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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/10/13/book_says_bush_aides_derided_evangelists/
Book says Bush aides derided evangelists
By Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times | October 13, 2006
WASHINGTON -- A new book by a former White House official says President Bush's top political advisers privately ridiculed evangelical supporters as ``nuts" and ``goofy" while embracing them in public and using their votes to help win elections. The former official also writes that the White House office of faith-based initiatives, which Bush promoted as a nonpolitical effort to support religious social service organizations, was told to host preelection events designed to mobilize religious voters who would probably favor Republican candidates.
The assertions by David Kuo, the former number two official in the faith-based initiatives program, have rattled Republican strategists already struggling to persuade evangelical voters to turn out this fall for the GOP.
Some conservatives lamented yesterday that the book, ``Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction," also comes in the midst of the scandal involving former representative Mark Foley's interest in male congressional pages, another threat to conservative turnout in competitive House and Senate races.
The book is scheduled to hit stores Monday, but the White House denied some assertions yesterday as excerpts began leaking out.
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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/10/13/a_reunified_korea_is_the_solution?mode=PF
The Boston Globe
ROSS TERRILL
A reunified Korea is the solution
By Ross Terrill | October 13, 2006
AFTER North Korea's nuclear test, no good options exist, pundits say. It'sthe present six-party talks or another Korean war, they declare. GiveSeoul's ``sunshine policy" toward Pyongyang more time to mellow Kim Jong-Il.
But a good option does exist that would terminate the Pyongyang regimewithout Washington laying a finger on it. The starting point should be notthe problem of North Korea's nukes, but the challenge of Korea'sreunification. Restoring the unity of a split country raises transforming possibilities; it can be regime change of an attractive kind.
Pyongyang, lost without nukes, has no reason to bargain away its one morselof strength. Nor could any agreement be verified. (Unlike Libya, North Koreahas 8,000 underground tunnels and caves). In the remote chance that aPyongyang abandonment of nuclear stockpiles could be verified, North Koreawould still have missiles that can deliver chemical and biological weaponsto Los Angeles. Do we trust it not to do so?
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201563_pf.html
Pope Poised To Revive Latin Mass, Official Says
Ancient Tridentine Rite Was Replaced in 1960s
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2006; A03
Pope Benedict XVI has drafted a document allowing wider use of the Tridentine Mass, the Latin rite that was largely replaced in the 1960s by Masses in English and other modern languages, a church official said yesterday.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the pope told colleagues in September that he was writing the document "motu proprio," a Latin phrase for on his own initiative, and that it was in its third draft.
"There will be a document, it will come out soon, and it will be significant," the official said. Benedict "will not let this be sidetracked," he added.
Wider use of the Tridentine Mass is a cause dear to the hearts of many Catholics, for both esthetic and ideological reasons. It was codified in 1570 and remained the standard Roman Catholic liturgy for nearly four centuries, until the gathering of church leaders known as the Second Vatican Council ushered in major reforms from 1962 to 1965.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201670_pf.html
Counting The Iraqi Dead
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, October 13, 2006; A29
"Not credible" was President Bush's quick verdict on the new study, published this week in the British medical journal the Lancet, calculating that more than 650,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S. invasion and its ensuing chaos. It is understandable that the president would be quick to dismiss such an explosive claim, but the rest of us should take the time to look a bit more closely.
The number of estimated deaths claimed by the study is inconceivably huge and wildly out of scale with any previous figures we've heard. But it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that the human suffering in Iraq has been far beyond our imagining.
The peer-reviewed study's named authors include three researchers from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University -- one of them is Gilbert Burnham, co-director of the school's Center for Refugee and Disaster Response -- and a professor from Baghdad's al-Mustansiriya University. Funding for the project was provided by MIT. These are not shabby credentials.
But academic degrees and prestigious affiliations alone do not establish truth. Bush said the problem is that the study's methodology has been discredited. But the team relied on a "cluster sample survey" technique that is frequently used for public health research, especially in the developing world.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889_pf.html
The Washington Post
Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff
By James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 13, 2006; 1:32 AM
Five conservative nonprofit organizations, including one run by prominent Republican Grover Norquist, "appear to have perpetrated a fraud" on taxpayers by selling their clout to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Senate investigators said in a report issued yesterday.
The report includes previously unreleased e-mails between the now-disgraced lobbyist and officers of the nonprofit groups, showing that Abramoff funneled money from his clients to the groups. In exchange, the groups, among other things, produced ostensibly independent newspaper op-ed columns or news releases that favored the clients' positions.
Officers of the groups "were generally available to carry out Mr. Abramoff's requests for help with his clients in exchange for cash payments," said the report, issued by the Senate Finance Committee. The report was written by the Democratic staff after a yearlong investigation and authorized by the Republican chairman, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).
