Thursday 23 June 2005

Al Qaeda, OSHA Clash Over Workplace Safety

With Iraq As Training Facility, Safety Agency Wants Compliance

Citing complete defiance to rules, including the posting of federally-mandated signs, proper training programs, insurance, outreach, and education, along with the disregard for the safety and health of its employees, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) is seeking huge fines against the terror group, Al Qaeda, for their new training facility of the country of Iraq.

With the U.S. Military occupying Iraq, OSHA contends that Al Qaeda must adhere to the standards and practices of workplace safety as outlined and enforced by OSHA.

A recent CIA report states that Iraq was become a training ground for Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists, so much so that it's
"even more an effective training ground than Afghanistan was".

Jonathan L. Snare, Acting Assistant Secretary of OSHA, said he was "appalled" at the conditions in Iraq.

"They have untrained personnel working with firearms, explosives and other dangerous tools and devices and there is no evidence that these employees have had any level of professional training".

OSHA, since its inception in 1971, has helped to cut workplace fatalities by more than 60 percent and occupational injury and illness rates by 40 percent.

Al Qaeda has not responded to OSHA's request for records and documentation of its training program, the qualifications of its instructors, managers and councilors, or a copy of their employee manual.

"We need to have complete compliance", stated Snare. "If we don't get it, we may have to take the drastic step - one we don't like to take - and shut the operation down".



Disney Parks Overrun As Southern Baptists End Boycott

Gates Locked On Mob By 11AM; Nagging Children Key To Breaking Stalemate

Walt Disney World, in Orlando, Florida, and Disneyland in Southern California were overrun by Southern Baptists, who for the past eight-years have boycotted the theme park over their belief the Walt Disney Co. violated "moral righteousness and traditional family values".

Park officials were forced to shut down the box office and lock the main gates to the park by 11:00AM, in Orlando and by 12-Noon in Anaheim, turning away tens-of-thousands. The small avenues and walkways inside the parks were packed and teeming with people. There were unconfirmed reports that the parks' food vendors shut down by mid-afternoon, having run out of food to serve.

Hotels and motels, virtually throughout the entire state of Florida were booked to capacity. The other theme parks in the Orlando area, such as Disney's Epcot Center, SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, Universal Orlando and Wet 'n Wild filled with the overflow crowds.

In Southern California, crowds turned away from Disneyland flocked to Knott's Theme Park, San Diego Zoo, Universal Studios Hollywood, Six Flags Magic Mountain, and others. Hotels and motels, from San Diego all the way up to Santa Barbara, over 135-miles, were booked solid.

All non-Disney parks set one day attendance and revenue records.

It was back at the Southern Baptist Convention in 1997 that the resolution was passed to boycott Disney theme parks and products, due to the Walt Disney Co's decision to give benefits to companions of gay and lesbian employees.

Gene Mims, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention committee said that "we believe the boycott was effective".

''We cost Disney hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars,'' said Wiley Drake, an SBC member from California

Disney officials had no immediate comment.

The resolution ending the boycott states that Disney should serve ''families of America by providing only those products that affirm traditional family values.''

Southern Baptist Convention Chairman Rob Zin, at a press conference, stated that he was pleased with the boycott and happy to see it end.

"While the boycott was effective, we underestimated some of it's side-effects"

Zinn described how many of the SBC's staff and member were "nagged" and "hounded" by their own children and wives.

Through the advent of the Internet, e-mail and cell phones, young Southern Baptists organized campaigns that included wearing pink or purple "Mickey Mouse Ears", endlessly watching the Disney Channel on cable television, or Disney movies on videotape or DVD and adding to the evening dinner pray, a plea for "the Lord to grace this home with the words We're going to Disneyland"

"After eight-years of this, we had to do something", Zinn sighed.

At the convention, other resolution were passed that included encouraging parents to investigate their children's public schools to determine whether they are too accepting of homosexuality, commendation for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for defending the appointment of fair and impartial judges to the federal bench and insisting upon their right to a vote of confirmation to the full Senate and support of stem cell research that doesn't destroy human embryos or risk in obtaining human stem cells.

''It's just devastating to me what's happening to our children,'' said Robert Dreyfuss, an SBC member from Florida. ''We're going to look very much like Europe looks.''