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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-ed-hastert06oct06,1,1788239.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
EDITORIAL
Hastert Must Go
His leadership of the House was already bad enough before the Mark Foley scandal.
October 6, 2006
DENNIS HASTERT SHOULD RESIGN as speaker of the House of Representatives. Not necessarily because he failed to act quickly when shown evidence suggesting that Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) was abusing his power with teenagers - not all the details are known, though the ones that are don't look good. No, the Illinois Republican should resign because he's an unimaginative politician and an uninspired legislator. Unfortunately, these days that just makes him a typical congressional Republican.
At his job-preserving news conference Thursday, Hastert said, "The buck stops here," then proceeded to blame some of this Republican scandal on the Democratic Party. "I haven't done anything wrong, obviously," he added.
That sound you hear is Harry Truman rolling over in his grave. Still, it was an improvement over the speaker's contention Monday that critiquing his oversight amounted to nothing more than "woulda, coulda, shoulda."
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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/10/06/courtesy_of_gop_voters_finally_get_it?mode=PF
ELLEN GOODMAN
Courtesy of GOP, voters finally get 'it'
Ellen Goodman
October 6, 2006
IF I HAD my druthers, this election would have turned on the war in Iraq. I hoped that when the voters finally got it, ``it" would have been the disaster that's turned this war zone into a recruiting ground for terrorists.
Instead, we have the self-described party of family values caught enabling or at least ignoring a sick puppy of a congressman, Mark Foley, who was sex-talking electronically to teenage pages. Instead, we have Speaker J. Dennis Hastert dismissing such an exchange as merely ``over- friendly" and White House press secretary Tony Snow describing the messages as ``naughty." We even have right-wing webmaster Matt Drudge blaming the teens themselves as ``16- and 17-year-old beasts."
This scandal is what has registered on the political Richter scale. This is what voters are asking their representatives about. Well, I wouldn't have chosen to play on this field, but I will take it.
The late political scientist James David Barber once said that nobody understands the word ``deficit," but everyone understands the word ``adultery." Maybe nobody knows what to think about solving the problem of Iraq, but they know what to think about the then Florida congressman, Maf54, instant- messaging a teenage page: ``how's my favorite young stud doing?"
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/us/06pentecostal.html?ex=1160798400&en=c831c812fce193a9&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERNEWS
The New York Times
October 6, 2006
Pentecostal and Charismatic Groups Growing
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
A survey of Pentecostal and charismatic Christians in 10 countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas shows they are gaining converts and are more politically engaged than experts had thought.
Only 100 years since the birth of Pentecostalism in a street revival in Los Angeles, the movement has grown to include one in four Christians worldwide - or about half a billion people, according to the study. It was released Thursday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, a research group in Washington.
Pentecostals are Christians who belong to denominations that practice what they call "the gifts of the Holy Spirit," like speaking in tongues, prophesying and praying for divine healings. Charismatics have adopted some Pentecostal practices, but belong to other churches, mostly Roman Catholic and Protestant. The Pew survey used the word "Renewalists" as an umbrella term to describe Pentecostals and Charismatics.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100500626_pf.html
Inquiry To Look At House, Not Foley
Ethics Panel to Focus on Handling Of Early Warnings
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 6, 2006; A01
The House ethics committee launched a wide-ranging investigation into Congress's handling of information about a Florida lawmaker and teenage pages yesterday, as Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) vowed to keep his job, saying, "I haven't done anything wrong."
The ethics panel approved nearly four dozen subpoenas for documents and testimony from House members, officers and aides. Its leaders said they plan to complete the inquiry in a matter of weeks, but not necessarily before the Nov. 7 congressional elections.
"Our investigation will go wherever the evidence leads us," Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) told reporters at the Capitol. The committee is evenly divided between the two parties, and Hastings and Rep. Howard L. Berman (Calif.), the top Democrat, promised to conduct an impartial investigation into the House's handling of warnings about the conduct of then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.).
