THE GRANITE STATER

AP story in the Kanas City Star

KOROLYOV, Russia — A U.S-Russian crew got some belated Christmas turkey and vital supplies Sunday when an unmanned cargo ship docked at the international space station.

The delivery ended a shortage that had alarmed officials at home and forced astronauts to ration supplies.

The Progress M-51 docked at the orbiting station early Sunday morning Moscow time without problems. Workers at Russian Mission Control in Korolyov, just outside Moscow, broke into applause when the hookup, seen on large television screens, was completed.

The spaceship lifted off Friday from the remote Baikonur cosmodrome in the steppes of Kazakhstan and delivered about 2.5 tons of equipment and supplies. They included more than 440 pounds of food for Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao, who are in their third month on the station.

“They can greet the New Year calmly,” said Yuri Semyonov, the chief of the Energiya company, which built the Progress.

The cargo included Christmas and New Year's gifts for the crew from their families and friends, and some turkey for a belated Christmas dinner, space officials said.

An international team was looking into how the station's food inventory ended up being tracked so poorly.

Russian and American space officials were alarmed earlier this month to learn that supplies at the station were running out, and ordered the crew to cut back on meals. Russian Mission Control officials, who asked not to be identified, said the crew had run out of meat and fish but still had other food, such as cereal and biscuits.

NASA said there was enough food to last seven to 14 days beyond Dec. 25, but warned that the crew would have to return to Earth if Progress didn't successfully dock at the station.

“I don't remember ever encountering such a situation in 40 years,” Semyonov told reporters at Mission Control.

Semyonov blamed previous crews for eating the best food and leaving Sharipov and Chiao with staples.

How the hell do people that have to be pretty smart to be chosen for the space program pull such a dumb ass move as eating the food needed for the next crew?

From the Scotsman.com:

By Jamie Lyons, PA Political Correspondent


United States President George Bush was tonight accused of trying to undermine the United Nations by setting up a rival coalition to coordinate relief following the Asian tsunami disaster.

The president has announced that the US, Japan, India and Australia would coordinate the world’s response.

But former International Development Secretary Clare Short said that role should be left to the UN.

“I think this initiative from America to set up four countries claiming to coordinate sounds like yet another attempt to undermine the UN when it is the best system we have got and the one that needs building up,” she said.

“Only really the UN can do that job,” she told BBC Radio Four’s PM programme.

“It is the only body that has the moral authority. But it can only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers.”

Ms Short said the coalition countries did not have good records on responding to international disasters.

She said the US was “very bad at coordinating with anyone” and India had its own problems to deal with.

“I don’t know what that is about but it sounds very much, I am afraid, like the US trying to have a separate operation and not work with the rest of the world through the UN system,” she added

Well I certainly am glad that Bush is by passing the UN. What moral authority does the UN have when they can't account for $21 Billion from the oil for food program and the recent rape scandal?

How many Muslims were saved in the former Yugoslavia because the US by passed the UN? I have no doubt the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster are better served by Bush’s by passing the UN.

So does the Diplomad:

Ironically the UN effort is best summed up by the "outspoken" Mr. Egeland, who in an unguarded moment in New York revealed the truth: "We are doing very little at the moment."

Meanwhile, Americans are funding local Red Cross/Red Crescent organizations, organizing truck convoys to break up the supply bottlenecks at airports and seaports, loading barges with rice and biscuits, flying in a steady stream of C-130s, and steaming in aircraft carrier battlegroups (diverted from other tasks vital to our national security) laden with mobile hospitals, supplies of every imaginable type and critically needed helicopters. Local AmCham chapters are putting together huge donation drives and "greedy' American multinationals are donating expensive heavy earth moving equipment, generators, and fuel to help Asia's victims -- China has done nothing, by the way.

Read the rest here. and a related post here.


See some of what the U.S. can do and is doing here.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

For a fifth day yesterday, US Airways travelers searched and waited angrily for their luggage, and many vowed never to fly the airline again, a sentiment that analysts said could doom the carrier.

"I will never fly US Air again, if I can find an alternative," said Jay Baffa of Bryn Mawr, who found his bag torn last week and went back to complain yesterday. "I wish they would go bankrupt. They'd do us all a favor."

The airline's survival hinges on continued passenger confidence, analysts said, and stranding passengers and their luggage for days - as US Airways did over the Christmas holiday weekend as hundreds of workers called in sick - doesn't help.

"It could be the straw that breaks the camel's back," said Vaughn Cordle, chief analyst at AirlineForecasts L.L.C., an independent research firm in Virginia.

As many as 240 baggage handlers and ground crew - up to one-third of the daily staffing level - called in sick at one point during the Christmas travel rush, said a source at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, speaking on condition that he not be identified.

He called their actions uncoordinated, individual expressions of anger, not an intentional job protest.

