IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT
rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/us/politics/14beliefs.html?ei=5040&en=3acfa86f487832a8&ex=1161489600&partner=MOREOVERNEWS&pagewanted=print
Beliefs
Voters' Guides Define Moral Compromises to Take to Polls
By PETER STEINFELS
Voters' guides have gone theological. "Voting God's Politics." "Voter'sGuide for Serious Catholics." "Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guidefor Conscientious Catholics." "Voting With a Clear Conscience." And more.
These are not the familiar guides that line up candidates by their views orvotes on a list of selected issues and that, in some cases, give themratings, a practice that has migrated from lobbies like those on guncontrol, tax cuts and environmental regulation to religious groups like theChristian Coalition.
No, the new voters' guides try to be mini-manuals of moral theology andchurch-state relations, offering voters a religious framework for makingtheir choices, not endorsements of candidates or parties.
Of course, it isn't that simple. The complex entanglement of theology andpolitics is made clear in the case of competing Roman Catholic guides, amatter of political import in view of the belief that Catholics constitute aswing vote, especially in what are considered swing states.
=
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061013/UPDATE/610130459/1003/rss&template=printart
Poll: Granholm leads by nine points
charlie Cain and Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has surpassed 50 percent support for the first timesince last winter and now leads Republican challengerDick DeVos by nine points, according to a new Detroit News/WXYZ-TV poll.
Granholm leads with 51 percent to 42 percent for DeVos and 5 percentundecided, the poll of 608 likely voters taken Tuesday through Thursday byEPIC/MRA of Lansing shows. The last time Granholm was over the 50-percentmark was in February, when she led DeVos 53-46.
The second gubernatorial debate was Tuesday.
Proposal 2, which would ban some government affirmative action programs,reached 50 percent support, with 41 percent opposed and 9 percent undecided,the survey says.
=
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/editorial/4258287
Drain the swamp
U.S. House Democrats promise to clean up the corruption. If they don't, theycould suffer
Republican Party strategists have been using the specter of "House SpeakerNancy Pelosi" to frighten the party faithful into voting in November. If theopinion polls are any indication, the threatened outcome could become aself-fulfilling prophesy.
In the U.S. House elections, as in baseball, it's not over 'til it's over.But as Yogi Berra remarked in the middle of a losing game, "It's gettinglate early."
Anticipating a Democratic majority in the next session of Congress, MinorityLeader Nancy Pelosi of California promised Thursday to "drain the swamp,"restoring integrity, civility and fiscal discipline to the House ofRepresentatives.
=
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101300591_pf.html
Police Find No Report of a Foley Dorm Incident
Witness in Scandal Alleged Then-Congressman Was Detained Outside Pages'
Capitol Hill Residence
By Charles Babington and Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 14, 2006; A04
U.S. Capitol Police said yesterday that they have no record of an alleged incident in which then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) supposedly tried to enter a Capitol Hill dormitory for teenage pages.
The purported nighttime incident has been cited by lawmakers and a key witness in the scandal that involves Foley's interactions with congressional pages and the House's handling of the matter. Unlike sexually graphic electronic messages that Foley sent to teenage boys, evidence of the alleged dorm incident has proved elusive.
Yesterday, acting Capitol Police Chief Christopher M. McGaffin said his staff conducted electronic and hand searches of files covering several years but found no record of the alleged incident in which a drunken Foley supposedly was detained outside the pages' dorm in 2003 or earlier.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/education/14gallaudet.html
October 14, 2006
Students Arrested in Third Day of Protest at College for the Deaf
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - The authorities at Gallaudet University, the nation'sonly liberal arts university for the deaf, moved on Friday to end athree-day siege by protesters by arresting the students opposing the board'schoice of the next president.
The campus police went into an area where about 100 protesters sat with armsinterlocked, arresting them one by one and handing them over to Washingtonpolice officers who had blocked off the street along a side entrance to theuniversity where the student protesters had gathered. As organizers hadrehearsed in days leading up to the confrontation on Friday night, studentswent limp when arrested. They were then carried away by three or moreofficers.
Mark Goldstone, a lawyer for the protesters, said the police arrested about60 students in two hours, and arrests continued late into the night.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301583.html
Conservatives Rally Against Bush Aide-Turned-Critic
Exposé of White House Scorn for Evangelicals Is Disputed
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 14, 2006; A03
Conservative religious leaders described themselves as shocked yesterday bya new book's charge that Bush administration staffers privately dismissedevangelical Christian political activists as "nuts" and "goofy."
