MaxedOutMama

Emirates, the biggest Arab airline, delayed a $4.2 billion Airbus order for 20 planes to give the European aircraft maker time to develop a better version of the jet, which is losing sales to Boeing's 777.

"They're delaying the planes for a few years," John Leahy, Airbus chief commercial officer, said in an interview Thursday at company headquarters in Toulouse, France.

Emirates President Tim Clark "deferred the order until the manufacturer comes back with clearer plans about an enhanced version of the plane," said an Emirates spokeswoman, who declined to be identified.

Her lawyer, James W. Myart Jr., said, "Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, like thousands of average Americans across this country, is, too, a victim of the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials because of how she looks and the color of her skin."

"Ms. McKinney is just a victim of being in Congress while black," Myart said. "Congresswoman McKinney will be exonerated."
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Members of Congress wear identifying lapel pins and routinely are waved into buildings without undergoing security checks. McKinney was not wearing her pin at the time, and the officer apparently did not recognize her, she has said.

"Congresswoman McKinney, in a hurry, was essentially chased and grabbed by the officer," Myart said. "She reacted instinctively in an effort to defend herself."

Several Capitol Police officials have said the officer involved asked McKinney three times to stop. When she did not, he placed a hand on her and she hit him, they said.

Asked on-camera Thursday by WSB-TV of Atlanta whether she intended to apologize, McKinney declined to comment. A news conference scheduled for Friday morning was canceled. She had issued a statement late Wednesday saying she regretted the confrontation.

"I know that Capitol Hill Police are securing our safety, and I appreciate the work that they do. I have demonstrated my support for them in the past and I continue to support them now," she said in the statement on her Web site.

We will work to ensure that these expanded super soldier teams look like America, with plenty of elite security opportunities for all -- regardless of race, gender, age, or GLBT orientation. And, in keeping with the Americans with Disabilities Act, all Special Forces training facilities under our plan will have accessibility ramps by 2008. We have already begun to recruit candidates from the ranks of TSA's elite airport security teams!

Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported that a Baku laboratory had confirmed the presence of the H5 strain of bird flu in the girl. Her blood sample has now been sent to a WTO laboratory in Britain for further verification.

Velibeyov said the girl, of the Salyan region in southwestern Azerbaijan, was from a family which had lost three members to the H5N1 virus.

McGreevey friend, state Sen. Ray Lesniak, tells the newspaper the book will also feature New Jersey politics and there are some people who don't come across well.

McGreevey announced in 2004 that he would resign because he had a gay affair.

Your reporter, an up-and-coming “gotcha” star named Laurel J. Sweet, asked me (o-so-sweetly) what I said to those people who objected to my taking part in such public religious ceremonies as the Red Mass I had just attended. I responded, jocularly, with a gesture that consisted of fanning the fingers of my right hand under my chin. Seeing that she did not understand, I said “That’s Sicilian,” and explained its meaning - which was that I could not care less.

No serious student of entitlements thinks that we can let federal spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid rise from its current 9% of gross domestic product to the 28% of GDP that it will consume in 2050 if past growth rates continue. The problems facing transfer programs for the poor are less dramatic but, in the long term, no less daunting; the falling value of a strong back and the rising value of brains will eventually create a class society making a mockery of America's ideals unless we come up with something more creative than anything that the current welfare system has to offer.
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We can scrap the structure of the welfare state.

Instead of sending taxes to Washington, straining them through bureaucracies and converting what remains into a muddle of services, subsidies, in-kind support and cash hedged with restrictions and exceptions, just collect the taxes, divide them up, and send the money back in cash grants to all American adults. Make the grant large enough so that the poor won't be poor, everyone will have enough for a comfortable retirement, and everyone will be able to afford health care. We're rich enough to do it.

Consider retirement. Let's say that we have a 21-year-old man before us who, for whatever reasons, will be unable to accumulate his own retirement fund. We accumulate it for him through a yearly contribution for 45 years until he retires at age 66. We can afford to contribute $2,000 a year and invest it in an index-based stock fund. What is the least he can expect to have when he retires? We are ridiculously conservative, so we first identify the worst compound average growth rate, using constant dollars, for any 45-year period in the history of the stock market (4.3% from 1887-1932). We then assume our 21-year-old will be the unluckiest investor in American history and get just a 4.0% average return. At the end of the 45-year period, he will have about $253,000, with which he could purchase an annuity worth about $20,500 a year.

If Islam is a religion one can only convert to not from, then in the long run it is a threat to every free person on the planet.

