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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16548677.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Jan. 26, 2007
Raise minimum wage
OUR OPINION: SUPPORTERS SHOULD FIGHT FOR AN UNFETTERED BILL
For a while it looked like Democrats and some Republican moderates inCongress finally would prevail over their tightfisted colleagues by passingthe first federal minimim-wage increase in 10 years. But the modest bill wasderailed in the Senate this week after it was larded up with unnecessary taxbreaks for small businesses.
So the bill went down on a 54-43 vote, six votes short of the 60 needed tooverride a possible filibuster. That's too bad. The longer Congress delaysin increasing the minimum standard, the more it contributes to poverty inAmerica and to the growing gap between haves and have-nots.
In 1996, the last time the minimum wage was increased, you could buy agallon of regular unleaded gas for $1.13, a loaf of bread cost 86 cents, adozen eggs was $1.15 and chicken was 94 cents a pound. Today, regular gas is$2.33 a gallon, a loaf of bread costs $1.14, eggs go for $1.54 a dozen, andchicken is $1.06 per pound.
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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/01/26/obama_excites_entertainment_community?mode=PF
Obama excites entertainment community
By Jocelyn Noveck, AP National Writer | January 26, 2007
Star quality: It's what Hollywood was built on. And there's no question thatto the many powerful Democrats in the entertainment community, Sen. BarackObama has loads of it.
George Clooney calls him a friend. Halle Berry has said she'd "collect papercups off the ground to make his pathway clear." Oprah Winfrey says he's herman.
And three of the most powerful men in Hollywood -- Steven Spielberg, JefreyKatzenberg and David Geffen -- have just invited Democrats to a trulyhigh-profile fundraiser: a Feb. 20 reception for Obama at the Beverly HiltonHotel, with a dinner later at Geffen's home for top donors.
But despite all that, political analysts note that being the "next bigthing" can be fleeting. And a number of traditional donors and activists inHollywood and the music industry are a long way from choosing, at this earlystage, whom to endorse among the three seen as top-tier Democraticcandidates: Obama, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards.
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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/01/26/libby_trial_evidence_depicts_cheney_as_orchestrating_tactics?mode=PF
Libby trial evidence depicts Cheney as orchestrating tactics
By Carol D. Leonnig and Amy Goldstein, Washington Post | January 26, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney orchestrated his office's 2003efforts to rebut assertions that the administration used flawed intelligenceto justify the war in Iraq and discredit a critic who he believed was makinghim look foolish, according to testimony and evidence yesterday in thecriminal trial of his former chief of staff.
Cheney dictated talking points for a White House briefing in the midst ofthe controversy that summer, his former press aide, Cathie Martin,testified, stressing that the CIA never told him that a CIA-sponsoredmission had found no real evidence that Iraq was trying to buy nuclearmaterials in Africa.
Aboard Air Force 2, on a trip back from the launch of a battleship inNorfolk, Va., Cheney instructed his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter"Libby, about responding to a Time magazine reporter who questioned how thefaulty intelligence on Iraq had become one of the Bush administration'scentral arguments for going to war.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16548567.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Jan. 26, 2007
Let's talk about what works for black children
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
You and I are about to embark on something new.
But first, the back story. Your humble correspondent has been at this podium13 years now, speaking to the readers of roughly 250 newspapers around thecountry. That's hundreds of thousands of words passing beneath millions ofeyes. Words of sorrow, sarcasm, censure.
But seldom, words of solution.
Lately, though, I've been thinking that if they give you the privilege ofreaching that many people, maybe you should sometimes use it for somepurpose higher than calling out intolerance, beating up stupidity or bashingthe president.
Don't get me wrong. I make no apologies for any of that. Still, I've come tobelieve this space can -- should, in fact -- be used for more. Used notsimply to point out problems, but to highlight solutions.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16500759.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sun, Jan. 21, 2007
Preserving civil liberties
OUR OPINION: CONGRESS MUST LEARN MORE ABOUT SECRET EAVESDROPPINGPROGRAM
It would be nice to believe that the Bush administration's reversal ofpolicy on its secret wiretapping program -- allowing a measure of judicialoversight for the first time -- represents a change of attitude regardingthe balance between civil liberties and executive power. But that's hardlythe case.
