Alaska: Permanent Fund: $1,106.96 - Gov. Frank Murkowski announced Wednesday the amount of this year's Permanent Fund Dividend check for every eligible Alaska resident will be $1,106.96. - Read this Anchorage Daily News Story... Anchorage Daily News - www.adn.com Top Stories U.S. News U.S. Politics Alaska Ketchikan

National: GAO report blasts Veterans Affairs over soldier care By JAMES ROSEN - Nearly a year before they asked Congress for another $3 billion in funding, Veterans Affairs officials knew in late 2004 that their budget was seriously out of whack, congressional investigators say in a report released Wednesday.

The Government Accountability Office also found that the VA badly underestimated how many soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan might seek medical and other services, in part because of problems in getting accurate information from the Pentagon.

The VA relied on prewar data from the Defense Department in preparing its budget for fiscal 2005, even though the war was well under way, and estimated that 23,500 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom would seek care that year. Instead, the number was four times greater, almost 100,000, the GAO study said. - More...
Thursday - September 21, 2006

Alaska - National: House Passes Voter Identification Bill; Voter ID Legislation A Means to Discriminate Against Voters Say Opponents (SitNews) - Legislation which would require eligible citizens to present government-issued, current and valid photo identification at the polling place in 2008 and proof of citizenship by 2010 was passed Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representives by a vote 228-196, a day after a Georgia judge struck down a state law that also required government-issued photo identification.

This bill imposes new ID requirements on all voters in federal elections: 1) Starting in 2008, voters would have to present a government-issued photo ID, or send in a copy when voting absentee or by mail, before getting a ballot; 2) Starting in 2010, the ID would also have to show proof of U.S. citizenship. This would likely mean either a U.S. passport or the "REAL ID" card, which has yet to be implemented.

Of the 228 yes votes, 224 were Republican. Alaska Congressman Don Young was one of three Republicans voting no.

The bill's supporters said the bill will protect U.S. citizens' right to vote by eliminating the chance that someone who is not a citizen would vote - diluting actual eligible ballot results. But opponents said the bill has the potential to disenfranchise millions of voters. - More...
Thursday - September 21, 2006

Alaska: Venezuelan firm will buy fuel oil for villagers By ALEX DeMARBAN - A Venezuelan-owned oil company will warm 12,000 rural Alaska homes this winter with an enormous gift of heating fuel that some elated residents in the bush call a godsend - and ironic.

The donation from Houston-based Citgo will buy 100 gallons of fuel for every household in 151 villages. But the gift worth roughly $5 million comes courtesy of a country whose leftist president is pals with America's enemies and supports Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Hugo Chavez also calls our president mean things, such as "genocidal murderer" and "madman."

Margaret Williams, of the remote town Hughes, said it doesn't matter who's providing the heating fuel, which costs about $6 a gallon in the Koyukuk River village of 69. - More...
Thursday - September 21, 2006

National: Operation Medusa Foiled Taliban Plans, NATO Commander Says - NATO's supreme commander says the alliance's recently concluded offensive operation in southern Afghanistan killed at least a quarter of the former Taliban regime's fighters, and possibly more.

Meeting with journalists at the Pentagon September 20, Marine General James Jones was asked for an overall estimate of the number of Taliban fighters killed in Operation Medusa, wherein 6,000 NATO troops from five countries, along with Afghan army forces, established a presence for the first time in Khandahar province.

Jones said the number of those killed was around 1,000, "but if you said 1,500 it wouldn't surprise me."

The alliance estimates Taliban fighting strength at 3,000 to 4,000 militants, Jones said, plus Afghans that the Taliban pays or coerces to assist it in specific military operations. - More...
Thursday - September 21, 2006

Science: Mercury accumulates in animals By JANE KAY - Mercury pollution from power plants and other industrial sources has accumulated in birds, mammals and reptiles across the country, according to a national environmental group.

The report is the first major compilation of studies investigating mercury buildup in such wildlife as California clapper rails, Maine's bald eagles, Canadian loons and Florida panthers. In all, scientists working with the National Wildlife Federation found 65 studies showing troublesome mercury levels in 40 species.

