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MAXINE Opens Up PJM Online Voting Precinct

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Also, the more who vote on a weekly basis, the more statistically reliable the poll is likely to be.

So VOTE and vote weekly here at the MAXINE Precinct of the Pajamas Media Presidential Straw Poll (click the widget in the sidebar and voice your opinion).


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Anglican World Raises The "Bar"

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with Donald Mtetemela, the Archbishop of Tanzania. Image Credit: Emmanuel Kwitema/Reuters

Anglican World Raises The "Bar" - With Post Meeting Reaction UPDATE

Last year, several Episcopal churches in the United States applied for, and got a reporting process that gave them the ability to not have to recognize the leadership of the newly elected U.S. Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports gay relationships and openly gay priests in leadership positions.

Anglican traditionalists believe gay relationships violate Scripture and they have demanded that the U.S. church adhere to that teaching or face discipline.

Yesterday, at a world gathering of Anglican leaders in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Africa, decided the U.S. Episcopal church must bar gay bishops and prayers for gay couples looking for a formal recognition of their life union (wedding).

Standards, well, are standards!

Veiled rebuke … the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, arrives on Zanzibar with the Archbishop of Tanzania, Donald Mtetemela. Image Credit: Reuters/Emmanauel Kwiitema

Excerpts from The Guardian (UK) -

No schism for now: Williams gets tough on liberals to save the church
· Episcopalians ordered to give up on gay blessings
· Anglicans must wait on decision of US bishops
Stephen Bates - The Guardian - in Dar es Salaam - Tuesday February 20, 2007

The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, kept the worldwide Anglican communion together, at least in the short term, but at the cost of imposing unprecedented sanctions on the US Episcopal church to force it to abandon its liberal policies towards gay people.

A communique issued late last night after a fraught five-day meeting in Tanzania of the primates - archbishops and presiding bishops of Anglicanism's 38 provinces - laid new ground rules for the US church and gave it until September 30 to comply. The plan allows, effectively, for the setting up of a church within a church in the US with the appointment of a senior cleric to oversee dioceses which feel unable to accept the Episcopal church's liberal leadership.

The church's bishops will also have to give an unequivocal undertaking not to authorise any rites of blessing for same-sex couples and to confirm that no more gay bishops, living in same-sex relationships, would be confirmed in office. The crisis in the Anglican communion was sparked by the Episcopal church's election, in 2003, of Gene Robinson, a gay bishop.

The communique said: "If the reassurances requested of the House of Bishops cannot in good conscience be given, the relationship between the Episcopal church and the Anglican communion as a whole remains damaged at best and this has consequences for the full participation of the church in the life of the communion." The primates have accepted the right of the leaders of other provinces to trespass on the US to minister to conservative parishes. This has particularly applied to Archbishop Peter Akinola, the primate of Nigeria, who consecrated Martyn Minns, a conservative evangelical vicar in Virginia, as a Nigerian bishop to oversee parishes that wish to opt out of the Episcopal church.

Bishop of Western Tanganyika Gerard Mpango walks past a choir during the Solemn Eucharist, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007 at the Anglican cathedral in Zanzibar. Leaders of the world's 77 million Anglicans, in Tanzania for a closed, six-day conference, traveled by boat from the mainland for a Solemn Eucharist in the only Anglican cathedral on this predominantly Muslim archipelago on the Indian Ocean. Image Credit: AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo

Archbishop Williams, looking discomfited, admitted that the cost of getting Archbishop Akinola to join the other primates in signing the unanimous communique was allowing him to continue to trespass on Episcopal church territory, at least for the present.

Dr Williams, who nominally heads the 78-million strong Anglican communion, also admitted that he did not know what would happen if the US bishops only voted narrowly in favour of the demands, or how the idea of a primatial vicar overseeing US dioceses would work. "It's an experiment," he said. "Pray for it."
----
The move will dismay many within the Episcopal church who had hoped that they had done enough at their convention last June to comply with the demands of the Anglican communion that they should row back on their support for gay people. Many have seen the battle since Bishop Robinson's election as the latest episode in a long-running war for control of the US church between liberals and conservatives. The Episcopal church has 2 million members but it is long-established.
----
Seven of the 35 archbishops and presiding bishops attending the meeting have refused to share communion with the US presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori during the gathering, although that number was half those who refused communion with her predecessor, Frank Griswold, at their meeting two years ago.

The conservative forces were in some consternation last week when a report, drawn up by a working party headed by Dr Williams, gave a much more favourable assessment of the Episcopal church's position than had been anticipated. That report suggested that the US church had largely fulfilled the demands of the rest of the communion.

Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori responded cautiously to the demands, saying there had been "a positive sense of collegiality" at the meeting.
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Main players in the clerical controversy

Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury since 2002 Former theology professor who has attempted to keep the communion from splitting over the gay issue

Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria The leader of probably the largest Anglican national church has made opposition to gays a crusade and led developing world primates on the issue.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church First woman ever to lead a major Christian denomination. A scientist, elected at last year's convention. Known to be in favour of blessing faithful same-sex unions

Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire The first openly gay bishop (there are plenty of privately gay ones), elected in 2003 despite living in a faithful, same-sex relationship.
Read All>>

In a move that appears to have a quid-pro-quo element to it given the timing and prestige it holds, Bishop Schori was elevated to represent the Americas on one of the Church's most influential executive bodies. Bishop Schori, 53, was elected to the Standing Committee of the Primates' Meeting, the executive body that guides the work of the primates.

