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The Constitional mechanism to thwart the abuse of power by the president isimpeachment.
President Bush has abused his power, and has broken the law. Impeachment nowis not only
warranted, it may also save America from a lot of pain in the not toodistant future. Please read on.
Gonzales Questions Habeas Corpus
By Robert Parry
Consortium News
Friday 19 January 2007
In one of the most chilling public statements ever made by a U.S.Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales questioned whether the U.S. Constitutiongrants habeas corpus rights of a fair trial to every American.
Responding to questions from Sen. Arlen Specter at a Senate JudiciaryCommittee hearing on Jan. 18, Gonzales argued that the Constitution doesn'texplicitly bestow habeas corpus rights; it merely says when the so-calledGreat Writ can be suspended.
"There is no expressed grant of habeas in the Constitution; there's aprohibition against taking it away," Gonzales said.
Gonzales's remark left Specter, the committee's ranking Republican,stammering.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/us/politics/20cnd-clinton.html?ei=5094&en=cd10e97a2c66212e&hp=&ex=1169355600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 20, 2007
Clinton Says 'I'm In to Win' 2008 Race
By PATRICK HEALY
Six years after making history by winning a United States Senate seat asfirst lady, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced this morning that shewas taking the first formal step to seek the Democratic presidentialnomination in 2008, a journey that would break yet more political barriersin her extraordinary and controversial career.
"I'm in," she says in a statement on her new campaign Web site. "And I'm into win."
Mrs. Clinton, 59, called for "bold but practical changes" in foreign,domestic, and national security policy and said that she would focus onfinding "a right end" to the Iraq war, expanding health insurance, pursuinggreater energy independence and strengthening Social Security and Medicare.
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boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/01/20/warming_up_to_arnold?mode=PF
DERRICK Z. JACKSON
Warming up to Arnold
By Derrick Z. Jackson | January 20, 2007
PITY the Termigovernator. He once solved cinematic problems with bullets andbombs. He terrified Gotham City and Batman as Mr. Freeze.
He was iced by Mother Nature.
The former symbol of vigilante justice is begging the federal government fordisaster relief. A billion dollars of California's citrus, avocado,strawberry, and cut-flower crops were done in by California's cold snap. Thedamage is so deep that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says it "is not justabout the crop this year. It could also have a devastating effect nextyear."
As much distaste as I had for Schwarzenegger's violent movies, I feel forthe guy. First of all, any avocado disaster is page one news for me as I'moften the go-to guy for Super Bowl guacamole, with my home-grown jalapenosand cilantro (in this era of global warming, I had cilantro stubs stillalive in December ).
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/world/20climate.html?pagewanted=print
January 20, 2007
New Warnings on Climate Change
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
The main international scientific body assessing causes of climate change isclosing in on its strongest statement yet linking emissions from burningfossil fuels to rising global temperatures, according to scientists involvedin the process.
In fresh drafts of a summary of its next report, the group, theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has said that it is more than 90percent likely that global warming since 1950 has been driven mainly by thebuildup of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases, and thatmore warming and rising sea levels are on the way.
Some scientists involved in drafting the report confirmed and clarifieddetails but asked not to be identified because it was not finished.
In its last report, published in 2001, the panel concluded that there was a66 to 90 percent chance that human activities were driving the most recentwarming.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/us/20penn.html?pagewanted=print
January 20, 2007
Pennsylvania Governor Pushes Health Plan
By SEAN D. HAMILL
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 19 - Gov. Edward G. Rendell arrived here Friday to rallysupport for his plan not only to extend health insurance coverage to thestate's 760,000 uninsured adults, but also to cut billions of dollars inheath care costs and ban smoking in restaurants, bars and workplaces.
Mr. Rendell said the plan would require 47 changes to state law andregulations. It follows efforts in several other states to offer someversion of universal health coverage.
Though Pennsylvania has one of the lowest uninsured rates in the nation -about 7 percent, compared with 20 percent in California - Mr. Rendell saidthe proposal was crucial because "the system is near collapse."
At a meeting with business and civic leaders at the private Duquesne Clubdowntown, Mr. Rendell pointed to a chart indicating that health care costsgrew 75 percent in the state over the past seven years, while wages rose 13percent and inflation increased 17 percent.
