China sends long-missing lawyer Gao back to jail (AP)

BEIJING ? Chinese activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has not been seen in public for more than 20 months, has been sent back to jail for three years for breaking his probation, state media reported Friday.

The brief report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency marked the first official confirmation that Gao is still alive. Rights groups have repeatedly voiced concern about Gao's situation and criticism over the government silence surrounding his case.

Xinhua said Gao "had seriously violated probation rules for a number of times, which led to the court decision to withdraw the probation."

It did not say what violations Gao had committed, or could have committed because he was thought to have been in the custody of China's security forces since he was last seen in April 2010.

He was sentenced to three years in prison, with a five-year probation period, in December 2006 for inciting to overthrow state power. The probation would have expired next Thursday.

Calls to the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court and the Beijing High Court were not answered Friday.

Gao's brother said had not heard from the authorities on Gao's case, but Gao Zhiyi said he believed the end of the probation period may have been behind the move.

"Are they sending him to a proper prison? Which prison was he at before? Where were they hiding him?" he asked.

Gao said when he approached Beijing police in September to ask about his brother, one officer told him Gao Zhisheng was a "missing person and no one knows where he is."

Gao Zhiyi said he did not know what the latest notice from the court meant.

"Why were they hiding him for such a long time, what was his crime?" he said.

One of the most high-profile targets of the crackdown on rights lawyers over the past few years, Gao is a charismatic and pugnacious lawyer who represented religious dissenters and advocated constitutional reform.

Gao has drawn international attention, including from the United States, for the unusual length of his disappearance and for his earlier reports of torture he said he endured in detention.

His case was mentioned by U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke last Saturday in a statement for International Human Rights Day.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_re_as/as_china_missing_lawyer

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Miners safely removed from Idaho underground mine (Providence Journal)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/174829967?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Jim Wallis: The Real War on Christmas... by Fox News

Each Advent in recent years, around the time when those prefab, do-it-yourself gingerbread house kits appear on supermarket shelves, Fox News launches its (allegedly) defensive campaign commonly known as the ?War on Christmas.?

Fox News? ?war? is designed to criticize the ?secularization? of our culture wrought by atheists, agnostics, liberals, leftists, progressives, and separation of church and state zealots? i.e. Democrats. This irreligious coalition force is allegedly waging a strategic offensive on Christmas, trying to banish the sacred symbols of the season, denying our religious heritage, and even undermining the spiritual rubrics upon which our great nation is built.

Fox News positions itself as the defender of the faith and all things sacred. And Bill O?Reilly fancies himself the ?watchdog? of Christmas.

Fox News? usual targets include shopping malls and stores that replace their ?Merry Christmas? greetings with ?Happy Holidays,? and state governments that no longer call their official "Christmas" trees by their rightful name, or municipalities that ban any depictions of, or references to, the Christmas season in public places. Those who are attacked defend themselves, often claim that they are really religious too, and the perennial war is on.

But what we actually have here is a theological problem, where cultural and commercial symbols are confused with truly Christian ones, and the meaning of the holy season is missed all together.

The war on Christmas is really about what brand of ?civil religion? America should have. The particular (read: biblical) meaning of Christmas, for Christians, has almost nothing to do with the media war.

What a surprise.

What is Christmas? It is the celebration of the Incarnation, God?s becoming flesh ? human ? and entering into history in the form of a vulnerable baby born to a poor, teenage mother in a dirty animal stall. Simply amazing. That Mary was homeless at the time,a member of a people oppressed by the imperial power of an occupied country whose local political leader, Herod, was so threatened by the baby?s birth that he killed countless children in a vain attempt to destroy the Christ child, all adds compelling historical and political context to the Advent season.

The theological claim that sets Christianity apart from any other faith tradition is the Incarnation. God has come into the world to save us. God became like us to bring us back to God and show us what it means to be truly human.

That is the meaning of the Incarnation. That is the reason for the season.

In Jesus Christ, God hits the streets.

It is theologically and spiritually significant that the Incarnation came to our poorest streets. That Jesus was born poor, later announces his mission at Nazareth as ?bringing good news to the poor,? and finally tells us that how we treat ?the least of these? is his measure of how we treat him and how he will judge us as the Son of God, radically defines the social context and meaning of the Incarnation of God in Christ. And it clearly reveals the real meaning of Christmas.

