**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US ATrays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warming31jan31,0,2541390,print.story?coll=la-home-nation
Climate is changing, politically
New attention from presidential hopefuls and others shows that globalwarming is not just the Democrats' issue anymore.
By Janet Hook and Richard Simon
Times Staff Writers
January 31, 2007
WASHINGTON - All of a sudden, global warming is hot.
After years of languishing on Capitol Hill, efforts to curb global warminghave picked up momentum, powered by a growing bipartisan belief that climatechange can no longer be ignored.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has declared it a top priority forthe House. Presidential candidates from both parties call it one of thebiggest issues faced by the next occupant of the White House. Even PresidentBush, long a skeptic, is sounding the alarm.
That's an abrupt break from the past, when many politicians shrugged off theissue. Especially among Republicans, it was regarded as an untested theoryor an alarmist fantasy.
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detnews.com
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070131/NATION/701310343/1020/rss09&template=printart
January 31, 2007
GOP blocks annual pay raise for Congress
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- When Democrats blasted Republicans last fall for taking annualcongressional pay raises while blocking numerous attempts to raise theminimum wage, it was an effective campaign tactic. Democrats vowed not toaccept the annual cost-of-living hike until Congress increases the minimumwage.
But Republicans angered over the political attacks are unwilling to allowDemocrats to reinstate the so-called members' COLA, forcing Democraticleaders Tuesday to scuttle the 1.7 percent hike.
Pay will be frozen at $165,200 for this year in the dispute, in whichDemocrats violated an understanding that the competing parties would not usethe pay raise issue in campaign ads. Under the annual COLA, lawmakersautomatically get a pay hike unless Congress votes to block it.
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CBSNews.com
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/30/opinion/printable2413315.shtml
Why White People Like Barack Obama
Jan. 30, 2007
(The New Republic) This column was written by Peter Beinart.
In 1994, two sociologists went to Red Hook, Brooklyn, to solve a mystery.Red Hook abutted the East River, and along the waterfront sat shippingcompanies and warehouses - all in need of low-skilled labor. Next door sat ahousing project teeming with exactly that. But the locals - primarilyAfrican Americans - didn't get hired. Instead, the jobs went to workers fromoutside the neighborhood, often Caribbean immigrants. Employers, wrote TheNew Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell in summarizing the sociologists' findings,"had developed an elaborate mechanism for distinguishing between those whothey felt were 'good' blacks and those they felt were 'bad' blacks." Werethe employers racist? Yes and no. They clearly held anti-black stereotypes.And they discriminated against those who conformed to them, even byassociation. But they discriminated in favor of blacks who defied thosestereotypes. A man named Bruce Llewellyn described the phenomenon this way:"White people love to believe they're fair."
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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/01/31/segregation_on_capitol_hill?mode=PF
Segregation on Capitol Hill
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | January 31, 2007
RUNNING FOR Congress in Tennessee last spring, Jewish Democrat Stephen Cohenmade an unusual pledge: If the mostly Christian voters of the NinthCongressional District would send him to Washington, he would proudly seekto become the first Jewish member of the Congressional Christian Caucus.Cohen wanted voters to understand that while he might not be Christianhimself, he would diligently represent the best interests of his Christianconstituents -- including by working through the Capitol Hill caucus thatfocuses on issues of particular concern to Christians.
Cohen eventually carried the district with 60 percent of the vote. But whenthe freshman congressman tried to keep his campaign promise, he wasbrusquely advised to forget it: Jews weren't welcome in the CongressionalChristian Caucus. "Mr. Cohen asked for admission," one caucus member saidcoldly, "and he got his answer."
