NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST February 07, 2007

**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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To: AOL and Yahoo Subscribers

Once last week, and again yesterday, AOL blocked Ray's List articles sentthrough QueerNet. Yahoo blocked Ray's List once last week.

AOL frequently blocks Ray's List Digests sent through our Comcast account.
However, this is a first for the articles sent through QueerNet.

Online Policy Group provides QueerNet as a free service to many groups likeours. Increasingly, valuable hours of volunteer and non-profit time isspent fighting battles with Yahoo and AOL. For us at Ray's List, it isextremely frustrating and time consuming to do the hours of research andmechanical work putting together a mailing to have it rejected out of hand.

As you know, AOL and Yahoo are attempting to extract large fees from sendersof "legitimate" bulk email in the guise of protecting their subscribers fromspam. In effect, they're are establishing a toll tax.

This is dangerous stuff!

In addition to the email we receive from subscriptions to groups of choice,we all do a lot of vital business on the internet. We can't allow the"biggies" - AOL and Yahoo - to change the internet for their personalcorporate gain.

We are very aware of the problems with spam on the internet and understandthe significant issues confronting all internet providers. But, we stronglyobject to the high-handed, arrogant and self-serving methods of the internetgiants, AOL and Yahoo.

When the email sent to you, as AOL and Yahoo subscribers, is blocked at theentry gates, you are not made aware. Big brother is taking care ofyou????? While the occasional loss of articles in Ray's List may not belife threatening - we wonder what other important mail you are not receivingfrom YOUR PAID SUBSCRIPTIONS with AOL and Yahoo. And, when Ray's List andother volunteer services are forced out of the market, we all lose.

AOL and Yahoo understand the corporate bottom line. Let them now thatyou're not happy! And, be prepared to take your $$$ with you.

Best,
Ray and Michael
Ray's List




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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601601_pf.html


Journalist's 169-Day Jail Stay Sets U.S. Record

Associated Press
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; A02


SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 6 -- A freelance videographer, jailed for refusing toturn over footage of a demonstration to federal investigators, became thelongest-incarcerated journalist in U.S. history Tuesday.

Josh Wolf, 24, has spent 169 days in a federal prison after declining afederal subpoena for unaired videotape he shot of a chaotic July 2005protest in San Francisco against the Group of Eight summit in Scotland. Apolice officer suffered a fractured skull and a police car was vandalizedduring the melee.

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that reporters are not entitled towithhold confidential sources or unpublished material in a grand juryinvestigation or criminal trial.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601531_pf.html


Who's Hitting the Right Notes?

By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; A17


"Why are we here?" John Edwards asked the members of the Democratic NationalCommittee last Friday -- meaning: What animates us? What is the banner weask Americans to take up? And, by morning's end, the Democrats had heardthree different answers from their party's presidential front-runners.

Edwards and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had distinct perspectiveson Iraq, but their other differences were, if anything, more revealing.Edwards depicted, in a rising crescendo of emotion, the human cost ofmanmade disasters: the hotel housekeeper picketing for health coverage; the8-year-old going to bed hungry; the mother of a soldier in Iraq answeringher door to news of her son's death; the orphaned 5-year-old in the Sudanesedesert. One of America's best trial lawyers was pleading for the victims ofcruel and idiotic policies, offering policies of his own to save theinnocents.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601529_pf.html


Bush's Stealth Tax Increase

By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; A17


Even President Bush acknowledges that he can't balance the budget withoutraising taxes.

The president would never put it that way, of course. In fact, his messageis exactly the opposite. But the coming tax increase is the unavoidable,unstated subtext of his supposedly balanced-by-2012 budget.

The reason is the governmental cash cow known as the alternative minimumtax. Assume for the moment that the administration could somehow convincethe newly Democratic Congress to accede to its pincer-tight domesticspending levels and to significant reductions in entitlement spending.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/washington/07attorneys.html?pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007
A U.S. Attorney Was Removed Without Cause, Official Says
By DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 - A top Justice Department official said on Tuesday thatone of several United States attorneys forced from their jobs last year wasdismissed without a specific cause in order to give the job to a lawyer withclose political ties to the White House.

