Stick to fluff,
this reader says

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Ms. Stuart, you know we can watch CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, VOA as well as you can. Do you think we are so stupid we need you to critique the news and situation in Iraq or any other country as a matter of fact. 

Also Ms. Stuart, I have never been wrong on something that has not happened, but have all the answers for things that have. Even in reading your articles about things you DO know something about, I get the feeling you may have done it different if you had it all to do over again. 

Stick to fluff, you don't have any more solutions for U.S. policy than anybody else, and it is evident in your articles when you rehash news and opinions we can watch for ourselves. 

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I tend to agree with Mr. Edwards  that most U.S. Democrats have or would make little noise about terrorists attacks against Cuba and or Fidel Castro. Liberalism is just about dead in the USA. 

Those that still exist won't speak up for fear of being branded unpatriotic or anti-security. American foreign policy is, as always, dominated by the big double standard of American private and commercial interests first, regardless of morality, of the effects of this upon others, and often even basic intelligence. 

This chronic short-sightedness does not come for free. The longer term results can be seen in the turmoil in the countries that have yet to recover from U.S. interference, and spread of instability and anti-Americanism throughout the world. 

Why does the U.S. behave like this? Perhaps as history suggests, those with power are inevitably fated to abuse it.

Dear AM Costa Rica:

Once again, Ms. Jo Stuart trots out the tired old chestnuts that have become a hallmark of Leftist propaganda regarding Iraq and the war on terror. It's tempting to say she is merely in error, but no, it is increasingly clear she is a dutiful cadre following a failed ideology — where all sense of perspective is lost or ignored for purely political purposes. 

Saddam Huessein is not the issue in this conflict. He's history now, thanks to George W. Bush — and a rare bi-partisan act of Congress.  And it matters not a whit that Saddam was a "secularist" dictator that kept the peace between Iraqi factions — as Ms. Stuart so glowingly describes him. 

Oh sure, the trains ran on time in Iraq in Saddam's era. They had to--in order to fill the mass graves of the victims — some 500,000 people — who died at the direct hands of his bloody regime. 

You want to talk numbers, Ms. Stuart? Try one million dead as a result of the Iran-Iraq War, or the thousands of Kuwaiti people killed in that senseless conflict. How dare you wring your hands over the deaths of a few innocents while stooping to imply coalition forces seeking to free Iraq, Saddam, and the terrorists are morally equivalent: Equally guilty, huh? 

But bringing up the name of Tito — the mass murderer of Yugoslavia — into any discussion that argues against the liberation of the long suffering Iraqi people truly mystifies me.  Just what rhetorical tricks won't you pull in the name of mere politics? 

And do you seriously think that we owe the dead-enders, the foreign fighters, and unemployed fanatics of the former dictatorship in Iraq a "jobs" program?  Yeah right, Jo, they'll stop risking their lives and blowing themselves up to kill our troops if only we give them a decent minimum wage at U.S. taxpayer expense. 

Get real, Jo: you want some fries with that, lady?   There were three important reasons to invade Iraq that clearly seem to escape you: Saddam was a state sponsor of terrorism. He openly paid a bounty to suicide bombers — often small children themselves — that killed innocent Israeli men, women, and children. And he harbored countless terrorists who were fleeing justice from countries around the world. Look up Abul Nidal, for starters, to confirm this. 

Saddam had already used weapons of mass destruction to gas and kill both Iranians and Iraqi Kurds. Gee, you think we could've actually trusted him to straighten up and fly right when he was actively shooting at our fighter planes enforcing the U.N. authourized no-fly zones to contain him? 

Jo, you're a worthy Leftist activist that plays word games quite well. But my advice to you, for the good sake of the country, is to sit back on your comfy sofa, toss a few more mini-marshmallows into your hot chocolate, engross yourself in a Harlequin Romance novel, and leave the foreign policy of the United States to people more serious, less partisan, and more clear-headed. Because I believe, U.S. politics should stop at the waters edge, Madam. 

A march that held different meanings to different people attracted about 200,000 persons to Avenida 2 Tuesday.

The avowed purpose was a show of national repugnance to corruption. And some marchers homed in on President Abel Pacheco and Alex Solís, the contralor general de la República.

Several blocks away, vandals hurled rocks through the windows of the Fischel pharmaceutical company.

Generally the march was peaceful and for a time under a light rain.

Several former presidents showed up, including Rodrigo Carazo Odio. Getting applause from the marchers was Francisco Dall’Anese, the fiscal general or chief prosecutor, and José Manuel Echandi, defensor de los habitantes.

The usual groups promoted their predictable causes. The proposed free trade treaty with the United States got its share of criticism. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría, the former president, was cast as a pig. Another image showed Pacheco 

Corporación Fischel and its chief executive officer were the key players in what prosecutors say was a $9 million payoff on a loan from Finland to purchase medical supplies from that country. 

