• Group urges Bush administration to withdraw support of bill
• Bill would let AG block terror suspects' gun sales, licenses, permits
• NRA: Measure would "allow arbitrary denial of Second Amendment rights"

      WASHINGTON (AP) -- "The National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its support of a bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms.

      Backed by the Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects.

      In a letter this week to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, NRA executive director Chris Cox said the bill, offered last week by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, "would allow arbitrary denial of Second Amendment rights based on mere 'suspicions' of a terrorist threat."

      "As many of our friends in law enforcement have rightly pointed out, the word 'suspect' has no legal meaning, particularly when it comes to denying constitutional liberties," Cox wrote.

      In a letter supporting the measure, Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Hertling said the bill would not automatically prevent a gun sale to a suspected terrorist. In some cases, federal agents may want to let a sale go forward to avoid compromising an ongoing investigation.

      Hertling also notes there is a process to challenge denial of a sale.

      Current law requires gun dealers to conduct a criminal background check and deny sales if a gun purchaser falls under a specified prohibition, including a felony conviction, domestic abuse conviction or illegal immigration. There is no legal basis to deny a sale if a purchaser is on a terror watch list..."

     Without a trial or the old "innocent until proven guilty" doctrine, someone in America can be denied their rights by simply having someone label them a "Suspected Terrorist".  No evidence needed, just having your name on some arbitrary list is enough to throw out your constitutional rights.

     As many have already experianced, simply by speaking out against the government is all it takes for you to wind up on one of these lists.  Ask any of those who are on the "No-Fly List"; many of whom simply were at a peaceful demonstration against the War or the Administration.  It's the same thing now with buying a firearm.  No right to a fair trial by a jury of your peers.  No Habeus Corpus or Right to Defense.  You say stuff that goes against the grain and get your name put on the blacklist so you can never buy a firearm again.

     Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. 

     The mass media is not helping (Both CNN and FOX are twisting the terminology, wording and facts just enough to maximize the fear effect).  They are throwing so much spin on this story it makes me dizzy.  We truly live in a New Era of McCarthyism; this time it's not Communists, it's "Terrorists". 

     Be careful how you express your 1st Amendment Rights.  It may cost you your 2nd. 

     Donate to the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), the Gun Owners of America (GOA) or the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO).  Donate to the NRA if you have any left over; but be warned.  The NRA has capitulated Constitutional rights to the other side in the past.

      NEW YORK (Reuters) - "A falling dollar may complicate the U.S. inflation outlook, creating another headache for the Federal Reserve as it attempts to gauge whether stubbornly high inflation will be tamed.

      The Fed has historically put less weight on exchange rates compared with its central bank peers in some Asian and European countries, because the impact from trade on prices and on the U.S. economy usually has been relatively limited.

      But the Fed may have less room for complacency now.

      The dollar's recent decline comes at a time when the labor market has remained surprisingly tight -- "gangbusters" as one policy-maker put it -- in spite of sluggish growth..."

     A simple facemask, although not proven effective, is better than nothing.  It can trap moisture particles from mucous (coughed or sneezed) and prevent concentrated amounts of the virus into the system.  As a note, these masks are not to be relied upon but again, they are better than nothing.

     The only proven way to avoid the virus (or any pathogen) is to avoid contact with the known vector (human or otherwise).

      DALLAS (Fox)  —  "Days of deadly storms flooded roads, damaged homes and knocked down trees in Texas, and about 200,000 homes and businesses remained in the dark Thursday.

      At least three people have been killed — two hit by lightning and a third stuck in a submerged car.

      High wind, heavy rain and lightning and zero visibility shut down Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport for more than an hour Wednesday. Forty flights were canceled, a dozen were diverted and others were delayed.

      Wind gusts of up to 100 mph were reported in Terrell, east of Dallas, the National Weather Service said..."

