China is training increasing numbers of Latin American military personnel, taking advantage of a three-year old U.S. law that has led to a sharp decline in U.S.-run training programs for the region, an Army general said Tuesday.

Gen. Bantz Craddock, who oversees U.S. military operations in Latin America, said military members of all ranks are receiving training in China, In addition, he said, more and more Chinese non-lethal military equipment is showing up in the region...It's a growing phenomenon."

Craddock testified before a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing where lawmakers from both parties called for the elimination of the law that authorizes U.S. training programs only under certain conditions - requirements that some countries refuse to accept.

The measure has given the Chinese military an opening in Latin America for the first time.

Committee Chairman John Warner expressed concern over the Chinese activities as did Sen. Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat on the panel. Sen. John McCain suggested that repeal of the amendment should be included in an emergency supplemental legislation now being considered.

Said Sen. Hillary Clinton, "I think this is one of the most serious problems we face," alluding to the Chinese actions. The committee has a duty to "sound the alarm," she added.

At issue is a U.S. law that mandates an end to military training in countries that refuse to exempt U.S. citizens overseas from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Nations that join the ICC can evade U.S. sanctions by signing an agreement with the United States that provides Americans immunity from ICC prosecution.

Twelve Latin American countries have declined to do so and are now subject to sanctions. Craddock testified that in 2003, a year before the law took effect, the United States trained 771 military personnel from countries that are now sanctioned.

The training curriculum, he said in his prepared testimony, includes instruction on the importance of civilian supremacy in the governing process.

The reduced U.S. role, he said, "opens the door for competing nations and outside political actors who may not share our democratic principles."

Lawmakers approved the legislation out of concern that Americans overseas, including military personnel, diplomats and ordinary citizens, could be subject to politically motivated ICC prosecutions.

The ICC was set up four years ago under U.N. sponsorship in an attempt to ensure that perpetrators of genocide or crimes against humanity are brought to justice.

On another subject, Craddock said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was playing a "destabilizing" role in the region by trying to export his "extreme populist movement" elsewhere in the region.

Among Venezuela's target countries, Craddock said, are Peru and Nicaragua, both of which are due to hold presidential elections later this year.

Venezuela's actions, Craddock said, are making its more difficult for these countries to establish democratic roots.

Justice Scalia: Public Should Decide on Abortion

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia railed against the era of the "judge-moralist," saying judges are no better qualified than "Joe Sixpack" to decide moral questions such as abortion and gay marriage.

"Anyone who thinks the country's most prominent lawyers reflect the views of the people needs a reality check," he said during a speech to New England School of Law students and faculty at a Law Day banquet on Wednesday night.

The 70-year-old justice said the public, through elected legislatures - not the courts - should decide watershed questions such as the legality of abortion.

Scalia decried his own court's recent overturning of a state anti-sodomy law, joking that he personally believes "sexual orgies eliminate tension and ought to be encouraged," but said a panel of judges is not inherently qualified to determine the morality of such behavior.

He pointed to the granting of voting rights to women in 1920 through a constitutional amendment as the proper way for a democracy to fundamentally change its laws.

"Judicial hegemony" has replaced the public's right to decide important moral questions, he said. Instead, he said, politics has been injected in large doses to the process of nominating and confirming federal judges.

Scalia has made similar, if less strident, comments during past public appearances.

The jurist, well-known as a strict constructionist in his interpretation of the Constitution, opened his remarks by saying, "I brought three speeches, and I decided to give the most provocative one, because this seems to be too happy a crowd."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Complains of Right Wing Death Threats

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is complaining that she's getting "death threats" from detractors who belong to the "irrational fringe" of society - people she says who have been egged on by mainstream conservatives who have been critical of the High Court.

In quotes picked up by The Associated Press Wednesday, Ginsburg told the Constitutional Court of South Africa last month that somebody in an Internet chat room had issued a death threat against herself and her former colleague, Sandra Day O'Connor.

According to Ginsburg, the chat room perpetrator declared:

"OK commandoes, here is your first patriotic assignment ... an easy one. Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg and O'Connor have publicly stated that they use (foreign) laws and rulings to decide how to rule on American cases. This is a huge threat to our republic and constitutional freedom ... If you are what you say you are, and NOT armchair patriots, then those two justices will not live another week."

In a follow-up speech earlier this month, the Clinton-appointed justice said the whole experience had been "disquieting" for her.

The AP cited Ann Coulter as an example of a conservative who may have inadvertently encouraged radicals to threaten members of the court by joking during a recent speech that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned.

