COOPER: But there are a lot of gay families out there, Reverend Falwell, there are a lot of gay families out there. I think there are like a million kids being raised by gay parents who say that if you want to protect families, you know, civil unions will give inheritance rights, will give Social Security, survivor benefits rights to...

FALWELL: Anderson, that's all a red herring. If you want to leave something to your cat, you can do that in your will...

COOPER: It's not a red herring. That's simply not true. It's not true. You know we pay taxes.

If you lived in places where landmines continue to regularly kill or maim members of your community, I bet you’d think these plants are really really cool.

“A Danish company, Aresa Biodetection, has developed genetically-modified flowers that change color when their roots come in contact with nitrogen dioxide in the soil. Explosives used in mines produce NO2 as the chemicals gradually decay. The company plans to sow fields of NO2-sniffing Arabidopsis thaliana (Thale or mouse cress) in areas riddled with long-forgotten ordinance from Angola to Cambodia.

The effort’s life- and limb-saving potential is staggering: More than 100 million land mines kill or injure 26,000 people in 45 countries each year. Today’s most popular detection method is poking around with a stick.”

"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations," reads an explanation from CBS, "and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks."

Citing a difference in management philosophy, the Human Rights Campaign’s boards and its president, Cheryl Jacques, announced that she will resign from her position.

The nation's biggest cell phone company provided few details with Tuesday's announcement except to say it would launch the service in a "substantial" number of markets by the end of 2005 and "most" major markets by the end of 2006.

Cingular already offers the new service in six cities where it had been launched by AT&T Wireless before its acquisition by Cingular in late October - Dallas, Detroit, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle - but had yet to move beyond trials itself due to capacity constraints before the merger.

The Atlanta-based company said the wireless technology it is using, known as third-generation or 3G, will offer average data speeds between 400 kilobits per second to 700 kilobits per second - on par with entry-level DSL and cable broadband connections.

Tom Ridge, the nation's first homeland security secretary, announced Tuesday that he is resigning after three years of reworking American security and presiding over color-coded terror alerts. He's the seventh Bush Cabinet officer leaving so far.

Ridge oversaw the most significant government reorganization in 50 years. He'll be remembered for his terror alerts and tutorials about how to prepare for possible attacks, including the controversial "disaster kits" that caused last year's run on duct tape and plastic sheeting.

Try this:

1. Slice.

Cut up your shows into stories and put them all online.

After you air a story, it's fishwrap. Nobody can see it. If they missed it, well, that's tough for them. Is that any way to treat your public? Well, you don't have to anymore.

You should put up every story you do -- and not just as a stream but as files that the people can distribute on their own.

You can still make money on this -- in fact, you'll make new money: Put ads on the video; track those ads; and tack on a Creative Commons license that says people can distribute the video but cannnot muck with it. And you'll find something magical will happen: Your audience will market your product for you and distribute it for you and it won't cost you anything more. It's free money, damnit. Tell that to your stockholders.

A new ranking of Corporate PACs that contributed more than $100,000 to federal candidates indicates that there is a 10 to 1 tilt towards Republicans this election cycle. These figures are for contributions through 10/13/04.

Of the 268 Corporate PACS that gave $100,000 or more to federal candidates, 245 gave more than 50% of their contributions to Republicans and only 23 gave more to Democrats.

Sixteen company PACs gave 90% or more to Republicans. They include the federal PACs of Phillips Int'l. (100%), Cooper Industries (100%), Flowers Industries (100%), Harris Corp. (98%), Illinois Toolworks (97%), Outback Steakhouse (96%), ExxonMobil (96%), National City Corp. (95%), Wendy's Int' l. (93%), Anadarko Petroleum (92%), Timken Corp. (91%), Halliburton (91%), Meadwestvaco Corp (90%), Darden Restaurants Inc. (90%), Branch Banking & Trust Co (90%), and Int'l Paper (90%).

When the FCC fined Fox a record one point two million dollars for the stupid reality show “Married by America” last month, it said that it logged a hundred and fifty nine complaints from Americans who were horrified that the show was so sexually suggestive.

The media dutifully reported on the FCC responding to listener complaints, and the religious right crowed about how Americans won’t stand for smut on their TV machines.

It took one lonely journalist, Jeff Jarvis from buzzmachine.com, to file a freedom of information act request asking to see copies of those hundred and fifty nine complaints.

It turns out there weren’t a hundred and fifty nine after all, there were ninety.

And it turns out that twenty three individuals sent those ninety complaints.

And it turns out that twenty one of those twenty three were just copies of the same form letter put out by the fake outrage factory known as the Parents Television Council.