But the official, Paul J. McNulty, the deputy attorney general, testified atthe Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that none of the forced resignationslast year was politically motivated. He said most of the incumbents had beenurged to leave because of poor performance.

"We never have and never will seek to remove a United States attorney tointerfere with an ongoing investigation or prosecution or in retaliation fora prosecution," Mr. McNulty said.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601526_pf.html


Global Warming and Hot Air

By Robert J. Samuelson
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; A17

You could be excused for thinking that we'll soon do something serious aboutglobal warming. Last Friday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) -- an international group of scientists -- concluded that, to a 90percent probability, human activity is warming the Earth. Earlier,Democratic congressional leaders made global warming legislation a toppriority; and 10 big U.S. companies (including General Electric and DuPont)endorsed federal regulation. Strong action seems at hand.

Don't be fooled. The dirty secret about global warming is this: We have nosolution. About 80 percent of the world's energy comes from fossil fuels(coal, oil, natural gas), the main sources of man-made greenhouse gases.Energy use sustains economic growth, which -- in all modern societies --buttresses political and social stability. Until we can replace fossil fuelsor find practical ways to capture their emissions, governments will notsanction the deep energy cuts that would truly affect global warming.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601606.html


Legacy of Radiation Illness Stirs Objection to Nevada Bomb Test
Blast Won't Be Nuclear, but Many Fear Contaminated Dust

By Sonya Geis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; A06

ST. GEORGE, Utah -- When the baby boomers of St. George were children,radioactive ash from nuclear test explosions in Nevada regularly driftedtoward the red bluffs of their town and fell like snow. They played in itand wrote their names in it on car windows.

The federal government reassured the townspeople they were in no danger asit detonated 952 bombs in Nevada over four decades. But thousands of peoplewho lived downwind of the test site got radiation-related cancer, and thetown of 50,000 has its own cancer-treatment center today.

So when word got out recently that the government wants to test a hugeconventional bomb in Nevada, sending a mushroom cloud thousands of feet inthe air, people in St. George felt an unwelcome blast from the past.


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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601606.html


Legacy of Radiation Illness Stirs Objection to Nevada Bomb Test
Blast Won't Be Nuclear, but Many Fear Contaminated Dust

By Sonya Geis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; A06


ST. GEORGE, Utah -- When the baby boomers of St. George were children,radioactive ash from nuclear test explosions in Nevada regularly driftedtoward the red bluffs of their town and fell like snow. They played in itand wrote their names in it on car windows.

The federal government reassured the townspeople they were in no danger asit detonated 952 bombs in Nevada over four decades. But thousands of peoplewho lived downwind of the test site got radiation-related cancer, and thetown of 50,000 has its own cancer-treatment center today.

So when word got out recently that the government wants to test a hugeconventional bomb in Nevada, sending a mushroom cloud thousands of feet inthe air, people in St. George felt an unwelcome blast from the past.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Romney-2008.html?pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007

Romney to Announce Presidential Bid
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:08 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Mitt Romney will formally announce hiscandidacy for president next week in Michigan, his native state and animportant early test for the GOP nomination, campaign aides said Tuesday.

The former one-term Massachusetts governor will make his announcement Feb.13, and then will visit Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina -- the firststates to hold 2008 contests.

He will return to Boston two days later, where he will hold what hiscampaign is calling ''a unity event'' with supporters, aides said. Theyspoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans were not public.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opinion/07observer.html?pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007
Editorial Observer

Challenging the Mullahs, One Signature at a Time
By MAURA J. CASEY

"Well-behaved women rarely make history," my favorite bumper sticker says.It surely applies to Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer and 2003 Nobel PeacePrize winner whose relentless campaign against discrimination has enragedthe mullahs for more than 25 years.

In a country where the law values a woman's life at only half the price of aman's, Ms. Ebadi will not be quiet, and she is urging other women to findtheir voices. Her newest effort is to help collect the signatures of onemillion Iranian women on a petition protesting their lack of legal rights.

