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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.themaneater.com/article.php?id=24600
State court to hear porn bill
By Lauren Foreman, Reporter, September 12, 2006.
Strip clubs and other aspects of the adult entertainment industry alreadyface restrictions, but a case scheduled to be heard by the Missouri SupremeCourt on Wednesday could mean even more restrictions.
The court will consider whether a law approved by lawmakers in 2005 thatadds new drunken driving laws and restrictions on the adult entertainmentindustry violates the state constitution.
The state constitution requires that the subjects covered in legislation donot expand beyond its formal title.
The Missouri Association of Club Executives is challenging the law on these
grounds and won a ruling from Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahantossing out the law in 2005.
The association's vice president Dick Snow said the group is not worriedabout the outcome of the appeal.
"I assume that the Supreme Court will uphold the ruling of the lower court,"he said.
Snow said the case concerns an attack on the adult industry.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-primary-elections-glance,0,1638698.story
Key Races in the Primaries
By The Associated Press
September 13, 2006, 5:07 AM EDT
ARIZONA:
Governor: Len Munsil, former head of an advocacy group for Christianconservatives, won the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Gov.Janet Napolitano, who was unopposed in her primary. Munsil's opponentsincluded Don Goldwater, nephew of the late Barry Goldwater, former senatorand presidential candidate.
House: Conservative Republican Randy Graf won the party's nod to replace GOPRep. Jim Kolbe, who is retiring. National Republicans jumped in to support amore moderate rival, state Rep. Steve Huffman, worried the seat might goDemocratic if a conservative candidate won.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA:
Mayor: City Council member Adrian M. Fenty beat longtime council ChairmanLinda W. Cropp for the Democratic nomination for mayor. In the heavilyDemocratic city, the primary is tantamount to the general election.
MARYLAND:
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/opinion/13wed3.html?pagewanted=print
September 13, 2006
Editorial
Look Who Got a Raise
Fearing inflation, investors were spooked recently by a government reportshowing that companies have spent a lot of money of late on their employees.Annual labor costs were up in the second quarter by 4.9 percent, nearly apoint higher than initially estimated.
That came on top of a much bigger than expected increase in the first quarter.
Compensation is business's biggest expense, so rising labor costs - ifpassed on to consumers - could certainly push up prices. But so far, thereare no clear signs of that happening. Instead, today's rising labor costsseem to reflect a different economic phenomenon: growing income inequality.
The big jump in labor costs in the first quarter appears to be driven by fatbonuses and stock options - not hefty increases in wages and salaries, thefinancial lifeblood of most Americans. One-off shots of income do notportend higher inflation because they reflect activity that alreadyhappened. And they don't translate into more money for most people.According to David A. Rosenberg, an economist for Merrill Lynch, the hugeupward revision in first-quarter labor costs worked out to some $80 billionon an annual basis that flowed to "a lot of well-heeled folks cashing intheir stocks."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/opinion/13ponnuru.html?pagewanted=print
September 13, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
How to Win by Losing
By RAMESH PONNURU
Washington
CONSERVATIVES are dreading the November elections. The Republican capture ofthe House of Representatives in 1994 was one of modern conservatism's signalpolitical accomplishments. Now the Democrats are poised to take back theHouse. If that happens, however, conservatives will find several silverlinings in the outcome.
It would be worse for conservatives if Republicans actually gained seats.The Congressional wing of the party lost its reformist zeal years ago andhas been trying to win elections based on pork and incumbency. An electionvictory would reward that strategy, leaving the congressmen even lessinterested in restraining spending, reforming government programs andrevamping the tax code.
Political incompetence and complacency, sporadic corruption and widespreadcynicism: having paid a price for none of it,Republicans would indulge in more of the same.
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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Congress-Terrorism.html?ei=5094&en=559efc62c3ef83bb&hp=&ex=1158206400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
September 13, 2006
Democratic Effort to Limit Surveillance Bill Is Blocked
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:49 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans blocked Democratic attempts to rein inPresident Bush's domestic wiretapping program Wednesday, endorsing a WhiteHouse- supported bill that would give the controversial surveillance legalstatus.
Under pressure from the Bush administration for quick action, the fullSenate could take up the measure next week.
