Taliban Celebrates Obama's Firing of General

As President Obama sacked Gen. Stanley McChrystal this week, replacing him with Gen. David Petraeus, Taliban commanders watched events unfold from afar, and then declared that this was yet another victory.

The change of leadership, they said, gives them even more time in their fight against U.S. forces.

Ahmadullah Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said that sending Gen. McChrystal home in the middle of the war, in such an inglorious way, was good news as it proved how troubled and divided the U.S. political and military leadership had become.

Senior Afghan Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani said he and his men had been informed as soon as the story about McChrystal broke. When Haqqani heard about the disparaging comments that McChrystal had made, he knew straight away that the American commander in Afghanistan was in trouble, and would get fired. Attempting to make the firing seem less about pride, Obama's supporters suggested it was really McChrystal's comments about the French, not about Obama or the V.P. ("Vice President Bite Me") that caused the firing, but such claims contradict earlier statements by the Press Secretary that said the President was furious.

Haqqani was pleased with what he saw as disarray among the team of American top military brass and diplomats in Afghanistan, and said that it proved that the Afghan war had frustrated and divided the Obama administration and the military leadership.

"After the American invasion, my father… said that Afghanistan would become another Vietnam for the U.S. which is now gradually proving to be true," said the militant commander. Most Taliban fighters stay in the mountains, away from cities and towns, and keep themselves informed about what’s going on in America and elsewhere by listening to the radio—mostly Pashto services of the BBC or Voice of America’s Azadi Radio.

See Chick's MEN OF PEACE?

Gore Incident Silenced for Four Years

Authorities in Oregon have confirmed a tabloid report that former Vice President Al Gore was investigated four years ago after a masseuse accused him of "unwanted sexual contact" at a Portland hotel, but the case was not pursued because of a lack of evidence. How the incident avoided any coverage in the National press at the time was not disclosed.

The Portland Police Bureau released a statement Wednesday addressing accusations made in 2006, saying the woman was called to Gore's room at Hotel Lucia in October of that year to give him a massage (alone). The police statement came in response to a report earlier in the day in the National Enquirer. (The National Enquirer is the only paper that initially reported Senator Edwards was fathering a "love child" with his mistress at the same time he was running for President.)

According to the police, a local attorney contacted investigators "and said he had a client that wanted to report an unwanted sexual contact by Mr. Gore." But the alleged victim declined to be interviewed by detectives and the attorney told the police months later "that they were pursuing civil litigation."

A spokesperson for the Gore family declined to comment Wednesday.

The Enquirer story comes three weeks after Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, announced they were separating after 40 years of marriage. See Chick's THE ROYAL AFFAIR.

Jesus Burns To Ground

A bolt struck a 62-foot-tall statue of Jesus Christ on Monday outside a church
in Monroe, Ohio, and the statue erupted in flames. All that remains is a charred
steel skeleton, its spindly arms stretched toward heaven, a gesture that once
earned it the nickname "Touchdown Jesus."

Darlene Bishop, co-pastor of Solid Rock Church, says she's simply relieved that
the lightning hit Jesus and not the home for at-risk women next door.

"I told them, 'It looks like Jesus took a hit for you last night,' " she says.

Act of God? Act of nature?

In 2008, lightning singed the fingers and eyebrows of Christ the Redeemer, the
130-foot Jesus statue that stands over Rio de Janeiro. In 2007, a bolt blasted
the 33-foot Jesus statue at Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colo. One of
Jesus's arms fell off.

The saints and angels are not safe either. The Notre Dame de Chicago's Virgin
Mary burst into flames from her perch atop the church's dome in 1978; the
Engineering News Record covered the construction of a new, lightning-resistant
statue with the headline: "Burned once, dome reMaryed."

A bolt that struck St. Joan of Arc's statue in New Orleans sliced her brandished
staff in half. Statues of the Angel Moroni, which frequently top Mormon
churches, have been hit by lightning with such frequency -- Moroni's horn is
particularly susceptible -- that the Salt Lake Tribune once fretted over their
safety in a front-page story.

(Side note: Actor James Caviezel was struck by lightning in 2003 while filming
Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." He was playing Jesus.) See Chick's SOMEBODY ANGRY?

Dick Cheney's Lesbian Daughter PG... again.

Mary Cheney (Former Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter) is having a second baby.

The 40-year old Mary has somehow managed to be impregnated, a fact that will no doubt bring up tension in the Cheney household, which barely survived her first birthing drama.

Though Dick and wife Lynne swear up and down that they love their gay daughter and her equally gay lady, Heather Poe, the conservative set never quite got used to the idea of two mama-parents.

