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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/092906white.htm
AIDS Bill Backers Maneuver To Force Senate Vote
by The Associated Press
September 30, 2006 - 12:01 am ET
(Washington) Supporters of a bill to shift AIDS money from urban to ruralareas failed Friday to overcome objections from senators in New York and NewJersey but maneuvered to force a vote when Congress returns after theNovember elections.
That left the fate of the $2.1 billion Ryan White CARE Act uncertain.
The House passed legislation renewing the law 325-98 Thursday night. (story)
On Friday, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., dropped her opposition aftergetting assurances about California's funding.
New York and New Jersey stand to lose more than $70 million each under therevisions to the Ryan White law, the largest federal program specificallyfor people with HIV/AIDS. Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and HillaryRodham Clinton of New York and Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey remained opposed.
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The Miami Herald
http://gaysouthflorida.blogspot.com/2006/09/from-abc-news-2003-internet-exchange.html
Friday, September 29, 2006
From ABC News: 2003 Internet exchange between Congressman Foley [Maf54] and a former
congressional page, according to the young man.
http://abcnews.go.com/images/WNT/02-02-03b.pdf
Maf54 (7:25:14 PM): hey
Auto response from Xxxxxxxxx (7:25:14 PM): scrounging for food...brb
Maf54 (7:25:25 PM): ok
Maf54 (7:25:35 PM): kep scrounging
Xxxxxxxxx (7:31:51 PM): boo
Maf54 (7:32:13 PM): bo dude
Xxxxxxxxx (7:32:17 PM): lol
Xxxxxxxxx (7:32:26 PM): whered ya go this afternoon
Maf54 (7:33:39 PM): i am in pensecola...had to catch a plane
Xxxxxxxxx (7:33:47 PM): oh well thats fun
Maf54 (7:34:04 PM): indeed
Xxxxxxxxx (7:34:14 PM): what are you doing in pensecola
Maf54 (7:34:21 PM): now in my hotel room
Xxxxxxxxx (7:34:39 PM): well ..like why did you go there
Maf54 (7:35:02 PM): for the campaign
Xxxxxxxxx (7:35:29 PM): have you officialy announced yt
Maf54 (7:35:45 PM): not yet
Xxxxxxxxx (7:36:06 PM): cool cool...
Maf54 (7:37:27 PM): how my favorite young stud doing
Xxxxxxxxx (7:37:46 PM): tired and sore
more....
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The current issue of The Express Gay News is online
http://expressgaynews.com/
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Foleys-Folly.html?pagewanted=print
September 30, 2006
Disgraced, Rep. Foley Exits in a Hurry
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:25 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- This time there were no tortured explanations, no heels dug in, no long, slow drip of revelation or fight for redemption. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., just up and quit after his e-mails expressing undue interest in a 16-year-old male page were exposed to the nation. Less than six weeks from a tough election for Republicans who control an already ethically tainted Congress, the more common stick-it-out approach to scandal was cast aside.
''Resigning leaves your attackers nowhere to go,'' said Eric Dezenhall, a crisis-management consultant. ''If this had dragged on, it could have sucked Republicans into the vortex of scandal.''
Foley, a moderate Republican whose work in Congress included protections for children against sexual predators, repeatedly e-mailed a boy working as a page in August 2005, asking for his picture, asking what he wanted for his birthday and making chatty comments about school and about another page who he said was ''in really great shape.''
The page told a colleague the e-mails ''freaked me out'' and were ''sick,'' according to transcripts posted online by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
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http://www.gopprogress.com/story/2006/9/29/175238/031
An Insider Speaks About Foley Instant Messages
By Liz Mair, Section News
Posted on Fri Sep 29, 2006 at 05:52:38 PM EST
About 15 minutes ago, I received a call from someone who knows Rep. Foley, and who was made aware this evening of the content of the full spread of Instant Messages (IMs) whose revelation prompted Foley's resignation today. My source detailed to me the content of the IMs, which is, in a word, well, shocking.
According to my source, the IMs are extremely explicit, and certainly amount to numerous, direct, and unmistakable sexual advances. The content does sound like it matches the overall characterization offered by ABC, which claimed that references to sexual acts and sexual organs were strewn throughout the IMs.
They were indeed directed at former Capitol Hill pages, and it seems they turned out to be far worse than might have been suggested by early reports-- hence Foley's resignation at the drop of a hat.
My source said that it is clear from the IMs that Foley had a very serious problem of which no one was aware before word about the weird, but non-sexual, emails to a former page got out (these were ultimately followed up, and in the ensuing investigation, the IMs, which are extremely explicit, were uncovered).
Whether anything beyond the sending of explicit sexual advances via IM occurred is not known yet-- given the description of the IM content, one certainly hopes not (though I imagine this will be investigated in detail, given the surrounding circumstances). This whole episode strikes me as very sad. Mark Foley was a good and competent legislator, who obviously succumbed to inner demons. Let us hope that no lasting damage was done to anyone at whom his advances may have been directed, and that the only casualty here will be his career.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Sexual Intelligence; Issue 80
Sexual IntelligenceTM
an electronic newsletter written & published by
Marty Klein, Ph.D.
Issue #80 October 2006
1. "I Do, <> Sir"
2. Bush Out of Touch on Touching <>
3. In Their Own Words <>
4. The Naked <> Truth
5. Years Late, But About Time <>
6. How They Do It <>
7. It Isn't <> Complicated
8. UK: More Than Tea <> & Crumpets
9. America's War On <> Sex
1. "I Do, Sir"
Two Spanish air force privates wed last month. They were both men. Yes, as
we've already reported (issues #56
<http://www.sexualintelligence.org/newsletters/issue56.html#six> , 64
<http://www.sexualintelligence.org/newsletters/issue64.html#six> ),
more....
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GAY CITY NEWS: PERSPECTIVE/ MCGREEVEY'S CONFESSION
http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_539/thegaygovernorhasno.html
The Gay Governor Has No Clothes
BY ANDY HUMM
Jim McGreevey wasted his life living a lie. Now he wants us to waste our time reading more of them.
The gay establishment's embrace of McGreevey is a depressing spectacle, treating the disgraced and treacherous politician as if he is some kind of courageous role model for people who come out late in life. Maybe he will bein inspiration to other 47-year old, closet-case corrupt governors lookingto chuck their second beard wives and partake of A-list gay life, but todaythere are high school students like Tully Satre in Virginia, helping leadthe fight against the anti-gay marriage referendum there, who have more toteach us-and could do infinitely more good with the $26.95 people areshelling out for McGreevey's "The Confession."
It is one thing to suffer in the closet on Brokeback Mountain in the 1960sor Iran today, but McGreevey is a highly educated, middle class guy who grewup in a Jersey suburb and received his higher education years after theStonewall Rebellion in Washington, Boston, and New York. He describes goingto the library at age 13-as many did in 1970-and finding few books onhomosexuality and all of them written by anti-gay psychiatrists. It left him"steeped in hopelessness."
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http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=40118
Homophobia Hinders Efforts To Address HIV/AIDS in Jamaica
Negative attitudes toward homosexuality present one of the biggestchallenges to addressing HIV/AIDS in Jamaica -- where sexual relationsbetween men are outlawed and carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison -- according to HIV/AIDS advocates, <http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34882> Inter Press Service reports.
Although "great strides" have been made toward the acceptance of gays andlesbians in Jamaica, a "kernel of violent bigotry remains," making the workof HIV/AIDS advocates more difficult, according to Inter Press Service.
"It's a common perception that HIV affects largely the gay population, (and)we can't say that that sort of perception has been totally wiped out,"Daniel Townsend, Jamaica AIDS <http://www.jamaicaaidssupport.com/>Support's advocacy and research coordinator, said, adding, "But to a largeextent people are now getting the message that everyone is at risk forcontracting this disease, and that is a huge and great help for AIDS serviceorganizations in this country."
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NEW POLL SHOWS MORE SUPPORT THAN OPPOSITION TO MARRIAGE EQUALITY AMONG CALIFORNIA LIKELY VOTERS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2006
CONTACT: Dannie Tillman, Director of Communications & Coalitions, Equality
California
PHONE: (323) 217-8875 EMAIL: media@eqca.org
San Francisco, CA - The September poll by the Public Policy Institute ofCalifornia shows that 47% of registered voters in California supportmarriage equality while 46% do not.
"This is the first major poll to show more support than opposition tomarriage for gay and lesbian couples," said Seth Kilbourn, EqualityCalifornia's political director. "The poll shows that the more Californiansthink and talk about this issue, the more supportive they become.
Lesbian,gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Californians have engaged their friendsand family in millions of conversations about ending the exclusion ofsame-sex couples from marriage. This work is clearly having an impact."
To read the report, visit
http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=712.
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MARRIAGE DIGEST:
Polygamists using 'gay marriage' arguments in suit;
Tenn. church takes stand for marriage amendment
Sep 29, 2006
By Michael Foust
Baptist Press
http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=24079
DENVER (BP)--An attorney representing three Utah polygamists wants to seethe state's ban on polygamy overturned in federal court, and he's using manyof the same arguments used by "gay marriage" supporters in the process.Attorney Brian Barnard filed legal briefs with the U.S. 10th Circuit Courtof Appeals in Denver earlier this year that were accepted formally by thecourt Sept. 25, the Associated Press reported.
Representing a man and two women, Barnard argues that Utah's ban on polygamyviolates their constitutional right to privacy, association and religion, APsaid. He is relying heavily on the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court's Lawrence v.Texas decision, which overturned anti-sodomy laws and is considered thebiggest Supreme Court win ever for homosexual activists. Liberal groupseventually hope to use Lawrence as a stepping stone to legalizing "gaymarriage" nationwide.
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OH: U of Cincinnati trustees weigh benefits change
UC trustees weigh benefits change
BY LORI KURTZMAN
Cincinnati Enquirer
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060929/NEWS01/609290419/1056/NEWS01
Domestic partners of University of Cincinnati faculty might soon have accessto some employee benefits if UC's trustees approve a change to the union'scontract.
Members of the faculty union this week approved giving its 3,000-plus full- time or mostly full-time members the ability to buy life insurance,personal accident insurance and long-term insurance for their domesticpartners of the same or opposite sex.
The changes also would allow faculty to use sick leave if their partnerbecomes ill, injured or dies, and would give the employee the opportunity torequest personal or child-rearing leave for needs related to their partner.
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First adoption by a gay couple in Cataluña
Sat, 30 Sep 2006, 12:30
Typically Spanish
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_6619.shtml
The first case of legal adoption for a gay male couple has been registeredin Cataluña. It follows the reform of the family law.
The couple, who have not been identified, have been looking after the childsince the summer, according to the Welfare and Family councillor from theregional government, Carme Figueras.
There are in fact many cases in Spain of children being adopted into a gayrelationship, but up to now the adoption has been carried out by a singleperson and not the couple.
In Cataluña there are 28 more cases under current consideration, 20 malecouple and 8 female couples.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/us/30principal.html?pagewanted=print
The New York Times
September 30, 2006
Principal Killed by Shot in Struggle With Angry Student
By LIBBY SANDER
CHICAGO, Sept. 29 - The principal of a rural Wisconsin school was shot to death on Friday, on the eve of what was to have been a weekend of homecoming festivities, by a 15-year-old who was disciplined on Thursday for having tobacco in school, the authorities said.
After the shooting at Weston Schools, near Cazenovia, 50 miles northwest of Madison, the 15-year-old, Eric Hainstock, told investigators that a group of fellow students had been picking on him at the school, calling him sexually derogatory names, according to the criminal complaint filed against Mr. Hainstock.
The principal, John Klang, and teachers "would not do anything about the other students," the teenager said, according to the complaint. "He decided to confront the students and teachers and principal with the guns to make them listen to him."
Representatives from Weston Schools told investigators that Mr. Hainstock had received a written disciplinary notice from Mr. Klang on Thursday for having tobacco in the school and that he would probably be punished with an in-school suspension.
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http://gaysouthflorida.blogspot.com/
Gay reaction to Mark Foley's resignation
BY STEVE ROTHAUS
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
"He was a homophobe who needed to be exposed,'' said journalist MichaelRogers, whose website, http://www.blogactive.com/, reported on Rep. Mark Foley of West Palm Beach for three years.
"I first started to report on Foley in March 2003,'' said Rogers, who isgay. "The reason why -- he's antigay. He voted for the Defense of MarriageAct and has not renounced that vote. He refused to acknowledge that hesupported the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell.' He would not sign on as aco-sponsor. He should be held accountable for not supporting that orco-sponsoring.
"No community is expected to harbor their own enemies from within. He is anenemy of our community, yet he wants to step into our community and put usat risk. He puts every one of us in a bad light."
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/stories/42138/
A New Battlefront Opens in the Textbook Wars
By Anneli Rufus, AlterNet
Posted on September 28, 2006, Printed on September 29, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/42138/
We trust school textbooks to be packed with facts, to be dispassionate overviews of everything that is and that has ever happened. We assume that middle-school and high-school students today know the same stuff we knew at their age: that with certain embellishments, certain improvements and updates, each new generation chiseling its initials into desktops inherits a basic knowledge set, taken for granted, the nuts and bolts and navigators that we studied, back then.
But that was then. Now we live in strange times when everyone nurses his or her own truth. The very concept of objectivity has been deconstructed on kindergarten nap carpets. Thus the question of what deserves to be taught -- and what gets forgotten -- is a political matter. At its core throbs a $4.5-billion-a-year textbook industry in which four megapublishing houses produce nearly all the books used at American public schools. And the process by which it is decided what kids will learn is a big messy mosh. Its winners and losers include pressure groups, religious zealots, lobbyists, school boards, the megapublishers -- Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt, Pearson and McGraw-Hill and their many imprints -- and, oh yeah, the kids.
