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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/12/27/gerald_ford_dies_at_93?mode=PF
Gerald Ford dies at 93
An unelected president, he helped salve a wounded nation
By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff | December 27, 2006
Gerald R. Ford Jr., the 38th president of the United States, whose earnestmanner and manifest personal decency helped restore the confidence of anation traumatized by the Watergate scandal, died yesterday, his wife,Betty, said.
"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, ourbeloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather has passed awayat 93 years of age," Mrs. Ford said in a statement issued from her husband'soffice in Rancho Mirage, Calif. "His life was filled with love of God, hisfamily, and his country."
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http://www.tradearabia.com/tanews/newsdetails_snMEDIA_article116636_cnt.html
Sunday, December 24, 2006
CNN lines up special programmes on Hajj
CNN correspondent Zain Verjee will be covering the annual Hajj live fromSaudi Arabia.
'The Hajj is a deeply personal journey for those who perform it, but also anevent of global significance for the more than one billion Muslims aroundthe world,' said senior vice-president CNN International, Rena Golden.
'This coverage, which represents a significant logistical operation for CNN,reflects our commitment to the region and to offering our viewers unrivalledcoverage of world events,' said Golden.
For the 10th consecutive year, CNN International will bring exclusivestories and images from pilgrims coming from around the world.
Verjee will offer live reports starting December 28 the day before the Hajjbegins to give insight on how the country is preparing to facilitatemillions of people until January 3, the sixth and final day of thepilgrimage to Makkah.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16325134.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Wed, Dec. 27, 2006
HIGHER EDUCATION
Top colleges could become gated enclaves
BY NATHAN O. HATCH
hatch@wfu.edu
In this nation where dreams can still be realized, there is no greaterbeacon of opportunity than America's colleges and universities. Young peoplebegin in one place and, through diligent work, advance themselvesintellectually and economically. Those of us privileged to serve studentswitness this process firsthand -- at Wake Forest University, the Universityof Louisville or the fine universities of South Florida.
Early in my presidency of Wake Forest, I received a call from WilliamFriday, distinguished president emeritus of the University of North Carolinaand founding co-chair of the Knight Foundation Commission on IntercollegiateAthletics. He remarked that if Wake Forest had not offered a scholarship tohim -- a young man of modest means from rural Gaston County, N.C. -- hewould not have gone to college. Friday's contributions to national highereducation and his leadership in North Carolina's progress might have beenlost.
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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/12/27/wed_elect_a_black_president_old_news?mode=PF
We'd elect a black president? Old news
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | December 27, 2006
SECRETARY OF STATE Condoleezza Rice gave an interview to the AssociatedPress last week, but as the State Department's transcript of the meetingreveals, she didn't say anything terribly newsworthy. AP had to lead withsomething, though, so it played up the racial angle, headlining the story"Rice: US ready for black president."
Asked whether "America is ready to vote for and support a black president,"the second consecutive black Americanto head the Department of Statepromptly answered, "Yeah. I think so." She noted that while Americans maynot be perfectly blind to color -- "You know, when a person walks into aroom, race is evident" -- by and large "we have become capableof lookingpast color to see capability and to see merit and to overcome stereotypes .. . and that's what people look for, I think, when they are looking for apresident."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/26/AR2006122600773_pf.html
The Right Type of 'Surge'
Any Troop Increase Must Be Large and Lasting
By Jack Keane and Frederick W. Kagan
Wednesday, December 27, 2006; A19
Reports on the Bush administration's efforts to craft a new strategy in Iraqoften use the term "surge" but rarely define it. Estimates of the number oftroops to be added in Baghdad range from fewer than 10,000 to more than30,000. Some "surges" would last a few months, others a few years.
We need to cut through the confusion. Bringing security to Baghdad -- theessential precondition for political compromise, national reconciliation andeconomic development -- is possible only with a surge of at least 30,000combat troops lasting 18 months or so. Any other option is likely to fail.
The key to the success is to change the military mission -- instead ofpreparing for transition to Iraqi control, that mission should be to bringsecurity to the Iraqi population. Surges aimed at accelerating the trainingof Iraqi forces will fail, because rising sectarian violence will destroyIraq before the new forces can bring it under control.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/opinion/27wed1.html?pagewanted=print
December 27, 2006
Editorial
Israel's Mixed Messages
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, took some encouraging steps overthe weekend to ease the frustrations Palestinians face at West Bank and Gazacheckpoints. He hoped in that way to strengthen Mahmoud Abbas, the embattledmoderate who presides over the Palestinian Authority. Unfortunately,Israel's defense minister, Amir Peretz, has undercut these moves by approving thefirst new West Bank settlement in more than a decade.