Focus on the Family patriarch James Dobson wrote a Time piece called "Two Mommies is One Too Many," in which he argued Mary and Heather weren't man enough to raise a child. She is "due" in November... about the time Congress and the Senate face angry voters.

See Chick's SIN CITY.

Hindu Honor Killers Arrested

The father and uncle of a 19-year-old woman have been arrested for what Indian police say was the honor killing of the teen and her boyfriend.

Police in Delhi, India, say Asha Saini and her boyfriend, Yogesh Kumar, were tortured and then electrocuted. After the arrests, the uncle was quoted as saying he had no regrets.

"My brother killed them. I have no regrets whatsoever," Om Prakash told reporters as he was led away by police, the Indian news website Sify reported. "The boy's family was opposed to the match and told us to get her married off to whoever we want to."

The boyfriend's older sister, Renu Kumar, told Sify, "Asha wanted to marry my brother, but her family forcibly fixed her marriage to somebody else. On an earlier occasion, her mother had come to our place and threatened dire consequences if Yogesh did not stop meeting her."

According to the police, the young woman's family disapproved of the relationship because the two came from different castes, the BBC reported. In Hindu society, different castes are divided into different social groups, and a higher-caste member marrying someone from a lower group is often seen as bringing disgrace upon the high-caste member's family.

The bodies of the two, who had been beaten with metal rods before being electrocuted, were discovered Monday after neighbors reported smells coming from the uncle's house in Delhi.

"When we found the bodies, the couple's legs and hands were tied and they were bleeding," Delhi's deputy police commissioner, N.S. Bundela, said at a news conference today. He added that three other people were suspects: the woman's cousin, her aunt and her mother.

Although honor killings are reportedly rare in the Indian capital, they are common in parts of northern India, according to the BBC.

The police said Asha's father, Suresh Kumar Saini, and other family members feared she was about to elope with her boyfriend, so they invited him to their home on Sunday.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times quoted by the BBC, police said the two were beaten for hours before being electrocuted by being forced to sit on iron trunks attached to live wires.

"This is a barbaric act of violence and should be condemned," Delhi's women and child development minister, Kiran Walia, was reported as saying. "It is my duty to get the perpetrators punished." See Chick's THE TRAITOR.

Catholics Furious over Mother Teresa Snub

Catholics are criticizing the owners of the landmark skyscraper for declining to
illuminate it in honor of the late Mother Teresa, who would have turned 100 on
Aug. 26, 2010.

The Empire State Building is defending itself against what it says are "hateful
words and messages" being generated over its refusal to honor Mother Teresa on
Aug. 26 by bathing the tower in blue and white on what would have been her 100th
birthday. But the iconic skyscraper's defense isn't calming its harshest
critics.

On its website, the building's management reiterated its policy not to honor
religious or political figures, saying, "The Empire State Building's tower
lights recognize key milestones, events, charitable organizations, countries and
holidays throughout the world, not political or religion related events."

The site also pointed out that the official Empire State Building Lighting
Partner program was established in August 2006, after its prior managing agent
was replaced.

That should answer the question of why the tower honored Cardinal John O'Connor
when he died in 2000 and Pope John Paul II when he died in 2005.

But none of the building's statements was sitting well with the Catholic
League's Bill Donohue, who directed his anger at Anthony Malkin, president of
Malkin Holdings, which owns the Empire State Building.

Donohue said that on April 25 last year, "the towers were aglow in blue and
white in honor of the Salesian Sisters, an order of Roman Catholic nuns."

"In other words," he wrote on the Catholic League's website, "Malkin is
obviously lying about his so-called policy, and for some reason harbors an
animus against Mother Teresa."

Two atheist groups, meanwhile, endorsed the owner's decision.

Ken Bronstein, president of New York Atheists, said that policy or no policy,
Mother Teresa is not worth honoring. “I don’t think you should recognize an
individual where most of the monies donated to her went to the Vatican," he
said. "It was a big cover-up her whole life.”

Malkin Holdings contends that the lighting of the 102-story building's tower for
any purpose is a privilege, not a right, and the company has the final say.

While the conflict appears at a stalemate, the New York City Council is offering
an alternative: a day of service. Mayor Mike Bloomberg and others are planning
to do volunteer work on Aug. 26 as a way to honor the legacy of a woman who
spent her life serving the poor and needy.

And if the lights won't shine for Mother Teresa at the Empire State Building,
there'll be plenty of blue and white illuminations elsewhere. The city's borough
halls are pledging to show the colors, and the president of the City Council is
calling on New Yorkers to put blue and white battery-operated lights in their
windows (even though batteries are environmentally unfriendly). See Chick's
ARE ROMAN CATHOLICS CHRISTIAN?

