Monday, July 31, 2006

NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST July 31, 2006

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-69forum31jul31,0,3981726.story

ZEALOTRY

Safeguard freedoms for all
By Ina B. Alterman

July 31, 2006

The July 9 Outlook section feature "God Is My Coworker" serves to underscore the fear that the U.S. is becoming a theocracy. The pervasiveness of religious intrusion into our lives, our schools and even our laws is offensive to the millions of non-believers, secular humanists and evenmoderate religionists in this country, all of whom still believe in theconstitutional separation of church and state.

It should be a warning to all believers as well. Our forefathers recognizedthe tyranny of a state religion and wrote religious freedom into ourConstitution. However, the money, influence and power of the extremereligious right have grown since having their chief spokesman in the White
House. They are intruding their religious views into matters that should beentirely secular, such as the teaching of established science in the schoolsrather than religious pseudoscientific "intelligent design."

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/la-he-alcohol31jul31,0,939613.story?coll=sfla-news-science


A DRINK A DAY

Alcohol can be good for the heart -- not just occasionally, but often.
Still, doctors hesitate to recommend ...

By Susan Brink
Times Staff Writer

July 31, 2006

WHEN it comes to drinking alcohol for medicinal purposes, most Americans getit wrong. Take a sampling of wine samplers at a recent tasting in SantaBarbara.

"I usually drink wine, but not every day," says Mike White, 45. "Then oneday a week, I go big - maybe half to three-quarters of a bottle." - Wrong.

"I drink on the weekends only," says Sophie Calvin, 40. - That's not iteither.

"I have a glass of wine when I take a bubble bath," says Mary Whitney, 40. "Every night." - Getting close, but it might be better if she also brought an entrée into the tub.



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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/nation/epaper/2006/07/31/a2a_bush_0731.html

The Palm Beach Post

President to linger in Miami area today
The Washington Post
Monday, July 31, 2006

MIAMI - With crucial midterm congressional elections just three months away,President Bush tried Sunday to return to his domestic agenda even as thelatest eruption in the Middle East continued to dominate hisadministration's attention.

Bush flew here after going for a Sunday bicycle ride and hosting achildren's T-ball game on the South Lawn of the White House to have dinnerwith Miami community leaders.

He plans a day of activities Monday in the Miami area, visiting the NationalHurricane Center, delivering an economic speech, touring the Port of Miamiand headlining a Republican fund-raiser.

The president's visit to the home state of his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush,suggested the depth of White House concern over his political standing asRepublicans head into the campaign with a leader whose approval ratingsremain stuck in the 30s.

The president rarely travels domestically on the weekend and hardly everspends the night in a city within easy flying time of home.White House strategists, however, are trying a new approach that has Bushlingering during targeted trips across the country rather than popping in
for a speech and leaving within hours.


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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html?ei=5094&en=621c6eb7af47e7db&hp=&ex=1154318400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

July 31, 2006

Tactics
Israel Halts Air Raids After Dozens Die

By STEVEN ERLANGER and HASSAN M. FATTAH

JERUSALEM, Monday, July 31 - Israel agreed to suspend air attacks insouthern Lebanon for 48 hours after one of its raids on the southern town ofQana left dozens of civilians, many of them children, dead on Sunday, thebloodiest day of the conflict so far.

Israel said the Qana raid was aimed at Hezbollah fighters firing rocketsinto Israel from the area, but the strike collapsed a residential apartmentbuilding, crushing Lebanese civilians who were taking shelter for the nightin the basement.

There were different accounts of the death toll. Residents said as many as60 people had been inside. News agencies reported that 56 had been killed,and that 34 of them were children. The Lebanese Red Cross, which conductedthe rescue, counted 27 bodies, as many of 17 of them children. The youngestof the dead was 10 months old, and the oldest was 95. One was in a
wheelchair.


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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/opinion/31mon2.html?pagewanted=print

July 31, 2006
Editorial

Prisoners and Human Rights

The United States has the worst record in the free world when it comes tostripping convicted felons of the right to vote. In contrast, most Europeancountries hold that right so dear that they bring ballot boxes into prisons.

This point was underscored last week in a scalding report from the UnitedNations Human Rights Committee, which held hearings earlier this month todetermine how well the United States was complying with the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights, which this country ratified in 1992.The hearings heard testimony about secret detentions, kidnappings and
accusations of torture.

But they also dealt with how the United States treats its prison inmates,particularly the disenfranchisement laws that bar more than five millionconvicted felons from the polls. The American representative weakly defendedthe practice's legality, but dodged explaining its rationale, saying the rules come from the states, not the federal government.


