NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST February 23, 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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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16763145.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Posted on Fri, Feb. 23, 2007

Outpatient limbo for injured U.S troops
OUR OPINION: SHAMEFUL INEPTITUDE, NEGLECT AT WALTER REED HOSPITAL

At a time when politicians of every stripe are falling all over themselvesto show support for the troops, the conditions at Walter Reed Army MedicalCenter Building 18 is a repudiation of all of their self-serving blather.Here, sick troops coexist with vermin, cockroaches and mold.

Paperwork is often lost. Troops get the runaround when they ask about thestatus of their disability claims.

Program in shambles

When The Washington Post shone a light on the deplorable conditions at thefacility in an investigative series this week, the rush to fix things beganalmost immediately. ''The senior Army leadership takes full responsibilityfor the lack of quality of life at Building 18, and we're going to fix it,''said Gen. Richard Cody, the Army vice chief of staff. While the Pentagonbelatedly gives these troops the care they deserve, it also must find andeliminate the underlying causes.

In Building 18, too many of some 700 physically and mentally woundedoutpatients have languished for months, even years, while the Army decidestheir fate. What a shabby, shameful welcome home for men and women who haveserved in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Walter Reed, the country's top military hospital, still deliversstate-of-the-art medical care. Yet its outpatients' program is in shamblesbecause of a bumbling bureaucracy and the unremitting demands of 5 ½ yearsof treating a steady stream of soldiers and Marines injured in Afghanistanand Iraq.

While some troops await treatment, others wait for a decision on whethertheir disabilities are war related. If so, there is extra pay. If not, theyare returned to duty or discharged. Many have been stuck in this limbowithout help or guidance to navigate the bureaucracy. Some are onmedications that affect their mental capacity. Others are amputeesstruggling to rebuild their lives.

In addition to the ineptitude, there is a more-appalling reason thesesoldiers are languishing. According to Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman,commander at Walter Reed, a major reason outpatients stay so long 'is thatthe Army wants to be able to hang on to as many soldiers as it can, `becausethis is the first time this country has fought a war for so long with anall-volunteer force since the Revolution.' ''

Poignant plight

Putting these soldiers' lives on hold because the Army is stretched thin isan outrage. The plight of Reserve and National Guard members is especiallypoignant. The older Reservists and Guards, disabled or suffering frompost-traumatic stress disorder, worry about returning to civilian life andwhether they will be able to work again. Some of their spouses have quitjobs to care for them, and their income is vastly reduced. These soldiersfall through bureaucratic cracks that must be sealed -- for them and all ofthose who follow.




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INSIDE HIGHER EDUCATION

http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/02/23/accredit

Feb. 23
When Is Student Learning ‘Good Enough’?

Almost from the beginning of its work, the Secretary of Education’sCommission on the Future of Higher Education made it clear that itconsidered the American system of higher education accreditation to befalling short of its mission to be the chief guardian of quality among thenation’s colleges. And yet the panel’s leaders, and the Education Departmentofficials charged with carrying out the commission’s recommendations, havealso clearly viewed the accreditation system — because it touches virtuallyall colleges and universities — as a potential lever for bringing about thebroader changes they envision for higher education.

The commission’s foremost recommendation, arguably, is that colleges anduniversities must do more to ensure that students are actually learning whatthe institutions are promising to teach them or train them to do. So at thecore of the Education Department’s full-court press on accreditors is adesire to have the agencies ratchet up the pressure they in turn place oncolleges to measure (and prove) that their students are learning and,importantly, to try to find ways to compare the institutions’ success to oneanother.

That issue stirred controversy in December when a department advisorycommittee was accused of trying to unfairly change the criteria it uses tojudge accrediting agencies. And it came front and center Thursday on thesecond day of the Education Department’s first negotiated rule makingsession on accreditation. (A full recap of Day 1, which might be helpfulcontext for the uninitiated, appears here.)



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16763145.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Posted on Fri, Feb. 23, 2007

Outpatient limbo for injured U.S troops
OUR OPINION: SHAMEFUL INEPTITUDE, NEGLECT AT WALTER REED HOSPITAL

At a time when politicians of every stripe are falling all over themselvesto show support for the troops, the conditions at Walter Reed Army MedicalCenter Building 18 is a repudiation of all of their self-serving blather.Here, sick troops coexist with vermin, cockroaches and mold.

Paperwork is often lost. Troops get the runaround when they ask about thestatus of their disability claims.

Program in shambles

When The Washington Post shone a light on the deplorable conditions at thefacility in an investigative series this week, the rush to fix things beganalmost immediately. ''The senior Army leadership takes full responsibilityfor the lack of quality of life at Building 18, and we're going to fix it,''said Gen. Richard Cody, the Army vice chief of staff. While the Pentagonbelatedly gives these troops the care they deserve, it also must find andeliminate the underlying causes.

In Building 18, too many of some 700 physically and mentally woundedoutpatients have languished for months, even years, while the Army decidestheir fate. What a shabby, shameful welcome home for men and women who haveserved in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Walter Reed, the country's top military hospital, still deliversstate-of-the-art medical care. Yet its outpatients' program is in shamblesbecause of a bumbling bureaucracy and the unremitting demands of 5 ½ yearsof treating a steady stream of soldiers and Marines injured in Afghanistanand Iraq.

