rimblr.com

Shortly after it became obvious Senator John McCain was going to get the Republican nomination for President of the United States, self-proclaimed “conservatives” and blow-hards like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Anne Coulter, and Laura Ingraham began to trash McCain, pronounce he wasn’t conservative, and say they wouldn’t vote for him. I guess I forgot these people own the term “conservative.”
It was a real talent for these people (and many others) to show how short-sighted, narrow-minded, and politically pure they are. What would we do without such hard-nosed bullies in our party? Compromise? Heaven forbid!
Fortunately, most of the rhetoric from anti-McCain forces within the G.O.P. has toned down. Though certainly an Obama or Clinton presidency wouldn’t hurt Rush’s ratings (or Anne Coulter’s next book tour for that matter). Like anything associated with politics, if you want to know the reason for something, just follow the money.
But alas, from the grassroots, there are true ideological conservative purists who find it hard to come out of their shells and admit this is not a perfect world. These are the same people who think there are black helicopters standing-by waiting to infringe on our rights to bear arms, allow women to have drive-through abortions at 7-11, and make our second grade school kids read “Jimmy has two dads.” While yes, we should be concerned about the intent underlying the rhetoric of Sens. Clinton and Obama, I don’t think Hillary and Barack are going to be commanding any black helicopters to force any of this upon us. We can thank our Founding Fathers and the Constitution for that.
These grassroots conservative purists not only think they own the definition of what a conservative is, they believe John McCain will sound the death knell of the Republican Party.
Read the verbatim e-mail I got from one of my so-called “conservative” friends this week:

huffingtonpost.com

Leesville’s continuing endeavor to revitalize the downtown area moved one step closer to its goal last week as an assessment team with representatives from a consulting firm and the state and national Main Street programs toured the downtown area.
The team also met with community task forces and the Fort Polk-Leesville Heritage Partnership Team to discuss issues and provide advise in the revitalization process.
“We’re trying to determine the boundary of the downtown area and what to focus on as far as revitalization,” said Joy Cryer, the City’s municipal clerk. The group is also focusing on developing a survey for Army families and military retirees to find out what they’d like to see in the downtown area as far as businesses and entertainment is concerned. The survey would also help determine how to market the downtown area by asking questions about how people receive information about it.
The assessment team was in Leesville from Tuesday, May 13 until Thursday, May 15 and performed a driving tour of Fort Polk, including entrances into downtown from Fort Polk; the outskirts of the downtown district; as well as other points of interest such as commercial strips and residential areas. In addition the team toured the downtown district by foot, visiting businesses and some property development projects.
The team also conducted interviews with downtown stakeholders at City Hall.
“The primary goal of the project is to better serve the Army family - those who make up Fort Polk’s military and civilian population, visitors to the post, and military retirees,” said Cryer. The downtown revitalization project seeks to assist the community in developing strategies to enhance shopping opportunities, product availability, services and attractions in the downtown district and to create a stronger bond between the Fort Polk and Leesville communities by demonstrating a shared heritage. Last February representatives from the National Trust Main Street Center made an initial tour with the Department of the Army in order to get to know the history of Leesville and Fort Polk before making recommendations for downtown revitalization.