The other explicit message of the Incarnation is that Jesus the Christ?s arrival will mean ?peace on earth, good will toward men.? He is ?the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.? Jesus later calls on his disciples to turn the other cheek, practice humility, walk the extra mile, put away their swords, love their neighbors ? and even their enemies ? and says that in his kingdom, it is the peacemakers who will be called the children of God. Christ will end our warring ways, bringing reconciliation to God and to one another.

None of that has anything to do with the Fox News Christmas. In fact, quite the opposite.

Making sure that shopping malls and stores greet their customers with ?Merry Christmas? is entirely irrelevant to the meaning of the Incarnation. In reality it is the consumer frenzy of Christmas shopping that is the real affront and threat to the season.

Last year, Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas. Clean water for the whole world, including every poor person on the planet, would cost about $20 billion. Let?s just call that what it is: A material blasphemy of the Christmas season.

Imagine Jesus walking into the mall, seeing the Merry Christmas signs, and expressing his humble thanks for how the pre- and post-Christmas sales are honoring to him. How about credit cards for Christ?

While we?re at it, here?s another point of clarification: The arrival of the Christ child has nothing to do with trees or what we call them.

Evergreens and wreaths, holly and ivy, and even mistletoe turn out to be customs borrowed from ancient Roman and Germanic winter solstice celebrations, assimilated and co-opted by the church after Constantine made peace between his empire and the Christians.

Now, my family loves our Christmas tree, but its bright lights and wonderful ornaments don?t teach my children much about why Jesus came into the world. We do that in other ways, such as giving needed gifts ? goats, sheep, and chickens and the like ? to the poorest children and families of the world though the World Vision web site on Christmas Day. The goal is to make our sons more excited about the gifts they give than the ones they get, and it usually works. Last year, my boys sponsored a child in Ghana.

I have no problem with the public viewing of symbols from all of the world?s religions at appropriate times in their religious calendars (which can actually be educational for all of our children) and believe that doing so is consistent with our democratic and cultural pluralism.

But I don?t believe that respectfuly and publicly honoring those many religious symbols has changed many lives, for better or for worse. Much more important than symbols and symbolism is how we live the faith that we espouse. And here is where Fox News?s war on Christmas is most patently unjust.

The real Christmas announces the birth of Jesus to a world of poverty, pain, and sin, and offers the hope of salvation and justice.

The Fox News Christmas heralds the steady promotion of consumerism, the defense of wealth and power, the adulation of money and markets, and the regular belittling or attacking of efforts to overcome poverty.

The real Christmas offers the joyful promise of peace and the hope of reconciliation with God and between humankind.

The Fox News Christmas proffers the constant drumbeat of war, the reliance on military solutions to every conflict, the demonizing of our enemies, and the gospel of American dominance.

The real Christmas lifts up the Virgin Mary?s song of praise for her baby boy: ?He has brought the mighty down from their thrones, and lifted the lowly, he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away.?

The Fox News Christmas would label Mary?s Magnificat as ?class warfare.?

So if there is a war on Christmas it's the one being waged by Fox News.

Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. He blogs at www.godspolitics.com. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.

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Follow Jim Wallis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jimwallis

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/the-real-war-on-christmas_b_1151709.html

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Former Vice President Dan Quayle Endorses Mitt Romney (ContributorNetwork)

Dan Quayle, a former senator and vice president, endorsed former Massachusetts Mitt Romney for president in an op-ed published in the Arizona Republic. It represents a nod to a possible future president from a man who might have been president.

Quayle summarized his reasons for endorsing Romney into four qualities he suggests he has: leadership, character, conservative principles and electability. Quayle did not specify how Romney has demonstrated these qualities. The former vice president did say Romney, unique of all the other candidates, possessed all four.

Quayle was a member of the House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981 from Indiana, a senator from 1981 to 1989 and President George H.W. Bush's vice president during his term from 1989 to 1993. Quayle briefly ran for president in the 2000 election cycle but soon withdrew and threw his support to George W. Bush. He has moved from Indiana to Paradise Valley, Ariz. His son, Ben Quayle, was elected to the House in 2010.