While some troops await treatment, others wait for a decision on whethertheir disabilities are war related. If so, there is extra pay. If not, theyare returned to duty or discharged. Many have been stuck in this limbowithout help or guidance to navigate the bureaucracy. Some are onmedications that affect their mental capacity. Others are amputeesstruggling to rebuild their lives.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16763148.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Posted on Fri, Feb. 23, 2007

CLIMATE CHANGE
We must reverse global warming

BY JEFFREY SACHS
www.project-syndicate.org

The world is in the midst of a great political transformation in whichclimate change has moved to the center of national and global politics. Forpoliticians in persistent denial about the need to act -- includingPresident Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Canadian PrimeMinister Stephen Harper -- there is no longer any place to hide.

These political leaders have pretended that climate change is a merehypothesis. For several years, the Bush administration tried to hide thefacts from the public, deleting references to man-made climate fromgovernment documents and even trying to suppress statements by leadinggovernment scientists. Until recently, ExxonMobil and other companies paidlobbyists to try to distort the public debate.

Yet truth has triumphed over political maneuvers. The climate itself issending a powerful and often devastating message. Hurricane Katrina made theU.S. public aware that global warming would likely raise the intensity ofdestructive storms. Australia's great drought this past year has similarlymade a mockery of Howard's dismissive attitude toward climate change.

Scientists themselves have operated with great seriousness of purpose ineducating the public. We can thank the United Nations for that. This year,the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a worldwidebody of hundreds of climate scientists, is releasing its fourth round ofreports, starting with the one issued early this month.

That report was unequivocal: There is a powerful scientific consensus thathuman activity -- mainly the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), aswell as deforestation and other land uses (such as growing paddy rice) --leads to massive emissions of carbon dioxide into the air. This is causingclimate change, which is accelerating and poses serious risks to the planet.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16763152.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Posted on Fri, Feb. 23, 2007

Fighting the Iraq war here at home, too

BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN
www.creators.com

WASHINGTON -- If the Bush-Cheney administration is unwilling to withdrawfrom Iraq, and Democrats and a growing number of Republicans are unwillingto invest any more blood and treasure to achieve victory, what is the likelyfuture -- for us at home?

As war deaths rise over the next 23 months, opposition to the war will grow,acrimony will grow, bitterness will grow, and recriminations will escalate.

Republicans have already split over the surge, with the opponents beingcalled cowards by their colleagues. Democrats will soon divide over whetherto cut off funds. For Harry Reid cannot long hide the division in theDemocratic caucus, and Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha are prepared to fight itout with fellow Democrats in the House.

A sure sign this war is unlikely to end well is the scavenger hunt in theWar Party to fix responsibility for failure on anyone but themselves. InVanity Fair, the ''cakewalk'' crowd renounces Rumsfeld and Bush. The war wasan integral part of our brilliant strategy, they say. But we cannot be heldresponsible for the incompetence of those charged with carrying it out.

The John Edwards Democrats say: If only we had known then what we know now,we would never have voted for war. And they apologize.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16762963.htm

Posted on Fri, Feb. 23, 2007

At Large

Nothing replaces family support for black kids

By LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com

One month and 1,400 e-mails later, here is a progress report on What Works.That's a series of columns I started last month in which I asked folks totell me, in 250 words or less, about programs in their communities that haveshown success in improving the lives of African-American children in fivespecific areas: self-esteem, violence prevention, education, fatherlessnessand poverty.

SOME IDEAS

And then came the deluge. So far, I've read through about 400 of your 1,400e-mails. Let me share some impressions:

1. There are some rather . . . visionary thinkers out there. One personswears transcendental meditation will fix what ails African-Americanchildren. Another says a mass conversion to Orthodox Judaism will do thetrick.

2. There is a lot of wonderful work being done out there. At the Universityof Dayton, for instance, they've got an effective college-prep program forat-risk kids. In Baltimore, there's a high school where I'm told 72 percentof the kids live below the poverty line but 90 percent go to college. InIndianapolis, they're using classical music to reach out to kids; inDetroit, they're using sports; in Miami, they're using the sea.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/opinion/23fri2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

February 23, 2007
Editorial
Damaged and Adrift in the Shadows

When the Senate next debates whether to debate the Iraq war, members woulddo well to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center, just five miles to thenorth. There they can run a stark reality check on how the country isfailing the war’s wounded despite all those Capitol orations aboutunstinting support of our fighting troops.

As fine as the surgery wards have been through a five-year torrent of battlecasualties, Walter Reed has seen the shameful growth of a parallel villageof almost 700 traumatized and maimed outpatients. Far too many of thesesouls wait lost and wasted, abandoned by the post’s and the Army’s shamblingbureaucracy.

This outpatient world has become a holding ground for desperation anddysfunction, according to a Washington Post investigative report. Some driftaway unnoticed, AWOL, while others huddle in their rooms, depressed andforgotten. The scenes uncovered by The Post range from slumlord conditionsin one residential building to drug abuse and suicide among desperatepatients caught in a Catch-22, where psychologically damaged veterans areput in charge of fellow sufferers.

