**In the event you are not able to access an article on the web, please contact us at rays.list@comcast.net and we'll send it to you.
FLORIDA RED AND BLUE!!!!
Do your part to fight the right-wing state-wide anti-gay initiativeto amend the Florida constitution.
Friday, September 28, at the GLCC, Ft. Lauderdale - 11:45am to 1:30pm.
Michael and I promised to get a minimum of 10 people to attend thislow dollar boxed lunch - only $25 - to learn about Florida Red And Blue andthe multiple efforts to overcome this hateful amendment. Florida Red andBlue has already raised over $1 million, but our work is only beginning.
Will you support us with this? Every GLBT person in Florida needs to be apart of this effort.
Boxed Lunch Series
$25
Friday, September 28
Noon - 1:30pm
Networking 11:45am
GLCC - Ft. Lauderdale
Send us an e-mail and let us know if you'll join us on the 28th.
And...... If you can't attend, we'll be glad to accept your check made outto "Florida Red and Blue."
Ray and Michael
rays.list@comcast.net
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/opinion/19wed1.html?ref=opinion
September 19, 2007
Editorial
The High Costs of Ethanol
Backed by the White House, corn-state governors and solid blocks on bothsides of Congress's partisan divide, the politics of biofuels could hardlylook sunnier. The economics of the American drive to increase ethanol in theenergy supply are more discouraging.
American corn-based ethanol is expensive. And while it can help cut oilimports and provide modest reductions in greenhouse gases compared toconventional gasoline, corn ethanol also carries considerable risks. Evennow as Europe and China join the United States in ramping up production,world food prices are rising, threatening misery for the poorest countries.
The European Union has announced that it wants to replace 10 percent of itstransport fuel with biofuels by 2020. China is aiming for a 15 percentshare. The United States is already on track to exceed Congress's 2005 goalof doubling the amount of ethanol used in motor fuels to 7.5 billion gallonsby 2012. In his State of the Union speech in January, President Bush set anew goal of 35 billion gallons of biofuels by 2017. In June, the Senateraised it to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Of that, Congress said that 15billion gallons should come from corn and 21 billion from advanced biofuelsthat are nowhere near commercial production.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/opinion/19friedman.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
September 19, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Doha and Dalian
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Dalian, China
In the last few weeks, I happened to visit Doha and Dalian, and I must say:I was stunned.
Before explaining why, let me acknowledge that chances are you've notvisited Doha or Dalian recently. Indeed, it may be - I presume nothing -that you have never heard of either city. Doha is the capital of Qatar, atiny state east of Saudi Arabia. Dalian is in northeast China and is one ofChina's Silicon Valleys because of its proliferation of software parks andits dynamic, techie mayor, Xia Deren. What was stunning is that I hadn'tbeen to either city for more than three years, and I barely recognizedeither one.
In Doha, since I was last there, a skyline that looks like a mini-Manhattanhas sprouted from the desert. Whatever construction cranes are not in Chinamust be in Doha today. This once sleepy harbor now has a profile ofskyscrapers, thanks to a huge injection of oil and gas revenues. Dalian,with six million people, already had a mini-Manhattan when I was last here.It seems to have grown two more since - including a gleaming new conventioncomplex built on a man-made peninsula.
But this, alas, is not a travel column. It's an energy column. If you wantto know why I remain a climate skeptic - not a skeptic about climate change,but a skeptic that we're going to be able to mitigate it - it's partlybecause of Doha and Dalian. Can you imagine how much energy all these newskyscrapers in just two cities you've never heard of are going to consumeand how much CO2 they are going to emit?
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/opinion/19brooks.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
September 19, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
The Education of Robert Gates
By DAVID BROOKS
WILLIAMSBURG, Va.
Robert Gates has been a godsend. After a bombastic defense secretary, we nowhave a candid one. After ego, we have self-effacement. After domination, wehave a man who welcomes discussion.
Gates was decisive during the Walter Reed hospital fiasco. He is honest andtrustworthy on Iraq. And on Monday, at the World Forum on the Future ofDemocracy at the College of William and Mary here, Gates delivered a speechthat could define the center ground of American foreign policy.
He ran through the history of the never-ending debate between realists andidealists. He noted that this debate began just after the founding of theRepublic. Thomas Jefferson saw the French Revolution as a triumph forliberty. John Adams saw it as reckless radicalism.