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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/01/31/bushs_rattled_iran_policy?mode=PF
GLOBE EDITORIAL
Bush's rattled Iran policy
January 31, 2007
A CLEAR consequence of President Bush's war to change the regime of Saddamussein in Iraq has been the ascendance of the Islamic Republic of Iran.This is causing acute anxiety among neighboring governments: Saudi Arabia,Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Israel. Theadministration's recent raids on Iranian agents in Iraq, its deployment of asecond aircraft carrier task force to the Persian Gulf, its backing ofUnited Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran, and pointed publicwarnings to the Iranian regime by Bush and Vice President Cheney are allblatant attempts to reassure rattled American allies.
One element of the Bush effort to cope with the rising challenge from Tehranappears to be properly thought out: the ratcheting up of internationalpressure on Iran to stop enriching uranium and resume negotiations on itsnuclear program. Newspapers associated with the clerical establishment andleading political figures in Iran have castigated President MahmoudAhmadinejad for his provocative statements and his assurances that UNsanctions would not be imposed or, if imposed, would have no effect.
But when it comes to Iran's role in Iraq, the Bush policy seems to sufferfrom confusion about who is an ally and who an enemy.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001585_pf.html
Democrats Give Bush The Business on Trade
Extension of Promotion Authority in Question
By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; D03
As President Bush was out in Peoria touting the virtues of foreign trade andasking for fresh authority to promote it, newly ascendant Democrats onCapitol Hill signaled just how tough it's going to be for the president toget what he wants.
In a hearing, Democrats repeated earlier warnings that they are unlikely toapprove pending trade pacts with Peru, Colombia and Panama unless theadministration agrees to provisions tightening labor and environmentalprotections in those countries. They pledged to demand similar labor rulesbefore extending the president's authority to negotiate new trade deals.
"We have had trade policies in this administration that assume that trade isan end in itself, that market forces will work themselves out, that thereisn't really an active role for government," said Rep. Sander M. Levin(D-Mich.), who chairs a House subcommittee on trade. "We've had a tremendousloss of U.S. manufacturing jobs."
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PalmBeachPost.com
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/01/31/a16a_newrules_edit_0131.html
Bush's new power grab
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Afraid that polluters and other special interests might be in retreat afterNovember's elections, President Bush is sending a surge of bureaucrats torescue them. His personally chosen reinforcements will take up positions inthe Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration and every other executive department.
He isn't doing it to protect the public. By packing the agencies withpowerful new political appointees, he's trying to stop the agencies fromsetting rules and policies to carry out the laws Congress enacts.
Facing a Democratic Congress for the first time, President Bush signed anexecutive order requiring every agency to accept his gatekeeper, who issupposed to allow new rules to go forward only if the federal agency findsthat a "specific market failure" makes the regulation necessary. Huh? If anindustry is spewing illegal amounts of pollution but there's no "marketfailure," the public can't be protected?
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001666_pf.html
Hiding Health Care's Costs
By Robert J. Samuelson
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; A15
We are awash in health-care proposals. President Bush has one. So doesCalifornia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has a plan,as does a coalition led by Families USA (a liberal advocacy group) andAmerica's Health Insurance Plans (a trade group). To some extent, all theseplans and others aim to provide insurance to the estimated 47 millionAmericans who lack it -- a situation widely deplored as a national disgrace.But the real significance of all these proposals, I submit, lies elsewhere.
For decades, Americans have treated health care as if it exists in aseparate economic and political world: When people need care, they shouldget it; costs should remain out of sight. About 60 percent of Americansreceive insurance through their employers; to most workers, the full costsare unknown. The 65-and-older population and many poor people receivegovernment insurance. Except for modest Medicare premiums and payroll taxes,costs are largely buried in federal and state budgets.
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naplesnews.com
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/jan/31/us_failing_ocean_spending/?print=1
U.S. failing on ocean spending
Water bodies are getting cleaner, but commission says government has longway to go on funding
By Eric Staats
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
The United States is making modest progress on ocean protection policies butis flunking out when it comes to spending enough money on ocean programs, anocean policy study group said Tuesday.
The nonpartisan Joint Ocean Commission Initiative issued a report cardgiving the United States a C- on ocean policy in 2006, up from a D+ in 2005.