     In a time when self-reliance is almost taboo, I feel now is the time to start re-thinking the options out there to growing and tending to your own means of food.  It is obvious we cannot trust others 100% of the time to provide a safe, affordable diet.

     NEW YORK (Reuters) - "U.S. retail gasoline prices could hit an all-time high by the end of this month due to ongoing problems at the nation's oil refineries, automobile and travel group AAA said on Wednesday.

      Gasoline prices have surged 30 cents since early April to $2.97 a gallon on average, bringing them within a dime of the record struck after Hurricane Katrina shut down refineries along the Gulf Coast in 2005.

      "The nationwide average price of self-serve regular will probably hit $3 per gallon in the next few days, and could possibly set a new all-time record high price before the end of the month," AAA said.

     Texas (Fox) - "Waves of strong storms moved across Texas for the third straight day Wednesday, knocking out power, downing trees and stranding motorists in high waters.

      One woman died when her car became submerged in southwest Bexar County.

      Bexar County officials were rescuing people from another car underwater at the same crossing when they noticed a second vehicle. When a firefighter broke out the rear window of the vehicle, they discovered the body of a woman in her 40s. She was not immediately identified.

      On Tuesday, an angler was killed when he was struck by lightning in the Central Texas town of Cameron..."

      An infection is coming, and almost no one has heard about it. This infection isn't going to give you flu, or TB. In fact, it isn't interested in you at all. It is after the wheat plants that feed more people than any other single food source on the planet. And because of cutbacks in international research, we aren't prepared. The famines that were banished by the advent of disease-resistant crops in the Green Revolution of the 1960s could return, Borlaug told New Scientist.

      The disease is Ug99, a virulent strain of black stem rust fungus (Puccinia graminis), discovered in Uganda in 1999. Since the Green Revolution, farmers everywhere have grown wheat varieties that resist stem rust, but Ug99 has evolved to take advantage of those varieties, and almost no wheat crops anywhere are resistant to it.

      The strain has spread slowly across east Africa, but in January this year spores blew across to Yemen, and north into Sudan (see Map). Scientists who have tracked similar airborne spores in this part of the world say it will now blow into Egypt, Turkey and the Middle East, and on to India, lands where a billion people depend on wheat..."

     I sure hope this thing doesn't reach the Great Plains of North America.

      JOSE, Venezuela (Reuters) - "Venezuela stripped the world's biggest oil companies of operational control over massive Orinoco Belt crude projects on Tuesday, sending in workers backed by troops to occupy the multi-billion-dollar installations.

      Rallying thousands of workers dressed in the signature red of his self-styled revolution, President Hugo Chavez hailed what he called the end of U.S.-prescribed policies that had opened up the largest oil reserves in the hemisphere to foreign investment.

      "Today, we are ending this perverse era," Chavez shouted looking out from a platform over a sea of red hats, helmets and flags after the major step in his nationalization drive..."

      Arctic Circle (BBC) - "Arctic ice is melting faster than computer models of climate calculate, according to a group of US researchers.

      Since 1979, the Arctic has been losing summer ice at about 9% per decade, but models on average produce a melting rate less than half that figure.

      The scientists suggest forecasts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) may be too cautious.

      The latest observations indicate that Arctic summers could be ice-free by the middle of the century.

       "Somewhere in the second half of the century, it would happen," said Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado.

       "Some computer models show periods of great sensitivity where the Arctic ice system collapses suddenly, and that trend may occur a bit earlier; that's the best guess, but exactly when it's hard to say," he told the BBC News website.

       Dr Scambos co-authored the latest study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, with other scientists from NSIDC and from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), also in Boulder, Colorado.

     Whatever the cause of the Climate-Shift that is taking place, people need to start thinking a little more toward the future.

      TOKYO (Reuters) - "The dollar stayed near a record low against the euro on Tuesday after data the previous day supported expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year.

      Activity in Asia was light as most financial markets in the region outside Japan were closed for national holidays on Tuesday. Many markets in Europe are also shut on Tuesday.