It is interesting that Quayle, considered conservative in his time, would endorse Romney, considered by most modern conservatives as a moderate. Quayle may be coming from the point of view of an institutional Republican, having served in a number of offices rather than an outsider, tea party conservative, a mode that would have suited him in the 1980s.

Quayle might also remember how Newt Gingrich, Romney's main rival, as a firebrand House Minority Whip, clashed with the elder Bush administration on the subject of taxes. Gingrich, with his two divorces, likely falls short in the character category, in Quayle's eyes.

As a young conservative, Quayle suffered more than his share of slings and arrows from the media, in the same manner as Ronald Reagan did before him and the younger Bush and Sarah Palin have after him. An intelligent, canny politician, Quayle was held up to ridicule as being a light weight, though he surely committed far fewer gaffes than the current vice president. His name will always be attached to the common potato or, as he spelled it, potatoe. The attacks were as unfair as they were relentless and likely foreclosed any hope of his becoming president.

What, if any, advantage that a Quayle endorsement will give Romney is hard to see. Quayle has been out of public life for over ten years. Still, it is something that gets Romney and Quayle talked about, and in politics that is generally a good thing.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111206/pl_ac/10613817_former_vice_president_dan_quayle_endorses_mitt_romney

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Marlins, Reyes agree to deal

9:40 p.m. EST update: ESPN?s Buster Olney says the Marlins and Reyes have a deal, and FOXSports.com?s Ken Rosenthal reports it?s for $106 million over six years and that there is?not a no-trade clause included.

Analysis pieces:

Mets? future bleak without Reyes

Marlins? spotlight now on Hanley Ramirez

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9:00 p.m. EST update: Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com?s reports that the Marlins and Reyes are close to terms on a six-year deal believed to be worth $110 million.

8:00 p.m. EST update: The Mets are out of the bidding for Reyes, according to Newsday?s David Lennon and others. The Marlins are in the driver?s seat with a bid that multiple sources have stated tops $100 million.

///

Now that?s more like it.

According to Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes, the Marlins have upped their six-year offer to Jose Reyes from $90 million to $111 million.

The deal would pay Reyes a cool $17.67 million annually for six years and includes a $22 million option?with a $5 million buyout for 2018.

The Marlins?are the only team known to have offered Reyes a contract, though it?s believed the Mets would be willing to go to around $16 million per year to keep him. $111 million may well get a deal done, assuming that the offer is for real and doesn?t include a bundle of deferred money.

Detroit and Milwaukee are a couple of the other teams known to have checked in on Reyes.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/04/report-marlins-go-to-111-million-in-bid-for-jose-reyes/related

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HBT: Nationals are favored to get C.J. Wilson

The Nationals made a big splash at last December?s Winter Meetings, signing outfielder?Jayson Werth to a seven-year, $126 million contract. Might they be preparing a similar-style plunge at this year?s event?

According to Jon Heyman of SI.com, other teams are viewing the Nationals as the current favorite to land free agent left-handed starter C.J. Wilson.

Wilson, 31, posted a stellar 2.94 ERA and 206/74 K/BB ratio in 223 1/3 innings this past season for the Rangers. He was a dominant reliever, and he?s now turned himself into a top-of-the-line rotation arm.

The Marlins, Angels and Red Sox are also thought to have interest. Texas is likely to make a bid as well.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/04/nationals-seen-as-favorite-for-left-hander-c-j-wilson/related/

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Russians vote in test for Putin (Reuters)

MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Russians voted on Sunday in a parliamentary election seen as a test of Vladimir Putin's personal authority before his planned return to the presidency, and an electoral watchdog complained of 'massive cyber attacks' on a website alleging violations.

Putin remains by far the most popular politician in the vast country of more than 140 million people but there are some signs Russians may be wearying of his cultivated strong-man image.

The 59-year-old ex-spy looked stern and said only that he hoped for good results for his ruling United Russia party as he walked past supporters to vote in Moscow.