A staff sergeant who had his eye and skull shattered in Iraq stumbled aboutafter his release from a surgical recovery room. He was handed a map andordered to find his way across the sprawling post to the outpatient unit.After he found his room he sat for weeks like some accidental tourist, withno doctor appointments nor official concern. “Shouldn’t they contact me?” hewondered.

The Army is promising to rush repairs and extra personnel. But the shamefulneglect at Walter Reed is more proof of how America’s leaders — despite allthe rhetoric about unlimited support for the troops — are failing the nation’swarriors in this disastrous war.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/opinion/23milani.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

February 23, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor

What Scares Iran’s Mullahs?

By ABBAS MILANI
Stanford, Calif.

IRAN has once again defied the United Nations by proceeding with enrichmentactivities, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported yesterday. Andyet, simultaneously, Iranian officials have been sending a very differentmessage — one that has gone largely unremarked but merits close attention.

After a meeting with the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader’schief foreign policy adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, declared last week thatsuspending uranium enrichment is not a red line for the regime — in otherwords, the mullahs might be ready to agree to some kind of asuspension. Another powerful insider, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, saidmuch the same thing in a different setting, while a third high-rankingofficial acknowledged that the Islamic Republic is seriously considering aproposal by President Vladimir Putin of Russia to suspend enrichment atleast long enough to start serious negotiations with the United Nations.

There have also been indications that the Iranians are willing to accept acompromise plan presented by Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency. That plan calls for the suspension ofall major enrichment activities but allows the regime to save face bykeeping a handful of centrifuges in operation.



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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/opinion/23krugman.html

February 23, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Colorless Green Ideas
By PAUL KRUGMAN

The factual debate about whether global warming is real is, or at leastshould be, over. The question now is what to do about it.

Aside from a few dead-enders on the political right, climate change skepticsseem to be making a seamless transition from denial to fatalism. In thepast, they rejected the science. Now, with the scientific evidence prettymuch irrefutable, they insist that it doesn’t matter because any seriousattempt to curb greenhouse gas emissions is politically and economicallyimpossible.

Behind this claim lies the assumption, explicit or implicit, that anysubstantial cut in energy use would require a drastic change in the way welive. To be fair, some people in the conservation movement seem to sharethat assumption.

But the assumption is false. Let me tell you about a real-worldcounterexample: an advanced economy that has managed to combine risingliving standards with a substantial decline in per capita energyconsumption, and managed to keep total carbon dioxide emissions more or lessflat for two decades, even as both its economy and its population grewrapidly. And it achieved all this without fundamentally changing a lifestylecentered on automobiles and single-family houses.

The name of the economy? California.



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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/opinion/23friedman.html

February 23, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist

A Foreign Policy Built on Do-Overs
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Watching the Bush team wrestle with Iran, North Korea and Iraq reminds me ofsomething that used to be said of the Reagan administration: The right handnever knew what the far right hand was doing.

In fact, my bet is that when the inside history of the Bush team is written,we will discover that, contrary to its carefully managed image of adisciplined core operating from consistent, conservative principles, it hasactually been one of the most internally divided administrations — ever.

The only thing the Bush folks all agreed on was that they would never doanything Bill Clinton did. Beyond that, it’s been a food fight. The trial ofScooter Libby, with its testimony about wars between the V.P.’s office andthe White House, the White House and the C.I.A., and everyone against theState Department, proves that beyond a reasonable doubt.

When the former Bush U.N. ambassador John Bolton trashed the president’srecent deal with North Korea as a “charade,” though, he highlighted thebiggest internal division of all within the Bush team: how to deal withrogue regimes like Iran, North Korea and Saddam’s Iraq — whether to go forregime change or behavior change.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/us/politics/23feud.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

February 23, 2007

Detour From High Road in Clinton-Obama Clash
By ADAM NAGOURNEY

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — After weeks of watching in frustration as SenatorBarack Obama presented himself as a fresh face gliding above partisanpolitics, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has drawn Mr. Obama onto a muddypolitical field, engaging him in a back-and-forth that recalls the kind ofWashington bickering Mr. Obama has decried.

Mrs. Clinton’s effort to identify Mr. Obama with an attack made by one ofhis chief Hollywood supporters was widely viewed among Democrats as carryingsome cost to Mrs. Clinton. The remarks at the heart of the dispute, by DavidGeffen, the Hollywood executive who was once a big fund-raiser for theClintons, were a sharp reminder of Clinton family history that has led someDemocrats to believe Mrs. Clinton cannot win a general election.

But when it came to tallying the final score on the most intense engagementso far in the 2008 presidential race, even Mr. Obama, the junior senatorfrom Illinois, seemed to acknowledge that he may have been outmaneuvered.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Mr. Obama said he had not been awarebeforehand of the statement his campaign had put out Wednesday morningresponding to the public demand by Howard Wolfson, Mrs. Clinton’shard-driving senior communications adviser, that Mr. Obama denounce Mr.Geffen and return the money he had raised.