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Gay Iranian to be deported
Published: 29th September 2006 18:38 CET
The Local
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=5069
A gay Iranian is to be deported from Sweden back to his homeland, amigration court in Stockholm decided on Friday.
Gay rights group RFSL has condemned the decision, saying that the man couldbe executed on his return.
"They're choosing to send people back and just hope that things go well, andthat they're not executed," said RFSL's chairman Sören Andersson to TheLocal.
The man had appealed a decision from the Swedish Board of Migration todeport him. He told the court that he had been harassed, assaulted andimprisoned because of his sexual orientation. He also said that he had beenarrested by Iranian police and raped at the police station.
But the court said that the man faced no concrete and individual risk if he no were to return to Iran.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/15639970.htm
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
No more controversy over transgendered teacher's hiring
Associated Press
LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Months after the hiring of a transgender substitute teacher roiled parents at an Ocean County elementary school, the woman was rehired with nary a peep from the audience.
Lily McBeth, 72, was one of several substitute teachers the Pinelands Regional Board of Education voted to hire Thursday night. None of the handful of residents who attended the meeting spoke on her hiring. McBeth underwent a sex change operation more than a year ago.
"I think this is a sign of progress, that the community indeed accepts and embraces Lily McBeth's right to teach in the classroom," Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, told the Asbury Park Press for Friday's newspapers.McBeth did not attend the Pinelands Regional meeting.
A retired medical marketing executive, McBeth was a father of three who was formerly named William. She also worked as a substitute at Pinelands Regional and in the Little Egg Harbor district before undergoing her sex-change operation.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.washblade.com/2006/9-29/news/localnews/gravesite.cfm
The Washington Blade
Man fights partner's family over gravesite (Gay)
Parents want gay son's body moved to family plot
By JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, September 29, 2006
Kevin-Douglas Olive still remembers talking to his partner Russell Groff about his grave.
Groff wanted to be buried in a cemetery along the gentle slopes outside Knoxville, Tenn. It was a reasoned choice. The land is close to where both were raised and large enough to accommodate a second plot.
"We had this romantic notion of being buried next to each other," Olive said. "Forever and ever."
But that dream is now in jeopardy. Groff's parents, Lowell and Carolyn Groff, are trying to overturn their son's will and move his body to the family cemetery in Severe County, Tenn.
Groff's parents, who could not be reached this week by the Blade, have argued in court that the 26-year-old man didn't know what he was doing when he completed his will. Olive said Groff had been estranged from his parents when he died.
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Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/15624842.htm?source=rss&channel=inquirer_local
Posted on Thu, Sep. 28, 2006
Gay history month sparks district debate
By Susan Snyder
Inquirer Staff Writer
The Philadelphia School District has received about 120 complaints - including one from a parent who said she would keep her child out of school for the entire month of October - because the district recognized Gay and Lesbian History Month on its school calendars.
Gay and Lesbian History Month was added for the first time this year in an effort to be more inclusive and follow a long-standing district policy requiring equity for all races and minority groups, said Cecilia Cummings, the district's senior vice president for communications and community relations. It is one of four special history months noted, along with Hispanic Heritage in September, African American in February, and Asian Pacific American in May.
Cummings said the district was not planning to roll out any districtwide curriculum or hold celebrations to coincide with the month, although individual schools with gay-straight alliances may have observances. The uproar in response to the calendar addition was not unexpected.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.washblade.com/2006/9-29/view/columns/rosenstein.cfm
The 85 percent rule of politics (Gay)
Democrats may not be with us 100 percent of the time, but it's crucial to dislodge the GOP.
By PETER ROSENSTEIN
Friday, September 29, 2006
WE ARE FACING what may be the most crucial elections we have had in many years and in November we appear to have a real chance to change the Congress. As a gay voter, I want to do that. Not because I have any illusions that a Democratic Congress will in the immediate future pass legislation that will benefit me as a gay person.
But what will happen is that our GLBT organizations will be able to stop fighting skirmishes with the Republican Congress on issues like the anti-gay marriage amendment that we know won't pass anyway. With a Democratic Congress we should be able to spend our hard earned money and valuable time on other issues at the national level.
The time has come for our community to go back to work on some of the basic issues we have fought for and made no progress on for years at the national level. Issues like ENDA and gays in the military. And we must focus our resources on the states where the real fights are taking place.
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Daily Queer News
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http://www.startribune.com/484/story/710315.html
Last update: September 29, 2006 - 11:44 AM
Judge rules gay R.I. couple has right to marry in Mass.
Denise Lavoie, Associated Press
BOSTON - A gay couple from Rhode Island has the right to marry in Massachusetts because laws in their home state do not expressly prohibit same-sex marriage, a judge ruled Friday.
Wendy Becker and Mary Norton of Providence, R.I., argued that a 1913 law that forbids out-of-state residents from marrying in Massachusetts if their marriage would not be permitted in their home state did not apply to them because Rhode Island does not specifically ban gay marriage.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly agreed.
"No evidence was introduced before this court of a constitutional amendment, statute, or controlling appellate decision from Rhode Island that explicitly deems void or otherwise expressly forbids same-sex marriage," he ruled.
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Foley resigns from House in wake of e-mails
By Larry Lipman
Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Friday, September 29, 2006
UPDATED: 5:45 p.m. September 29, 2006
Rep. Mark Foley, a six-term Republican from Fort Pierce, announced today that he is resigning from Congress following reports of inappropriate e-mails he had with teenage pages and interns.
"I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," Foley said in a statement.
Foley, 52, faxed his resignation to Gov. Jeb Bush at 3:41 p.m. and also sent a copy to House Speaker Dennis Hastert."I hereby resign as the representative of the 16th Congressional District of Florida, effective today," Foley wrote in the one-sentence letter.
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Latvian nationalist leader faces prosecution for inciting public disorder during gay pride
RIGA, Sep 27, BNS -
The Latvian Prosecutor's General Office has asked an administrative districtcourt to lift a fine imposed on the leader of Latvia's National Forces Union(NSS) for causing public disturbances during a sexual minorities festival inRiga this summer, and to launch a criminal procedure against him, the courtsaid.
The prosecutor believes that by participating in the gay-bashing attacks NSSchairman Viktor Birze showed clear disrespect for society, the prosecutor's spokesman Andrejs Vasks said.
In late August, the Riga Vidzeme District Court imposed 25 to 40 lats (EUR 35-57) fines on three defendants charged with causing public disorder duringthe gay pride festival, including NSS chairman Birze.
The men were detained for participation in anti-gay attacks outside RevalHotel Latvia, where participants of the gay pride festival were holdingtheir events.
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http://www.examiner.ie/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=14519-qqqx=1.asp
Irish Examiner, Friday 29 September 2006
Bullying forces gay teenagers to leave school, says expert
By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent
GAY and lesbian teenagers are being forced to leave school because they arebeing bullied over their sexual orientation, an expert claimed yesterday.
The BeLonG To youth project works with lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender young people but has had growing numbers of 14 and 15-year-oldsseeking support in the past few years.
According to the group's national development co-ordinator Michael Barron,an increasing number of young people are coming out about their sexualidentity. But these acts of courage are challenging schools andpolicy-makers as homophobic bullying becomes more widespread in schools.
"It's not just verbal abuse, we know of young people who have been assaultedand it has led to some of them leaving their school and some have droppedout of education altogether," he said.
#####
Saturday, September 30, 2006
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST September 30, 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/29/politics/printable2053761.shtml
Congress OKs 700-Mile Border Fence
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2006
(AP) Republicans will go into the elections with a message that they've madegreat strides fighting illegal immigration, including authorizing a fencealong one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border and making a $1.2 billion downpayment on it.
Among its final tasks before leaving to campaign, the Senate on Friday nightpassed and sent to President Bush a bill authorizing 700 new miles offencing on the southern border. No one knows how much it will cost, but aseparate bill also on the way to the White House makes a $1.2 billion downpayment on it. A 14-mile segment of fence under construction in San Diego iscosting $126.5 million.
The fence bill was passed by the House two weeks ago. The Senate vote on itFriday night was 80-19.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092700106.html
Falling on His Sword
Colin Powell's most significant moment turned out to be his lowest
Sunday, October 1, 2006; W12
ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2004, eight days after the president he served was elected to a second term, Secretary of State Colin Powell received a telephone call from the White House at his State Department office. The caller was not President Bush but Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and he got right to the point.
"The president would like to make a change," Card said, using a time-honored formulation that avoided the words "resign" or "fire." He noted briskly that there had been some discussion of having Powell remain until after Iraqi elections scheduled for the end of January, but that the president had decided to take care of all Cabinet changes sooner rather than later. Bush wanted Powell's resignation letter dated two days hence, on Friday, November 12, Card said, although the White House expected him to stay at the State Department until his successor was confirmed by the Senate.
After four long years, Powell had anticipated the end of his service and sometimes even longed for it. He had never directly told the president but thought he had made clear to him during the summer of 2004 that he did not intend to stay into a second term.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15646191.htm
Posted on Sat, Sep. 30, 2006
JACK ABRAMOFF SCANDAL
Federal prosecutors' bid to postpone Jack Abramoff's stay in prison were rejected by the judge, who said the time had come for the disgraced ex-lobbyist to begin his punishment.
BY MATT APUZZO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Judge rebuffs feds, rejects delay of prison sentence
The bribery investigation involving influence-peddler Jack Abramoff may have been stymied by a federal judge in Florida just as prosecutors began asking questions about the lobbyist's ties to the White House.
U.S. District Judge Paul Huck refused to delay Abramoff's prison sentence for fraud charges Thursday, rejecting a plea by the Justice Department's top corruption prosecutor, who said Abramoff was providing information about officials whose names hadn't yet surfaced in the case.
In the past month, the FBI has been pursuing leads about Abramoff's access to the White House and whether he was able to help lawmakers get Bush administration backing for their bills, according to someone familiar with the direction of the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because of its secrecy.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/education/30teacher.html?pagewanted=pri
The New York Times
September 30, 2006
Museum Field Trip Deemed Too Revealing
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
FRISCO, Tex., Sept. 28 - "Keep the 'Art' in 'Smart' and 'Heart,' " Sydney McGee had posted on her Web site at Wilma Fisher Elementary School in this moneyed boomtown that is gobbling up the farm fields north of Dallas.
But Ms. McGee, 51, a popular art teacher with 28 years in the classroom, is out of a job after leading her fifth-grade classes last April through the Dallas Museum of Art. One of her students saw nude art in the museum, and after the child's parent complained, the teacher was suspended.
Although the tour had been approved by the principal, and the 89 students were accompanied by 4 other teachers, at least 12 parents and a museum docent, Ms. McGee said, she was called to the principal the next day and "bashed."
She later received a memorandum in which the principal, Nancy Lawson, wrote: "During a study trip that you planned for fifth graders, students were exposed to nude statues and other nude art representations." It cited additional complaints, which Ms. McGee has challenged.
The school board suspended her with pay on Sept. 22.
In a newsletter e-mailed to parents this week, the principal and Rick Reedy, superintendent of the Frisco Independent School District, said that Ms. McGee had been denied transfer to another school in the district, that her annual contract would not be renewed and that a replacement had been interviewed.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/09/28/hillarys_itinerary_for_2006_looks_like_a_2008_battleground_map?mode=PF
Hillary's itinerary for 2006 looks like 2008 battleground map
By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer | September 28, 2006
WASHINGTON --Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House candidate, will lend a hand to congressional candidates, several of whomjust happen to be in presidential battleground states.
Cruising to a second term, the New York lawmaker told a gathering ofDemocratic Party faithful she will be traveling to states with close racesnext month to boost the party's hopes of taking control of Congress thisNovember.
"I'm always the most paranoid campaigner you can find, but I'm also going tobe campaigning around the country in these last weeks for other candidates,"Clinton told a women's leadership gathering for the Democratic NationalCommittee.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/25/AR2006092500731.html
Three Retired Officers Demand Rumsfeld's Resignation
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 25, 2006; 5:14 PM
Three retired military officers who served in Iraq called today for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, telling a Democratic "oversight hearing" on Capitol Hill that the Pentagon chief bungled planning for the U.S. invasion, dismissed the prospect of an insurgency and sent American troops into the fray with inadequate equipment.
The testimony by the three --two retired Army major generals and a former Marine colonel -- came a day after disclosure of a classified intelligence assessment that concluded the war in Iraq has fueled recruitment of violent Islamic extremists, helping to create a new generation of potential terrorists around the world and worsening the U.S. position.
In testimony before the Democratic Policy Committee today, retired Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 and served as a senior military assistant to former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, charged that Rumsfeld and others in the Bush administration "did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq."
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http://www.sacbee.com/110/v-print/story/31602.html
The Sacramento Bee
Making way for Jihad
By William F. Buckley Jr. -
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, September 29, 2006
The categorical opponents of the detainee bill should spend an unhappy hour reading the new book by Mary Habeck. She is a scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins, and her book, "Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror," is published by Yale University Press. The book undertakes to tell the reader things about the jihadist offensive that we should know about, properly concern ourselves with, and take into account when weighing legislative initiatives.
