Always Credit

NEW ORLEANS – A perfect record would have been lagniappe, as they say in Louisiana — a little something extra.
The history-making achievement the Saints and their fans really covet is a first Super Bowl appearance, which is all that's left to accomplish now that Tony Romo and Dallas ended their December doldrums at New Orleans' expense.
Drew Brees and the Saints are marching toward an unbeaten season no more after their frenzied rally fell short in a 24-17 loss to the Cowboys on Saturday night.
"This is going to sting for a while but we've got to be able to put this behind us," Brees said, noting that the Saints remain in control to finish the No. 1 playoff seeding in the NFC. "It's all about the next game."
Romo threw for 312 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown to Miles Austin, and DeMarcus Ware punctuated his comeback from a neck injury with a game-sealing strip of Brees.
The loss by the Saints (13-1) left the Indianapolis Colts (14-0) as the NFL's only unbeaten team this season.
"We'll digest this," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "Nonetheless, it is what it is and we've got to get back to work next week. We have two important games in front of us and we'll take that approach."
The Saints' start had New Orleans hoping its team could go 19-0 and win the Super Bowl after so many years of losing and heartbreak. It was seen by some as a symbol of New Orleans' ability to come back better than before from the epic disaster that was Hurricane Katrina a little more than four years ago.
Brees had sensed all of that, and made no secret that he wanted the Saints to go for it.
"We feel like we deserved it and the whole city deserved it and we wanted to make it happen," Brees said. "That's probably the most disappointing thing about it."
Instead, the Cowboys (9-5) overcame failures of a more recent nature, ending a two-game skid and proving they were good enough to beat the top team in the NFC in front of a charged-up, hostile crowd. They came to New Orleans 3-8 in December games in their last three seasons under coach Wade Phillips, who was finding himself increasingly on the defensive about his club's ability to play well down the stretch.
Dallas dominated early, scoring on its first two possessions to take a 14-0 lead and went up 24-3 on Marion Barber's second short TD run of the game in the third quarter. Then the Cowboys held on despite Nick Folk's surprising missed 24-yard field goal shortly before the 2-minute warning.
"I said all along this team has a lot of heart, a lot of character and a lot of leaders," Phillips said. "I didn't think this team could get beat three times in a row."
The high-powered Saints nearly pulled off what would have been the latest of several improbable comebacks.
Mike Bell's 1-yard run made it 24-10 with 12:35 to go. Brees followed that by capping a seven-play, 70-yard drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Lance Moore with 8 minutes left, cutting New Orleans' deficit to 24-17.
That left it up to the Saints' defense to hold once more. Dallas faced a third-and-7 on its own 23 and the crowd was going so wild Romo had to call timeout a moment before the play clock expired.
The noise was still deafening when Romo returned to the line of scrimmage, but that didn't stop him from finding Austin on a short crossing route for a 32-yard gain.
"We did what we knew we had to do on that drive," Romo said. "We all know how good their offense is so we had to move the ball on them."

On the next play, Romo spun away from the rush and hit tight end John Phillips for a 23-yard gain to New Orleans' 22. From there, Dallas went conservative and set up what looked to be a game-sealing field goal from nearly the same distance as Shaun Suisham's miss two weeks ago, which allowed the Saints to come back and beat Washington in overtime.

When Folk's kick bounced off the upright, the crowd erupted, sensing the Saints were simply destined not to lose. And it looked that way after Brees converted a frantic fourth down on a pass over the middle to Marques Colston, who made a one-handed catch.

The Saints marched to midfield in the final minute, but the Cowboys held firm. Ware stripped Brees for the second time in the game and lineman Jay Ratliff recovered, silencing the packed Superdome while the Cowboys leapt in the air and embraced one another.

"That was a fun one," Romo said. "These are the ones you love to play."

Ware had to be taken to the hospital only a week earlier after what looked like a serious neck injury in Dallas' loss to San Diego. He didn't practice fully all week, but said he was feeling better and was cleared to play. He certainly looked rested and healed.

He sacked Brees twice, forcing fumbles that the Saints' lost both times. The first one set up a field goal that gave Dallas a 17-3 lead at halftime. Linebacker Anthony Spencer also had two sacks.

Very little went right for Brees, who was intercepted once, sacked four times and pressured all night. Even what looked like a certain 36-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter slipped through Devery Henderson's hands in the end zone. Brees was sacked by Spencer soon after and that drive ended with a punt.

NOTES: The Cowboys outgained the Saints, 439 yards to 336, holding the Saints 90 yards and nearly 19 points below their averages in those categories. The Saints, who came in converting nearly 48 percent of third downs this season, converted only one of seven. ... Miles caught seven passes for 139 yards, going over 1,000 yards for the first time in his four-year career. ... Reggie Bush pulled up lame in the second quarter, favoring his right leg, and did not return. The Saints did not provide an update on his condition.

Some people wear wigs to disguise the fact that they are bald. Actors, on the other hand often wear costume wigs in order to better portray the character they are playing.

The wearing of wigs as a symbol of social status was largely abandoned in the newly created United States and France by the start of the 19th century, although it persisted a little longer in the United Kingdom.

Long Wigs

LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO (Reuters) –
U.S. retailers' final weekend sales push before Christmas was under threat as a severe winter snowstorm struck the East Coast, forcing store closures and keeping shoppers at home on "Super Saturday."

The last Saturday before Christmas typically accounts for about $15 billion in retail sales, and analysts said the U.S. Northeast contributed around 30 percent of that amount.

It often vies with Black Friday, the day after U.S. Thanksgiving, as the biggest single sales day of the holiday season, and some analysts say a weak result could force retailers to slash prices in the run-up to December 25.

By Saturday evening, the storm blanketed the Baltimore-Washington area with snow and forced the closure of many stores and at least one area mall. It could bring blizzard conditions to other major shopping areas like New York and Boston. The National Weather Service warned of "extremely treacherous" travel conditions throughout the region stretching from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast.

Only half of the stores in Taubman Centers Inc's (TCO.N) three Virginia malls were open because bad road conditions prevented staff from getting to work. One of those malls, in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, will close at least five hours early due to weather, said spokeswoman Karen Mac Donald.

