Church having trouble marketing poverty and celibacy to men - 236 - News

Church having trouble marketing poverty and celibacy to men

Guys, it's like cowboys and Indians, but in robes, with sepulchres.

St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, NY is having trouble in the admissions department.

Fifty years ago, several hundred men at a time studied for the priesthood. Today, only 22 are enrolled. In an effort to attract suitable men to the priesthood, the seminary is trying new marketing techinques. St. Joseph's launched a website called nypriest.com and the archdiocese is hoping the Pope's visit provides a shot in the arm. Asks Reverend Luke Sweeney, "How do we get the 'cool' factor back into the priesthood?"

How indeed? The marketing dept at Team 23/6 has a few suggestions:

ABC Turns Debates into a Reality Show

Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post: "Greg Mitchell

BIO
Greg Mitchell: The ABC Debate: A Shameful Night for the U.S. Media

In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia. They, and their network, should hang their collective heads in shame."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Making MY WIFE Feel Beautiful

DRUDGE REPORT 2008®: "UPDATE: Bardot on trial for 'inciting anti-Muslim hatred'..."

As men age we become transformed into older versions, as women age they change into utterly different beings?

Would anyone recognize this woman as Bardot?

Sexism aside. Barbara .. you are more beautiful every day. I hope someone sees Bardot that way too.

Unmasking a troll ....

The real identity of PussyBud at HA is ...

Danny John-Jules, the actor from Red Dwarf!

Could be Worse, He could have used American.

French hand Tellier 'nul points' for Eurovision song in English

Paul MacInnes
Thursday April 17, 2008
guardian.co.uk

It's a clash between tradition and innovation. A fight between the insular and the globalised. A tussle over the very character of modern France and, if it isn't resolved soon, the country's chances of winning Eurovision could take a bit of a beating.

Sebastien Tellier, the electro-pop star who has been chosen to represent France at this year's kitsch sing-a-long, has incurred the wrath of the French establishment after it became clear that the song he is set to perform, Divine, contains some lyrics in English.

More Ugly Chinamen

BBC - Homepage: "Torch reaches locked-down Delhi

The Olympic flame arrives under very tight security in India, home to a large exiled Tibetan population."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Norway's Mesdsage to Israel

A MESSAGE TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE FROM NORWAY

We want you to know, that in this time of biased media coverage of the conflict in the Middle East, of general adversity to the Jewish state and increase of the antisemitisme in all Europe, that there is a large multitude of declared supporters of Israel in Norway.

On their behalf we want to assure you of our dissociation from the policy of the Norwegian Government in the Middel East. Greetings from Psalm 122: 6-7.

From the movement The Scripture and Israel in Norway (Ordet og Israel). www.ordetogisrael.no

Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: "Screw 'Em" - Politics on The Huffington Post

Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: "Screw 'Em" - Politics on The Huffington Post: "During the past week, Sen. Hillary Clinton has presented herself as a working class populist, the politician in touch with small town sentiments, compared to the elitism of her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama.

But a telling anecdote from her husband's administration shows Hillary Clinton's attitudes about the 'lunch-bucket Democrats' are not exactly pristine.

In January 1995, as the Clintons were licking their wounds from the 1994 congressional elections, a debate emerged at a retreat at Camp David. Should the administration make overtures to working class white southerners who had all but forsaken the Democratic Party? The then-first lady took a less than inclusive approach.

'Screw 'em,' she told her husband. 'You don't owe them a thing, Bill. They're doing nothing for you; you don't have to do anything for them.'"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Poll Shows Erosion Of Trust in Clinton - washingtonpost.com

PHILADELPHIA, April 15 -- Lost in the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign's aggressive attacks on Barack Obama in recent days is a deep and enduring problem that threatens to undercut any inroads Clinton has made in her struggle to overtake him in the Democratic presidential race: She has lost trust among voters, a majority of whom now view her as dishonest.

Her advisers' efforts to deal with the problem -- by having her acknowledge her mistakes and crack self-deprecating jokes -- do not seem to have succeeded. Privately, the aides admit that the recent controversy over her claim to have ducked sniper fire on a trip to Bosnia probably made things worse.