Additional post meeting Episcopal reactions cited by The Los Angeles Times -

Episcopalians react to new directive
By Rebecca Trounson, and Louis Sahagun, Times Staff Writers (contribution - K. Connie Kang) - 7:39 PM PST, February 20, 2007

With pain, joy, anger and in some cases, relief, Episcopalians across the United States reacted Tuesday to a stern directive from Anglican leaders that the American wing of the church refrain from sanctioning blessings for same-sex unions and take other steps to heal tensions that may yet splinter the global Anglican Communion.
----
The three dozen Anglican leaders, or primates, also set up a special council and vicar to oversee, at least temporarily, conservative American dioceses that have rebelled against the Episcopal Church's relatively liberal views on homosexuality and Scriptural teachings.

Many conservatives said they were happy that the primates had given the divided U.S. branch of the church an ultimatum; many liberals expressed sadness. And others wondered if the demands made this week would push the historic Anglican Church, founded by King Henry VIII of England after he broke with Catholicism, toward a schism -- or help save it from such a fate.

"No one should underestimate the depth of the divisions," said John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington D.C. "Looking at the subtext here, you can see the threat, if a resolution isn't found. But at the same time, there appears to be a real effort not to have that happen."

Conflict between liberal and orthodox church members in the United States and abroad reached crisis in 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated its first gay bishop. The tensions with conservatives grew last year when the American church elected a woman, Katharine Jefferts Schori, as presiding bishop.
----
In calm, measured language, Jefferts Schori noted that the Tanzania meeting's final communique had made requests not just of the U.S. church, but of conservative bishops outside the United States, who have taken dissenting Episcopal parishes and dioceses under their auspices. They were asked to refrain from that practice.

"Each party in this conflict is asked to consider the good faith of the other, to consider that the weakness or sensitivity of the other is of significant import, and therefore to fast ... for a season," Jefferts Schori wrote.

Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, center, arrives in a golf cart as he prepares to deliver a draft covenant to journalist at the Anglican conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Image Credit: AP

Not all seemed inclined to obey the request to pause. At Pasadena, Calif.'s All Saints Episcopal Church, an influential, liberal congregation, the Rev. Ed Bacon said that his church planned to continue its practice of blessing same-sex unions.

"We have many people very concerned about whether All Saints will be intimidated by this, but we will continue pour its ministry with pastoral care, compassion and justice," Bacon said.

On the other side, the Rev. Praveen Bunyan, whose St. James Church of Newport Beach, Calif., broke away from the U.S. church in 2004 to join an Anglican province in Uganda, said he was encouraged to see the primates "give the Episcopal Church one last chance to turn around."

"These are heavy, serious times, and we are not jumping up and down screaming, 'Hoorah for our side!' " said Bunyan, who was reached by telephone in Uganda. "The primates are consistent with the authority and clear teachings given to us in Scripture. If there is no consistency in Scripture, then there is no consistency with God."
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"This isn't fundamentally about sexuality or the place of gays and lesbians in the church," said the Rev. Ian T. Douglas, a professor at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. "It's more about questions of identity and authority in a church that has moved from a monocultural Anglo-American alliance of the North Atlantic to a radically multicultural family of churches," with the balance of the church's membership and power shifting to Africa, Asia and elsewhere.

The recent meeting, he said, laid bare the deep divisions in Anglicanism between those who place power and authority in the hands of its bishops and those who prefer a more democratic, consultative church.
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Bill Countryman, a professor of the New Testament at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif., expressed concern about what he said was Williams' low-key response to more conservative primates, men Countryman described as "bullies."

"Rowan hasn't done much of anything, and no one can figure out why," said Countryman, who is openly gay.

The Rev. Van McCalister, a spokesman for the Fresno, Calif.-based conservative San Joaquin Diocese, which is trying to move away from the Episcopal Church, expressed similar concerns. "Both sides are asking, 'Where is Rowan Williams in all this?' " he said
Read All>>

H5N1 Caution, Not Fear, For Food Marketing Institute

The supermarket is an exciting place for small children, but sometimes it can all get too frustrating and they go into overload. There are ways to make shopping a less stressful time for children and parents. Image Credit: New Zealand Ministry of Social Development

H5N1 Caution, Not Fear, For Food Marketing Institute

An "ounce of caution is worth a pound of cure" was a famous phrase in decades past that may make its way back into favor if the Food Marketing Institute has its attitude adopted.

The distribution channel for supermarkets is run so effectively that people only carry enough fresh food for about three to four days. When and if the H5N1 avian flu pandemic hits the human population, people will be urged not to go out into public and eat in public places.

So what is a food distribution system to do to make sure people who are able to live through the pandemic do not die from starvation?

Excerpts from The Associated Press via Business Week -

Grocers prep for pandemic run on food
By TIMBERLY ROSS - The Associated Press February 18, 2007, 2:06PM EST

OMAHA, Neb. - Stocking up on food is as simple as a trip to the grocery store, a veritable land of plenty for Americans.

"It's so easy when you have three grocery stores in your vicinity," said Becky Jones of Omaha, who stocks up once a week for her family of three. "You think: how could you possibly not get what you needed?"

But will fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, bread, milk and other household staples still be available if the U.S. is hit with an anticipated bird flu pandemic? If state and federal officials urge people to stay away from public places, like restaurants and fast-food establishments, will they be able to get the groceries they need to prepare food in their homes?
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Unlike other critical infrastructure sectors like water, energy and health care, the food industry isn't getting much help from state and federal governments when it comes to disaster planning. That puts the burden on individual supermarket chains and wholesalers to deal with a potentially large number of sick workers that could affect store operations and disrupt the food supply.