Israel's space for peace diplomacy is tightly constrained. It must reckonwith a Hamas-led Palestinian cabinet that denies its right to exist andrejects the very notion of a negotiated peace. Yet those facts of Mideastlife do not justify authorizing a new settlement. That self-defeating moveadds nothing to Israel's security and needlessly complicates the quest foran eventual negotiated peace.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16325096.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Wed, Dec. 27, 2006
IMMIGRATION
Legal, working and need a green card? It might be a few years
Immigration attorneys spend much of their time helping legal immigrantsovercome obstacles to get citizenship and residency status.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com
Michael Bander, a Miami immigration attorney, was discussing how his clientcould qualify for a green card when he suddenly asked a personal question:``Do you have a boyfriend?''
Monica Rengifo, a 28-year-old Colombian graphic designer, said she did --but back home. Thus, her dilemma: Without an American husband, Rengifo mayend up waiting years for a green card -- stuck in the same job. With anAmerican spouse, she could get a green card in months.
Rengifo is typical of the thousands of foreigners who turn up at the officesof an ever-growing number of immigration attorneys in Miami, Fort Lauderdaleand other U.S. cities. They are in the States legally, but face excessivedelays in obtaining residency status or citizenship.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/opinion/27wed2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
December 27, 2006
Editorial
An Early Test for Lawmakers
Thanks to the 2001 tax cut law, over the next four years the federalgovernment will forgo some $30 billion so America's wealthiest taxpayers canclaim bigger write-offs for expenses like dependents and mortgage interest.One-third of those tax cuts kicked in this year, with the rest scheduled totake effect in 2008 and 2010. By then, most of the advantage will go to thetop 0.3 percent of Americans - those making more than $1 million a year -who have until now been required to limit the amounts they are allowed toclaim for things like the spousal exemption or the mortgage costs on avacation home.
Over roughly the same period, the government is looking at a $14 billionshortfall in its share of financing for a crucial federal-state program thatprovides health insurance to poor children, the so-called Schip, or StateChildren's Health Insurance Program. Without full financing, 1.5 millionchildren will be cut from the program or underserved.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/26/AR2006122600772_pf.html
Myths And the Middle Class
By Robert J. Samuelson
Wednesday, December 27, 2006; A19
Almost all Americans see themselves as "middle class." To declare yourselfmiddle class is to say you've succeeded without openly bragging that you'resuperior -- a no-no in a democratic culture. You're like everyone else, onlya little more or less so.
Not surprisingly, a recent poll done for the Economic Policy Institute, aliberal think tank, finds that only 2 percent of Americans put themselves inthe "upper class" and a mere 8 percent consider themselves "lower class."The large majority classify themselves as "upper-middle class" (17 percent)or "middle class" (45 percent). The rest (27 percent) see themselves as"working class," a stepping stone to the middle class.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/washington/27diplo.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1167231706-Lg75NRDfhP0E67YwHAdJ3g&pagewanted=print
December 27, 2006
Biden Opposes a Troop Increase in Iraq, Foreshadowing a Fight With the BushAdministration
By HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 - Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the incomingchairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday rejected atroop increase for Iraq, foreshadowing what could be a contentious fightbetween the Bush administration and Congress.
Mr. Biden, a Democrat, announced that he would begin hearings on Iraq onJan. 9 and expected high-ranking officials, including Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice, to appear.
As President Bush flew to his Texas ranch on Tuesday, a spokesman for theNational Security Council urged the senator to wait for Mr. Bush to presenthis new Iraq policy next month before passing judgment.
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Inside Highter Ed
http://insidehighered.com/layout/set/print/news/2006/12/27/cross
Dec. 27
Signs of the Cross (and Its Removal)
When the College of William & Mary was founded, there wasn't much of anemphasis on separation of church and state. The college - the second oldestin the United States - received its charter in 1693, well before the UnitedStates existed as a country and before a William & Mary alumnus, ThomasJefferson, started to define for Virginia and the United States the idea ofchurch-state separation. Even if Jefferson's ideas had been in circulation,they might not have applied: William & Mary didn't become a fully publicinstitution until early in the 20th century, when ownership transferred toVirginia.