But their dismay was aimed at the book's author, former White House officialDavid Kuo, rather than at President Bush or his senior advisers.
James Dobson, Charles W. Colson and other stalwarts of the conservativeChristian movement defended the Bush administration and questioned thetiming of the book's publication, a month before the midterm elections. Somesuggested that Kuo had betrayed the White House.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/washington/14pot.html?pagewanted=print
October 14, 2006
Medical Marijuana Advocate Faces New U.S. Indictment
By CAROLYN MARSHALL
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 13 - A leading medical marijuana advocate whosuccessfully appealed his federal conviction this year has been indicted onnew criminal charges that include tax evasion and money laundering.
The man, Ed Rosenthal, a well-known spokesman for the movement to legalizemarijuana, was already facing a retrial on federal charges of growingmarijuana for medical use. He is to be arraigned Monday in Federal DistrictCourt here on the new indictment, unsealed late Thursday.
It accuses Mr. Rosenthal, 61, of 14 felony charges that include cultivatingmarijuana plants; laundering $1,850, which the government says he got fromselling the plants to medical dispensaries; and tax evasion. His taxreturns, prosecutors said, omitted income from the sale of the plants.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301459_pf.html
The Identity Theft Scare
By Fred H. Cate
Saturday, October 14, 2006; A21
Identity theft is getting a lot of attention these days -- from news storiesabout missing laptops and lost data to television commercials for fraudprevention and credit monitoring services. Congress has held hearings, andmembers have issued forecasts of an impending plague of identity theft. Rep.Edward Markey (D-Mass.), in a statement typical of many of his congressionalcolleagues, said that "Social Security numbers and date-of-birth informationare pure gold in the hands of identity thieves, who quickly convert theminto credit cards and cash equivalents to perpetrate massive frauds."
When a laptop was stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairsemployee this year, newspapers across the nation editorialized about thedangers facing the people whose data were on the computer. The Post alonepublished more than 40 stories and wrote that "26.5 million veterans wereplaced at risk of identity theft." The VA notified all 26.5 million of themand asked Congress for $160.5 million to cover the cost of one year ofcredit monitoring for the veterans.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/world/asia/14nobel.html
October 14, 2006
Peace Prize to Pioneer of Loans to Poor No Bank Would Touch
By CELIA W. DUGGER
A Bangladeshi economist, Muhammad Yunus, and the bank he founded 30 yearsago won the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for pioneering work in giving tinyloans to millions of poor people no commercial bank would touch - destitutewidows and abandoned wives, landless laborers and rickshaw drivers, sweepersand beggars.
The Nobel Committee praised Mr. Yunus, 66, and the Grameen Bank for makingmicrocredit, as the loans are called, a practical solution to combatingrural poverty in Bangladesh and inspiring similar schemes across thedeveloping world.
"Microcredit has proved to be an important liberating force in societieswhere women in particular have to struggle against repressive social andeconomic conditions," the committee said in announcing the prize.
=
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Congress-Pages.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
October 14, 2006
Foley Ethics Probe to Enter Its 2nd Week
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:13 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With the House page scandal weighing on GOP candidates, an ethics committee investigation will enter its second full week with many important figures still to be interviewed.
The panel has already heard from key figures, including a staff aide to disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley who said he alerted top House aides years ago about inappropriate behavior by Foley toward pages. It also heard from the chairman of the board that oversees the House page program, who conceded Friday that Republicans have mishandled the matter.
But top GOP leaders, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, have yet to testify. Nor have senior Hastert aides who dealt last fall with Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a former page but claim they never told their boss.
The panel is investigating Foley's sexually charged Internet communications with teenage pages. The four-member panel has been hearing witnesses with knowledge of how Republicans handled several alarms raised about Foley's conduct over the past five years.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/us/politics/14ney.html
October 14, 2006
Congressman Pleads Guilty but Won't Resign for Now
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - Representative Bob Ney, the first member of Congressto confess to crimes in dealings with the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleadedguilty to corruption charges Friday but said he would not immediatelyresign.
Mr. Ney, Republican of Ohio, announced last month that he intended to pleadguilty, admitting that in return for official acts, he had accepted tens ofthousands of dollars' worth of gifts from Mr. Abramoff that included lavishtrips, meals and tickets to concerts and sporting events. He faces a prisonterm of more than two years.
