**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US ATrays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Tell Your Senators, America Deserves a Raise!
https://img.getactivehub.com/08/custom_images/outandorganizing/paw_logo.jpg
Working Families Deserve a Raise
Minimum Wage Increase
Dear Kenneth Sherrill,
As you may know, yesterday the House of Representatives passed a bill toraise the minimum wage to $7.25, the first increase in ten years. The Senateis expected to vote on its own minimum wage legislation very soon, and it isimperative that we demand the passing of a clean minimum wage increase.Contact your members of Congress today and tell them to increase the minimumwage to $7.25 an hour with no anti-worker amendments by sending the emailbelow.
As the Senate prepares to debate raising the federal minimum wage, Pride AtWork wants to hear the real stories of people who would benefit (or wouldhave benefited) from a higher minimum wage. Far too many assumptions aboutclass surround the queer community, and it's important that our allies inCongress realize the reality of working class LGBT families. So, afteryou've sent a message to your Senator, take a moment to share yourexperiences with us; we'll pass them on to our members and the greater LGBTcommunity.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011101573_pf.html
Thinking War-War Again
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, January 12, 2007; A19
Listening to George W. Bush announce his fantasy-based escalation of the warin Iraq, which could only make sense in some parallel universe where pigsfly and fish commute on bicycles, I flashed on something Bush's hero WinstonChurchill once said: "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won'tchange the subject." By that standard, President Bush is no fanatic.
True, he scores off the charts on the part about inflexibility of mind. Butthe Decider changes the subject all the time. First, the way to fight the"war on terror" was to invade Afghanistan, where the Taliban regime wassheltering Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Before finishing that job, Bushdecided to invade Iraq, which had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or the Sept.11, 2001, attacks. And now, with Iraq mired in bloody chaos, he seems to bechanging the subject yet again -- to Iran.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011101575_pf.html
An Opening for the Democrats
By David Ignatius
Friday, January 12, 2007; A19
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the architect of the Democratic victory in November'scongressional elections, watched President Bush's Iraq speech Wednesdaynight like the coach of an opposing debate team: "Tired," he said. "Toowooden." "Doesn't fill the screen."
The military consequences of Bush's new policy in Baghdad aren't knowable.But politically in Washington, it appeared to be dead on arrival. Emanuel'sreaction was typical of leading Democrats, but many Republicans in Congressand on TV talk shows were lukewarm in their praise and a few were outrightcritical. Looking at Bush's grim demeanor, you sensed a presidency ineclipse: He has lost the House and Senate; he has lost the public on thewar; and he has attached his presidency to a riderless horse.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16441485.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Jan. 12, 2007
NATIONAL SECURITY
Military takes over intelligence
BY MELVIN A. GOODMAN
www.ciponline.org
The expected confirmation of retired Navy Adm. Mike McConnell as director ofnational intelligence will complete the Pentagon's takeover of theintelligence community and end any pretense of civilian influence, let alonecontrol, of the community. Flag officers are now in control of the CentralIntelligence Agency and the National Counterterrorism Center as well as thekey position of undersecretary of defense for intelligence.
The militarization of intelligence is a reversal of the kind of communitythat President Harry Truman began to create 60 years ago and will complicateefforts to rebuild the nation's strategic intelligence capabilities.
Over the past decade, the Department of Defense has gradually become thechief operating officer of the $45 billion intelligence industry. ThePentagon controls more than 80 percent of the intelligence budget as well asmore than 85 percent of all intelligence personnel. Most collectionrequirements flow from the Pentagon, and the deference within the policycommunity and the congressional intelligence communities for the''warfighter'' has meant that tactical military considerations haveoverwhelmed collection for strategic geopolitical considerations.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16441386.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Jan. 12, 2007
IN MY OPINION
It's no wonder our trust has disappeared
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
So finally we have a glimpse of President Bush's new plan for Iraq. And whocan be surprised that the new plan is basically to do what he did under theold plan, except more.
Twenty thousand more, to be exact. That's the amount by which Bush wants tobump American troop strength. The reinforcements, he explained in histelevised speech Wednesday night, largely would be used to secure Baghdad.Baghdad is, of course, one of the less secure cities on Earth, center of aninsurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and Americans.
The decision to increase troop strength is remarkable coming, as it does,from a president who consistently has defended existing troop levels asadequate to get the job done. But then, he's also a president whoconsistently has said he could not think of any mistakes he made inprosecuting the so-called War on Terror. Yet, there he was, belatedlyadmitting that he has pursued a flawed strategy based on false assumptions.''Where mistakes have been made,'' he said, ''the responsibility rests withme.'' Contrary to a prediction his critics often have made, this admissionof error and acceptance of responsibility did not cause Bush's lips to falloff.
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/opinion/12krugman.html
January 12, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Golden State Gamble
By PAUL KRUGMAN
A few days ago. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled an ambitious plan tobring universal health insurance to California. And I'm of two minds aboutit.
On one side, it's very encouraging to see another Republican governorendorse the principle that all Americans are entitled to essential healthcare. Not long ago we were wondering whether the Bush administration wouldsucceed in dismantling Social Security. Now we're discussing proposals foruniversal health care. What a difference two years makes!
