It's morning somewhere

..."Obviously there are some who are trying to sow the seeds of sectarian violence," Bush said in Washington. "And now the people of Iraq and their leaders must make a choice. The choice is chaos or unity."..

...According to statistics released by Iraq's government, 379 people had been killed through 4 p.m. Tuesday, and an official at Baghdad's morgue said at least 248 of those were killed in the capital through Monday. The mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods there have witnessed the worst of the violence.

...And as for this so-called, "Black History Month," it's a load of hooey! What do you think the liberals will be forcing us to celebrate next? Jew History Month? Homo History Month? Frankly, my Christian friends, it frightens the living Hell out of me - and it should YOU!...

...But days after a Senate committee approved a bill that aims to protect the "conscience rights" of pharmacists, activists in both camps said the measure could protect pharmacists who refuse to dispense the birth control pill...

...Samuel Lee of Campaign Life Missouri said yesterday that he’s never heard of a pharmacist in Missouri refusing dispensing regular birth control, but he said it’s possible the bill would apply in such cases...

...China has a thriving black market in babies, often girls, abducted or bought from poor families or unwed mothers and sold to parents who want another child, a servant or a future bride for a son...

...It was not clear whether Diomande came into contact with the deadly substance in Africa or in this country. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it was related to his job making drums from animal skins...

...Anthrax spores are found in soil in many parts of the world, and livestock can become infected by eating contaminated soil or feed. People can then pick up the infection if they come into contact with contaminated hides or other animal parts...

...Frieden said Diomande was breathing on his own and appeared to be "doing better than people with respiratory anthrax usually do."

Diomande has been a dancer and drummer since he was a child, according to a Web site for his dance troupe...

As the event has grown, Leyva said so has the creativity of the participants. Last year, creative costumes included Elvis, SpongeBob SquarePants, farmer brown and Little Bo Peep, just to name a few.

This year, Leyva gathered a group of seven, from the department and some of their spouses. Not only did he talk them into plunging, they agreed to go in full costume.

...The warning comes days after Rice described Venezuela as one of the "biggest problems" for the Western Hemisphere and promised to develop regional alliances as part of an "inoculation" strategy to expose what the State Department calls anti-democratic behavior in Venezuela...

...The State Department says Chavez is using the nation's bountiful oil wealth to meddle in the affairs of neighboring countries, and has slammed him for boosting ties to U.S. foes like Cuba and Iran...

...Cat faeces carrying Toxoplasma parasites wash into US waterways and then into the sea where they can infect otters, causing brain disease.

The parasite is familiar to medical researchers, as it can damage foetuses when expectant mothers become infected while changing cat litter...

..."But by keeping the cats indoors, we reduce the chance they're going to get infected by eating infected birds or rodents, and the chance they are going to shed their faeces outdoors."...

...Once the parasite reaches the sea, it may be concentrated in mussels, oysters and clams, a major source of food for some otters...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- About 200,000 homes and businesses still lacked power across the Northeast on Saturday as temperatures plummeted following a storm with hurricane-force wind gusts that was blamed for four deaths.

Wind was still blowing at about 30 mph through the region Saturday. On Friday, wind of more than 60 mph buffeted the Rochester area and a 77-mph gust was recorded at the city's airport, the weather service said...

...A new expose gives an account of the CIA’s secret efforts to develop new forms of torture spanning fifty years. It reveals how the CIA perfected its methods, distributing them across the world from Vietnam to Iran to Central America, uncovering the roots of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo torture scandals. The book is titled "A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror."...

...ALFRED McCOY: Oh, it's very simple. Dr. Donald O. Hebb of McGill University, a brilliant psychologist, had a contract from the Canadian Defense Research Board, which was a partner with the C.I.A. in this research, and he found that he could induce a state of psychosis in an individual within 48 hours. It didn't take electroshock, truth serum, beating or pain. All he did was had student volunteers sit in a cubicle with goggles, gloves and headphones, earmuffs, so that they were cut off from their senses, and within 48 hours, denied sensory stimulation, they would suffer, first hallucinations, then ultimately breakdown...

...ALFRED McCOY: So, and then in the last month, the Bush administration has gone to federal courts and said, “Drop all of your habeas corpus suits from Guantanamo.” There are 160 of them. They've gone to the Supreme Court and said, “Drop your Guantanamo case.” They have, in fact, used that law to quash legal oversight of their actions....