"From songbirds to alligators, turtles to bats, eagles to polar bears, mercury is accumulating in nearly every link of the food chain," said Catherine Bowes, an author of the report who manages the federation's mercury program in the northeastern states. - More...
Thursday - September 21, 2006

Health: HIV testing for almost all is recommended By LEE BOWMAN - Federal health officials on Thursday announced new guidelines to make voluntary testing for the virus that causes AIDS a routine part of medical care for all patients aged 13 to 64 in the United States.

Until now, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recommended routine screening for human immunodeficiency virus only in higher-risk populations, such as intravenous drug users and prostitutes.

The new guidelines also expand recommendations for testing all pregnant women to prevent transmission of the virus to infants.

The recommendations are a bid to identify and treat an estimated 250,000 Americans who are HIV-positive but unaware of their infection, contributing to the spread of the virus and delaying life-extending therapies.

"We urgently need new approaches to reach the quarter-million Americans with HIV who do not realize they are infected," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC. - More...
Thursday - September 21, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters White Cliff is good for seniors and our community By Ed Zastrow - Thursday White Cliff -Why a Partnership of Senior and Arts Groups? By James A. Van Altvorst - Thursday Re: Open letter to all candidates By Gregory Vickrey - Thursday White Cliff a multi-usage facility By Gretchen Klein - Thursday No aerial spraying of pesticides on Long Island By Frances C. Natkong - Wednesday White Cliff--Tear it down By Pete Lapinski - Wednesday White Cliff By Scott Kline - Wednesday WARS and CONFLICTS - A Republican Legacy? By Johnnie Bustamante - Wednesday Visitors to Alaska By Jenna Phillips-Buster - Wednesday Open letter to all candidates local, regional, and statewide By Carrie L. James - Tuesday Yes To White Cliff Ballot Initiatives By Laurie Booyse - Tuesday Thank you USPS By Paul Perry - Tuesday Stop Schoencliff 2 By John Beck - Tuesday "Thousands" By Elizabeth Nelson - Tuesday Reply to "Start from Scratch" By Alan Miller - Tuesday Yes to White Cliff By Mary Ellen Haseltine - Monday Vote YES on ballot 1 and 2 By Kerri Roepke Willoughby- Monday White Cliff By Al Johnson- Monday Yes to White Cliff Project By Juanita Diamond - Monday Start from scratch By Don Hoff Jr. - Monday Yes to White Cliff By Elizabeth Nelson - Saturday White Cliff Sales Tax By Jon Hurley- Saturday White Cliff: Join Me In Voting Yes By Charlotte L.Glover- Saturday Whitecliff, old or new By Laura Lowell - Saturday $50.00 Cruise Tax By Wayne H. Farnum - Saturday Let's Be Careful Out There By Dave Kiffer - Friday White Cliff Center Clarification and Why I Support the Project By Kim Judge - Friday White Cliff Center Project -- Why White Cliff? By James A. Van Altvorst - Friday Pipeline Unity Essential By Gov. Frank H. Murkowski - Friday Voting YES on White Cliff By Penny Pedersen - Friday White Cliff Project By Diana Chaudhary - Friday Senior Center Serves Many By Mike Branco - Friday Cruisers tax out By Gabreal A. Easterly - Friday White Cliff: A Community Project By Sara Lawson - Wednesday $50 Cruise Ship Tax By Joe Johnson - Wednesday Cruise Tax By Chris Elliott - Wednesday Voting NO on Whitecliff! By Robert D. Warner - Wednesday Candidate for City Council By Samuel Bergeron - Wednesday White Cliff / Baseball By Scott Klein - Wednesday Not A Critique & Primary Ballots By Charlotte Tanner - Wednesday Cruise Ship Tax By Vic and Judi Vreeland - Wednesday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Arts This Week Today's Forecast Ketchikan Weather Data Current AK Weather Map Classifieds & Announcements September 2006 Click on the date to read the stories published on that day. S M T W T F S 27 28 29 30 31 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Front Page Archives

Clifford D. May: Submit or die: An offer infidels can't refuse? - Many commentators have noted the apparent irony: The pope suggests Islam encourages violence - and Muslims riot in protest.

