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http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060929/OPINION/609290332/1004/opinion&template=printart
Our view: In critical condition
Small discounts on generic drugs highlight need to overhaul health care
In the fraying patchwork that passes for American health care, recent pricecuts by chain store giants on some generic drugs offer at least a smallboost to struggling consumers.
Wal-Mart last week kicked off new $4 pricing for a 30-day supply of 291generic drugs in Tampa. With the average discount at 20 percent, that meansan average $1 saved on a month's worth of pills.
Starting in January, Space Coast consumers will get the same deal at local Wal-Mart outlets.
And Target, with three stores in Brevard County, says it will meet the cuts,
at least in Tampa.
Kmart has offered 90-day supplies of some generics at all stores for $15
since May.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0609290234sep29,1,1693532.column?coll=chi-news-col
Clinton uproar is priceless for Fox chief Ailes
Phil Rosenthal
Media
September 29, 2006
One week later and people are still talking about Bill Clinton ripping FoxNews.
Fox News boss Roger Ailes is delighted.
"I would have paid him 100 grand to help us with marketing, just to get ahalf-hour of his time," Ailes said by phone Thursday. "As it turned out, Igot a half-hour of his time and he did it for nothing. We're very grateful.... He's kept us in the news for six days.
"It's an amazing thing. And in light of that I would extend my hand to ask him to come on as a guest anytime. I would even consider him having a show."
Told of this, a Clinton spokesman laughed. "Can you just say that's my response?" he said.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15632597.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
POLITICS
Will the Democrats blow it, again?
BY DICK POLMAN
dpolman@phillynews.com
Your average Democrat these days is teetering between fantasy and fatalism. There's the fantasy about helping Nancy Pelosi measure the drapes in the House speaker's inner sanctum and watching President Bush eat crow on the eighth of November. But inside every Democrat is the tortured soul of a Phillies fan, forever wondering, ``How are we gonna screw it up this time?''
Actually, it's a snap to answer that question. If the Democrats somehow blow their chance to capture a chamber in the '06 congressional elections, despite the most favorable political environment in years, they can spend the winter flagellating themselves over their persistent failure to craft an alternative national-security agenda.
Who knows? Maybe they can still win without one. Maybe independent swing voters are so fed up with Bush and the Iraq war that they'll gravitate by default to the dithering opposition. But with Bush and the Republicans enjoying upticks in the latest polls, the alarm bells are clanging.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15634690.htm
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
IN MY OPINION
Blame game over Sept. 11 is misguided
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
The most important Sept. 11 news story of the week did not involve Bill Clinton.
That may surprise some folks. As everyone south of the Arctic Circle knows by now, the former president tore Fox News' Chris Wallace a new one after Wallace dared to ask during an interview why Clinton didn't do more to get Osama bin Laden. Clinton shot back that he did try -- harder than the Bush administration in the eight months before the Sept. 11 attacks -- to kill bin Laden but simply wasn't successful.
Clinton said ''right-wingers'' ridiculed him for the effort. He even went after Wallace, blasting him for the ''little smirk'' on his face and accusing him of ''a . . . conservative hit job.'' Clinton said the interview was a setup, Fox's way of getting right with conservatives riled that the network's owner, Rupert Murdoch, has pledged support to the Clinton Global Initiative.I am of multiple opinions about all the above: One. It's a nice change to see a Democrat with a spine.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/washington/29account.html?ei=5094&en=3862efd9e06a71e9&hp=&ex=1159588800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
September 29, 2006
Book Says Bush Ignored Urgent Warning on Iraq
By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - The White House ignored an urgent warning inSeptember 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additionalAmerican troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there,according to a new book by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter andauthor. The book describes a White House riven by dysfunction and divisionover the war.
The warning is described in "State of Denial," scheduled for publication onMonday by Simon & Schuster. The book says President Bush's top advisers wereoften at odds among themselves, and sometimes were barely on speaking terms,but shared a tendency to dismiss as too pessimistic assessments fromAmerican commanders and others about the situation in Iraq.
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Both Florida Senators voted YEA (Nelson and Martinez)
The New York Times
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00259
Senate Roll Call on interrogations and trials of terrorism suspects U.S. Senate
Question: On Passage of the Bill (S. 3930 As Amended)
Measure Number: S. 3930
Measure Title: A bill to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes.
Vote Counts:YEAs65
NAYs34
Not Voting1
Alphabetical by Senator Name Akaka (D-HI), Nay
Alexander (R-TN), Yea
Allard (R-CO), Yea
Allen (R-VA), Yea
Baucus (D-MT), Nay
Bayh (D-IN), Nay
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
more.....
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801457_pf.html
The Washington Post
Bush's Conception Conflict
By Michael Kinsley
Friday, September 29, 2006; A21
It was, I believe, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) who first made the excellent, bitter and terribly unfair joke about conservatives who believe in a right to life that begins at conception and ends at birth.