Abramoff has pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy and could go to prison as early as next month. Prosecution and defense lawyers jointly filed papers yesterday asking a judge to recommend that he be sent to a federal facility in Cumberland, Md., to make it easier for him to cooperate with the ongoing probe. The investigation has resulted in one conviction and seven guilty pleas -- including one from a lawmaker, Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), who is to appear today before a federal judge in the District.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201864_pf.html
Events in Arts, Politics Highlight Turkey's Tangled Ties to Europe As Nobel Goes to Turk, France Takes Up Armenian Genocide
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 13, 2006; A20
PARIS, Oct. 12 -- The complex relationship between Turkey and Europe played out Thursday in two European capitals, as Turkey's leading novelist was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature in Stockholm and French lawmakers here passed a bill that would make it a crime to deny that Ottoman Turkey committed genocide against Armenians during and after World War I.
The hotly disputed issue of genocide against the Armenians was bound to explode when Orhan Pamuk -- who has complained that Turkey has refused to admit that as many as 1.5 million Armenians were massacred beginning in 1915 -- became the first Turkish writer to win the Nobel. But the nearly simultaneous vote by France's National Assembly added a political sting that could damage relations between France and Turkey and further weaken Turkey's bid for membership in the European Union.
The French bill, approved 106 to 19, provides for up to one year in jail and a fine of about $57,600 for anyone who denies that genocide occurred. The measure faces several hurdles before becoming law.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201962_pf.html
In Key Races, Democrats Look at Rivals' Personal Lives
Amid Voter Disgust Over Foley Scandal, Strategists Believe Attacks on GOP at Local Level Won't Backfire
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2006; A06
In the wake of the Mark Foley page scandal, Democrats are targeting the personal lives of Republicans in numerous key House races as part of a campaign to capitalize on voter disgust with the messy personal lives and alleged character defects among elected officials.
Although Democrats' internal polling shows that the Foley scandal is resonating deeply only in half a dozen races, party operatives are calculating that GOP candidates are now unusually vulnerable to personal attacks, several candidates and strategists said.
In New Jersey, Democratic candidate Linda Stender this week sent voters a two-page brochure accusing Rep. Mike Ferguson (R) of improperly preying on young women in a fashionable D.C. nightclub. Stender, who is shown by polls to be within striking distance of Ferguson, said the Foley affair "opened the door to talk about the ethical challenge of my opponent." Ferguson has denied the allegations, and a spokeswoman last night called the attacks "pathetic and desperate."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201855_pf.html
In China, Children of Inmates Face Hard Time Themselves
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 13, 2006; A01
DALIAN, China -- The children answer to nicknames such as "Seagull," "Brightness," "Summer" and "Ocean," but they come with scars that social workers initially mistake for dirt. When they first arrive at the two-story house here, they hoard toothpaste, or they hide new socks and steamed buns in their bed quilts, as if they were precious gems.
They are the children of prisoners, and in this country, they belong to no one.
The law is unclear on who should provide for the children of China's more than 1.5 million prisoners. No government department is willing to supervise them. Historically, relatives have taken them in, but in practice, many unwanted children are shuffled from family to family. Sometimes, even the families do not want them.
A small number of children, like the 12 at the home here in Dalian, receive care at "Children's Villages," organizations usually run by civic-minded individuals. But there are no more than nine or 10 such organizations nationwide, serving perhaps 1,000 children, experts say. Prisoners have an estimated 600,000 children under the age of 18, according to Justice Ministry statistics; experts argue that the actual figure is higher.
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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/10/13/a_reunified_korea_is_the_solution?mode=PF
The Boston Globe
ROSS TERRILL
A reunified Korea is the solution
By Ross Terrill | October 13, 2006
AFTER North Korea's nuclear test, no good options exist, pundits say. It'sthe present six-party talks or another Korean war, they declare. GiveSeoul's ``sunshine policy" toward Pyongyang more time to mellow Kim Jong-Il.
But a good option does exist that would terminate the Pyongyang regimewithout Washington laying a finger on it. The starting point should be notthe problem of North Korea's nukes, but the challenge of Korea'sreunification. Restoring the unity of a split country raises transforming possibilities; it can be regime change of an attractive kind.
Pyongyang, lost without nukes, has no reason to bargain away its one morselof strength. Nor could any agreement be verified. (Unlike Libya, North Koreahas 8,000 underground tunnels and caves). In the remote chance that aPyongyang abandonment of nuclear stockpiles could be verified, North Koreawould still have missiles that can deliver chemical and biological weaponsto Los Angeles. Do we trust it not to do so?
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201585_pf.html
Charge of Treason Difficult to Prove, Legal Experts Say
Al-Qaeda Videos Led to Indictment
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2006; A27
The decision to charge alleged al-Qaeda propagandist Adam Gadahn with treason is something of a gamble by the U.S. government, which has not pursued such a case in more than 50 years and has a mixed track record for convictions over the course of American history, according to legal experts and historic accounts.
Gadahn, 28, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana, Calif., based on his alleged appearance in numerous al-Qaeda videotapes calling for the death of Americans and for attacks on U.S. targets.
Many legal experts said yesterday that although Gadahn may be a suitable candidate for a treason charge, federal prosecutors may face serious difficulties in securing a conviction if he is ever brought to trial.