Mr. Obama said he had been on a red-eye flight, getting a haircut and takinghis daughters to school as the fight broke out, and strongly suggested hehad told his aides he wanted to stay above the fray.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022202189_pf.html

For Clinton, New Wealth In Speeches
Fees in 6 Years Total Nearly $40 Million

By John Solomon and Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 23, 2007; A01

Former president Bill Clinton, who came to the White House with modest meansand left deeply in debt, has collected nearly $40 million in speaking feesover the past six years, according to interviews and financial disclosurestatements filed by his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Last year, one of his most lucrative since he left the presidency, Clintonearned $9 million to $10 million on the lecture circuit. He averaged almosta speech a day -- 352 for the year -- but only about 20 percent were forpersonal income. The others were given for no fee or for donations to theWilliam J. Clinton Foundation, the nonprofit group he founded to pursuecauses such as the fight against AIDS.

His paid speeches included $150,000 appearances before landlord groups,biotechnology firms and food distributors, as well as speeches in England,Ireland, New Zealand and Australia that together netted him more than $1.6million. On one particularly good day in Canada, Clinton made $475,000 fortwo speeches, more than double his annual salary as president.

"I never had a nickel to my name until I got out of the White House, and nowI'm a millionaire, the most favored person for the Washington Republicans,"Clinton told a friendly audience in Kentucky last fall. "I get a tax cutevery year, no matter what our needs are."

Indeed, the Clintons -- who left the White House with an estimated $12million in legal debts rung up during the Whitewater, campaign fundraisingand Monica S. Lewinsky investigations -- are worth an estimated $10 millionto $50 million, according to Hillary Clinton's most recent disclosure form.That is attributable primarily to the speaking fees and to the seven-figurebook deals that both Clintons signed shortly after leaving the White House.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201875_pf.html

Chávez Builds His Sphere Of Influence
Venezuelan Spends to Counter U.S.

By Juan Forero and Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 23, 2007; D01

CARACAS, Venezuela President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela has long pledged tobuck Washington-backed economic policies in Latin America. Now, two monthsafter winning reelection and consolidating his hold on the country with newpowers to rule by decree, he is strengthening economic ties in the region ina bid to limit U.S. influence.

Chávez recently announced that his government would build housing, a highwayand an oil refinery in Nicaragua, part of an aid package that would benefitone of Washington's most tenacious Cold War adversaries, President DanielOrtega.

Farther south, Venezuela has pledged to provide Ecuador with $1 billion incredit, a gesture that would soften the blow if that country's leftistgovernment follows through on its threat to default on foreign debtpayments. And, along with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, a foe ofthe Bush administration, Chávez has announced a $2 billion internationalinvestment fund for Latin America.

Taken together, economists and others who track the country's affairs say,the investments signify an effort by Venezuela to curb the reach of the U.S.government, whose influence has waned in Latin America. For Chávez, the goalis nothing less than to kill the so-called Washington consensus, theeconomic prescriptions championed by the International Monetary Fund and theU.S. Treasury, which press governments to limit spending, raise interestrates and open their economies to foreign trade and investment.

Backing such economic principles as privatization and trade liberalization,the consensus rooted out bloated bureaucracies and helped tamehyper-inflation. Yet even those countries that have run their economiesalong Washington consensus lines have generally seen disappointing rates ofeconomic growth and deepening poverty. The electoral success of such leftistleaders as Chávez, Ortega, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Ecuador's Rafael Correais in part the result of the failure of previous policies to generate growthand raise incomes, economists say.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201457_pf.html

Clinton and Obama's Hollywood Scene

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, February 23, 2007; A19

It was a good day for Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Bill Richardson,Tom Vilsack -- and, what the heck, Dennis Kucinich.

It was a bad day for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and David Geffen.

It was a good day for the Republican Party, particularly George W. Bush,John McCain and Dick Cheney.

It was a bad day for the Democratic Party, opponents of the Iraq war andadvocates of national health insurance.

The petty feud was started by big-time producer Geffen's brutal remarksabout the Clintons, which appeared after he helped raise a ton of Hollywoodmoney for Obama. The grudge match revived those depressing cliches about theDemocrats: their affection for circular firing squads and their habit ofnever missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201455_pf.html

A Conservative Conservationist?
Why the Right Needs to Get Invested in the Search for Climate ChangeSolutions

By Mark Sanford
Friday, February 23, 2007; A19

When George W. Bush, The Post and the insurance giant Lloyd's of Londonagree on something, it's obvious a new wind is blowing. The climate changedebate is here to stay, and as America warms to the idea of environmentalconservation on a grander scale, it's vital that conservatives change thedebate before government regulation expands yet again and personal freedomis pushed closer toward extinction.

The fact is, I'm a conservative and a conservationist -- and that's okay.

For the past 20 years, I have seen the ever-so-gradual effects of rising sealevels at our farm on the South Carolina coast. I've had to watchonce-thriving pine trees die in that fragile zone between uplands and saltmarshes. I know the climate change debate isn't over, but I believe humanactivity is having a measurable effect on the environment.