Many commentators have pointed out the apparent hypocrisy: Muslims are outraged by cartoons satirizing Islamic extremism while in Muslim countries Christianity and Judaism are attacked viciously and routinely.

Many commentators are missing the point: These protestors - and those who incite them - are not asking for mutual respect and equality. They are not saying: "It's wrong to speak ill of a religion." They are saying: "It's wrong to speak ill of our religion." They are not standing up for a principle. They are laying down the law. They are making it as clear as they can that they will not tolerate "infidels" criticizing Muslims. They also are making it clear that infidels should expect criticism - and much worse - from Muslims.

They are attempting nothing less than the establishment of a new world order in which the supremacy of what they call the Nation of Islam is acknowledged, and "unbelievers" submit - or die. Call it an offer you can't refuse.

If you don't understand this, listen harder. In London, Anjem Choudary told Muslim demonstrators that Pope Benedict XVI deserves to be killed for daring to quote a Byzantine emperor's description of Islam as a religion "spread by the sword." - More....
Thursday - September 21, 2006

John Hall: Not enough crusaders - Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda No. 2 man, suddenly is Mr. Glib. He sneered at U.S. forces for turning over duties in Afghanistan to "second rate crusaders" from NATO.

That's hardly what happened. There are still 21,000 U.S. troops fighting under their own command in Afghanistan. Another 20,000 from NATO have moved in. Only a fraction of them - a British-Canadian-U.S.-Dutch force - is now seeing combat and taking heavy casualties against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

The problem isn't that they're second rate. It's that there aren't enough of them.

NATO's top commander, Gen. James L. Jones, has appealed for help from the 26 member nations of NATO, and has been greeted so far with silence and thousand-mile stares. So far, except for Poland, sort of, no one has answered Jones' call for 2,500 more combat troops in southern Afghanistan. - More...
Thursday - September 21, 2006

Dale McFeatters: A U.N. comedy act - The United Nations may be ineffectual, but this past week it proved to be vastly entertaining, playing host as it did to the comedy of Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who have taken their act out of the Third World rooms where it normally plays.

Iran's president preceded his revival with a loopy 21-page letter to President Bush last spring, an offer to meet, an offer to debate on TV and, finally, an offer to debate before world leaders at the United Nations.

For whatever reason, the Bush White House saw fit to decline these attractive offers. There were fears of an awkward face-to-face confrontation between the two, which the Bush people wanted to avoid.

In fact, President Bill Clinton would have been the better choice for an impromptu hallway meeting with Ahmadinejad. He would have swept the little guy up in a bear hug and set off on a long discourse about health-care policy, AIDS in Africa, SEC basketball and Social Security until the Iranian leader was sobbing, "Please, please, take our nukes. Just don't force me to listen to the future of the Democratic Party." - More...
Thursday - September 21, 2006

Jay Ambrose: The devil made him do it - Until reading about Hugo Chavez's U.N. speech the other day, the craziest reference to the devil I had ever seen was on the front page of a supermarket tab. "DEVIL ESCAPES HELL," it said in all-caps, super-large type. Under the headline was a picture of smoke pouring out of a great, big hole in the ground. I couldn't help laughing.

It's hard to laugh at Chavez's speech saying President Bush was the devil, though, because this clown-in-chief of Venezuela is in a position to inflict a whole lot of pain on people - he has been busily doing that very thing - and it's hard to grasp why U.N. delegates applauded him. Are they of the same ilk as the ignorant, gullible souls who would buy that supermarket tab to get the real goods on satanic doings? Maybe so, maybe so.

Large numbers of these delegates, after all, represent tyrannies chiefly notable for abusing their own people - sometimes slaughtering them, usually impoverishing them, always ensuring they don't get uppity about their rights - and all the time blaming their national misery on those other lands that have found prosperity through constitutional order, liberty and free markets. They may hold their tongues when genocide is afoot in some desperate country much like their own, but loudly curse the wealthy and powerful United States. - More...
Thursday - September 21, 2006

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