This administration has a consistent pattern of ignoring fundamental rightssuch as privacy and habeas corpus in order to extend the reach of the''unitary executive.'' Congress has a duty to find out more about theprogram and determine whether this change is merely a tactical shiftdesigned to preserve the questionable authority of the president to decidewhich of those rights can be overlooked or denied in the name of nationalsecurity.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16548689.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Jan. 26, 2007
ENVIRONMENT
Get real on global warming
BY TRUDY RUBIN
trubin@phillynews.com
It's unnerving to watch the flowers on my balcony bud in January. It's evenmore unsettling to see the trees outside my condo flower in winter.
Last year's U.S. weather was the hottest on record, and the last nine yearshave been among the 25 warmest on record for the continental United States.The New York Times just ran a startling story about melting arctic ice inGreenland, leading to a rise in sea levels far swifter than scientistspredicted.
Maybe President Bush has noticed that the cherry blossoms are in bloom inthe nation's capital -- this month. But just in case he still refuses toseriously tackle global warming, a growing number of senators in the newCongress -- from both parties -- are raring to go.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/washington/26nsa.html?ei=5094&en=9044950dc6386d92&hp=&ex=1169874000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 26, 2007
Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program
By ADAM LIPTAK
The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending theNational Security Agency's highly classified domestic surveillance programfrom civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges' clerks cannot see its secretfilings. Judges have to make appointments to review them and are not allowedto keep copies.
Judges have even been instructed to use computers provided by the JusticeDepartment to compose their decisions.
But now the procedures have started to meet resistance. At a private meetingwith the lawyers in one of the cases this month, the judges who will hearthe first appeal next week expressed uneasiness about the procedures, said alawyer who attended, Ann Beeson of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lawyers suing the government and some legal scholars say the proceduresthreaten the separation of powers, the adversary system and thelawyer-client privilege.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/opinion/26fri1.html?pagewanted=print
January 26, 2007
Editorial
The President's Risky Health Plan
The new health care proposals announced by President Bush this week purportto tackle the two toughest problems confronting the American health caresystem: the rising number of uninsured Americans and the escalating costs ofmedical care.
But on both counts, they fall miles short of what is needed to fix a systemwhere - scandalously - 47 million Americans go without health insurance.
The financial sinkhole in Iraq and huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans haveleft the administration with no money to really address the problem. To keepthe program "revenue neutral," Mr. Bush would instead use tax subsidies tocourage more people to buy their own health insurance, while imposingadditional taxes on people who have what Mr. Bush deems "gold plated"insurance.
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Washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501547_pf.html
Energy Independence?
A Serious Plan Requires Taxes, ANWR and Nukes
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, January 26, 2007; A21
Is there anything more depressing than yet another promise of energyindependence in yet another State of the Union address? By my count, 24 ofthe 34 State of the Union addresses since the oil embargo of 1973 haveproposed solutions to our energy problem.
The result? In 1973 we imported 34.8 percent of our oil. Today we import60.3 percent.
And what does this president propose? Another great technological fix. ForJimmy Carter, it was the magic of synfuels. For George Bush, it's thewonders of ethanol. Our fuel will grow on trees. Well, stalks, with evenfancier higher-tech variants to come from cellulose and other (literal)rubbish.
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Washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501736_pf.html
FCC to Feel Unfamiliar Heat From Democrats
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 26, 2007; A04
As congressional Democrats prepare to give the Federal CommunicationsCommission its toughest scrutiny in years, a rivalry between the powerfulagency's two most prominent Republicans is raising questions about itsreadiness to handle barbed questions and stiff challenges.
The Republican-controlled FCC -- which makes far-reaching decisions ontelephone, television, radio, Internet and other services that people usedaily -- has sparred infrequently with Republican-controlled congresses. Butthe Democratic-run 110th Congress is about to heat up the grill, startingwith a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing onThursday.