"The one thing a retailer doesn't want is a major snowstorm on the Saturday before Christmas," said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at the NPD Group.

"The weather this year is like Bernie Madoff last year. A terrible ending to a terrible year," said Shawn Kravetz, president of hedge fund Esplanade Capital. "The timing is brutal."

SHOVELS, SALT

Trend spotter Marian Salzman said she saw empty streets and parking lots as she checked stores at midday in Connecticut.

At a Wal-Mart (WMT.N) store in southwestern Connecticut, snow shovels and ice salt were in greater demand than holiday gifts, said Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR.

"Yesterday and today we did see increased demand for weather-related products like shovels and ice melt in our stores in the Northeast," said Walmart spokesman David Tovar, who declined to comment on specific sales data.

Analysts said the severe weather could depress sales on Saturday at retailers with a large presence in the Northeast, including Saks Inc (SKS.N), Macy's Inc (M.N) and American Eagle Outfitters Inc (AEO.N).

They expect some shoppers will venture to stores on Sunday, while others will settle in at home and shop online.

That latter scenario could be a boon for retailers ranging from Amazon.com (AMZN.O), Target Corp (TGT.N) and Walmart to electronics retailer Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N), but consumers may have to pay unwanted last-minute shipping fees to guarantee that gifts arrive by Christmas.

Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business, said independent retailers and brands that are weak online were most vulnerable -- including Macy's, J.C. Penney (JCP.N) and Ann Taylor (ANN.N).

Even before the storm, nobody was predicting a stellar year for holiday sales as consumers are still face pressure from a double-digit unemployment rate and a weak economy.

"I am spending less on each gift but I am not cutting anyone off my list," said Gwynne Nemcek, an administrator at New York University, who was shopping in Manhattan.

CUTS NOT AS DEEP

Retailers have worked to avoid a repeat of last year, when a global economic meltdown left them buried in excess merchandise and desperate to make a sale at almost any price.

Last year, it was not uncommon to see stores advertising 70 to 80 percent off. So far, this year's cuts have not been so deep -- often in the range of 30 to 50 percent.

"Next week, watch for prices to come down. They have to get rid of this stuff," said Morici, who predicted the weak economy and recent bad weather would drive further markdowns.

Holiday sales forecasts have narrowed over the course of the shopping season to a range of down 1 percent to up 1 percent from 2008, when sales fell for the first time since the National Retail Federation started tracking the data.

Salzman said she expected sales would be down more than 1 percent. "It feels like nobody's interested or around or engaged."

Morici said the holiday results would be weak.

"We've had some inflation, so as a consequence, if you're up 1 (percent), you're really down 1 (percent)," said Morici. "Even if it's up 1 percent, it's really a rather pathetic showing and it indicates an economy in grave trouble."

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, Jennifer Ablan, Phil Wahba, Dhanya Skariachan and Nicole Maestri in New York and Jessica Wohl and Ben Klayman in Chicago; Editing by Peter Cooney)

WASHINGTON – Outnumbered Republicans are vowing to delay passage of historic health care legislation as long as possible after jubilant Democrats locked in Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson as the 60th and decisive vote.
Nelson's backing puts President Barack Obama's signature issue firmly on a path for Christmas Eve passage. Democrats will need to show 60 votes on two additional occasions, with the next — and most critical — test vote set for about 1 a.m. Monday.
"This bill is a legislative train wreck of historic proportions," the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said at a Saturday news conference. He pointed to cuts to Medicare that CBO said totaled more than $470 billion over a decade, with reductions in planned payments to home health care agencies and hospices. He also said the bill includes "massive tax increases" at a time of double-digit unemployment.
Republicans also noted that CBO concluded that under the bill, "federal outlays for health care would increase during the 2010-2019 period, as would the federal budgetary commitment to health care."
To get Nelson's vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed to a series of concessions on abortion and other issues demanded by Nelson, a Democrat, then informed Obama of the agreement as the president flew home from climate talks in Copenhagen.
Obama welcomed the breakthrough, saying, "After a nearly centurylong struggle, we are on the cusp of making health care reform a reality in the United States of America."
The Congressional Budget Office said the Senate bill would extend coverage to more than 30 million Americans who lack it. It also imposes new regulations to curb abuses of the insurance industry, and the president noted one last-minute addition would impose penalties on companies that "arbitrarily jack up prices" in advance of the legislation taking effect.
CBO analysts also said the legislation would cut federal deficits by $132 billion over 10 years and possibly much more in the subsequent decade.
At its core, the legislation would create a new insurance exchange where consumers could shop for affordable coverage that complied with new federal guidelines. Most Americans would be required to purchase insurance, with federal subsidies available to help defray the cost for lower and middle income individuals and families.
In a concession to Nelson and other moderates, the bill lacks a government-run insurance option of the type that House Democrats inserted into theirs. In a final defeat for liberals, a proposed Medicare expansion was also jettisoned in the past several days as Reid and the White House maneuvered for 60 votes.

OTTAWA (Reuters) –
Canada's opposition Liberal Party has taken down from its website a doctored photo of Lee Harvey Oswald being shot and killed in which Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's face was substituted for Oswald's.

A Liberal official said on Tuesday the assassination picture, submitted as part of a photo contest in connection with the Copenhagen climate talks, should never have been there.

The party on Tuesday also took down another doctored photo of Harper with his fist in a cow's posterior, which it had offered as one of the "best seven" depicting where Harper would rather be than in Copenhagen.

"These pictures are submitted by the public, but any offensive image should not be put up. The Oswald picture clearly falls in that category and was taken down very quickly. It was wrong to have it up and we apologize for letting this one slip by," said party spokesman Mario Lague.

Oswald, the presumed assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963, was himself assassinated shortly after Kennedy was killed.

The picture of Harper and the cow purported to show a new Conservative method of stopping greenhouse gases.

