Man Who Leaked Pentagon Papers Defends Julian Assange, Praises PFC Manning

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Man Who Leaked Pentagon Papers Defends Julian Assange, Praises PFC Manning

Associated Press WASHINGTON – The man who famously leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War is defending the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange (ah-SAHNJ'). Daniel Ellsberg also praised an Army private, Bradley Manning, suspected of giving WikiLeaks thousands of sensitive U.S. documents. Ellsberg told a Washington news conference the men were no more deserving of prosecution than the New York Times, which published the Pentagon Papers in 1971, or Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward for helping uncover the Watergate conspiracy. The federal government is looking at whether it can prosecute Assange for making public a trove of secret U.S. diplomatic cables and reports from the Iraq war. Manning is being held in a military brig in Virginia on suspicion of copying and leaking secrets. Read more at www.hapblog.com

 

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'Dangerous' for feds to get involved in Muslim's lawsuit

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'Dangerous' for feds to get involved in Muslim's lawsuit

Bill Bumpas - OneNewsNow

A legal expert says it's a "dangerous" precedent for the federal government to sue a suburban Chicago school district for denying a Muslim middle-school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

According to an Associated Press report, the U.S. Department of Justice accuses the school district in Berkeley, Illinois, of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to reasonably accommodate Safoorah Khan's religious practices. According to Islamic teaching, every adult Muslim is supposed to make at least one pilgrimage -- the "Hajj" -- to Mecca in Saudi Arabia in their lifetime if they are physically and financially able to do so. Khan had requested almost three weeks of unpaid leave.

Matt Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, tells OneNewsNow the government's action is unprecedented. "This is an absolute bully club being used by the federal government in this lawsuit against the school to literally force this school to go out of their way to make unreasonable accommodations for a Mecca pilgrimage," he says.   The attorney argues this is a "dangerous path for the government to plow" because it blazes a trail for similar requests.   "...Once you then say that you can take a three-week pilgrimage to Mecca, then there really is no stopping -- you can take five sections of the workday out to go pray; you can have a certain kind of ritual washing built into the school or to the workplace to be able to do your ritual cleansing," he suggests. "It just literally opens up Pandora's Box -- and the federal laws were not designed for that kind of accommodation."   The AP report says Khan began teaching for Berkeley School District 87 in 2007 -- and in 2008 requested the unpaid leave for the pilgrimage. The district argued her request was unrelated to her professional duties and was not set forth in the contract between the district and the teachers union. After the district twice denied her request, Khan resigned.   Staver says while his group advocates for religious freedom, this particular case "literally distorts religious freedom." Liberty Counsel, he adds, would be willing to help defend this school district.

Results from our related poll

What would the Dept. of Justice do if this had been a Christian teacher?

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House votes to repeal ban on open homosexuals in military

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House votes to repeal ban on open homosexuals in military

WASHINGTON - Despite warnings from military leaders and from pro-family and conservative groups, the U.S. House voted Wednesday to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that for 17 years has banned homosexuals from serving openly in the military.

The 250-175 vote propels the issue to the Senate for what could be the last chance for now to end the 1993 law that forbids recruiters from asking about sexual orientation while prohibiting soldiers from acknowledging that they are gay.

It's "the only law in the country that requires people to be dishonest or be fired if they choose to be honest," said Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo. (Obama praises House vote to end the ban)

Democratic leaders in the Senate say they are committed to bringing the bill to the floor before Congress adjourns for the year. But they are challenged by opposition from some Republicans and a daunting agenda that includes finishing work on legislation to fund the government and ratifying a nuclear arms treaty with Russia.

Failure to overturn the policy this year could relegate the issue to the back burner next year when Republicans, who are far less supportive of allowing openly gay individuals to serve in the military, take over the House and gain strength in the Senate.

"Now is the time for us to act," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and "close the door on a fundamental unfairness in our nation."

Many Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, argue that it would be a mistake for the military to undergo a major cultural change while the nation is fighting two wars.

Implementation of any new policy should begin "when our singular focus is no longer on combat operations or preparing units for combat," said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon of California, top Republican on the Armed Services Committee.