Throughout the messy years that followed, Gates explained, we have madedeals with tyrants to defeat other tyrants. We've championed human rightswhile doing business with some of the worst violators of human rights.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Rice.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1190209963-00zTajZJ1MtXtyeGWgG/Dg&pagewanted=print
September 19, 2007
Israel Declares Gaza an 'Enemy Entity'
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:26 a.m. ET
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's Security Cabinet declared the Gaza Strip an''enemy entity'' on Wednesday in order to cut off power and fuel supplies tothe coastal strip, a move likely to cloud Secretary of State CondoleezzaRice's visit on a peacemaking mission.
The group of top Israeli political and defense ministers did not set a datefor a cutoff. A statement from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office saidIsrael did not intend to provoke a humanitarian crisis.
Rice arrived Wednesday to mediate progress on key issues dividing Israel andthe Palestinians before a U.S.-sponsored peace gathering. But even beforeshe landed, Palestinian officials said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbaswould ask her not to set a firm date for the peace conference until it isclear he and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert can agree upon a jointstatement setting out their goals.
''President Abbas will ask Rice tomorrow not to set a specific date for theconference until they see the possibilities of having an agreement withIsrael,'' an official in Abbas' office said. He spoke on condition ofanonymity because Abbas and Rice had not yet met.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/us/politics/19romney.html?hp
September 19, 2007
The Long Run
In Olympics Success, Romney Found New Edge
By KIRK JOHNSON
SALT LAKE CITY - Mitt Romney walked onto the Olympic stage in 1999 a richbusinessman still smarting from losing his first bid for public office. Hewalked off, three years later, a star-polished candidate who would beelected governor of Massachusetts in a matter of months. This was the placeof his emergence and his transition.
In rescuing the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, which had been tarnishedby scandal, Mr. Romney learned the ways of Washington and the hurly-burly ofpolitics, mastered the news media, built a staff of loyalists and madefund-raising connections in Utah that have proven vital to his presidentialcampaign.
"The Olympics gave him a public persona he didn't have before," said RobertH. Garff, a businessman who served as the chairman of the Salt LakeOrganizing Committee. "He grew into the person he is today."
But the hardheaded and hard-nosed pragmatism that allowed Mr. Romney tojuggle an unruly coalition of politicians, sponsors and volunteers as chiefexecutive of the Games now haunts him on the campaign trail among someconservative Republicans. They complain that he has no core beliefs andshifts positions on a range of issues to placate various constituencies.
As a Republican presidential hopeful, for example, Mr. Romney portrayshimself as a budget hawk who would take a hard line on federal spending andCongressional earmarks, the pet projects that lawmakers insert in spendingbills.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-OJ-Simpson.html?pagewanted=print
September 19, 2007
O.J. Begins Court Fight in Las Vegas
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:36 a.m. ET
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A sports collectors who said he was confronted by agun-wielding ''thug'' with O.J. Simpson said Wednesday he initially thoughtthe group of men might be police officers and he believes the audio tapes ofthe confrontation were altered.
Simpson, who says he was trying to retrieve memorabilia that was stolen fromhim, faces several charges over the confrontation that could land him inprison for years if convicted.
He has been held since Sunday in protective custody in a 7-foot-by-14-footcell. His lawyer, Yale Galanter, planned to seek the former football star'srelease on Wednesday.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/washington/19nsa.html?pagewanted=print
September 19, 2007
Warrantless Wiretaps Not Used, Official Says
By JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 - The National Security Agency has not conductedwiretapping without warrants on the telephones of any Americans since atleast February, the nation's top intelligence officer told Congress onTuesday.
Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, told the HouseJudiciary Committee that since he took office that month, the government hasconducted electronic surveillance only after seeking court-approvedwarrants.
In January, the Bush administration announced that it had agreed to allow asecret intelligence court to oversee the N.S.A.'s eavesdropping program, andthat it would comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the30-year-old law that regulates the government's domestic spying activities.The administration's decision appeared to end the basis for the warrantlesswiretapping program secretly begun by President Bush just after the Sept. 11attacks.
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Inside Higher Education
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/19/international
Sept. 19
A Worldwide Test for Higher Education?