In last year's election campaign, Harper was forced to apologize because the Conservative website had an animated video of a puffin pooping on then-Liberal leader Stephane Dion.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; editing by Peter Galloway)

WASHINGTON – A blizzard-like storm rocked the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Saturday, crippling travel across the region and causing hundreds of thousands of power outages.
Five deaths appeared to have been caused by the storm system, which stretched from the Carolinas north to New England and also spread into some Midwestern states. The 13 inches of snow that had fallen in the nation's capital by late afternoon was the most-ever for a single December day, while about 9 inches had fallen in Philadelphia.
Those who did venture out were treated to nearly desolate stores on what is usually one of the busiest shopping days of the year. There were virtually no lines to get a picture with a mall Santa on the last weekend before Christmas.
The National Guard used Humvees to rescue stranded motorists in Virginia and some 500 people had sought warmth and refuge in emergency shelters.
"The snow has not stopped falling, the storm isn't over, and folks should not think this is crying wolf," said Laura Southard, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
More than two feet of snow fell in some areas since Friday, and the nation's capital was under a blizzard warning. Public transportation nearly ground to a halt, but it wasn't enough to keep senators from staying in session to debate health care reform. The slow-moving storm was headed to the northeast, where forecasters said parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachussetts could see more than 16 inches by Sunday night.
Snowplows cleared the runway at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Washington as President Barack Obama returned from climate talks in Copenhagen. The White House said Obama rode in a motorcade back to the White House, instead of taking his helicopter, because of the conditions.
The region was virtually a sea of white. The Smithsonian Institution closed its museums, and the National Mall, which normally would be swarming with tourists, instead was the scene of snowball fights and cross-country skiers.
For Chris and Kelly Fitzpatrick, who were visiting from Clearwater, Fla., the winter wonderland came at the perfect time.
"It's her fault that we're out so long. She wants to walk and walk and walk," said Chris Fitzpatrick, 38.
In western Virginia, officials said several hundred motorists became stranded and had to be rescued by four-wheeled-drive vehicles.
"Some folks have decided to stay in vehicles, others have been taken to shelters," said Virginia Department of Emergency Management spokesman Bob Spieldenner. "We're definitely trying to keep people off the roads."
Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said traffic was moving, though slowly. There were reports of jackknifed tractor-trailers and some semis on their sides. Troopers had responded to more than 4,000 traffic crashes and disabled vehicles.
One person in Virginia was killed in a traffic accident caused by slick roads, and authorities said the weather may have contributed to another traffic death. A third death is believed to have been caused by exposure. In Ohio, two people were killed in accidents on snow-covered roads hit by the same storm system.
At Crump's Store at the intersection of two country roads outside Richmond, Va., owner Suzanne Rudd stood with a man dressed as Santa and waved to the few motorists who dared to hit the slick roads. Rudd said only a few children had come to visit with Santa.
"Normally we'd have a long line here but people are having a hard time getting out," Rudd said.
The same was true at the Cherry Hill Mall in New Jersey, which would typically be a place where down-to-the-wire Christmas shoppers would create a mob scene. Instead, parking spots were plentiful.
Inside, there was no line for a picture with Santa.

"It was fantastic," said Chris Bailey, who got pictures of his 4-year-old daughter Olivia.

Mayors in Washington and Philadelphia declared snow emergencies and forecasters said the conditions could worsen. Governors in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Delaware declared states of emergency.

"It's going to be an all day thing. It's going to be on and off," said National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Witt in Sterling, Va.

Most of the flights at Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport had been canceled, creating a ripple effect of delays across the country. The runways at Reagan were closed until 6 a.m. Sunday. Dulles had one runway open, but were expecting few, if any, flights. BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport closed temporarily Saturday afternoon to allow crews to clear snow from the runways and travelers who tried to reach their destinations by train also faced long delays and threats of cancellations.

"It's going to be very challenging for people who weren't able to get out today to rebook on flights this week," said Tara Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

Joy Rood, 20, played solitaire as she waited at Reagan for a flight to visit family in Los Angeles with her husband, who was asleep at a table outside an airport cafe.

"We had a canceled flight at Dulles at 6 yesterday because the plane had difficulties," she said. "So they cabbed us over here to — uh, what airport am I at?"

Washington's Union Station was full of travelers, some of them sprawled on the floor. Amtrak said delays between Washington and Boston were averaging from 30 to 60 minutes. However, at least two trains to Boston departed more than 4 hours late, according to the railroad's web site.

Imke and Mike Jandreau were hoping to get on a train to Boston after their flight to Maine was canceled.

"I was on hold for almost seven hours with the airline, so we gave up and came here," Imke Jandreau, 25, said.

Forecasters said the storm system was expected to generate winds up to 35 miles per hour, which could cause near-whiteout conditions.

At a Walmart in the Richmond, Va., area, Nnika White took advantage of the few shoppers, buying a drum set for her 2 1/2 year old son. White, dressed in a toboggan, scarf and flannel-like jacket, said she works long hours at the law firm she owns and doesn't get much time to shop.

"It's nice because no one's here. For shopping, it's great, but the roads are very, very bad," she said.

Snow, ice and freezing rain also hit western North Carolina on Friday, knocking out power to almost 60,000 customers around the Asheville area.

After a warm start to the ski season that delayed openings of many resorts, the storm arrived just in time for West Virginia, dumping more than 20 inches on some slopes, said Joe Stevens, a spokesman for the area's ski association.

"These are midseason conditions," he said. "The storm couldn't have come at a better time."

The storm came from the Gulf and drenched South Florida with rain starting late Thursday, leaving flooded homes and stranded drivers.

___

Associated Press writers Dena Potter in Chesterfield, Va.; Jacob Jordan in Atlanta; Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, N.J., and photographer Jacquelyn Martin in Arlington, Va.,contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department will be giving the public more data about tax returns, bailout transactions and bank supervision as part of an Obama administration push to improve government transparency.
The announcement Wednesday marks the Treasury Department's first step in complying with a White House directive Tuesday that called for greater transparency, collaboration and participation in government.
Treasury said it will be posting online three previously unavailable data sets.
The first is the Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Migration data, which show how tax filers move across country and state lines. It will be useful to local officials, real estate developers, business planners and researchers, the Treasury said.
Treasury also will be posting data detailing money flowing into and out of the $700 billion financial bailout fund. The department has long published this data visually, but has refused to make it available in a form that would be more useful to reporters and researchers.
Finally, Treasury will be posting the Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives. This new report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency includes information about the government's supervision of banks and their investment activities.
"This government-wide effort is the next step in creating the conditions for a permanent culture of openness," Dan Tangherlini, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Management, said in a statement.