The issue also has split the military. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other senior military leaders support lifting the restrictions on gay service, pointing to a recent Pentagon study showing that most people in uniform don't object to serving with gays. But the head of the Marine Corps, Commandant Gen. James Amos, repeated his opposition this week, saying that lifting the ban during wartime could cost lives. "I don't want to lose any Marines to the distraction," he said.

The White House, in issuing a statement in support of the repeal, stressed that the change would go into effect only after the president, the secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that implementation is consistent with military readiness, recruiting and retention and unit cohesion.

The House last May voted 234-194 in favor of repeal legislation as part of a larger defense bill. The measure has stalled twice in the Senate, where Republicans have objected to taking up the defense bill laded with contentious issues, including "don't ask, don't tell."

Solmonese, the president of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign said Wednesday's vote means the House has confirmed for the second time what military leaders, most troops and the American public have been saying, that "the only thing that matters on the battlefield is the ability to do the job."

"It is up to the Senate to consign this failed and discriminatory law to the dustbin of history," Solmonese added.

The House, in introducing the stand-alone bill, sought to avoid the complications of combining it with a general defense bill. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., are also promoting a stand-alone bill in the Senate and supporters say they have the 60 votes for passage if they can get it to the Senate floor.

A major hurdle has been a Republican pledge to block all legislation until the Senate completes work on tax cut and government funding. The Senate on Wednesday passed the compromise on extending tax cuts worked out by the White House and Republicans.

More than 13,500 service members have been dismissed under the 1993 law.

The Obama administration, while supporting the repeal, is appealing the ruling of a California federal judge that the ban on gays serving openly in the military is unconstitutional. The administration says Congress should overturn the policy. But gay rights groups say they will shift their focus back to the courts if Congress fails to act. Read more at www.onenewsnow.com

 

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Armageddon Countdown

Video: Amazing Facts Presents



http://pseudo01.hddn.com/vod/vod.amazingfacts1/shows/afp/ap39.mp4

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The Global Scandal of “The Global Baby”

The Wall Street Journal blows the cover off the international trade in babies and reproductive technologies this week, as reporters Tamara Audi and Arlene Chang tell of the emergence of a market that assembles the “global baby.”

Just consider the shocking introduction to their report:

In a hospital room on the Greek island of Crete with views of a sapphire sea lapping at ancient fortress walls, a Bulgarian woman plans to deliver a baby whose biological mother is an anonymous European egg donor, whose father is Italian, and whose birth is being orchestrated from Los Angeles.

The Bulgarian woman is a surrogate hired by an infertile Italian couple. The business arrangements are very much for-profit, and are negotiated by PlanetHospital.com, described by the Journal as “a California company that searches the world to find the components of its business line.” Audi and Chang then add: “The business, in this case, is creating babies.”

The desire for a child can be overwhelming, as the clients who go to PlanetHospital can attest. Some now turn to these international brokers who, often skirting the laws of respective nations, go around traditional means of adoption and fertility treatments. These companies do their business on a global scale, “often using an egg donor from one country, a sperm donor from another, and a surrogate who will deliver in a third country to make what some industry participants call ‘a world baby.’”

Our Ethics are Agnostic

The report candidly acknowledges the fact that many unborn babies are aborted by means of “selective reductions” - a procedure chillingly detailed in the article. Rudy Rupak, CEO of Planet Hospital, denies ethical responsibility in amazingly candid terms: “Our ethics are agnostic,” he told the paper. “How do you prevent a pedophile from having a baby? If they’re a pedophile then I will leave that to the U.S. government to decide, not me.” These firms are increasingly popular with homosexual male couples, who can arrange to have babies born that will include the DNA of both partners, so long as a common source of donor eggs is used.

The Wall Street Journal deserves credit for this important exposé of the ‘Wild Wild West” of reproductive technologies that is now operating across the globe. Made clear in this article is the fact that there is no adequate means of regulating this business.

Christians must recognize that these technologies are fraught with moral complications — and many of them dramatically so. These technologies, marketed through a global business in babies, threaten to redefine the vary nature of reproduction and the definition of family and parenthood.

On matters of such importance, it is simply evil to say, “Our ethics are agnostic.”

I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.

Tamara Audi and Arlene Chang, “Assembling the Global Baby,” The Wall Street Journal, Sunday, December 10, 2010.

