A group of Methodists is stepping up efforts to force a church vote in July on whether Southern Methodist University has the right to lease out land for the George W. Bush Presidential Library and policy institute….
Rev. Andrew Weaver, an SMU alumnus who is spearheading a fight against the land deal from New York, said he hopes to force a vote at a regional meeting in Dallas in July and persuade delegates not to ratify the mission council action.
Professors at Southern Methodist University who are worried about plans to create a George W. Bush policy institute there have said that they don’t want a partisan center to hurt the institution’s academic reputation.
Faculty critics say that although many of them disagree with President Bush’s policies, they would not object to a library-oriented archive and museum — and they say that in discussions with professors, the university has discussed a vision for such a Bush center. But creating an academic center with a specific goal of boosting the Bush image and agenda strikes many professors as antithetical to a university’s academic values.
"With 4G and WiMax services on the horizon, a new digital wireless era is approaching--but the era of another form of cordless communications is soon to come to a close: namely, analog cellular phone service, which will cease nationally on February 18.
Who cares? Very few, carriers say. But owners of older cell phones, people who are in areas not well served by digital, and owners of home alarm systems should all care.
The shutdown--approved by the Federal Communications Commission--is called the 'analog sunset' because those so-called AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) networks, which were first deployed in the 1980s and brought cellular service to millions of Americans, will finally disappear."
"The difficulties faced by Opec members as a result of the falling US dollar remain a deep concern to the oil cartel. Despite a barrel of crude topping $100 in early January, the 13-member body has lost tens of billions of dollars in potential earnings since the turn of the century, as the greenback has fallen against other currencies.
In 2007, and despite record oil revenues, Opec producers are thought to have earned 10 per cent less than they would have if they had priced their oil in euros. The issue has often been raised on an informal basis by Iran and Venezuela, but Saudi Arabia has steered moderate GCC countries away from the issue, in recognition of its political sensitivity.
Yet the reality of lost revenues is becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Opec secretary general Abdalla el-Badri now recognises that a shift to the euro is becoming an increasingly viable proposition as the currency becomes more established.
A complete switch to the euro, however, would be a short-sighted move. Virtually all oil traded in the international markets is priced in dollars. And while that should not dictate future strategy on its own, nor should the dollar be ditched entirely.
The dollar may continue to fall, but in the future the same depreciation could easily hit the euro, yen or, indeed, any currency.
Pricing oil with a properly weighted basket of currencies may be the best solution.
Finding a consensus among Opec members on the balance of currencies in such a basket would test El-Badri's diplomatic skills. But it would provide a more stable long-term system than the current one.
Opec is not in a rush to make a decision affecting trillions of dollars of its members' revenues. But it is increasingly likely it will make the decision at some point."
"A nonprofit group accused of using aggressive telephone 'push-polling' to attack opponents of GOP hopeful Mike Huckabee shares major donors with Huckabee's official presidential campaign, according to government records.
Common Sense Issues is a tax-exempt group registered in Delaware whose organizers have acknowledged the use of controversial telephone polling tactics to promote Huckabee's presidential bid—and allegedly to trash the campaigns of the former Arkansas governor's rivals. The nonprofit also helped set up and run Trusthuckabee.com, a Web site that was involved in front-line efforts to recruit and mobilize Huckabee supporters to turn out for the Iowa caucuses.
Rival candidates have criticized Common Sense Issues's tactics, questioning whether the group's ties to the Huckabee campaign are really arms-length—as required by federal law. The Huckabee campaign has distanced itself from Common Sense Issues, renouncing its support and joining his rivals in calling for investigations into the nonprofit's activities."
"When two U.S. Army enlisted men were captured by the Viet Cong in 1963, they were plunged into an ordeal that would prove to be a relentless trial of body and spirit by torture. Once they were finally freed, however, their trials began all over again, when their statements critical of the U. S. Vietnam policy landed them in a military court facing a capital offense for violating the military Code of Conduct by 'aiding the enemy.'
But, if your name is John McCain and your father and grandfather were famous admirals, violating the Code of Conduct by 'aiding the enemy' translates into fodder for a political career, book deals, and adulation bordering on sainthood.
Even though news reports of McCain collaborating with the enemy continued from the time he was captured in 1967 through 1970, the Navy never considered prosecution as an option.
Instead, Pentagon pencil pushers chose a political spin that lifted McCain, the former POW turned U.S. Senator, up to a glorified pedestal where he sprouted a halo and wings and became America's 'POW-hero' and today a presidential candidate."
"it's hard to trust a man who is drunk - not with booze but with his ego. A man ego-drunk past the 3rd stage of drunkenness, and into the 4th.
Perhaps you have heard the joke about the 4 stages of drunkenness. The 1st stage is, 'I'm handsome!' The 2nd stage is, 'I'm rich!' The 3rd stage is, 'I'm bullet-proof!' The 4th and final stage is, 'I'm invisible!'
A 72 year-old geezer still thinks he's a dashing fighter pilot, 'Ace' McCain. That was his Navy nickname, not because he shot down enemy aircraft, but because he was a 'reverse ace,' having destroyed five of his own airplanes.
He's rich because he dumped his crippled wife who raised his kids and waited for him during his years of captivity to have an affair with then marry a hot young blonde with millions from her millionaire father - millions that financed his run for office.
He thinks he's bullet-proof because his career is built upon a pose of being not just a war hero, but more of a war hero than any other war hero. And he is so ego-drunk that he thinks all the skeletons in his closet are invisible."