The scene in Washington, in a word, was as follows. The president, who is commander in chief of our armed forces and, as such, principal agent of the national security, took to Congress an impasse. It had been created by the Supreme Court. Exercising, quite properly, its authority to opine on deviations from past constitutional practice having to do with human rights, the court ruled that we could not legitimately proceed, as we have been doing in Guantanamo, to detain foreigners for interrogation and other purposes without reference to such constitutional narrative as is implicit under habeas corpus. That doctrine specifies that the American citizen is the master of his own movements -- putting the burden of respecting that sovereignty on the government.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901055.html
Legislating Violations of the Constitution
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Special to washingtonpost.com
Saturday, September 30, 2006; 12:00 AM
With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act - H.R. 2679 - provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion.
A federal statute, 42 United States Code section 1988, provides that attorneys are entitled to recover compensation for their fees if they successfully represent a plaintiff asserting a violation of his or her constitutional or civil rights. For example, a lawyer who successfully sues on behalf of a victim of racial discrimination or police abuse is entitled to recover attorney's fees from the defendant who acted wrongfully. Any plaintiff who successfully sues to remedy a violation of the Constitution or a federal civil rights statute is entitled to have his or her attorney's fees paid.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901628_pf.html
The Washington Post
THE EDUCATION ISSUE
By Paul A. Hanle
Sunday, October 1, 2006; B04
I recently addressed a group of French engineering graduate students who were visiting Washington from the prestigious School of Mines in Paris. After encouraging them to teach biotechnology in French high schools, I expected the standard queries on teaching methods or training. Instead, a bright young student asked bluntly: "How can you teach biotechnology in this country when you don't even accept evolution?"
I wanted to disagree, but the kid had a point. Proponents of "intelligent design" in the United States are waging a war against teaching science as scientists understand it. Over the past year alone, efforts to incorporate creationist language or undermine evolution in science classrooms at public schools have emerged in at least 15 states, according to the National Center for Science Education. And an independent education foundation has concluded that science-teaching standards in 10 states fail to address evolution in a scientifically sound way. Through changes in standards and curriculum, these efforts urge students to doubt evolution -- the cornerstone principle of biology, one on which there is no serious scientific debate.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/us/30foley.html?ei=5094&en=46724e8fe6d64c22&hp=&ex=1159588800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
September 30, 2006
Lawmaker Quits Over E-Mail Sent to Teenage Pages
By KATE ZERNIKE and ABBY GOODNOUGH
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - In six terms representing a wealthy swath of southern Florida, Representative Mark Foley, a Republican, became well known for his ardent efforts to safeguard the young and vulnerable, leading the House caucus on missing and exploited children and championing laws against sexual predators.
On Friday, Mr. Foley resigned abruptly after being confronted with a series of sexually explicit Internet messages he is reported to have sent to under-age Congressional pages. He is thus accused of being the very kind of predator he had denounced.
"I am deeply sorry," Mr. Foley, 52, said in a three-sentence statement released by his office, "and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent." The statement did not refer specifically to the Internet messages.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/asia/29water.html?pagewanted=print
September 29, 2006
In India, Water Crisis Means Foul Sludge
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
NEW DELHI, Sept. 28 - The quest for water can drive a woman mad.Ask Ritu Prasher. Every day, Mrs. Prasher, a homemaker in a middle-class neighborhood of this capital, rises at 6:30 a.m. and begins fretting about water.
It is a rare morning when water trickles through the pipes. More often, not a drop will come. So Mrs. Prasher will have to call a private water tanker, wait for it to show up, call again, wait some more and worry about whether enough buckets are filled in the bathroom in case no water arrives.
"Your whole day goes just planning how you'll get water," a weary Mrs. Prasher, 45, recounted one morning this summer, cellphone in hand and ready to press redial for the water tanker. "You become so edgy all the time."
In the richest city in India, with the nation's economy marching ahead at an enviable clip, middle-class people like Mrs. Prasher are reduced to foraging for water. Their predicament testifies to the government's astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092900368.html
Card Urged Bush to Replace Rumsfeld, Woodward Says
By William Hamilton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006; 1:50 PM
Former White House chief of staff Andrew Card on two occasions tried and failed to persuade President Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, according to a new book by Bob Woodward that depicts senior officials of the Bush administration as unable to face the consequences of their policy in Iraq.
Card made his first attempt after Bush was reelected in November, 2004, arguing that the administration needed a fresh start and recommending that Bush replace Rumsfeld with former secretary of state James A. Baker III. Woodward writes that Bush considered the move, but was persuaded by Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, that it would be seen as an expression of doubt about the course of the war and would expose Bush himself to criticism.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/29/politics/printable2053761.shtml
Congress OKs 700-Mile Border Fence
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2006
(AP) Republicans will go into the elections with a message that they've madegreat strides fighting illegal immigration, including authorizing a fencealong one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border and making a $1.2 billion downpayment on it.
Among its final tasks before leaving to campaign, the Senate on Friday nightpassed and sent to President Bush a bill authorizing 700 new miles offencing on the southern border. No one knows how much it will cost, but aseparate bill also on the way to the White House makes a $1.2 billion downpayment on it. A 14-mile segment of fence under construction in San Diego iscosting $126.5 million.
The fence bill was passed by the House two weeks ago. The Senate vote on itFriday night was 80-19.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092700106.html
Falling on His Sword
Colin Powell's most significant moment turned out to be his lowest
Sunday, October 1, 2006; W12
ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2004, eight days after the president he served was elected to a second term, Secretary of State Colin Powell received a telephone call from the White House at his State Department office. The caller was not President Bush but Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and he got right to the point.
"The president would like to make a change," Card said, using a time-honored formulation that avoided the words "resign" or "fire." He noted briskly that there had been some discussion of having Powell remain until after Iraqi elections scheduled for the end of January, but that the president had decided to take care of all Cabinet changes sooner rather than later. Bush wanted Powell's resignation letter dated two days hence, on Friday, November 12, Card said, although the White House expected him to stay at the State Department until his successor was confirmed by the Senate.
After four long years, Powell had anticipated the end of his service and sometimes even longed for it. He had never directly told the president but thought he had made clear to him during the summer of 2004 that he did not intend to stay into a second term.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15646191.htm
Posted on Sat, Sep. 30, 2006
JACK ABRAMOFF SCANDAL
Federal prosecutors' bid to postpone Jack Abramoff's stay in prison were rejected by the judge, who said the time had come for the disgraced ex-lobbyist to begin his punishment.
BY MATT APUZZO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Judge rebuffs feds, rejects delay of prison sentence
The bribery investigation involving influence-peddler Jack Abramoff may have been stymied by a federal judge in Florida just as prosecutors began asking questions about the lobbyist's ties to the White House.
U.S. District Judge Paul Huck refused to delay Abramoff's prison sentence for fraud charges Thursday, rejecting a plea by the Justice Department's top corruption prosecutor, who said Abramoff was providing information about officials whose names hadn't yet surfaced in the case.
In the past month, the FBI has been pursuing leads about Abramoff's access to the White House and whether he was able to help lawmakers get Bush administration backing for their bills, according to someone familiar with the direction of the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because of its secrecy.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/education/30teacher.html?pagewanted=pri
The New York Times
September 30, 2006
Museum Field Trip Deemed Too Revealing
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
FRISCO, Tex., Sept. 28 - "Keep the 'Art' in 'Smart' and 'Heart,' " Sydney McGee had posted on her Web site at Wilma Fisher Elementary School in this moneyed boomtown that is gobbling up the farm fields north of Dallas.
But Ms. McGee, 51, a popular art teacher with 28 years in the classroom, is out of a job after leading her fifth-grade classes last April through the Dallas Museum of Art. One of her students saw nude art in the museum, and after the child's parent complained, the teacher was suspended.
Although the tour had been approved by the principal, and the 89 students were accompanied by 4 other teachers, at least 12 parents and a museum docent, Ms. McGee said, she was called to the principal the next day and "bashed."
She later received a memorandum in which the principal, Nancy Lawson, wrote: "During a study trip that you planned for fifth graders, students were exposed to nude statues and other nude art representations." It cited additional complaints, which Ms. McGee has challenged.
The school board suspended her with pay on Sept. 22.
In a newsletter e-mailed to parents this week, the principal and Rick Reedy, superintendent of the Frisco Independent School District, said that Ms. McGee had been denied transfer to another school in the district, that her annual contract would not be renewed and that a replacement had been interviewed.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/09/28/hillarys_itinerary_for_2006_looks_like_a_2008_battleground_map?mode=PF
Hillary's itinerary for 2006 looks like 2008 battleground map
By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer | September 28, 2006
WASHINGTON --Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House candidate, will lend a hand to congressional candidates, several of whomjust happen to be in presidential battleground states.
Cruising to a second term, the New York lawmaker told a gathering ofDemocratic Party faithful she will be traveling to states with close racesnext month to boost the party's hopes of taking control of Congress thisNovember.
"I'm always the most paranoid campaigner you can find, but I'm also going tobe campaigning around the country in these last weeks for other candidates,"Clinton told a women's leadership gathering for the Democratic NationalCommittee.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/25/AR2006092500731.html
Three Retired Officers Demand Rumsfeld's Resignation
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 25, 2006; 5:14 PM
Three retired military officers who served in Iraq called today for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, telling a Democratic "oversight hearing" on Capitol Hill that the Pentagon chief bungled planning for the U.S. invasion, dismissed the prospect of an insurgency and sent American troops into the fray with inadequate equipment.
The testimony by the three --two retired Army major generals and a former Marine colonel -- came a day after disclosure of a classified intelligence assessment that concluded the war in Iraq has fueled recruitment of violent Islamic extremists, helping to create a new generation of potential terrorists around the world and worsening the U.S. position.
In testimony before the Democratic Policy Committee today, retired Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 and served as a senior military assistant to former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, charged that Rumsfeld and others in the Bush administration "did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq."
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http://www.sacbee.com/110/v-print/story/31602.html
The Sacramento Bee
Making way for Jihad
By William F. Buckley Jr. -
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, September 29, 2006
The categorical opponents of the detainee bill should spend an unhappy hour reading the new book by Mary Habeck. She is a scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins, and her book, "Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror," is published by Yale University Press. The book undertakes to tell the reader things about the jihadist offensive that we should know about, properly concern ourselves with, and take into account when weighing legislative initiatives.
The scene in Washington, in a word, was as follows. The president, who is commander in chief of our armed forces and, as such, principal agent of the national security, took to Congress an impasse. It had been created by the Supreme Court. Exercising, quite properly, its authority to opine on deviations from past constitutional practice having to do with human rights, the court ruled that we could not legitimately proceed, as we have been doing in Guantanamo, to detain foreigners for interrogation and other purposes without reference to such constitutional narrative as is implicit under habeas corpus. That doctrine specifies that the American citizen is the master of his own movements -- putting the burden of respecting that sovereignty on the government.
=
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901055.html
Legislating Violations of the Constitution
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Special to washingtonpost.com
Saturday, September 30, 2006; 12:00 AM
With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act - H.R. 2679 - provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion.
A federal statute, 42 United States Code section 1988, provides that attorneys are entitled to recover compensation for their fees if they successfully represent a plaintiff asserting a violation of his or her constitutional or civil rights. For example, a lawyer who successfully sues on behalf of a victim of racial discrimination or police abuse is entitled to recover attorney's fees from the defendant who acted wrongfully. Any plaintiff who successfully sues to remedy a violation of the Constitution or a federal civil rights statute is entitled to have his or her attorney's fees paid.
=
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901628_pf.html
The Washington Post
THE EDUCATION ISSUE
By Paul A. Hanle
Sunday, October 1, 2006; B04
I recently addressed a group of French engineering graduate students who were visiting Washington from the prestigious School of Mines in Paris. After encouraging them to teach biotechnology in French high schools, I expected the standard queries on teaching methods or training. Instead, a bright young student asked bluntly: "How can you teach biotechnology in this country when you don't even accept evolution?"
I wanted to disagree, but the kid had a point. Proponents of "intelligent design" in the United States are waging a war against teaching science as scientists understand it. Over the past year alone, efforts to incorporate creationist language or undermine evolution in science classrooms at public schools have emerged in at least 15 states, according to the National Center for Science Education. And an independent education foundation has concluded that science-teaching standards in 10 states fail to address evolution in a scientifically sound way. Through changes in standards and curriculum, these efforts urge students to doubt evolution -- the cornerstone principle of biology, one on which there is no serious scientific debate.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/us/30foley.html?ei=5094&en=46724e8fe6d64c22&hp=&ex=1159588800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
September 30, 2006
Lawmaker Quits Over E-Mail Sent to Teenage Pages
By KATE ZERNIKE and ABBY GOODNOUGH
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - In six terms representing a wealthy swath of southern Florida, Representative Mark Foley, a Republican, became well known for his ardent efforts to safeguard the young and vulnerable, leading the House caucus on missing and exploited children and championing laws against sexual predators.
On Friday, Mr. Foley resigned abruptly after being confronted with a series of sexually explicit Internet messages he is reported to have sent to under-age Congressional pages. He is thus accused of being the very kind of predator he had denounced.
"I am deeply sorry," Mr. Foley, 52, said in a three-sentence statement released by his office, "and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent." The statement did not refer specifically to the Internet messages.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/asia/29water.html?pagewanted=print
September 29, 2006
In India, Water Crisis Means Foul Sludge
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
NEW DELHI, Sept. 28 - The quest for water can drive a woman mad.Ask Ritu Prasher. Every day, Mrs. Prasher, a homemaker in a middle-class neighborhood of this capital, rises at 6:30 a.m. and begins fretting about water.
It is a rare morning when water trickles through the pipes. More often, not a drop will come. So Mrs. Prasher will have to call a private water tanker, wait for it to show up, call again, wait some more and worry about whether enough buckets are filled in the bathroom in case no water arrives.