Related Posts The Scandal of Gendercide — War on Baby Girls (Audio) The Scandal of Gendercide — War on Baby Girls (Audio) The Scandal of Gendercide — War on Baby Girls (Audio) The Age of the Designer Baby Arrives Should Global Warming Matter To Evangelicals? (Audio) Read more at www.albertmohler.com

 

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Looks Like New York's Got a Serial Killer

Authorities have confirmed that all four bodies found on a Long Island beach over the weekend are female, meaning that, yes, there's a good chance we're looking at the work of a serial killer.

Obviously, no one knows for sure yet. But The New York Times is so excited by the prospect that its readers get a breakdown of a hypothetical serial killer investigation, just, you know, in case. ("Some killers carve their initials into a victim's skin. Others might take a piece of the body, say an ear or finger, as a macabre trophy." Thanks, Times! This is way better than "The Neediest Cases"!)

The New York Post and The New York Daily News, meanwhile, are less excited about the prospect of our very own backyard psycho and more interested in the ongoing search for missing prostitute Shannan Gilbert. (Though, no doubt, both have teams of editors already hard at work attempting to coin a snappy nickname for our hypothetical serial murderer friend.) As it turns out, none of the four bodies are likely to be Gilbert's, despite their all being found near where she disappeared; but police know who her last john was, and the News is all over his neighbors' reactions:

"That guy always gave me the creeps," the neighbor said. "One night about two months ago, he parked a U-Haul van on the side of the house. It was the strangest thing," the neighbor added. "He and another man were packing the truck up in the dark. They moved real fast. It took about fifteen minutes. They didn't turn any lights on except one little light. That was the last time I saw him."

The Post has the bizarre story of the night of Gilbert's disappearance:

Gustav Colletti, 75, a neighbor of the john in an exclusive part of Oak Beach, said a girl, who looked like Gilbert, banged on his door one May morning at 5 a.m. "She was yelling and screaming and banging on my door. She was screaming, 'Help me! Help!'" I opened the door and she jumped into the house," he recalled in an interview today with The Post. Colletti said, "When I said, 'I'm calling the police.' She opened the door and took off and ran into the weeds. Moments later, a dark Chevy Suburban and a male Asian told him; 'We're having a party and the girl got upset and ran away.'" Colletti said when he told the man he had called police, the man said, "You shouldn't have done that."

[NYT; NYDN; NYP; image via AP]

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Attempted J.F.K. Bomber Gets Life in Prison

Abdul Kadir, the would-be J.F.K. bomber, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge.

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Tajazzle, the Stupidest Product (and Informercial) Ever

Attention, ladies: Feeling insecure about... you-know-what?You might want to watch this infomercial for "Tajazzle" a three-step system to help you "Stay Dry And Smell Fresh Where It Gets Hot." Dry and "fresh"-smelling! Just the way men like it. [via]

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Oklahoma to Execute Man with Animal Euthanasia Drug

Oklahoma today will execute a man with the same drug used to euthanize cats and dogs.

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Mercury Dental Fillings Might be Bad for You After All

Last year, the FDA released a report that said mercury fillings are totally harmless when lodged into your head forever. But yesterday, an advisory committee told the FDA to look at new data that might suggest otherwise. Go figure.

The committee, which met with various experts, was quick to state that the FDA was not at fault and that their judgement was sound based on the evidence provided them for last year's research. In its report last year, the FDA stated:

While elemental mercury has been associated with adverse health effects at high exposures, the levels released by dental amalgam fillings are not high enough to cause harm in patients.

But now, experts claim that the mercury in amalgam fillings can seep out from teeth and into the brain, and even kidneys and bones. Many people testified before the committee, both for and against the use of mercury in fillings. Some of those who testified claimed miscarriages, paralysis and memory loss were due to mercury poisoning. One dentist, Dr. Stephen Markus, asked, "I always wondered why we were told by the (American Dental Association) to be careful when disposing of mercury. If it's so dangerous to the environment, why not my patients?" That's a damn good point.

The committee suggested that the FDA change the way it studies the effects of mercury vapor exposure, and that patients and dentists should have more information available to them. And really, there's a simple fix for all of this: They just need to speed up the development of tooth regeneration gel, and we won't have to worry about this ever again.

[CNN]

[Image via Shutterstock.com]

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