So, the FCC levied its biggest fine ever, and the right wing got to crow about their power in intimidating the media for THREE LOUSY COMPLAINTS about a stupid reality show. Three people. Three letters. Millions of viewers. One point two million dollars

In the past year, at least 3,000 gay Massachusetts couples have wed, although voters may have a chance next year to change the state constitution to permit civil union benefits to same-sex couples, but not the institution of marriage.

Critics of the November 2003 ruling by the highest court in Massachusetts argue that it violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of a republican form of government in each state. They lost at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

"The international community is watching very carefully," the president said.
"People are paying very close attention to this and, hopefully, it will be
resolved in a way that brings credit and confidence to the Ukrainian
government."

It was about what I expected. We were treated by 20/20's Elizabeth Vargas spending the first half hour of the program describing the emotionally and physically abusive childhoods of McKinney and Henderson, even to the point of showing how McKinney was an Eagle Scout. It was just meth that made him go out of control, beating Matthew with a 357 Magnum until he was a bloody pulp for the $30 in Shepard's wallet. Henderson comes off as practically an altar boy, that "didn't even touch Matthew" aside from tying up the helpless young man to the fence. I guess that doesn't count. And he made no attempt to call for help because he was afraid of McKinney's meth-fueled fury.

FALWELL: Up until this generation with the influence of the American Civil Liberties Union and anti-Christ groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State --

COLMES: Oh "anti," that's not true, Reverend. They're not "anti-Christ."

FALWELL: It is true. I know those guys and the fact is they're so anti-religious, anti-Christian that they have tried to secularize the country.

Jerry Falwell expressed his concerns that the true meaning of Thanksgiving is being distorted by a secular system of education that insists on keeping God out of the discussions of the first Thankgiving. Hannity was quick to agree with Falwells conclusion that God and religion are purposely kept from our children who attend public school.

Would-be czar Vladimir Putin has taken a giant step toward reasserting the regional hegemony of the former Soviet Union by stealing the election in Ukraine right under our noses.

As an unpaid, volunteer adviser to Viktor Yushchenko, the democratic candidate for president, I have seen, firsthand, how Viktor Yanukovich, the Putin candidate backed by a coalition of the Russian Mafia, oil barons, former KGB officials and communists stole the election and thwarted the obvious will of the voters.

While the former Soviet Union was composed of many smaller nations, now independent, the key was the combination of Russia and Ukraine. Russia’s 145 million people and Ukraine’s 45 million are the core of what was the Soviet empire.

Reuniting them has to be the primary goal of any aspiring Russian czar. But the Ukrainian people don’t want Russian domination.

The election contest pitted Yushchenko, who got the virtually solid support of the 60 percent of the population that is Ukrainian by ethnicity, against Yanukovich, who won equally united backing from the 40 percent that is ethnically Russian. The result was obvious: Exit polls (more accurate in Ukraine than when our own TV networks do them) showed Yushchenko winning by more than 10 points. But the final results, announced by the government, which supported Yanukovich, showed a small margin in favor of the Russian-backed candidate.

Putin regarded the contest as so important that he personally visited Ukraine in the weeks before the election to campaign for his candidate, a clear violation of the most elementary standards of independence and protocol. His former KGB henchmen — and once and future communists — combined with Russian organized-crime figures and oil barons to pump money into the race and to intimidate voters on the ground.

In a news briefing at the State Department, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered a sharp rebuke to the Ukrainian authorities who today declared Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner of a run-off election Sunday that Ukrainian protesters and foreign observers said was marred by fraud.

"We cannot accept this result as legitimate, because it does not meet international standards and because there has not been an investigation of the numerous and credible reports of fraud and abuse," Powell said.

Mr. Mathewson began attending the school, outside Joplin, in September. In a statement issued by the civil liberties union, he said: "The school lets other students wear antigay T-shirts, and I understand that they have a right to do that. I just want the same right. I think tolerating each other's differences is a key part in teaching students how to become good citizens."

The International Game Developers Association conducted an industrywide "quality of life" survey this year documenting that "crunch time is omnipresent." The study urged readers to tell "the young kids just starting out" in the industry to reject the hours that lock them into "an untenable situation once they start wanting serious relationships and families."

As our leaders redouble their efforts to maintain the United States of America's status as the land of the free and home of the brave, please remember that some of us — hopefully most of us — really don't give a shit what the rest of you think.

Regardless of what the action film makers in Hollywood would have you believe, it is unlikely that one person fighting two or more assailants is going to come out of the fight without getting hurt. The best you can do is to decrease the number against you and get away as quickly as possible. Remember you are not there to fight, you are fighting to survive.