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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/opinion/31mon1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

July 31, 2006
Editorial

Fooling the Voters

The two bills passed by the House last Friday and Saturday reflect a single Republican electoral strategy. Representatives want to appear to haveaccomplished something when they face voters during their five-week summerbreak, which starts today, and at the same time keep campaign donationsflowing from special-interest constituents who are well aware that a great deal was left to do.

One of the bills was a pension reform measure. The other was a grab bag that contains three main items: an extension of the expired tax credit for corporate research; a $2.10 an hour increase in the minimum wage, to bephased in over three years; and a multibillion-dollar estate-tax cut. That's the deal House Republicans are really offering - a few more dollars for 6.6
million working Americans; billions more for some 8,000 of the wealthiest families.

It is cynical in the extreme. Extending the research tax credit is noncontroversial, yet pressing. A minimum wage increase is compelling - morally, politically and financially - but Republicans generally oppose it.And the estate-tax cut has already failed to pass the Senate twice this
summer. So House Republicans linked it to the research credit and theminimum wage, hoping to flip a handful of senators from both parties whohave voted against estate-tax cuts in the past. Democrats who vote againstthe estate tax, Republicans think, can be painted as voting against a higher minimum wage.


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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/opinion/31krugman.html?pagewanted=print

July 31, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

Shock and Awe
By PAUL KRUGMAN

For Americans who care deeply about Israel, one of the truly nightmarish things about the war in Lebanon has been watching Israel repeat the same mistakes the United States made in Iraq. It's as if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been possessed by the deranged spirit of Donald Rumsfeld.

Yes, I know that there are big differences in the origins of the two wars. There's no question of this war having been sold on false pretenses; unlike America in Iraq, Israel is clearly acting in self-defense.

But both Clausewitz and Sherman were right: war is both a continuation ofpolicy by other means, and all hell. It's a terrible mistake to start amajor military operation, regardless of the moral justification, unless youhave very good reason to believe that the action will improve matters.


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Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/30/AR2006073000546_pf.html

The Next Steps With Iran
Negotiations Must Go Beyond the Nuclear Threat to Broader Issues
By Henry A. Kissinger

Monday, July 31, 2006; A15

The world's attention is focused on the fighting in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, but the context leads inevitably back to Iran. Unfortunately, thediplomacy dealing with that issue is constantly outstripped by events. Whileexplosives are raining on Lebanese and Israeli towns and Israel reclaimsportions of Gaza, the proposal to Iran in May by the so-called Six (the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China) fornegotiations on its nuclear weapons program still awaits an answer.

It's possible that Tehran reads the almost pleading tone of some communications addressed to it as a sign of weakness and irresolution. Or perhaps theviolence in Lebanon has produced second thoughts among the mullahs about therisks of courting and triggering crisis.

However the tea leaves are read, the current Near Eastern upheaval couldbecome a turning point. Iran may come to appreciate the law of unintendedconsequences. For their part, the Six can no longer avoid dealing with the twin challenges that Iran poses.


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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/opinion/31herbert.html?pagewanted=print

July 31, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

A World Gone Mad
By BOB HERBERT

As if the war in Iraq and the battles between Israel and its neighbors were not frightening enough, now comes word of a development in Pakistan that maywell be the harbinger of a much greater catastrophe.

Over the past few years, Pakistan has been hard at work building a powerfulnew plutonium reactor that when completed will be able to produce enoughfuel to make 40 to 50 nuclear weapons a year.

This is happening at the same time that the Bush administration is pushinghard for final Congressional approval of a nonmilitary nuclear cooperationdeal with Pakistan's rival, India, that would in fact enhance India'sbomb-making capacity. The deal would enable India to free up its own stocks of nuclear fuel to the extent that it could expand its nuclear weapons production from about seven warheads a year to perhaps 50.


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Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/30/AR2006073000545_pf.html

The Wisdom Of Retreat
Three Lessons From Its Own Record Should Guide the U.S. on Lebanon

By Sebastian Mallaby
Monday, July 31, 2006; A15

Even before the death toll spiked yesterday, the Bush administration's diplomacy on Lebanon looked like a long shot. The goal, as laid out byadministration officials, is to secure a cease-fire that removes the threatthat Hezbollah poses to Israel. But Hezbollah's central function is to
threaten Israel; that is the purpose for which Iran and Syria sustain it.Hezbollah is unlikely to renounce its reason for existence in the course ofa negotiation. And the promised international peacekeepers will behard-pressed to contain a militia that has proved capable of resisting
Israel.

If its diplomacy fails, the Bush administration will have to face thedilemma that it's now avoiding: whether to support an indefinite cease-firethat goes beyond the 48-hour suspension of airstrikes announced yesterdaybut does not neutralize Hezbollah. To support such an outcome would be toretreat publicly. It would boost the prestige of extremists in the Middle
East and encourage Iran to defy the West over its nuclear program. Yetrefusing to support an imperfect cease-fire would be a greater error, for itwould involve disregarding three lessons that emerge from theadministration's own record.