The concept is simple and revolutionary, melding education,consciousness-raising and peaceful protest. Starting last year, women armedwith petitions began to go to wherever other women gathered: schools, hairsalons, doctors' offices and private homes.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opinion/07observer.html?pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007
Editorial Observer

Challenging the Mullahs, One Signature at a Time
By MAURA J. CASEY

"Well-behaved women rarely make history," my favorite bumper sticker says.It surely applies to Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer and 2003 Nobel PeacePrize winner whose relentless campaign against discrimination has enragedthe mullahs for more than 25 years.

In a country where the law values a woman's life at only half the price of aman's, Ms. Ebadi will not be quiet, and she is urging other women to findtheir voices. Her newest effort is to help collect the signatures of onemillion Iranian women on a petition protesting their lack of legal rights.

The concept is simple and revolutionary, melding education,consciousness-raising and peaceful protest. Starting last year, women armedwith petitions began to go to wherever other women gathered: schools, hairsalons, doctors' offices and private homes.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opinion/07steinem.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor

Right Candidates, Wrong Question
By GLORIA STEINEM

EVEN before Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton threw their exploratorycommittees into the ring, every reporter seemed to be asking which candidateare Americans more ready for, a white woman or a black man?

With all due respect to the journalistic dilemma of reporting two "firsts"at the same time - two viable presidential candidates who aren't the usualwhite faces over collars and ties - I think this is a dumb and destructivequestion.

It's dumb because most Americans are smart enough to figure out that amember of a group may or may not represent its interests. After all, manyAfrican-Americans opposed the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the SupremeCourt in 1991 because they were aware of his record - and the views of hisconservative supporters.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/technology/07music.html?_r=1&adxnnl=0&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1170824535-RfRa+le7ZFTfU8h6UWqRww&pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007

Jobs Calls for End to Music Copy Protection
By JOHN MARKOFF

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 6 - Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, jolted therecord industry on Tuesday by calling on its largest companies to allowonline music sales unfettered by antipiracy software.

The move is a gamble for Apple. Its iPod players and iTunes Store havedefined the online music market, and they have much at stake in the currentcopy-protection system.

Under terms reached with the major record labels, online music stores embedsoftware code into the digital song files they sell to restrict the abilityto copy them. Because Apple uses its own system, the songs it sells can beplayed only on the iPod. That limitation has drawn increasing scrutiny fromEuropean governments, pressure that Apple has recently begun to acknowledge.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/us/07haggard.html?pagewanted=print


Febuary 7, 2007

Ousted Pastor 'Completely Heterosexual'
By NEELA BANERJEE

Forced by a gay sex scandal to resign as president of the NationalAssociation of Evangelicals, the Rev. Ted Haggard now feels that after threeweeks of intensive counseling, he is "completely heterosexual," says anoverseer of the megachurch Mr. Haggard once led.

The church official, the Rev. Tim Ralph, said in an interview publishedyesterday by The Denver Post that Mr. Haggard had also told the board ofoverseers that his only sexual relationship involving another man had beenwith Michael Jones, the onetime Denver prostitute who exposed thatthree-year affair last fall. Mr. Jones said then that he was making itpublic because Mr. Haggard had acted hypocritically in promoting aconstitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage.

Mr. Haggard, who as a result of the scandal was ousted by the overseers inNovember as senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, broke athree-month silence over the weekend when he contacted members of the churchby e-mail to tell them that he was healing.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opinion/07wed1.html?pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007
Editorial
It's the War, Senators

It is not an inspiring sight to watch the United States Senate turn the mostimportant issue facing America into a political football, and then fumbleit. Yet that is what now seems to have come from a once-promising bipartisaneffort to finally have the debate about the Iraq war that Americans havebeen denied for four years.

The Democrats' ultimate goal was to express the Senate's opposition toPresident Bush's latest escalation. But the Democrats' leaders have madethat more difficult - allowing the Republicans to maneuver them into theembarrassing position of blocking a vote on a counterproposal that theyfeared too many Democrats might vote for.