But what had not been expected at Friday's court hearing was Mr. Ney'sdisclosure that he intended to remain in Congress for now. The announcementappeared to surprise and infuriate House Republican leaders, who are tryingto tamp down other scandals that are threatening to damage the party in nextmonth's Congressional elections.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_101206D.shtml
A Call for Progressive Unity
By George Lakoff and the Rockridge Institute
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 12 October 2006
I have long been advocating unity among progressives of all stripes,including those on the Democratic right. The far right's dominance of theRepublican party make it urgent that those who oppose the far right, even onpartially progressive grounds, unite.
Those on the Democratic right break down into a number of types:
1. Progressives who are genuinely pragmatic and adopt right-wing views forreasons of real- world pragmatism: They want things to work and they honestlythink that in certain cases the right's policies may work better.
2. Progressives who are politically pragmatic:
1. They don't think the progressive policies they believe in have a chanceof getting enacted, that there will have to a legislative compromise, andthey are willing to compromise from the beginning.
2. They don't think that progressive views will win elections, and they move to the right for sake of winning.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0610100318oct10,1,1903801.story
What it means to be a liberal
By Geoffrey R. Stone. Geoffrey R. Stone, a law professor at the University of Chicago, is the author of "Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime."
October 10, 2006
For most of the past four decades, liberals have been in retreat. Since theelection of Richard Nixon in 1968, Republicans have controlled the WhiteHouse 70 percent of the time and Republican presidents have made 86 percentof the U.S. Supreme Court appointments. In many quarters, the word "liberal"has become a pejorative. Part of the problem is that liberals have failed todefine themselves and to state clearly what they believe. As a liberal, Ifind that appalling.
In that light, I thought it might be interesting to try to articulate 10propositions that seem to me to define "liberal" today. Undoubtedly, not allliberals embrace all of these propositions, and many conservatives embraceat least some of them.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.alternet.org/stories/42880/
Five Scandals that Could Put Republicans in Jail
By James Ridgeway, Mother Jones
Posted on October 12, 2006, Printed on October 13, 2006
The stately Russell Senate Office Building stands at one corner of adomestic Green Zone, just northeast of the Capitol building at theintersection of Delaware and Constitution avenues. In the past few years amaze of blockades has sprouted along the shaded avenues and curving drivesof the Capitol complex. Checkpoints are patrolled by heavily armed police;guards watch for suspicious characters and prohibited items (which nowinclude food and beverages; cans, bottles, and sprays; and bags larger than13 by 14 inches). At the Russell Building, visitors encounter another set ofbarriers and metal detectors before being granted admittance to the elegant structure. Then, at the top of a sweeping staircase, they'll find a roomwalled in white marble, draped in deep red, overhung by a gilded ceiling,and fronted, altarlike, with a raised dais.
=
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301492_pf.html
Many Ways of Being Deaf
By Jane K. Fernandes
Saturday, October 14, 2006; A21
It was 3 a.m. on Tuesday. I had been up all night negotiating with studentprotesters occupying Gallaudet University's Hall Memorial Building, home toclassrooms, department offices and labs. Negotiations had broken down. Theprotesters did not approve of my appointment by the board of trustees to bethe next president of Gallaudet University. How had things at the world's premier university for deaf and hard-of-hearing people come to this?
Our Gallaudet community is varied. There are many kinds of deaf people. Someare born to deaf parents; most are not. Some are lucky enough to grow upusing American Sign Language. Others -- like myself and increasing numbersof Gallaudet's students -- learn and embrace ASL later in life. Some aredeaf from birth; some become deaf later in life. Some benefit from the useof hearing aids or cochlear implants; others don't. Some have visualimpairments or other disabilities.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_101206F.shtml
Violence Against World's Women "Pervasive": UN Report
Agence France-Presse
Wednesday 11 October 2006
Violence against women is "severe and pervasive" worldwide with one in threewomen subjected to intimate partner abuse during her lifetime, according toa UN report.
"There is compelling evidence that violence against women is severe andpervasive throughout the world," said UN chief Kofi Annan's report, titled"Ending Violence Against Women: from Words to Action."
The study cited surveys on violence against women conducted in at least71 countries showing "a significant proportion of women suffer physical,sexual or psychological violence ... On average, at least one in three womenis subjected to intimate partner violence in the course of her lifetime."
=
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/us/14hamas.html?pagewanted=print
Leader of a Georgia Mosque Pleads Guilty to Aiding Hamas
By BRENDA GOODMAN
ATLANTA, Oct. 13 - In a case kept secret for nearly two months, thereligious leader of a mosque in Rome, Ga., has pleaded guilty to providingfinancial support to the militant Palestinian organization Hamas, federalprosecutors said Friday.