The joint commission combines the independent Pew Oceans Commission and thecongressionally mandated U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, which issuedlandmark reports on the health of America's oceans in 2003 and 2004.
The reports called for urgency in rescuing oceans from pollution and habitatloss, shoring up shrinking fish stocks and spending more money on oceanresearch, but action so far has fallen short of what's needed, leaders ofthe joint commission said Tuesday.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16584587.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Wed, Jan. 31, 2007
U.S. SENATE
Nelson renews his call for Mideast diplomacy
As the U.S. Senate debates what to do about Iraq, Sen. Bill Nelson onceagain suggested an infusion of diplomacy.
BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON - Sen. Bill Nelson, who was criticized by the White House formeeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, delivered a critique of his ownTuesday, saying the Bush administration resembles an ''ostrich'' when itcomes to foreign diplomacy.
In remarks before the Council on Foreign Relations, the Florida Democrat,who traveled to Iraq and eight other countries in the region in December,said he is convinced President Bush's plan to send in more than 20,000additional troops isn't enough to end the sectarian violence in Iraq. Hecalled instead for an ''aggressive diplomatic effort'' with ''all of Iraq'sneighbors,'' including Syria and Iran.
''In short, the costs of failure in Iraq will be catastrophic -- in growingthreats to us and our allies and in more American and Iraqi lives lost -- ifwe do not awaken to the fact that an aggressive diplomatic effort, notmilitary might, is what is needed to end the sectarian violence in Iraq,''Nelson said.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013000809_pf.html
A Key Padilla Charge Is Reinstated
By Curt Anderson
Associated Press
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; A08
MIAMI, Jan. 30 -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a keyterrorism charge, the only one carrying a potential sentence of life inprison, against suspected al-Qaeda operative Jose Padilla.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit agreedwith federal prosecutors that the charge that Padilla and his twoco-defendants conspired to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas did notduplicate other counts in the indictment.
The Atlanta-based court reversed a decision last summer by U.S. DistrictJudge Marcia Cooke, who said the three charges in the indictment containednearly identical elements and could subject the defendants to extrapunishment for the same act, violating protections against double jeopardy.
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The Washington Post
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/
Posted at 08:30 AM ET, 01/31/2007
The Case for Chuck Hagel
No senator has drawn more attention over the past few weeks than ChuckHagel, the Republican from Nebraska. Hagel has emerged as one of the moststrident critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, a stance that haswon him kudos from across the aisle (Hagel has replaced Sen. John McCain asthe Republican Democrats love to love) but gained him few friends within hisown party.
Hagel makes no secret that he is considering a run for president, but he hassaid little about when he will make a decision. As Hagel ponders, so willwe. Today, The Fix makes the case for a bid by the Nebraska senator. (Checkback tomorrow for the case against.)
Neither of these posts should be read as the definitive take on whetherHagel should run or not. Rather, they are meant to spark conversation, sofeel free to agree, disagree, condemn or compliment in the comments sectionelow.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001918_pf.html
Venezuela Poised to Hand Chávez Wide-Ranging Powers
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; A01
CARACAS, Venezuela -- The line forms every day after dawn at the SpanishConsulate, hundreds of people seeking papers permitting them to abandonVenezuela for new lives in Spain. They say they are filled with despair atPresident Hugo Chávez's growing power, and they appear not to be alone. Atother consulates in this capital, long lines form daily.
Two months after Chávez was reelected to another six-year term by anoverwhelming margin, Venezuela is experiencing a fundamental shift in itspolitical and economic climate that could remake the country in a wayperhaps not seen in Latin America since Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in1959. On Wednesday, the National Assembly is expected to entrust him withtremendous powers that will allow him to dictate new laws for 18 months totransform the economy, redraw the structure of government and establish anew funding apparatus for Venezuela's huge oil wealth.