The real "inconvenient truth" about climate change is that some people arelosing their rights and freedoms because of the actions of others -- ineither the quality of the air they breathe, the geography they hold dear,the insurance costs they bear or the future environment of the children theylove.

But like a polar bear searching for solid ice, many people seem ready to diginto the first solution offered to slow or reverse climate change. Cueformer vice president Al Gore -- the politician turned screen star who couldtake home an Academy Award this weekend and a Nobel Peace Prize later thisyear -- whose call for greater government intervention is resonating withadministrations in this country and across the globe: California may soonban incandescent light bulbs; France wants to force the Kyoto-less UnitedStates to pay carbon taxes on exports; and the European Union is pushingautomobile emission standards that would cost carmakers such as Volvoroughly $3,200 more per vehicle.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201456_pf.html

Depends What the Meaning of 'Mistake' Is

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, February 23, 2007; A19

Hillary Clinton's rivals would love to paint her as inflexible, programmed,focus-grouped within an inch of her life and intent on bringing nothing lessthan a full-fledged Clinton Restoration to the White House. So why is shesitting for the portrait?

We'll get to her campaign's delicious quarrel with Hollywood mogul DavidGeffen in a moment. Less entertaining, but ultimately more important, is therhetorical line that Clinton drew in the Iraqi quicksand Wednesday at theDemocratic candidates' forum in Nevada: no apology for her vote to authorizethe war, no admission that she made a mistake. In other words, Clintonopposes the war but defends her vote to enable it.

That's the kind of carefully calibrated position that I suppose might helpher in the general election, when she would have to win support fromindependents. It would let her avoid the "I voted for it before I votedagainst it" trap that snared John Kerry in 2004. But buckling herself into ano-regrets straitjacket so early can only hurt Clinton among Democraticprimary voters, who overwhelmingly oppose the war -- and who, by allevidence, expect abject contrition from candidates who voted to authorizeit.

Barack Obama gets a pass -- he wasn't anywhere near Congress at the time,and he publicly opposed the war to boot. John Edwards and Christopher Dodd,both of whom were in the Senate in 2002, have proclaimed that their votes toauthorize the invasion were wrong and are begging forgiveness.

Asked about Clinton's position, Edwards said: "Whether it's good enough, Ithink, is between her and her conscience. It's not for me to judge."



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201454_pf.html

Signals From Tehran

By David Ignatius
Friday, February 23, 2007; A19

The title of the two-page Iranian document is "Gentlemen's Agreement." Inconvoluted English, it lists 11 points of understanding supposedly reachedin September between Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani and his Europeancounterpart, Javier Solana, on a temporary, partial, not-quite suspension ofuranium enrichment.

What's interesting isn't the purported agreement -- Solana's spokeswoman,Cristina Gallach, insists there wasn't one -- but the fact that the Iraniansare circulating the document and signaling through various channels thatthey want to restart dialogue. Indeed, when Larijani met Solana in Munichthis month, "he expressed the willingness to resume talks to prepare finalnegotiations," according to a source close to Solana.

"We're getting pinged all over the world by Iranians wanting to talk to us,"Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns said in an interview yesterday.The problem, says Burns, is that the Iranians haven't yet said the "magicword," which is that they will actually suspend enrichment in exchange forthe suspension of U.N. sanctions.

With Iran still publicly defying the United Nations over its nuclearprogram, the United States and its allies agreed yesterday to tighten thepressure another notch by preparing a second U.N. Security Councilresolution with additional sanctions. Burns said Russia and China agreed toback the new resolution in a meeting yesterday with Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice. "It may not be substantially stronger, but it will bestronger," said Burns, who will travel to London on Monday to negotiate thedetails of the new resolution.

U.S. and European officials think Iran's new interest in negotiations is asign that pressure on Tehran is working. The campaign includes the initialU.N. sanctions resolution, which shook the Iranians because it was backed byRussia and China; tough U.S. banking sanctions, accompanied by a successfulTreasury Department push to dissuade European and Japanese banks fromlending to Iran; and calculated muscle-flexing by the Bush administration,which has sent an additional aircraft carrier task force to the Persian Gulfand seized Iranian operatives inside Iraq.



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Dear MoveOn member,

The Democratic Party of Nevada just announced plans to let Fox News host apresidential primary debate.1 But Fox isn't a legitimate news channel. It'sa right-wing mouthpiece like Rush Limbaugh and the Drudge Report—repeatingfalse Republican talking points to smear Democrats.

Fox has already tried to skew the '08 race by accusing Senator Barack Obamaof attending a terrorist school. CNN immediately exposed the charge asfalse,2 and Obama hit back by refusing to appear on Fox—sending themscrambling.3 Democrats can force Fox to be fair and balanced by fightingback hard.

Can you sign this petition asking the Democratic Party of Nevada to drop Foxas its partner for the presidential primary debate?

The full text of the petition is: "Fox is a mouthpiece for the RepublicanParty, not a legitimate news channel. The Democratic Party of Nevada shoulddrop Fox as its partner for the presidential primary debate."

Clicking here will add your name to the petition:
http://civic.moveon.org/foxdebate/o.pl?id=9922-5533006-EUxVxb&t=3

It's very important to also invite our friends to sign this petition. Ifever there was a battle where we could beat Fox, this is it—since Democratswill make the ultimate decision, not Fox executives. But to be convinced,Democratic leaders need to see a growing public backlash.