This joke has been adapted for use against various Republican politicians ever since. In the case of President Bush, though, it appears to be literally true.
Bush, as we know, believes deeply and earnestly that human life begins at conception. Even tiny embryos composed of a half-dozen microscopic cells, he thinks, have the same right to life as you and I do. That is why he cannot bring himself to allow federal funding for research on new lines of embryonic stem cells or even for other projects in labs where stem cell research is going on. Even though these embryos are obtained from fertility clinics, where they would otherwise be destroyed anyway, and even though he appears to have no objection to the fertility clinics themselves, where these same embryos are manufactured and destroyed by the thousands -- nevertheless, the much smaller number of embryos needed and destroyed in the process of developing cures for diseases such as Parkinson's are, in effect, tiny little children whose use in this way constitutes killing a human being and therefore is intolerable.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801281.html
House Approves Warrantless Wiretap Law
By LAURIE KELLMAN
The Associated Press
Friday, September 29, 2006; 1:27 AM
WASHINGTON -- The House approved a bill Thursday that would grant legal status to President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program with new restrictions. Republicans called it a test before the election of whether Democrats want to fight or coddle terrorists.
"The Democrats' irrational opposition to strong national security policies that help keep our nation secure should be of great concern to the American people," Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement after the bill passed 232-191.
"To always have reasons why you just can't vote 'yes,' I think speaks volumes when it comes to which party is better able and more willing to take on the terrorists and defeat them," Boehner said.
Democrats shot back that the war on terrorism shouldn't be fought at the expense of civil and human rights. The bill approved by the House, they argued, gives the president too much power and leaves the law vulnerable to being overturned by a court.
"It is ceding the president's argument that Congress doesn't matter in this area," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092800824_pf.html
Senate Approves Detainee Bill Backed by Bush
Constitutional Challenges Predicted
By Charles Babington and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 29, 2006; A01
Congress approved landmark changes to the nation's system of interrogating and prosecuting terrorism suspects last night, preparing the ground for possible military trials for key al-Qaeda members under rules that critics say will draw stiff constitutional challenges.
The Senate joined the House in embracing President Bush's view that the battle against terrorism justifies the imposition of extraordinary limits on defendants' traditional rights in the courtroom. They include restrictions on a suspect's ability to challenge his detention, examine all evidence against him, and bar testimony allegedly acquired through coercion of witnesses.
The Senate's 65 to 34 vote marked a victory for Bush and fellow Republicans a month before the Nov. 7 elections as their party tries to make anti-terrorism a signature campaign issue. Underscoring that strategy, the House last night voted 232 to 191 to authorize Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, with GOP leaders hoping to add it to their list of accomplishments even though it has no chance of Senate passage before this weekend's scheduled adjournment. On the final wiretapping vote, 18 Democrats joined 214 Republicans to win passage. Thirteen Republicans, 177 Democrats and one independent voted nay.
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Forwarded from Susan Fishkorn
Tri-County - chances@attglobal.net
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801664.html
Religious-Right Voter Guides Facing Challenge From Left
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006; A05
A new group called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good said yesterdaythat it will distribute at least 1 million voter guides before the Nov. 7elections, emphasizing church teachings on war, poverty and social justiceas well as on abortion, contraception and homosexuality.
The 12-page booklet, called "Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guidefor Conscientious Catholics," is part of a broader effort by liberal andmoderate religious groups to challenge the Christian right on moral values,said Alexia Kelley, the group's executive director and a former employee ofthe U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801456.html
Unraveling Allen
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, September 29, 2006; A21
Boy, talk about stepping in a pile of macaca.
Every political campaign frog-marches the candidate through a process of self-discovery, but this is getting ridiculous. Sen. George Allen of Virginia was supposed to coast to reelection this November, then start polishing his cowboy boots for a presidential run. Instead the political world is asking aloud whether he's remotely ready for prime time -- and the senator himself has got to be pondering questions of a more existential nature.
First came the "macaca" incident, in which he referred to a young man of Indian descent with a word that might be some kind of exotic ethnic slur (as Allen's opponents claim) or innocent nonsense (as Allen now maintains, after a few false starts), but sure didn't sound like a compliment. Scrambling to limit the damage threw Allen, whose natural walk is a college quarterback's swagger, off his stride.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801454_pf.html
Why Bill Clinton Pushed Back
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, September 29, 2006; A21
Bill Clinton's eruption on "Fox News Sunday" last weekend over questions about his administration's handling of terrorism was a long time coming and has political implications that go beyond this fall's elections.
By choosing to intervene in the terror debate in a way that no one could miss, Clinton forced an argument about the past that had up to now been largely a one-sided propaganda war waged by the right. The conservative movement understands the political value of controlling the interpretation of history. Now its control is finally being contested.
How long have Clinton's resentments been simmering? We remember the period immediately after Sept. 11 as a time when partisanship melted away. That is largely true, especially because Democrats rallied behind President Bush. For months after the attacks, Democrats did not raise questions about why they had happened on Bush's watch.
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