"Your whole day goes just planning how you'll get water," a weary Mrs. Prasher, 45, recounted one morning this summer, cellphone in hand and ready to press redial for the water tanker. "You become so edgy all the time."
In the richest city in India, with the nation's economy marching ahead at an enviable clip, middle-class people like Mrs. Prasher are reduced to foraging for water. Their predicament testifies to the government's astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092900368.html
Card Urged Bush to Replace Rumsfeld, Woodward Says
By William Hamilton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006; 1:50 PM
Former White House chief of staff Andrew Card on two occasions tried and failed to persuade President Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, according to a new book by Bob Woodward that depicts senior officials of the Bush administration as unable to face the consequences of their policy in Iraq.
Card made his first attempt after Bush was reelected in November, 2004, arguing that the administration needed a fresh start and recommending that Bush replace Rumsfeld with former secretary of state James A. Baker III. Woodward writes that Bush considered the move, but was persuaded by Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, that it would be seen as an expression of doubt about the course of the war and would expose Bush himself to criticism.
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FLORIDA DIGEST September 30, 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ArtsUnited's Starving Artists Sale Sept. 30
ArtsUnited will host a "Starving Artists Art (and Bake) Sale" onSaturday, September 30, 2006 from 1 to 4 PM in the Gay and Lesbian CommunityCenter, 1717 N. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Admission is free andopen to the public. Over 20 artists are participating.
The Starving Artists Art and Bake Sale is an opportunity for the publicto buy original artwork at bargain prices. Two dozen local artists will beselling their paintings, prints, and photographs at this one day only eventfor $100 or less. The Stonewall Library and Archives will also have a usedbook sale at this event. ArtsUnited members will also be offering home bakedgoods for sale as well. Cash and credit cards will be accepted. Allpurchases must be removed that day.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/steve_rothaus/15636749.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
The Miami Herald
Posted on Sat, Sep. 30, 2006
GAY ISSUES
Teen activist heads a business
BY STEVE ROTHAUS
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
Boston businesswoman Colleen Morneweck's website was a mess until she called upon Joshua Delsman, a Broward Web designer with a growing company called Voxxit.
''He waved his magic wand and made everything run smoothly,'' said Morneweck, an attorney and new mom who began an online business selling hair bows for babies. ``What we ended up with was way better than I could ever hope for.''
Started in December 2004, Voxxit now has about 50 clients and generates more than $100,000 a year in revenue.Voxxit is run out of Josh's bedroom in his parents' home in Plantation.
Josh is 17.
''You must be joking,'' Morneweck said when told Josh's age. ``It all makes sense now. He's so available, except for mornings.''
Josh can't work mornings because he goes to high school. He's a senior at William McFatter Tech in Davie.
''I can't believe I'm doing so well,'' said Josh, who is also a blossoming gay activist. ``I don't want to grow up too fast. I don't want to say to my parents, `Sayonara.'
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Foley resigns from House in wake of e-mails
By Larry Lipman
Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Friday, September 29, 2006
UPDATED: 5:45 p.m. September 29, 2006
Rep. Mark Foley, a six-term Republican from Fort Pierce, announced today that he is resigning from Congress following reports of inappropriate e-mails he had with teenage pages and interns.
"I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," Foley said in a statement.
Foley, 52, faxed his resignation to Gov. Jeb Bush at 3:41 p.m. and also sent a copy to House Speaker Dennis Hastert."I hereby resign as the representative of the 16th Congressional District of Florida, effective today," Foley wrote in the one-sentence letter.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15642231.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
Reaction to Rep. Mark Foley's resignation
Miami Herald Staff Report
A roundup of reaction to the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla.:
''I just think it's a very extraordinarily sad day, and a very sad situation for many people.'' Thursday night on the floor of the House of Representatives, Foley ``obviously had the weight of the world on his shoulders. It was apparent he was in an extremely difficult situation.''
. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla.
``It's a tragedy for him and his family. I don't want to get into the pain of the closet. It's irrelevant if he's gay or not.''
. Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
``This type of behavior is what I try to protect my grandchildren from. It is unacceptable. He should have resigned. Members of Congress are responsible for protecting the most vulnerable among us -- our children. I support the Speaker's decision to investigate the Page Program.''
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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Congressman-E-Mails.html?ei=5094&en=d05509f213b99083&hp=&ex=1159588800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
September 29, 2006
Florida Republican Leaves Congress Over E-Mails
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:47 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former teenage male page.
''I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent,'' he said in a statement issued by his office.
The two-sentence statement did not refer to the e-mails and gave no reason for Foley's abrupt decision to abandon a flourishing career in Congress.
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/nation/epaper/2006/09/30/s1a_mahoney_0930.html
Democrat in position to win firm GOP seat
By Michael C. Bender
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006
PALM BEACH GARDENS - Tim Mahoney, a South Florida businessman for twodecades but a Democrat for just two years, was recruited by Democraticstrategists to run against Republican Mark Foley because they saw him as a"good fit" for a district that voted 54 percent in favor of President Bushin 2004.
With his personal wealth, the disillusioned Reagan Republican could financethe start of his campaign. He is a self-described fundamental Christian. Andin a district that stretches across eight counties, including both coastsand many rural communities, he owns homes in two of them: a 98-acreHighlands County ranch in addition his home in a gated Palm Beach Gardenscommunity.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15646200.htm
Posted on Sat, Sep. 30, 2006
MIAMI-DADE SCHOOLS
Middle-school principal yanks play dubbed too mature for studentsEighth-grade drama students were set to perform a controversial play, but the school pulled the plug on the performance.
BY YUDY PINEIRO
ypineiro@MiamiHerald.com
Principal yanks play dubbed too mature
It was supposed to be opening night for the eighth-grade drama magnet students of Southwood Middle.
But instead of performing the politically charged play My Name is Rachel Corrie on Friday night, the students were told to recite their choice of monologues.
School officials called off the play, saying the subject -- about a young American activist who died in 2003 under the wheels of an Israeli bulldozer as she fought for Palestinian rights -- was too mature for middle school-age children.
''Because of the nature of the subject and the possibility that it could offend many people, the principal decided to take it off,'' said John Schuster, spokesman for Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901574_pf.html
Rep. Foley Quits In Page Scandal
Explicit Online Notes Sent to Boy, 16
By Charles Babington and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 30, 2006; A01
Six-term Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) resigned yesterday amid reports that he had sent sexually explicit Internet messages to at least one underage male former page.
Foley, who was considered likely to win reelection this fall, said in a three-sentence letter of resignation: "I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent."
The resignation rocked the Capitol, and especially Foley's GOP colleagues, as lawmakers were rushing to adjourn for at least six weeks. House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of inappropriate "contact" between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he then told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Boehner later contacted The Post and said he could not remember whether he talked to Hastert.
It was not immediately clear what actions Hastert took. His spokesman had said earlier that the speaker did not know of the sexually charged online exchanges between Foley and the boy.
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http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060930/LOCAL/209300365/1078/news&template=printart
Sep 30, 2006
In gubernatorial campaign, lobbyists flock to Crist
By JOE FOLLICK
Sun Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE - A few hours after his Aug. 22 gubernatorial debate in Tampa,Charlie Crist's campaign team unfolded their laptops and settled into emptydining rooms and a crowded bar in the Marriott Westshore for a post-debateanalysis of the Republican primary battle with Tom Gallagher.
Crist's campaign staff was not alone. Campaign manager George LeMieux andfinance chairman Brent Sembler were joined at a table by Brian Ballard, oneof the state's most powerful lobbyists. Not far away, Crist campaignadvisers mingled with other top lobbyists.
It was not an unusual scene on the Crist campaign trail. While Crist'sopponent in the Nov. 7 governor's election, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Davis,has tried to rally voters with his cry that special interests have too muchcontrol in Tallahassee, Crist has the support of virtually every A-listlobbyist in the state.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/local_news/epaper/2006/09/29/s1c_benefits_0929.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17
County rethinks aid for partner perks
By Jennifer Sorentrue
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH - Palm Beach County commissioners Tuesday will reconsiderwhether to subsidize domestic partner benefits the county now offers,instead of making gay, lesbian and unmarried employees pay for them out oftheir own pockets.
The commission voted last year to offer health, dental and long-termdisability benefits to domestic partners, but decided that county employeesmust pay for the benefits themselves. At the time, commissioners vowed torevisit the payment decision in a year to see how many employees enrolled inthe program and analyze potential costs.
ArtsUnited's Starving Artists Sale Sept. 30
ArtsUnited will host a "Starving Artists Art (and Bake) Sale" onSaturday, September 30, 2006 from 1 to 4 PM in the Gay and Lesbian CommunityCenter, 1717 N. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Admission is free andopen to the public. Over 20 artists are participating.
The Starving Artists Art and Bake Sale is an opportunity for the publicto buy original artwork at bargain prices. Two dozen local artists will beselling their paintings, prints, and photographs at this one day only eventfor $100 or less. The Stonewall Library and Archives will also have a usedbook sale at this event. ArtsUnited members will also be offering home bakedgoods for sale as well. Cash and credit cards will be accepted. Allpurchases must be removed that day.
=
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/steve_rothaus/15636749.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
The Miami Herald
Posted on Sat, Sep. 30, 2006
GAY ISSUES
Teen activist heads a business
BY STEVE ROTHAUS
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
Boston businesswoman Colleen Morneweck's website was a mess until she called upon Joshua Delsman, a Broward Web designer with a growing company called Voxxit.
''He waved his magic wand and made everything run smoothly,'' said Morneweck, an attorney and new mom who began an online business selling hair bows for babies. ``What we ended up with was way better than I could ever hope for.''
Started in December 2004, Voxxit now has about 50 clients and generates more than $100,000 a year in revenue.Voxxit is run out of Josh's bedroom in his parents' home in Plantation.
Josh is 17.
''You must be joking,'' Morneweck said when told Josh's age. ``It all makes sense now. He's so available, except for mornings.''
Josh can't work mornings because he goes to high school. He's a senior at William McFatter Tech in Davie.
''I can't believe I'm doing so well,'' said Josh, who is also a blossoming gay activist. ``I don't want to grow up too fast. I don't want to say to my parents, `Sayonara.'
=
Foley resigns from House in wake of e-mails
By Larry Lipman
Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Friday, September 29, 2006
UPDATED: 5:45 p.m. September 29, 2006
Rep. Mark Foley, a six-term Republican from Fort Pierce, announced today that he is resigning from Congress following reports of inappropriate e-mails he had with teenage pages and interns.
"I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," Foley said in a statement.
Foley, 52, faxed his resignation to Gov. Jeb Bush at 3:41 p.m. and also sent a copy to House Speaker Dennis Hastert."I hereby resign as the representative of the 16th Congressional District of Florida, effective today," Foley wrote in the one-sentence letter.
=
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15642231.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
Reaction to Rep. Mark Foley's resignation
Miami Herald Staff Report
A roundup of reaction to the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla.:
''I just think it's a very extraordinarily sad day, and a very sad situation for many people.'' Thursday night on the floor of the House of Representatives, Foley ``obviously had the weight of the world on his shoulders. It was apparent he was in an extremely difficult situation.''
. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla.
``It's a tragedy for him and his family. I don't want to get into the pain of the closet. It's irrelevant if he's gay or not.''
. Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
``This type of behavior is what I try to protect my grandchildren from. It is unacceptable. He should have resigned. Members of Congress are responsible for protecting the most vulnerable among us -- our children. I support the Speaker's decision to investigate the Page Program.''
=
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Congressman-E-Mails.html?ei=5094&en=d05509f213b99083&hp=&ex=1159588800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
September 29, 2006
Florida Republican Leaves Congress Over E-Mails
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:47 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former teenage male page.
''I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent,'' he said in a statement issued by his office.
The two-sentence statement did not refer to the e-mails and gave no reason for Foley's abrupt decision to abandon a flourishing career in Congress.
=
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/nation/epaper/2006/09/30/s1a_mahoney_0930.html
Democrat in position to win firm GOP seat
By Michael C. Bender
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006
PALM BEACH GARDENS - Tim Mahoney, a South Florida businessman for twodecades but a Democrat for just two years, was recruited by Democraticstrategists to run against Republican Mark Foley because they saw him as a"good fit" for a district that voted 54 percent in favor of President Bushin 2004.
With his personal wealth, the disillusioned Reagan Republican could financethe start of his campaign. He is a self-described fundamental Christian. Andin a district that stretches across eight counties, including both coastsand many rural communities, he owns homes in two of them: a 98-acreHighlands County ranch in addition his home in a gated Palm Beach Gardenscommunity.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15646200.htm
Posted on Sat, Sep. 30, 2006
MIAMI-DADE SCHOOLS
Middle-school principal yanks play dubbed too mature for studentsEighth-grade drama students were set to perform a controversial play, but the school pulled the plug on the performance.
BY YUDY PINEIRO
ypineiro@MiamiHerald.com
Principal yanks play dubbed too mature
It was supposed to be opening night for the eighth-grade drama magnet students of Southwood Middle.
But instead of performing the politically charged play My Name is Rachel Corrie on Friday night, the students were told to recite their choice of monologues.
School officials called off the play, saying the subject -- about a young American activist who died in 2003 under the wheels of an Israeli bulldozer as she fought for Palestinian rights -- was too mature for middle school-age children.
''Because of the nature of the subject and the possibility that it could offend many people, the principal decided to take it off,'' said John Schuster, spokesman for Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901574_pf.html
Rep. Foley Quits In Page Scandal
Explicit Online Notes Sent to Boy, 16
By Charles Babington and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 30, 2006; A01
Six-term Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) resigned yesterday amid reports that he had sent sexually explicit Internet messages to at least one underage male former page.