Chávez's government announced earlier that it intends to nationalizestrategic industries, such as telecommunications and electric utilities, andamend the constitution to end presidential term limits.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001652_pf.html
Why Would Congress Surrender?
By Fred Barbash
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; A15
In a matter of days the Senate is likely to begin debating severalnonbinding resolutions on the president's plan for a troop buildup in Iraq.As the battle is joined, both houses of Congress need to be reminded thatthe stakes go well beyond this particular buildup, this particular war andeven this particular presidency.
At issue is the constitutional law governing the war power of the executivebranch, specifically the vastness of the "battlefield" over which PresidentBush claims inherent authority as commander in chief. Also at issue are allthe comparable claims yet to be made by presidents yet unborn, armed withthe precedents being set right now.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001653_pf.html
The Clintonian Candidate
By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; A15
There's a Clinton in the presidential race. The surprise: It may not beHillary.
The truly Clintonian figure running for the Democratic nomination is BarackObama. The senator from Illinois, it's struck me lately, seems in many waysmore like Bill Clinton than does the senator from New York.
When it comes to Obama and Bill Clinton, there are superficialsimilarities -- the absent father, the humble roots combined with Ivy Leaguepedigree. Leave aside who would be the first black president, as many saidof Clinton -- both represent generational change, Clinton as the first babyboomer president, Obama as the first would-be president of the post-babyboom.
Man from Hope -- meet Audacity of Hope.
Of course, the fit isn't exact: Obama, unlike Clinton, doesn't seem to havebeen running for the presidency since birth. But there are deeper ways, inhis intellectual approach, his message and his personal style, in whichObama evokes Clinton.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001855_pf.html
Journalist Forced to Reveal Her Methods
Ex-New York Times Reporter Struggles In Libby Questioning
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; C01
Judith Miller slept on the floor of an Alexandria jail for 85 days to avoidtaking the hot seat she found herself in yesterday.
She lost a battle of wills with a special prosecutor, surrendered her job atthe New York Times and became an unwanted symbol of journalistic cozinesswith the Bush administration and media missteps in covering an unpopularwar.
In taking the stand in U.S. District Court against her once-secret source,I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Miller found herself answering questions about thevery methods that she has spent a professional lifetime concealing. Ratherthan pointing out flaws in the accounts of public officials, she foundherself struggling to explain a spotty memory and to justify why she wrotenothing about the sensitive -- and, as it turned out, classified --information she had been handed. Once an independent operator who calledherself "Miss Run Amok," she disputed what her many critics said wasobvious: that Vice President Cheney's former top aide had been trying tomanipulate her.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001650_pf.html
The Blair He Could Have Been
By David Ignatius
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; A15
At the beginning of Tony Blair's political career, his Tory opponents gavehim the nickname "Bambi" because of his fawn-like appearance. Now at the endof his 10 years as prime minister, Blair is mocked in Britain as America's"poodle," a slavishly loyal supporter of George Bush and the Iraq war.
Blair had a bit of both animal instincts, deer and dog, but he also had thebrilliant political gifts that might have made him a truly great primeminister and the defining politician of his era. That's what makes his storyso sad: This immensely talented politician was devoured by Iraq -- and byhis support for an American president he kept thinking, wrongly, he coulddissuade from mistakes.
Watching Blair deliver a farewell address to the World Economic Forum inDavos last weekend, it was impossible not to think of what might have been.He gave a visionary speech about the values of global interdependence thatwill be necessary in the 21st century if the world is to survive. The speechseemed to me, in part, a declaration of independence from Bush, thepresident who took so much from Blair and gave so little in return.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/16577792.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Tue, Jan. 30, 2007
Panel hears climate 'spin' allegations
H. JOSEF HEBERT
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Federal scientists have been pressured to play down globalwarming, advocacy groups testified Tuesday at the Democrats' firstinvestigative hearing since taking control of Congress.
The hearing focused on allegations that the White House for years hasmicromanaged the government's climate programs and has closely controlledwhat scientists have been allowed to tell the public.
"It appears there may have been an orchestrated campaign to mislead thepublic about climate change," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Waxman ischairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a critic ofthe Bush administration's environmental policies, including its views onclimate.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_013007M.shtml
Don't Let Torture Become the Norm
By Phillip Butler
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor
Tuesday 30 January 2007
Many peace and justice organizations have been promoting anddemonstrating lately for awareness of torture and related issues. I'm amazedand profoundly disappointed that this has apparently become necessary in ourcountry.
I spent eight years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, from 1965 to 1973.During that time, I and more than 90 percent of my fellow POWs wererepeatedly tortured for the extortion of information to be used forpolitical propaganda and sometimes just for retribution. We were notrecognized by Vietnam as POWs, but as criminals, because the Vietnamese hadnot signed the 1949 "Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment ofPrisoners of War."
Later, in 1975, the United Nations created the "Convention AgainstTorture." Both conventions were ratified by Congress and became laws of ourland. Unfortunately, Vietnam - along with numerous other countries who arestill partially stuck in the 15th century - had institutionalized torture topunish and extract information from prisoners.
We received great moral and psychological strength during ourincarceration from telling each other, "Our country is civilized and wouldnever knowingly treat people like this."
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.dispatch.com/print_template.php?jrl=616053&story=dispatch%2f2007%2f01%2f30%2f20070130-A1-00.html&rfr=nwsl&clk=74813
Failing the ailing
Medical-claims system leaves veterans struggling
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Kelly Hassett
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Larry Cummings doesn't like to talk about what he saw in Vietnam, especiallythe day in March 1968 when a bomb was dropped on a nearby Marine unit and hewas called on to help.
But the violence and pain stayed with the 59-year-old Lancaster resident inflashbacks. He suffered from insomnia. When he came home in 1969, his sistertold him he was like a different person.
In 2001, Cummings' post-traumatic stress disorder finally was diagnosed andhe started treatment. He filed a medical claim with the U.S. Department ofVeterans Affairs but was denied compensation. The agency said his conditionwasn't related to military service.
He disputed that decision, and his claim has been in the appeals process forthe past five years. Two weeks ago, he got a letter saying the board wouldreopen his case.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=w070129&s=plumer013007
How rich people control politics.
Purchasing Power
by Bradford Plumer
Only at TNR Online
Post date: 01.30.07
lass warfare is back in vogue. Just ask Jim Webb, the freshman senator fromVirginia who, in his State of the Union rebuttal last week, thundered: "WhenI graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what theaverage worker did; today, it's nearly 400 times." And it's not just Webb.The yawning gulf separating the rich from, well, everybody else has emergedas a major theme among a new generation of populist Democrats. EvenMassachusetts Representative Barney Frank, no great enemy of capitalism he,has wondered lately whether the United States is suffering from moreinequality in wealth and income "than is either socially healthy oreconomically necessary."
And so, predictably, the backlash from conservative economists has begun.Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, recentlypublished a book arguing that reported increases in inequality have beenoverblown. Most professional economists dispute Reynolds's claims (seeJonathan Chait, "Equality Bites," January 29), but, for right-leaningcommentators, this is all beside the point: Rising inequality, real or not,just doesn't matter.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/us/politics/31video.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
January 31, 2007
To '08 Hopefuls, Media Technology Can Be Friend or Foe
By PATRICK HEALY
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 - Some of the nation's most enduring memories of SenatorHillary Rodham Clinton - memories she would happily erase - were etched ontelevision more than a decade ago: She didn't stay home and bake cookies inher marriage. She wasn't "some little woman, standing by my man, like TammyWynette." The headband. The hairstyles.
On Saturday, one week into her presidential campaign, the threat of a new,unflattering image surfaced: MSNBC used a microphone to capture Mrs. Clintonsinging the national anthem in Des Moines. Her voice was, shall we say, offkey. The recording was quickly downloaded to YouTube, the video-sharing Website, and the Drudge Report - no friend of Mrs. Clinton - was steeringreaders to watch it. (By Tuesday afternoon, more than 800,000 had.)
Clinton advisers found out about the YouTube video within minutes, and theircampaign war room made a calculated decision: not to respond at all. Theydid not want to draw news media attention to the video; nor did they want toupstage their preferred news of the day, Mrs. Clinton's debut in Iowa.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/opinion/31bamford.html?pagewanted=print
January 31, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Bush Is Not Above the Law
By JAMES BAMFORD
Washington
LAST August, a federal judge found that the president of the United Statesbroke the law, committed a serious felony and violated the Constitution. Hadthe president been an ordinary citizen - someone charged with bank robberyor income tax evasion - the wheels of justice would have immediately begunto turn. The F.B.I. would have conducted an investigation, a United Statesattorney's office would have impaneled a grand jury and charges would havebeen brought.
But under the Bush Justice Department, no F.B.I. agents were ever dispatchedto padlock White House files or knock on doors and no federal prosecutorsever opened a case.
The ruling was the result of a suit, in which I am one of the plaintiffs,brought against the National Security Agency by the American Civil LibertiesUnion. It was a response to revelations by this newspaper in December 2005that the agency had been monitoring the phone calls and e-mail messages ofAmericans for more than four years without first obtaining warrants from theForeign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as required by the ForeignIntelligence Surveillance Act.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/opinion/31wed2.html?pagewanted=print
January 31, 2007
Editorial
Iraq's Refugees
To calculate the price that Iraqis have paid for the American misadventurein their country, you have to deal in big, round, horrifying numbers.Civilians killed last year: 34,000. Driven from their homes within Iraq: 1.8million. Fled to other countries: an additional 2 million, and growing. Thenumber of Iraqis who have found refuge in the United States is easier to pindown. This country has admitted a grand total of 466 Iraqi refugees since2003.
However President Bush tries to manage the endgame of his dismal war,America has an obligation to the Iraqis whose lives it has upended. It owesa particular debt to those who have faced incredible dangers working withAmerican forces as interpreters, guides and contractors. These allies - andtheir families - have become a haunted and hunted group, branded as traitorsand targeted for kidnapping and assassination by insurgents and militias.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.ohionewsnow.com/?jrl=616053&sec=home&email=yes&story=sites%2fONN%2fcontent%2fpool%2f200701%2f673287252.html&clk=74857
Guilty Verdicts Stand In 'Caged Kids' Case
Jan 31 2007 7:23AM
A judge declined Monday to grant a new trial or acquittal for a coupleconvicted of child endangering for keeping some of their 11 adopted,special-needs children in cages, a defense attorney said Monday.
Huron County Common Pleas Judge Earl McGimpsey ruled that Michael and SharenGravelle failed to show that the jury's verdicts were inconsistent inconvicting them on 11 of 24 counts.
The Gravelles, of rural Wakeman in northeast Ohio, were convicted last monthof four felony counts of child endangering, two misdemeanor counts of childendangering and five misdemeanor counts of child abuse.
"We respectfully disagree with the court's rulings and we intend to pursuethe issues in the court of appeals," said defense attorney Ken Myers, whorepresents Sharen Gravelle.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.tompaine.com/print/cheney_to_the_stand.php
Cheney To The Stand
John Prados
January 30, 2007
John Prados is a senior analyst at the National Security Archive inWashington. His current book is Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of theCIA.
Every day, more of the sordid tale of Vice President Dick Cheney'sno-holds-barred effort to get his way on the Iraq war is coming out.
Months ago, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to then-Secretary ofState Colin Powell, blasted the Bush administration for its resort to a"cabal" led by Cheney. Now we are getting chapter and verse from theprosecution of another chief of staff, I. Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Cheney'sfront man until he was indicted for obstruction of justice. Testimony atLibby's trial in U.S. District Court shows exactly how the cabal operated,in this case attempting to smear Iraq war critic Ambassador Joseph Wilson byblowing the cover of his wife, Valerie Plame, until then an undercoverofficer for the CIA.
When the conspiracy to discredit Wilson began to fray, Cheney took the leadin trying to shore it up. Whatever it took, Cheney was ready to give. Thisis becoming crystal clear at the trial, where a parade of Bushadministration and CIA officials are testifying. News stories have referredto Cheney, sometimes even attributing a leading role to him, but they hardlydo justice to the record revealed by trial testimony.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5314861,00.html
Fetus measure rejected
Bills advance on gay rights, guns, contraception
By April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News
January 30, 2007
Erin Hanson came to the Capitol on Monday asking that her unborn grandson'skilling count.
The Colorado Springs woman's 15-year-old pregnant daughter and her unborngrandson were murdered in 2002 by a friend who thought she defiled herselfby becoming pregnant.
"The killer knew he was taking two lives," said Hanson, who tattooed herdaughter's and grandson's names on her right arm, one surrounded by angelswings and the other cradled in a pair of hands. "The only charge the killerreceived for my unborn grandchild was criminal abortion because he wasn'tconsidered a person. The law needs to be changed. It's not enough."
Hanson was among the members of two grief-stricken families who testified onbehalf of a bill mandating that anyone who causes the death of a fetus as aresult of an attack on a pregnant woman be charged with first-degree murder.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.studentprintz.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=c7794f20-dfb1-4494-892d-b529895da103
Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice
David McRaney
Posted: 1/23/07
EDITORS NOTE:
Since the original publication of this article we have been inundated withresponses from the public at all walks of life. It is important to note thatresearch is ongoing with DCA, and not everyone is convinced it will turn outto be a miracle drug. There have been many therapies that were promising invitro and in animal models that did not work for one reason or another inhumans. To provide false hope is not our intention. There is a lot ofinformation on DCA available on the web, and this column is but one opinionon the topic. We hope you will do your own research into the situation. So,we have added links to resources at the end of this column.
END NOTE
Scientists may have cured cancer last week.
Yep.
So, why hven't the media picked up on it?
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.al.com/newsflash/washington/index.ssf?/base/politics-11/117016347766620.xml&storylist=washington
Specter: Bush not sole 'decision-maker'
1/30/2007, 6:52 p.m. ET
By LAURIE KELLMAN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate Republican on Tuesday directly challengedPresident Bush's declaration that "I am the decision-maker" on issues ofwar.
"I would suggest respectfully to the president that he is not the soledecider," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said during a hearing on Congress' warpowers amid an increasingly harsh debate over Iraq war policy. "The decideris a shared and joint responsibility," Specter said.
The question of whether to use its power over the government's purse stringsto force an end to the war in Iraq, and under what conditions, is among theissues faced by the newly empowered Democratic majority in Congress, andeven some of the president's political allies as well.
No one challenges the notion that Congress can stop a war by canceling itsfunding. In fact, Vice President Dick Cheney challenged Congress to back upits objections to Bush's plan to put 21,500 more troops in Iraq by zeroingout the war budget.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/opinion/31friedman.html
January 31, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Not-So-Strange Bedfellow
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Here’s a little foreign policy test. I am going to describe two countries —“Country A” and “Country B” — and you tell me which one is America’s allyand which one is not.
Let’s start: Country A actively helped the U.S. defeat the Taliban inAfghanistan and replace it with a pro-U.S. elected alliance of moderateMuslims. Country A regularly holds sort-of-free elections. Country A’s womenvote, hold office, are the majority of its university students and are fullyintegrated into the work force.
On 9/11, residents of Country A were among the very few in the Muslim worldto hold spontaneous pro-U.S. demonstrations. Country A’s radical presidentrecently held a conference about why the Holocaust never happened — to tryto gain popularity. A month later, Country A held nationwide elections forlocal councils, and that same president saw his candidates get wiped out byvoters who preferred more moderate conservatives.
Country A has a strategic interest in the success of the pro-U.S.,Shiite-led, elected Iraqi government. Although it’s a Muslim country rightnext to Iraq, Country A has never sent any suicide bombers to Iraq, and haslong protected its Christians and Jews. Country A has more bloggers percapita than any country in the Muslim Middle East.
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Forwarded from Susan Frishkorn
Tri-County - chances@attglobal.net
Published on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 by Reuters
Congress Can Stop Iraq War, Experts Tell Lawmakers
by Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Congress has the power to end the war in Iraq, aformer Bush administration attorney and other high-powered legal expertstold a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
With many lawmakers poised to confront President George W. Bush byvoting disapproval of his war policy in the coming days, four of fiveexperts called before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee said Congress could gofurther and restrict or stop U.S. involvement if it chose.
"I think the constitutional scheme does give Congress broad authorityto terminate a war," said Bradford Berenson, a Washington lawyer who was aWhite House associate counsel under Bush from 2001 to 2003.
"It is ultimately Congress that decides the size, scope and durationof the use of military force," said Walter Dellinger, former actingsolicitor general -- the government's chief advocate before the SupremeCourt -- in 1996-97, and an assistant attorney general three years beforethat.
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Forwarded from Susan Frishkorn
Tri-County - chances@attglobal.net
Senators warn against war with Iran
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer 24 minutes ago
Republican and Democratic senators warned Tuesday against a drift toward warwith an emboldened Iran and suggested the Bush administration was missing achance to engage its longtime adversary in potentially helpful talks overnext-door Iraq.
"What I think many of us are concerned about is that we stumble into activehostilities with Iran without having aggressively pursued diplomaticapproaches, without the American people understanding exactly what's takingplace," Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), D-Ill., told JohnNegroponte, who is in line to become the nation's No. 2 diplomat asSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice's deputy.
Obama, a candidate for president in 2008, warned during the Senate ForeignRelations Committee hearing that senators of both parties will demand"clarity and transparency in terms of U.S. policy so that we don't repeatsome of the mistakes that have been made in the past," a reference to thefaulty intelligence underlying the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
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Forwarded from Rusty Gordon and Davy Whims
The Whimsy Loops
twpchwpb@BellSouth.Net
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 30, 2007
Senators warn against war with Iran
By: ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press, Diplomatic Writer
Republican and Democratic senators warned Tuesday against a drift toward warwith an emboldened Iran and suggested the Bush administration was missing achance to engage its longtime adversary in potentially helpful talks overnext-door Iraq.
"What I think many of us are concerned about is that we stumble into active hostilities with Iran withouthaving aggressively pursued diplomatic approaches, without the Americanpeople understanding exactly what's taking place," Sen. Barack Obama (news,bio, voting record), D-Ill., told John Negroponte, who is in line to becomethe nation's No. 2 diplomat as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's deputy.
Obama, a candidate for president in 2008, warned during the Senate ForeignRelations Committee hearing that senators of both parties will demand"clarity and transparency in terms of U.S. policy so that we don't repeatsome
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-maine26jan26,1,174002,print.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Maine lawmakers reject national identification
The state is the first to refuse to comply with the federal Real ID Act.
By Stacy A. Anderson
Times Staff Writer
January 26, 2007
WASHINGTON - Maine on Thursday became the first state to officially declineto comply with the Real ID Act of 2005, the federal law that critics saylays the foundation for creation of a national identity card.
Both houses of the state Legislature - voting unanimously in the Senate and137 to 4 in the House - approved a resolution rejecting compliance with theact, which requires states to replace their driver's licenses by May 2008with forgery-proof scannable cards embedded with private information. Theresolution also urges Congress to repeal the ID act.
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