But the semester just completed saw a significant debate over the role andvisibility of religion at William & Mary, ending with a letter released justbefore Christmas by President Gene R. Nichol. In the letter, Nichol admittedthat his "own missteps" and poor communication have contributed to the angerover his decision to remove an altar cross from permanent display in thechapel of the college's Christopher Wren building. But while Nicholannounced some minor modifications to the policy, he is largely standingbehind it.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html?ei=5094&en=2e48052e26175c1a&hp=&ex=1167195600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
December 27, 2006
Iraqi Court Says Hussein Must Die Within 30 Days
By JAMES GLANZ
BAGHDAD, Dec. 26 - An Iraqi appeals court on Tuesday upheld the deathsentence against Saddam Hussein and ruled that the man whose brutal reignbegan in 1979 and ended with the American-led invasion in 2003 must go tothe gallows within 30 days.
It was the court of last resort for Mr. Hussein, who received his deathsentence on Nov. 5 from the Iraqi High Tribunal, a court set up specificallyto pass judgment on his years in power. No further appeals are possible, andhis final legal recourse appears to be a clause in the Constitution statingthat the Iraqi president must approve all death sentences.
That clause offers Mr. Hussein only the slenderest of hopes. Jalal Talabani,the Iraqi president, has said he is formally against the death penalty, buthe has permitted the hangings of many Iraqis convicted of capital crimes.And the Constitution may be trumped by an article in the charter of thetribunal stating that its sentences may be commuted by no one, not even thepresident.
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The Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20061223-114252-1108r
Democrats eye overhaul of education programs
By Amy Fagan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published December 24, 2006
Education policy is in for some changes under the new Democrat-controlledCongress.
Cracking down on the student-loan industry, cutting loan interest rates,boosting the amount of government money for education and rewriting portionsof President Bush's No Child Left Behind law governing elementary educationare among the goals of Democrats next year.
On top of that, a few other laws must be renewed, too -- the HigherEducation Act, the Head Start program for preschoolers and the WorkforceInvestment Act for job-training programs.
"It's a big year," said Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, a CaliforniaRepublican who will hand over the gavel of the House Education Committee toRep. George Miller, California Democrat.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/world/africa/27somalia.html?ei=5094&en=10a88a3be0393151&hp=&ex=1167195600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
December 27, 2006
Islamists Retreat in Somalia
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 26 - The Islamist forces once in control of much ofSomalia are crumbling faster than anyone expected and beat a hasty retreatback to their stronghold in Mogadishu, Somalia's battle-scarred capital, onTuesday.
By dawn, Buurhakaba, a large inland town, had fallen to the Islamists'rivals, along with nearby Dinsoor and Bulo Burti, where just a few weeks agothe clerics in charge were threatening to behead people who did not prayfive times a day.
The Islamist fighters, who had seemed invincible after taking Mogadishu fromthe city's warlords in June, now seem powerless to stop the steady advanceof the internationally recognized transitional government and the Ethiopianforces that are backing it.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/26/AR2006122601034_pf.html
U.S. Wants Polar Bears Listed as Threatened
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 27, 2006; A01
The Bush administration has decided to propose listing the polar bear asthreatened under the Endangered Species Act, putting the U.S. government onrecord as saying that global warming could drive one of the world's mostrecognizable animals out of existence.
The administration's proposal -- which was described by an InteriorDepartment official who spoke on the condition of anonymity -- stems fromthe fact that rising temperatures in the Arctic are shrinking the sea icethat polar bears need for hunting. The official insisted on anonymitybecause the department will submit the proposal today for publication in theFederal Register, after which it will be subject to public comment for 90days.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/us/politics/27civil.html?pagewanted=print
December 27, 2006
With Promises of a Better-Run Congress, Democrats Take on Political Risks
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 - Republican rule on Capitol Hill drew to an exhaustedend just before dawn on Dec. 9 after lawmakers dispatched a pile of billsthat few had read and even fewer had helped write. Democrats say the era ofsuch chaotic and secretive legislating came to a close as well.
After chafing for years under what they saw as flagrant Republican abuse ofCongressional power and procedures, the incoming majority has promised torestore House and Senate practices to those more closely resembling thetextbook version of how a bill becomes law: daylight debate, seriousamendments and minority party participation.