Foley, who was considered likely to win reelection this fall, said in a three-sentence letter of resignation: "I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent."
The resignation rocked the Capitol, and especially Foley's GOP colleagues, as lawmakers were rushing to adjourn for at least six weeks. House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of inappropriate "contact" between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he then told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Boehner later contacted The Post and said he could not remember whether he talked to Hastert.
It was not immediately clear what actions Hastert took. His spokesman had said earlier that the speaker did not know of the sexually charged online exchanges between Foley and the boy.
=
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060930/LOCAL/209300365/1078/news&template=printart
Sep 30, 2006
In gubernatorial campaign, lobbyists flock to Crist
By JOE FOLLICK
Sun Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE - A few hours after his Aug. 22 gubernatorial debate in Tampa,Charlie Crist's campaign team unfolded their laptops and settled into emptydining rooms and a crowded bar in the Marriott Westshore for a post-debateanalysis of the Republican primary battle with Tom Gallagher.
Crist's campaign staff was not alone. Campaign manager George LeMieux andfinance chairman Brent Sembler were joined at a table by Brian Ballard, oneof the state's most powerful lobbyists. Not far away, Crist campaignadvisers mingled with other top lobbyists.
It was not an unusual scene on the Crist campaign trail. While Crist'sopponent in the Nov. 7 governor's election, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Davis,has tried to rally voters with his cry that special interests have too muchcontrol in Tallahassee, Crist has the support of virtually every A-listlobbyist in the state.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/local_news/epaper/2006/09/29/s1c_benefits_0929.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17
County rethinks aid for partner perks
By Jennifer Sorentrue
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH - Palm Beach County commissioners Tuesday will reconsiderwhether to subsidize domestic partner benefits the county now offers,instead of making gay, lesbian and unmarried employees pay for them out oftheir own pockets.
The commission voted last year to offer health, dental and long-termdisability benefits to domestic partners, but decided that county employeesmust pay for the benefits themselves. At the time, commissioners vowed torevisit the payment decision in a year to see how many employees enrolled inthe program and analyze potential costs.
Friday, September 29, 2006
GLBT DIGEST - September 29, 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/content/2006/09/florida_reps_em.html
Florida Rep's emails to male page raise eyebrows
September 29, 2006 7:27 AM | Capitol Hillbillies
Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley exchanged personal emails with a16-year-old former male page for a month, asking how old the young man was,if he wanted a photo, and requesting a photo.
Reports of the emails have rocked the House, bringing back memories of ascandal involving two members of Congress who had sex with two Congressionalpages in the 1980s.
While Foley denied doing anything improper, sources say the Capitol HillPolice department is now looking into the Congressman's behavior.
In 1983, the House censured Illinois Republican Congressman Phil Crane andGarry Studds (D-Mass) after both admitted having sex with pages. Crane'slover was female while Studds' was male. Crane, who cried on the floor ofthe House and asked his colleagues to forgive him, lost his re-election campaign the following year.
=
http://www.365gay.com/opinion/Libby/Libby.htm
Watching Out For Human Rights
by Libby Post
We're kept out of the military. We're fired from our jobs. We're targets of hate crimes. We're denied the ability to legally recognizeour relationships. And this is just in the United States .
Homophobia has taken on a particularly international flavor of late aslesbian and gay organizations are denied entrance to United Nationsgatherings.
The latest door was closed in Zimbabwe when that country's president, therabidly homophobic Robert Mugabe, refused to let the Gay and LesbianAssociation of Zimbabwe attend a 3-day U.N.-sponsored human rights meetingbetween the national government and human rights groups. The UNrepresentative in Zimbabwe refused to comment.
In neighboring South Africa, the government banned the country's leadingHIV/AIDS organization from attending the UN's Special Session on AIDS. TheTreatment Action Campaign (TAC), which was nominated for a 2004 Nobel Prize,has been a constant thorn in the South African government's side on how ithas dealt with the country's AIDS crisis.
=
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/092906calif.htm
Schwarzenegger Signs 'Gay Panic' & LGBT Housing Bills, Vetoes School Bias Bill
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
September 29, 2006 - 3:00 am ET
(Sacramento, California) California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signedlegislation Thursday night making it more difficult for defendants to us theso-called 'gay panic' defense.
The bill grew out of the brutal slaying of transgender teen Gwen Araujo in2002. At the trial of three men accused of punching, gashing, choking,tying up and strangling the 17 year old attorney's claimed their clients hadpanicked when it was discovered by two of the men with whom Araujo had sexthat she was born biologically male. The three were convicted but it tooktwo trials.
The Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act directs the Office of EmergencyServices to create training materials for district attorneys on bestpractices to address the use of bias-motivated defense strategies incriminal trials. The bill also requires the Judicial Council to adopt ajury instruction that tells jurors not to consider bias against peoplebecause of sexual orientation, gender identity or other characteristics inrendering a verdict.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801700_pf.html
Senators Seek Domestic-Partner Benefits for Federal Workers
By Stephen Barr
Friday, September 29, 2006; D04
Sens. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) have introduced legislation that would permit unmarried federal employees to apply for health, dental and vision insurance, retirement and other benefits for their domestic partners.The senators said that many companies and state and local governments offer domestic-partner benefits and that it is time for the federal government to do the same.
"Federal workers should be able to extend their benefits to loved ones," Smith said. He added, "I believe we need to rid the workplace of discrimination, not just in hiring decisions but also in the rights and privileges afforded employees." Lieberman said offering expanded benefits coverage "will help federal agencies compete for the most qualified personnel."
Spokesmen for the senators said the bill's introduction was intended to ensure that the issue will come up for consideration next year. Congress, however, has been reluctant to take action on domestic-partner benefits in the federal sector, in part because that would reopen debate on the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which bans federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
=
Jesse's Journal
by Jesse Monteagudo
"Halloween: The Great Gay Holiday"
October is an important month in our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender calendar. October is GLBT History Month, a month devoted to dis-covering and celebrating our past. On October 11, we observe "Coming Out Day", a dayin which we "take the next step" in our ongoing, coming-out process. Butwhile both GLBT History Month and Coming Out Day are of recent origin, thismonth's most popular queer holiday predates recorded history and capturesthe essence of sex and gender variance to a much greater degree than do theactivist holidays. Just open the pages of any queer paper during the firstweeks of November and you will see what our communities were doing onOctober 31st. In the words of the lesbian poet and scholar Judy Grahn,Halloween is "the great gay holiday".
I love Halloween. All through my life, October 31 has always been a specialday, though now I don't go out as much as I used to. I certainly enjoywriting about it, though, and I try to write a Halloween article every fewyears. Once thought to be a children's holiday, Halloween (actually Hallowe'en, but I prefer to use the more common spelling) is now almost as popular withadults. According to Nicholas Rogers, author of Halloween: From PaganRitual to Party Night, "Halloween at the end of the millennium has become amajor party night for adults, arguably the most important after New Year'sEve. . . . [T]he amount of money spent on Halloween has more than doubled inthe last decade, making it the second retail bonanza after Christmas."
For the full article contact us at rays.list@comcast.net
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/15624683.htm
CA - Bill would give gay couples right to file taxes as married couples
BUT LANDMARK VICTORY WOULD COME WITH TAX HEADACHES
By Mark Schwanhausser Mercury News
Gov. Schwarzenegger has three days left to decide whether to give a landmarktax victory to gay rights activists -- the right to file as married couples -- but stick them with a tax-filing headache.
The bill, which is among a stack of bills that will become law unless vetoedby Saturday, would require California's 75,000 registered domestic partnersto file their state tax returns as if they were legally married -- even though they'd still have to submit single returns to Uncle Sam.
More....
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/15624683.htm
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=1203&article=1203
Bay Area Reporter
September 28
Lesbian activist Aleta Fenceroy dies
by Liz Highleyman
liz@black-rose.com
Aleta Fenceroy, who for eight years operated the Fenceberry LGBT newswirewith her partner Jean Mayberry, died Saturday, September 23, after a battlewith cancer. She was 57.
Ms. Fenceroy was born December 27, 1948. She raised two children as a singlemother on welfare while working part time and studying music. She attendedMorningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, then received her master of finearts degree at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
After working for the Iowa Department of Corrections for more than a decade,Ms. Fenceroy went back to school to earn an associate degree in computerprogramming in 1998. She then took a job in Omaha, Nebraska, as aprogrammer-analyst with First Data Resources.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=276849
Commentary: Clinton Jokes And Culture War Stories Highlight Values Voter Summit, Day 2
By: Mark Kernes
WASHINGTON -
Before entering the ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. for the beginning of the second day of the 2006 Values Voter Summit, Idecided to check out what was actually in the "goodies bag" I'd been givenat registration, as well as a few items I'd picked up in the course of Day 1.
Besides the convention booklet itself, one of the most useful inserts wouldundoubtedly be the "Contact Information for Senate and House CongressionalMembers" booklet, beautifully done up in red, while, blue and gold, withRepublicans in plain type, Democrats in italics, and "Members who have diedor resigned" in bold brackets. (Hi, Tom! Hi, Duke!)
Young Americas Foundation (formerly Young Americans for Freedom, the seminalRepublican college campus crusade) was giving out copies of its magazineLibertas, this issue featuring on the cover an article titled "Teachers'Pets" - and can you believe it? Of the eight people pictured, every singleone is a Democrat!
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/content/2006/09/florida_reps_em.html
Florida Rep's emails to male page raise eyebrows
September 29, 2006 7:27 AM | Capitol Hillbillies
Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley exchanged personal emails with a16-year-old former male page for a month, asking how old the young man was,if he wanted a photo, and requesting a photo.
Reports of the emails have rocked the House, bringing back memories of ascandal involving two members of Congress who had sex with two Congressionalpages in the 1980s.
While Foley denied doing anything improper, sources say the Capitol HillPolice department is now looking into the Congressman's behavior.
In 1983, the House censured Illinois Republican Congressman Phil Crane andGarry Studds (D-Mass) after both admitted having sex with pages. Crane'slover was female while Studds' was male. Crane, who cried on the floor ofthe House and asked his colleagues to forgive him, lost his re-election campaign the following year.
=
http://www.365gay.com/opinion/Libby/Libby.htm
Watching Out For Human Rights
by Libby Post
We're kept out of the military. We're fired from our jobs. We're targets of hate crimes. We're denied the ability to legally recognizeour relationships. And this is just in the United States .
Homophobia has taken on a particularly international flavor of late aslesbian and gay organizations are denied entrance to United Nationsgatherings.
The latest door was closed in Zimbabwe when that country's president, therabidly homophobic Robert Mugabe, refused to let the Gay and LesbianAssociation of Zimbabwe attend a 3-day U.N.-sponsored human rights meetingbetween the national government and human rights groups. The UNrepresentative in Zimbabwe refused to comment.
In neighboring South Africa, the government banned the country's leadingHIV/AIDS organization from attending the UN's Special Session on AIDS. TheTreatment Action Campaign (TAC), which was nominated for a 2004 Nobel Prize,has been a constant thorn in the South African government's side on how ithas dealt with the country's AIDS crisis.
=
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/092906calif.htm
Schwarzenegger Signs 'Gay Panic' & LGBT Housing Bills, Vetoes School Bias Bill
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
September 29, 2006 - 3:00 am ET
(Sacramento, California) California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signedlegislation Thursday night making it more difficult for defendants to us theso-called 'gay panic' defense.
The bill grew out of the brutal slaying of transgender teen Gwen Araujo in2002. At the trial of three men accused of punching, gashing, choking,tying up and strangling the 17 year old attorney's claimed their clients hadpanicked when it was discovered by two of the men with whom Araujo had sexthat she was born biologically male. The three were convicted but it tooktwo trials.
The Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act directs the Office of EmergencyServices to create training materials for district attorneys on bestpractices to address the use of bias-motivated defense strategies incriminal trials. The bill also requires the Judicial Council to adopt ajury instruction that tells jurors not to consider bias against peoplebecause of sexual orientation, gender identity or other characteristics inrendering a verdict.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801700_pf.html
Senators Seek Domestic-Partner Benefits for Federal Workers
By Stephen Barr
Friday, September 29, 2006; D04
Sens. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) have introduced legislation that would permit unmarried federal employees to apply for health, dental and vision insurance, retirement and other benefits for their domestic partners.The senators said that many companies and state and local governments offer domestic-partner benefits and that it is time for the federal government to do the same.
"Federal workers should be able to extend their benefits to loved ones," Smith said. He added, "I believe we need to rid the workplace of discrimination, not just in hiring decisions but also in the rights and privileges afforded employees." Lieberman said offering expanded benefits coverage "will help federal agencies compete for the most qualified personnel."
Spokesmen for the senators said the bill's introduction was intended to ensure that the issue will come up for consideration next year. Congress, however, has been reluctant to take action on domestic-partner benefits in the federal sector, in part because that would reopen debate on the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which bans federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
=
Jesse's Journal
by Jesse Monteagudo
"Halloween: The Great Gay Holiday"
October is an important month in our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender calendar. October is GLBT History Month, a month devoted to dis-covering and celebrating our past. On October 11, we observe "Coming Out Day", a dayin which we "take the next step" in our ongoing, coming-out process. Butwhile both GLBT History Month and Coming Out Day are of recent origin, thismonth's most popular queer holiday predates recorded history and capturesthe essence of sex and gender variance to a much greater degree than do theactivist holidays. Just open the pages of any queer paper during the firstweeks of November and you will see what our communities were doing onOctober 31st. In the words of the lesbian poet and scholar Judy Grahn,Halloween is "the great gay holiday".