"The industry is actively thinking through contingency plans, so if it should happen, our members would be well prepared to deal with it," said Tim Hammonds, president of the Food Marketing Institute, an advocate for grocery wholesalers and retail supermarkets nationwide.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates a third of the population could fall ill if the H5N1 strain of the bird flu mutates into a form that spreads easily from person to person.
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But if a pandemic emerges, the Department of Homeland Security projects worker absenteeism to reach 40 percent or more over a prolonged period. Hammonds said retail food stores would have to contend with worker shortages and disruptions in the supply chain.

The food and agriculture industry is listed among 13 critical-infrastructure sectors that the Department of Homeland Security says must remain functional during a pandemic.

"Having those critical facilities open -- like power, water, food -- becomes very important" during a national disaster such as a pandemic, said Keith Hanson, an outreach coordinator for Nebraska's Center for Biopreparedness Education.
----
Hanson said continued operations of power and water utilities are of the utmost importance, but grocery stores rank highly too. That's because people today keep less food on hand, opting instead to make weekly trips to the grocery store.

Americans are also dining out more than they have in the past. Money spent on food prepared outside the home rose from 34 percent of total food costs in 1974 to about 50 percent in 2004, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Food Marketing Institute's Hammonds said a widespread pandemic will likely cause food consumption to shift away from restaurants and fast-food establishments and toward in-home eating, causing a greater demand for groceries.

"That means stores would need to be prepared for an increase in volume," he said.

Hy-Vee, a West Des Moines, Iowa-based supermarket chain that operates more than 200 stores in the Midwest, does not have a disaster plan developed in the event of avian flu. But company spokeswoman Chris Friesleben said the company keeps abreast of the illness through the Food Marketing Institute.

"The food supply is essential to the well-being of the community," said Hammonds. "We've been through a lot about what we need to do as a supermarket."

That includes urging wholesalers and retailers to talk with their suppliers about alternative sources for their products and to anticipate what products will be in high demand in a pandemic situation, such as medicines and food staples.

Stephanie Childs, a spokeswoman for Omaha-based ConAgra Foods Inc., said a company task force was formed more than a year ago to develop an operating plan in the event of a national disaster. The plan specifically addresses bird flu, examines areas that could be affected and how the company could respond, she said.
----
The company employs about 27,000 people, but Homeland Security projections indicate that number could fall to 16,200 during a pandemic.

Childs said such worker shortages and difficulties with suppliers getting their products to ConAgra plants were among the potential problems the company identified. She did not disclose how the company would address those issues.

The federal government and public health agencies are urging people to stock up on nonperishable food, like canned goods and dried fruit, to ensure they have to food to eat during a pandemic.

Jones, the Omaha woman, said that's a proactive approach, but was worried that people with limited incomes may not be able to afford a large stockpile of food.

She stopped short of calling for the government to oversee the food industry's pandemic planning, but said, "If they see a crisis that is on the horizon, they do have to give us some type of warning."
Read All>>

Democrat Hypocrisy Laid Bare

That is how those who oppose the war "support" the troops -- they "slow-bleed" them dry. Or they declare that the lives laid down by those troops were "wasted," as Senator Barack Obama did last Sunday. Photo: Barack Obama in South Carolina - 2/16/07 Image Credit: Jack Jenkins

Democrat Hypocrisy Laid Bare

A question posed by the opinion columnist, Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, yesterday is a great question indeed:

“WHAT DOES IT mean to support the troops but oppose the cause they fight for?”

Really … What Does It Mean?

At least the Senate got it almost right when they unanimously approved General Petraeus so that they were in support of the military commander for Iraq … then stopped the non-binding resolution from passing with a 60 vote majority.

But what does it mean, really?

Excerpts from The Boston Globe -

Irreconcilable positions: support troops, oppose war
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist February 18, 2007

No loyal Colts fan rooted for Indianapolis to lose the Super Bowl. No investor buys 100 shares of Google in the hope that Google's stock will tank. No one who applauds firefighters for their courage and education wants a four-alarm blaze to burn out of control.

Yet there is no end of Americans who insist they "support" US troops in Iraq but want the war those troops are fighting to end in defeat. The two positions are irreconcilable. You cannot logically or honorably curse the war as an immoral neocon disaster or a Halliburton oil grab or "a fraud . . . cooked up in Texas," yet bless the troops who are waging it.

But logic and honor haven't stopped members of Congress from trying to square that circle. The nonbinding resolution they debated last week was a flagrant attempt to have it both ways. One of its two clauses professed to "support and protect" the forces serving "bravely and honorably" in Iraq. The other declared that Congress "disapproves" the surge in troops now underway -- a surge that General David Petraeus , the new military commander in Iraq, considers essential.

It was a disgraceful and dishonest resolution, and it must have done wonders for the insurgents' morale.
----
That is how those who oppose the war "support" the troops -- they "slow-bleed" them dry. Or they declare that the lives laid down by those troops were "wasted," as Senator Barack Obama did last Sunday.
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And like most political gaffes, it exposed the speaker's true feelings.

And why wouldn't Obama feel that way? If an American serviceman dies in the course of a war that toppled a monstrous dictatorship, opened the door to decent Arab governance, and has become the central front in the struggle against radical Islam, his death is not in vain. It is the sacrifice of an American hero, the last full measure of devotion given in the cause of freedom. But if he dies in the course of a senseless and illegitimate invasion -- which appears to be Obama's view of Iraq -- then his life was wasted. If that's what you believe, Senator, why not say so?
----
Smart people who work hard become successful, John Kerry "joked" last fall, but uneducated sluggards "get stuck in Iraq." Osama bin Laden is beloved by Muslims for "building schools, building roads . . . building day-care facilities," Washington Senator Patty Murray explained in 2002, while Americans only show up to "bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan." Obama's Illinois colleague Dick Durbin took to the Senate floor to equate US military interrogators in Guantanamo Bay with "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags," and similar mass-murderers, such as "Pol Pot or others."