Clinton is viewed as "honest and trustworthy" by just 39 percent of Americans, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, compared with 52 percent in May 2006. Nearly six in 10 said in the new poll that she is not honest and trustworthy. And now, compared with Obama, Clinton has a deep trust deficit among Democrats, trailing him by 23 points as the more honest, an area on which she once led both Obama and John Edwards.

Among Democrats, 63 percent called her honest, down 18 points from 2006; among independents, her trust level has dropped 13 points, to 37 percent. Republicans held Clinton in low regard on this in the past (23 percent called her honest two years ago), but it is even lower now, at 16 percent. Majorities of men and women now say the phrase does not apply to Clinton; two years ago, narrow majorities of both did.

Advisers argue that her positive ratings have dipped as she has been defined by her opponents -- a normal campaign occurrence -- and that her honesty problem reflects the pounding she took from Republicans in the 1990s. But the Bosnia incident and the way the campaign handled it have left advisers divided over what a candidate can do after such a steep drop in trust.

Some of her aides believe that after Clinton told the Bosnia story -- of having run from her military aircraft into a hangar to avoid sniper fire -- when television images of the event showed otherwise, the campaign had no choice but to say she "misspoke." Communications director Howard Wolfson first did so on a conference call with reporters, and Clinton repeated the explanation over the course of several days.

Other Clinton advisers thought that response did not come quickly enough -- and that when it did, without further explanation or talking points for surrogates to use, it only worsened the perception that she had lied. Making the situation more difficult was a split within the campaign over whether Clinton had exaggerated, or simply confused the landing with another trip. One Clinton insider announced in a strategy meeting it was ridiculous to have imagined the first lady ever having been in danger, or for Clinton to have thought she was -- a slap at the senator from New York that other advisers described as disrespectful.

At the same time, die-hard Clinton loyalists thought her communications operation did not defend her heartily enough, which press aides said they thought was impossible. "Continuing to say it did happen when it didn't happen is not a strategy," one adviser said.

The problem was exacerbated when Bill Clinton, in defending her confused memory of the Bosnia event, got key details of the incident wrong, before later saying his wife had told him to stay out of it.

Two staffers from the Clinton White House years, Lissa Muscatine and Melanne Verveer, wrote a New York Times op-ed article recalling the perils of the trip, trying to justify why Clinton had gotten the story wrong. "As has been reported, Mrs. Clinton's trip to Bosnia included a U.S.O. component with the comedian Sinbad and the singer Sheryl Crow. The helicopters that carried them to performances at American base camps zigzagged just above the trees to avoid potential ground fire, according to Carey Cavanaugh, who was then a State Department official traveling with Sinbad, and helicopters flew alongside to deal with the threat of anti-aircraft fire or snipers. These facts explain why many of us, including the first lady, believed that the conditions on the ground were precarious. We were worried about sniper fire and were prepared to rush off the tarmac when we landed," they wrote.

Senior Clinton advisers argued that the Bosnia story would not have developed the way it did if it were not for a story line about Clinton that goes back to the 1990s, when scandals involving the first lady, including the firings in the White House travel office and her financial dealings, resulted in widespread doubts about her trustworthiness. That framework, they argue, made it easier for Clinton to be perceived as dishonest, a problem that first arose in her presidential campaign in a debate last fall when she gave conflicting answers on whether she supports allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.

The new poll suggests that much of her problem is with men. Nearly two-thirds of men said Clinton is not honest and trustworthy (an increase of 19 points), compared with 53 percent of women (up 12 points). Democratic men, in particular, have shifted: About four in 10 now do not believe Clinton to be honest and trustworthy, nearly triple the percentage saying so in 2006.

The percentage calling Clinton honest has dropped steeply among whites with higher incomes and levels of education. And while majorities of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents across demographic lines said she is honest and trustworthy, the class divisions remain: The percentage of white Democrats without college degrees calling Clinton honest hardly budged in two years, while those with college degrees have dropped off significantly on the question (from 82 percent to 53 percent).

Among whites, the percentage saying Clinton is honest and trustworthy has declined 10 points, compared with 26 points among nonwhites. That number has declined more sharply among liberals (down 30 points) than among moderates (down 13) or conservatives (down 4 points). Head to head with Obama on honesty among Democrats, Clinton faces a 23-point deficit overall, 17 points among whites and nearly 50 points among African Americans.