And if California - America's biggest state, with a higher-than-averagepercentage of uninsured residents - can achieve universal coverage, so canthe nation as a whole.
On the other side, Mr. Schwarzenegger's plan has serious flaws. Maybe thoseflaws could be fixed once the principle of universal coverage wasestablished - but there's also the chance that we would end up stuck withthose flaws, the way we ended up stuck with a dysfunctional system ofinsurance tied to employment.
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/opinion/12friedman.html?pagewanted=print
January 12, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Make Them Fight All of Us
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
I've heard the president's surge speech, and I have a reaction, anobservation and some advice.
My reaction to the president's speech was to recall a line from Bill Maher'sbook about the war against terrorists: "Make them fight all of us."
Mr. President, you want a surge? I'll surge. I'll surge on the conditionthat you once and for all enlist the entire American people in this wareffort, and stop putting it all on the shoulders of 130,000 militaryfamilies, and now 20,000 more. I'll surge on the condition that you makethem fight all of us - and that means a real energy policy, with a realgasoline tax, that ends our addiction to oil, shrinks the flow ofpetro-dollars to bad actors and makes America the world's leader inconservation.
But please, Mr. President, stop insulting our intelligence by telling usthat this is the "decisive ideological struggle of our time," but we'regoing to put the whole burden of victory on 150,000 U.S. soldiers. Yes,you'reright, confronting violent Islamic radicalism by trying to tilt Iraq and theArab-Muslim world onto a more progressive track is indeed hugely important.But the way you have fought this war - with our pinky - is contemptible.
=
The New York Times
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/carter-and-his-critics-the-skirmishes-continue/
January 12, 2007, 7:11 am
Carter and His Critics: The Skirmishes Continue
By Tom Zeller Jr.
Tags: books, culture, foreign affairs, israel, palestine
As Brenda Goodman reports this morning, 14 members of the Carter CenterBoard of Councilors, a "leadership advisory group that serves to promoteunderstanding of and support for The Carter Center," the human rightsorganization founded by former President Jimmy Carter, resigned their poststhis week in protest over views expressed by Mr. Carter in his book,"Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."
The resignations came in the form of a letter - you can download and read acopy of it here - that largely echoed the complaints of a Carter Centerfellow, Kenneth W. Stein, who quit his post last month citing what he saidwere errors of fact in the book.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/us/12calif.html?ei=5094&en=9dc9393dd218aa7c&hp=&ex=1168664400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 12, 2007
As States Innovate, Schwarzenegger Blurs Lines
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 11 - So, who is Arnold Schwarzenegger anyway?
Is he an extreme environmentalist, proposing California be the first stateto limit carbon dioxide emissions from cars? Or a foe of wildlife, with hisdesire for above-ground water storage, announced hours after his move tolimit emissions?
Does his heart bleed for the disadvantaged, as suggested by his call foruniversal health care? Or does he turn a hard eye toward entitlements, ashis plan to cut welfare benefits for children seems to indicate?
In many ways, Mr. Schwarzenegger is sui generis, acelebrity-turned-politician hurled toward the center by California'sDemocratic majority. And since he can never run for president, hisgovernorship is most likely the outlet for his more audacious ideas.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/world/europe/12britain.html?pagewanted=print
January 12, 2007
Britain Signals Plans to Reduce, Not Increase, Troop Levels in Iraq
By ALAN COWELL
LONDON, Jan. 11 - Britain, which had been America's closest and most pliantally in Iraq, said Thursday that it would not follow the United States inraising troop levels there and signaled that it would proceed with plans tohand over security responsibilities to Iraqi forces in the south.
Britain has about 7,000 troops in Iraq, most in the southern city of Basra,and says the situation there is far less dire than in Baghdad.
Officials here dismissed as speculation, though, a report in The DailyTelegraph on Thursday that those numbers would be cut by 3,000 before theend of May.
British officials offered a cautious welcome for President Bush'sannouncement but made clear that it would not distract them from trying toreduce British forces. In recent months, senior British commanders havevoiced increasing concern that, with thousands of troops also fighting on asecond front in Afghanistan, the British Army is overstretched.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011101571_pf.html
Stem Cell Miracle?
An Advance This Side Of Bush's Moral Line
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, January 12, 2007; A19
When President Bush announced in August 2001 his restrictive fundingdecision for federal embryonic stem cell research, he was widely attackedfor an unwarranted intrusion of religion into scientific research. Hissolicitousness for a 200-cell organism -- the early embryo that Bushdeclared should not be destroyed to produce a harvest of stem cells -- wasroundly denounced as reactionary and anti-scientific. And cruel to boot. Itwas preventing a cure for thousands of people with hopeless and terriblediseases, from diabetes to spinal cord injury. As John Edwards put it moststarkly and egregiously in 2004: If John Kerry becomes president,Christopher Reeve will walk again.