It goes without saying that many Democrats and liberals take a back seat to no one in their admiration and appreciation of the US military. But there is no denying that a notable current of antimilitary hostility runs through the left as well.

Examples are endless: ROTC is banned on elite college campuses. San Francisco bars a historic battleship from its port. Signs at antiwar protests urge troops to "shoot their officers." An Ivy League professor prays for "a million Mogadishus." Michael Moore compares Iraqi insurgents who kill Americans to the Minutemen of Revolutionary New England.

America is a free country, but it is not the Michael Moores or the ROTC-banners or the senatorial loudmouths who keep it free. They merely enjoy the freedom that others are prepared to defend with their lives.

It is the men and women who volunteer to wear the uniform to whom we owe our liberty. Surely they deserve better than pious claims of "support" from those who are working for their defeat.
Read All>>

Survivor Fiji (2) - The Real World Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

Banner graphic from the official web protal of the Fiji Government. Image Credit: Ministry of Information, Communication and Media Relations, Fiji Government

Survivor Fiji (2) - The Real World Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

The neighbors of Fiji, in an attempt to inject some territorial and institutional sanity to the island region, previewed a report to be submitted to the Pacific Island Forum that examined Fiji’s coup of December of last year which came down hard in its recommendations as to the authenticity of the current situation.

In the report, that is expected to be at the center of regional discussions when the 16 nations member Pacific Island Forum next meets in March, the group labeled the coup “unconstitutional and unacceptable."

Meanwhile, the observance of human rights and free speech in Fiji, while the military is in charge of Fiji and its governmental activities, is not acceptable.

Details published by The Associated Press -

AP Exclusive: Pacific group says Fiji coup unacceptable, military leader should resign
The Associated Press - Published: February 19, 2007

SUVA, Fiji: An investigative team examining last year's coup in Fiji for South Pacific leaders says the country's military commander should resign immediately as prime minister, and calls for elections within two years to restore democracy.
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A copy of the report, to be presented to the forum soon, was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

The report said armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who appointed himself prime minister after seizing power, must "vacate the position" and allow a civilian to be take the post.

It said elections in Fiji should be held within "18 to 24 months if not sooner" — rejecting a timetable of up to five years given by some members of the military government as "excessive."

The group — Vanuatu Deputy Prime Minister Sato Kilman, Samoan Environment Minister Faumuina Luiga, retired Papua New Guinea Chief Justice Arnold Amet and Australian armed forces chief Gen. Peter Cosgrove — spoke to dozens of officials on all sides of the Fiji dispute in their monthslong inquiry.

The group questioned the need for the state of emergency that was declared immediately after the bloodless takeover, and demanded Fiji's military forces "immediately cease human rights abuses."

The group said it heard of "numerous cases of citizens being denied their constitutional rights ... subjection to intimidation, harassment and physical abuse" by the military. It didn't provide details.

In the days after the coup, the military detained and questioned many senior bureaucrats and officials from the ousted government of elected Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. Most were released unharmed.

Bainimarama says he seized power to clean up alleged corruption during Qarase's administration, and stop planned laws to pardon plotters in a 2000 coup and hand lucrative land rights to indigenous Fijians, not the large ethnic Indian minority.

Bainimarama has promised to call elections to restore democracy, but hasn't set a timetable.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Monday she had been briefed on the report and that it "should be seen in Fiji as a way forward."
Read Here>>

And this related dispatch about human rights in Fiji from Radio New Zealand –

Fiji laywer says intimidation has ended freedom of speech
Radio New Zealand - Wellington,New Zealand - Posted at 2:55pm on 19 Feb 2007

A senior Fiji lawyer says the military's intimidation of people has ended any freedom of speech in the country.

He made the comment in the wake of a damning report compiled by a group of senior lawyers that challenges the legality of December's military takeover.

The report described the assumption of executive power by Commodore Frank Bainimarama as riddled with legal inaccuracies, misapplications of the law and a selective reading of the case.

The group -who do not wish to be named for fear of retaliation - prepared the report in response to one released by the Fiji Human Right Commission which appeared to justify the coup.

A lawyer, who wished to remain anonymous, says the climate in Fiji is repressive and people are fearful for the security of their families and jobs.

He says there are a number of cases of people being taken to the army barracks, roughed up and coming back silent.
Reference Here>>

Media Statement by PM Bainimarama - Laying Solid Foundation for Fiji's Return to Democracy - 15/2/07

A Fiji democracy activist, Laisa Digitaki, has told the Fijilive news website that continuing human rights violations could very well become the main cause of the interim regime's downfall if they are not careful.

At MAXINE, it's "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast" until the next dispatch on the real world Survivor Fiji!

UPDATE - Someone "VOTES" himself off of the island! This from Fijilive -

Colonel resigns from Fiji army
Fijilive - Monday February 19, 2007

Fiji's first contingent commander to the UN mission in Iraq has officially resigned from the Fiji army.

Military spokesman Major Neumi Leweni confirms that former Fiji Land Force Commander Colonel Mel Saubulinayau has handed in his resignation, but did not specify the reason.

"I won't be able to comment on this," he said.

Col Saubulinayau was earlier sent on leave by the military after a failed attempt by the previous government to have him replace army commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama ahead of the December 5, 2006 military coup.