Beyond the parliamentary issues, Democrats assuming control on Jan. 4 saidthey also wanted to revive collegiality and civility in an institution thathas been poisoned by partisanship in recent years. In a gesture duly notedby Republicans, the incoming speaker of the House, Representative NancyPelosi of California, offered Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who isremaining in Congress, the use of prime office space in the Capitol out ofrespect for his position.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/opinion/27hogeland.html?pagewanted=print
December 27, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Our Founding Illegals
By WILLIAM HOGELAND
EVERY nation is a nation of immigrants. Go back far enough and you'll findus all, millions of potential lives, tucked in the DNA of our Africanmother, Lucy. But the immigrant experience in the United States is justlycelebrated, and perhaps no aspect of that experience is morequintessentially American than our long heritage of illegal immigration.
You wouldn't know it from the immigration debate going on all year (thebipartisan immigration bill-in-progress, announced this week, is unlikely tomention it), but America's pioneer values developed in a distinctly illegalcontext. In 1763, George III drew a line on a map stretching from modern-dayMaine to modern-day Georgia, along the crest of the Appalachians. Hedeclared it illegal to claim or settle land west of the line, all of whichhe reserved for Native Americans.
George Washington, a young colonel in the Virginia militia, instructed hisland-buying agents in the many ways of getting around the law. AlthoughWashington was not alone in acquiring forbidden tracts, few were asenergetic in the illegal acquisition of western land. And Washington was amodel of decorum compared to Ethan Allen, a rowdy from Connecticut whosettled with his brothers in a part of the Green Mountains known as theHampshire Grants (later known as "Vermont").
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2006/12/23/annan_concerned_on_libya_aids_sentence?mode=PF
Annan 'concerned' on Libya AIDS sentence
December 23, 2006
UNITED NATIONS --Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday he was "deeplyconcerned" about a Libyan court's decision to reimpose death sentences onfive Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of infectingchildren with HIV.
Annan offered U.N. support for the children and for efforts to "find ahumane solution for the fate of the medics."
"I am deeply concerned by confirmation of a guilty verdict and a deathsentence," Annan said.
President Bush and European leaders have expressed outrage over the deathsentences, imposed despite scientific evidence the children were infectedwith the virus before the medical workers came to Libya.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/12/26/military_considers_recruiting_foreigners?mode=PF
Military considers recruiting foreigners
Expedited citizenship would be an incentive
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | December 26, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals,are considering expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks --including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas andputting more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if theyvolunteer -- according to Pentagon officials.
Foreign citizens serving in the US military is a highly charged issue, whichcould expose the Pentagon to criticism that it is essentially usingmercenaries to defend the country. Other analysts voice concern that a largecontingent of noncitizens under arms could jeopardize national security orreflect badly on Americans' willingness to serve in uniform.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_122606L.shtml
Generals Promote Christianity Inside the Pentagon
By Thomas D. Williams
t r u t h o u t | Report
Tuesday 26 December 2006
It's a delicate and controversial question. Where does freedom topractice religion inside Pentagon offices with high-ranking DefenseDepartment officers, congressmen and other ranking federal officials stop?
Can Army generals in uniform gather with congressmen and federal agencyofficials to promote the Christian faith in uniform inside the Pentagonwhile being videotaped by a high-powered religious organization? Can theeasily accessible tape, as well as military Christian web sites, bemisconstrued by Islamic extremists during wartime?
The videotape was pulled off the internet recently, after a complaintthat it violated federal regulations and the US Constitution by usinggovernmental officials to promote Christianity. It is not the only web siteheralding Christians in the military.
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http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061226/OPINION03/612260394/1272
The Detroit News
December 28, 2007
Deb Price:
Learning from the masters of exuberance
Consider the remarkable Vermonter who spent much of his life photographingsnowflakes -- more than 5,000 "gems from God's own laboratory," the mostperfect of which broke before he could capture its image for the rest of us.Recounting that "tragedy" never failed to bring tears to his eyes.
Or consider the dynamic woman who boldly served an elegant, sit-downThanksgiving dinner for 23 in her palatial stable as her five Friesianhorses (the breed favored by the armored knights of old) looked on, munchingon carrots as the human guests feasted on cranberry-dried fruit stuffing andsteamed brussels sprouts "glossed with butter and flecked with chives."
Or consider the gifted linguist who, despite having died at age 90 two yearsago, still performs miracles by taking folks like me and within hours havingus comfortably juggling the building blocks of French, Spanish, Italian orGerman.
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Forwarded from Ron Mills:
http://Politalk1.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/v/svSDzb-pWhg
Warning video is Graphicyou may become Anti-War after viewing this video!
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
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