We oppose that resolution, which is essentially a promise never to cut offfunds for this or any future military operation Mr. Bush might undertake inIraq. But the right way for the Senate to debate Iraq is to debate Iraq, notto bar proposals from the floor because they might be passed. The majorityleader, Harry Reid of Nevada, needs to call a timeout and regroup. Bychanging the issue from Iraq to partisan parliamentary tactics, hisleadership team threatens to muddy the message of any anti-escalationresolution the Senate may eventually pass.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opinion/07wed2.html?pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007
Editorial

Playing Politics With Justice

The Bush administration has pushed out at least seven United Statesattorneys recently for what appear to be purely political reasons. SenatorCharles Schumer, Democrat of New York, has opened an investigation, and nota moment too soon. The American justice system would be seriously damaged ifUnited States attorneys were stripped of their independence.

United States attorneys, the federal prosecutors who work in the states, aresupposed to be respected, independent members of the bar. They haveextraordinary power: they can file criminal charges and conductinvestigations that can destroy reputations. They are supposed to beconfirmed by the Senate, and there is a long tradition that they are notremoved during the term of the president who appointed them, except forserious cause.

The Bush administration has broken with that tradition in a way that reeksof politics. One of the dismissed United States attorneys, H. E. Cummins IIIof Arkansas, has been replaced by a former Republican National Committeeopposition researcher who worked for Karl Rove. Another, Carol Lam of SanDiego, is in the middle of a sensitive public corruption inquiry that hasalready brought down one Republican congressman, Randy Cunningham, and islooking at other possible wrongdoers. The White House is taking advantage ofa little-noticed provision in the Patriot Act that allows the president toappoint interim United States attorneys without Senate approval.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-religion-islam-cartoons.html?pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007

French Muslims Sue Magazine Over Cartoons
By REUTERS
Filed at 3:35 a.m. ET

PARIS (Reuters) - A French court case shining light on the gray area wherefree speech and religious sensitivities overlap opens on Wednesday whenMuslim groups sue a satirical magazine that published cartoons of theProphet Mohammad.

The Grand Mosque of Paris and the Union of French Islamic Organizationsaccuse Charlie Hebdo of inciting racial hatred by reprinting the Danishcaricatures that sparked violence in the Muslim world last year.

Politicians, intellectuals, secular Muslims and left-wing pressure groupshave lined up behind Charlie Hebdo, arguing that Muslim groups have no rightto call for limits on free speech.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/washington/07cong.html?ei=5094&en=a6f9ef5c2fa039d9&hp=&ex=1170824400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007
News Analysis

Many Voices, No Debate, as Senate Is Stifled on War
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 - At a time when even President Bush acknowledges thatthe war in Iraq is sapping the nation's spirit, the Senate has tied itselfup in procedural knots rather than engage in a debate on Iraq policy.

Given the influence that voter frustration with Iraq had on the Novemberelections, the national unease with the mounting human and financial costs,and the raw passion on all sides, even some lawmakers say they are astoundedthat the buildup to the Senate fight over Mr. Bush's proposed troop increasehas produced such a letdown.

"It just floors me," said Senator Amy Klobuchar, a freshman Democrat fromMinnesota who campaigned against the war, as the two parties pointed fingerson Tuesday. The day before, the Senate proved unable to agree on a plan toeven begin debate on a bipartisan resolution opposing the administrationstrategy. "People in Minnesota, when they see a debate we should be having -whatever side they are on - blocked by partisan politics, they don't likeit," Ms. Klobuchar said.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opinion/07plissner.html?pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Ready for Obama Already
By MARTIN PLISSNER
Washington

WITH Barack Obama expected to announce on Saturday that he's running forpresident, if you enter "America," "ready" and "black president" in a Googlesearch, you'll get around 125,000 hits. When pollsters bring up those wordswith random samples of voters - and they've done it a lot recently - theyget "yes" answers from 62 percent (CNN), 56 percent (Newsweek), 58 percent(Gallup) and 55 percent (CBS).

Most of these surveys, however, ask people only if the rest of America isready for it to happen, not about being ready themselves to make it happen.When one poll asked Republicans and Democrats if they would vote for a"qualified" black of their own party, barely 5 percent said no - hardlysurprising, as doing so would be a frank acknowledgment of prejudice.

A much better poll would consist of giving an actual set of candidates'names at the end of a real campaign. Fortunately, 10 years ago such a testwas actually done.