Major Leweni said that military investigations against Col Saubulinayau will continue despite his resignation.
Reference Here>>

Tick, Tick, Tick – Soviet Poultry Plants Under Siege

A Russian veterinary surgeon inspects ostriches in a stable at a commercial farm in Toropovo in March 2006. Russian officials have announced measures to prevent the spread of bird flu, a day after the discovery of the deadly H5N1 strain at two farms near Moscow. Image Credit: AFP

Tick, Tick, Tick – Soviet Poultry Plants Under Siege

One might assume that if the ground is covered in snow and the temperatures are cold, viruses do not “take flight”.

In Russia, many forces may be at hand, including the hand of organized forces that would want to tip business their way … by eliminating the competition.

This virus outbreak cause may actually be in the form of an intentional HIT.

Excerpts from France 24 -

Russia moves to stop spread of deadly bird flu strain
by Victoria LOGUINOVA – France 24

Russian officials have announced measures to prevent the spread of bird flu, a day after the discovery of the deadly H5N1 strain at two farms near Moscow.

Confirmation of the strain, which is potentially fatal to humans who come into contact with infected birds, came on Saturday evening at Odintsovo and Domodedovo. Both are within a 50-kilometre (31-mile) radius of the capital.
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"We are taking all necessary measures," said Nikolai Vlasov, director of veterinary inspection for agricultural agency Rosselkhoznadzor.

"The farms have been disinfected. The experts are treating vehicles that are leaving the areas where the virus was discovered," said Vlasov, adding that access in and around the region had been restricted.

Last month, the H5N1 virus was recorded in poultry plants in the Krasnodar region, 1,000 kilometres south of Moscow, but the current outbreak is the first near the capital, home to more than 10 million people.

The Russian find follows recent outbreaks in Britain and Turkey, while Hungary reported the first detected case of the strain in January, the first such outbreak in the European Union since mid-2006.
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Russian authorities on Saturday said another farm at Podolsk, 40 kilometres south of the capital, was suspected of being contaminated after 44 dead birds were found, but tests had still to confirm this.

And on Sunday a fourth farm at Taldom, 110 kilometres north of Moscow, was under suspicion of housing a further outbreak, with authorities still conducting tests.

The birds belonging to the first three farms had been bought at Moscow's main poultry market on the southeast fringe of the city, which has since been closed.

A senior veterinary official in the region speculated that the birds may have been infected deliberately, a state news agency said Sunday.

"It is possible they had been contaminated at the market. We cannot rule out the possibility of bioterrorism," Ria Novosti cited Valeri Sitnikov as saying on an independent TV channel.

Vlasov, the director of veterinary inspection, dismissed the comments as paranoid, but an inquiry is underway at the poultry market and the relevant section of the market has been closed.

The H5N1 strain, which first emerged in Asia, has caused 270 reported human infections worldwide since 2003 and killed 164 as of last month.
Read All>>

… And, They Call This “The Land Of Enchantment”

Governor Richardson recently visited the Santa Fe River to announce his Year of Water agenda. This (ed. $100+ million package) includes funding for needed infrastructure projects, conservation and environmental restoration. Caption & Image Credit: New Mexico Office of the Governor

… And, They Call This “The Land Of Enchantment”

In a move that might have had political ramifications for the 2008 presidential campaign, the State of New Mexico has decided to use audio indoctrination to change the behavior of its citizens.

The original idea was to program the audio devices with the message “Vote, Gov. Bill Richardson, a candidate with real executive experience, for president - 2008”. But, that idea was flushed in favor of this:

Excerpts from the Associated Press via Yahoo! News -

N.M. orders 500 talking urinal cakes
Associated Press - Wed Feb 14, 9:48 PM ET

SANTA FE, N.M. - New Mexico is taking its fight against drunken driving to men's restrooms around the state. The state has ordered 500 talking urinal cakes that will deliver a recorded anti-DWI message to bar and restaurant patrons who make one last pit stop before getting behind the wheel.

"Hey there, big guy. Having a few drinks?" a female voice says a few seconds after an approaching male sets off a motion sensor in the device. "It's time to call a cab or ask a sober friend for a ride home."

A talking urinal cake is displayed in the men's room at Turtle Mountain Brewing Company in Rio Rancho, N.M., Monday, Feb. 12, 2007. New Mexico aims to keep bar-hopping drunks off the road by nagging them at a place they're likely to visit just before getting behind the wheel: the men's room urinal. The state Transportation Department recently bought about 500 talking urinal cakes to put in men's restrooms at various bars and restaurants. Image Credit: AP Photo/Jake Schoellkopf

Transportation Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh said the urinal cakes are a way to reach one group that's a target of state safety campaigns. Men commit about three times as many drunken-driving infractions as women.
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"The idea is based on the concept that there is no more captive audience than a guy standing at a urinal," Deutsch said. "You can't look right and you can't look left; you've got to look at the ad."
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In New Mexico, the device uses the state DWI slogan "You drink, you drive, you lose."
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The state spent $21 for each talking urinal cake for the pilot program but will ask bars and restaurants to pay for future orders if the idea catch on, Mahesh said.

The cakes have enough battery power to last about three months.
Read All>>

Imagine being the person tapped to replace all of the batteries!

POV Point, Counterpoint – Global Warming Opinion Intentions

A general view shows the lower house of Parliament Bundestag inside the Reichstags building during a commemoration ceremony to mark the Holocaust memorial day in Berlin January 29, 2007. Image Credit: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY)

POV Point, Counterpoint – Global Warming Opinion Intentions

When we, at MAXINE, see, listen, or read anything from longtime flame-throwing MSM liberal hack (Boston Globe, The McLaughlin Group (NPR), and go to “talking head” for biting MSM POV commentary for any political talk enterprise) we are stunned at the echo chamber logic expressed given almost any topic she jumps off into.