Neither Ginsburg, O'Connor nor the AP complained in 1994, when liberal commentator Julianne Malveaux "joked" about Clarence Thomas: "I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early, like many black men do, of heart disease."

St. Pat's Parade Chief Rips Hillary Clinton

The chairman of Manhattan's famed St. Patrick's Day parade is blasting Sen. Hillary Clinton, saying she only shows up to march when she's campaigning for votes.

"I haven't heard anything from [Sen. Clinton] since the last time she marched, which was years ago," John Dunleavy complained to the Irish Times yesterday.

"There has been no communication with her office to say thank you, kiss my rear end or goodbye," he said.

Mrs. Clinton, who's seeking reelection this year, intends to march in today's parade.

Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Hanley said Dunleavy's criticism was unfair, telling the paper that her boss had marched four years ago and had attended St. Patrick's Day events around New York state in 2003.

Hanley insisted that Clinton skipped the parade in 2004 because she was in Washington to attend St. Patrick's Day events.

The former first lady also marched in the New York parade in 2000, when she first ran for Senate.

Audit: Millions of Post-Katrina Dollars Wasted

The government wasted millions of dollars in its award of post-Katrina contracts, including at least $3 million for 4,000 beds that were never used, auditors said Thursday.

The five-page briefing paper by the Government Accountability Office, set to be released later Thursday, blamed poor planning and bad communications.

It offers the first preliminary overview of the soundness of contracts - including those awarded without competition - after the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast in August.

Waste and mismanagement were widespread due to a lack of staffing and disorganization by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Army Corps of Engineers, the report concluded.

"The government's response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita depended heavily on contractors to deliver ice, water and food supplies; patch rooftops; and provide housing to displaced residents," the report said. "FEMA did not adequately anticipate needs."

Curt Weldon: Bin Laden Is Dead

Rep. Curt Weldon, who broke the Able Danger story last year revealing that military intelligence had identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as a terrorist threat before the 9/11 attacks, now says that Osama bin Laden has died.

Weldon made the stunning claim during an interview Wednesday with the Philadelphia Inquirer, which reported: "Weldon is making explosive new allegations. He says a high-level source has told him that terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has died in Iran, where he has been in hiding."

Weldon cited as his source an Iranian exile code-named Ali, telling the paper: "Ali's told me that Osama bin Laden is dead. He died in Iran."

Weldon said he last spoke to Ali three weeks ago. The Iranian exile was a prominent source for his 2005 book, "Countdown to Terror." The book also contained the first mention of the Able Danger data mining operation.

The Pennsylvania Republican has long alleged that bin Laden has been using Iran for sanctuary.

In June last year, Weldon said in a TV interview: "I'm confident that I know for sure that [bin Laden] has been in and out of Iran ... Two years ago, he was in the southern town of Ladis, 10 kilometers inside the Pakistan border. I also know that earlier this year, he had a meeting with al-Zarqawi in Tehran ...

"If you look at the recent comments coming out of both the CIA and some of our military generals in theater, they're now acknowledging the same thing that I've been saying - that in fact, he's been in and out of Iran.

"[But] no one can prove it exactly until we capture him."

Schwarzenegger Returns Engineering Donations

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has returned more than $65,000 in campaign donations from six engineering firms that could benefit from his recent emergency order to repair fragile levees.

The contributions were returned last week to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, Adam Mendelsohn, Schwarzenegger's communications director, said Wednesday.

"The need to fix our levees to prevent a catastrophic flood requires immediate and decisive action in an environment free from outside distraction," Mendelsohn said.

Last month, Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for California's levee system, which allows the state to award contracts without going through the usual competitive bidding process so repairs can be completed quickly.

One of the six firms, URS Corp. of San Francisco, already has been hired to oversee work on 24 areas most in need of repair. Officials estimate the repairs will cost $75 million to $100 million.

URS gave $21,200 to Schwarzenegger on Nov. 21, 2003, a few days after he was sworn in as governor.

The other firms are: MWH Americas Inc., of Pasadena, which gave Schwarzenegger $21,200; Kleinfelder Inc., of San Diego, which gave $2,500; PBS&J of Miami, which gave $6,500 through its political action committee; CH2M Hill Inc., of Englewood, Colo., which gave $10,000; and Washington Group International of Boise, Idaho, which gave $5,000.

Jessica Simpson Skips Meeting With Bush

Jessica Simpson was a no-show at a major Republican gala where she was scheduled to meet with President Bush.