The government said the 42-year-old defendant, Mohamed Shorbagi, a citizenof the Palestinian territories who is living legally in the United Stateswith his wife and young children, was charged on Aug. 28 with providing aidto Hamas through donations he made to the Holy Land Foundation for Reliefand Development, an Islamic charity shut down by federal authorities in2001.
Mr. Shorbagi was also a Georgia representative for the Holy Land Foundationand attended meetings that were addressed by "high level" Hamas officials,said David E. Nahmias, the United States attorney for the Northern Districtof Georgia.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/10/olbermann-why-does-habeas-corpus-hate-america/
Olbermann: "Why does habeas corpus hate America"
By: Jamie Holly on Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 at 6:04 PM - PDT
Keith did a great report tonight on what the recently passed Military
Commissions Act of 2006 means to America and our Constitution.
This story has been buried by Foleygate, which is a crime in itself. I hadthe honor of hearing Daniel Ellsberg and John Siegenthaler Sr. speak lastnight and the key subject was journalism in today's political environment.We are one of the only countries in the world without an official secretsact, due in a large part to the uniqueness of our first amendment. Sadlythis very bill puts us even closer to enacting such legislation and puttinga muzzle on the media that would have prevented the extraordinary act ofpatriotism that Ellsberg exhibited, as well as those that followed in theentire Watergate scandal.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/opinion/14sat1.html?pagewanted=print
October 14, 2006
Editorial
Science Ignored, Again
The Bush administration loves to talk about the virtues of "sound science," by which it usually means science that buttresses its own political agenda. But when some truly independent science comes along to threaten that agenda, the administration often ignores or minimizes it. The latest example involves the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to reject the recommendations of experts inside and outside the government who had urged a significant tightening of federal standards regulating the amount of soot in the air.
At issue were so-called fine particles, tiny specks of soot that are less than one-thirtieth the diameter of a human hair. They penetrate deep into the lungs and circulatory system and have been implicated in tens of thousands of deaths annually from both respiratory and coronary disease. The E.P.A., obliged under the Clean Air Act to set new exposure levels every five years, tightened the daily standard. But it left unchanged the annual standard, which affects chronic exposure and which the medical community regards as more important.
=
Ray's Note:
In this interesting, but informal, survey it appears Gore gets the most votes for president, followed by Hillary, next Edwards, followed by Obama, then Clark. A mixture of all of the others combined receives more votes than all but Gore. Kerry received very little mention. Hillary gets the largest number of negative comments.
```
http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=63#respond
Ex-Gov. Warner Decides to Forgo White House Run
With Mark Warner dropping out, what ticket has the best shot at winning the White House in 2008?
Related Article
239 comments
J Watson:
Clinton Edwards, of course
posted on October 12th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
victor:
Edwards/Obama
posted on October 12th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
M. Mitchell, Chicago:
Hilary! Hilary! Hilary!
posted on October 12th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
David Fisher:
Gore and Obama. In 2000 the GOP ridiculed Gore as an enviromental nut who was carrying around "a social security lockbox." Who's laughing now. The key states will be Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, maybe Michigan, Nevada. All have sizeable African-American populations who will turn out to vote for the first African-American on a national ticket. And if the GOP tries to prevent them from voting. again. there'll be rioting in the streets. I know, cause I'll be leading 'em.
200+ more comments....
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/opinion/14dowd.html?pagewanted=print
October 14, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Is Chivalry Shivved?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Washington
Hillary Clinton became a senator because men abused her. Her husband humiliated her in public and her opponent, Rick Lazio, hounded her in a debate. She was a sympathetic figure to many voters only after she went from pushy to pushed around.So John McCain must be wary as he figures out how to push her around. He must slide in the shiv chivalrously.
This week, he managed to attack her three ways in one sentence: as a senator, as a wife and as a future opponent. This raises the question: Is it senators palling around, knocking back drinks on an overseas trip? Or is it a misstep, making Mr. McCain look like a sexist bully for pointedly blaming his fellow senator for her husband's old policies - and calling her "Mrs. Clinton" just to rub it in?
On a trip to Detroit to campaign for a Republican Senate candidate, Mr. McCain singled out Hillary for a shellacking on North Korea. "I would remind Senator Clinton and other Democrats critical of Bush administration policies that the framework agreement her husband's administration negotiated was a failure," he said.
#####