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Blair warns of Catholic adoption agencies entering consortiums

By George Jones, Political Editor
Last Updated: 2:42am GMT 07/02/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/07/nblair107.xm
l

Roman Catholic adoption agencies could team up with non-faith-basedorganisations to comply with a new ban on discriminating against gaycouples, Tony Blair said yesterday.

He told MPs it would be a "tragedy" if Catholic adoption agencies stoppedproviding their service as a result of the Church's opposition to placingchildren with same sex couples.

Mr Blair suggested that the Catholic agencies could enter "consortiums" withother agencies, to provide a "gateway" into adoption, after a two-yeartransitional period proposed by the Government.
advertisement

"We are trying to find a way to make sure over this next couple of yearsthat the Catholic adoption agencies carry on their excellent work, but atthe same time you remove discrimination," he told the heads of Commonsselect committees.



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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opinion/07friedman.html?pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Yes, We Can Find the Exit
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
MOSCOW

Listening, from Moscow, to the debate in Congress about Iraq is troubling:it sounds as if the American people are being offered two routes to a deadend: either follow President Bush and have troops surging into a roilingcivil war, or go with one of the Congressional resolutions and denounce thesurge, but without any alternative strategy for securing U.S. interests.

I believe there is an alternative strategy, but it will take two concretenumbers to implement: a date - Dec. 1 - and a price - $3.50 cents a gallon.Let me explain.

What is the U.S. interest in Iraq right now? It's to quell the civil warenough so the parties may eventually reach a negotiated settlement, and ifthat proves impossible, to get America out of Iraq with the least damage toour interests.



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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/iht/2007/02/07/world/IHT-07globalist.html?pagewanted=print

February 7, 2007
Globalist

Jimmy Carter Attempts to Provoke, and Succeeds
By ROGER COHEN
International Herald Tribune


NEW YORK It's hard not to have a soft spot for Jimmy Carter. Candor andintegrity are written into the former president's face to the point that thequestion arises how such a man strayed into the bare-knuckled arena ofpolitics. Speaking of which, a number of knuckles have been applied to thatdecent visage of late.

"This is the first time that I've ever been called a liar and a bigot and ananti-Semite and a coward and a plagiarist," Carter said last month. He addedthat he could take it, but conceded: "This has hurt me."

Carter's offense has been to take aim at Israel for the "confiscation andcolonization of Palestinian territories"; for applying a "a system ofoppression, apartheid, and sustained violence" against Palestinians; for"depriving their unwilling subjects of basic human rights"; and for buildinga wall "designed to complete the enclosure of a severely truncatedPalestine."


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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/opinion/07dowd.html


February 7, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
This One's for You, Joe
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON

It's not double jeopardy exactly, but still, I'd prefer not to kill the sameman twice.

And I wanted to follow William Safire's advice on writing about gaffes andgraft: Only kick people when they're up, not when they're down.

So I decided to do something completely radical and not pile on.

Having played a role in derailing Joe Biden's '88 presidential bid withstories on his overreliance on the speeches of Neil Kinnock and BobbyKennedy, I feel compelled, now that the guy has slipped on anotherpresidential banana peel 20 years later, to lend him a hand.



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Forwarded from Rusty Gordon and Davy Whims
The Whimsy Loops
twpchwpb@BellSouth.Net

THE NEWS-JOURNAL (Florida)


Published on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 by the News-Journal (Florida)

Armed to the Teeth, America Marches Toward Military State
By: Pierre Tristam

President Bush's 2008 budget includes a $625 billion request for themilitary, up from $295 billion the year Bush was elected, a 112 percentincrease. Its about $100 billion more than all other military budgets in theworld, combined. Plenty of attention is being paid the exhausted militaryfighting Bush's various wars. There's no denying it. It's overstretched andundermanned. It makes you think the Pentagon needs more money, not less.

But little attention is paid the flip-side of that story, thesquandering of money on defense contractors' swindles, whether it's thesuperfluous $66 billion F-22 fighter jet program, one of three jet fightersin development, or the $9 billion-a-year missile shield, which, one testaside, hasn't gotten much past its middle school science project conceptsince Ronald Reagan fancied it a quarter century and $160 billion ago.



