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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/education/20online.html?pagewanted=print
October 20, 2006
No Test Tubes? Debate on Virtual Science Classes
By SAM DILLON
When the Internet was just beginning to shake up American education, achemistry professor photographed thousands of test tubes holding molecularsolutions and, working with video game designers, created a simulatedlaboratory that allowed students to mix chemicals in virtual beakers andwatch the reactions.
In the years since, that virtual chemistry laboratory - as well as othersimulations allowing students to dissect virtual animals or to peer intotidal pools in search of virtual anemone - has become a widely used scienceteaching tool. The virtual chemistry laboratory alone has some 150,000students seated at computer terminals around the country to try experimentsthat would be too costly or dangerous to do at their local high schools."Some kids figure out how to blow things up in half an hour," said theprofessor, Brian F. Woodfield of Brigham Young University.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/21/business/21instincts.html
October 21, 2006
Basic Instincts
Relax, It's Just Preschool
By HILLARY CHURA
DON'T tell anyone, but my husband and I plan to send our toddler to a publicprekindergarten program.
It's not just the outrageous cost - about $17,000 a year for a 4-year-old tolearn his letters, or more on a per-pound basis than Harvard. Ourneighborhood public schools on Manhattan's Upper East Side are some of thefinest in the city (a factor when we relocated) and we just don't thinkexclusive for the sake of exclusive is necessary. Still, the fear is thatyou really do get what you pay for, and no parent wants to gamble with theirchild's future.
With the emphasis on early childhood development, many parents who hear ofour decision, nod, say "ohhh," and position themselves between theirchildren and our son. It's as if we are dooming our first-born and his7-month-old brother to a lifetime of wanton mediocrity instead of pavingtheir way into the joint M.D.-Ph.D.-law programs of their choice.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001362_pf.html
'Enemy' Schoolchildren In Moscow
By Masha Lipman
Saturday, October 21, 2006; A19
MOSCOW -- A Georgian migrant worker died at a Moscow airport this week whileawaiting deportation. Tengiz Togonidze, 48, had asthma and was gasping forbreath, but he was reportedly denied permission to get some fresh air eitherduring the five days he was held in a detention center or afterward, duringthe trip to the airport, which took many hours. He was one of some 700ethnic Georgians deported over the past three weeks asthe government'santi- Georgia policies turned into a campaign of harassment of Georgians inRussia. The political conflict between Russia and Georgia has led to an uglyoutburst of political xenophobia here.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Campaign-Sex-Scandals.html?pagewanted=print
October 21, 2006
Sex Scandals Dominate Midterm Elections
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:31 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cover your eyes, kids, it's time to round up a few ofthis week's headlines from the midterm elections.
''During National Character Counts Week, Bush Stumps for Philanderer.'' TheWashington Post.
''Gubernatorial race: Gibbons denies doing anything inappropriate,offensive.'' Las Vegas Review-Journal.
''Ellison campaign says woman has blackmail in mind.'' Minneapolis StarTribune.
''Priest offers further details about his relations with Foley.'' SarasotaHerald-Tribune.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901116_pf.html
Has the Right Gone Wrong?
A pundit warns that evangelical Christians have driven the GOP away from itsinherent strengths.
Reviewed by Bryan Burrough
Sunday, October 22, 2006; BW05
THE CONSERVATIVE SOUL
How We Lost It, How to Get It Back
By Andrew Sullivan
HarperCollins. 294 pp. $25.95
I don't spend much time in Washington; maybe it's different down there. Butlet me tell you, out here in the wilds of the New Jersey suburbs, it is purehell being a Republican these days, or a conservative, which used to be thesame thing. The party I grew up in, which stood for fiscal discipline andstrong defense and avoided the sloppiness and stained dresses of so many good- hearted Democratic administrations, seems to have been conquered bypeople who think stem-cell research is murder, who want to ban unpopular sexacts and who have proven incapable of managing such basic government tasksas disaster relief and a war. A war! That used to be the one thing you knewthe GOP could run efficiently. Now, well, now it's gotten to the point whereI'm just too embarrassed to admit that I'm a Republican.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/21/opinion/21cruickshank.html?pagewanted=print
October 21, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Covered Faces, Open Rebellion
By PAUL CRUICKSHANK
ON the streets of London and other cities in Britain, an incongruous sighthas become increasingly common: young Muslim women covered from head to toein black robes, including the niqab, a veil that obscures the face exceptfor the eyes.