Cohen reported from Washington. Polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta in Washington contributed to this report.

The Catholic Supremes

What is wrong with this picture?

5 Supreme Court justices on White House guest list: "WASHINGTON (AP) - All five Roman Catholic justices on the Supreme Court were invited to Wednesday night's splashy White House dinner in honor of Pope Benedict XVI.

Republican presidential contender John McCain will be there, too. But Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who had a nationally broadcast debate scheduled Wednesday night, were not invited.

About 250 guests were to attend the dinner. Benedict will not be there because he will be attending an evening prayer service with U.S. bishops.

The guests include former Los Angeles Dodgers baseball manager Tommy Lasorda, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Carl Anderson, supreme knight and chief executive officer, Knights of Columbus, Ken Hackett, president, Catholic Relief Services, George Weigel, author of a biography of Pope John Paul II, and more than 20 members of the clergy from around the country.

From the Supreme Court, the guests are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.

The menu: morel-encrusted diver scallops, spatzle, angel hair asparagus bisque, veal, white truffle-potato dumplings, carrots and mushrooms, lettuces and candied pumpkin seeds, squash carpaccio, pumpkin oil vinaigrette, raspberry crisp and mint coulis."

Clinton losing traction over Obama in Pennsylvania, Indiana - Los Angeles Times

Her formerly double-digit lead is now just a five-point margin in Pennsylvania, survey finds. The reduced margin makes a win for her there less significant. She trails Obama among Hoosiers.

By Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
2:00 PM PDT, April 15, 2008

WASHINGTON -- With three crucial Democratic primaries looming, Hillary Rodham Clinton may not be headed toward the blockbuster victories she needs to jump-start her presidential bid -- even in Pennsylvania, the state that was supposed to be her ace in the hole, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.

The survey found the New York senator leading Barack Obama by just 5 percentage points in Pennsylvania, which votes next Tuesday. Such a margin would not give her much of a boost in the battle for the party's nomination.

What is more, the poll found Clinton trails Obama by 5 points in Indiana, another Rust Belt state that should play to her strengths among blue-collar voters.

In North Carolina, an Obama stronghold, he is running 13 points ahead.

The race remains volatile, however, because many likely voters in the Democratic primaries are still undecided -- 12% in Pennsylvania, 19% in Indiana and 17% in North Carolina.

"I could be one who goes into the voting box and makes up my mind at the polls," Gwen Hodavance, a receptionist in Paoli, Pa., said in an interview after participating in the poll. "Obama is the best candidate, the best articulator of the mood for change, but I don't know how he would be for president."

Gallup Daily: Obama 51%, Clinton 40%

PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama is maintaining his lead over Hillary Clinton among Democrats nationally in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking, with a 51% to 40% margin in the April 12-14 average.

The current 11 percentage point lead is the largest for Obama this year, and marks the ninth consecutive day in which Obama has led Clinton by a statistically significant margin. The current Gallup Poll Daily tracking average is based on interviewing conducted Saturday, Sunday and Monday -- after the initial reports of Obama's controversial remarks about "bitter" small-town residents began to be reported in the news media.

The Ugly Chinaman

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 04/15/2008 | An angry China is lashing out at its foreign critics: "BEIJING — Bristling at criticism in the run-up to the Summer Olympics, China is lashing back at its foreign critics — by name.

Earlier this week, the state Xinhua news agency called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 'disgusting.' And on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu lambasted a CNN commentator, Jack Cafferty, for his 'vicious' commentary on China.

'We solemnly request that CNN, and Cafferty himself, take back the malicious remarks and apologize to the Chinese people,' Jiang said at a news briefing.

Protests plaguing the global Olympic torch relay, along with mounting criticism of China's handling of domestic unrest by Tibetans, have embittered many Chinese. As foreign leaders discuss whether to boycott the Olympics' opening ceremonies on Aug. 8, Chinese Internet sites are replete with their own mounting calls for boycotts of foreign goods, souring the mood as the nation prepares to host its biggest international event ever.

A mood of angry nationalism has spurred government officials to lash out at foreign critics, trying to stay ahead of public resentment — even fury — that foreigners may spoil the Summer Olympics party with what some see as unwarranted criticism.