MONDAY, Nov. 15 (HealthDayNews) -- Adolescents who have two moms as parents are no different from teens growing up with a mother and a father, a new study finds.

On measures of psychosocial well-being, school functioning, and romantic relationships and behaviors, the teens with same-sex parents were as well adjusted as their peers with opposite-sex parents. The authors found very few differences between the two groups. A more important predictor of teens' psychological and social adjustment, they found, is the quality of the relationships they have with their parents.

NEW AL-JEER SUREAF, Sudan -- The Bush administration has called it genocide. Other governments have labeled it ethnic cleansing and the world's worst humanitarian crisis. There have been calls for collective action and promises of relief. There have been somber reminders of the slaughter in tiny Rwanda a decade ago and solemn vows not to let such a thing happen here, in Africa's largest country.

But months later, the displaced inhabitants of Darfur, in western Sudan, find themselves consoled by little more than words. No Western country has been willing to commit troops to a small peacekeeping mission mounted by the African Union, while aid donors have been distracted by the conflict in Iraq, and U.N. sanctions have been frozen by diplomatic disputes.

Other than calling it a "genocide," the Bush administration has done nothing about the problems in Sudan. Freedom is certainly not on the march in the Sudan, but no one seems to care. How long until the terrorists figure out that this is a good place to hang out?

Whoops, look over there! Gay people! Scott Peterson! Survivor! Early Xmas shopping!

The deal allows Wrigley to expand in the candy section, where it has expertise and distribution capabilities, while leaving Kraft [Phillip Morris] to focus on the rest of the food market.

Kraft shares edged slightly lower on the New York Stock Exchange Monday, while Wrigley shares were up 1.07 percent.

For Wrigley, the businesses are seen as a good fit with the company's other brands -- including Juicy Fruit and Big Red gum, which like Altoids and Life Savers, sell at the top of candy racks at grocery checkout counters and in convenience stores.

WASHINGTON -- The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.

"The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."

One of the first casualties appears to be Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of clandestine services, the CIA's most powerful division. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Kappes had tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Goss' chief of staff, Patrick Murray, but at the behest of the White House had agreed to delay his decision till tomorrow.

But the former senior CIA official said that the White House "doesn't want Steve Kappes to reconsider his resignation. That might be the spin they put on it, but they want him out." He said the job had already been offered to the former chief of the European Division who retired after a spat with then-CIA Director George Tenet.

What is new for Scheuer - who resigned from the intelligence agency on Friday - is commenting by name.

Until Friday, and for over two decades at the CIA, he was anonymous - and even wrote a book using the pen name Anonymous: "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror," published this past July.

The book, written with the CIA's blessing, is critical of the Bush administration's counterterrorism policy and was viewed by some at the White House as a thinly veiled attempt by the CIA to undermine the president's reelection.

[...]

"You've written no one should be surprised when Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda detonate a weapon of mass destruction in the United States," says Kroft. "You believe that's going to happen?"

"I don't believe in inevitability. But I think it's pretty close to being inevitable," says Scheuer.

A nuclear weapon? "A nuclear weapon of some dimension, whether it's actually a nuclear weapon, or a dirty bomb, or some kind of radiological device," says Scheuer. "Yes, I think it's probably a near thing."

What evidence is there that bin Laden's actually working to do this? "He's told us it. Bin Laden is remarkably eager for Americans to know why he doesn't like us, what he intends to do about it and then following up and doing something about it in terms of military actions," says Scheuer. "He's told us that, 'We are going to acquire a weapon of mass destruction, and if we acquire it, we will use it.'"

Do Americans of good conscience really believe that we are making the United
States more secure by bombing and killing the people of Fallujah?

President Lookin' Into Souls speaks:

"Well, I'm confident when people realize that there's a chance to vote on a president, they will participate," President Bush said Wednesday when asked whether the participation of Sunni Muslims would be necessary to make the elections free and fair. [...]

As I reminded our citizens prior to the Afghanistan elections, there's a deep desire in every soul to vote and to be free, and to participate in the presidential elections," he said.

In fact, Iraqis will not choose their president directly. They will be voting to choose a National Assembly of 275 members, which will elect from its members a president and two deputies and write a constitution. [Emphasis added, stupidity in the original.]

The article's headline is "Confusion in White House on Aim of Iraq Election," which seems to be a polite way of saying "President unaware of any facts about the upcoming elections in Iraq."

"there's a deep desire in every soul to vote and to be free ..."

I think he means "there's a deep desire in just under 60% of eligible souls to vote and to be free."

Just how many and what kinds of drugs did Barbara Bush do during her pregnancy with George? She must have [been] free-basing Aqua Velva.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the pla