Pacheco was criticized for accepting what appears to be an illegal $100,000 campaign donation from Alcatel, the French telecommunications company.

Rodríguez, who just resigned as secretary general of the Organization of American States, is suspected of accepting money from the $39 million deal with Finland and a later gratuity from Alcatel after it won a $260 million telephone contract.

Hosts of associates, friends, spouses and others are being grilled by prosecutors about these and other transactions. Dall’Anese is leading the investigation.

Solís is under investigation by the legislature, which appointed him, for falsifying signatures on real estate documents in his private capacity as a notary. Solís had to duck away from the march when the crowd got testy.

ATLANTA, Ga. — Chemists at Emory University have made an important advance in harnessing the ability of bacteria to make new molecules, and their discovery could eventually lead to the creation of naturally decaffeinated coffee plants. The research, by Emory chemist Justin Gallivan and graduate student Shawn Desai, is scheduled to appear in the Oct. 27 edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Bacteria are terrific chemists, but they normally synthesize only molecules they need for their own survival, said Gallivan. His research team is interested in making bacteria synthesize molecules that they would otherwise not make on their own, resulting in molecules that may someday benefit humans. The Emory team reasoned that if a bacterium needs a particular molecule to survive, it has a strong incentive to help make it, so the goal was to make bacteria depend on a molecule that they wouldn't normally need.

In their first major breakthrough, the Emory researchers have coupled the life of a bacterium to the presence of theophylline, a compound that is used to treat asthma, and is produced by the breakdown of caffeine in both coffee and tea plants. One of the reasons that coffee has a high level of caffeine is that in the plant, caffeine is synthesized very quickly, but breaks down to theophylline very slowly. 

"We know that there is an enzyme that breaks caffeine down into theophylline, but we don't know

Gallivan says that the idea is to supply these bacteria with caffeine, and give each bacterium a piece of DNA from coffee plants that may encode the enzyme that will allow the bacterium to convert the caffeine to the theophylline it needs to survive. 

"At the end of the day, we will know that all of the surviving bacteria have 'learned' to convert caffeine to theophylline, and thus have the enzyme that we're interested in. We can then learn about the enzyme and how it works," Gallivan said.

"We hope to use a process known as directed evolution to help speed up the enzyme to break down caffeine faster. Since the bacteria need theophylline for their survival, they're partners in the whole process." Eventually, the faster enzyme could be introduced into coffee plants to produce decaffeinated coffee, he said.

Gallivan says not to expect good-tasting, naturally decaffeinated coffee anytime soon. "We're still at the earliest stages of this work. There are many hurdles to overcome," he said. "As a scientist, I'm excited about the future. As a caffeinated coffee addict, part of me is not in a hurry to solve this one."

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Congress has approved legislation that authorizes the doubling of U.S. military personnel in Colombia to 800, and provides for increasing the number of American citizens working for private contractors in that Andean country from 400 to 600.

The authority, included in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2005 passed Saturday, also includes a provision that would extend for two more years the authority of the U.S. secretary of defense to use counter-drug funding to assist Colombia's government in conducting a "unified campaign" in Colombia against both narcotics trafficking and activities by groups designated as terrorist organizations. These include the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (ELN).

The government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe welcomed the support in its fight against the drug trade and left-wing Marxist rebels. But human rights groups criticized the increase, saying more U.S. troops could escalate the violence in the South American country.

The bill says that no U.S. forces or civilian contractors employed by the United States can participate in any combat operation in Colombia, except when acting in self-defense or rescuing U.S. citizens in the South American nation.

The bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 359-14, and approved by unanimous consent in the U.S. Senate. The bill authorizes funding for the U.S. Department of Defense and the national security programs of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Uribe has thanked U.S. congressional members for stressing the importance of viewing the current free-trade negotiations between the United States and Colombia as part of a broader war against illegal drugs and for national security in his country. He also thanked the members for requesting support for Colombian agricultural projects related to sanitary and phytosanitary issues.

In an Oct. 6 letter to Rep. Henry Hyde, a Republican of Illinois and chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Uribe said that a "broader perspective on national security leads to good economic policy, good agricultural policy and good trade policy."

"I greatly welcome the significant and critical initiative you and other senior congressional members have taken to help create legal jobs and more opportunity for many Colombians, including the demobilized and those affected by the illicit narcotics industry in rural areas," wrote Uribe.

The Colombian president added that "both our countries must ensure, as we deepen our trade and investment relationship, that we do not undermine the significant gains in security and rural employment achieved by Colombia in the past few years with the invaluable support and investment of the United States."

The United States is providing $1.3 billion for "Plan Colombia," an initiative launched by Colombia's government to fight the illegal drug trade, protect human rights, and expand economic development.