"They knew it would cause a huge problem, but they just don't care anymore. They've been beaten down so much," he said. He said many workers, including those who showed up, were angry at being ordered to work extended shifts over the holidays at the lower levels of pay and benefits imposed by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

A spokesman for the union, based in Washington, did not return calls requesting comment.

Read the rest here.

These employees may have put the final nail in the coffin of US Air. They may be putting themselves out of jobs. How is that for cutting your nose to spite your face?

From the Manchester Union Leader:

HAMPTON NH - A student dressed as Santa Claus was told to remove the suit and white beard when he arrived at a Hampton Academy Junior High School dance last Friday.

Superintendent of Schools James Gaylord yesterday said, "This was not appropriate dress for this dance."

Nancy Serpis, chairman of the Hampton School Board, echoed Gaylord, insisting the dance was a "holiday" event and that dressing as Santa Claus was "inappropriate."

The student, Bryan Lafond, attended the dance with a friend, who wore an elf's hat. It is unclear if the friend was asked to remove the hat.

Lafond's parents, Michael and Leslie, declined to be interviewed yesterday.

Principal Fred Muscara, who declined to be interviewed for this story, is quoted telling a Hampton newspaper: "It was a holiday party. It was not a Christmas party. There is a separation of church and state. We have a lot of students that go to Hampton Academy Junior High that have different religions. We have to be sensitive to that."

Read the rest here. Also covered here.

When people talk about the 'separation of church and state' they are referring to the first amendment to the US Constitution.

THE FIRST AMENDMENT

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I don't see what this kid wearing a Santa costume to a school party has to do with the separation of church and state. The Principal is concerned about students of other religions being offended by a student wearing a Santa costume. I'd be shocked to hear that anyone would have been offended. I'm Jewish and it doesn't offend me. Even if some one was offended there is no constitutional right against being offended. This is political correctness run amuck.

I wonder if this Principal stops the students from wearing Red Sox Championship shirts to school out of fear of offending Yankee fans.

Rainforest Action Network sponsored a protest using 2nd graders from a public school to protest JP Morgan Chase. This was all masqueraded as a field trip paid for with tax dollars.

This is there press release:


NEWS RELEASE: Students Teach Mega-bank To Keep Its Promises
- Local area 2nd graders visit world's 2nd largest bank to deliver handmade posters from children around the world.

- Poster contest winner recognized with color full-page ad in The New York Sun.


For Immediate Release: December 16, 2004
NEW YORK - At 2:00 p.m. today, local area elementary school students will hand deliver over 700 colorful handmade posters from children around the world asking William B. Harrison, chief executive officer of JP Morgan Chase, to keep his promise and stop lending money to projects that destroy endangered forests and cause global warming. The second graders, from Fairfield, Connecticut, Mr. Harrison's current home, will represent children from North American to Southeast Asia who participated in a poster contest calling on the world's second largest bank to keep its commitment and live up to environmental standards set by Citigroup and Bank of America earlier this year.


Read the rest here.

Watch the FNN coverage here

This teacher is using her class room to indoctrinate her children with a left wing agenda. Using 6 and 7 year olds as a tool to push any political agenda is beyond the pale. I wonder if the parents or the school board of these children knew what this field trip was all about.


Update:

Sorry for the bad FNN link. I'm not sure why it doesn't work. Try going here

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,112935,00.html

and look for the link tittled: 'Kiddie Protest' On the right about half way down

Update:

Related stories:
here and here

Update: 12/23/04

CNSNews.com) - The deputy school superintendent in Fairfield, Conn., said the school system did not sanction a recent "save the rainforests" excursion by second-grade students. He also said media coverage of the event resulted from a "misunderstanding."

"The teacher took a personal day; the kids were marked absent from school. ... It was not a school field trip at all," Boyle said.

"We do not use kids for any political protests or activism; we just don't do that with kids. We are in the business of educating kids, not using them," he explained.

Read the rest here.

From the Concord Monitor:

BRISTOL - The boys varsity basketball coach has resigned because he said school officials didn't back him on an academic policy that could have forced some players off the team.

Dan Douville, who coached the Newfound Regional High School Bears for six years, said he created a policy that would have banned students from playing if they were failing two classes, either on report cards or progress reports. But when mid-term grades came out on Friday, the school decided to let kids with two Fs play anyway, he said.

"We've been having issues for a couple of years relative to kids having academic problems," Douville said yesterday. "I don't feel right as a coach with a kid in a gym at from 6 to 9 at night if they need to be doing their homework."

When contacted yesterday, parents of some players in Newfound said they felt the school was more interested in sports performance than academics.

Read the rest here.

Good for you Dan Douville. I wonder if the school will feel a backlash.

New Hampshire filmmaker Ken Burns has a new documentary titled: Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.
It will premiere Jan. 17 and concludes Jan. 18 on PBS.

From the Concord Monitor:

"In the end, it's a story about freedom," said Burns, in a phone interview from his Walpole office. "It's about a man who refused to live like anything less than the free man he was."