For much of the last year or two, debate has raged among American highereducation officials and state and federal policy makers about the wisdom andpracticality of creating a system that would allow for public comparison ofhow successfully individual colleges and/or programs are educating theirstudents. Many college leaders have rejected the push, which has emanatedprimarily from the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future ofHigher Education and the U.S. Education Department, on the grounds that thenation's colleges and universities - two-year and four-year, public andprivate, exclusive and open enrollment - and their students are far toovaried to be responsibly and intelligently measured by any single,standardized measure (or even a suite of them).
But the thirst among politicians and others seeking to hold colleges anduniversities more accountable for their performance is powerful, and it isnot merely an American phenomenon. Proof of that can be found in the factthat the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has conveneda small group of testing experts and higher education policy makers who havemet quietly in recent months to discuss the possibility of creating a commoninternational system to measure the learning outcomes of individual collegesand university systems, along the lines of the well-regarded test that OECDcountries now administer to 15-year-olds, the Program for InternationalStudent Assessment.
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Inside Higher Education
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/19/yale
Sept. 19
Appeals Court Upholds Military Recruiting
The Solomon Amendment has won another round in court, and the only remainingpush against it may have suffered a fatal blow this week when a federalappeals court upheld the constitutionality of the controversial measure.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the SolomonAmendment did not infringe on the First Amendment rights of law schools thatobjected to it. The law threatens to withhold federal funds frominstitutions that limit military recruiters' access to campuses, which manylaw schools historically have done to protest the Defense Department'sdiscriminatory policies toward gay people.
While Supreme Court rulings on specific laws generally settle matters, agroup of Yale University faculty members had a separate challenge to theSolomon Amendment and they won in federal district court, where they focusedon the First Amendment protections for academic freedom. The Pentagonappealed that ruling, but the case was on hold during the Supreme Courtreview. Some critics of the Solomon amendment hoped they had an argumentthat might work, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuitdisagreed.
The appeals court ruled that the Supreme Court's decision last year "almostcertainly" rejected the academic freedom argument put forth by theprofessors. And if it didn't, the appeals court found that the argument"lacks merit."
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flagaywed0919nbsep19,0,1554902,print.story
Maryland gay marriage ban upheld
Plaintiffs to target Legislature
September 19, 2007
BALTIMORE
By BEN NUCKOLS
The Associated Press
Plaintiffs vowed to take the fight over gay marriage in Maryland to theLegislature after the state's highest court threw out a suit challenging alaw that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
In a 4-3 decision, the Court of Appeals ruled that the state's 1973 ban ongay marriage does not discriminate on the basis of gender and does not denyany fundamental rights guaranteed by the state constitution. The court alsofound that the state has a legitimate interest in promoting opposite-sexmarriage.
"Our opinion should by no means be read to imply that the General Assemblymay not grant and recognize for homosexual persons civil unions or the rightto marry a person of the same sex," Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr. wrote for themajority.
Plaintiffs said that the judges missed a historic opportunity to strike downa discriminatory law. Legislators on both sides of the debate predictedaction on the issue in the next session. The heavily Democratic legislaturehas passed several gay-rights laws in recent years but has not voted onlegalizing same-sex marriage or civil unions.
"I think history will hold them in contempt," plaintiff Lisa Polyak said ofthe judges.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091801572.html
A Voting Test for the High Court
By Richard L. Hasen
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; Page A23
At a private conference next Monday, the Supreme Court will consider whetherto hear a challenge to Indiana's new law requiring voters to showphotographic identification at the polls. The court should take the case,both to correct a troubling partisan divide among lower-court judges overthe constitutionality of such laws and to reject a pernicious opinion byfederal Judge Richard A. Posner that belittles the right to vote.
It is no secret that a partisan divide over election administration hasemerged since the 2000 Florida debacle. Republican state legislators pushfor laws that they say will prevent voter fraud, and Democratic legislatorspush for laws they say will prevent voter intimidation and remove barriersto voting. Every state legislature that has passed a voter identificationlaw since 2000 has done so along party lines.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091801570.html
Voices That Tehran Fears
By Jeffrey Gedmin
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; Page A23
Our reporter Parnaz Azima finally made it out of Iran yesterday. Iranianauthorities, who had blocked her exit from the country since January,returned her passport two weeks ago but then proceeded to create a series ofbureaucratic obstacles that prevented her from returning to her family andcolleagues. Azima, who has U.S. and Iranian dual citizenship, works forRadio Farda, the Persian-language broadcast service of Radio FreeEurope/Radio Liberty, the congressionally funded broadcasters based inPrague.