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Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/28/AR2006072801489_pf.html

Roberts and Alito Misled Us
By Edward M. Kennedy
Sunday, July 30, 2006; B01

I have had the honor of serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee for 43 years, during which I've participated in confirmation hearings for all thejustices who now sit on the Supreme Court. Over that time, my colleagues andI have asked probing questions and listened attentively to substantiveresponses. Because we were able to learn a great deal about the nominees
from those hearings, the Senate has rarely voted along party lines. I voted,for example, for three of President Ronald Reagan's five Supreme Court nominees.

Of course, an examination of a nominee's views may cause the Senate towithhold its consent. That is what happened in 1795 to John Rutledge, whowas given a temporary commission as chief justice by President GeorgeWashington (while Congress was in recess) and was then rejected by theSenate several months later. In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon's nomination of G. Harrold Carswell was derailed when the Senate learned ofhis segregationist past. At that time, I explained that "the Constitutionmakes clear that we are not supposed to be a rubber stampfor White Houseselections." That was also the Senate's view in 1987, when its rejection of
Robert H. Bork's extreme views led to the unanimous confirmation of the moremoderate Anthony M. Kennedy. The Senate's constitutional role has helpedkeep the court in the mainstream of legal thought.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15147598.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Posted on Sun, Jul. 30, 2006

COMMENTARY

Disillusioned with the war? Here's why
By CARL HIAASEN

Al Qaeda's No. 2 beard appeared on Al-Jazeera television the other day andurged all Muslims to join a holy war against Israel.Ayman al Zawahri told the faithful that the whole world is their
''battlefield,'' and that they must keep fighting until Islam prevails from``Spain to Iraq.''

Spain seems stable, for the moment. Unfortunately, Iraq is a bloody mess,and the rest of the Mideast is erupting.

The fact that al Zawahri is still alive and ranting nearly five years after9/11 sums up the botched and misguided war on terror.No less undead and chatty is al Zawahri's boss, Osama bin Laden, the loonwho headed the conspiracy that targeted the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Osama has delivered five videotaped messages already this year, exhorting followers to pursue the jihad.


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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15160986.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Posted on Mon, Jul. 31, 2006

Child Custody Act doesn't protect
OUR OPINION: NEW LAW MEANS WELL BUT HURTS YOUNG WOMEN

In passing the Child Custody Protection Act, the Senate meant to do good, but does harm instead. It compromised not only personal choice, but alsopersonal safety. The bill makes it a federal crime to help an under-age girlcross state lines to avoid parental notification laws for an abortion. Thebill's blanket requirement of parental consent wrongly assumes that all parents are worthy advisors. They are not. When the House and Senatenegotiate a final version of the bill, they should rethink this approach tohelping conflicted young women.

Parental counsel

The decision to get an abortion is stressful and traumatic, particularly for a minor. The intent of the bill, to encourage parental counsel when teensface an unintended pregnancy, is good policy and good common sense. Mostminors, thankfully, already turn to their parents for assistance when facedwith such a life-changing decision.



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Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/30/AR2006073000579_pf.html

How the Brain Helps Partisans Admit No Gray

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 31, 2006; A02

President Bush came to Washington promising to be a uniter, but public opinion polls show that apart from a burst of camaraderie after Sept. 11,2001, America is more bitterly divided and partisan than ever.

We'll leave the pundits to pontificate on the politics, and instead explore a more interesting phenomenon: People who see the world in black and white rarely seem to take in information that could undermine their positions.

Psychological experiments in recent years have shown that people are not evenhanded when they process information, even though they believe they are.(When people are asked whether they are biased, they say no. But when askedwhether they think other people are biased, they say yes.) Partisans whowatch presidential debates invariably think their guy won. When talking
heads provide opinions after the debate, partisans regularly feel the peoplewith whom they agree are making careful, reasoned arguments, whereas thepeople they disagree with sound like they have cloth for brains.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/nyregion/31protest.html?ei=5094&en=de34861819459aa1&hp=&ex=1154404800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

July 31, 2006

In Court Papers, a Political Note on '04 Protests
By DIANE CARDWELL

When city officials denied demonstrators access to the Great Lawn in Central Park during the 2004 Republican National Convention, political advocates andordinary New Yorkers accused Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of squelchingdemonstrations that could embarrass fellow Republicans during theirgathering.

The Bloomberg administration denied being guided by politics in banning theprotests. Instead, officials said they were motivated by a concern for thecondition of the expensively renovated Great Lawn or by law enforcement's ability to secure the crowd.

But documents that have surfaced in a federal lawsuit over the use of theGreat Lawn paint a different picture, of both the rationale for theadministration's policy and the degree of Mr. Bloomberg's role in enforcing it.