The niqab sets these young women off not just from most passers-by, but evenfrom Muslim women who choose to wear the simple headscarf, or hijab, whichcovers only the hair and neck. And it is causing discomfort even inmulticultural Britain. When Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary,declared earlier this month that the niqab made positive relations betweenMuslims and non-Muslims more difficult because it was "such a visiblestatement of separation and difference," he struck a chord with many Britishvoters, only 22 percent of whom think that Muslims have done enough to fitinto mainstream society.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001471_pf.html
The Woman Who Would Be Speaker
Uncompromising Pelosi Set to Seize Opportunity
By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 21, 2006; A01
On election night 2004, Nancy Pelosi faced a painful reality: Her party wasagain a big loser, failing to win the presidency and losing three more Houseseats. Pundits were suggesting Pelosi should accept her fate as the leaderof a permanent House minority.
But the California legislator had a different idea. Instead, she reached outto advertising executives, Internet moguls and language specialists to askhow Democrats could rise from the ashes and challenge President Bush and theRepublicans. The advice that came back was unabashed: "You must take himdown" and then hammer away at the differences between the two parties,Pelosi recalled.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001569_pf.html
Veil Debate in Britain Is Also Divisive for Muslims
By Kevin Sullivan and Karla Adam
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 21, 2006; A01
LONDON, Oct. 20 -- Wearing a Muslim veil revealing only her chestnut eyes,Maheesa Razia grabbed two small bundles of coriander and handed them to avegetable vendor at the Whitechapel Street Market in east London.
She passed the man a coin and walked off, quietly completing the mostmundane of daily tasks while wearing a garment -- the full-face veil, orniqab -- that has caused a raging debate about how well Britain's nearly 2million Muslims are integrating into society.
"I feel comfortable wearing the niqab here; there was zero awkwardness,"Razia, 24, said through the flowing fabric of her veil.
After she walked away, the vendor, Mohammad Dehbourzorgi, a Muslim who movedto Britain 22 years ago, sounded almost contemptuous. He said he agreed withJack Straw, a top official in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government andleader of the House of Commons, who started the controversy this month bycomplaining that veils create distance between individuals and cultures.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901684.html
Democrats Approach Nov. 7 With a Surge in Fundraising
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 20, 2006; A04
Democratic fundraising for the midterm elections is ending with a surge.
In September, the Democratic campaign committees for the House and theSenate outraised their counterpart Republican committees, reversinghistorical trends.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $14.4 million and theDemocratic Senatorial Campaign Committee collected $13.6 million last month,they said. In contrast, the National Republican Congressional Committeeraised $12 million and the National Republican Senatorial Committeecollected $5.2 million.
The Republican National Committee, however, continued to outpace theDemocratic National Committee. In September, the RNC raised $13.1 millionand reported total receipts of $14.3 million, while the DNC said itcollected $5.6 million.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Congressman-E-mails.html?pagewanted=print
October 20, 2006
Diocese Opens Inquest of Foley Priest
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:09 p.m. ET
ROME (AP) -- A Roman Catholic diocese has opened an investigation of apriest who said he fondled and shared saunas while naked with Mark Foleywhen the former U.S. congressman was a boy in Florida.
In interviews in the past two days, the Rev. Anthony Mercieca, 69, who isnow retired and lives on the Maltese island of Gozo, has given differentdetails about his encounters with Foley four decades ago.
On Wednesday, he told the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune by telephone thathe massaged the boy in the nude, was naked in the same room on overnighttrips with him and had gone skinny dipping with him. On Thursday, he toldThe Associated Press that he was naked in a sauna with Foley.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/21/opinion/21sat1.html?pagewanted=print
October 21, 2006
Editorial
Flexing Our Muscles in Space
The Bush administration has adopted a jingoistic and downright belligerenttone toward space operations. In a new "national space policy" postedwithout fanfare on an obscure government Web site, and in recent speeches,it has signaled its determination to be pre-eminent in space - as it is inair power and sea power - while opposing any treaties that might curtail anyAmerican action there.