Blame the snub on plastic surgery.

The blonde star of "The Dukes of Hazzard” had agreed to attend the fund-raiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee in Washington on Wednesday night and was offered some private time with the president.

Simpson is promoting Operation Smile, a non-profit venture offering free plastic surgery to children overseas with facial deformities.

She canceled her planned attendance at the GOP fund-raiser at the last minute because Operation Smile is a nonpartisan group.

"She would love to meet the president and talk about Operation Smile, but she can’t do it at a fund-raiser for the Republican Party,” a source close to the actress told Reuters.

NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said Republicans were surprised at Simpson’s stance.

"It’s never been a problem for Bono,” he said, referring to the U2 rocker who has met regularly with a range of political leaders to lobby for various causes.

"I find it hard to believe she would pass up an opportunity to lobby the president on behalf of Operation Smile.”

Jerry Lewis Enters France's Legion of Honor

France formalized its fascination with Jerry Lewis Thursday with a uniquely Gallic gift for his 80th birthday: a medal and induction into the Legion of Honor.

Lewis, who has long been venerated in France, received the honorary title of "Legion Commander" in a raucous ceremony in Paris - hamming it up for the cameras, winking, sticking out his tongue and making his trademark funny faces.

True to form, the American comedian turned what is generally a sober event - set in a gilded hall of the Ministry of Culture - into a virtual slapstick routine.

Lewis, who bucked formality by wearing slippers to the ceremony, clowned around with Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres - yawning, checking his watch, and even pretending to fall asleep during Donnedieu's 20-minute-long speech in French. The crowd roared at Lewis' antics, their laughter often drowning out Donnedieu's lofty words.

At one point, Lewis tried to snatch the prepared speech off the podium, but an affable Donnedieu persevered. "The longer my remarks last the better," he told the audience, "so you can keep on enjoying Jerry Lewis' comic talents."

When he finally took the microphone, Lewis apologized for not speaking French, but said that "even if the French people cannot hear my language, they have always heard my heart."

Lewis applauded the country's sense of humor, saying he believed it "took France through all those difficult years, and will take it through difficult times now because the French are not afraid to laugh."

Ministry officials wheeled in a massive cake, and the audience sang "Happy Birthday," delivered with a heavy French accent.

Lewis said he was flattered by his induction into the Legion of Honor, and said he had been "gloriously elevated" by the award. He was one of 37 foreigners to have received the title over the past three years.

"The French people are the best in the world," Lewis said.

'Hanoi Jane' Fonda Honor Withdrawn

The sponsor of an effort to honor Jane Fonda in the Georgia state Senate withdrew her resolution Thursday, after a rocky reception from some colleagues and a phone call from the actress' office.

Sen. Steen Miles, D-Decatur, said a representative for Fonda, who is out of the country, asked that she avoid the controversy the effort had stirred.

"This, ladies and gentlemen, should not be occupying our time," said Miles.

The resolution cites the Atlanta resident's work as founder of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, donations to Atlanta-area universities and charities and role as goodwill ambassador with the United Nations.

But the two-time Academy Award winner's political activities protesting the Vietnam War, including a trip to North Vietnam in 1972, have long made her a target of veterans of that war.

The measure, which Miles said is one of several she has pushed honoring Georgia women during Women's History Month, cruised through the Senate on Wednesday before some members realized it was part of a stack of mostly non-controversial resolutions approved because no one objected to them.

Sen. John Douglas, R-Social Circle, later asked that the vote be reconsidered.

"I can think of no living American who is less worthy of this honor," Douglas, chairman of the chamber's Veterans and Military Affairs committee, said Thursday. "She is as guilty of treason as Benedict Arnold and Tokyo Rose."

Miles said she is sympathetic to concerns of military members. She said her brother and ex-husband both served in Vietnam and her daughter currently serves in the Army reserve. But she said Fonda's good works for the past three decades outweigh any negatives associated with her Vietnam-era actions.

"I have a deep and abiding respect and love for our men and women warriors," she said. "We should not ignore the past, but we should not be inextricably bound to its mistakes."

The Senate voted 48-1 to reconsider the measure - a necessary procedure before Miles could withdraw it. Sen. Michael Meyer von Bremen, D-Albany, cast the only vote against reconsideration.

Miles then withdrew the effort before senators considered the resolution itself.

Voted best Irish joke of 2005!

John O'Reilly hoisted his beer and said, "Here's to spending the rest of me life, between the legs of me wife!"