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boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2007/01/20/outside_oprahs_school_a_growing_frustration?mode=PF
Outside Oprah's school, a growing frustration
Critics in Africa urge wider impact
By John Donnelly, Globe Staff | January 20, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Oprah Winfrey's unveiling of a luxurious $40 million boardingschool for 152 girls in South Africa earlier this month, coming in the midstof burgeoning interest in Africa's orphans from churches, philanthropists,and celebrities, has sparked frustration among African charities over thefailure of some donors to spread their money more widely to achieve agreater impact.
Some leaders of grass-roots organizations said that they are helpingthousands of orphans with budgets of only tens or hundreds of thousands ofdollars and that Winfrey's school was a prominent example of a project thatfulfills an outsider's vision and not a community's.
Winfrey, the TV show host who is rapidly expanding her reach intophilanthropy, is one of numerous powerful figures ranging from Madonna toAmerican evangelical leaders to billionaires such as Bill Gates and WarrenE. Buffett who have zeroed in on Africa's growing problem of impoverishedchildren. The continent has an estimated 53 million orphans, including 12million who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Just 15 years ago, onlyabout 300,000 children had lost a parent to AIDS.
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boston.com
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2007/01/20/sticker_shock_for_state_care_plan?mode=PF
Sticker shock for state care plan
Average premium of $380 outlined
By Alice Dembner, Globe Staff | January 20, 2007
A state panel yesterday outlined for the first time the minimum requirementsfor coverage under the state's new health insurance law, a package estimatedto cost $380 a month on average for an individual, more than $100 aboverecent estimates.
Panel members struggled yesterday to balance affordability with protectionfrom catastrophic medical bills and remained divided on many issues.
"If we're going to mandate this, people need to see that they're gettingsome value," said panel member Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor atthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But, he added, the premium is"bad news."
"I'm trying to think of something to get this number down," he said.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901619_pf.html
Missing in Antiwar Action
By John McMillian
Saturday, January 20, 2007; 12:00 AM
Recently I finished teaching a freshman seminar at Harvard called "FromReform to Revolution: Youth Culture in the 1960s." When I built thesyllabus, I asked students to ponder a single, overarching question: "Howdid the youth rebellion of the 1960s happen?" That is, what caused millionsof young people to pierce the bland and platitudinous din that characterizedthe early Cold War years? Why did so many youths -- many of them affluentand college-educated -- suddenly decide that American society needed to beradically overhauled?
But as the semester progressed, my students frequently turned the questionaround: Why is there no rising protest movement among young people today? Atthe very least, they asked, shouldn't we be seeing more antiwar activity?According to a CNN poll this month, 67 percent of Americans oppose the warin Iraq, and more than half would like to see all U.S. troops home by year'send. Given that it was not until August 1968 that a majority of Americansbegan calling the Vietnam War a "mistake," this is a remarkable statistic.By 1968, of course, antiwar teach-ins, sit-ins and marches were commonplaceon many campuses; demonstrators had violently clashed with soldiers on thesteps of the Pentagon; and the Democratic National Convention had descendedinto chaos over the war.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901503_pf.html
Stem Cell Policy Hampering Research, NIH Official Says
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 20, 2007; A04
The National Institutes of Health official overseeing the implementation ofPresident Bush's embryonic stem cell policy yesterday suggested that thecontroversial program is delaying cures, an unusually blunt assessment foran executive branch official.
In prepared Senate testimony, Story Landis, director of the NIH's NationalInstitute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and interim chair of theagency's stem cell task force, closely mirrored previous testimony fromother NIH officials, who have for years been careful not to criticize theBush policy directly, even though that policy has infuriated many scientistsbecause of the limits it places on embryo cell work.
But under questioning, Landis spoke more plainly. When Sen. Edward M.Kennedy (D-Mass.) asked her how the policy was affecting medical research,she said, "We are missing out on possible breakthroughs." The ability towork on newly derived stem cell colonies -- precluded from federal fundingunder the Bush plan -- "would be incredibly important," she added.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901541_pf.html
Jimmy Carter's Jewish Problem
By Deborah Lipstadt
Saturday, January 20, 2007; A23
It is hard to criticize an icon. Jimmy Carter's humanitarian work has savedcountless lives. Yet his life has also been shaped by the Bible, where theHebrew prophets taught us to speak truth to power. So I write.