WASHINGTON – Five Transportation Security Administration employees have been placed on administrative leave since it was discovered that sensitive guidelines about airport passenger screening were posted on the Internet.
The move was disclosed as senators questioned administration officials Wednesday about the second embarrassing security flap at the Homeland Security Department in as many weeks. The Secret Service, also part of the sprawling department, is investigating how a couple of would-be reality TV stars were able to get into a White House state dinner without an invitation.
Assistant Homeland Security secretary David Heyman told senators Wednesday that a full investigation into the Internet security lapse is under way and the TSA employees have been taken off duty pending the results of that probe. He did not say how many employees were put on leave. A TSA official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said five employees were placed on administrative leave Tuesday.
The Homeland Security Department has also stopped posting documents with security information either in full or in part on the Internet until the TSA review is complete, Heyman told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee.
The passenger screening document was improperly on the Internet in a way that could offer insight into how to sidestep security.
"Even what appeared to be an innocent posting to help federal contractors can have serious consequences for our security," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday.
Heyman said he did not know who at TSA signed off on the document going on the Web.
The TSA removed the document from the Internet on Sunday after the lapse was reported on a blog.
Among many sensitive sections, the document outlines who is exempt from certain additional screening measures, including members of the U.S. armed forces, governors and lieutenant governors, the mayor of Washington, D.C., and their immediate families.
It also offers examples of identification documents that screeners accept, including congressional, federal air marshal and CIA ID cards; and it explains that diplomatic pouches and certain foreign dignitaries with law enforcement escorts are not subjected to any screening at all. It said certain methods of verifying identification documents aren't used on all travelers during peak travel crushes.
TSA said the document is now outdated. It was posted in March by TSA on the Federal Business Opportunity site. The posting was improper because sensitive information was not properly protected, TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee said.
As a result, some Web sites, using widely available software, were able to uncover the original text of sections that had been blacked out for security reasons. On Sunday, the Wandering Aramean blog pointed out the document in a posting titled "The TSA makes another stupid move."
According to the blog, TSA posted a redacted version of the document but did not delete the sensitive information from the file. Instead of removing the text, the government covered it up with a black box. But the text was still embedded in the document and could be uncovered.
TSA had the document removed from the Federal Business Opportunity site on Dec. 6 but copies — with the redacted portions exposed — circulated on the Internet and remain posted on other Web sites not controlled by the government.
Noting that the transportation agency uses multiple layers of security, Lee said, "TSA is confident that screening procedures currently in place remain strong."
The document also describes these screening protocols:
_Individuals with a passport from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, or Algeria, should be given additional screening unless there are specific instructions not to.
_Aircraft flight crew members in uniform with valid IDs are not subject to restrictions on liquid, gel, aerosol and footwear.

Former TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said the document is not something a security agency would want to inadvertently post online, but he said it's not a road map for terrorists. "Hyperventilating that this is a breach of security that's going to endanger the public is flat wrong," Hawley said.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., was more concerned.

"Undoubtedly, this raises potential security concerns across our transportation system," Thompson wrote the agency Tuesday in a letter recommending that an independent federal agency review the incident. The chairwoman of the panel's transportation security subcommittee, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, also signed the letter.

Diabetic Supplies

Any disease that causes extensive damage to the pancreas may lead to diabetes (for example, chronic pancreatitis and cystic fibrosis). Diseases associated with excessive secretion of insulin-antagonistic hormones can cause diabetes (which is typically resolved once the hormone excess is removed). Many drugs impair insulin secretion and some toxins damage pancreatic beta cells. The ICD-10 (1992) diagnostic entity, malnutrition-related diabetes mellitus (MRDM or MMDM, ICD-10 code E12), was deprecated by the World Health Organization when the current taxonomy was introduced in 1999.

The classical triad of diabetes symptoms is polyuria, polydipsia and polyphagia, which are, respectively, frequent urination, increased thirst and consequent increased fluid intake, and increased appetite. Symptoms may develop quite rapidly (weeks or months) in type 1 diabetes, particularly in children. However, in type 2 diabetes symptoms usually develop much more slowly and may be subtle or completely absent. Type 1 diabetes may also cause a rapid yet significant weight loss (despite normal or even increased eating) and irreducible fatigue. All of these symptoms except weight loss can also manifest in type 2 diabetes in patients whose diabetes is poorly controlled.

BRUSSELS (AFP) –
European foreign ministers criticised Turkey on Tuesday for failing to deal normally with Cyprus and opted to keep the brakes on Ankara's attempt to join the European Union.

While Turkey avoided any fresh sanctions and the EU nations welcomed progress on some minority issues, there was overall disappointment at Ankara's failure to treat EU nation Cyprus in a "good neighbourly" way.

The statement came after Turkey missed an EU deadline to do something about the Cyprus problem.

The EU text, hammered out during two days of talks between the ministers, left little doubt that the 2006 decision to freeze parts of the accession talks with Turkey could be beefed up if progress is not forthcoming.

That year the 27 EU nations froze eight of the 35 policy chapters which each EU candidate nation must successfully negotiate prior to membership over Turkey's failure to open its ports and airports to Cyprus.

Turkey refuses to do so arguing that the European Union has failed to keep its promises to ease the international isolation of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey occupied the north in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

Turkey is bitter that the Greek Cypriots, whose government is the island's internationally recognised administration, were admitted into the EU in 2004 despite voting down a UN peace plan, while the Turkish Cypriots -- who gave the plan overwhelmingly support -- were left out in the cold.

Since starting EU membership negotiations in 2005, Ankara has opened talks only in 11 of the 35 policy areas.

The process has also been slowed down by opposition from some EU members, notably France and Germany, which argue that the populous and relatively poor Muslim-majority country should be given a special status rather than membership.

The EU foreign ministers did welcome progress by Ankara in other important areas, including the judiciary, civil-military relations and cultural rights.

In particular moves in favour of the key Kurdish minority issue "should lead to concrete measures guaranteeing all Turkish citizens full rights and freedoms", they said.

They also recognised "significant diplomatic efforts made to normalise relations with Armenia", according to the draft conclusions seen by AFP.