"Dean of White House Press" Forced to Retire

Longtime White House reporter Helen Thomas has retired effective immediately, Hearst Corporation said Monday.

The media conglomerate had employed Thomas as a syndicated columnist for its newspaper chain. Her retirement comes amid a furor created last week by her controversial comments regarding Jewish people.

Thomas, 89, was considered the dean of the White House press corps, as she was the longest-serving White House journalist. She has been covering administrations since 1960, when she began covering then-President-elect John F. Kennedy and his family.

Thomas, had come under fire late last week when a YouTube video surfaced, showing her saying saying that Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine" and that the Jewish people should go home to "Poland, Germany ... and America and everywhere else."

In a posting on her website on Friday, Thomas apologized for her remarks. "They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon," she wrote.

But the apology was not enough to silence critics, who began a rising chorus of calls for Thomas to be either terminated or suspended by Hearst.

Just before Hearst's announcement, the board of the White House Correspondents Association released a statement condemning Thomas' remarks. The group of White House reporters, which includes CNN's Ed Henry, called Thomas' remarks "indefensible." See Chick's THE SQUATTERS.

Jews For Jesus Founder Dies

Moishe Rosen, who was born Jewish, ordained a Baptist minister and went on to found Jews for Jesus, the largest messianic Jewish organization in the world, died Wednesday at his home in San Francisco. He was 78. . . .

Controversial from its inception, Jews for Jesus was officially founded by Mr. Rosen in San Francisco in 1973. In the decades since, its missionaries have been a familiar presence on street corners in cities around the United States and elsewhere. Mr. Rosen was the group's first executive director, a post he held until 1996.

The organization's central tenet is that it is possible simultaneously to be Jewish and to accept Jesus as the Messiah. They simply believe Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. See Chick's WHERE'S RABBI WAXMAN?

Botched Raid Haunts Israel

A day after Israeli commandos raided an aid flotilla seeking to breach the blockade of Gaza, international pressure mounted for Israel to end its controversial blockade and Egypt’s president ordered a temporary reopening of its border with the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian and medical aid to reach the 1.5 million people there.

Hours earlier, the Israeli military said troops clashed with two militants who infiltrated from Gaza, and killed them both. While such occurrences are almost routine along the volatile border between Israel and Gaza, the clash underscored the tensions seizing the region after Monday’s confrontation at sea, which strained relations between Israel and the United States just as US-sponsored proximity talks involving Palestinians and Israelis were getting under way.

There was little sign that inter national criticism of Israel was easing.

After protracted wrangling, the United Nations Security Council condemned “acts” leading to the loss of life in Israel’s operation in international waters on Monday, which had claimed the lives of nine civilians, many of them Turks aboard a Turkish vessel. The Security Council also urged an impartial inquiry — a call echoed in a separate forum by Russia and the European Union on Tuesday at a meeting of officials in Russia.

The Vatican weighed in as well, calling the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories a “political injustice,” Italy’s ANSA news agency reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, was flying home after canceling a Tuesday meeting with US President Barack Obama. Netanyahu has defended the military’s actions, saying the commandos were set upon by passengers on the Turkish ship they boarded and fired only in self-defense.

Israel said the violence was instigated by pro-Palestinian activists who presented themselves as humanitarians but had come ready for a fight. Organizers of the flotilla accused the Israeli forces of opening fire as soon as they landed on the deck, and released videos to support their case.

The MV Rachel Corrie, a converted merchant ship bought by pro-Palestinian activists and named after an American woman killed in the Gaza Strip in 2003, set off on Monday from Malta, organzers said. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen described the vessel as Irish-owned and said it should be allowed to finish its mission. The ship was carrying 15 activists including a northern Irish Nobel Peace laureate.

An Israeli marine lieutenant, who was not identified, told Israel’s Army Radio his unit was prepared to block the ship.

An Israeli police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said 634 activists, mostly from the Turkish ship, who had refused to identify themselves were being detained at a prison in southern Israel, where they were awaiting deportation procedures. Forty-five others had agreed to identify themselves and were being deported.

Al Gore and Tipper Part Ways

Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, have decided to go their separate ways after 40 years of marriage, news reports said Tuesday.

The Gores' informed friends of the separation through e-mail, according to the Associated Press. In their message, they called the break-up a "mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful, consideration."

Once one of the Democrat's most celebrated couples, Al and Tipper Gore have not been in the public eye as much as a twosome since the then-vice president's narrow defeat to George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential campaign.

Al Gore declined to run for president again in 2004, but emerged as a leading spokesman in the environmental "Global warming" movement. He won a $1 million Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar in 2007 for political/ environmental activist movie "An Inconvenient Truth." See Chick's SOMEBODY ANGRY?