"I will vote for Putin. Everything he gets involved in, he manages well," said Father Vasily, 61, a white-bearded monk from a nearby monastery. "It's too early for a new generation. They will be in charge another 20 years. We are Russians, we are Asians, we need a strong leadership."

A Western-financed electoral watchdog and two liberal media outlets said their sites had been shut down by hackers intent on silencing allegations of violations. Sites belonging to the Ekho Moskvy radio station, online news portal Slon.ru and the watchdog Golos went down at around 8 a.m.

"Massive cyber attacks are taking place on the sites of Golos and the map showing violations," Golos said on Twitter.

Golos said it was excluded from several polling booths in the Siberian Tomsk region. Moscow prosecutors launched an investigation last week into Golos' activities after lawmakers objected to its Western financing.

On Saturday, customs officers held Golos's director for 12 hours at a Moscow airport and Washington said on Friday it was concerned by "a pattern of harassment" against the watchdog.

Ekho Moskvy editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov wrote on Twitter: "It is obvious the election day attack on the (radio) site is part of an attempt to prevent publishing information about violations."

President Dmitry Medvedev, who is stepping aside next year so that Putin can return to the presidency, has dismissed talk of electoral fraud. Neither the general prosecutor's office nor the Central Election Commission could be reached for comment.

SOME RUSSIANS WEARY OF PUTIN

Some voters said they would vote for Just Russia, which calls itself 'new socialist', or the Communists, who retain support largely among poorer citizens 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union and the advent of a free-market system.

"United Russia has lost touch with reality," said a 30-year-old history teacher in St Petersburg who gave his name only as Alexander. He was planning to switch his vote to the Communists.

Others in Russia's second city said they would vote for liberal, Western-leaning Yabloko.

The biggest liberal opposition group was barred from taking part. One of its co-leaders, former First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, put a big X across the ballot paper and wrote: "Give us back our elections, vermin."

About 30 opposition protesters gathered by the Kremlin screaming: "Your elections are a farce!" through loudspeakers. Twelve were detained by police, Reuters witnesses said.

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, voting at a cultural centre decked out with Soviet-style hammer and sickle flags, said there appeared to be election violations in several parts of the country spanning 9,000 km (5,600 miles).

"I just spoke to our people in Siberia and the Far East and the situation is very worrying," he said.

Opinion polls before the vote put Putin's party on course to win a majority but less than the 315 seats it now has in the 450-seat lower house of parliament, the State Duma.

If Putin's party gets less than two-thirds of seats, it would be stripped of its so called constitutional majority which allows it to change the constitution and even approve the impeachment of the president.

PUTIN'S PARTY

Supporters say Putin saved Russia during his 2000-2008 presidency, restoring Kremlin control over sprawling regions and reviving an economy mired in post-Soviet chaos.

His use of military force to crush a rebellion in the southern Muslim region of Chechnya also won him broad support, and security was tight there on election day.

Opposition parties say the election was unfair from the start because of authorities' support for United Russia with cash and television air time.

Putin has no serious personal rivals as Russia's leader. He remains the ultimate arbiter between the clans which control the world's biggest energy producer.

But his party has had to fight against opponents who have branded it a collection of "swindlers and thieves" and combat a growing sense of unease among voters at Putin's grip on power.

"I shall not vote. I shall cross out all the parties on the list and write: 'Down with the party of swindlers and thieves,'" said Nikolai Markovtsev, an independent deputy in the Vladivostok city legislature on the Pacific seaboard.

"These are not elections: this is sacrilege," he said.

Opponents say Putin has crafted a brittle political system which excludes independent voices and that Russians are growing tired of Putin's swaggering image.

Putin is almost certain to win the March 4 presidential election and could extend his rule until 2024 if he wins the maximum two more terms, but signs of disenchantment are worrying for the Kremlin's political managers.

Sports fans booed and whistled at Putin at a Moscow martial arts fight last month -- an exceptional event in a country inclined to show respect and restraint towards leaders..

($1 = 30.8947 Russian roubles)

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Amie Ferris-Rotman, Gleb Bryanski, Thomas Grove and Alissa de Carbonnel, Writing by Ralph Boulton, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111204/wl_nm/us_russia_election

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