We'll deliver the petition signatures to the Democratic Party of Nevada andlet petition signers know what next steps they can take to make adifference.

When you click the petition link, you'll see a great new YouTube video fromfilmmaker Robert Greenwald called "Fox Attacks: Obama." It exposes Fox'snumerous attacks on Senator Obama—saying he attended a terrorist school,belittling his race, and implying that his name sounds like that of aterrorist.



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Technology Review

http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=18216

Thursday, February 22, 2007
Regrowing Teeth

Researchers are finding ways to use stem cells to regrow teeth--apotentially easier and healthier alternative to dentures and dentalimplants.

By Jennifer Chu

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the averageAmerican will lose about eight teeth by the time he or she turns 50. Commonreplacements include dentures, which have been known to erode the underlyingbone over time, and dental implants, which are prone to falling out afterseveral years' use. Thus, the ability to regrow a natural tooth, with theaccompanying bone, root, and nerves, could provide a significantly healthieralternative for many.


Recently, a Japanese team from the Tokyo University of Science, led byassociate professor Takashi Tsuji, reported in Nature Methods that it hadsuccessfully regrown a tooth from cells extracted from mouse embryos. Theresearchers were able to transplant the tooth into an adult mouse, and thetooth bud continued to grow to full size.




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The New York Times

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/bush-and-cheney-owe-an-explanation/

February 21, 2007, 10:07 am
Bush and Cheney Owe an Explanation
By Nicholas D. Kristof

One way or another, the Scooter Libby trial will soon be over. Whatever theverdict, President Bush and Vice President Cheney owe the American people acandid explanation of what went on in that period in the White House.

I’m not by nature a conspiracy theorist, and I don’t presume to know whatBush or Cheney did. But the trial has raised fundamental questions abouttheir involvement on the periphery of allegedly criminal actions, and theyneed to clear the air. Cheney argued — fatuously, I believe — that it wouldbe inappropriate for him to discuss the matter because of the pending trial;in any case, that burden is removed and he should speak up.

The basic question for Cheney is whether he directed an effort from theWhite House to tar the reputations of Joe and Valerie Wilson, blame theC.I.A. for misleading him and leak to favored reporters the fact thatValerie worked for the C.I.A. in the W.M.D. area.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/business/23cool.html?pagewanted=print

February 23, 2007
As Asia Keeps Cool, Scientists Worry About the Ozone Layer
By KEITH BRADSHER

MUMBAI, India — Until recently, it looked like the depleted ozone layerprotecting the earth from harmful solar rays was on its way to being healed.

But thanks in part to an explosion of demand for air-conditioners in hotplaces like India and southern China — mostly relying on refrigerantsalready banned in Europe and in the process of being phased out in theUnited States — the ozone layer is proving very hard to repair.

Four months ago, scientists discovered that the “hole” created by the world’suse of ozone-depleting gases — in aerosol spray cans, aging refrigeratorsand old air-conditioners — had expanded again, stretching once more to therecord size of 2001.

An unusually cold Antarctic winter, rather than the rise in the use ofrefrigerants, may have caused the sudden expansion, which covered an arealarger than North America.

But it has refocused attention on the ozone layer, which protects people andother animals as well as vegetation from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays.Now, the world’s atmospheric scientists are concerned that theair-conditioning boom sweeping across Asia could lead to more seriousproblems in the future.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/us/23dumping.html?pagewanted=print

February 23, 2007
‘Dumping’ of Homeless by Hospitals Stirs Debate
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 22 — For a year, reports have surfaced that hospitals herehave left homeless patients on downtown streets, including a paraplegic manwearing a hospital gown and colostomy bag who witnesses say pulled himselfthrough the streets with a plastic bag of his belongings held in his teeth.

Now, prosecutors are hoping a bill introduced last week in the State Senatewill give them stronger legal firepower to charge the hospitals.

Of the 55 or so reports of “patient dumping,” principally in the dilapidatedquarter known as Skid Row, only a handful are being investigated forcriminal activity, said Rocky Delgadillo, the city attorney. Only onehospital has been charged, using a misdemeanor count that has never beentested in court.

The problem is that while California state law requires hospitals to havewritten procedures outlining follow-up care for patients, it does notexpressly prohibit leaving them on the street.

Advocates for the homeless said it was common in many cities for homelesspeople still requiring medical treatment to end up on the street or at thedoors of shelters ill prepared for their medical needs.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/washington/23congress.html?pagewanted=print

February 23, 2007
Senate Democrats in Bid to Limit U.S. Role in Iraq
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — Senior Senate Democrats, stepping up theirconfrontation with President Bush over Iraq policy, are preparinglegislation that would limit the role of United States troops there tocounterterrorism efforts and prohibit them from interceding in sectarianviolence.

Senate officials said Thursday that the proposal now being drafted would bea new turn in their attempts to force the White House to halt its troopbuildup in Baghdad. They described it as more substantive than thenonbinding resolution of opposition to the increase that stalled in theSenate last Saturday.