Usually, it is easy to just discount the views as coming from a very liberal, journalistic, and socialist camp.

That is, until her latest attempt to place people who want to deny that the Holocaust (where people of the Jewish faith were rounded up, taken to prison camps, placed in gas chambers, and executed) actually happened during WWII are used as the measuring stick for people who wish to debate against the proposition that Human activity is the primary cause of Earth’s temperature changes (Global Warming).

Dennis Prager makes it very clear as to how WRONG, damaging, and piously-political her latest column is on the subject of Global Warming in the Boston Globe through his latest column featured in Townhall.

Point, Counterpoint!

This from Dennis Prager, contributing writer for Townhall –

On Comparing Global Warming Denial to Holocaust Denial
By Dennis Prager - Tuesday, February 13, 2007

In her last column, Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman wrote: "Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers . . . "

This is worthy of some analysis.

First, it reflects a major difference between the way in which the Left and Right tend to view each other. With a few exceptions, those on the Left tend to view their ideological adversaries as bad people, i.e., people with bad intentions, while those on the Right tend to view their adversaries as wrong, perhaps even dangerous, but not usually as bad.

Those who deny the Holocaust are among the evil of the world. Their concern is not history but hurting Jews, and their attempt to rob nearly six million people of their experience of unspeakable suffering gives new meaning to the word "cruel." To equate those who question or deny global warming with those who question or deny the Holocaust is to ascribe equally nefarious motives to them. It may be inconceivable to Al Gore, Ellen Goodman and their many millions of supporters that a person can disagree with them on global warming and not have evil motives: Such an individual must be paid by oil companies to lie, or lie -- as do Holocaust deniers -- for some other vile reason.

The belief that opponents of the Left are morally similar to Nazis was expressed recently by another prominent person of the Left, George Soros, the billionaire who bankrolls many leftist projects. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Soros called on America to "de-Nazify" just as Germany did after the Holocaust and World War II. For Soros, America in Iraq is like the Nazis in Poland.

A second lesson to be drawn from the Goodman statement is that it helps us to understand better one of the defining mottos of contemporary liberalism: "Question authority." In reality, this admonition applies to questioning the moral authority of Judeo-Christian religions or of any secular conservative authority, but not of any other authority. UN and other experts tell us that there is global warming; such authority is not to be questioned.

Third, the equation of global warming denial to Holocaust denial trivializes Holocaust denial. If questioning global warming is on "a par" with questioning the Holocaust, how bad can questioning the Holocaust really be? The same holds true with regard to Nazism and the George Soros statement. Claiming that America in the Iraq War is morally equivalent to Nazi Germany in World War II trivializes the unparalleled evil of the Nazis.

Fourth, the lack of response (thus far) of any liberal or left individual or organization -- except to defend Ellen Goodman -- or from the Anti-Defamation League, the organization whose primary purpose has been to defend Jews, is telling. Just imagine if, for example, an equally prominent Christian figure had written that denying America is a Christian country is on a par with denying the Holocaust. It would have been front-page news in the mainstream media, the individual would have been excoriated by just about every major liberal individual and group, and the ADL would have cited this as an example of burgeoning Christian anti-Semitism and Holocaust trivialization. But not a word at the ADL on Soros's comments about de-Nazifying America or Goodman's Holocaust-denial comment.

Fifth, and finally, the Ellen Goodman quote is only the beginning of what is already becoming one of the largest campaigns of vilification of decent people in history -- the global condemnation of a) anyone who questions global warming; or b) anyone who agrees that there is global warming but who argues that human behavior is not its primary cause; or c) anyone who agrees that there is global warming, and even agrees that human behavior is its primary cause, but does not believe that the consequences will be nearly as catastrophic as Al Gore does.

If you don't believe all three propositions, you will be lumped with Holocaust deniers, and it would not be surprising that soon, in Europe, global warming deniers will be treated as Holocaust deniers and prosecuted.

Just watch.

That is far more likely than the oceans rising by 20 feet.

Or even 10.

Or even three.
Reference Here>>

Hey Ellen! ... Al! Surf's Up!

Good on ya', Dennis.

Tick, Tick, Tick - H5N1 Virus Takes 65th Victim In Indonesia

Garut regency, West Java, Indonesia (highlighted in bright green). Image Credit: Wikipedia

Tick, Tick, Tick - H5N1 Virus Takes 65th Victim In Indonesia

A 20 year-old woman and a 9 year-old boy die from infection to the H5N1 virus bringing a total of 65 deaths to Indonesia -- the most for any country in the world.

We all will really need to begin to worry (and begin praying) when hospital workers in Indonesia begin dying from H5N1 virus ... this will be human-to-human and it will be time for humanity to "go to ground".

Excerpts from The Jakarta Post -

Bird flu deaths in Indonesia reach 65
By Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo/Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post - February 11, 2007

JAKARTA (JP): Provincial administrations are being urged to follow Jakarta in banning backyard poultry, as two more bird flu deaths were reported Sunday in Garut regency, West Java.

A 20-year-old woman died at Slamet Hospital in Garut at about 1 a.m., followed by a 9-year old boy at 4:30 p.m.

"Let's use this as a reminder for all of us to keep poultry away from people," the director general of communicable diseases at the Health Ministry, I Nyoman Kandun, told The Jakarta Post . "Other provincial administrations should follow the Jakarta administration in its effort to keep poultry away from people. Our message is still the same: keep poultry as far away as possible from people and homes," he said.