Gadahn, a fugitive believed to be living in Pakistan, grew up on a Southern California goat farm, converting to Islam as a teenager and later moving overseas. He allegedly says in one video that U.S. "streets will run red with blood" and in another refers to the United States as "enemy soil."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200635_pf.html
Red Cross Meets With 14 Moved to Guantanamo Bay
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2006; A23
An International Committee of the Red Cross delegation that visited the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, met with the 14 detainees who had been held for years in secret CIA custody, the first time the alleged high-value terrorism suspects had contact with the outside world since their initial confinement.
The U.S. military and ICRC officials confirmed yesterday that Red Cross representatives spent time with each of the 14 men in the weeks after they were transferred to Guantanamo, a series of standard meetings during which the detainees were officially registered with the international humanitarian organization and had an opportunity to meet with a doctor.
Among the men is Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Red Cross officials do not comment on the details of such meetings or their recommendations to government captors, citing confidentiality agreements that allow them unfettered access. They also declined to comment on the conditions the detainees faced while in secret U.S. custody and on their mental and physical well-being.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/opinion/13krugman.html?pagewanted=print
October 13, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Will the Levee Break?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
The conventional wisdom says that the Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives next month, but only by a small margin. I've been looking at the numbers, however, and I believe this conventional wisdom is almost all wrong.
Here's what's happening: a huge Democratic storm surge is heading toward a high Republican levee. It's still possible that the surge won't overtop the levee - that is, the Democrats could fail by a small margin to take control of Congress. But if the surge does go over the top, the flooding will almost surely reach well inland - that is, if the Democrats win, they'll probably win big.
Let's talk about Congressional arithmetic.
Unless the Bush administration is keeping Osama bin Laden in a freezer somewhere, a majority of Americans will vote Democratic this year. If Congressional seats were allocated in proportion to popular votes, a Democratic House would be a done deal. But they aren't, and the way our electoral system works, combined with the way ethnic groups are distributed, still gives the Republicans some hope of holding on.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/opinion/13fri1.html
A Growing Free-for-All
Published: October 13, 2006
By approving the merger between AT&T and BellSouth unconditionally, the Bush administration has again abdicated responsibility for protecting consumers when huge companies combine.
Fierce competition between private companies is at the core of the nation's economic strength. But government still has an important role to play as referee, making sure that the rough- and-tumble game of capitalism doesn't become perversely uncompetitive through significant concentrations of market power in the hands of a few companies.
From the very start, the Bush administration's approach to antitrust and merger policy has been much more hands-off than its predecessors'. In an era of rapid consolidation and deregulation, the Justice Department hasn't brought a single major monopoly case under the Sherman Antitrust Act since the Clinton administration went after Microsoft for illegally defending its monopoly for the Windows operating system. The department settled that case during President Bush's first year in office.
That set the tone for a merger policy that often appears to be little more than "anything goes." One gets the impression at times that the referee has left the playing field.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/opinion/l13educ.html?pagewanted=print
October 13, 2006
Wanted: Cookie-Cutter Colleges? (6 Letters)
To the Editor:
From the perspective of someone who teaches at a public university and has two children in public schools, I dispute Eugene Hickok's assertions in "No Undergrad Left Behind" (Op-Ed, Oct. 11).
It would seriously weaken the intellectual quality of universities' curriculums to subject them to the principles of educational administration - restrictive and bureaucratically driven norms and agendas - that have arisen in the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act.
I would hate to see universities duplicate the plight of public schools, where determined and creative teachers are hamstrung by a tepid common curriculum designed by a committee insensitive to the needs of any given classroom or the talents of any given teacher.
Is there a parent in America today who hasn't noticed that the schools' mantra has become "teaching to the test"? Mr. Hickok's ideas threaten to stifle the intellectual vitality, for both faculty and students, of American higher education.
Randy Malamud
Atlanta, Oct. 11, 2006
The writer is a professor of English at Georgia State University.
more.....
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Forwarded from
Paul Harris
Publisher
The Independent
www.OurIndy.com
http://www.harpers.org/sb-republicans-1160492797.html
Tuesday, October 10, 2006.
Republicans Want to Turn Over a New Page
The Foley scandal is no "October Surprise"
Posted on Tuesday, October 10, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.
Sources Leading Republicans, with the support of conservative media outlets,are charging that the Mark Foley scandal was a plot orchestrated byDemocrats to damage the G.O.P.'s electoral prospects this November.According to the Washington Post, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert appearedon Rush Limbaugh's radio show and "agreed when the host said the Foley storywas driven by Democrats 'in some sort of cooperation with some in the media'to suppress turnout of conservative voters" before the midterm elections.
Conservative talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt has said that Hastert had becomethe "target right now of the left-wing media machine," and House MajorityLeader John Boehner has charged that the release of the Foley documents soclose to the elections "is concerning, at a minimum." Meanwhile, accountsI've heard about the FBI's initial inquiries suggest the bureau is asi nterested in uncovering how the story came to public attention as it is ininvestigating Foley's actions.
The Republican leadership is lying when they claim that Democrats haveengineered an "October Surprise"; there was never a plan to undermine theG.O.P. or to destroy Hastert personally, as the speaker has vaingloriouslysuggested. I know this with absolute certainty because Harper's was offeredthe story almost five months ago and decided, after much debate, not to run it here on Washington Babylon.
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