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501594_pf.html
The Washington Post
Instant Messages, Lingering Paper Trail
HP, Foley Cases Illustrate Risk
By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 6, 2006; A06
People who think their instant messages disappear after being sent should think again.
As the recent scandals involving former Republican congressman Mark Foley and Hewlett- Packard Co. have brought to light, text messages sent in real time via computer can be saved and retrieved.
Instant messaging has been growing in popularity, with nearly 79 million users of instant- messaging programs in the United States during August, according to research firm Nielsen- Net Ratings. The most popular instant-message programs are from AOL, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. and can be used on computers and mobile gadgets such as cellphones and BlackBerrys.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501574.html
How the Democrats Can Step Up
By David Ignatius
Friday, October 6, 2006; A23
It's too late for the Democrats to forge coherent positions on Iraq or tax policy before the November elections. But fortune has presented them with a mission that can be summed up in a simple sentence: They must be the party of accountability and reform.
The pollsters report that nearly two-thirds of the country now believes that America is heading in the wrong direction. The events of the past several weeks offer a devastating argument for the Democrats of why that is so. With the Republicans in control of the executive and legislative branches, arrogance has become a way of life. In a series of widely disparate cases -- from ignoring the ethics problems of former House majority leader Tom DeLay to refusing recommendations to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to covering up the egregious conduct of Rep. Mark Foley -- the Republican leadership's instinct has been political self-protection rather than accountability and effective government.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/15691107.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
At Large
Amid scandal, the GOP shows its two faces
By Leonard Pitts
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
So, anybody up for a chat about family values?
The term has been a registered trademark of the GOP -- the self-styled Morals Party -- for years, a bludgeon against Democrats who, by implication,oppose families and have no values. Like most political language, it's acode, intended to be understood by those with ears to hear. ''Familyvalues'' means the pol in question has God on speed dial and can be countedupon to oppose gun control, the so-called ''homosexual agenda'' andabortion, while pushing schools to teach, as Tina Fey once put it, that Adamand Eve rode to church on dinosaurs.
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The Plain Dealer
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1160037179226810.xml&coll=2
U.S. court blocks part of voting law
Judge stops provision on proof of citizenship for naturalized Americans
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Mike Tobin
Plain Dealer Reporter
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked part of a new state law that allowed poll workers to demand proof of citizenship from naturalized Americans trying to vote.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko blasted the provision during his ruling, saying it had the potential to treat naturalized citizens as "second-class Americans."
"This gives poll workers the uninhibited right to choose the person to challenge based on their accent, look, manners or whatever they feel like on that given day," Boyko said.
The provision, which took effect in June, is part of a broader law that overhauled how elections are conducted in Ohio.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100401540_pf.html
New Star Among the Democrats
By David S. Broder
Thursday, October 5, 2006; A33
BOSTON -- The buzz here this autumn is all about the newcomer to elective politics who is threatening to break the hold that Republicans have had for an unusually long time on the governorship of this overwhelmingly Democratic state.
His name is Deval Patrick. Barely two years after he moved back to Massachusetts from a business career that had taken him to New York and Atlanta, he beat two better-known and better-financed opponents for the Democratic nomination in last month's primary. Now he is favored over Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, the Republican nominee to succeed Gov. Mitt Romney, who is moving on to pursue the presidency.
In its long history, Massachusetts has never elected a woman or an African American as governor. This year it will have one or the other, and the betting is heavily on Patrick to be the one to break the mold.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100401538_pf.html
Rationing Education
By Jennifer Booher-Jennings
Thursday, October 5, 2006; A33
In dire circumstances -- a battlefield, a devastating natural disaster or an overcrowded emergency room -- we accept the rationing of scarce resources as a necessary if regrettable choice. We triage. We divide patients into three groups: the safe cases, those suitable for treatment and the hopeless. And we ration resources in an effort to do the most good for the largest number.
But there are areas of life where we have rejected the idea of triage. Public education, an institution charged with disbursing equality of opportunity for all children, is certainly one of them. In our loftiest moments, we see public education as one place where we dispense with the blunt, utilitarian logic of triage and seek equal treatment for all. But try as we might, deep inequalities persist and belie our rhetoric.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100402005_pf.html
Waterboarding Historically Controversial
In 1947, the U.S. Called It a War Crime; in 1968, It Reportedly Caused an Investigation
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 5, 2006; A17
Key senators say Congress has outlawed one of the most notorious detainee interrogation techniques -- "waterboarding," in which a prisoner feels near drowning. But the White House will not go that far, saying it would be wrong to tell terrorists which practices they might face.
Inside the CIA, waterboarding is cited as the technique that got Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the prime plotter of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to begin to talk and provide information -- though "not all of it reliable," a former senior intelligence official said.
Waterboarding is variously characterized as a powerful tool and a symbol of excess in the nation's fight against terrorists. But just what is waterboarding, and where does it fit in the arsenal of coercive interrogation techniques?
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/opinion/06krugman.html?pagewanted=print
October 6, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
The War Against Wages
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Should we be cheering over the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has finally set a new record? No. The Dow is doing well largely because American employers are waging a successful war against wages. Economic growth since early 2000, when the Dow reached its previous peak, hasn't been exceptional. But after-tax corporate profits have more than doubled, because workers' productivity is up, but their wages aren't - and because companies have dealt with rising health insurance premiums by denying insurance to ever more workers.
If you want to see how the war against wages is being fought, and what it's doing to working Americans and their families, consider the latest news from Wal-Mart.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400928.html
The Safety in Loaning Nuclear Fuel
By Richard Weitz
Special to washingtonpost.com's Think Tank Town
Thursday, October 5, 2006; 12:00 AM
The recent thwarted transatlantic terrorist attacks underscore the need to strengthen international defenses against catastrophic terrorism. At the July 2006 G8 summit in St. Petersburg, U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a global initiative to combat nuclear terrorism and opened negotiations on bilateral civil-nuclear-energy cooperation. These complementary steps toward enhancing global security deserve broad international support.
Despite their differences on other issues, Russia and the United States play a unique role in helping avert nuclear terrorism. In their February 2005 Bratislava summit declaration, Bush and Putin affirmed that their countries "bear a special responsibility for the security of nuclear weapons and fissile material." Along with existing threat-reduction projects, their recently announced collaboration on nuclear energy and nuclear terrorism demonstrates substantial progress toward meeting this commitment.
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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Congress-Pages.html?pagewanted=print
The New York Times
October 5, 2006
Hastert to Try to Calm Furor Over Page Scandal
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:43 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House ethics committee approved nearly four dozen subpoenas Thursday as its investigation of a page sex scandal sprang to life with a promise by its leaders to go ''wherever the evidence leads us.''
Speaker Dennis Hastert said he accepted responsibility for any earlier failures to investigate complaints of inappropriate behavior by Rep. Mark Foley toward teenage male pages. But he resisted pressure to step down.
''Ultimately ... the buck stops here,'' the Republican speaker said, borrowing the famous phrase of a Democratic president, Harry Truman.
Hastert held to his assertion that he did not know about Foley's e-mails and instant messages to former pages until the scandal broke last week. In the past several days, several Republican lawmakers and staff members said they were aware of the messages. Democrats were not notified.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
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http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/05/hastert.foley/index.html
Hastert says he won't step aside over Foley scandal
BATAVIA, Illinois (CNN) -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Thursday said that he has "done nothing wrong" and that he will not step down over the controversy surrounding former Rep. Mark Foley.
"I'm going to run and presumably win in this election, and when I do I expect to run for speaker," the Illinois Republican told reporters at his district office outside Chicago.