Senators vow to press the chairman and four commissioners on matters such asmedia-ownership diversity, Internet access, broadcast decency standards anddelays in resolving various issues. The hearing may cover the waterfront,Democratic staff members say, but there's little doubt that the agency willface a tone of questioning unseen in recent years.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/opinion/26fri2.html?pagewanted=print
January 26, 2007
Editorial
More Willful Indifference
Mark Foley fled his seat in the House of Representatives last September whenhis sexual approaches to teenage pages finally reached the news media afteryears of a shameful cover-up in the halls of Congress. Now it turns out thatthe F.B.I. was just as phlegmatic about the scandal as Mr. Foley'sRepublican colleagues. An inspector general's report excoriates F.B.I.agents for brushing aside "troubling" evidence of the lawmaker's flirtatiousmessage-writing, and then falsely blaming their inaction on the watchdoggroup that tried to alert the government in the first place.
The report underlines the calculated indifference at the heart of thescandal. In their final hours in power, the Republicans who controlled theethics committee issued a report that whitewashed the fact that key membersof the Republican leadership and their staff members were aware of Mr. Foley'slong predatory history. The F.B.I. inspector general's report showed thesame indifference among law enforcement officials charged with investigatingMr. Foley's actions. The report describes one F.B.I. supervisor who said hehad read Mr. Foley's e-mail notes and thought, "What a freak," but who hadthen sent the evidence on a fruitless bureaucratic roundabout.
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Washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501556_pf.html
No Words for the Gulf
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, January 26, 2007; A21
More infuriating than anything George W. Bush said in his State of the Unionaddress was what he didn't say. Congress and the nation heard nothing,zilch, nada, not a single, solitary word about New Orleans, the Gulf Coastand the devastation that remains from the worst natural disaster in UnitedStates history.
A disaster that happened on his watch. How nice that the White House hasbeen able to move beyond the trauma of September 2005 -- wind and water,death and destruction, poverty and race, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of ajob." Too bad the people of New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish, Pass Christian,Biloxi and the rest of the coast will never have the luxury of forgetting.
They can't forget that, days after Hurricane Katrina made its tragiclandfall, President Bush stood in New Orleans's historic Jackson Square,while most of the city still lay beneath brackish floodwaters, and said thatnature's trials "remind us that we're tied together in this life, in thisnation -- and that the despair of any touches us all."
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Washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501555_pf.html
Rice's Strategic Reset
By David Ignatius
Friday, January 26, 2007; A21
What's America's strategy in the Middle East? Secretary of State CondoleezzaRice this week sketched a new framework based on what she calls the"realignment" of states that want to contain Iran and its radical Muslimproxies.
In an interview Tuesday, Rice summarized the new strategy that has beencoming together over the past several months. Although many of its elementshave been previewed in recent weeks by commentators such as ColumbiaUniversity scholar Gary Sick, Rice's comments were an unusually detailedpublic explanation of the new American effort to create a de facto alliancebetween Israel and moderate Arab states against Iranian extremism.
Rice said the new approach reflects growing Arab concern about Iran'sattempt to project power through its proxies: "After the war in Lebanon, theMiddle East really did begin to clarify into an extremist element alliedwith Iran, including Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. On the other side were thetargets of this extremism -- the Lebanese, the Iraqis, the Palestinians --and those who want to resist, such as the Saudis, Egypt and Jordan."
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/opinion/26krugman.html
January 26, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
On Being Partisan
By PAUL KRUGMAN
American politics is ugly these days, and many people wish things weredifferent. For example, Barack Obama recently lamented the fact that"politics has become so bitter and partisan" - which it certainly has.
But he then went on to say that partisanship is why "we can't tackle the bigproblems that demand solutions. And that's what we have to change first."Um, no. If history is any guide, what we need are political leaders willingto tackle the big problems despite bitter partisan opposition. If all goeswell, we'll eventually have a new era of bipartisanship - but that will bethe end of the story, not the beginning.
Or to put it another way: what we need now is another F.D.R., not anotherDwight Eisenhower.
You see, the nastiness of modern American politics isn't the result of arandom outbreak of bad manners. It's a symptom of deeper factors - mainlythe growing polarization of our economy. And history says that we'll see areturn to bipartisanship only if and when that economic polarization isreversed.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/opinion/26friedman.html
January 26, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Running on Empty
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Sorry to repeat myself, but I have the same reaction to this year's energyproposals in the State of the Union that I had to last year's. PresidentBush had the opportunity to launch America on a transformative new path forclean, efficient power. He had a chance for a "Nixon to China" moment - asthe Texas oilman who leads us into a greener future. Instead, he gave us"Nixon to New Mexico" - right direction, but not nearly far enough.
As I read the president's remarks, listened to the tepid public reaction andlooked at his latest polls, which show Mr. Bush to be wildly unpopular, itseemed to me that the American people basically fired George Bush in thelast election. We're now just watching him clean out his desk. Both hisenergy proposals and his recent Iraq surge were about the best he couldmuster, given his pink slip.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/science/26brain.html?ei=5094&en=47216463b30ce387&hp=&ex=1169787600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 26, 2007
In Clue to Addiction, a Brain Injury Halts Smoking
By BENEDICT CAREY
Scientists studying stroke patients are reporting today that an injury to aspecific part of the brain, near the ear, can instantly and permanentlybreak a smoking habit. People with the injury who stopped smoking found thattheir bodies, as one man put it, "forgot the urge to smoke."
The finding, which appears in the journal Science, is based on a smallstudy. But experts say it is likely to alter the course of addictionresearch, pointing researchers toward new ideas for treatment.
While no one is suggesting brain injury as a solution for addiction, thefinding suggests that therapies might focus on the insula, a prune-sizeregion under the frontal lobes that is thought to register gut feelings andis apparently a critical part of the network that sustains addictivebehavior.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/education/26affirm.html?ei=5094&en=96814013d44aad69&hp=&ex=1169787600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 26, 2007
Colleges Regroup After Voters Ban Race Preferences
By TAMAR LEWIN
With Michigan's new ban on affirmative action going into effect, and similarballot initiatives looming in other states, many public universities arescrambling to find race-blind ways to attract more blacks and Hispanics.
At Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, a new admissions policy,without mentioning race, allows officials to consider factors like living onan Indian reservation or in mostly black Detroit, or overcomingdiscrimination or prejudice.
Others are using many different approaches, like working with mostlyminority high schools, using minority students as recruiters, and offeringsummer prep programs for promising students from struggling high schools.Ohio State University, for example, has started a magnet high school with afocus on math and science, to help prepare potential applicants, and sendseducators into poor and low-performing middle and elementary schools toencourage children, and their parents, to start planning for college.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/automobiles/26ford.html?ei=5094&en=1ba57d96af9d7598&hp=&ex=1169787600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 26, 2007
Ford Chief Sees Small as Virtue and Necessity
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
DEARBORN, Mich., Jan. 25 - Just 10 months ago, William Clay Ford Jr. vowedthat his auto company, despite its mounting losses, would "reclaim ourlegacy" in the American car market and "emerge stronger than we've everbeen."
But there is a new message coming out of the chief executive's office atFord. Alan R. Mulally, recruited last fall from Boeing to run Ford, hassignaled that the bigger-is-better worldview that has defined Ford fordecades is being replaced with a new approach: less is more.
Instead of insisting that Ford reverse its slide, Mr. Mulally says that Fordwill become much smaller. Its forecasts show it may fall from second tofourth place this year in the American market, behind General Motors, Toyotaand Chrysler.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012502199_pf.html
Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq
Administration Strategy Stirs Concern Among Some Officials
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 26, 2007; A01
The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or captureIranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy toweaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give upits nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officialswith direct knowledge of the effort.
For more than a year, U.S. forces in Iraq have secretly detained dozens ofsuspected Iranian agents, holding them for three to four days at a time. The"catch and release" policy was designed to avoid escalating tensions withIran and yet intimidate its emissaries. U.S. forces collected DNA samplesfrom some of the Iranians without their knowledge, subjected others toretina scans, and fingerprinted and photographed all of them before lettingthem go.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501951_pf.html
In Ex-Aide's Testimony, A Spin Through VP's PR
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 26, 2007; A01
Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you.
This delicious morsel about the "Meet the Press" host and the vice presidentwas part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when theformer Cheney communications director took the stand in the perjury trial offormer Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Flashed on the courtroom computer screens were her notes from 2004 about howCheney could respond to allegations that the Bush administration had playedfast and loose with evidence of Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Option 1:"MTP-VP," she wrote, then listed the pros and cons of a vice presidentialappearance on the Sunday show. Under "pro," she wrote: "control message."
"I suggested we put the vice president on 'Meet the Press,' which was atactic we often used," Martin testified. "It's our best format."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/us/politics/26hunter.html?pagewanted=print
January 26, 2007
2nd Republican Enters Race for Presidency
By SARAH ABRUZZESE
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 - Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican ofCalifornia, announced his bid for the presidency on Thursday in Spartanburg,S.C., then boarded a motor home to tour the state, where he hopes to gainsupport from a conservative electorate.
Mr. Hunter, 58, said his candidacy would emphasize his support for the warin Iraq, his opposition to abortion and his belief in free trade.
Serving his 14th term as a congressman, Mr. Hunter, of San Diego, is aVietnam veteran and a lawyer. He was the chairman of the House ArmedServices Committee until this year and is now the ranking Republican on thepanel.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/01/012507thai.htm
Thailand To Break HIV Drug Patents
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: January 25, 2007 - 7:00 pm ET
(Bangkok) Thailand's public health minister next week will announce detailsof government plans to break the patents on two drugs, reportedly one usedto treat HIV/AIDS and another for heart disease, a ministry official saidThursday.
The official was responding to reports in the Thai press that Public HealthMinister Mongkol Na Songkhla had said that Thailand would declare compulsorylicensing for at least two drugs because their high cost constituted acrisis for the health sector.
Mongkol declined to name the drugs or give further details, and otherofficials also refused to say more when contacted Thursday.
An announcement would come Monday, said a spokeswoman for the Public HealthMinistry, who insisted on not being named because of the plan to release theinformation on Jan. 29.
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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/01/26/the_missing_language_of_leadership?mode=PF
THOMAS LAFAUCI
The missing language of leadership
By Thomas LaFauci | January 26, 2007
AFTER 9/11, Theodore Sorenson asked, "Is it not the role of politicalleaders to point us to the stars, especially in uncertain times?" These are,indeed, uncertain times, and yet Senator Jim Webb's Democratic response tothe State of the Union hardly lifted us from the comfy cushions of ourcouches, let alone pointed us to the stars.
The Democratic response to the State of the Union lay there, flat, dead,uninspired. It did not tell the real story or paint a picture of the lastsix years. It lacked the confident tone of a resurgent Democratic Party andrhetorical constructions that combine politics, policy, propaganda, andpoetry to reveal who we are what we stand for, lift us up, or console us intimes of tragedy and trouble. A great speech should reach into ourcollective soul and touch what is most human in the human spirit.
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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/01/26/better_bargaining_on_drugs?mode=PF
GLOBE EDITORIAL
Better bargaining on drugs
January 26, 2007
A MAJOR FLAW in the Medicare prescription drug benefit Congress adopted in2003 is that it specifically prohibited Medicare from bargaining directlywith pharmaceutical companies to get bulk discounts on drugs. Recently,House Democrats -- with the help of 24 Republicans -- redeemed one of theircampaign pledges by passing a bill requiring the government to negotiatewith the drug industry for lower prices.
Passage of this bill advances the debate on the best way to curb Medicaredrug prices, which are now set through dealings between insurance companiesand drug makers. Ideally, better administration of the new benefit wouldyield enough savings to end or reduce the program's "doughnut hole" ofuncovered prescription costs for many recipients.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012502087_pf.html
Tehran's Influence Grows As Iraqis See Advantages
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 26, 2007; A01
BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 -- When Fadhil Abbas determined that his mother'sastigmatism required surgery, they did not consider treatment in his hometown of Najaf, in southern Iraq. Instead they joined a four-taxi convoy ofailing Iraqis headed to Iran.
For more than two weeks last fall, Abbas, his sister and his mother weretreated to free hotels, trips to the zoo and religious shrines, and hismother's $1,300 eye surgery at a hospital in Tehran, all courtesy of theoffices of Moqtada al-Sadr, Iraq's ascendant Shiite Muslim cleric. Abbasreturned to Najaf glowing over the technical prowess of Iran.
"When you look at this hospital, it is like something imaginary -- youwouldn't believe such a hospital like this exists," said Abbas, a22-year-old college student. "Iran wants to help the patients in Iraq. Othercountries don't want to let Iraqis in."
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_politics17jan25,0,7549773,print.story
Senators Kill Minimum Wage Amendment
By JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press Writer
January 25, 2007, 1:25 PM EST
WASHINGTON -- An effort to increase the minimum wage in all states, eventhose that alreadyhave wage floors higher than the federal base, failedThursday after Democrats labeled it a"poison pill."
Democrats said the Republican proposal was designed to kill underlyingminimum wagelegislation.
An amendment offered by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was an effort to show howraising the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over 26 months wouldhave no effect in eight states because they already have wage floors of$7.25 or higher. Another two states have scheduled minimum wage increasesthat also would place them above the proposed federal floor.
Eighteen other states have higher minimum wages than the current federalfloor, but not as high as the $7.25 in the proposed legislation.
"This is a mandate on low-cost-of-living states, but not onhigh-cost-of-living states," DeMint said.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012500827_pf.html
Union Membership Drops to Record Low
By WILL LESTER
The Associated Press
Thursday, January 25, 2007; 3:55 PM
WASHINGTON -- Union membership dropped to 12 percent of U.S. workers lastyear, extending a steady decline from the 1950s when more than a thirdbelonged to unions.
After membership had held steady at 12.5 percent in 2005, it declined anewlast year, a decrease of more than 325,000 workers, the Bureau of LaborStatistics said Thursday.
Membership had been 20.1 percent in 1983, when the bureau first providedcomparable numbers. About 35 percent of American workers were union membersin the mid-1950s.
The latest gloomy news for organized labor comes at a time when the group ispushing legislation in the Democratic-controlled Congress that would make iteasier for unions to organize.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Soldiers-Charged.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
January 25, 2007
Soldier Admits Murdering Iraqi Detainees
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:05 p.m. ET
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) -- A 101st Airborne Division soldier was sentencedThursday to 18 years in prison for murdering a detainee and taking part inthe killings of two others in Iraq last year.
Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, 22, was one of four soldiers from the division's 3rdBrigade ''Rakkasans'' who were accused in the detainees' deaths during a May9 raid on the Muthana chemical complex in Samarra, about 60 miles north ofBaghdad.
In an agreement with prosecutors, Clagett, of Moncks Corner, S.C., pleadedguilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murderand conspiracy to obstruct justice. Prosecutors dropped a second obstructioncharge and charges of disrespecting an officer and threatening.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/science/25cnd-brain.html?ei=5094&en=4e508e8daffaae23&hp=&ex=1169787600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 25, 2007
Scientists Tie Part of Brain to Urge to Smoke
By BENEDICT CAREY
Scientists studying stroke patients are reporting that an injury to aspecific part of the brain, near the ear, can instantly and permanentlybreak a smoking habit, effectively erasing the most stubborn of addictions.People with the injury who stopped smoking found that their bodies, as oneman put it, “forgot the urge to smoke.”
The new finding, which is to appear in the journal Science on Friday, islikely to alter the course of addiction research, pointing researcherstoward new ideas for treatment, experts say. While no one is suggestingbrain injury as a solution for addiction, the findings suggest thattherapies might focus on the insula, a prune-sized region under the frontallobes that is thought to register gut feelings and is apparently a criticalpart of the network that sustains addictive behavior.
Previous research on addicts focused on regions of the cortex involved inthinking and decision-making. But while those regions are involved inmaintaining habits, the new study suggests that they are not as central.
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The New York Times
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/from-kerry-to-obama/
January 25, 2007, 3:49 pm
From Kerry to Obama
By Jeff Zeleny
Less than 24 hours after Senator John Kerry announced that he would notenter the 2008 presidential race, some of his prominent contributors arejoining the camp of Senator Barack Obama.
So far, at least, the list includes: Bob Farmer, who was Mr. Kerry's chieffundraiser; Mark Gorenberg, Mr. Kerry's top money man in California; andAlan Solomont, a major fundraiser in New England for Mr. Kerry and a formernational finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Orin Kramer, a prominent New York Democratic fundraiser, has also signed onwith Mr. Obama.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/washington/25cnd-libby.html?ei=5094&en=63e179b421f77c54&hp=&ex=1169787600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 25, 2007
Testimony by Former Cheney Aide Hurts Libby
By NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 - A former spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheneygave testimony in the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. today that directlycontradicted Mr. Libby's version of events during a crucial period that isat the center of the perjury case against him.
Cathie Martin, Mr. Cheney's former spokeswoman, testified that she has aclear memory of telling both Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby that a prominent warcritic's wife worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, days before hecontends he first learned that from a reporter. Ms. Martin was the fourthwitness for the prosecution in the trial of Mr. Libby, who is charged withlying during an investigation of who leaked the name of the C.I.A.operative, Valerie Wilson. Unlike the previous three witnesses who worked atthe C.I.A. and State Department, Ms. Martin's testimony may prove especiallydamaging to Mr. Libby because of her perspective as a former insider in thevice president's office, and as a former colleague of Mr. Libby, to whom sherepeatedly referred as "Scooter," his nickname.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/world/middleeast/26iraqcnd.html?ei=5094&en=31af6d48b5f1d150&hp=&ex=1169787600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 25, 2007
Angry Dispute Erupts Among Iraqi Lawmakers
By MARC SANTORA
BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 - Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's presentation of anew Baghdad security plan to the Iraqi Parliament on Thursday broke down inbitter sectarian recriminations, with Mr. Maliki threatening a Sunni Arablawmaker with arrest and, in response, the Sunni speaker of Parliamentthreatening to quit.
Eventually, the tensions eased and lawmakers approved the security plan,which gives Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, more authority. But the episode providedthe Iraqi public with a live televised view of the extent of raw angerdividing Shiite and Sunni politicians.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012402032_pf.html
Obama's Appeal to Blacks Remains an Open Question
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 25, 2007; A01
CHICAGO -- Looking around at the overwhelmingly white audience that wasapplauding Sen. Barack Obama's luncheon speech on Iraq at a downtown hotelrecently, the Rev. B. Herbert Martin expressed both satisfaction andconcern.
Martin, who said he was the only black person in the crowd, was thrilledthat Obama, the only African American in the Senate, could engender suchenthusiasm from a white audience because it offered further proof that theIllinois Democrat would be a formidable presidential candidate. But Martinalso worried that in order to run successfully Obama would have to become adifferent kind of politician than the one who earned the trust of voters onChicago's mostly black South Side as a state legislator before he waselected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.
"How does he identify himself?" asked Martin, who was pastor to the lateHarold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor. "Will he continue to be anAfrican American, or will he become some kind of new creation?"
The question of how Obama chooses to define and approach race looms large ashe moves closer to formally launching his campaign next month. Although herides a wave of enthusiasm among Democrats who like his vision of adifferent kind of politics and see him as an alternative to Sen. HillaryRodham Clinton (N.Y.), it is not clear that his multiracial message canexcite black voters hungry for affirmation of their top concerns.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012401807_pf.html
Gore Film Sparks Parents' Anger
Showing 'Inconvenient Truth' Would Require Counterpoint
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 25, 2007; A12
FEDERAL WAY, Wash., Jan. 24 -- Frosty E. Hardison is neither impressed norsurprised that "An Inconvenient Truth," the global-warming movie narrated byformer vice president Al Gore, received an Oscar nomination this week forbest documentary.
"Liberal left is all over Hollywood," he grumbled a few hours after thenomination was announced.
Hardison, a parent of seven here in the southern suburbs of Seattle, hashimself roiled the global-warming waters. It happened early this month whenhe learned that one of his daughters would be watching "An InconvenientTruth" in her seventh-grade science class.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012401650_pf.html
The Democrats' Rude Rebuff
By Robert D. Novak
Thursday, January 25, 2007; A25
When President Bush called for a bipartisan "special advisory council" ofcongressional leaders on the war against terrorism in his State of the Unionaddress, he had in his pocket a rude rejection from Democratic leaders.Thank you very much, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate MajorityLeader Harry Reid, but no thank you.
Three days earlier, Reid and Pelosi wrote a letter to the president turningdown his offer (which was contained in his Jan. 10 speech on Iraq) toestablish a council consisting of Democratic chairmen and ranking Republicanmembers of the relevant committees. "We believe that Congress already hasbipartisan structures in place," they said, adding: "We look forward toworking with you within existing structures."
That could be the most overt snub of a presidential overture since AbrahamLincoln was told that Gen. George B. McClellan had retired for the night andcould not see him. Courtesy aside, it shows that the self-confidentDemocratic leadership is uninterested in being cut into potentiallydisastrous outcomes in Iraq. It wants to function as a coordinate branch ofgovernment, not as friendly colleagues in the spirit of bipartisanship.Pelosi and several Democratic committee chairmen are leaving for Iraq onFriday.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012401649_pf.html
Reagan Democrat
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Thursday, January 25, 2007; A25
Like him or not, Ronald ("Tear Down This Wall") Reagan spoke in a clean,clear prose that almost always left listeners with a sense that he stood forsomething.
It may thus be no accident that Jim Webb, Virginia's new Democratic senator,was once a Reaganite.
In his reply to President Bush's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night,Webb defined the two central moral issues that animate most of theDemocratic Party's rank and file: the mess in Iraq and the fact that thefruits of a growing economy are not being shared by all Americans.
Then Webb did something rather astonishing: He didn't fudge on his languageor try to take the hard edge off his impatience with the status quo.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012401648_pf.html
Senate Firefighters
By David S. Broder
Thursday, January 25, 2007; A25
Despite the raging controversy over Iraq military policy, President Bush'splea for bipartisan cooperation on the domestic agenda has a chance ofsuccess in the Senate. The reason has less to do with sympathy for thepolitically weakened chief executive than a dynamic that has gone largelyunnoticed among the senators themselves.
Since the midterm election created a near-even balance in the Senate -- 51Democrats and 49 Republicans -- serious efforts at cross-party communicationhave developed momentum.
Forty senators showed up on Jan. 9 for the first of a planned series ofweekly 8 a.m. breakfasts designed to provide neutral ground where lawmakersof both parties can meet, rather than caucusing separately.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012401646_pf.html
China's Missile Message
By Elizabeth Economy
Thursday, January 25, 2007; A25
China's successful anti-satellite missile test has sparked a politicalfirestorm, as analysts have tried to ascertain who in China knew what whenand to what end. Were China's diplomats in the dark about the missilestrike? Was it all a gambit to force a reluctant United States to thenegotiating table for a ban on space-based weapons? While interesting toChina watchers and nonproliferation experts, this discussion risks obscuringthe real message of the test: Chinese rhetoric notwithstanding, China's risewill be as disruptive and difficult as that of any other global power.
Officials in both Beijing and Washington have worked hard to sketch out analternative reality. China's leaders have traversed the globe, preaching thegospel of the country's peaceful rise, often to great effect: China will dothings differently than the United States and earlier European powers did,not polluting the environment, not colonizing countries to gain access totheir natural resources and not infringing on the sovereignty of othercountries. For their part, senior U.S. officials, with a growing list ofchallenging issues on their China agenda, are reluctant to focus for toolong on the reality of China's rise. Doing so would only make cooperationmore difficult and provide support to an often obstreperous anti-China lobbyin Congress. It is easier to paint China's rise as a work in progress -- onethat the United States has the ability to influence.
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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2007/01/25/in_tour_of_evangelical_usa_more_oddballs_than_insights?mode=PF
TV REVIEW
In tour of evangelical USA, more oddballs than insights
By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff | January 25, 2007
In HBO's "Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi," whichpremieres tonight at 9, Red State America is an Oz theme park andevangelical Christians are its munchkins.
With filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi as our guide, we visit the ChristianWrestling Foundation and a fighter named Jesus Freak. How cute. We espy thecar club Cruisers for Christ; we stop at a drive-through church for a prayerdeposit; we take in Biblical Miniature Golf, including a course calledParting of the Red Sea.
We glimpse evangelical Elvis.
We also go to stadiums packed with evangelicals crying joyously, whilepreachers urge them to reject gay marriage and stem-cell research and becomevalues voters. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/us/25child.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
January 25, 2007
Bush Proposes Broadening the No Child Left Behind Act
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24-The Bush administration called on Wednesday for an arrayof changes to the president's signature education law. The proposals wouldgive local school officials new powers to override both teachers' contractsand state limits on charter schools in the case of persistently failingschools.
The proposals are part of the administration's blueprint for revising the NoChild Left Behind Act, which Congress is scheduled to renew this year.Margaret Spellings, the education secretary, said the goal was to providestudents in failing schools with other options and "to make sure we have ourbest personnel in the neediest places."
President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2002. Itrequires schools to test students in reading and math annually in gradesthree to eight, and establishes progressively more severe penalties forschools that fail to make adequate progress, including shutting the schoolsaltogether.
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