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Forwarded from Rusty Gordon and Davy Whims
The Whimsy Loops
twpchwpb@BellSouth.Net


THE ASIA TIMES
February 6, 2007

http://www.atimes.com


How the US Army's being worn down in Iraq

By: David Isenberg

Recently, the Washington Post reported that US President George W Bush's"surge" of troops to Iraq by 21,500 "would create major logistical hurdlesfor the US Army and Marine Corps". That's a nice way of putting it, likecalling a tsunami a maritime disturbance or an earthquake a tectonic-plateadjustment.

The truth is that after nearly four years of fighting in Iraq, the USmilitary is deeply stressed and worn out by its operations there. While mostdispassionate observers are aware of this, it is not something the BushAdministration likes to talk about.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/education/07ap.html?pagewanted=print


February 7, 2007

Advanced Placement Tests Are Leaving Some Behind
By SAM DILLON

More high schools across the nation are offering Advanced Placement coursesto help students get into college and get ready for its academic rigors. Inthe process, however, many minority students who often need help mosturgently are missing out.

Some 15,000 of the nation's 24,000 high schools, or 62 percent, offered oneor more Advanced Placement courses in 2006, up from 57 percent in 2000,according to an annual report issued yesterday by the College Board, whichruns the program. Still, African-American students, who made up 14 percentof the student population last year, were only 7 percent of the
participants.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/05/AR2007020500831_pf.html


Court Hears Libby Describe Cheney as 'Upset' at Critic
Grand Jury Tapes Bolster Case Against Former Aide

By Amy Goldstein and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; A03



Vice President Cheney and other senior White House officials regarded aformer ambassador's accusations that President Bush misled the nation ingoing to war in Iraq as an unparalleled political assault and, early in thesummer of 2003, held daily discussions about how to debunk them, I. Lewis"Scooter" Libby told a federal grand jury.

In grand jury audiotapes played yesterday during Libby's perjury trial, thevice president's then-chief of staff said Cheney had been "upset" and"disturbed" by criticisms from former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV thatBush had twisted intelligence to justify the war. And Libby said that KarlRove had been "animated" by a conversation with Robert D. Novak, in whichthe conservative columnist told Rove he "had a bad taste in his mouth" aboutWilson and was writing a column about him.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16639093.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp


Posted on Wed, Feb. 07, 2007

Balancing the budget with a magic wand
OUR OPINION: PRESIDENT, CONGRESS MUST DEVISE BETTER ECONOMIC PLAN

The good news in the budget President Bush sent to Congress this week isthat he finally is talking about balancing the budget. The bad news is thathe is about six years too late. Under Mr. Bush's watch, the national debthas grown from $5.8 trillion in 2001 to $8.6 trillion today. Worse news: Thepresident's projections for a balanced budget are based on unrealisticnumbers and politically impractical projections that simply won't work.

Expert at borrowing

Before delving into the numbers, it is fair to note that under Mr. Bush theeconomy has performed well. Unemployment has remained low, inflation isunder control and consumers are relatively confident. But boostingprosperity by borrowing money year after year simply postpones the day ofreckoning, and Mr. Bush has been an expert at this.



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Boston.com

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/02/07/penalty_called_on_college_football?mode=PF


RUSSELL ROBERTS
Penalty called on college football
By Russell Roberts | February 7, 2007

WE CALL FOOTBALL a game. But Super Bowl Sunday reminds us that the NationalFootball League is big business. A minute of advertising time goes for morethan $4 million. Winning the game means big dollars and enormously lucrativeopportunities for coaches and players.

In contrast, college sports seem a more pristine opportunity forstudent-athletes to clash on the playing fields just next to the ivy-coveredhalls we studied in years ago. There is an inevitable romance about collegesports that comes from this nostalgia, a romance that the NCAA -- thegoverning organization of college sports -- works to preserve and enhance.