The officials would speak only if not identified because the centralproposal was still being drafted and needs to be presented to all SenateDemocrats when they return from a weeklong recess next Tuesday.

They said the proposal was intended to essentially overturn the 2002resolution granting Mr. Bush the authority to remove Saddam Hussein frompower, and limit the military to combating Al Qaeda in Iraq, keeping Iraqfrom becoming a haven for terrorists and training Iraqi forces. The proposal’sgoal, officials said, would be to allow combat forces not engaged in thoseduties to be removed from Iraq next year.

The chief authors are Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the chairmanof the Foreign Relations Committee, and Carl Levin of Michigan, the chairmanof the Armed Services Committee. The plan is to try to attach the proposalto an antiterrorism bill the Senate expects to begin considering Tuesday.





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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/washington/23congress.html?pagewanted=print

February 23, 2007
Senate Democrats in Bid to Limit U.S. Role in Iraq
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — Senior Senate Democrats, stepping up theirconfrontation with President Bush over Iraq policy, are preparinglegislation that would limit the role of United States troops there tocounterterrorism efforts and prohibit them from interceding in sectarianviolence.

Senate officials said Thursday that the proposal now being drafted would bea new turn in their attempts to force the White House to halt its troopbuildup in Baghdad. They described it as more substantive than thenonbinding resolution of opposition to the increase that stalled in theSenate last Saturday.

The officials would speak only if not identified because the centralproposal was still being drafted and needs to be presented to all SenateDemocrats when they return from a weeklong recess next Tuesday.

They said the proposal was intended to essentially overturn the 2002resolution granting Mr. Bush the authority to remove Saddam Hussein frompower, and limit the military to combating Al Qaeda in Iraq, keeping Iraqfrom becoming a haven for terrorists and training Iraqi forces. The proposal’sgoal, officials said, would be to allow combat forces not engaged in thoseduties to be removed from Iraq next year.

The chief authors are Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the chairmanof the Foreign Relations Committee, and Carl Levin of Michigan, the chairmanof the Armed Services Committee. The plan is to try to attach the proposalto an antiterrorism bill the Senate expects to begin considering Tuesday.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/nyregion/23suicide.html?pagewanted=print

February 23, 2007
One Immigrant Family’s Hopes Lead to a Jail Cell Suicide
By NINA BERNSTEIN

It took 20 years of sacrifices and separations for Nery Romero’s parents,immigrants from El Salvador, to obtain legal residency for the whole familyin the United States. But Mr. Romero, 22, quickly forfeited his right tostay.

His criminal convictions — for an attempted robbery in 2003, and forbreaking into two parked cars to steal stereos in 2005 — were more thanenough to make him deportable. So it was not exactly a surprise when hisprobation officer showed up at his parents’ home in Elmont, on Long Island,on Feb. 8 with a half-dozen immigration agents who took him from the room heshared with his girlfriend and infant daughter.

Mr. Romero was taking a powerful prescription painkiller for an unhealed leginjury, and his girlfriend says the agents took along the medication,assuring her that he would get proper care.

Five days later, he was dead. He hanged himself with his bed sheets in acell at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey, the authorities said. And theywere quick to suggest an explanation.

“This guy did not want to go back,” said Benjamin Feldman, a spokesman forthe county sheriff’s office, which houses immigration detainees from NewYork under contract with the federal government. He called Mr. Romero “areputed gang member” and said he might have feared revenge in El Salvador.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022200791_pf.html

Religion News in Brief
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 22, 2007; 12:17 PM

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A top Southern Baptist executive says leaders in theconvention should examine the spiritual health of the denomination now thattheological conservatives have been in control for several years.

Morris Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist executive committee, saidhis fellow leaders must look at whether the 16.3 million-member church isnow better off.

"Is our convention any better spiritually because biblical conservatives areleading?" Chapman asked Monday, during the committee's winter meeting. "Ileave that question for you to answer in the depths of your own heart."

The conservative resurgence started in 1979, when Southern Baptists angryabout what they saw as the liberal direction of their seminaries elected afellow conservative as the convention president.

It was a watershed that began a dramatic shift to the right _ theologicallyand politically _ in the years that followed.

But in the last few years, the number of baptisms in Southern Baptistchurches has reached a low point, and many of the congregations have eithernot grown or declined in membership.

Also, internal conflicts have arisen over whether Southern Baptists canspeak in tongues during worship, among other theological disagreements.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201781_pf.html

Test Scores at Odds With Rising High School Grades

By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 23, 2007; A01

High school seniors are performing worse overall on some national tests thanthey did in the previous decade, even though they are receivingsignificantly higher grades and taking what seem to be more rigorouscourses, according to government data released yesterday.

The mismatch between stronger transcripts and weak test scores on theNational Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the nation'sreport card, resonated in the Washington area and elsewhere. Some seizedupon the findings as evidence of grade inflation and the dumbing-down ofcourses. The findings also prompted renewed calls for tough nationalstandards and the expansion of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

"We have our work cut out for us," Education Secretary Margaret Spellingssaid in a statement.