Kandun said the deep-rooted tradition of people living near their poultry made it difficult for the government to stop the spread of the virus from birds to humans.

"Our biggest concern is still that the virus could mutate into a form where human-to-human transmissions are easy," he said.

Officials have confirmed that the woman who died early Sunday had contact with dead chickens before becoming infected with the H5N1 virus.
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West Java Health Agency head Yudi Prayudha said the woman showed the classic bird flu symptoms of difficulty breathing and a high fever.

The 9-year-old boy was referred to Slamet Hospital on Saturday evening. However, his family brought him home at about 3 a.m., before health officials convinced them to return the boy to the hospital later Sunday morning.
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Cross Match Delivers Biometrics For “Snakes” In Iraq

The MV 100 offers in-the-field identity checks using a forensic quality fingerprint scanner, an integrated Personal Digital Assistant, a digital camera, a magnetic stripe card reader and wireless communications. The MV 100 uses the same optical technology found in Cross Match’s industry leading Verifier® fingerprint scanners capturing high quality fingerprint images regardless of skin pigment or the presence of stains from ink, dyes, grease, or dirt. Image Credit: Cross Match Technologies

Cross Match Delivers Biometrics For “Snakes” In Iraq

The military and police forces in Iraq have much in common with the police forces in major cities throughout the United States, especially those cities with organized gang activity.

For both efforts, quick field identification of suspected individuals who may be involved in illegal or deadly insurgent activity is a must in order to remove offending culprits.

At home, our police departments are provided full IT (information technology) tools, all of the way down to their patrol units, where the patrol officer can log-in and check available databases (many linked to nationwide networks) and have delivered to him all of the information he would need to make a proper assessment. Job done!

In Iraq, however, there does not exist the infrastructure to place all that equipment the average patrol car has but through technology, there is an answer.

The cornerstone to a database development system as well as a field tool that identifies people once the information has been captured is supplied by Cross Match Technologies. This portable tool combined with radio access to existing databases in Iraq may help the military and Iraqi security forces turn the tide in hunting down and stopping insurgent activity.

The Iraqi Army has a nickname for the “gang” of insurgents who seek to do harm to the citizens of Iraq – “Snakes”.

Excerpts from The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal –

The Snake Eater
Give our troops the tools our cops have.
BY DANIEL HENNINGER, Deputy Editor – Editorial’s, The Wall Street Journal - Thursday, February 8, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

Subject:

A case study of how the U.S. got bogged down in Iraq.

Problem:

If a cop in Anytown, USA, pulls over a suspect, he checks the person's ID remotely from the squad car. He's linked to databases filled with Who's Who in the world of crime, killing and mayhem. In Iraq, there is nothing like that. When our troops and the Iraqi army enter a town, village or street, what they know about the local bad guys is pretty much in their heads, at best.

Solution:

Give our troops what our cops have. The Pentagon knows this. For reasons you can imagine, it hasn't happened.

This is a story of can-do in a no-can-do world, a story of how a Marine officer in Iraq, a small network-design company in California, a nonprofit troop-support group, a blogger and other undeterrable folk designed a handheld insurgent-identification device, built it, shipped it and deployed it in Anbar province. They did this in 30 days, from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15. Compared to standard operating procedure for Iraq, this is a nanosecond.

Before fastening our seatbelts, let's check the status quo. As a high Defense Department official told the Journal's editorial page, "We're trying to fight a major war with peacetime procurement rules." The department knows this is awful. Indeed, a program exists, the Automated Biometric Identification System: retina scans, facial matching and the like. The reality: This war is in year four, and the troops don't have it. Beyond Baghdad, the U.S. role has become less about killing insurgents than arresting the worst and isolating them from the population. Obviously it would help to have an electronic database of who the bad guys are, their friends, where they live, tribal affiliation--in short the insurgency's networks.
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Some, like Marine Maj. Owen West in Anbar, have created their own spreadsheets and PowerPoint programs, or use digital cameras to input the details of suspected insurgents. But no Iraq-wide software architecture exists.

Operating around the town of Khalidiya, north of Baghdad, Maj. West has been the leader of a team of nine U.S. soldiers advising an Iraqi brigade. This has been his second tour of duty in Iraq. When not fighting the Iraq war, he's an energy trader for Goldman Sachs in New York City.

It had become clear to him last fall that the Iraqi soldiers were becoming the area's cops. And that they needed modern police surveillance tools. To help the Iraqi army in Khalidiya do its job right, Maj. West needed that technology yesterday: He was scheduled to rotate back stateside in February--this month.

Since arriving in Iraq last year, Maj. West had worked with Spirit of America (SoA), the civilian troop-support group founded by Jim Hake. In early December, SoA's project director, Michele Redmond, asked Maj. West if there was any out-of-the-ordinary project they could help him with. And Maj. West said, Why yes, there is. He described to them the basic concept for a mobile, handheld fingerprinting device which Iraqi soldiers would use to assemble an insurgent database. Mr. Hake said his organization would contribute $30,000 to build a prototype and get it to Khalidiya. In New York, Goldman Sachs contributed $14,000 to the project.

Two problems. They needed to find someone who could assemble the device, and the unit had to be in Khalidiya by Jan. 15 to give Maj. West time to field-test it before he left in February.
----
To build the device, they approached a small California company, Computer Deductions Inc., Its basic platform would be a handheld fingerprint workstation called the MV 100, made by Cross Match Technologies, a maker of biometric identity applications. The data collected by the MV 100 would be stored via Bluetooth in a hardened laptop made by GETAC, a California manufacturer. From Knowledge Computing Corp. of Arizona they used the COPLINK program, which creates a linked "map" of events. The laptop would sit in the troops' Humvee and the data sent from there to a laptop at outpost headquarters.