Armenia and Turkey have been at loggerheads for years over the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

The message to Turkey "strikes the right balance", between acknowledging progress and criticising failures, said EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.

He added that a new policy chapter, on environment, should be opened this month showing that "the EU accession process... is on track".

Turkey is also important to the European Union as a partner in the ambitious Nabucco gas pipeline scheme, to run from the Caspian Sea to Europe.

There is further unease in Europe over Ankara's recent rapprochement with Moscow.

The Russians and Turks have recently signed several cooperation deals in the energy sector and also plan to hold joint ministerial meetings.

The setting up of a Russian-Turkish "privileged partnership" would be seen in some quarters as a response to the lukewarm attitude of the Europeans.

WASHINGTON – The couple that got into the White House state dinner for the visiting Indian prime minister without invitations denied Tuesday that they were gatecrashers.
Appearing on a nationally broadcast morning news show with his wife, Tareq Salahi said the furor surrounding his and his wife Michaele's attendance at the dinner a week ago has been a "most devastating" experience. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs described President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as angered by the incident.
Salahi told NBC's "Today" show Tuesday there's more to their side of the story — an explanation that would exonerate them from allegations of misconduct in the breach of White House security. Appearing on the same program, Gibbs insisted the Salahis had not been invited.
"This wasn't a misunderstanding," Gibbs said. "You don't show up at the White House as a misunderstanding."
For his part, Salahi said he and his wife were cooperating with the Secret Service in its investigation of the incident a week ago. And he said they both have "great respect" for President Barack Obama.
"We're greatly saddened by all the circumstances ... portraying my wife and I as party crashers. I can tell you we did not party-crash the White House," Salahi said.
The White House gate caper captivated a capital frequently as well known for its high-end social life and celebrity eruptions as the occasionally mundane day-to-day business of governance.
Interviewed on MSNBC, Gibbs said "it's safe to say he (Obama) was angry. Michelle was angry."
Gibbs noted that the Secret Service is investigating what went wrong and said the White House was also re-examining its procedures. He told the network, "I think the president really had the same reaction the Secret Service had, and that was great concern for how something like this happened."
Michaele Salahi described the couple as "shocked and devastated" when they saw accounts of the incident the following morning.
Asked if they had been mischaracterized through the media and other paparazzi forums," Tareq Salahi said, "No question ... It's been devastating what's happened to Michaele and I ... Our lives have really been destroyed."
"Everything we've worked for," Michaele Salahi told interviewer Matt Lauer.
"We were invited, not crashers, and there isn't anyone who would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that," she said. "No one would do that, and certainly not us."
Tareq Salahi said that the couple has been "very candid" with the Secret Service and said "we have turned over documentation to them."
"We're going to definitely work with the Secret Service between Michaele and I to really shed light on this," Tareq Salahi said. He indicated the couple had e-mails that would reinforce their position that they did not go uninvited to the dinner.
The couple also said they had not discussed accepting money from any party or organization, including NBC, for telling their story.
NBC's parent company, NBC Universal, also owns the cable network Bravo. Michaele Salahi had hoped to land a part on an upcoming Bravo reality show, "The Real Housewives of D.C."
On Monday there were more twists in the unfolding mystery of how the Virginia couple managed to get into the highly secured White House dinner Nov. 24 and shake hands with Obama. It was revealed that they communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official denied that she helped the couple get in.

Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a written statement issued through the White House that she never said or implied she would get the Salahis into the event.

"I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening's activities," Jones said. "Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come."

Asked about this Tuesday, Gibbs declined to comment directly, except to note that the matter remains under investigation.

WTTG-TV, the Fox affiliate in Washington, reported on a similar incident a month before, in which the Salahis sneaked in through a back entrance to a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Awards dinner at which Obama spoke. A guest complained that the couple didn't belong at his table.

"I double-checked my (guest) list and when they weren't on that list we escorted them out," a foundation representative, Lance Jones, said in an interview early Tuesday.

The Salahis insisted that they had, indeed, been invited to the Black Caucus dinner, saying they'd gotten the invitation from the Gardner Law Group.

The Salahis' lawyer, Paul Gardner, is the managing partner of the Baltimore law firm, which handles corporate and entertainment lazw. A message left early Tuesday at the law firm was not immediately returned.

Also on Monday, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee asked the couple, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan and White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify at a hearing Thursday on the incident.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he wants answers about the Secret Service's security deficiencies that allowed the Salahis to attend the White House dinner. A White House photo showed the Salahis in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held.

"This is a time for answers," Thompson said in a statement Monday. "This is not the time for political games or scapegoating to distract our attention from the careful oversight we must apply to the Secret Service and its mission."

Some lawmakers have called for criminal charges to be brought against the couple, but the Secret Service has not yet decided whether to refer the case for criminal prosecution.

The Secret Service declined to comment on whether Sullivan would testify Thursday.

The couple's publicist, Mahogany Jones, could not immediately be reached for comment about whether the Salahis would testify Thursday. But earlier Monday, she said allegations that the Salahis were shopping interviews and demanding money from television networks to tell their story are false.

A TV executive who spoke on condition of anonymity to publicly discuss bookings told The Associated Press that the couple's representatives had urged networks to "get their bids in" for an interview.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

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Web site: http://www.thegardnerlawgroup.com/about.html