Several foreign journalists, including correspondents for USA Today and"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Ammunition for Reichert and Rossi, Courtesy of McCain

I just heard a speech by John McCain on economics. The speech was very impressive, perhaps a better example of what the Dems can expect than the Hillary touted Reaganesque campaign of fear and race.

The speach was long and emphasized tax and budget reforms that made ma lot of sense but let me focus on one item: PORK. McCain focused on ending the set asides. He claimed that he has never sought a set aside for his state.

This is p0powerful stuff in an economy year. Reichert has already taken the same stand. If Rossi were to join in .. using the Tanker issue as a wedge, I suspect the appeal to voters would be very high.

Darcy Burner is the likeliest victim of such a focus. Her campaign is being hurt, IMHO, by an over focus on Iraq. When the dust settles, the public is going t learn that McCain and Obama are really not all that far apart. The economy, however will be a bigger issue and McCain is offering some teeth that would challenge Burner since many of our Demo delegation have done a good job of raising pork.

Gadgets : Miscellaneous

Rage Against the Machines: Gallery of Gadget Revenge

By Wired.com Photo Department

04.14.08 | 12:00 AM

When the bot uprising is complete, this gallery will be used to output a "flesh-flaying" verdict against Wired.com from our assigned judging unit. Until then, these photos are badges of honor for human freedom fighters around the globe. We asked our readers to terminate their most offensive technology and submit the best photos of the destruction. After weeks of voting, these are the 10 top revenge photos from those who won't kowtow to our future overlords.

Check out the many excellent entries that didn't make it into the top 10 at the Gadget Abuse submission page.

Left:

Dead Gateway Laptop
Submitted by Anonymous

Photographer's comment:

"Killed with 9mm, .380 ACP and possibly a few .223 rounds."

As Pesach Approaches

Poles discover their Jewish roots

By Adam Easton BBC News, Warsaw

The majority of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust emigrated

Under Nazi and communist persecution, the few Jews who remained in Poland sometimes hid their identity, leaving a surprise in store for their descendants.

Pawel works in the kitchen of a kosher restaurant in the heart of Warsaw's growing Jewish community, near the 19th Century Nozyk synagogue, a Jewish theatre and cultural centre.

When he was younger, he used to be a skinhead.

"I am from a Catholic family. I was baptised. My parents are still Catholics," he told me.

"When I was a skinhead, I used to go around saying: oh, those Jews, look at what they've done.

"It was madness because we didn't know anything about Jews or Jewish culture. It was just slogans - like Jews Rule the World, Jews are Bad.

When I looked into the mirror I asked myself: why should I be a Jew? Pawel

"When there was a black person in the street, we used to chase him. If we caught him, we did what we did.

"A young person always needs to find an enemy and we found this enemy in Jews, blacks and Gypsies."

Six years ago, Pawel made a discovery that turned his life upside down - he found out that he was Jewish. His parents had turned their back on Jewish life and they had never told him about his background.

"When I looked into the mirror I asked myself: why should I be a Jew? It was the biggest shock of my life. It was really a huge blow. For most of my life I hated them. It was too much to take in at once."

New path

Pawel decided he wanted to know more about Judaism and he started attending the synagogue.

Now 30 years old, he is trying to lead an Orthodox lifestyle, but it is not always easy when he wears his skullcap on the streets.

"I put on a hat but it doesn't help much because I still stand out with my beard. People stare and turn around. Sometimes they say: look there's a Jew. But, I don't find it offensive. I used to behave like that."

Pawel has not been able to meet some of his old friends because he is afraid of how they would react. He did not want to be photographed.

But his parents are proud that he and his wife, who is also Jewish, are raising a Jewish family, even if his mother and father do not want to return to the faith.

"I told my Dad it would be good for him to go back to Judaism but he said he is so used to the Church it would be difficult for him. This is their choice, there's no point in forcing it - I just want them to be happy."

Revival

Warsaw was once home to the largest Jewish community in the world after New York.

But 90% of Poland's Jews were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. The majority of those who survived decided to emigrate after suffering repression under the new communist authorities.

Michael Schudrich is Poland's chief rabbi

But since the collapse of communism in 1989 people have felt free to talk about Jewish life and the country's Jewish community is undergoing a revival.

Many Poles were brought up as Catholics and only later discovered they were really Jewish or had Jewish ancestors.