I love Halloween. All through my life, October 31 has always been a specialday, though now I don't go out as much as I used to. I certainly enjoywriting about it, though, and I try to write a Halloween article every fewyears. Once thought to be a children's holiday, Halloween (actually Hallowe'en, but I prefer to use the more common spelling) is now almost as popular withadults. According to Nicholas Rogers, author of Halloween: From PaganRitual to Party Night, "Halloween at the end of the millennium has become amajor party night for adults, arguably the most important after New Year'sEve. . . . [T]he amount of money spent on Halloween has more than doubled inthe last decade, making it the second retail bonanza after Christmas."
For the full article contact us at rays.list@comcast.net
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/15624683.htm
CA - Bill would give gay couples right to file taxes as married couples
BUT LANDMARK VICTORY WOULD COME WITH TAX HEADACHES
By Mark Schwanhausser Mercury News
Gov. Schwarzenegger has three days left to decide whether to give a landmarktax victory to gay rights activists -- the right to file as married couples -- but stick them with a tax-filing headache.
The bill, which is among a stack of bills that will become law unless vetoedby Saturday, would require California's 75,000 registered domestic partnersto file their state tax returns as if they were legally married -- even though they'd still have to submit single returns to Uncle Sam.
More....
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/15624683.htm
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=1203&article=1203
Bay Area Reporter
September 28
Lesbian activist Aleta Fenceroy dies
by Liz Highleyman
liz@black-rose.com
Aleta Fenceroy, who for eight years operated the Fenceberry LGBT newswirewith her partner Jean Mayberry, died Saturday, September 23, after a battlewith cancer. She was 57.
Ms. Fenceroy was born December 27, 1948. She raised two children as a singlemother on welfare while working part time and studying music. She attendedMorningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, then received her master of finearts degree at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
After working for the Iowa Department of Corrections for more than a decade,Ms. Fenceroy went back to school to earn an associate degree in computerprogramming in 1998. She then took a job in Omaha, Nebraska, as aprogrammer-analyst with First Data Resources.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=276849
Commentary: Clinton Jokes And Culture War Stories Highlight Values Voter Summit, Day 2
By: Mark Kernes
WASHINGTON -
Before entering the ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. for the beginning of the second day of the 2006 Values Voter Summit, Idecided to check out what was actually in the "goodies bag" I'd been givenat registration, as well as a few items I'd picked up in the course of Day 1.
Besides the convention booklet itself, one of the most useful inserts wouldundoubtedly be the "Contact Information for Senate and House CongressionalMembers" booklet, beautifully done up in red, while, blue and gold, withRepublicans in plain type, Democrats in italics, and "Members who have diedor resigned" in bold brackets. (Hi, Tom! Hi, Duke!)
Young Americas Foundation (formerly Young Americans for Freedom, the seminalRepublican college campus crusade) was giving out copies of its magazineLibertas, this issue featuring on the cover an article titled "Teachers'Pets" - and can you believe it? Of the eight people pictured, every singleone is a Democrat!
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST September 29, 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060929/OPINION/609290332/1004/opinion&template=printart
Our view: In critical condition
Small discounts on generic drugs highlight need to overhaul health care
In the fraying patchwork that passes for American health care, recent pricecuts by chain store giants on some generic drugs offer at least a smallboost to struggling consumers.
Wal-Mart last week kicked off new $4 pricing for a 30-day supply of 291generic drugs in Tampa. With the average discount at 20 percent, that meansan average $1 saved on a month's worth of pills.
Starting in January, Space Coast consumers will get the same deal at local Wal-Mart outlets.
And Target, with three stores in Brevard County, says it will meet the cuts,
at least in Tampa.
Kmart has offered 90-day supplies of some generics at all stores for $15
since May.
=
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0609290234sep29,1,1693532.column?coll=chi-news-col
Clinton uproar is priceless for Fox chief Ailes
Phil Rosenthal
Media
September 29, 2006
One week later and people are still talking about Bill Clinton ripping FoxNews.
Fox News boss Roger Ailes is delighted.
"I would have paid him 100 grand to help us with marketing, just to get ahalf-hour of his time," Ailes said by phone Thursday. "As it turned out, Igot a half-hour of his time and he did it for nothing. We're very grateful.... He's kept us in the news for six days.
"It's an amazing thing. And in light of that I would extend my hand to ask him to come on as a guest anytime. I would even consider him having a show."
Told of this, a Clinton spokesman laughed. "Can you just say that's my response?" he said.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15632597.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
POLITICS
Will the Democrats blow it, again?
BY DICK POLMAN
dpolman@phillynews.com
Your average Democrat these days is teetering between fantasy and fatalism. There's the fantasy about helping Nancy Pelosi measure the drapes in the House speaker's inner sanctum and watching President Bush eat crow on the eighth of November. But inside every Democrat is the tortured soul of a Phillies fan, forever wondering, ``How are we gonna screw it up this time?''
Actually, it's a snap to answer that question. If the Democrats somehow blow their chance to capture a chamber in the '06 congressional elections, despite the most favorable political environment in years, they can spend the winter flagellating themselves over their persistent failure to craft an alternative national-security agenda.
Who knows? Maybe they can still win without one. Maybe independent swing voters are so fed up with Bush and the Iraq war that they'll gravitate by default to the dithering opposition. But with Bush and the Republicans enjoying upticks in the latest polls, the alarm bells are clanging.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15634690.htm
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
IN MY OPINION
Blame game over Sept. 11 is misguided
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
The most important Sept. 11 news story of the week did not involve Bill Clinton.
That may surprise some folks. As everyone south of the Arctic Circle knows by now, the former president tore Fox News' Chris Wallace a new one after Wallace dared to ask during an interview why Clinton didn't do more to get Osama bin Laden. Clinton shot back that he did try -- harder than the Bush administration in the eight months before the Sept. 11 attacks -- to kill bin Laden but simply wasn't successful.
Clinton said ''right-wingers'' ridiculed him for the effort. He even went after Wallace, blasting him for the ''little smirk'' on his face and accusing him of ''a . . . conservative hit job.'' Clinton said the interview was a setup, Fox's way of getting right with conservatives riled that the network's owner, Rupert Murdoch, has pledged support to the Clinton Global Initiative.I am of multiple opinions about all the above: One. It's a nice change to see a Democrat with a spine.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/washington/29account.html?ei=5094&en=3862efd9e06a71e9&hp=&ex=1159588800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
September 29, 2006
Book Says Bush Ignored Urgent Warning on Iraq
By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - The White House ignored an urgent warning inSeptember 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additionalAmerican troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there,according to a new book by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter andauthor. The book describes a White House riven by dysfunction and divisionover the war.
The warning is described in "State of Denial," scheduled for publication onMonday by Simon & Schuster. The book says President Bush's top advisers wereoften at odds among themselves, and sometimes were barely on speaking terms,but shared a tendency to dismiss as too pessimistic assessments fromAmerican commanders and others about the situation in Iraq.
=
Both Florida Senators voted YEA (Nelson and Martinez)
The New York Times
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00259
Senate Roll Call on interrogations and trials of terrorism suspects U.S. Senate
Question: On Passage of the Bill (S. 3930 As Amended)
Measure Number: S. 3930
Measure Title: A bill to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes.
Vote Counts:YEAs65
NAYs34
Not Voting1
Alphabetical by Senator Name Akaka (D-HI), Nay
Alexander (R-TN), Yea
Allard (R-CO), Yea
Allen (R-VA), Yea
Baucus (D-MT), Nay
Bayh (D-IN), Nay
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
more.....
=
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801457_pf.html
The Washington Post
Bush's Conception Conflict
By Michael Kinsley
Friday, September 29, 2006; A21
It was, I believe, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) who first made the excellent, bitter and terribly unfair joke about conservatives who believe in a right to life that begins at conception and ends at birth.
This joke has been adapted for use against various Republican politicians ever since. In the case of President Bush, though, it appears to be literally true.
Bush, as we know, believes deeply and earnestly that human life begins at conception. Even tiny embryos composed of a half-dozen microscopic cells, he thinks, have the same right to life as you and I do. That is why he cannot bring himself to allow federal funding for research on new lines of embryonic stem cells or even for other projects in labs where stem cell research is going on. Even though these embryos are obtained from fertility clinics, where they would otherwise be destroyed anyway, and even though he appears to have no objection to the fertility clinics themselves, where these same embryos are manufactured and destroyed by the thousands -- nevertheless, the much smaller number of embryos needed and destroyed in the process of developing cures for diseases such as Parkinson's are, in effect, tiny little children whose use in this way constitutes killing a human being and therefore is intolerable.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801281.html
House Approves Warrantless Wiretap Law
By LAURIE KELLMAN
The Associated Press
Friday, September 29, 2006; 1:27 AM
WASHINGTON -- The House approved a bill Thursday that would grant legal status to President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program with new restrictions. Republicans called it a test before the election of whether Democrats want to fight or coddle terrorists.
"The Democrats' irrational opposition to strong national security policies that help keep our nation secure should be of great concern to the American people," Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement after the bill passed 232-191.
"To always have reasons why you just can't vote 'yes,' I think speaks volumes when it comes to which party is better able and more willing to take on the terrorists and defeat them," Boehner said.
Democrats shot back that the war on terrorism shouldn't be fought at the expense of civil and human rights. The bill approved by the House, they argued, gives the president too much power and leaves the law vulnerable to being overturned by a court.
"It is ceding the president's argument that Congress doesn't matter in this area," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092800824_pf.html
Senate Approves Detainee Bill Backed by Bush
Constitutional Challenges Predicted
By Charles Babington and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 29, 2006; A01
Congress approved landmark changes to the nation's system of interrogating and prosecuting terrorism suspects last night, preparing the ground for possible military trials for key al-Qaeda members under rules that critics say will draw stiff constitutional challenges.
The Senate joined the House in embracing President Bush's view that the battle against terrorism justifies the imposition of extraordinary limits on defendants' traditional rights in the courtroom. They include restrictions on a suspect's ability to challenge his detention, examine all evidence against him, and bar testimony allegedly acquired through coercion of witnesses.
The Senate's 65 to 34 vote marked a victory for Bush and fellow Republicans a month before the Nov. 7 elections as their party tries to make anti-terrorism a signature campaign issue. Underscoring that strategy, the House last night voted 232 to 191 to authorize Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, with GOP leaders hoping to add it to their list of accomplishments even though it has no chance of Senate passage before this weekend's scheduled adjournment. On the final wiretapping vote, 18 Democrats joined 214 Republicans to win passage. Thirteen Republicans, 177 Democrats and one independent voted nay.
=
Forwarded from Susan Fishkorn
Tri-County - chances@attglobal.net
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801664.html
Religious-Right Voter Guides Facing Challenge From Left
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006; A05
A new group called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good said yesterdaythat it will distribute at least 1 million voter guides before the Nov. 7elections, emphasizing church teachings on war, poverty and social justiceas well as on abortion, contraception and homosexuality.
The 12-page booklet, called "Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guidefor Conscientious Catholics," is part of a broader effort by liberal andmoderate religious groups to challenge the Christian right on moral values,said Alexia Kelley, the group's executive director and a former employee ofthe U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801456.html
Unraveling Allen
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, September 29, 2006; A21
Boy, talk about stepping in a pile of macaca.
Every political campaign frog-marches the candidate through a process of self-discovery, but this is getting ridiculous. Sen. George Allen of Virginia was supposed to coast to reelection this November, then start polishing his cowboy boots for a presidential run. Instead the political world is asking aloud whether he's remotely ready for prime time -- and the senator himself has got to be pondering questions of a more existential nature.
First came the "macaca" incident, in which he referred to a young man of Indian descent with a word that might be some kind of exotic ethnic slur (as Allen's opponents claim) or innocent nonsense (as Allen now maintains, after a few false starts), but sure didn't sound like a compliment. Scrambling to limit the damage threw Allen, whose natural walk is a college quarterback's swagger, off his stride.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801454_pf.html
Why Bill Clinton Pushed Back
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, September 29, 2006; A21
Bill Clinton's eruption on "Fox News Sunday" last weekend over questions about his administration's handling of terrorism was a long time coming and has political implications that go beyond this fall's elections.
By choosing to intervene in the terror debate in a way that no one could miss, Clinton forced an argument about the past that had up to now been largely a one-sided propaganda war waged by the right. The conservative movement understands the political value of controlling the interpretation of history. Now its control is finally being contested.
How long have Clinton's resentments been simmering? We remember the period immediately after Sept. 11 as a time when partisanship melted away. That is largely true, especially because Democrats rallied behind President Bush. For months after the attacks, Democrats did not raise questions about why they had happened on Bush's watch.
#####
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060929/OPINION/609290332/1004/opinion&template=printart
Our view: In critical condition
Small discounts on generic drugs highlight need to overhaul health care
In the fraying patchwork that passes for American health care, recent pricecuts by chain store giants on some generic drugs offer at least a smallboost to struggling consumers.
Wal-Mart last week kicked off new $4 pricing for a 30-day supply of 291generic drugs in Tampa. With the average discount at 20 percent, that meansan average $1 saved on a month's worth of pills.
Starting in January, Space Coast consumers will get the same deal at local Wal-Mart outlets.
And Target, with three stores in Brevard County, says it will meet the cuts,
at least in Tampa.
Kmart has offered 90-day supplies of some generics at all stores for $15
since May.