Carter's book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," while exceptionallysensitive to Palestinian suffering, ignores a legacy of mistreatment,expulsion and murder committed against Jews. It trivializes the murder ofIsraelis. Now, facing a storm of criticism, he has relied on anti-Semiticstereotypes in defense.
One cannot ignore the Holocaust's impact on Jewish identity and the historyof the Middle East conflict. When an Ahmadinejad or Hamas threatens todestroy Israel, Jews have historical precedent to believe them. Jimmy Cartereither does not understand this or considers it irrelevant.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901386_pf.html
Some Dissenters Quit the Church But Don't Stop Being Catholic
By Jeff Diamant
Religion News Service
Saturday, January 20, 2007; B09
She grew up Roman Catholic, but like millions of others, Rebecca Ortellicame to disagree with church teachings on contraception, communion andpriestly celibacy, among other things.
Many Catholics drift away from the church or join other denominations. ButOrtelli, 57, wanted to maintain both her Catholic identity and herworldview. And she didn't want to feel one was inconsistent with the other.
So 20 years ago, she did what a small number of defiant Catholics are doing.She joined a church with many lifelong Catholics of similar views, a churchthat borrows heavily from Catholic rituals even though it's not part of aCatholic diocese.
"I don't think I should have to give up my Catholicism. That's part of who Iam. It makes me who I choose to be," said Ortelli, whose church, in Nutley,N.J., is called the Inclusive Community. "I like some of the rituals that wehave. They're important."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/business/20money.html?ei=5094&en=672cc6275aea3892&hp=&ex=1169355600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 20, 2007
Your Money
Don't Call. Don't Write. Let Me Be.
By DAMON DARLIN
The fears of the direct marketing industry came true. Once a do-not-calllist was created, people did register, in droves.
The list was created in 2003, not as a way to protect privacy, but to removea powerful irritant from the lives of Americans. The Federal TradeCommission, which administers the list, says that more than 137 millionphone numbers have been placed on the list by people tired of interruptionsduring dinner or their favorite TV show.
The popularity of the do-not-call list unleashed a demand for other opt-outlists. A consumer can now opt out of the standard practice of their banks orloan companies selling their information to others. Other opt-outs stopcredit card companies from soliciting consumers or end the flow of junk mailand catalogs.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901850_pf.html
Temporary 'Enjoyment Marriages' In Vogue Again With Some Iraqis
By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 20, 2007; A01
BAGHDAD -- Fatima Ali was a 24-year-old divorcee with no high school diplomaand no job. Shawket al-Rubae was a 34-year-old Shiite sheik with a pregnantwife who, he said, could not have sex with him.
Ali wanted someone to take care of her. Rubae wanted a companion.
They met one afternoon in May at the house he shares with his wife, in theroom where he accepts visitors seeking his religious counsel. He had aproposal. Would Ali be his temporary wife? He would pay her 5,000 Iraqidinars upfront -- about $4 -- in addition to her monthly expenses. Abouttwice a week over the next eight months, he would summon her to a house hewould rent.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/opinion/20hufbauer.html?pagewanted=print
January 20, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Archives of Spin
By BENJAMIN HUFBAUER
Louisville, Ky.
SINCE Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the first federal presidentiallibrary - actually an archive and history museum - in 1941, each presidenthas had a hand in developing his own memorial. The National Archives andRecords Administration now oversees 11 presidential libraries that drawabout two million tourists and thousands of scholars each year.
The uproar over President Bush's plans to store his papers at SouthernMethodist University has drawn new attention to the role of our system ofpresidential libraries. It is a system facing at least six challenges thatneed to be addressed by Congress, current and former presidents, hostuniversities and the American public.
First, according to the Office of Presidential Libraries, it will take up to100 years for the papers and records at the recent presidential libraries tobe processed, primarily because of an explosion in the number of recordscreated by the executive branch. The Roosevelt Library has 17 million pagesof documents, while the Clinton Library has more than 76 million, but thenumber of archivists has not kept pace.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/opinion/20sat2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
January 20, 2007
Editorial
Reform, Finally, in the Senate
The Senate has finally passed credible reforms of its shabby ethics code,reining in lawmakers' more egregious quid pro quo dealings with theirfund-raising cohorts in the lobbying industry. The Republican minority hadsecond thoughts about how its transparently obstructionist tactics wouldlook to constituents. And an overwhelming majority then approved the firstserious anticorruption strictures since the Watergate era, banning gifts,entertainment, travel and other inducements that lobbyists and theiremployers use in greasing privileged access to lawmakers and their staffs.