WASHINGTON – Riven by partisanship, the Senate plunged into a widely anticipated debate Monday over sweeping health care legislation that President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have vowed to approve and Republicans have sworn to block.
Debate is expected to last for weeks over the legislation, which includes a first-time requirement for most Americans to carry insurance and a mandate for insurers to cover any paying customer regardless of medical history or condition.
"We must avoid the temptation to drown in distractions and distortions," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in the first moments of the first speech, a jab at Republicans that was reciprocated minutes later.
"Well, I don't know what's more preposterous: saying that this plan 'saves Medicare' or thinking that people will actually believe you," Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said of Reid's oft-made statement.
At a cost of nearly $1 trillion, the legislation is designed to extend health care to millions of American who lack it, abolish insurance industry practices such as denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions and cut back on the rise of health care spending overall.
Despite its huge price tag, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 2,074-page bill would reduce federal deficits by $130 billion over the next decade. In all, CBO said 31 million uninsured individuals would receive insurance if the bill were enacted, many of them assisted by federal subsidies. As much as 94 percent of the eligible population would wind up covered. The legislation would be paid for through a combination of cuts in projected Medicare payments to hospitals and other providers, a payroll tax on the wealthy and taxes on drug makers, medical device manufacturers, owners of high-cost insurance and others.
It has taken months to advance the legislation to the floor, Democrats struggling with their own internal divisions as well as Republican opposition.
Democrats control 60 seats in the Senate, precisely the number needed to trump a promised Republican filibuster. While Reid spent most of the day jousting with Republicans, his ability to steer the bill to passage will depend on finding ways to finesse controversial provisions within the measure. None is more important than calls for the government to sell insurance in competition with private firms. Liberals favor the plan; moderate and conservative Democrats oppose it. As drafted the bill establishes a so-called government option, although each state can block it.
Even before Reid rose to speak, the two parties were squabbling over a new Congressional Budget Office study assessing the legislation's impact on the cost of insurance.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said it showed that "whether you work for a small business, a large company or you work for yourself, the vast majority of Americans will see lower premiums than they would if we don't pass health reform."
Not so, said a statement from McConnell's office: "Most people will end up paying more or seeing no significant savings."
The 28-page report was less clear-cut than either side said.
It said that by 2016, premium prices for Americans working at large companies, about 134 million people, would be between zero and 3 percent lower on average than would otherwise be the case.
At small companies, estimated to provide coverage for 25 million by 2016, the average premium would be between 1 percent higher to 2 percent lower on average. That did not factor in the federal subsidies that would be available to the firms to spur them to provide coverage. Those receiving the assistance would have premiums as much as 11 percent lower on average.
CBO said for non-group coverage, premiums would rise by between 10 percent and 13 percent on average. But more than half that group is expected to receive federal subsidies that would result in premiums as much as 59 percent less costly on average. Individuals purchasing coverage without any federal assistance would presumably face higher costs, although CBO's letter did not indicate how much more.
The debate over premiums was only one of many expected as the Senate dug into a complicated bill that seemingly delved into every corner of the health care system.
But both parties seemed to have political considerations in mind as the day wore on.
The first proposed change to the legislation, offered by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., would increase insurance benefits for women, mandating that policies include an annual health screening.

As the health care debate has unfolded in Congress, both parties have spent months vying for the support of women.

Not to be outdone, Republicans issued a statement saying that as written, an advisory committee that recently drew criticism for proposing a delay in routine mammogram screening would have even greater authority.

The two sides also sparred over issues important to seniors, whom polls show are particularly concerned about the impact of health care.

Reid sought Republicans' agreement that Social Security would be protected as debate moved ahead.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., objected, saying Reid had refused to extend the same protection to Medicare.

Not long afterward, Sen. John McCain proposed stripping out a total of $440 billion in Medicare cuts to home health providers, hospitals, hospices and other organizations, saying those reductions could not be sustained politically.

In a slashing attack on the White House and Democrats, the Arizona Republican accused the bill's supporters of resorting to "Bernie Madoff accounting, Enron accounting" to mask the true impact on the deficit.

The House approved its version of the health care bill last month. It would have to be reconciled with any Senate-passed measure before legislation could go to the White House for Obama's signature.

____

Associated Press reporters Donna Cassata, Laurie Kellman and Erica Werner contributed to this story.

While still inside the mother, the infant could hear many internal noises, such as the mother's heartbeat, as well as many external noises including human voices, music and most other sounds. Therefore, although a newborn's ears may have some catarrh and fluid, he or she can hear sound from before birth. Newborns usually respond to a female voice over a male voice. This may explain why people will unknowingly raise the pitch of their voice when talking to newborns. The sound of other human voices, especially the mother's, can have a calming or soothing effect on the newborn. Conversely, loud or sudden noises will startle and scare a newborn.

A newborn has a developed sense of smell at birth, and within the first week of life can already distinguish the differences between the mother's own breast milk and the breast milk of another female.[citation needed]

http://www.ahealthybabynaturally.com/

WASHINGTON – The couple who crashed the Obama administration's first state dinner communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official denies that she helped the couple get in.
Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a written statement issued through the White House on Monday evening that she never said or implied she would get Michaele and Tareq Salahi into the Nov. 24 White House dinner.
"I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening's activities," Jones said. "Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come."
This is the latest twist in the unfolding mystery of how the two reality show wannabes managed to get into the highly secured event and shake hands with President Barack Obama. Also on Monday, a House committee chairman asked the couple, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan and White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify at a hearing Thursday on the incident.
The White House issued Jones' statement after questions were raised about communications between the administration and the couple prior to the dinner.
A friend of the couple told The Washington Post that the Salahis interpreted their e-mail exchange with Jones as permission to attend the exclusive party.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he wants answers about the Secret Service's security deficiencies that allowed the Salahis to attend the dinner. A White House photo showed the Salahis in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held. Obama and Michaele Salahi are smiling as she grasps his right hand with both of hers and her husband looks on. Singh is to Obama's left.
"This is a time for answers," Thompson said in a statement Monday. "This is not the time for political games or scapegoating to distract our attention from the careful oversight we must apply to the Secret Service and its mission."
Some lawmakers have called for criminal charges to be brought against the couple, but the Secret Service has not yet decided whether to refer the case for criminal prosecution.
The Secret Service declined to comment on whether Sullivan would testify on Thursday.
On Friday, Sullivan issued a statement saying that his agency is "deeply concerned and embarrassed" by the circumstances.
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the couple was not on the approved list for the party, but they were allowed in. "This should not have occurred," Donovan said.
"The preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list," Sullivan said Friday. "Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely. That failing is ours."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday the president shares the Secret Service director's concern about the incident.
"That's why there's an investigation," Gibbs said.
Gibbs said the president was not concerned about his safety and continues to have faith in the Secret Service.
The ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security committee, Rep. Peter King of New York, also said there needs to be an investigation into what happened. King said he wants to be sure the hearing does not give away Secret Service operations or methods that could tip someone off how to get into the White House. King said he's been to at least 40 invitation-only events at the White House — including two state dinners — and security has always been tight and thorough.
The Salahis have boasted about going to the state dinner on their Facebook page: "Honored to be at the White House for the state dinner in honor of India with President Obama and our First Lady!" they wrote.

Michaele Salahi is a reality TV hopeful trying to get on Bravo's "The Real Housewives of D.C."

The couple's publicist, Mahogany Jones, could not immediately be reached for comment about whether the Salahis would testify Thursday. But earlier Monday, Jones said allegations that the Salahis are shopping interviews and demanding money from television networks to tell their story are false.

Jones said the couple is not making any formal comments or arrangements to speak with the media. An appearance previously scheduled for Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live" has been canceled.

A TV executive who spoke on condition of anonymity to publicly discuss bookings had told The Associated Press that the couple's representatives had urged networks to "get their bids in" for an interview.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

NEW YORK – It's a choice most of us don't have to make: lingerie or loyalty?
But for 10 young women vying for a spot on the Victoria's Secret runway, balancing tiny outfits and high heels wasn't the biggest juggling act in the online contest that will land just one of them in the CBS broadcast Tuesday night. Instead, they say, the challenge was supporting newfound friends while maintaining their competitive edge.
At each elimination round since the contestants landed in New York from points north, south and west, there have been hugs, tears and kind words for those sent packing.
Still, Californians Jamie Lee Darley, 23, of Carmel, and Kylie Bisutti, 19, of Simi Valley, couldn't keep their megawatt smiles down when their faces and feminine figures were beamed onto a Times Square screen as the two got their turn on the catwalk when the runway show was taped Nov. 19.
Only a single fresh face will be on TV with the lingerie retailer's established stable of models, dubbed "angels," such as Heidi Klum, Marisa Miller and Doutzen Kroes. The winner is being chosen by online votes.
If her mother-in-law hadn't encouraged her to enter the model casting call, Bisutti says she'd be busy at home trying to settle in with her husband — she's just a newlywed. "He's so happy for me," she gushes.
Darley is a waitress with some builder's skills after working at her dad's construction business. For this avid swimmer, participating in the contest has been a bit of a revenge for the kids who teased her for being gangly growing up. "I used to tell them I was going to be a supermodel as my comeback."
The contestants who moved in and out of the luxury apartment in Manhattan's financial district — which had what appeared to be an unused kitchen — had a whirlwind experience that included a body analysis and breakneck workout by celebrity trainer David Kirsch, and a middle-of-the-night lingerie photo shoot in Grand Central Station.
Getting them through, they say, were the jokes made by 24-year-old Raven Ervin of Birmingham, Ala., and kind words from Tika Ivezaj, 25, of Detroit. Allison Turner, 23, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., says she watched all the other women in the bathroom as they applied makeup — and now she, too, can do a smoky eye.
But the models were also always looking over their shoulder.
It wasn't lost on Turner, a pro rodeo rider, that when she made the first big cut, she was surrounded by the other women she thought had done well, even if she was sad for those on the other side. "I would definitely think people would call me competitive. I barrel race back home and that's a competitive sport. ... I think what got me here is my `Yee-ha.'"
As the two longest-lasting contestants, Darley says she and Bisutti were among the closest friends. They cheered for each other when each one had a stint on the catwalk during the taping of the show earlier this month, but now that it's settling in that only one will appear on TV in black-lace panties, a black top with embroidered rhinestones and a miniature fur cape, it's getting "a little tooth and nail," she says. "It's a little awkward."
"Jamie and I became pretty good friends as we lived together," agrees Bisutti in a separate interview. "We are also competitors though, so it was a funny combination because we were friends but we always had to compete with each other in tasks. We had a lot of fun shopping and going to the gym together. We made food together and we got along really well."
And Bisutti says she was proud of Darley when she saw her on the catwalk, but she thinks it's her own adrenaline, excitement, model walk and figure that will put her in the final show.
"When I am out on the runway I feel so confident and sexy but also like I am someone who women can relate to," she says.
Darley isn't ceding the spotlight to her pal so easily.
"It was kind of like every dream in my life coming true ... to be a Victoria's Secret model. It was a good goal to have but you never think you are going to get it," she says. "It's like a little boy wanted to play for the World Cup in soccer. But I think I did enough to win."
___

On the Net:

http://www.cbs.com/specials/victorias(underscore)secret/model(underscore)search/finalists/

WASHINGTON – In a five-year span, Candice Singer went from being a respected juvenile defense lawyer to a homeless meth addict who once broke into a house just to take a shower.
By the time she was arrested, Singer was charged with 24 separate burglaries and with cooking meth in her mother's house. She could have spent at least five years in prison, but her lawyer was able to steer her to a New Jersey drug court that kept her in treatment instead of behind bars.
"I credit drug court with saving my life," Singer, 49, says. "If I had gone to prison, I would have continued to use drugs when I got out. I would probably be dead."
It's been 20 years since the first drug court was established in Miami as an innovative way of getting nonviolent offenders out of the criminal justice system and into court-supervised drug rehabilitation programs. Since then more than 2,300 drug courts have blossomed around the country, credited with reducing crime and saving the cost of locking people up.
Despite that success, the specialized courts remain available to less than 10 percent of the 1.2 million drug-addicted offenders. The Obama administration wants to boost funding so that hundreds more courts can begin work.
"There are a lot of people who need these programs and there aren't enough spaces," said Doug Marlowe, chief of science, policy and law at the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
The main problem, advocates say, is a lack of money. While every state has at least one drug court, only a handful of states — like New York and New Jersey — have one in every county.
Drug courts received about $64 million in federal money this year. Congress could push funding over $100 million next year.
But it would take a much bigger infusion of federal dollars to build a true national network of drug courts. The drug court association says $1.5 billion over six years — along with matching money from states — could treat all who need it now.
"It's always difficult to get people to understand that if you spend this much money, there will be this much money in savings," said Gil Kerlikowske, the White House drug czar.
In Singer's case, the trouble began in her teens when she was using alcohol, cocaine and heroin. She completed an outpatient program in her early 20s and spent the next 15 years drug free. But Singer still had underlying depression and anxiety issues that only got worse under the daily pressures of being an attorney. Soon, she turned to meth and her life unraveled.
She is now among 75 percent of drug court graduates who remain arrest-free for at least two years after leaving the program.
At the same time, the proliferation of drug courts is raising new concerns about fairness. A September report from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers claims that prosecutors tend to cherry pick the easy cases for drug courts, shunning defendants with deeper addiction problems. The report also questions a requirement that defendants plead guilty before being allowed into drug courts.
"Unfortunately, many of these courts are conviction mills, which treat substance abusers as criminals and give them access to medical treatment only if they plead guilty and acquire a criminal record," said Cynthia Orr, president of the lawyers group.
Under the system, the guilty plea is held in abeyance during months or years of court-supervised treatment, weekly meetings and counseling sessions. But if they fail, defendants are kicked out of the program and must serve jail for the crime. Orr says some defendants can face a harsher sentence at the end of an unsuccessful treatment program than if they had just accepted a plea deal and avoided drug court.
That could have been the case for Singer, who says she faced up to 87 years in prison if she had not succeeded in drug court. Had she not entered drug court, she would have served five years through a plea agreement.
Marlowe concedes that some prosecutors avoid the tough cases.
But he said there's no way prosecutors would ever take serious offenders into a diversion program without having them first plead guilty. It can be months before they know whether the program will be successful, he said, and it's too hard to prosecute a case months later when evidence is stale and witnesses are lost.

