Culturite

The top U.S. military officer says the United States may double the number of troops it has in Afghanistan next year.  The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, says as many as 30,000 more troops could arrive by mid-2009. 

Admiral Mullen told reporters in Kabul the additional troops may reach Afghanistan in spring or summer, to join the 31,000 U.S. troops already there. “Some 20- to 30,000 is the window of overall increase from where we are right now,” he said.

Facing federal corruption charges that threaten to end his political career, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has made clear to the world what those close to him know well: He’s not one to be easily fazed.

“I have done nothing wrong. And I’m not going to quit a job that people hired me to do because of false accusations and a political lynch mob,” a composed yet combative Blagojevich said Friday, addressing the public for the first time since his arrest 10 days earlier.

“I will fight. I will fight. I will fight until I take my last breath,” Blagojevich said. He took no questions from reporters and immediately left the room after wishing his listeners, “Merry Christmas, happy holidays.”

The 52-year-old Democrat’s uncompromising pledge comes as little surprise to those who know him, but doesn’t necessarily resonate.

Blagojevich appears to have no political support, the Illinois House having voted 113-0 last week to assemble an impeachment committee, and his ability to govern has been crippled.

Still, following his appearance, Blagojevich issued 22 pardons. Aides wouldn’t provide any information about why he granted the pardons, or what crimes the people were accused of committing, but the move served as reminder of the governor’s authority.

The sponsors of Proposition 8 asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to nullify the marriages of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who exchanged vows before voters approved the ballot initiative that outlawed gay unions.

The Yes on 8 campaign filed a brief arguing that because the new law holds that only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized or valid in California, the state can no longer recognize the existing same-sex unions. The document reveals for the first time that opponents of same-sex marriage will fight in court to undo those unions that already exist.

The campaign submitted the document in response to three lawsuits seeking to invalidate Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment adopted last month that overruled the court’s decision in May that had legalized gay marriage in the nation’s most populous state.

Both Attorney General Jerry Brown, whose office is scheduled to submit its own brief to the court Friday, and gay rights groups maintain that the gay marriage ban may not be applied retroactively.

The Supreme Court could hear arguments in the litigation as soon as March.

An unprecedented declaration seeking to decriminalize homosexuality won the support of 66 countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, but opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize pedophilia and other “deplorable acts.”

The United States refused to support the nonbinding measure, as did Russia, China, the Roman Catholic Church and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Holy See’s observer mission issued a statement saying that the declaration “challenges existing human rights norms.”

The declaration, sponsored by France with broad support in Europe and Latin America, condemned human rights violations based on homophobia, saying such measures run counter to the universal declaration of human rights.

“How can we tolerate the fact that people are stoned, hanged, decapitated and tortured only because of their sexual orientation?” said Rama Yade, the French state secretary for human rights, noting that homosexuality is banned in nearly 80 countries and subject to the death penalty in at least six.

The bad news is that the LA Times has reported that an estimated $2 million worth of jewelry and other belongings was stolen from her Hollywood Hills home. The thieves apparently got in through an unlocked door. She was not home at the time and the house does have security video equipment.