The Senate action is particularly praiseworthy for zeroing in on themoney-sweet heart of the matter: lobbyists will have to disclose the waythey "bundle" multiple corporate donations as campaign sweeteners forgrateful lawmakers. Also, senators must henceforth pay full charter ratesfor the lobbyist-catered corporate jets they have been flying for tokenfees. And they will have to own up to the purpose and cost of theirlast-minute "earmarks" - lucrative contracts for favored pleaders that arestealthily approved without debate.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901571_pf.html
He Escaped Sudan, But Not the Tug of A Heavy Heart
By Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 20, 2007; C01
What debt does a man owe his past? Do survivors have an obligation to thedead?
As a boy, John Bul Dau ate mud, drank urine and swam rivers to outrun themen with the guns. He survived a 1,000-mile trek from his village insouthern Sudan to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. He dug shallow gravesto bury children who collapsed. The next day, a hand or foot would bestretching out of the earth, gnawed by hyenas.
As a man, John Dau is a 34-year-old security guard and college student inSyracuse, N.Y. He's recently married, a brand-new father and a citizen of astrange country called the United States.
But Dau, the subject of the National Geographic documentary "God Grew Tiredof Us," which opened in Washington yesterday, is using his life here to tryto improve the lot of people back home. Life in its fullest sense, he says,is something in which connections remain, over the years, over the oceans.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/washington/20ney.html?pagewanted=print
January 20, 2007
Ney Is Sentenced to 2½ Years in Abramoff Case
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - Former Representative Bob Ney, the only member ofCongress to admit guilt in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, was sentencedFriday to two and a half years in prison, longer than had been requested bythe Justice Department.
Judge Ellen S. Huvelle of the Federal District Court in Washington said shehad decided on her somewhat tougher sentence for Mr. Ney, an OhioRepublican, because his crimes involved a "significant and serious abuse ofthe public trust" over several years. The 30-month term she imposed wasthree months longer than prosecutors had asked.
"You have a long way to go to make amends," Judge Huvelle told the formerlawmaker, citing tens of thousands of dollars' worth of luxury overseastravel and other gifts he accepted from Mr. Abramoff and the corruptRepublican lobbyist's partners in return for official favors.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901542_pf.html
In Virginia, More to 'Get Over' Than Slavery
By Colbert I. King
Saturday, January 20, 2007; A23
On last Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Frank D. Hargrove, aRepublican lawmaker in Virginia's House of Delegates, said that instead ofseeking a formal apology from the commonwealth for slavery, "black citizensshould get over it." Hargrove also reportedly wondered how far suchapologies should go. "Are we going to force the Jews to apologize forkilling Christ?"
Frank Hargrove is one reason that young African Americans should never taketheir hard-won rights for granted. His outlook is also a wake-up call tosome of my Jewish friends who think they have it made.
He has nothing I want, including an apology. But I'm not getting overslavery.
There's nothing quite like going to a county office building down inCulpeper County, Va., and finding evidence of your family's enslavement. Idid that several years ago.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901504_pf.html
Labor Groups, Business Seek Immigration Law Overhaul
By Krissah Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 20, 2007; D01
Worried that surprise raids are driving away workers who are theirlifeblood, businesses are pooling their money and joining unusually broadalliances that include labor unions and civil rights groups to push Congressto overhaul the nation's immigration laws.
The coalition Alliance for Immigration Reform 2007 announced its formationthis week, placing the force of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ServiceEmployees International Union and the nation's largest Hispanic civil rightsgroup behind a unified lobbying effort to get a law passed before thepolitics of the 2008 presidential campaign make a compromise on thecontentious issue unworkable.