1964:
Defense: 46.0%;
Social Security: 14.0%;
Medicare & Medicaid: 0%;
Net interest: 7.0%;
All other spending: 33.0%.

1984:
Defense: 27.0%;
Social Security: 21.0%;
Medicare & Medicaid: 9.0%;
Net interest: 13.0%;
All other spending: 30.0%.

2004:
Defense: 20.0%;
Social Security: 22.0%;
Medicare & Medicaid: 19.0%;
Net interest: 7.0%;
All other spending: 32.0%.

As to Bible reading on public transportation, I can tell you as a Buddhist that I do the Buddhist equivalent quite openly. I occasionally notice some hostility to this, but I know perfectly well that this is not my problem. Nor do I think it "persecution".

Nor are you likely to convince me that the Democratic Underground is anything but a "fringe organization", though it is one that my good friends tend to fixate on a lot, to the detriment of perceiving the far greater variety of opinion among their political opponents that actually exists.

This is the sort of well-intentioned, but deeply illiberal thinking that brought us campus speech codes in the late 1980s, when a student on this campus faced a disciplinary hearing for saying he considered homosexuality a curable disease. It's the same attitude that led Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences to depose Lawrence Summers after he hypothesized - at an academic conference, of all places - that genetic differences could account for gender inequality in certain fields. The mentality that an important truth can be unquestionable, and that those who think otherwise should be punished.

It's also strikingly similar to the reasoning that has recently led Muslim extremists to riot, burn and kill in response to an act of blasphemy.

One of the pillars of liberal society is that people are free to openly believe in or criticize any religion without fear of reprisal.

The good times have already ended here, in the same way slamming into a wall reduces your speed. A house will fetch 20% less today than it did last summer, brokers say, assuming it finds a buyer at all.
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At the sales office of Shadow Creek, whose prices range up to $523,000, signs on the front door and walls proclaimed: "Ask us how to save $40,000 off a new home!!!"

"If you want to ask for more, just do it," the saleswoman advised. She said a $60,000 break would probably be fine.

Over at Summer Creek, the saleswoman offered a $75,000 discount, subject to a few restrictions, like using a preferred lender. There was also a $3,000 referral fee available — talk a friend into buying there, and the money's yours.
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This is a very good time to be a renter in Merced. A new $450,000 house, owned by an investor waiting to flip it — or sell for a quick profit — can be had for less than $1,000 a month. That's a silver lining for locals who missed out on the boom.
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Fewer than 3% of Merced families can afford a house, according to the National Assn. of Home Builders' latest survey.

More than 25,000 evangelical Christian youth landed Friday in San Francisco for a two-day rally at AT&T Park against "the virtue terrorism" of popular culture, and they were greeted by an official city condemnation and a clutch of protesters who said their event amounted to a "fascist mega-pep rally."

...Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who told counterprotesters at City Hall on Friday that while such fundamentalists may be small in number, "they're loud, they're obnoxious, they're disgusting, and they should get out of San Francisco."
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"There is a real intolerancy to homosexuality in a lot of these organizations," said Peter Cobb, an organizer with Not In Our Name.

Earlier this week, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution condemning the "act of provocation" by what it termed an "anti-gay," "anti-choice" organization that aimed to "negatively influence the politics of America's most tolerant and progressive city."

The authoritarian and totalitarian leaders of the Muslim world, in their evil cynicism, have created conditions in the Muslim world in which their mirror images, vicious Islamist Imams and terrorists, have thrived. The only reason countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan offer any help to us in the war on Islamic fascism is that the Jihadists made the mistake of biting the hands that feed them. The world of Islam has shown itself to be extremely reluctant to confront the bullies who control their public face; this is understandable to some degree, but the danger to them is increasing daily.

Americans tend to be extremely tolerant people. After 9/11, despite the propaganda from groups like CAIR, there were very few real acts of bigotry directed against Muslims in this country. The assumption Americans make is that others share certain basic values. We all agree to meet each other with open hands.
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A series of events have been created and/or high-jacked by the worst in Islam, and the question now is whether or not this is the majority of Islam. Starting with the Iraqi insurgency that seemed to relish inhuman and inhumane behavior, many began to wonder if Iraq, and indeed if the entire Muslim world, was beyond Modernity. The Paris car-burning, the cartoon riots, the torture murder of a French Jew, Ilan Halimi, by Islamic barbarians, the destruction of the Golden Mosque; all these events have pushed more and more Americans to a tipping point.

Tipping points in complex, dynamically stable, but chaotic systems can never be predicted with a high degree of accuracy, but we are moving closer and closer to the tipping point, the point at which the zeitgeist will crystallize around the idea that the Muslim world is irredeemable.

My friend is a proud Arab and Muslim- and has lived a life that can only be described as decent, honorable and upright. I would, at a moments notice, trust my friend with my child's life.

What passes for current Arab and Islamic culture has tainted and tarred my friend with a stain that cannot be gotten rid of in this generation- and I am outraged by that truth. In fact, my colleague notes that as long as political and religious leaders keep focusing on the past, nothing will change.

My friend's dreams do not include a new Caliphate. He dreams of new schools and job creation. There are dreams of universities and democracies, debates and free expression for all. The promised water is an illusion, another desert mirage. The region and people are so thirsty for the waters that will never come.

One of the more interesting emails was from a reader who took exception to the gist of our remarks, and noted that only through extended and sensitive dialogue can the west come to terms with Islam. We "need to understand the needs of the Islamic community," our correspondent said.

That is absurd. The 'needs' of the Islamic community must fulfilled from within. It is not up to western society to accommodate Islam. In fact, it is Islam that must learn to accommodate the realities of an ever progressive and modern western society. If there are elements of western society that make some Muslims uncomfortable, those Muslims can choose no to participate in those elements or activities. Hasidic Jews, the Amish, Hindus and Buddhists have managed to integrate into western societies and cultures while maintaining their identity. Why should Muslms be afforded special status?

I believe that there are many in the West capable of recognizing beauty — and they have recognized the beauty that Islam was in the hands of Rumi, and also have recognized the potential of that beauty in Islam today, in Muslims today. This is another way of saying that I believe there are many in the West who are driven by the humanity of the Muslim, who faces daily in Iraq, in Punjab, in subversive mosques in Europe, the inhumanity of a utilitarian death theology.

Yes, I know that there was a time when the West went to ‘civilize’ and ended up conquering; when it went to ‘keep the dominoes upright’ and ended up slaughtering; when it went to ‘trade’ and ended up colonizing; when it went to ‘liberate’ and left civil war behind. Yet, in spite of this I believe that there are Westerners who are impelled solely by the humanity of the Muslim, because when the West conquered there were Westerners who spoke against it; when the West went to Vietnam there were Westerners who spoke against it; when the West colonized there were Westerners who were anti-colonial. Even still, all Westerners cannot be held accountable for the sins of their leaders. Muslims can, and do, ask that others forgive what Muslim leaders do in the name of God. Why cannot the West be forgiven for how its leaders have manipulated humanism? I forgive.

The “clash of civilizations” is real. I think there is something to be said for viewing the vast majority of Muslims sympathetically, although I don’t know if I would concede that they are “slaves” so much as simply disenfranchised and bereft of opportunity. In too many cases they are kept out of the 21st century marketplace of both ideas and goods, which leaves their culture somewhat stagnated and economically impovished - precisely the problem which visionary President Bush is trying to remedy in order to bridge the growing chasm between Islam and the West, which some will not understand, no matter how many times you (or in this case, Neo-neocon) explain(s) it to them.

America is looking at the gap squarely and expending political capital and human life and human energy to try to make what is apparently an unstoppable trend into something with which both Islam and the West can live. A very tall order. We don’t even know if it is do-able. But no one else is willing to even try…not complacent Europe, not status quo, conciliatory Democrats, and try we must! Those of us who support the vision are doing so based almost wholly on the belief that all human beings desire liberty. I believe they do.

Parents in the Deer Lakes School District say ninth grade students who helped with a nursery school program made inappropriate figures with their play-doh.

Parents say some ninth graders assisting their children formed male body parts with the dough.
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There are also other allegations that the teenagers were not treating the toddlers nicely.

...the advocates propose that states with sufficient electoral votes -- 270 of the 538 -- to constitute an electoral majority enter into an interstate compact, pledging to give their votes to the candidate receiving the largest number of popular votes. That action could allow the legislatures of as few as 11 states to change the whole system of electing a president.
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It is no accident that the Founders chose to elect the president by counting votes in the states, since they wanted to emphasize that this is a federal republic with sovereignty shared between the states and Washington. Past efforts to abolish the electoral college have foundered on the objections of small states, which worry that they would be ignored in the pursuit of giant voting blocs in big population centers. Have their claims no merit?

CA: 55, D
FL: 27, R-ish
IL: 21, R
NY: 31, D
OH: 20, R-ish
PA: 21, D
TX: 34, R
______
209, 7 states

GA: 15, R
MI: 17, D
NJ: 15, D
NC: 15, R-ish
_______
62, 4 states = 271

16. GROSS!!! They are supposed to be Christians?!?
How come they didn't OFFER HIM FOOD or at least try to save his soul?

They had a perfect opportunity to proselytize while helping someone, yet they CHOSE PREMEDITATED VIOLENCE!!!
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67. Last time I checked assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping...
Are much more serious crimes than B & E.
I hope they are charged accordingly.
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27. Looks like Abu Ghraib.
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50. Even disregarding race, cameras would have worked as well as a good old Xtian beating. They didn't have to do it. They wanted to beat someone with bats.

IMO, the church has been stealing from the ignorant masses since the first Pope. A burglary here doesn't bother me any more than if he broke into RNC Headquarters. Whatever he would have taken had he succeeded was garnered by fraud in the first place.
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33. The dangers of vigilante justice far outweigh any simple application of punishment administered by the members. That sets a precedent that has far reaching disastrous repercussions. If you don't understand, I'm sorry. I'm not going to write a dissertation on the subject for your enlightenment.
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120. Good post. Further, had the burglars been armed, a massacre could have occurred, all for the price of a few objects and perhaps a sense of pride.

I have read all the posts in this thread. It alarms me to read the amount of anger that seems to be driving the posts. A lot of people are just looking for excuses to be brutal and a lot of people are living on constant fear that something is going to be taken from them.

Something has been taken from all of them. The Government of the U.S. has be captured by a band of thugs known as the Republican Party. Their right to vote in an honest election,to communicate without eavesdropping, to work at fair wages,to afford trans portion on other necessities and many more things have most definitely been "taken from them" by people infinitely more dangerous than the church burglars. I'd like to see their sense of territorial rights focused on the Bush administration with the same passion.

8. I don't see the problem.
If no one else is going to deal with the problem you have to do it yourself. No one told that guy to break into the church. He was trespassing and is lucky they didn't just shoot him. I'm guessing no charges will be filed against them.
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135. The church people could have installed a burglar alarm after the previous burglaries, or perhaps beefed up the window situation.
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91. Fine, then lets just eliminate our right to protect our home, family and property. I'm sorry but what you're saying is total BS. Next time someone breaks into my home, I'll be sure to hand him all of my goods, feed him dinner and then thank him fully for his fucking visit.

Don't fucking think so. Anyone breaking into my house is going to get shot at. It's my right to protect my family and property. The same as those people had the right to protect their church.
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110. you say "otherwise it would be better, in my opinion"
obviously your opinion is not the law.
and, as so frequently, the "law" doesn't do squat, except release the offender for yet more criminal acts.

we are going to go through a transition in this country with regards to "criminals getting away with just about everything". we, as citizens, have some responsibility in letting it get this far.

when the initial act results in immediate justice, the number of initial acts will decrease.
there will be people hurt in this transition period, both criminals, AND those who are defending their own.

we can let an overloaded court system continue to fail, or we can let lawyers continue to get criminals released on technicalities. or, we ourselves, can do something about it.
as i said, some people will be hurt in the process, but in the end, fewer will be in danger.
too bad it is has sunk to this.

The Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume was 565.0 – a decrease of 1.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 574.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 1.6 percent compared with the previous week but was down 13.8 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.

The seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index decreased by 2.3 percent to 393.6 from 403.0 the previous week whereas the Refinance Index decreased by 0.6 percent to 1574.5 from 1583.6 one week earlier.

By sector of the country, sales fell by the largest amount last month in the West, a drop of 29.4 percent. Sales were also down in the South, dropping 6.4 percent. Sales rose in the Northeast by 12.7 percent, and sales in the Midwest were up by 5.2 percent.

The slowdown in sales pushed the inventory of unsold homes up to a record of 548,000 at the end of February. At the February sales pace it would take 6.3 months to sell all of the homes on the market, up from 5.3 months in January.

Martin Baumann, the respected chief financial officer of Freddie Mac (FRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), has resigned less than three years after taking the job at the second-largest U.S. mortgage funding company, which is still recovering from an accounting scandal.
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"The timing of the departure is unusual, as is the fact that no successor is named and the search is just getting under way," said Ed Groshans, an analyst with Fox-Pitt, Kelton.

On March 10 Freddie Mac said it would delay until May the release of its quarterly and full-year financial results in order to implement an accounting change. It said it would hold a conference call with investors on March 30 to discuss this.

Fifty-three metropolitan areas representing 31% of the total U.S. housing market are considered extremely overvalued and confront a high risk of future price corrections, a study conducted by National City Corp. says. The study determines a market extremely overvalued if prices are 30% above where the study estimates they should be based on historic price data, area income, mortgage rates and population density.