It was No. 6The Navy Blue Angels perform the last maneuver before Blue Angel No. 6 (plane just above center) crashed during an air show at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in Beaufort, S.C., Saturday, April 21, 2007. Blue Angel No. 6, one of two solo pilots crashed two minutes after this picture was made about four miles west of the base as the team was setting up for its final maneuver. (AP Photo/Birmingham News, Mark Almond)
The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.
The opponents of the act "have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion.
The decision pitted the court's conservatives against its liberals, with President Bush's two appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, siding with the majority.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia also were in the majority.
"Today's decision is alarming," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in dissent. She said the ruling "refuses to take ... seriously" previous Supreme Court decisions on abortion.
Ginsburg said the latest decision "tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists."
She was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens.
One of our greatest blessings as Americans is that we have brave citizens who step forward to defend us. Every man or woman who wears our Nation's uniform is a volunteer, a patriot who has made the noble decision to serve a cause larger than self. This weekend, many of our service men and women are celebrating the holidays far from home. They are separated from their families by great distances, but they are always close in our thoughts. And this Passover and Easter, I ask you to keep them in your prayers.
Our men and women in uniform deserve the gratitude of every American. And from their elected leaders, they deserve something more: the funds, resources, and equipment they need to do their jobs.
Section. 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
"It's sad but not surprising that this White House would abuse the power of the presidency to reward a donor over the objections of the Senate. This nomination was withdrawn because the Administration realized it would lose in the Foreign Relations Committee," Kerry said.
Recognizing Fox did not have enough support for Senate confirmation, Bush withdrew the nomination last week. On Wednesday, with the Senate on a one-week break, the president used his power to make recess appointments to put Fox in the job without Congress' blessing.
Dodd said in a statement that Bush's actions were "deceptive at best and illegal at worst."
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe defended the use of recess appointments as a presidential prerogative.
"I think the president views recess appointments as an appropriate way to get people who are qualified into jobs that need to be filled," Johndroe said Thursday.
"And it's a process that's been used many times over the years for people whose nominations have lingered or have been stopped for various reasons," he said.
Look down in kindness, Lord, on this, your family,
for which our Lord Jesus Christ unhesitatingly allowed himself to be given in to the hands of his enemies
and to undergo the torture of the Cross.
He lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Prime Minister's Office issued a rare "clarification" Wednesday that, in gentle diplomatic terms, contradicted US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's statement in Damascus that she had brought a message from Israel about a willingness to engage in peace talks.
According to the statement, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert emphasized in his meeting with Pelosi on Sunday that "although Israel is interested in peace with Syria, that country continues to be part of the Axis of Evil and a force that encourages terror in the entire Middle East."
Olmert, the statement clarified, told Pelosi that Syria's sincerity about a genuine peace with Israel would be judged by its willingness to "cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hizbullah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran."
Royal Navy and MarinesPresident Ahmadinejad announced the Britons' release after awarding medals to the "brave" border guards who had arrested them.
"I would like to thank the Iranian coast guard for courgeously defending our Iranian territorial waters," he said.
He then pinned medals on the chests of three Coast Guard officers. The ceremony was performed during a press conference broadcast around the world.
The House Armed Services Committee is banishing the global war on terror from the 2008 defense budget.
This is not because the war has been won, lost or even called off, but because the committee’s Democratic leadership doesn’t like the phrase.
A memo for the committee staff, circulated March 27, says the 2008 bill and its accompanying explanatory report that will set defense policy should be specific about military operations and “avoid using colloquialisms.”
The “global war on terror,” a phrase first used by President Bush shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., should not be used, according to the memo. Also banned is the phrase the “long war,” which military officials began using last year as a way of acknowledging that military operations against terrorist states and organizations would not be wrapped up in a few years.
You will have to suffer only for a little while: the God of all grace who called you to eternal glory in Christ will see that all is well again: he will confirm, strengthen and support you. His power lasts for ever and ever. Amen.
"I'll spend the rest of my life going to bed at night wondering, ‘Did he take more.’ The American people should go to bed every night wondering if he took more. We'll never know; only Sandy Berger knows," Inspector General of the Archives Paul Brachfeld told Asman.
Brachfeld was the first man to investigate the crime. Like Davis, Brachfeld's main concern is that Berger may have withheld key information about Clinton Administration anti-terror strategy and efforts from the 9/11 Commission. Brachfeld has remained silent for more than two years. But in the program he courageously speaks out on television for the first time.
FOX News also reveals the stunning failure of the Archives — and particularly Presidential Materials Staff Director Nancy Smith — to secure the nation's most sensitive documents.
Among the security breakdowns:
— Smith, the person charged with safeguarding presidential documents, allowed Berger to view the top secret dossiers in her office instead of a secure room known as a SCIF (sensitive compartmentalized information facility) — as required by the CIA.
— Smith, in a serious breach of security protocols, often allowed Berger alone with the documents.
— When Smith and her staff became suspicious that Berger was stealing top secret documents, they did not report their suspicions to authorities, as required by their own rules. Instead, they concocted their own inept sting operation, which they subsequently botched. Brachfeld says that significantly comprised the case against Berger.
Was it Number 5 or 6?
From the Guardian
Ht from Maverick News Media