Singer now does legislative and lobbying work at the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence. She has been clean for seven years and has a 2-year-old daughter.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Talor Battle scored 28 of his 32 points in the second half and Penn State withstood a furious rally by Virginia in the final minute to beat the Cavaliers 69-66 Monday night in the opener of the Big Ten-ACC challenge.
The Nittany Lions (5-2) led 55-43 with about 4 minutes left, but a banked-in 3-pointer by Sylven Landesberg and three by Sammy Zeglinski in the final 1:31 got the Cavaliers to within 67-66 with 5.7 seconds left before Battle's two free throws produced the final score.
Penn State became the first Big Ten team to win three straight in the annual matchup of conferences. The Nittany Lions beat Virginia Tech in 2007 and won at Georgia Tech last year.
Landesberg led Virginia (4-3) with 18 points, Mike Scott had 17 and Zeglinski 16, including 11 in the final 1:17. He missed a leaning 3-pointer for the tie at the buzzer.

Creators Syndicate –
If there is an entertainment trend ripe for satire, it is the begging-for-attention smut routines at nationally televised music awards shows. How low can these "artists" go? Sadly, there is always another frontier. "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert was the latest offender at the Nov. 22 American Music Awards on ABC, with a routine complete with S&M bondage slaves, deep male-on-male kissing and simulated fellatio on stage.

All in front of millions upon millions of impressionable youngsters. It was another in-your-face Janet Jackson moment.

There's only one thing that makes this funny. It's the idea that somehow none of this was planned, that it was just a spontaneous eruption. ABC was embarrassed enough by Lambert to cancel a planned performance on "Good Morning America." If they expected cheers for that, they're sadly mistaken. ABC clearly wanted to avoid making its news division question the entertainment division's horrendous decision-making.

Every piece of evidence we have suggests ABC and Lambert knew exactly what they were going to do. Lambert told MTV to expect something really sexy. "I was looking for a certain sensuality," he explained about choosing his dancers, and said the S&M wardrobe was "amazing." MTV reported it would feature the sensibility of his music video for the song he performed: "Adam Lambert is fully embracing the S&M lyrics featured in his single. Greased up dancers are dolled up in leather, dog collars, nipple clamps (zoinks!) and platform boots."

The rough-sex lyrics of the song ABC approved for national consumption are very clear: "I'ma hold ya down until you're amazed/Give it to ya till your screaming my name." And this: "Baby, I'm in control/Take the pain/Take the pleasure/I'm the master of both."

For their part, ABC repeatedly told viewers to stick around for Lambert's routine. They scheduled it at the very end of show so they could suggest it was irresponsible for parents if their children caught this porny show right before the late news.

It is clearly offensive to watch ABC and Dick Clark Productions now play dumb in their official statement: "Due to the live nature of the show we did not expect the impromptu moment in question," they jointly declared after the edited West Coast version. There was no "impromptu moment" that was in question. It was the entire disgusting performance, approved and promoted by ABC and Dick Clark Productions.

CBS News jumped in to promote Lambert where ABC left off. How dumb did Adam Lambert think America was? Let's survey his comical answers.

1. Did you have any idea your performance at the AMAs would ignite this firestorm? Lambert said: "No clue. No clue at all."

2. Did you plan those sexually charged moves in the rehearsal? Lambert: "Those kind of came from more of a impromptu place. No, those were not rehearsed."

3. This was the best question from CBS interviewer Maggie Rodriguez: Now that you have had time to think about the children, your child fans, do you feel that you need to apologize to them? Lambert's absolutely classic answer: "I think it's up to the parents to — to discern what their child's watching on television."

4. Rodriguez followed up: "Well, but they had no idea they were about to see something like that on network TV." That's where Lambert started sounding like a lawyer: "Well, you know — and you know, just to play devil's advocate with you, Lady Gaga smashing whiskey bottles. Janet Jackson grabbing a male dancer's crotch. Eminem talked about how Slim Shady has '17 rapes under his belt.' There's a lot of very adult material on the AMAs this year and I know I wasn't the only one. I'm not using that as an excuse and I don't have any — I didn't take any offense with those performers' choices, I'm just saying I think it's up to a parent to watch the television. It was almost 11 at night. If they're concerned with certain material, maybe TiVo it and preview it before your small child is watching it."

Oh, shut up. Rodriguez summed up Lambert's lack of regret:

5. So you don't feel that it's your responsibility to issue an apology? Lambert unfurled what could be a motto for the entertainment world in general: "I'm not a baby sitter. I'm a performer."

So we can blame Lambert, we can blame ABC, and for starting this all, we can blame Fox and "American Idol." They took up Lambert and made him a gender-bending crusader for gay liberation in entertainment. Sexual politics trumped his screechy (and let's face it, lack of) talent. Lambert's honesty about his absolute, leather-bound mission to offend came out at the CBS interview's end. He was asked if he had to do it over again, what would he do differently? "I would sing it a little bit better."

L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. To find out more about Brent Bozell III, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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