Azima is one of Iran's best-known literary translators. She is famous forher translations of Ernest Hemingway's works. In January she traveled toTehran to visit her ailing 94-year-old mother and unwittingly becameensnared in a larger game being played by Iran's regime. Its aim is simple:to intimidate dissidents at home while pressuring the United States torefrain from supporting Iranian civil society.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091801745_pf.html
A 'Palpable Injustice'
The Republican Party blocks voting rights for the District of Columbia.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; A22
THE U.S. SENATE had a chance yesterday to make history. It chose instead toadd another unconscionable chapter to that well-worn volume that could betitled "The Second-Class Status of the People of the District of Columbia."A few Republicans showed enough gumption to vote for principle and againstparty interest. Most Republicans, led by their leaders and egged on byPresident Bush -- who talks about democracy from Burma to Zimbabwe but notfor his own neighbors -- did the reverse.
That a bid to bring D.C. voting rights legislation to the floor failed by amere three votes is both heartbreaking and infuriating. What's mostupsetting is that the vote was a refusal even to consider a bill that wouldhave given the District a voting member in the House of Representatives,while giving another House seat to Utah. In remarks before the vote, Sen.Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) made an impassioned plea to his colleagues to, atthe very least, engage in a real debate. "My gosh," he said, "when has theUnited States Senate been afraid to debate a constitutional issue asimportant as this one?" He got his answer in the 57 to 42 vote that probablykills the bill for this year.
Opponents, mainly Republicans led by Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), havepointed to their belief that the measure is unconstitutional. They say theiropposition has nothing to do with depriving a majority-black city of a voicethat would most likely be Democratic. No doubt there are strong arguments onboth sides of the constitutional question; scholars of renown are divided.But the way to resolve the question is in court. That's why the billincluded a provision for expedited review to the Supreme Court. Theopponents' unwillingness to go to the court suggests they weren't all thatconfident in their constitutional argument.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091801827.html
Reelection by Fiat
Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf tries to dictate the terms for keeping apresidential office most Pakistanis want him out of.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; A22
LAST MONTH Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf seemed ready to rescuehimself from a mounting political crisis by striking a deal with hiscountry's secular political parties -- a step he should have taken long ago.Now, after unsuccessful negotiations with former prime minister BenazirBhutto, he has returned to the practice of political fiat that has servedhis country so poorly over the past eight years. Last week Mr. Musharrafrefused to allow another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to return tothe country from exile, in direct violation of a ruling by Pakistan'sSupreme Court. On Monday, the electoral commission his government controlsissued a legally questionable ruling that would allow Mr. Musharraf toorchestrate his reelection as president in the next few weeks without givingup his position as army chief of staff.
Yesterday, Mr. Musharraf's lawyer told the Supreme Court, which isconsidering half a dozen legal challenges to the election scheme, that thepresident would retire from the army, but only after his reelection. Thatwas less a concession than a threat to both Pakistan's centrist politicalparties and the court. Mr. Musharraf is in effect insisting that he be givenanother five-year mandate on his own terms, even though a large majority ofPakistanis want to see him step down and even though his election processviolates the constitution on multiple grounds. If he does not get his way,Mr. Musharraf's allies are hinting that he will declare a state of emergencyand dictate to the parties and the court.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091801823.html
Virginia Joins the Battle
New goals to fight global warming get a foothold in Richmond.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; Page A22
A NUMBER of states have woken up to the fact that Godot himself might showupand establish residency before the federal government gets around tolimiting greenhouse gas emissions. California, Florida and a group ofNortheastern and mid-Atlantic states, among others, have set very or fairlyaggressive targets to reduce planet-warming pollutants. Now Virginia isstarting to move cautiously in the same direction. It should be commendedand encouraged to do even more.
In truth, the grandly titled Virginia Energy Plan, released by Gov. TimothyM. Kaine (D), is a bit of a dog's breakfast -- a little of this, a little ofthat, something for every stakeholder to chew on. That's not surprising,given that the plan, commissioned in 2006 by the state legislature, is thework of energy industry representatives, environmentalists and consumergroups, to name just a few.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091802203.html?hpid=topnews
U.S. Working to Reshape Iraqi Detainees
Moderate Muslims Enlisted to Steer Adults and Children Away From Insurgency
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; A01
The U.S. military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and othereducation programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11,Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detentionfacilities in Iraq, said yesterday.
Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for morethan a year, are intended to "bend them back to our will" and are part ofwaging war in what he called "the battlefield of the mind." Most of theyounger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the "Houseof Wisdom."
The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who "teach out of a moderatedoctrine," Stone said, according to the transcript of a conference call heheld from Baghdad with a group of defense bloggers. Such schooling "tearsapart" the arguments of al-Qaeda, such as "Let's kill innocents," and helpsto "bring some of the edge off" the detainees, he said.
As a result of the increased U.S. troop presence in Iraq this year, thenumber of Iraqis in U.S. detention has swelled from about 10,000 last yearto more than 25,000. The effort to reshape attitudes among the growingdetainee population is aimed at addressing a problem that has vexed U.S.troops in Iraq for the past four years: Military detention facilities haveserved as breeding grounds for extremist views, transforming some prisonersinto hard-core insurgents, according to military analysts.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091801781.html?hpid=topnews
Debate No-Shows Worry GOP Leaders
Candidates Are Urged to Attend Forums Sponsored by Minorities
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; A01
Key Republican leaders are encouraging the party's presidential candidatesto rethink their decision to skip presidential debates focusing on issuesimportant to minorities, fearing a backlash that could further erode theparty's standing with black and Latino voters.
The leading contenders for the Republican nomination have indicated theywill not attend the "All American Presidential Forum" organized by blacktalk show host Tavis Smiley, scheduled for Sept. 27 at Morgan StateUniversity in Baltimore and airing on PBS. Former New York mayor Rudolph W.Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former senator Fred D.Thompson (Tenn.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) all cited scheduling conflictsin forgoing the debate. The top Democratic contenders attended a similarevent in June at Howard University.
"We sound like we don't want immigration; we sound like we don't want blackpeople to vote for us," said former congressman Jack Kemp (N.Y.), who wasthe GOP vice presidential nominee in 1996. "What are we going to do -- meetin a country club in the suburbs one day? If we're going to be competitivewith people of color, we've got to ask them for their vote."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091801891.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Searching Passengers' Faces For Subtle Cues to Terror
By Del Quentin Wilber and Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; Page D01
Looking for signs of "stress, fear and deception" among the hundreds ofpassengers shuffling past him at Orlando International Airport one day lastmonth, security screener Edgar Medina immediately focused on four casuallydressed men trying to catch a flight to Minneapolis.
One of the men, in particular, was giving obvious signs of trying to hidesomething, Medina said. After obtaining the passengers' ID cards andboarding passes, the Transportation Security Administration officer quicklydetermined the men were illegal immigrants traveling with fake Floridadriver's licenses. They were detained.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091802115.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Aiming to Agitate, Florida Student Got a Shock
By Monica Hesse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; C01
Andrew Meyer, the University of Florida student whose Monday arrest at aJohn Kerry speech headlined CNN and other networks yesterday, hascontributed a better lead to this story than we could have invented:
"Don't tase me, bro!"
In a widely circulating video of the scuffle, university police grab Meyerand remove him from a town-hall-style forum at the university featuring theMassachusetts senator. The senior telecommunications major had been givenpermission to ask a question after the official end of the Q&A portion;the question turns into an increasingly agitated three-parter. He asks whyKerry had conceded the 2004 presidential race ("Didn't you want to win theelection?"), why President Bush hadn't been impeached, and whether Kerry wasa member of Yale secret society Skull & Bones.
Midway through his time at the mike, as seen on the video, police officersappear behind him. As Kerry is heard saying, "That's all right, let meanswer his question," five officers begin to escort Meyer out the door. Inwhat is sure to become an AIM away message for millions of college students,Meyer yells, "Don't tase me, bro!" before an officer fires a Taser at him.
In the police report of the incident, officers state that Meyer calmed downonce in the squad car, even joking with them and saying, "I am not mad atyou guys; you didn't do anything wrong."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091801888.html?hpid=news-col-blog
GOP Supporters Are Hard to Find on Craig's List
By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; A02
When Larry Craig (R-Lindbergh Terminal) dropped in unexpectedly for lunchwith his Senate Republican colleagues yesterday, the caucus developed aserious case of acid reflux.