Regardless of whether a weapon system is wired or wireless, the biggest challenge facing any Military market is obtaining proper connection between weapons systems. Since reliability is a major factor under the toughest environment, only a rugged notebook such as the A790 can meet the challenge. The A790 can be modified to be equipped with special interface cards in its expansion bay allowing it to receive and transmit data between systems. Image Credit: GETAC, Inc.

Meanwhile, SoA began to think about how they'd get the package to Maj. West by Jan. 15. They likely would have less than seven days transit time after CDI finished.
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This meant finding someone who could get into Iraq quickly.

The someone was Bill Roggio. Mr. Roggio is a former army signalman and infantryman who now embeds with the troops and writes about it on his blog, the Fourth Rail, or for the SoA Web site. He was at home in New Jersey, about to celebrate his birthday with his family. He agreed to fly the MV 100 to Iraq as soon as it was ready, in conjunction with an embed trip. With SoA's Michele Redmond, he started working out the logistics for getting to Iraq ASAP.
----
And so, a month from inception, Bill Roggio handed the electronic identification kit to Maj. West.

Fingerprinting and photographing the bad guys. Database development and identification in the field. Image Credit: U.S. Marines, The Iraqi Army via Opinion Journal

On the night of Jan. 20, Maj. West, his Marine squad and the "jundi" (Iraq army soldiers) took the MV 100 and laptop on patrol. Their term of endearment for the insurgents is "snakes." So of course the MV 100 became the Snake Eater. The next day Maj. West emailed the U.S. team digital photos of Iraqi soldiers fingerprinting suspects with the Snake Eater. "It's one night old and the town is abuzz," he said. "I think we have a chance to tip this city over now." A rumor quickly spread that the Iraqi army was implanting GPS chips in insurgents' thumbs.

Over the past 10 days, Maj. West has had chance encounters with two Marine superiors--Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, who commands the 30,000 joint forces in Anbar, and Brig. Gen. Robert Neller, deputy commanding general of operations in Iraq. He showed them the mobile ID database device.

I asked Gen. Neller by email on Tuesday what the status of these technologies is now. He replied that they're receiving advanced biometric equipment, "like the device being employed by Maj. West." He said "in the near future" they will begin to network such devices to share databases more broadly: "Bottom line: The requirement for networking our biometric capability is a priority of this organization."

As he departs, Maj. West reflected on winning at street level: "We're fixated on the enemy, but the enemy is fixated on the people. They know which families are apostates, which houses are safe for the night, which boys are vulnerable to corruption or kidnapping. The enemy's population collection effort far outstrips ours.

The Snake Eater will change that, and fast." You have to believe he's got this right. It will only happen, though, if someone above his pay grade blows away the killing habits of peacetime procurement.
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Glenn Reynolds has a book titled "An Army Of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower the Little Guy to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths" where it outlines the strength and power of independent effort, the new media, and how, in today's technological world, things get done.

This story and its success illustrates the power of an army of davids!

Survivor Fiji - The Real World Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

Fijian military commander Frank Bainimarama warned that his troops would not tolerate dissent against his regime. Image Credit: AP

Survivor Fiji - The Real World Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

Back in early December 2006, the military commander of Fiji decided that the legally elected Government of Fiji wasn’t handling affaires to his liking – so, he ordered the military to take over the Government and oust the Prime Minister.

Since this event, Fiji’s economy has plummeted, the country has been suspended from its participation in networking trade organizations, and the coup has been roundly rejected by the United Nations and Fiji’s neighbors.

The Commander, Frank Bainimarama, finds himself in a real life “Survivor Fiji” as he navigates his effort to run the country as he sees fit.

"He (Bainimarama) doesn't have the support of the government, of the president, of the police, of the churches, of the chiefs, of the people of Fiji," Mr Andrew Hughes, former Fijian police commissioner told ABC television (in a December 5th interview) . "And I can foresee a popular uprising.”

His prediction was that Fiji’s fourth coup in 20 years would collapse under a popular uprising and divisions within military ranks.

On the eve of the popular reality TV series “Survivor” (which has its premiere tonight on CBS, 8pm et/pt), this latest edition from Fiji may pale in comparison to the real life survivor saga - the coup in Fiji.

And now this from from Radio New Zealand -

Fiji coup leader told to heed other dictators' fate
Radio New Zealand - Posted at 2:16pm on 08 Feb 2007

A Fiji democracy activist who is in hiding says President Ratu Josefa Iloilo and the interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, should not believe that they are immune from prosecution.

A ceremonial guard is backed by an armed Fijian soldier at the entrance to Government House in Suva Sunday, Dec. 3, 2006. The military commander Frank Bainimarama and Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase have been locked in a power struggle that appears to be heading towards a military coup. Image Credit: AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

Laisa Digitaki has told the Fijilive news website that continuing human rights violations could very well become the main cause of the interim regime's downfall if they are not careful.

She made the statement in response to a letter by Human Rights Watch to President Iloilo and Commodore Bainimarama raising concerns about alleged human rights violations in Fiji.

Ms Digitaki says Human Rights Watch was behind the successful prosecution of the former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, for crimes against humanity committed on his own people.

She says the two Fiji leaders should remember that the precedent has been set.

Ms Digitaki says she is currently in hiding from the military which claims she has made statements inciting people against the interim administration.
Reference Here>>

Additional Fiji Coup Photos>>