Hastert has been the subject of fierce criticism since Foley, a six-term Republican congressman from Florida, resigned Friday amid allegations that he wrote e-mails and lurid instant messages to teenage congressional pages. (Watch how the scandal is threatening Speaker Hastert's leadership -- 2:07)
Top GOP leaders have stood by Hastert, saying he should not give up his speakership.
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Daily Queer News
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100401224.html
Court Allows Warrantless Wiretapping During Appeal
Associated Press
Thursday, October 5, 2006; A18
CINCINNATI, Oct. 4 -- The Bush administration can continue its warrantless surveillance program while it appeals a judge's ruling that the program is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday.The president has said the program is needed to fight terrorism. Opponents argue that it oversteps constitutional boundaries on free speech, privacy and executive powers.
The unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit gave little explanation for the decision. In the three-paragraph ruling, judges said that they balanced the likelihood an appeal would succeed, the potential damage to both sides, and the public interest.
The Bush administration applauded the decision.
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Daily Queer News
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http://www.tompaine.com/print/rices_lost_credibility.php
Rice's Lost Credibility
John Prados
October 05, 2006
John Prados is a senior fellow with the National Security Archive in Washington. His new book is Safe For Democracy (Ivan R. Dee Publisher).
"Mushroom Cloud" Condi is at it again. In Sept. 2002, when then-nationalsecurity adviser Condoleezza Rice shilled for the Bush war policy byretailing the fantasy that the warning on Iraqi nuclear weapons might wellbe a mushroom cloud over America, her president was highly vulnerable oncharges of having done nothing about terrorism warnings before 9/11, andIraq was a suitable diversion. Fantasies evaporate, of course, and Iraq hasturned into a nightmare, but the shilling goes on.
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Daily Queer News
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http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/ms-magazine-lists-women-who-had/20061003143609990012?cid
Ms. Magazine Lists Women Who Had Abortions
Over 5,000 Sign Petition for Cover Article Saying They Are Unashamed of Decision
By DAVID CRARY, AP
NEW YORK (Oct. 4) - At a pivotal time in the abortion debate, Ms. magazineis releasing its fall issue next week with a cover story titled "We HadAbortions," accompanied by the names of thousands of women nationwide whosigned a petition making that declaration.
The publication coincides with what the abortion-rights movement considers awatershed moment for its cause. Abortion access in many states is beingcurtailed, activists are uncertain about the stance of the U.S. SupremeCourt, and South Dakotans vote Nov. 7 on a measure that would ban virtuallyall abortions in their state, even in cases of rape and incest.
"All this seems very dire," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the FeministMajority Foundation, which publishes Ms.
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Daily Queer News
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100402189.html
Harassment Accuser Faces Court-Martial
Associated Press
Thursday, October 5, 2006; A18
FORT LEWIS, Wash., Oct. 4 -- A soldier who said she was sexually harassed by noncommissioned officers and refused to return to Iraq will face a military trial.
Fort Lewis's commander referred Army Spec. Suzanne Swift's case to a special court-martial, Army officials said Wednesday. She faces a one-year
confinement.
Swift, 22, of Eugene, Ore., was charged Sept. 27 with missing movement and being absent without leave. She said she had been harassed or abused by three noncommissioned officers. She alleged that her supervisor in Iraq coerced her into a sexual relationship.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/10/05/bush_signings_called_effort_to_expand_power/
Bush signings called effort to expand power
Report sees broad strategy
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | October 5, 2006
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's frequent use of signing statements to assert that he has the power to disobey newly enacted laws is ``an integral part" of his ``comprehensive strategy to strengthen and expand executive power" at the expense of the legislative branch, according to a report by the non partisan Congressional Research Service.
In a 27-page report written for lawmakers, the research service said the Bush administration is using signing statements as a means to slowly condition Congress into accepting the White House's broad conception of presidential power, which includes a presidential right to ignore laws he believes are unconstitutional.