The NCAA roots out the most trivial of recruiting violations to maintain theamateur image of college athletes. Why they're just like the rest of thestudent body, they just happen to be on the football or basketball team!Never mind that they have to practice nearly year-round or they'll losetheir scholarships. And the NCAA makes sure that all those student-athletesearn their scholarships by maintaining a minimum grade point average.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16640236.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp


Posted on Wed, Feb. 07, 2007

Church names 1st female bishop in Cuba

JOHN RICE
Associated Press

HAVANA - The Episcopal Church has named a woman as bishop in Cuba, thefirst such appointment by the church in the developing world, churchofficials said Tuesday.

The Rev. Nora Cot Aguilera was named suffragan bishop on Sunday duringa service in the Cuban city of Matanzas, said Robert Williams, director ofcommunications for the U.S.-based Episcopal Church.

"Her appointment is a wonderful reminder that in some nations,leadership is primarily about gifts for service and not about gender," saidU.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who took office in Novemberas the first woman to lead the church.



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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2654.html


GOP Views Clinton As Virtually Unbeatable
By: Carrie Sheffield and Jim VandeHei
February 7, 2007 09:56 AM EST

What many conservatives regard as the nightmare scenario -- PresidentHillary Rodham Clinton -- is increasingly seen by veteran Republicanpoliticians and strategists as a virtual inevitability.

In GOP circles, the Democratic front-runner is seen as so strong, and thepolitical climate for Republicans so hostile, that many influentialvoices -- including current and former lawmakers, and veterans of PresidentBush's campaigns -- have grown despairing. These partisans describe apolitical equivalent of the stages of grief, starting with denial, thenresentment and ending with acceptance.

For now, these Republicans say the party needs good luck, including a changeof fortune in Iraq, and a revival of organization and leadership in theconservative movement to avert another Clinton presidency.



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Boston.com

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/02/07/a_specific_governing_failure?mode=PF


GLOBE EDITORIAL

A specific governing failure
February 7, 2007

NOW THAT THE Democratic takeover of Congress has blocked one route forweakening the federal government's regulatory role, the Bush administrationhas found another. Under an executive order signed by President Bush lastmonth, federal agencies will have to establish offices staffed withpolitical appointees to make sure that any new rules or guidance documentsare in line with the administration's anti regulation agenda.

Agencies issue rules to flesh out the broadly worded laws that Congresspasses to ensure clean air and water, safe food and drugs, and hazard-freeworkplaces. The rule makers are agency scientists and civil servants whomthe White House cannot always count on to favor special interests over thepublic interest. The new regulatory oversight offices will make sure thatagencies keep an aggregate account of the costs and benefits of all theirregulations, not just new ones. They will be involved in the framing ofregulations from the beginning, not just overseeing the final product.



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Boston.com

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/02/07/all_critics_of_israel_arent_anti_semites?mode=PF


STANLEY I. KUTLER

All critics of Israel aren't anti-Semites
By Stanley I. Kutler | February 7, 2007

THE AMERICAN Jewish Committee has endorsed an article by Indiana Universityprofessor Alvin Rosenfeld linking "progressive" Jewish thought to a rise inanti-Semitism. The article pointedly castigates Jewish critics of Israel 'spolicies, and argues that such criticism questions the very right of Israelstatehood. All this, Rosenfeld -- and the AJC -- insist, fuelsanti-Semitism. It is a false proposition.

Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that to be or not to be is not the question,but how to be and how not to be is the essential one. The AJC's view is thatcriticism of Israel is tantamount to denying Israel's right to exist, andthat makes you an anti-Semite.

Anti-Semitism has many sources, but the spring of critical "progressiveJewish thought" is a mere trickle. Indeed, there are lonely voices on theleft and right who question Israel's existence -- and yes, some are Jewish.A voice here, an article there, by an American Jew criticizing Israel, andthe AJC trembles.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601713_pf.html


Sold on a Stereotype
In China, a genre of self-help books purports to tell the secrets of makingmoney 'the Jewish way.'

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; D01


SHANGHAI -- Showcased in bookstores between biographies of Andrew Carnegieand the newest treatise by China's president are stacks of works built on astereotype.

One promises "The Eight Most Valuable Business Secrets of the Jewish."

Another title teases readers with "The Legend of Jewish Wealth." A thirdprovides a look at "Jewish People and Business: The Bible of How to LiveTheir Lives."


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