Pressure has been building on employers and labor as the Immigration andCustoms Enforcement agency becomes more active. Last month, its agentsraided Swift & Co., a participant in a government pilot program that runsSocial Security numbers through a federal database. The raids sent hundredsof undocumented immigrants to detention centers and jolted business groups.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/opinion/20schiff.html?pagewanted=print
January 20, 2007
Guest Columnist
Sex and the Single-Minded
By STACY SCHIFF
How to get a job in Washington, that balmy, bipartisan town: Direct anorganization that opposes contraception on the grounds that it is “demeaningto women.” Compare premarital sex to heroin addiction. Advertise a linkbetween breast cancer and abortion — a link that was refuted in 1997. Rantagainst sex ed. And hatch a loony theory about hormones.
You’re a shoo-in, and if your name is Eric Keroack you’re in your secondmonth as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs at the Departmentof Health and Human Services. Dr. Keroack, a 46-year-old Massachusettsob-gyn, today oversees the $280 million Title X program, the only federalprogram “designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies andinformation to all who want and need them, with priority given to low-incomepersons.”
It’s not a job that plays to Dr. Keroack’s talents, which happen to beprodigious. In the PowerPoint presentation that has cemented his reputation,he makes the case that premarital sex suppresses the hormone oxytocin,thereby impairing one’s ability to forge a successful long-termrelationship. If forced to mince words you might call this fanciful orspeculative. Otherwise you’d call it wacko. “Really, really scary” and“utterly hilarious” were the first two reactions I heard from scientists.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/217417,CST-NWS-detain19.articleprint
Dems to fight terror trial rules allowing hearsay
January 19, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon set rules Thursday for detainee trials that couldallow terror suspects to be convicted and perhaps executed using hearsaytestimony and coerced statements, setting up a new clash between PresidentBush and Congress.
The rules are fair, said the Pentagon, which released them in a manual forthe expected trials.
Democrats controlling Congress said they would hold hearings and revivelegislation on the plan.
According to the 238-page manual, a detainee's lawyer could not revealclassified evidence in the person's defense until the government had achance to review it.
The new regulations lack some protections used in civilian and militarycourtrooms, such as against coerced or hearsay evidence.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/18/AR2007011801880_pf.html
Prosecutor Firings Not Political, Gonzales Says
Attorney General Acknowledges, Defends Actions
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 19, 2007; A02
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales acknowledged yesterday that some U.S.attorneys have been asked to resign their posts in recent weeks because ofperformance issues, but he denied any political motives and vowed to quicklysubmit new nominees for the jobs to the Senate for confirmation.
"What we're trying to do is ensure that for the people in each of theserespective districts, we have the very best possible representative for theDepartment of Justice," Gonzales testified, adding later: "I would never,ever make a change in a United States attorney for political reasons or ifit would in any way jeopardize an ongoing serious investigation. I justwould not do it."
Gonzales's remarks in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee came inresponse to questions from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and otherlawmakers about the forced removals of at least six U.S. attorneys,including several who have overseen some of the government's highest-profilecorruption prosecutions.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.alternet.org/rights/46307/
Government Documents Are Declassified in Name Only
By Jon Wiener, LA Times
Posted on January 6, 2007, Printed on January 19, 2007
On December 31 at midnight, hundreds of millions of pages of secretgovernment documents were automatically declassified -- the result ofPresident Bush's Executive Order on Declassification, which covers allnational security documents 25 years old or older.
They included 270 million pages of FBI files, according to the New YorkTimes, covering, among other topics, the civil rights movement, 1960santi-war protests and organized crime up to 1981. In all of Americanhistory, there has never been anything like this avalanche of information.
But if you called the National Archives on Wednesday, as I did (it wasclosed Tuesday for the national day of mourning for President Ford), youwould have been told that none of these newly declassified documents areavailable -- and won't be, maybe for years.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.mediatransparency.com/storyprinterfriendly.php?storyID=172
Jill Berkowitz
January 16, 2007
Christian Conservatives call for end of 14th Amendment citizenshipbirthright
"Consistent with Christian teachings" deal would allow amnesty of illegalshere who are relatives of citizens
After months of being missing in action from the debate on the issue, agroup of Christian conservatives are now staking out a position onimmigration. Families First on Immigration, a coalition led by formerRepublican Party presidential hopeful Gary Bauer, who heads up a groupcalled American Values, former Bush advisor to Catholic voters, Deal Hudsonof the Morley Institute for Church & Culture, and David Keene of theAmerican Conservative Union, are advancing what they call religiouslygrounded positions on immigration.