The ``broad and persistent nature of the claims of executive authority forwarded by President Bush appear designed to inure Congress, as well as others, to the belief that the president in fact possesses expansive and exclusive powers upon which the other branches may not intrude," the report said.
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http://www.nbc11.com/news/10007023/detail.html?treets=bay&tid=2657784929813&tml=bay_7am&tmi=bay_7am_1_09000210052006&ts=H
Harvard Tops List Of World's Best Schools
America Dominates List Of 200 Best
POSTED: 6:09 am PDT October 5, 2006
LONDON -- America dominates a new list of the world's top 200 universities, with Harvard in first place.
It's followed by two British schools, Cambridge and Oxford, in second andthird, respectively. American schools MIT and Yale tie for fourth.
In all, the United States has 11 universities in the top 20 and Britain hasfour.
The editor of the annual list said the presence of so many British and American schools shows the dominance of the English language in academics and business.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100300398.html
Attacks in Baghdad Kill 13 U.S. Soldiers in 3 Days
Officials Cite Troops' Increased Exposure in Capital
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 5, 2006; A01
BAGHDAD, Oct. 4 -- Thirteen U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad since Monday, the American military reported, registering the highest three-day death toll for U.S. forces in the capital since the start of the war.
The latest losses -- four soldiers who were killed at 9 a.m. Wednesday by small-arms fire -- are part of a recent spike in violent attacks against U.S. forces that have claimed the lives of at least 24 soldiers and Marines in Iraq since Saturday, the military said.
The number of planted bombs is "at an all-time high," said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, a military spokesman, defying American efforts to stanch the vicious sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad that threatens to plunge the country into civil war.
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http://www.capitolhillblue.com/content/2006/10/democrats_lead.html
Democrats lead in 11 of 15 key House races
October 5, 2006 6:29 AM | Politics | 2 Comments
Democrats lead in races for 11 of 15 crucial Republican-held U.S. House seats a month before Nov. 7 elections, putting them within reach of seizing control of the chamber, according to Reuters/Zogby polls released Wednesday.
Republican incumbents are at particularly high risk, the polls found, with seven of nine trailing their Democratic challengers in the high-stakes battle for control of the U.S. Congress.
Democrats must pick up 15 seats to reclaim control of the House, and the polls found Republicans were also behind in four of six open seat races in districts they won in 2004.
"This is a dismal showing for Republicans," pollster John Zogby said. "Republicans ought to be very, very nervous."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100401707_pf.html
'Just a Comma' Becomes Part of Iraq Debate
Opponents See Bush's Words on War as Insensitive or as Code for Religious Right
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 5, 2006; A19
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Oct. 4 -- When the president speaks, every word can be subject to scrutiny. Even the punctuation marks.
As he heads out on the campaign trail, haunted by an unpopular war, President Bush has begun reassuring audiences that this traumatic period in Iraq will be seen as "just a comma" in the history books. By that, aides say, he means to reinforce his message of resolve in the long struggle for Iraqi democracy.
But opponents of the war have seized on the formulation, seeing it as evidence that Bush is indifferent to suffering. To them, it sounds as if the president is dismissing more than 2,700 U.S. troop deaths as "just a comma." And a lively Internet debate has broken out about the origins of the phrase, with some speculating that Bush means it as a coded message to religious supporters, evoking the aphorism "Never put a period where God has put a comma."
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329592827-103550,00.html
Iraqi education system on brink of collapse
Peter Beaumont in Baghdad
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Guardian
Iraq's school and university system is in danger of collapse in large areas of the country as pupils and teachers take flight in the face of threats ofviolence.
Professors and parents have told the Guardian they no longer feel safe toattend their educational institutions. In some schools and colleges, up tohalf the staff have fled abroad, resigned or applied to go on prolongedvacation, and class sizes have also dropped by up to half in the areas thatare the worst affected.
Professionals in higher education, particularly those teaching the sciencesand in health, have been targeted for assassination.
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