leesvilledailyleader.com

Posted on: Saturday, 3 May 2008, 06:00 CDT
By James, James J Subbarao, Italo; Lanier, William L
Media reports from around the world contain stories almost daily of natural or man-made disasters and their consequences. Although it is tempting to attribute these reports to both proliferation of the modern media (with 24-hour-a-day, 7-days-a-week coverage) and the public’s appetite for bad news, it is also true that natural disasters are increasing in magnitude and freqeuncy and will continue to affect immense numbers of people.1 The reasons for this increase are multifactorial but are based in large measure on 3 important developments that are related: (1) overpopulation,2 (2) population migration to cities (urbanization) and to coastal areas,2 and (3) climate change.3 The world’s population is currently estimated at more than 6.5 billion and is growing, with disproportionate growth in Asia (particularly China and India), Africa, and South America.1 Overpopulation increases the demand for goods (eg, food, shelter) and the burden on essential services (eg, health care) and natural resources (eg, oil, coal, water). These factors, along with poverty and political instability, make for a fragile environment indeed for large populations who, in the event of disaster, have little reserve to care for themselves.
Increased migration to cities and coastal regions, spawned by the globalization “gold rush” (ie, a phenomenon in which people move to cities in developing countries because of economic growth driven by globalization), has also made populations increasingly vulnerable to disasters. Projections from the United Nations indicate that, by 2030, 60% of the world’s population will reside in cities.2 These denser communities provide greater opportunity for transfer of communicable diseases. Vulnerability to infectious pathogens is magnified by unsafe water supplies at one end of the socioeconomic spectrum and global travel and shipping at the other.
The third overarching development, climate change, poses great risk to coastal communities around the world, regardless of debate about its causes.3 Many cities in developing countries, particularly on the Pacific Rim, are located in marginally habitable environments, making inhabitants especially susceptible to natural disasters.4 People in low-lying environments are more susceptible to floods, hurricanes, and some forms of infectious diseases and- particularly in the Southeast Asian Pacific Rim-are at risk from earthquakes.

redorbit.com

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys sent an informational letter last week to nearly 1,200 of the nation’s largest cities, advising them of their constitutional right to recognize and participate in the 2008 National Day of Prayer Thursday. ADF attorneys will also be available to defend, free of charge, any municipality that is threatened with legal action for observing the event.
“Americans shouldn’t be forced to abandon their religious heritage simply to appease someone’s political agenda,’” said ADF Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull. “The U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged that public prayer is ‘deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country.’ The National Day of Prayer has been a part of that. That is why ADF attorneys stand ready to defend the right of millions of Americans who wish to join together in prayer on May 1 without fear of legal attack from those who seek to silence their constitutional right to pray.”
A national day of prayer was unofficially established more than 200 years ago by President George Washington, who in 1795 issued a proclamation setting aside Feb. 19 as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. In 1952, President Harry S. Truman established a national day of prayer via a joint resolution of Congress. Thirty-six years later, President Ronald Reagan amended and signed a law permanently designating the first Thursday in May as the National Day of Prayer.
“Public officials and citizens throughout our country need to be encouraged and reminded that they can and should resist the increasingly radical demands of secularist groups to censor public prayer,” said Bull. “The Constitution protects public officials who choose to invoke divine guidance and blessings upon their work and our nation.”
More information on National Day of Prayer observances can be found at www.ndptf.org. A copy of the ADF informational letter is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/NDPLetter2008.pdf.

dakotavoice.com

year since U.S. President Bill Clinton apologized to the victims of the infamous “Tuskegee Experiment.” The U.S. Public Health Service program, formally billed as the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” wreaked havoc on hundreds of black men and their families in Macon County, Ala., from 1932 to 1972. Some of their relatives attend the commemoration at Tuskegee annually.
During the activities, Dr. Benjamin F. Payton, Tuskegee University President, emphasized his intent upon calling the gentlemen affected by the government study “heroes” instead of victims, reminding the audience that without these men, the U.S. health system would not have the accountability standards and the rules of informed consent it has today.
The event kicked off Thursday with a reception in the Kellogg Conference Center. On Friday greetings and addresses were delivered by Dr. Benjamin F. Payton, Tuskegee President; Dr. Timothy Turner, Deputy Director for Research at the Bioethics Center; and Dr. Vivian L. Carter, Assistant Director for Community Partnerships at the Bioethics Center. Dr. Luther S. Williams, University Provost, spoke on the subject of “Genomics-Premised Health Care and Health Disparities: Asymmetric Problem Solving.” Other panelists participating were: Dr. Jose R. Fernandez, Associate Professor and Vice-Chair for Education of the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama in Birmingham; Dr. Bill Jenkins, Professor of Public Health Sciences at Morehouse College and Associate Director of its Research Center on Health Disparities; Dr. Isaac M.T. Mwase, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics at Tuskegee and Dr. Gregory S. Gray, Dean of the Chapel and University Professor of Religion and Society at Tuskegee.
The day continued with a luncheon featuring a musical tribute to the descendants of the Study participants. Ashley Walker, the recipient of the Charles Pollard Scholarship for 2006-2007 delivered the occasion to the audience. Noted scholar and writer of religious views and ethics, Dr. Riggins Earl, gave the keynote address. Earl is a Professor of Ethics and Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. He has also been a visiting senior scholar at the National Bioethics Center here since November 2007.