This kind of stem cell advocacy did not just shamefully inflate its promise.It tended to misrepresent the basis for putting restrictions on embryonicresearch, insisting that it was nothing more than political enforcement ofthe religious fundamentalist belief that life begins at conception.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/opinion/12fri1.html?pagewanted=print
January 12, 2007
Editorial
Negotiating Lower Drug Prices
From all the ruckus raised by the administration and its patrons in thepharmaceutical industry, you would think that Congressional Democrats wereout to destroy the free market system when they call for the government tonegotiate the prices of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries. Yet abill scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives today issufficiently flexible to allow older Americans to benefit from the bestefforts of both the government and the private drug plans.
The secretary of health and human services should be able to exert hisbargaining power with drug companies in those cases in which the privateplans have failed to rein in unduly high prices - leaving the rest to thedrug plans. The result could be lower costs for consumers and savings forthe taxpayers who support Medicare.
=
boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/01/12/insulated_from_risk?mode=PF
ELLEN GOODMAN
Insulated from risk
By Ellen Goodman | January 12, 2007
IT'S SAFE to say that Bob Nardelli was never confused with Bob the Builder,the cartoon character who teaches teamwork to the kids: "Can we fix it? Yes,we can!"
Home Depot has a similar slogan -- "You can do it. We can help" -- but theformer CEO was more of a do-it-for-himself kind of guy.
By the time Bob the Un-Builder hung up his orange apron, the Home Depotstock had gone down 6 percent in six years. Nevertheless, he left with $210million in his pocket, thereby becoming another in the burgeoning line ofCEOs Gone Wild.
The money Bob got just for going was over and above his annual compensation,a number that hit $38.1 million in 2005, roughly $100,000 a day.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/world/middleeast/12iraq.html?pagewanted=print
January 12, 2007
In Baghdad, Bush Policy Is Met With Resentment
By JOHN F. BURNS and SABRINA TAVERNISE
BAGHDAD, Jan. 11 - Iraq's Shiite-led government offered only a grudgingendorsement on Thursday of President Bush's proposal to deploy more than20,000 additional troops in an effort to curb sectarian violence and regaincontrol of Baghdad. The tepid response immediately raised questions aboutwhether the government would make a good-faith effort to prosecute the newwar plan.
The Iraqi leader, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, failed to appear at anews conference and avoided any public comment. He left the government'sresponse to an official spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, who gave what amounted toa backhanded approval of the troop increase and emphasized that Iraqis, notAmericans, would set the future course in the war.
Mr. Dabbagh said that the government's objective was to secure the eventualwithdrawal of American troops, and that for that to be possible there had tobe security for Iraqis. "If this can be achieved by increasing either Iraqior multinational forces," he added, "the government, for sure, will notstand against it."
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011101572_pf.html
Five Flaws in the President's Plan
By Zbigniew Brzezinski
Friday, January 12, 2007; A19
The president's speech gives rise to five broad observations:
· It provided a more realistic analysis of the situation in Iraq than anyprevious presidential statement. It acknowledged failure, though it dodgedaccountability for that failure by the standard device of assuming personalresponsibility. Its language was less Islamophobic than has been customarywith President Bush's rhetoric since Sept. 11, though the president stillcould not resist the temptation to engage in a demagogic oversimplificationof the challenge the United States faces in Iraq, calling it a struggle tosafeguard "a young democracy" against extremists and an effort to protectAmerican society from terrorists. Both propositions are more than dubious.
· The commitment of 21,500 more troops is a political gimmick of limitedtactical significance and of no strategic benefit. It is insufficient to winthe war militarily. It will engage U.S. forces in bloody street fightingthat will not resolve with finality the ongoing turmoil and the sectarianand ethnic strife, not to mention the anti-American insurgency.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/opinion/12fri4.html
January 12, 2007
Editorial Observer
Where Covering a Wedding Can Bring Death Threats
By TINA ROSENBERG
The north of Mexico is under siege. Gang wars for control of the drug marketand cocaine routes to the United States took at least 2,000 lives in Mexicolast year, most of them in border states. Serious journalism is also avictim.
Working as a reporter has become a very dangerous job in Mexico. Accordingto the Committee to Protect Journalists, seven Mexican reporters were killedlast year, their work the confirmed or suspected reason. This count movesMexico past Colombia - a country where journalists vanish with terrifyingregularity.
Mexico's count is still much lower than Iraq's record of 39 murders in 2006.But it is high enough to accomplish what the traffickers want. Widespreadintimidation has brought coverage of drug trafficking virtually to a halt.
=
boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/01/12/warming_up_to_climate_change?mode=PF
GLOBE EDITORIAL
Warming up to climate change
January 12, 2007
ONE PROBLEM in galvanizing public opinion to do something about globalwarming is that some of its effects can seem downright pleasant. With helprecently from the tropical weather pattern El Niño, the warmest year onrecord for the United States has just segued into what has been, for NewEngland at least, an abnormally warm and snow-free January.
The most obvious result is lower heating and utility bills, fewerfender-benders, and fewer trips to the emergency room for cracked ribs aftericy sidewalk spills. Public works trucks are not spreading the salt thatdamages roadside trees and degrades our aquifers. And Al Gore wants us todrive mini-cars and dial down our air conditioners in August to put an endto all this?
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment