Church and State...already sleeping together

At any moment, state inspectors can step uninvited into one of the three child care centers that Ethel White runs in Auburn, Ala., to make sure they meet state requirements intended to ensure that the children are safe. There must be continuing training for the staff. Her nurseries must have two sinks, one exclusively for food preparation. All cabinets must have safety locks. Medications for the children must be kept under lock and key, and refrigerated.

The Rev. Ray Fuson of the Harvest Temple Church of God in Montgomery, Ala., does not have to worry about unannounced state inspections at the day care center his church runs. Alabama exempts church day care programs from state licensing requirements, which were tightened after almost a dozen children died in licensed and unlicensed day care centers in the state in two years.

More and more the careful line is stepped on, smudged and in some cases erased.

The differences do not end there. As an employer, Ms. White must comply with the civil rights laws; if employees feel mistreated, they can take the center to court. Religious organizations, including Pastor Fuson’s, are protected by the courts from almost all lawsuits filed by their ministers or other religious staff members, no matter how unfairly those employees think they have been treated.

And there is no stopping the destruction of the wall between them.

An analysis by The New York Times of laws passed since 1989 shows that more than 200 special arrangements, protections or exemptions for religious groups or their adherents were tucked into Congressional legislation, covering topics ranging from pensions to immigration to land use. New breaks have also been provided by a host of pivotal court decisions at the state and federal level, and by numerous rule changes in almost every department and agency of the executive branch.

The special breaks amount to “a sort of religious affirmative action program,” said John Witte Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at the Emory University law school.

More here

I Don't Recall

Rice: I don't recall alert about attack

I don't recall him telling me that,'' Hastert told CNN today

Gonzales said he could not recall key details

Rumsfeld: I don't recall that I've ever lied to the press

Libby defense: I don't recall

Senator George Allen: “I Don’t Recall Every Word I’ve Said.”

The Torture of a 15 year old boy at Gitmo

He was a child of jihad, a teenage soldier in bin Laden's army. Captured on the battlefield when he was only fifteen, he has been held at Guantanamo Bay for the past four years -- subjected to unspeakable abuse sanctioned by the president himself

Upon their return, the MPs uncuffed Omar's arms, pulled them behind his back and recuffed them to his legs, straining them badly at their sockets. At the junction of his arms and legs he was again bolted to the floor and left alone. The degree of pain a human body experiences in this particular "stress position" can quickly lead to delirium, and ultimately to unconsciousness. Before that happened, the MPs returned, forced Omar onto his knees, and cuffed his wrists and ankles together behind his back. This made his body into a kind of bow, his torso convex and rigid, right at the limit of its flexibility. The force of his cuffed wrists straining upward against his cuffed ankles drove his kneecaps into the concrete floor. The guards left.

An hour or two later they came back, checked the tautness of his chains and pushed him over on his stomach. Transfixed in his bonds, Omar toppled like a figurine. Again they left. Many hours had passed since Omar had been taken from his cell. He urinated on himself and on the floor. The MPs returned, mocked him for a while and then poured pine-oil solvent all over his body. Without altering his chains, they began dragging him by his feet through the mixture of urine and pine oil. Because his body had been so tightened, the new motion racked it. The MPs swung him around and around, the piss and solvent washing up into his face. The idea was to use him as a human mop. When the MPs felt they'd successfully pretended to soak up the liquid with his body, they uncuffed him and carried him back to his cell. He was not allowed a change of clothes for two days.

Read the entire ordeal

Stick That Yellow Ribbon Up Your SUV

Don't Be Terrorized!

How many warnings does it take...

Meeting kept secret from 9/11 Commission

Although passages of the book suggest that Mr. Tenet was a major source for Mr. Woodward, the former intelligence director has refused to comment on the book.

Nor has there been any comment from J. Cofer Black, Mr. Tenet’s counterterrorism chief, who is reported in the book to have attended the July 10 meeting and left it frustrated by Ms. Rice’s “brush-off” of the warnings.

He is quoted as saying, “The only thing we didn’t do was pull the trigger to the gun we were holding to her head.” Mr. Black did not return calls left at the security firm Blackwater, which he joined last year.

The book says that Mr. Tenet hurriedly organized the meeting — calling ahead from his car as it traveled to the White House — because he wanted to “shake Rice” into persuading the president to respond to dire intelligence warnings that summer about a terrorist strike. Mr. Woodward writes that Mr. Tenet left the meeting frustrated because “they were not getting through to Rice.”

The disclosures took members of the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission by surprise last week. Some questioned whether information about the July 10 meeting was intentionally withheld from the panel.

Bin Laden Determined to Strike US

MI6 warned US of Al-Qaeda attacks

Britain warned US to expect September 11 al-Qaeda hijackings

Warning Signs

Fox News: Clues Alerted White House to Potential Attacks

Days Before, Priest Predicted Plane Attacks on U.S.

Other unheeded warnings before 9/11?

TRACES OF TERROR: THE INTELLIGENCE REPORTS; EGYPT WARNED U.S. OF A QAEDA PLOT, MUBARAK ASSERTS

Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks


Report details US 'intelligence failures'

This site detailed many more warnings given to officials of the US government prior to 9/11. Many links no longer work and some foreign articles are at this site as well. Those were not included since their authenticity could not be corroborated. Still, there was ample warning given time and time again.

You be the judge of this information.

Rovian tactics are failing...

Five weeks before the midterm elections a new tape with Mohammed Atta and other 9/11 hijackers surfaced. It's timing is questionable to say the least given the October 29, 2004 Bin Laden tape that appeared just days before the 2004 presidential election.

The late date of the Bin Laden tape was unlikely to change many minds in the 2004 election, but it's apparent that this recent tape which was found late 2001 in Afghanistan by military forces is being used as an election ploy in an attempt to keep the American people in a state of fear/anger.

The timing is questionable not only because of the midterms fast approaching, but also with the latest scandals and accusations that continue to dog bush and his administration.

In hopes of distracting the American people and garnering more votes this was a pathetic attempt to change the dialogue in the favor of the Republican leadership. It's refreshing to see it not working.