That won him the top prize at the pub for the best toast of the night!

He went home and told his wife, Mary, "I won the prize for the Best toast of the night"

She said, "Aye, did ye now. And what was your toast?"

John said, "Here's to spending the rest of me life, sitting in church beside me wife."

"Oh, that is very nice indeed, John!" Mary said.

The next day, Mary ran into one of John's drinking buddies on the street corner. The man chuckled leeringly and said, "John won the prize the other night at the pub with a toast about you, Mary."

She said, "Aye, he told me, and I was a bit surprised myself. You know, he's only been there twice in the last four years. Once he fell asleep, and the other time I had to pull him by the ears to make him come."

Airport Screeners Let Bomb Materials Through

Federal agents tested security screeners at 21 U.S. airports by carrying bomb-making materials - and not a single would-be "suicide bomber" was detected.

"In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through," according to a report from NBC Nightly News that cited government sources.

"Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one stopped these materials."

For security reasons, NBC said it would not name the airports nor the ingredients involved in the tests, which were conducted by the Government Accountability Office, the watchdog arm of Congress.

Congress had requested the investigation to gauge the vulnerability of U.S. airlines to suicide bombers using easy-to-obtain materials, NBC said.

The Transportation Security Administration had no comment on the report, but acknowledged in a statement that detecting explosive materials at checkpoints was the agency's top priority.

The New Democrat Dream Team: Faith Hill and Tim McGraw

In 2004 Tim McGraw told Time magazine that he was thinking of going into politics.

"I want to run for the Senate from Tennessee ... Not now, but when I'm 50, when the music dies down," the country singer said.

"Wouldn't Faith [Hill] make a great senator's wife?" McGraw asked.

The couple recently met with reporters in Nashville to promote their upcoming Soul2Soul II Tour but used the opportunity to jump into the political fray.

He sounded quite a bit like a candidate when he and his dutiful wife, both blasted the Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort.

"To me, there's a lot of politics being played and a lot of people trying to put people in bad positions in order to further their agendas," McGraw, a native of Delhi, La., told ABC News Radio. "When you have people dying because they're poor and black or poor and white, or because of whatever they are - if that's a number on a political scale - then that is the most wrong thing. That erases everything that's great about our country."

McGraw then went after President Bush, saying, "There's no reason why someone can't go down there who's supposed to be the leader of the free world ... and say, 'I'm giving you a job to do and I'm not leaving here until it's done. And you're held accountable, and you're held accountable, and you're held accountable. This is what I've given you to do, and if it's not done by the time I get back on my plane, then you're fired and someone else will be in your place.'"

Hill described the status of the region as "bulls***," adding that "it is a huge, huge problem and it's embarrassing."

She went on to say, "I fear for our country if we can't handle our people [during] a natural disaster. And I can't stand to see it. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out point A to point B . . . And they can't even skip from point A to point B. It's just screwed up."

The Left Coast Report thinks the couple may be taking a cue from the Dixie Chicks.

Spotlight on Osama bin Laden's Niece

Are Americans going to allow reality TV to be taken over by the families of terrorists?

Well, evidently the niece of the man who orchestrated the destruction of the World Trade Center is going to star in a reality television show about her life. So says ReganMedia.

Aspiring singer and model Wafah Dufour bin Laden is the daughter of Osama bin Laden's half-brother Yeslam. She caught the attention of the media when she appeared in the January 2006 issue of GQ in feather lingerie and in another pic in a bubble bath wearing only a necklace.

Apparently, there are plenty of other bin Ladens available for reality show episodes or sequels. Osama and his half-brother are among the more than 50 children fathered by Mohammed bin Laden, a Yemeni immigrant to Saudi Arabia.

Wafah was born in California but lived in Saudi Arabia from the ages of 3 to 10. She was in Geneva when the 9/11 attacks happened. "I was freaking out, crying hysterically, watching this in horror. I was like 'Somebody's bombing my city, and I wanna go home,'" she told the BBC.

Soon after, in an effort to distance herself from her infamous uncle, she took her mother's maiden name, and now goes by the name Wafah Dufour.

"I understand that when people hear my last name, they have preconceived notions, but I was born an American and I love my country," Dufour said in the ReganMedia statement.

"I was born in the States, and I want people to know I'm American, and I want people to understand that I'm like anyone in New York. For me, it's home," she told the BBC.

ReganMedia President Judith Regan spelled out how the television series will provide a form of multicultural enrichment. "Her story will bridge the gap that people feel exists between the cultures she has lived in," Regan explained.