At the Nozyk synagogue, which stands almost hidden beside grey communist-era tower blocks and modern glass skyscrapers in the centre of Warsaw, Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, leads the daily prayers.

Officially there are just a few thousand registered Jews in the country. Some estimates suggest there could be up to 30,000 people with Jewish roots.

We hope that they will remain Jewish and they will keep their Jewish education Rabbi Pavlac

"It's far more common than people realise. It's probably in the thousands at least," he says.

"We have had support groups and certainly people have been shocked. Those who come and begin to learn about what it means to be Jewish - in some way, at some level, end up at peace with it - or at a liveable level of peace with it.

It is not simple, it takes a lot of patience and I really stand in awe of these people because I don't know if I could do what they have done."

First steps

In Warsaw's Jewish school, a class of four-year-olds take their first steps as young members of the Jewish community.

Here they will get a good general education but they will also learn about Jewish life, culture and Hebrew.

"We hope that they will remain Jewish and that they will keep the Jewish education they received here in our school and, in the future, they will get more interested in any kind of Jewish life," the school's director, Rabbi Mati Pawlak, explains.

"Whether they choose to be religious or non-religious - they will stay with us as a community," he adds.

Like many others here, 29-year-old Rabbi Pavlac only discovered he was Jewish when he was a teenager. He has just become the country's first Polish rabbi in 40 years.

Many people believe the Holocaust killed off Jewish life in Poland but people like Pawel, Rabbi Pawlak and the 240 pupils at this school are proof that it is slowly coming back to life again.

Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy

Of course the real story here is that there is no story. The press is allowing HRC to spin a rational comment in an irrational way.

Oh, noes! Would it crush anyone's beautiful velveteen pony to learn that Hillary Clinton hasn't always been a duck-hunting, beer-drankin', Senator-Saint who walked among the commoners and lived as they do? It's true, it's true, and apparently, there are witnesses!

Harvard University political scientist Theda Skocpol - also an elite, I guess! - provided Talking Points Memo with a following statement, which, in part, reads:

I have been in meetings with the Clintons and their advisors where very clinical things were said in a very-detached tone about unwillingness of working class voters to trust government -- and Bill Clinton -- and about their unfortunate (from a Clinton perspective) proclivity to vote on life-style rather than economic issues. To see Hillary going absolutely over the top to smash Obama for making clearly more humanly sympathetic observations in this vein, is just amazing. Even more so to see her pretending to be a gun-toting non-elite. Give us a break!...

This has to be one of the few times in U.S. political history when a multi-millionaire has accused a much less wealthy fellow public servant, a person of the same party and views who made much less lucrative career choices, of "elitism"! (I won't say the only time, because U.S. political history is full of absurdities of this sort.) In a way, it is funny -- and it may not be long before the jokes start.

Perhaps, however, it can be said that Pennsylvanians are not "bitter," at least, relative to their candidates.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama, trying for an upset in Pennsylvania's pivotal April 22 primary, is hoping the Teamsters Union can help him reel in the state's huge blue-collar vote.

Sen. Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in March.

1 of 2

Teamsters president Jim Hoffa, leading a convoy across Pennsylvania, told CNN that he believes the Illinois senator "can change this country."

Obama, who hasn't been doing well with blue-collar workers, took his own tour across Pennsylvania.

"I met folks in factories and on farms, in bars and bowling alleys," Obama recently said.

Hoffa said voters desperately want change.

"There's a despair out there that we can't change things, we've been beaten down," Hoffa said.

On Wednesday, the Teamsters convoy made its way to Reading, Pennsylvania, where the York Peppermint Patty factory is shutting down, moving more than 250 jobs to Mexico.

The target of the workers' anger, according to Hoffa, is NAFTA.

"People remember Clinton and NAFTA, and I think when we talk about changing NAFTA, I think that Barack Obama has more credibility," he said.

Obama is running as a Washington outsider, and he subtly reminds voters that he's not part of that system.

Don't Miss

• Teamsters endorse Obama
• Election Center 2008

"For over two decades, what we heard from the Bush administration is ... you're on your own," Obama has said.

But the two decades he refers to would include the Clinton years in The White House.

Obama is counting on his outsider appeal, more than his lifestyle, to break Clinton's lock on blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania.