Progress on a companion bill in the House was not as tidy, in part becauseGOP leaders and Bush are intensely negotiatingrestrictions it proposes on the surveillance program. Even as the SenateJudiciary Committee advanced Chairman Arlen Specter's bill to the Senatefloor on a party line vote, the same panel in the House abruptly canceledits scheduled markup.
The developments come amid a sustained White House campaign to persuadeCongress to give the administration broad authority to monitor, interrogateand prosecute terrorism suspects. The administration is up against anelection season in which Republicans are struggling to keep its majoritywith approval from a war-weary electorate.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/education/12harvard.html
September 12, 2006
Harvard Ends Early Admission
By ALAN FINDER and KAREN W. ARENSON
Harvard University, breaking with a major trend in college admissions, says it will eliminate its early admissions program next year, with university officials arguing that such programs put low-income and minority applicants at a distinct disadvantage in the competition to get into selective universities.
Harvard will be the first of the nation's prestigious universities to do away completely with early admissions, in which high school seniors try to bolster their chances at competitive schools by applying in the fall and learning whether they have been admitted in December, months before other students.
Some universities now admit as much as half of their freshman class this way, and many, though not Harvard, require an ironclad commitment from students that they will attend in return for the early acceptance.
Harvard's decision - to be announced today - is likely to put pressure on other colleges, which acknowledge the same concerns but have been reluctant to take any step that could put them at a disadvantage in the heated competition for the top students.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091201298_pf.html
Young Anger Foments Jihad
By David Ignatius
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; A17
During Monday's commemorations of the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, I found myself wondering what the world will look like on the 10th anniversary, or the 20th. Will the catastrophe that began five years ago become a permanent feature of life -- a "long war" that won't end for many decades? Or will it gradually wane with time?
President Bush made an emphatic case for the long war in his speech to the nation Monday night. In his account, America is locked not simply in a war but in a meta-conflict, "the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the calling of our generation." He described a global enemy of Muslim fanatics that imprisons women in their homes, beats impious men and attacks Americans at will. I admire Bush's toughness, but I disagree with his analysis.
As it happened, I spent the hours before Bush's speech moderating a discussion of the meaning of Sept. 11, which was hosted by the World Affairs Council here. One of the panelists was Marc Sageman, a man who comes to these issues with an unusual background -- he was a CIA case officer in Pakistan and then became a psychiatrist. I found in his comments a similarly unusual clarity.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/world/europe/13pope.html?ei=5094&en=e652a2d194fdd4fb&hp=&ex=1158120000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
September 13, 2006
Pope Assails Secularism, Adding Footnote on Jihad
By IAN FISHER
REGENSBURG, Germany, Sept. 12 - Pope Benedict XVI weighed in Tuesday on the delicate issue of rapport between Islam and the West: He said that violence, embodied in the Muslim idea of jihad, or holy war, is contrary to reason and God's plan, while the West was so beholden to reason that Islam could not understand it.
Nonetheless, in a complex treatise delivered at the university here where he once taught, he suggested reason as a common ground for a "genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today."
In all, the speech seemed to reflect the Vatican's struggle over how to confront Islam and terrorism, as the 79-year-old pope pursues what is often considered a more provocative, hard-nosed and skeptical approach to Islam than his predecessor, John Paul II.
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Ohio Coin Dealer Gets More Than 2 Years in Prison for Illegal Campaign Contributions
9/12/06 9:30PM GMT
By JOHN SEEWER , Associated Press Writer
A rare-coin dealer and GOP fundraiser at the center of a scandal that has rocked Ohio's Republican Party was sentenced to more than two years in prison Tuesday for illegally funneling about $45,000 to President Bush's re-election campaign.
, 52, apologized in court for a scheme in which he gave money to friends with instructions to donate it to Bush.
"I recruited others to make contributions to the campaign," Noe said. "I knew it was wrong to do so. I alone accept responsibility."He had pleaded guilty to three charges, including exceeding federal campaign contribution limits, and was sentenced to two years and three months in prison. He was also fined $136,200.
Noe is also charged with embezzling at least $1 million from an ill-fated $50 million rare coin investment that he managed for the state workers' compensation fund. The case is set to go to trial next month, and Noe has pleaded not guilty to 46 charges.
Federal prosecutors did not indicate during the hearing whether the coin money was used for the donations. They could have sought a stiffer penalty if they thought the state money had been used.
Investigations into the coin investment led to Republican Gov. Bob Taft's no-contest plea to charges he failed to report gifts such as golf outings.
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