"She is also a young woman who falls in love, has her heart broken, worries about her looks, doesn't always listen to her mother, and hasn't spoken to her father in years," Regan added.

Sounds like it may be a bin Laden family version of "The Simple Life."

Which network will air the show and when it will debut have yet to be determined.

So far, the Left Coast Report has not found that Dubai Ports World is involved in the show.

Greatest Expansion of Social Programs in U.S. History

The expansion of benefit programs since 2000 has led to the greatest increase in social spending in American history - with entitlement programs now accounting for more than half of all federal spending, a new report shows.

A USA Today analysis released Tuesday of 25 major government programs - including health care, college aid and food stamps - revealed that enrollment surged an average of 17 percent from 2000 to 2005, while the nation's population increased by only 5 percent.

It marked the largest 5-year growth in enrollment since Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs were created during Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" movement in the 1960s.

Spending on social programs was $1.3 trillion last year, an inflation-adjusted increase of 22 percent since 2000, according to the USA Today report.
Enrollment growth accounted for most of the spending increase:

Medicaid added 18 million beneficiaries - a 50 percent increase since 2000 - and is now the nation's largest entitlement program, costing the federal government $198 billion last year. Once a program for Americans on welfare, Medicaid has been expanded to include the working poor and now has an enrollment of 53.4 million.

The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose 49.6 percent in the past five years and now stands at 25.7 million. Expanded eligibility led to much of the increase and helped put the 2005 tab at $33 billion.

The number of college students receiving Pell grants increased 41 percent over five years, to 5.3 million. The program cost $13 billion in 2005.

The 5-year period also saw enrollment increases in child nutrition programs, unemployment compensation, veterans benefits and other programs.
The worse may be yet to come: The nation's 79 million Baby Boomers will begin to qualify for Social Security in 2008, and for Medicare in 2011.

The Nightmare of Medicaid

As NewsMax reported last year, the extension of taxpayer-funded Medicaid to the working poor has been the single largest factor in the greatest expansion of government entitlements since the Great Society was launched in the 1960s.

The soaring costs of Medicaid - which more than doubled last year to close to $330 billion since 1999 - is largely due to legislation that extended Medicaid coverage to many Americans who have low-paying jobs.

The government's free health care offering swelled Medicaid's numbers as many low-income workers are choosing Medicaid rather than insurance from their employer because it is free or nearly free and often provides more benefits.

The result has been a staggering growth in the welfare state - as the federal government has become the health insurer of 100 million Americans - about one of every three citizens.

The growth of the health entitlement program - which critics say has become national health care by stealth - has been embraced by both Republicans and Democrats.

President Bush has even proposed $1 billion in spending for the next two years "to encourage eligible families to sign up for Medicaid," USA Today noted.

Some experts blame the growth of Medicaid on 1996's landmark welfare reform legislation, which moved millions of welfare recipients off the welfare rolls and into low paying jobs.

To make sure these newly employed didn't lose free health benefits, the federal government enacted legislation to extend Medicaid to lower-incomed workers.
"Health coverage has been a costly side effect of welfare reform," the newspaper disclosed.

Now a great number of workers - many who were never on welfare - can also sign on for free health care.

Under federal rules, a family of four can earn as much as $40,000 a year in most states and still get government health insurance for children.

The Medicaid program has grown from covering 34 million individuals in 1999 to 47 million last year, and Medicaid costs have soared from $159 billion in 1997 to $295 billion in 2004 - an increase of 85 percent.

This year Medicaid spending is projected to hit $329 billion. Added to the staggering costs are new rules that provide Medicaid to illegal aliens - tacking on another $2.5 billion to annual costs. Critics say Medicaid's expansion is adding to the crushing Federal deficit and luring workers from insurance plans offered by employers.

Supporters, on the other hand, maintain that Medicaid will prevent higher costs in the future by reducing emergency room visits by the uninsured.

But the expansion of benefits to low-income workers has made federal and state taxpayers "the health insurance provider for millions of workers at Wal-Mart, McDonald's and other low-wage employers," USA TODAY reports.

The federal government pays 59 percent of Medicaid costs; the states pay the rest. The rising costs are crushing many states, who say rising health costs are contributing to deficits.

Medicaid enrollment now even outpaces enrollment in Medicare, and many states are spending more on Medicaid than on anything else, including education. Said Michael Cannon, director of health care studies at the Cato Institute: "Shame on us for creating perverse incentives that cause people to give up private coverage for Medicaid."