He reminds workers that when it comes to enjoying the gains of economic growth, they're outsiders, too. E-mail to a friend

Was Leonardo Confused About Sex? Did His Helicopter Really Work?

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Even Leonardo could get it wrong. In this drawing of copulation, the genius has the penis straight (it is curved), interlocked with the vagina (wasn't he gay like Michelangelo?), and with a separate urethra and sperm channel (sic).

The last part seems weird since he did dissections. Is this a frontier he never crossed?

The Rolling Stone Gathers Moss

The following stories, from CNN and the Scotsman, suggest that the endgame may be coming for HRC. I hate this, BUT she has made this bed and now must lie in it as the cabin goes over the cliff.

Hillary could have followed Obama's lead and insisted on a high road in the campaign. She has enough good ideas and track record that such a straight arrow strategy, aside from simply being ethical, would distinguish her from her husband and his Republican tormentors, Instead, apparently gleefully, she "threw the kitchen sink at Obama."

That said the Bill Clinton issue IS a very real one. The Presidential spouse cannot conduct a separate foreign policy. Bill has stated that of she is elected he will NOT step down from his Foundation. That should be unacceptable.

The problem is not merely one of disagreement. Bill is paid to be a LOBBYIST. Inevitably this creates a conflict of interest that is massive. He can not even escape it if he stops accepting speaking fees because his Foundation solicits funds for its projects under his guidance. For example a friend of Bill's gave the Foundation several million dollars following a meeting of Bill with the Dictator who lobbied for Bill's support in a UN matter.

Read on ....

It's Obama, stupid: Carter and Gore to end Clinton bid

On the slide: Hillary Clinton at a committee hearing on Capitol Hill. Political oblivion beckons if she fails to win big in Pennsylvania. Photograph: Getty

By Chris Stephen

in New York

DEMOCRAT grandees Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are being lined-up to deliver the coup de grâce to Hillary Clinton and end her campaign to become president.

Falling poll numbers and a string of high-profile blunders have convinced party elders that she must now bow out of the primary race.

Former president Carter and former vice-president Gore have already held high-level discussions about delivering the message that she must stand down for the good of the Democrats.

"They're in discussions," a source close to Carter told Scotland on Sunday. "Carter has been talking to Gore. They will act, possibly together, or in sequence."

April 11, 2008

Clinton laughs off Colombia questions

Posted: 10:00 AM ET

Watch Clinton laugh off a question on Colombia.

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) – Hillary Clinton used her trademark laugh Thursday to deflect a question about the $800,000 her husband earned in 2005 giving speeches for a Bogota-based group that supports the Colombia free trade agreement — the same trade deal she currently opposes.

Asked by CNN if those earnings represented a conflict of interest given that she has dipped into her family's pocketbook to pay campaign bills, Clinton threw up her hands and laughed loudly for several seconds.

"How many angels dance on the head of the pin?," she responded, continuing to giggle. "I have really, uh, nothing to … I mean, how do you answer that?"

The New York senator explained there are different sides to the argument over trade, and re-emphasized her own opposition to the trade deal, assailing the Colombian government's "outrageous" record of "targeting labor leaders."

"I am against the Colombia free trade deal," she said. "It doesn't matter who talks to me. It doesn't matter any circumstances. I have been against it. I am against it. I will be against it absent the kind of changes in behavior that I have been calling for from the Colombian government."

Earlier in the press conference, describing her husband's advocacy for the trade deal, Clinton said: "Everyone is free to express their opinion."

From: CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby
Filed under: Hillary Clinton • Pennsylvania

Three Cheers fo Japan!!!

Can anyone imagine world reaction to a platoon of US special forces running with the torch when WE host the games!

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will not allow the squad of Chinese flame guards to intervene with the Beijing Olympic torch's progress when it arrives in a Japanese city this month, the national police head was quoted as saying on Friday.

"We should not violate the principle that the Japanese police will firmly maintain security," Kyodo news agency quoted Shinya Izumi, head of the National Public Safety Commission, as saying.

"We do not know what position the people who escorted the relay are in," Izumi was quoted as saying. "If they are for the consideration of security, it is our role."

The torch is set to arrive in Nagano, central Japan, where the Winter Games were hosted in 1998, on April 26, after passing through Buenos Aires, Mumbai, and Canberra, among other cities.