tuskegee.edu

COLUMBIA, S.C., April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — First National Bank of the South announced today its Midlands Region senior leadership team. Steven G. Waddell, Senior Vice President and Midlands Market Executive, joins Senior Vice Presidents Mary Ellis Gabriel and Brook Moore in their leadership roles for First National’s consumer and commercial banking activities, respectively, in the Midlands region.
Rick Manley, Midlands Region Executive Officer, stated, "Brook and Mary Ellis have excelled as part of the former Carolina National leadership team. We are pleased to add Steve to the Midlands Region team as we continue Carolina National’s tradition of outstanding customer service in the Columbia market."
The Midlands senior leadership team will work closely together as they oversee First National’s community, commercial and consumer banking activities in the region. They will also guide and direct team members in the region’s four full-service Columbia branches and the new Lexington office scheduled to open in the summer of 2008.
First National’s President and CEO, Jerry Calvert, said, "We are very pleased with the senior leadership in our newly-formed Midlands region. We look forward to building on Carolina National Bank’s existing presence in the Columbia market as we add their employees and customers to the First National family following the recent combination of our two great companies."
Steve Waddell, Midlands Market Executive, most recently served as a City/Area Executive with BB&T where he was recognized as a "Sterling Performer" for thirteen consecutive quarters, signifying the top City/Area Executive in a ten-city region. He brings with him over 20 years of industry experience. He was most recently based in Rock Hill, South Carolina where he was responsible for the oversight of a three-county area for BB&T.
Waddell attended the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg and the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Additionally, he graduated from a two-year executive development program for banking and consumer finance at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

earthtimes.org

“We’re checking on various structures down there to see if there’s any damage,” he said.
In the Chicago area, a metal bridge joint that came out of the pavement on the southbound Edens Expressway near Golf Road and popped up and punctured seven car tires was not thought to be caused by the earthquake, Claffey said.
“We don’t have any reports of structural damage in the Chicago region so it just doesn’t seem likely,” Claffey said. He said the metal was cut down and lanes were reopened by 8 a.m.
Chicago reaction to news of the earthquake was mixed. Lake View resident Jennifer Hochstatter, 32, was surprised to hear during her morning commute that a quake was what apparently woke her early Friday morning.
“Is that what that was?” she responded. “I woke up this morning and thought I was dreaming that. I just felt the bed shaking. . . . I thought I woke up so violently that I shook the bed.”
Chicago Fire Department Chief Joe Roccasalva said the tremors caused a “huge spike in calls” to the city’s 911 center, but fire crews had not responded to any emergencies related to the incident. “It’s mostly people calling to say things were moving on their shelves, that the earth was moving,” he said.
Air traffic controllers who were in the 300-foot control tower at O’Hare International Airport when the shaking started said they didn’t know what to think at first.
“It freaked us out. We thought there was a structural problem with the tower,” said controller Craig Burzych, who was with one co-worker. He said the feeling was “sort of like being on the end of a fishing pole.”
Because the quake struck in the early hours, it did not affect air traffic, Burzych said. He said controllers radioed the pilot of a FedEx freight plane that was on the tarmac, but the plane’s crew said they did not feel the tremors.