Johnson boxed at the turn of the 20th century, winning his champion title in 1910. It was a time when lynching was more widespread than ever before and when most white boxers refused to get in the ring with black opponents.

"He didn't do anything that a white (champion) wouldn't have done," Burns said. "But he was black, which made everything he did unforgivable."

Johnson was the best, Burns said, and not just in his time. In boxing circles, there are some who say Johnson could defeat any of the fighters who have come after him, including Muhammad Ali, he said.

Read it all here.

Johnson's story is an interesting one and Ken Burns is tops in his field. It should be a good documentary.

This tribute by The Diplomad is worth reading.

One of people posting comments on her blog posted this George Orwell quote:

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

From the Manchester Union Leader:

It's been 40 days since the general election, and so far there's no evidence that folks voted here who shouldn't have.

But some say a New Hampshire law that allows people to register to vote even if they can't prove they are American citizens or even live in a particular community makes our election system too vulnerable to fraud. And they plan to try to fix things before we vote again.

When you register to vote in New Hampshire, you first have to prove your identity and age with a photo ID. But while you are asked to present proof that you live in a particular place and are a citizen, you can sign an affidavit swearing to that if you don't have the proper documentation.

Read the rest here.

Only 18 states require voters to show identification to vote.

Democrats tend to see requiring identification to vote as a way to disenfranchisement of new voters. Republicans see it as a way to prevent voter fraud. That's how it was divided in New Mexico.

You need ID to buy alcohol or even to take a book out of the library. I don't think it's too much to ask to bring a photo ID to vote.

The Democrats just lost another election with you at the helm. What are your plans now?

Well, he's off to Disney World.

Eight potential candidates for DNC chairman spoke to the Association of State Democratic Chairs and members of the DNC executive committee at Wyndham Palace and Resort at Walt Disney World. A new chairman will be chosen in February.

Who ever they pick I doubt they are likely to get worse results then Terry McAuliffe did.

I came across the article this article via Clayton Cramer via Instapundit.

A column by Tyler Golson, a liberal Democrat teaching English in Damascus, Syria:

Two months into my stay, the issue of pro-Bush Syrians suddenly re-emerged when I began teaching English classes to several dozen students. The students were, almost without exception, from the upper echelons of Damascene society: well educated, financially comfortable, with many hailing from important Syrian families involved in high-level economic and governmental decision-making.

One afternoon I was explaining the passive tense of verbs, and I used an example that came to mind from American culture. I asked them if they knew who was nominated by the two main parties to run for president. "John Kerry was nominated by the Democratic Party, and George Bush was nominated by the Republicans," replied one of the brightest in the class, a veiled Muslim engineering student named Rahaf. "Very good," I said. "Now, who do you think will be elected?" "Bush," cried several of the students at once, smiling. Abandoning my lesson plan for the moment, but curious at this sudden display of interest in the election, I ventured: "Who do you want to win?" "Bush," said Rahaf, while a number of others nodded in solid agreement. I pressed them further for a few minutes, asking individual students why they liked Bush. The same ideas came up again and again: he is a strong leader, an honest man, and, most of all, a believer. Like the winning margin of American voters this year, these Middle Easterners related to Bush's sense of religious conviction and his confident steering of a nation and culture they admired.

"But doesn't he scare you?" I asked finally, unable to contain my personal feelings and throwing the lesson plan out the window. "Because of Bush's ideas many people in my country think that all of you are terrorists." Rahaf and most of the others just shrugged. Maybe that was all true, they said, but he was still a good president.

I found these same sentiments expressed almost word for word in my two other classes.

Read it all here.

Their feelings came as a shock to me. I don't think most Americans think all Syrians are terrorists. But I think that it is safe to say that Tyler Golson doesn't give much credit to most Americans.

Cal Thomas has a column in todays Washington Times on the United Nations:

The United Nations does not serve the interests of the United States or the objectives of democracies. The oil-for-food scandal, in which billions of dollars were misappropriated in Iraq, exposed a corrupt bureaucracy, rotting from the head. In the United Nations, the United States is opposed by dictatorial regimes that are treated as our equals.

What does the United States get for its money? We pay 22 percent of the U.N. budget, but get 100 percent of the grief from nations who hate us and what we stand for.

The U.S. presence in the U.N. gives credence to dictators and prevents accountability by most nations. Consider the worthless resolutions passed by the United Nations to control Saddam Hussein before the United States took them seriously and did what the U.N. was afraid to do: act.

Too many U.N. members hate us because our decisiveness exposes their vacillation. The world would be better off without this body and with an association of democracies in its place. It is unlikely to happen, because false hope is preferred by too many diplomats and politicians over actual results. Still, the slogan "U.S. out of U.N. — Now" never sounded timelier or represented an act more beneficial to the United States.

Read it all here.


I'd like to see the United States cut off funding of the UN if Kofi Anon won't resign.

While on the subject of the United Nations, it's anti-Semitic bias is also worth noting.