"If, in fact, our high school students are taking more challenging coursesand earning higher grades, we should be seeing greater gains in testscores."

About 35 percent of 12th-graders tested in 2005 scored proficient or betterin reading -- the lowest percentage since the test was launched in 1992, thenew data showed. And less than a quarter of seniors scored at leastproficient on a new version of the math test; officials called those resultsdisappointing but said they could not be compared to past scores. Inaddition, a previous report found that 18 percent of seniors in 2005 scoredat least proficient in science, down from 21 percent in 1996.

At the same time, the average high school grade-point average rose from 2.68in 1990 (about a B-minus) to 2.98 in 2005 (about a B), according to a studyof transcripts from graduating seniors.

The study also found that the percentage of graduating seniors who completeda standard or mid-level course of study rose from 35 to 58 percent in thattime; meanwhile, the percentage who took the highest-level curriculumdoubled, to 10 percent.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022200971_pf.html

Experts: Padilla Unable to Stand Trial

By CURT ANDERSON
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 22, 2007; 6:31 PM

MIAMI -- Accused al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla suffers from intense stressand anxiety stemming from his isolated years in military custody and cannotadequately help his lawyers prepare for trial, two defense mental expertstestified Thursday.

Defense lawyers hope to delve more deeply into Padilla's treatment at a Navybrig in Charleston, S.C., later in the federal hearing, when they areallowed to question brig officials directly involved in his custody. Thoseofficials have never spoken publicly about the case, and the hearing willcontinue Monday.

"He is immobilized by his anxiety," said Patricia Zapf, a forensicpsychologist who administered tests on Padilla last October. "He believes hewill go back to the brig and he will die there."

The hearing before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke on Padilla's competencyis crucial in deciding whether he and two co-defendants will stand trial inApril.

Padilla, a 36-year-old U.S. citizen, is charged with being part of a NorthAmerican terror support cell that provided money, recruits and supplies toIslamic extremists around the world. All three have pleaded not guilty andface possible life imprisonment.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201063_pf.html

U.S. Plans To Ease Rule on Passports
Change to Affect Youths Crossing Canadian Border

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 23, 2007; A12

TORONTO, Feb. 22 -- The United States plans to ease passport requirementsfor teenagers and children crossing from Canada into the United States, inan attempt to defuse complaints that new security rules will throttlecross-border visitation.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that it will proposeallowing teenagers 18 and younger traveling with teams or organizations, andall children 15 or younger, to use a certified birth certificate to crossthe border, instead of a passport.

The change is an attempt to solve the "team bus" problem, in which criticssaid school trips and games between teams of neighboring towns would becanceled under the new U.S. rules requiring a passport to cross the border.

DHS hopes to impose the new passport rule, developed after the attacks ofSept. 11, 2001, on land-border crossings by next January, although Congresshas extended the deadline to June 2009. Air travelers entering from Canadaand Mexico were required to use passports beginning last month.

Canadians and U.S. border-state officials have complained that the new rulesat land crossings will sharply cut tourism and be a burden in towns near theborder whose citizens customarily cross easily and frequently.



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365gay

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/02/022207bush.htm

Atheists Sue Bush Over Faith Based Initiatives
by The Associated Press
Posted: February 22, 2007 - 9:00 pm ET

(Madison, Wisconsin) Annie Laurie Gaylor speaks with a soft voice, but hermessage catches attention: Keep God out of government.

Gaylor has helped transform the Freedom From Religion Foundation fromobscurity into the nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics, with afast-rising membership and increasing legal clout.

Next week, the group started by Gaylor and her mother in the 1970s to takeon the religious right will fight its most high-profile battle when the U.S.Supreme Court hears arguments on its lawsuit against President Bush'sfaith-based initiative.

The court will decide whether taxpayers can sue over federal funding thatthe foundation believes promotes religion. It could be a major ruling forgroups that fight to keep church and state separate.

"What's at stake is the right to challenge the establishment of religion bythe government," Gaylor said.

The 51-year-old once donned a nun's habit as a college student in 1977 toprotest a judge who blamed rape on women who wear provocative clothing.


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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_us17feb22,0,1827396,print.story

U.S. to Exempt Kids From Passport Rules
By RON VAMPLE
Associated Press Writer

February 23, 2007, 2:24 AM EST

DETROIT -- U.S. and Canadian children will be exempt from new rules thatwill require travelers to show passports when entering the U.S. at land orsea borders, a move the Bush administration said Thursday is aimed athelping families and school groups.

The new passport requirements will take effect as soon as January 2008. In achange from earlier plans, U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 15 or youngerwith parental consent will be allowed to cross the borders at land and seaentry points with certified copies of their birth certificates rather thanpassports.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff discussed the relaxation inrules at a speech Thursday to the Detroit Economic Club before touring theDetroit-Windsor Tunnel, a link with Windsor, Ontario under the DetroitRiver.

"This is going to make it a lot easier for kids to cross the border withouthaving to get passports and passcards," Chertoff said. "By the way, it'sspecifically designed to make it cheaper for families."

U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 16 through 18 traveling with school,religious, cultural or athletic groups and under adult supervision will alsobe allowed to travel with only their birth certificates.


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