"I never talk about these things," a sour Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) toldreporters as he left the room.
"You'll have to ask somebody else about that," said a dyspeptic Sen. JohnMcCain (Ariz.).
Sen. Trent Lott (Miss.) paused and smiled. "Uh, I think the ethics committeeis going to review the matter. See y'all." With that, the Senate's No. 2Republican fled into the chamber.
Even Craig's few defenders were having trouble finding words. "You don'ttoss off, er, over, a friend of that duration," reasoned Sen. Arlen Specter(R-Pa.), who suggested that others feel the same way in private. "There'sbeen a lot of favorable talk about Larry in the cloakroom," Specter said.
Oh, dear.
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Florida Times-Union
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/091907/met_200796212.shtml
Last modified 9/19/2007 - 8:50 am
Originally created 091907
Romney pushes bigger military, smaller government
The GOP presidential hopeful answers questions at a town hall in OrangePark.
By DAVID HUNT, The Times-Union
ORANGE PARK - Bigger military, smaller government, less foreign oil, morefamily values - it's all part of Mitt Romney's plan for the White House.
For about an hour Tuesday night, the Republican presidential hopeful stoodat the center of a packed auditorium in Clay County's Thrasher-Horne Centerfor the Arts.
His words danced between serious and silly as he talked about everythingfrom the War on Terror to how his wife, Ann, would be a better-looking firstlady than Democratic contender Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's husband, Bill.
At 60, the one-term Massachusetts governor led the bulk of his life in theprivate sector, gaining the experience he said he wants to use to reinventBeltway bureaucracy.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/19/AR2007091900163.html
Who Watches US Security Firms in Iraq?
By RICHARD LARDNER
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; 9:58 AM
WASHINGTON -- The fog of war keeps getting thicker.
The Iraqi government's decision to temporarily ban the security companyBlackwater USA after a fatal shooting of civilians in Baghdad reveals agrowing web of rules governing weapons-bearing private contractors but fewsigns U.S. agencies are aggressively enforcing them.
Nearly a year after a law was passed holding contracted employees to thesame code of justice as military personnel, the Bush administration has notpublished guidance on how military lawyers should do that, according toPeter Singer, a security industry expert at the Brookings Institution inWashington.
A Congressional Research Service report published in July said securitycontractors in Iraq operate under rules issued by the United States, Iraqand international entities such as the United Nations.
All have their limitations, however.
A court-martial of a private-sector employee likely would be challenged onconstitutional grounds, the research service said, while Iraqi courts do nothave the jurisdiction to prosecute contractors without U.S. permission.
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USA TODAY
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/09/whats-wrong-wit.html?csp=34
What's wrong with nationalized health care?
The face-off between the president and Congress over whether to expandcoverage for children highlights a larger issue: It's about time that thenation has an honest discussion about health care reform.
By Annette Fuentes
When it comes to protecting our children's health, where does the federalgovernment's role end and the responsibility of families begin?
Both houses of Congress want to expand health care coverage of low-incomechildren under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), whichexpires at the end of this month. Most members of Congress are concernedthat more and more low-income children are falling into the growing pool ofthe USA's uninsured, most recently estimated to be 47 million.
But President Bush says expanding the program could encourage families whosechildren are covered by private health insurance to opt for thegovernment-paid program. Bush says he will veto any bill that would increasethe number of children eligible because it would be another step toward anationalized health care system.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091801379.html?hpid=sec-politics
Democrats May Tie Confirmation to Gonzales Papers
By Dan Eggen and Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; A10
The retired federal judge nominated as attorney general enjoyed a warmreception on Capitol Hill yesterday, but Democrats continued sending mixedsignals about whether their dispute with the White House over congressionalaccess to sensitive administration documents will be an impediment to hisconfirmation.
Michael B. Mukasey, 66, met with key members of both parties, includingSenate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Both Leahy andSen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who also met with Mukasey, said they arehopeful and optimistic that the nomination will be successful, as aidessuggested that efforts to reach a deal on the documents were intensifying.
Publicly, Leahy reiterated that it "will be helpful in moving forward" ifthe White House turns over documents the committee has sought for its probeinto actions taken during the tenure of former attorney general Alberto R.Gonzales. Leahy said he continues to have "encouraging" negotiations withWhite House counsel Fred F. Fielding on the issue but declined to providedetails.
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