=
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0609290234sep29,1,1693532.column?coll=chi-news-col
Clinton uproar is priceless for Fox chief Ailes
Phil Rosenthal
Media
September 29, 2006
One week later and people are still talking about Bill Clinton ripping FoxNews.
Fox News boss Roger Ailes is delighted.
"I would have paid him 100 grand to help us with marketing, just to get ahalf-hour of his time," Ailes said by phone Thursday. "As it turned out, Igot a half-hour of his time and he did it for nothing. We're very grateful.... He's kept us in the news for six days.
"It's an amazing thing. And in light of that I would extend my hand to ask him to come on as a guest anytime. I would even consider him having a show."
Told of this, a Clinton spokesman laughed. "Can you just say that's my response?" he said.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15632597.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
POLITICS
Will the Democrats blow it, again?
BY DICK POLMAN
dpolman@phillynews.com
Your average Democrat these days is teetering between fantasy and fatalism. There's the fantasy about helping Nancy Pelosi measure the drapes in the House speaker's inner sanctum and watching President Bush eat crow on the eighth of November. But inside every Democrat is the tortured soul of a Phillies fan, forever wondering, ``How are we gonna screw it up this time?''
Actually, it's a snap to answer that question. If the Democrats somehow blow their chance to capture a chamber in the '06 congressional elections, despite the most favorable political environment in years, they can spend the winter flagellating themselves over their persistent failure to craft an alternative national-security agenda.
Who knows? Maybe they can still win without one. Maybe independent swing voters are so fed up with Bush and the Iraq war that they'll gravitate by default to the dithering opposition. But with Bush and the Republicans enjoying upticks in the latest polls, the alarm bells are clanging.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15634690.htm
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
IN MY OPINION
Blame game over Sept. 11 is misguided
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
The most important Sept. 11 news story of the week did not involve Bill Clinton.
That may surprise some folks. As everyone south of the Arctic Circle knows by now, the former president tore Fox News' Chris Wallace a new one after Wallace dared to ask during an interview why Clinton didn't do more to get Osama bin Laden. Clinton shot back that he did try -- harder than the Bush administration in the eight months before the Sept. 11 attacks -- to kill bin Laden but simply wasn't successful.
Clinton said ''right-wingers'' ridiculed him for the effort. He even went after Wallace, blasting him for the ''little smirk'' on his face and accusing him of ''a . . . conservative hit job.'' Clinton said the interview was a setup, Fox's way of getting right with conservatives riled that the network's owner, Rupert Murdoch, has pledged support to the Clinton Global Initiative.I am of multiple opinions about all the above: One. It's a nice change to see a Democrat with a spine.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/washington/29account.html?ei=5094&en=3862efd9e06a71e9&hp=&ex=1159588800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
September 29, 2006
Book Says Bush Ignored Urgent Warning on Iraq
By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - The White House ignored an urgent warning inSeptember 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additionalAmerican troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there,according to a new book by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter andauthor. The book describes a White House riven by dysfunction and divisionover the war.
The warning is described in "State of Denial," scheduled for publication onMonday by Simon & Schuster. The book says President Bush's top advisers wereoften at odds among themselves, and sometimes were barely on speaking terms,but shared a tendency to dismiss as too pessimistic assessments fromAmerican commanders and others about the situation in Iraq.
=
Both Florida Senators voted YEA (Nelson and Martinez)
The New York Times
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00259
Senate Roll Call on interrogations and trials of terrorism suspects U.S. Senate
Question: On Passage of the Bill (S. 3930 As Amended)
Measure Number: S. 3930
Measure Title: A bill to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes.
Vote Counts:YEAs65
NAYs34
Not Voting1
Alphabetical by Senator Name Akaka (D-HI), Nay
Alexander (R-TN), Yea
Allard (R-CO), Yea
Allen (R-VA), Yea
Baucus (D-MT), Nay
Bayh (D-IN), Nay
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
more.....
=
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801457_pf.html
The Washington Post
Bush's Conception Conflict
By Michael Kinsley
Friday, September 29, 2006; A21
It was, I believe, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) who first made the excellent, bitter and terribly unfair joke about conservatives who believe in a right to life that begins at conception and ends at birth.
This joke has been adapted for use against various Republican politicians ever since. In the case of President Bush, though, it appears to be literally true.
Bush, as we know, believes deeply and earnestly that human life begins at conception. Even tiny embryos composed of a half-dozen microscopic cells, he thinks, have the same right to life as you and I do. That is why he cannot bring himself to allow federal funding for research on new lines of embryonic stem cells or even for other projects in labs where stem cell research is going on. Even though these embryos are obtained from fertility clinics, where they would otherwise be destroyed anyway, and even though he appears to have no objection to the fertility clinics themselves, where these same embryos are manufactured and destroyed by the thousands -- nevertheless, the much smaller number of embryos needed and destroyed in the process of developing cures for diseases such as Parkinson's are, in effect, tiny little children whose use in this way constitutes killing a human being and therefore is intolerable.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801281.html
House Approves Warrantless Wiretap Law
By LAURIE KELLMAN
The Associated Press
Friday, September 29, 2006; 1:27 AM
WASHINGTON -- The House approved a bill Thursday that would grant legal status to President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program with new restrictions. Republicans called it a test before the election of whether Democrats want to fight or coddle terrorists.
"The Democrats' irrational opposition to strong national security policies that help keep our nation secure should be of great concern to the American people," Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement after the bill passed 232-191.
"To always have reasons why you just can't vote 'yes,' I think speaks volumes when it comes to which party is better able and more willing to take on the terrorists and defeat them," Boehner said.
Democrats shot back that the war on terrorism shouldn't be fought at the expense of civil and human rights. The bill approved by the House, they argued, gives the president too much power and leaves the law vulnerable to being overturned by a court.
"It is ceding the president's argument that Congress doesn't matter in this area," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092800824_pf.html
Senate Approves Detainee Bill Backed by Bush
Constitutional Challenges Predicted
By Charles Babington and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 29, 2006; A01
Congress approved landmark changes to the nation's system of interrogating and prosecuting terrorism suspects last night, preparing the ground for possible military trials for key al-Qaeda members under rules that critics say will draw stiff constitutional challenges.
The Senate joined the House in embracing President Bush's view that the battle against terrorism justifies the imposition of extraordinary limits on defendants' traditional rights in the courtroom. They include restrictions on a suspect's ability to challenge his detention, examine all evidence against him, and bar testimony allegedly acquired through coercion of witnesses.
The Senate's 65 to 34 vote marked a victory for Bush and fellow Republicans a month before the Nov. 7 elections as their party tries to make anti-terrorism a signature campaign issue. Underscoring that strategy, the House last night voted 232 to 191 to authorize Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, with GOP leaders hoping to add it to their list of accomplishments even though it has no chance of Senate passage before this weekend's scheduled adjournment. On the final wiretapping vote, 18 Democrats joined 214 Republicans to win passage. Thirteen Republicans, 177 Democrats and one independent voted nay.
=
Forwarded from Susan Fishkorn
Tri-County - chances@attglobal.net
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801664.html
Religious-Right Voter Guides Facing Challenge From Left
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006; A05
A new group called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good said yesterdaythat it will distribute at least 1 million voter guides before the Nov. 7elections, emphasizing church teachings on war, poverty and social justiceas well as on abortion, contraception and homosexuality.
The 12-page booklet, called "Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guidefor Conscientious Catholics," is part of a broader effort by liberal andmoderate religious groups to challenge the Christian right on moral values,said Alexia Kelley, the group's executive director and a former employee ofthe U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801456.html
Unraveling Allen
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, September 29, 2006; A21
Boy, talk about stepping in a pile of macaca.
Every political campaign frog-marches the candidate through a process of self-discovery, but this is getting ridiculous. Sen. George Allen of Virginia was supposed to coast to reelection this November, then start polishing his cowboy boots for a presidential run. Instead the political world is asking aloud whether he's remotely ready for prime time -- and the senator himself has got to be pondering questions of a more existential nature.
First came the "macaca" incident, in which he referred to a young man of Indian descent with a word that might be some kind of exotic ethnic slur (as Allen's opponents claim) or innocent nonsense (as Allen now maintains, after a few false starts), but sure didn't sound like a compliment. Scrambling to limit the damage threw Allen, whose natural walk is a college quarterback's swagger, off his stride.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801454_pf.html
Why Bill Clinton Pushed Back
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, September 29, 2006; A21
Bill Clinton's eruption on "Fox News Sunday" last weekend over questions about his administration's handling of terrorism was a long time coming and has political implications that go beyond this fall's elections.
By choosing to intervene in the terror debate in a way that no one could miss, Clinton forced an argument about the past that had up to now been largely a one-sided propaganda war waged by the right. The conservative movement understands the political value of controlling the interpretation of history. Now its control is finally being contested.
How long have Clinton's resentments been simmering? We remember the period immediately after Sept. 11 as a time when partisanship melted away. That is largely true, especially because Democrats rallied behind President Bush. For months after the attacks, Democrats did not raise questions about why they had happened on Bush's watch.
#####
FLORIDA DIGEST September 29, 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cpventure29sep29,0,884581.story
Couple revive forum for friendships
Social outlet for gay community gains popularity
By Ivette M. Yee
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 29, 2006
Online chat rooms and smoke-filled bars such as H.G. Roosters and Kashmir offer a way to socialize, but for some gay people in Palm Beach County,finding other places to make friends isn't easy.
Kevin Lerner and Rudy Flugel know this all too well, so the Delray Beachcouple resurrected Venture Out Florida, a free social group for gay,lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Broward and Palm Beach counties.With about $200 of their own money and by spreading the word through postcards and friends, they got it off the ground.
In a year, membership has climbed to more than 400. Many in the group useVenture Out's Web site, www.ventureoutflorida.com, not for a hook up, but totruly connect with others outside of the weekly planned events, whichinclude potluck dinners, beach trips and movie dates.
=
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/29/news_pf/Opinion/On_drilling__no_news_.shtml
On drilling, no news is good news
A Times Editorial
Published September 29, 2006
Need some good news out of Congress for a change? Here it is: "We can't do anything." Believe it or not, those words are good news for Floridians. Theywere spoken by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate EnergyCommittee, about the prospects for offshore drilling legislation this year.
Both the House and Senate passed bills that would expand drilling in theeastern Gulf of Mexico, but the two bills contained significant differences.While those differences reportedly narrowed some during secret negotiations,any compromise would still move drilling closer to Florida beaches. TheSenate bill offered better protection, keeping oil rigs at least 125 milesoff most of the Florida coast, and 235 miles off Pinellas beaches. The Housebill would allow drilling within 100 miles, or even 50 miles, of shore.
=
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/29/news_pf/Business/667_an_hour.shtml
$6.67 an hour
By Times Staff Writer
Published September 29, 2006
That will be Florida's new minimum hourly wage as of Jan. 1, up 27 centsfrom this year's minimum of $6.40. Florida's state labor agency unveiled theincreased 2007 wage, adjusted for inflation, on Thursday. Florida's minimumwage will be $1.52 more than the $5.15 federal minimum wage and up from $6.15 in 2005, the first year Florida set its wage above the nation's.
© Copyright, St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
=
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/nation/epaper/2006/09/29/a6a_foley_0929.html
Foley camp: Release of e-mails with teen 'political attack'
By Larry Lipman
Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
Friday, September 29, 2006
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's campaign Thursday called the disclosureof a series of e-mails between the congressman and a 16-year-old former congressional page a "political attack and ... the worst kind of character assassination."
But the campaign of Foley's challenger, Democrat Tim Mahoney, denied he was behind the release of the e-mails and said the issue should be "a matter forthe appropriate authorities to investigate."
The e-mails - which Foley spokesman Jason Kello said Foley wrote a yearago - publicly surfaced Sunday on an Internet blog site devoted to exposingsexual predators.
In the five e-mails sent from his personal account, Foley asks the page - whose identity is being withheld - when his birthday is, how old he will be,what he likes to do, and what he wants for his birthday. Foley also asks theteenager to send him a photograph.
=
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/29/news_pf/State/Bid_to_halt_execution.shtml
Bid to halt execution says death penalty is flawed
By GRAHAM BRINK, Times Staff Writer
Published September 29, 2006
Last week, the American Bar Association issued a 403-page report thatreprehended Florida's handling of the death penalty.
Today, renowned death penalty defense attorney Martin McClain hopes thereport will keep the state from executing one of his clients.
McClain filed a motion Thursday asking a judge to vacate the conviction andsentence of Arthur Rutherford, who was sent to death row for killing a womanin Santa Rosa County in 1985.
In a 56-page motion, McClain cited numerous examples from the ABA reportoutlining the problems in Florida's death penalty system.
"The report makes it clear that Florida's death penalty system is seriouslyflawed and is not fair or reliable," McClain said Thursday."This is from a comprehensive investigation performed by a panel thatincludes judges and prosecutors."
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/15634698.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
CAMPAIGN 2006
Democrats ask Nelson to spread wealth
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has a $1,000-per-person fundraiser at Dolphin Stadium today to fatten a campaign account that is Congress' third-largest.
By LESLEY CLARK AND BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, leading his Republican challenger by miles in the polls and millions in the bank, says he will do everything he can to helpfellow Democrats below his name on the Nov. 7 ballot.
But some strategists, elected officials and activists are anxious aboutwhether the party's only statewide officeholder in Florida is spreading the wealth. Nelson, who surpassed U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris by 18 points in thelatest Mason-Dixon poll, had $12 million socked away as of mid-August,compared to Harris' $2.2 million.
Meanwhile, two Democrats immersed in competitive statewide races -- AlexSink for chief financial officer and Walter ''Skip'' Campbell for attorneygeneral -- are barely keeping up with their Republican opponents. TheDemocratic contender for governor, Jim Davis, has $411,455, while RepublicanCharlie Crist boasts $2 million plus the multi-million-dollar advantage ofhis state party's coffers.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/15634378.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
RACE FOR CONGRESS
Poll puts Klein, Shaw even
A poll sponsored by state Sen. Ron Klein shows he has advanced steadily in his race against U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw.
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD
ebolstad@MiamiHerald.com
A poll released Thursday by state Sen. Ron Klein's campaign shows the Democratic challenger has pulled even with his Republican opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw.
The poll shows Klein leading Shaw 43 to 42 percent, said Klein's campaign spokesman, Brian Smoot. That's a major uptick from August, when the campaign's polling showed Shaw leading Klein 48 to 41 percent, Smoot said.The poll's margin of error is 4.4 percent.
Smoot attributes the numbers to the intensity of the television advertising campaign, which began July 23.''I think one of the biggest things I would attribute this to is that folks in this district aren't happy with the direction of the country,'' Smoot said. 'I think the continued stubborn support of the failed policy of this Bush administration and no oversight on the war in Iraq is weighing on voters' minds.''
=
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail782xsep29,0,279795.story?coll=sfla-news-letters
Orioles are selling Brooklyn Bridge
M.L. Gibson
Hallandale Beach
September 29, 2006
Let's see if I've got this right: Taxpayers will be paying to revamp abaseball stadium complex, to tear down an existing self-supporting stadiumand to build practice to replace it, just to humor the Orioles into staying.All so we can, what? Pay the Orioles to watch six weeks of their MajorLeague practice games. Now there's something people are falling all overthemselves to see. Anyone see anything wrong with this besides me?
The Orioles are selling sunshine and the London Bridge and unbelievably theFort Lauderdale and county commissions have the audacity to consider buying.They are entertaining spending a huge amount of money (we all know it justcan't be put to better use elsewhere) on something that for all intents andpurposes costs them little to maintain and are still able to use.
=
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-creplace29sep29,0,7737079.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Broward School Board race draws one teacher and two politicians
By Jean-Paul Renaud
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Education Writer
September 29, 2006
The candidates to replace Carole Andrews on the Broward School Board are astate representative, a Dania Beach commissioner who recently resigned and ahigh school teacher.
Voters in Dania Beach, Hollywood and Hallandale Beach will head to the pollson Nov. 7 to choose a successor for Andrews, who resigned this month becauseof failing health. If none of the candidates receive more than 50 percent ofthe vote, a runoff election will be held Dec. 5.
Eleanor Sobel, 60, was first elected to the Legislature in 1998. Beforethat, she was a Hollywood city commissioner for six years. Sobel hadintended to run for the state Senate in 2008, but she says those plans are on the back burner.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pfoley29sep29,0,1504251.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Teenage congressional page 'freaked out' by e-mail exchange with Rep. Foley
By Joel Hood
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 29, 2006
U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, has come under fire for the appropriateness of e-mails exchanged with a 16-year-old congressional page.
In a series of e-mails between the six-term incumbent and the page lastyear, Foley asks about the teenager's schooling, an upcoming birthday andrequests a picture.
" ... did you have fun at your conference ... what do you want for yourbirthday coming up ... what stuff do you like to do," Foley wrote in one e-mail obtained by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Another read: " ... are you safe ... send me a pic of you as well ... "
ABCNews.com reported Thursday that the 16-year-old page became uncomfortable with the dialog and forwarded the e-mails to an associate on Capitol Hill.In an excerpt reported on ABCNews.com, the page wrote: "Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out."
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pchurch29sep29,0,6357375.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Police: Two Delray priests spent stolen $8.6 million on girlfriends, gambling, property
Pair accused of leading secret lives using money taken from collectionplates
By Jerome Burdi and Mike Clary
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 29, 2006
Delray Beach -- In a bold scheme carried out over decades, two respectedpriests are accused of stealing more than $8.6 million in cash from thecollection plates at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church to bankroll lavishsecret lives that included steady girlfriends, investments in property inFlorida and Ireland and gambling junkets to casinos in Las Vegas and theBahamas.
Arrested on a grand-theft charge was retired Monsignor John A. Skehan, 79,who was pastor at St. Vincent for more than 40 years. He was picked up atPalm Beach International Airport on Wednesday night after returning fromIreland.
"He was very remorseful," Delray Beach Detective Thomas Whatley said. Skehanwas in the Palm Beach County jail Thursday in lieu of $400,000 bond.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cpventure29sep29,0,884581.story
Couple revive forum for friendships
Social outlet for gay community gains popularity
By Ivette M. Yee
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 29, 2006
Online chat rooms and smoke-filled bars such as H.G. Roosters and Kashmir offer a way to socialize, but for some gay people in Palm Beach County,finding other places to make friends isn't easy.
Kevin Lerner and Rudy Flugel know this all too well, so the Delray Beachcouple resurrected Venture Out Florida, a free social group for gay,lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Broward and Palm Beach counties.With about $200 of their own money and by spreading the word through postcards and friends, they got it off the ground.
In a year, membership has climbed to more than 400. Many in the group useVenture Out's Web site, www.ventureoutflorida.com, not for a hook up, but totruly connect with others outside of the weekly planned events, whichinclude potluck dinners, beach trips and movie dates.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/29/news_pf/Opinion/On_drilling__no_news_.shtml
On drilling, no news is good news
A Times Editorial
Published September 29, 2006
Need some good news out of Congress for a change? Here it is: "We can't do anything." Believe it or not, those words are good news for Floridians. Theywere spoken by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate EnergyCommittee, about the prospects for offshore drilling legislation this year.
Both the House and Senate passed bills that would expand drilling in theeastern Gulf of Mexico, but the two bills contained significant differences.While those differences reportedly narrowed some during secret negotiations,any compromise would still move drilling closer to Florida beaches. TheSenate bill offered better protection, keeping oil rigs at least 125 milesoff most of the Florida coast, and 235 miles off Pinellas beaches. The Housebill would allow drilling within 100 miles, or even 50 miles, of shore.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/29/news_pf/Business/667_an_hour.shtml
$6.67 an hour
By Times Staff Writer
Published September 29, 2006
That will be Florida's new minimum hourly wage as of Jan. 1, up 27 centsfrom this year's minimum of $6.40. Florida's state labor agency unveiled theincreased 2007 wage, adjusted for inflation, on Thursday. Florida's minimumwage will be $1.52 more than the $5.15 federal minimum wage and up from $6.15 in 2005, the first year Florida set its wage above the nation's.
© Copyright, St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/nation/epaper/2006/09/29/a6a_foley_0929.html
Foley camp: Release of e-mails with teen 'political attack'
By Larry Lipman
Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
Friday, September 29, 2006
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's campaign Thursday called the disclosureof a series of e-mails between the congressman and a 16-year-old former congressional page a "political attack and ... the worst kind of character assassination."
But the campaign of Foley's challenger, Democrat Tim Mahoney, denied he was behind the release of the e-mails and said the issue should be "a matter forthe appropriate authorities to investigate."
The e-mails - which Foley spokesman Jason Kello said Foley wrote a yearago - publicly surfaced Sunday on an Internet blog site devoted to exposingsexual predators.
In the five e-mails sent from his personal account, Foley asks the page - whose identity is being withheld - when his birthday is, how old he will be,what he likes to do, and what he wants for his birthday. Foley also asks theteenager to send him a photograph.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/29/news_pf/State/Bid_to_halt_execution.shtml
Bid to halt execution says death penalty is flawed
By GRAHAM BRINK, Times Staff Writer
Published September 29, 2006
Last week, the American Bar Association issued a 403-page report thatreprehended Florida's handling of the death penalty.
Today, renowned death penalty defense attorney Martin McClain hopes thereport will keep the state from executing one of his clients.
McClain filed a motion Thursday asking a judge to vacate the conviction andsentence of Arthur Rutherford, who was sent to death row for killing a womanin Santa Rosa County in 1985.
In a 56-page motion, McClain cited numerous examples from the ABA reportoutlining the problems in Florida's death penalty system.
"The report makes it clear that Florida's death penalty system is seriouslyflawed and is not fair or reliable," McClain said Thursday."This is from a comprehensive investigation performed by a panel thatincludes judges and prosecutors."
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/15634698.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
CAMPAIGN 2006
Democrats ask Nelson to spread wealth
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has a $1,000-per-person fundraiser at Dolphin Stadium today to fatten a campaign account that is Congress' third-largest.
By LESLEY CLARK AND BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, leading his Republican challenger by miles in the polls and millions in the bank, says he will do everything he can to helpfellow Democrats below his name on the Nov. 7 ballot.
But some strategists, elected officials and activists are anxious aboutwhether the party's only statewide officeholder in Florida is spreading the wealth. Nelson, who surpassed U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris by 18 points in thelatest Mason-Dixon poll, had $12 million socked away as of mid-August,compared to Harris' $2.2 million.
Meanwhile, two Democrats immersed in competitive statewide races -- AlexSink for chief financial officer and Walter ''Skip'' Campbell for attorneygeneral -- are barely keeping up with their Republican opponents. TheDemocratic contender for governor, Jim Davis, has $411,455, while RepublicanCharlie Crist boasts $2 million plus the multi-million-dollar advantage ofhis state party's coffers.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/15634378.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
RACE FOR CONGRESS
Poll puts Klein, Shaw even
A poll sponsored by state Sen. Ron Klein shows he has advanced steadily in his race against U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw.
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD
ebolstad@MiamiHerald.com
A poll released Thursday by state Sen. Ron Klein's campaign shows the Democratic challenger has pulled even with his Republican opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw.
The poll shows Klein leading Shaw 43 to 42 percent, said Klein's campaign spokesman, Brian Smoot. That's a major uptick from August, when the campaign's polling showed Shaw leading Klein 48 to 41 percent, Smoot said.The poll's margin of error is 4.4 percent.
Smoot attributes the numbers to the intensity of the television advertising campaign, which began July 23.''I think one of the biggest things I would attribute this to is that folks in this district aren't happy with the direction of the country,'' Smoot said. 'I think the continued stubborn support of the failed policy of this Bush administration and no oversight on the war in Iraq is weighing on voters' minds.''
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail782xsep29,0,279795.story?coll=sfla-news-letters
Orioles are selling Brooklyn Bridge
M.L. Gibson
Hallandale Beach
September 29, 2006
Let's see if I've got this right: Taxpayers will be paying to revamp abaseball stadium complex, to tear down an existing self-supporting stadiumand to build practice to replace it, just to humor the Orioles into staying.All so we can, what? Pay the Orioles to watch six weeks of their MajorLeague practice games. Now there's something people are falling all overthemselves to see. Anyone see anything wrong with this besides me?
The Orioles are selling sunshine and the London Bridge and unbelievably theFort Lauderdale and county commissions have the audacity to consider buying.They are entertaining spending a huge amount of money (we all know it justcan't be put to better use elsewhere) on something that for all intents andpurposes costs them little to maintain and are still able to use.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-creplace29sep29,0,7737079.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Broward School Board race draws one teacher and two politicians
By Jean-Paul Renaud
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Education Writer
September 29, 2006
The candidates to replace Carole Andrews on the Broward School Board are astate representative, a Dania Beach commissioner who recently resigned and ahigh school teacher.
Voters in Dania Beach, Hollywood and Hallandale Beach will head to the pollson Nov. 7 to choose a successor for Andrews, who resigned this month becauseof failing health. If none of the candidates receive more than 50 percent ofthe vote, a runoff election will be held Dec. 5.
Eleanor Sobel, 60, was first elected to the Legislature in 1998. Beforethat, she was a Hollywood city commissioner for six years. Sobel hadintended to run for the state Senate in 2008, but she says those plans are on the back burner.
=
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pfoley29sep29,0,1504251.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Teenage congressional page 'freaked out' by e-mail exchange with Rep. Foley
By Joel Hood
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 29, 2006
U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, has come under fire for the appropriateness of e-mails exchanged with a 16-year-old congressional page.
In a series of e-mails between the six-term incumbent and the page lastyear, Foley asks about the teenager's schooling, an upcoming birthday andrequests a picture.
" ... did you have fun at your conference ... what do you want for yourbirthday coming up ... what stuff do you like to do," Foley wrote in one e-mail obtained by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Another read: " ... are you safe ... send me a pic of you as well ... "
ABCNews.com reported Thursday that the 16-year-old page became uncomfortable with the dialog and forwarded the e-mails to an associate on Capitol Hill.In an excerpt reported on ABCNews.com, the page wrote: "Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out."
=
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pchurch29sep29,0,6357375.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Police: Two Delray priests spent stolen $8.6 million on girlfriends, gambling, property
Pair accused of leading secret lives using money taken from collectionplates
By Jerome Burdi and Mike Clary
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 29, 2006
Delray Beach -- In a bold scheme carried out over decades, two respectedpriests are accused of stealing more than $8.6 million in cash from thecollection plates at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church to bankroll lavishsecret lives that included steady girlfriends, investments in property inFlorida and Ireland and gambling junkets to casinos in Las Vegas and theBahamas.
Arrested on a grand-theft charge was retired Monsignor John A. Skehan, 79,who was pastor at St. Vincent for more than 40 years. He was picked up atPalm Beach International Airport on Wednesday night after returning fromIreland.
"He was very remorseful," Delray Beach Detective Thomas Whatley said. Skehanwas in the Palm Beach County jail Thursday in lieu of $400,000 bond.
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