This chest-thumping is being portrayed as a modest extension of the Clintonadministration's space policy issued a decade ago. And so far there is nomention of putting American weapons in space. But the more aggressive toneof the Bush policy may undercut international cooperation on civilian spaceprojects - a goal to which the new policy subscribes - or set off aneventual arms race in space.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001242_pf.html
The Darkness Spreading Over Russia
By Carl Gershman
Special to washingtonpost.com
Saturday, October 21, 2006; 12:00 AM
Nothing that has happened since the contract-style murder on October 7 ofthe Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya shakes the suspicion that thisheinous act was arranged by people tied to the Kremlin, which despised herrelentless reporting about the brutal war in Chechnya. If Putin's callousdismissal of Politkovskaya as an "extremely insignificant" writer whose work nonetheless damaged Russia's reputation was not enough, the acts of theRussian authorities since the murder all point ominously to an escalation ofattacks on human rights defenders and critics of Russian policies inChechnya.
A report just released by Human Rights First lists a number of these acts:Death threats against Lidia Yusopova, who was nominated for the Nobel PeacePrize for her work on human rights in Chechnya; news reports overstate-controlled television tying Timur Aliev, the editor of the newspaper"Chechen Society," to the terrorist recently killed terrorist ShamilBasayev, thus placing his life in danger; the violent dispersal in Nazran,Ingushetia, of a peaceful vigil memorializing Politkovskaya; and theinvestigation and threatened closure of the Nazran-based NGO Mashr, whichsupports relatives of those who have "disappeared" in the conflict.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15321167/
'Beginning of the end of America'
Olbermann addresses the Military Commissions Act in a special comment
SPECIAL COMMENT
By Keith Olbermann
Anchor, 'Countdown'
Countdown
Updated: 3:00 p.m. ET Oct. 19, 2006
We have lived as if in a trance.
We have lived as people in fear.
And now-our rights and our freedoms in peril-we slowly awaken to learn thatwe have been afraid of the wrong thing.
Therefore, tonight have we truly become the inheritors of our Americanlegacy.
For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force,we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisisand melodramatic fear-mongering:
A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims toprotect us from.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_102006Z.shtml
GOP to Air Ad Warning of Terror Attacks
By Jim Kuhnhenn
The Associated Press
Friday 20 October 2006
Washington - The Republican Party will begin airing a hard-hitting adthis weekend that warns of more cataclysmic terror attacks against the U.S.homeland.
The ad portrays Osama bin Laden and quotes his threats against America dating to February 1998. "These are the stakes," the ad concludes. "VoteNovember 7."
Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said thead would run on national cable beginning Sunday, but he declined to discussspecifics of the buy.
The commercial tracks with Republican Party strategy to make the war onterrorism a central theme of this election. It will air as recent polls showRepublicans losing ground as the party best able to combat terrorism.
Last month, President Bush made the war against terrorism a recurrenttopic in public appearances. But his message was drowned out by the e-mailsex scandal involving former Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida and byincreasing fatalities in Iraq.
The ad displays an array of quotes from bin Laden and his toplieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, that include bin Laden's Dec. 26, 2001 vowthat "what is yet to come will be even greater."
The ad also cites al-Zawahri's claim to have obtained "some suitcasebombs," followed by a scene that appears to show a nuclear explosion.
Despite al-Zawahri's claim, portable nuclear devices are believed to beparticularly difficult to produce and elusive to rogue regimes and terrorgroups.
The ad is also featured on the RNC's Web site. The party said the ad,called "The Stakes," will be e-mailed to millions of GOP supporters,activists and the state parties.
Democrats denounced the ad as scaremongering.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061018/ap_on_el_ge/clinton_politics&printer=1;_ylt=AkYZmxASF69EnlbTPKpED2Zh24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE
Clinton urges Dems to question criticism
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press WriterWed Oct 18, 6:25 PM ET
Former President Clinton bemoaned ideologues who describe opponents as"running for office on his or her way to hell" and urged Democrats not toshy from fighting back.
Clinton, criticizing Republicans weeks before the midterm elections, told anaudience at Georgetown University on Wednesday that intellectual debateshould trump partisan rancor and either-or choices are false.
"Most of us long for politics where we have genuine arguments, vigorousdisagreements but we don't claim to have the whole truth and we don'tdemonize our opponents and we work for what's best for the American people,"he said.
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