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- Law enforcement officers harvested a dubious record last year - enough marijuana plants to rank the illegal weed as Washington state's No. 8 agricultural commodity, edging out sweet cherries in value.

The 135,323 marijuana plants seized in 2005 were estimated to be worth $270 million - a record amount that places the crop among the state's top 10 agricultural commodities, based on the most recent statistics available...

...In a recent court filing, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald revealed Libby's assertions to a grand jury that superiors had authorized him to spread sensitive information from a National Intelligence Estimate. The administration used the NIE assessment on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction as part of its justification for going to war...

...Fitzgerald did not specify which superiors Libby may have been referring to when he testified that higher-ups had authorized him to spread sensitive information...

... "I have certainly advocated declassification. I have participated in declassification decisions," Cheney said. Asked for details, he said, "I don't want to get into that. There's an executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and obviously it focuses first and foremost on the president, but also includes the vice president."......

..."When the family arrived on the scene, the officer got out to (tell) the family members ... what was going on," Fontaine said.

As Toston's car was being driven away by his family, Toston "got out of the back seat (of the deputy's patrol car) and got into the front seat," the sheriff said.

Toston then drove away in the deputy's vehicle, Fontaine said...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- Police said a first-grader found more than 20 bags of marijuana in her locker.

The 6-year-old Franklin Magnet School student "took her hat out of the locker to go home from school ... and when she went to put it on, the bags fell out," said school district spokesman Neil Driscoll on Monday...

...Cheney was of military age during the Vietnam War but he did not serve in the war. On May 19, 1965, Cheney was classified as 1-A "available for service" by the Selective Service. On October 26, 1965 the Selective Service lifted the constraints on drafting childless married men. However, after his daughter was born, Cheney applied for and received a reclassification of 3-A, gaining him a fifth draft deferment. Asked about his deferments, the future Defense Secretary said he had "other priorities than military service."..

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets...

..."Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."..

Newt Gingrich, who led the Republican Party to power a dozen years ago, told cheering conservatives Saturday it is time to overhaul a balky, slow-moving government locked in the last century...

...Gingrich, who has been on a promotional book tour, said he isn't currently running for president, though he hasn't ruled it out....

...He was interrupted frequently by standing ovations, hailed with cries of "Newt, Newt, Newt and besieged by young fans eager for a photo with Gingrich...

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.

...In Fargo, free from the temptations of Imperial Washington – with all of its plush accommodations, fancy restaurants and hordes of sycophants and lobbyists – Congress might actually settle down and do some work. It never, by the way, completes its work on time in Washington.

It would also be satisfying just to see the politicians, the vast majority of whom are chicken hawks who avoided military service like the plague, live in conditions at least somewhat similar to those they force upon the military around the world. Moreover, Fargo, which is on the border of Minnesota, is a solid blue-collar city of 75,000 people used to hard work. They would be a far better influence on our public legislators than the rich lawyers and lobbyists who inhabit Washington...

...The two leaders were worried by the lack of hard evidence that Saddam Hussein had broken UN resolutions, though privately they were convinced that he had. According to the memorandum, Mr Bush said: "The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."...

...30 Mar 2003 On This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declares: "the area… that coalition forces control… happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."...

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- Two dozen Caltech students wearing Superman capes, tutus and other odd attire as part of a hazing stunt were rescued after getting stranded on the Mount Wilson Toll Road.

Organizers of the California Institute of Technology initiation ritual said they didn't realize the road had been covered last year by a landslide.

"You've got to remember that common sense is not factored into the intelligence quotient," said Deputy Greg Gabriel, who leads the Altadena Search and Rescue team...

...The students didn't have flashlights, warm clothes or other important supplies, Gabriel said. But the deputy said they were equipped with "distinctive headgear - hats with antennas and horns, that kind of stuff."...

...Meek added: "Fitzgerald, who is fighting Libby's request, said in a letter to Libby's lawyers that many e-mails from Cheney's office at the time of the Plame leak in 2003 have been deleted contrary to White House policy."...

The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has angrily rounded on George Bush, saying his arms "are smeared up to the elbow in the blood of other nations"...