In early January, Families First on Immigration sent letters to PresidentGeorge W. Bush and to leaders of the new Democratic controlled Congressurging them "to adopt a grand compromise on the divisive issue that includesstrong border security, an amnesty for illegals already here who arerelatives of citizens and an end to birthright citizenship," the WashingtonTimes reported.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://baywindows.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&AudID=0813BC739F2044E5A03DCF2DE3FDF7C9&tier=4&id=6948126D2FB34BF79544F71EC08A8D3F
Issue Date: 1/18/2007, Posted On: 1/17/2007
We ignore religious zealots at our peril
by Katherine Triantafillou
I was in Gardener Auditorium at the State House Jan. 2 when lawmakers votedto approve the anti-gay marriage amendment. I took comfort in the proximityof so many amazing people, whose lives were being summarily upended by thelegislature, including a former client of mine who had been arrested in aState House demonstration more than a decade ago. He, along with a dozenothers, had chained himself to a seat in the Senate Gallery in protest ofthe Senate action in killing the bill to amend the state anti-discriminationlaw to include sexual orientation. I told him in jest to stay away from thestate troopers milling about in abundance in the packed auditorium, and weboth laughed.
It made me wonder as I left whether we as a community have become too docileand complacent. I got my answer when I read a pamphlet that I had picked upas I left the State House. I was alarmed when I read it much later at home."The Point: Separating Church and State," doesn't contain much in the way ofew information. But I do wonder if we as a community truly understand thedepth of hatred that will be directed our way if this amendment goes to astatewide ballot.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.alternet.org/stories/46908/
The Radical Christian Right Is Built on Suburban Despair
By Chris Hedges, AlterNet
Posted on January 19, 2007, Printed on January 19, 2007
The engine that drives the radical Christian Right in the United States, themost dangerous mass movement in American history, is not religiosity, butdespair. It is a movement built on the growing personal and economic despairof tens of millions of Americans, who watched helplessly as theircommunities were plunged into poverty by the flight of manufacturing jobs,their families and neighborhoods torn apart by neglect and indifference, andwho eventually lost hope that America was a place where they had a future.
This despair crosses economic boundaries, of course, enveloping many in themiddle class who live trapped in huge, soulless exurbs where, lacking anyform of community rituals or centers, they also feel deeply isolated,vulnerable and lonely. Those in despair are the most easily manipulated bydemagogues, who promise a fantastic utopia, whether it is a worker'sparadise, fraternite-egalite-liberte, or the second coming of Jesus Christ.Those in despair search desperately for a solution, the warm embrace of acommunity to replace the one they lost, a sense of purpose and meaning inlife, the assurance they are protected, loved and worthwhile.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/news2/2007/01/senators_grill-print.html
Capitol Hill Blue
Senators grill Gonzales over spying
By LARA JAKES JORDAN / January 18, 2007 3:13 PM
Senators demanded details Thursday from Attorney General Alberto Gonzalesabout new orders putting the government's domestic spying program undercourt review - and questioned why it took so long to do so.
Meanwhile, the presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence SurveillanceCourt said she had no objection to disclosing legal orders and opinionsabout the program that targets people linked to al-Qaida, but the Bushadministration would have to approve release of the information.
Gonzales and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said it wasuncertain whether the court orders and details about the program will bedisclosed.
Negroponte, testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, said theremay be separation of powers issues involved in turning over information toCongress about the program.
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Forwarded from Ron Mills:http://Politalk1.blogspot.com
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4046
VIDEOS - Colbert on O'Reilly, O'Reilly on Colbert
Sure, these will likely be everywhere today. But for good reason. Colberthit it out of the park twice yesterday. First when he appeared on O'Reilly'sshow and then again when O'Reilly appeared on his. Both infinitely worth thewatch. And to underscore Colbert's genius, the cover that he shows ofO'Reilly's book and the last line of his interview with O'Reilly on his ownshow. Both nothing less than solid gold...
VIDEO LINKS TO BOTH...
Colbert on O'Reilly's Show & O'Reilly on Colbert's Show
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4046
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