chicagotribune.com

SPRINGFIELD — State transportation officials launched an early morning review of bridges and roads in southeastern Illinois Friday following a 5.2 magnitude earthquake.
As of 10 a.m., inspectors hadn’t reported finding any damaged roadways, said Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
The teams began visual inspections of all bridges within a 50 mile radius of the quake, which was centered in Wabash County near the Indiana border.
Thompson said the state emergency operations center was activated at about 5:15 a.m. following the 4:37 a.m. temblor.
A second quake, preliminarily measured at a magnitude 4.5, was felt in the state at about 10:14 a.m. Friday. It too was centered near the border of Edwards and Wabash counties.
Agencies on alert at the state operations center include the Department of Transportation. IEMA, the National Guard and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Thompson said the state has received reports of minor damage to homes and businesses in the region around Mount Carmel.
But, there have been no requests for state assistance, she added.
The Illinois National Guard issued a statement that it was ready to respond if needed.
In March, the guard and other agencies conducted an earthquake preparedness drill to test their ability to respond to large-scale emergencies, said Major General William Enyart, adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard.

southernillinoisan.com

Posted to the web 19 March 2008
What could be described as a grain planted in Lagos in 2004 may well be growing into an Oak tree as the launching train of Bank PHB’s National Scholars Scheme moved to Government Secondary School, Gwammaja, Kano yesterday.
Under the scheme, the bank builds and equips a library in at least one public secondary school, selected by the state government and awards scholarships to 20 indigent students in the school.
Launched with a pilot project of 100 indigent students in five public schools in Lagos, in 2004, the scheme has now gone truly national with 13 libraries in nine states. But even these are only the beginning. Bank PHB’s Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Miss Angela Ege said 24 states have been approached so far and the aim is to reach every state of the federation.
The national launching took off at the Junior Secondary School Garki, Abuja on March 4, followed by Government Secondary School, Unguwar Sarki, Kaduna two days later. Osadenis High School, Asaba, Delta State and Urban Girls’ Secondary School, Enugu had their days last week, before yesterday’s event in Kano. Yet to come are similar launchings in Bauchi, Katsina, Sokoto and Minna, which will run from March 26 to April 4.
At the Abuja launch, which also covered Junior Secondary School, Gosa, Lugbe, Bank PHB’s Managing Director, Mr. Francis Atuche said the overall aim of the National Scholars scheme, which is the bank’s flagship corporate social responsibility initiative; was to provide a platform for positive inspiration and learning environment for secondary school students.
Atuche, who was represented by an Executive Director, Alhaji Kuru Ahmed, said "one of the greatest challenges facing us today is the state of our public schools."
With government’s inability to address all the needs of the people, due to a combination of dwindling resources and complexities in the need patterns of growing populations, Atuche said, "there is a compelling need for businesses to play supportive roles to contribute to the society from which it engages in profitable business."

allafrica.com

BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Friday that Lebanon was determined to overcome its crisis by electing a new president, forming a national unity government, and reviving the Lebanese state’s paralyzed institutions.
“The Lebanese are willing and determined to overcome their crisis with the help of the Arab and international community,” Siniora said at the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in Dakar.
“Lebanon should no longer be an arena for the conflicts of others,” he added.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said the “Lebanese people will continue their courageous struggle for the freedom and independence of their country.”
“The road to freedom is a long one, but we will eventually succeed,” Geagea added at a ceremony held in the US Congress, marking the third anniversary of the March 14, 2005, anti-Syrian protest.
Almost two weeks ahead of an upcoming Arab summit in Damascus, the US called on Arab states Thursday to think carefully about attending an upcoming Arab League summit in Syria amid tensions over a presidential crisis in neighboring Lebanon.
Plans by Damascus to host the summit on March 29-30 have been mired in controversy due to a Lebanese standoff between the Hizbullah-led opposition, backed by Syria and Iran, and the majority backed by the West and many Arab states.

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