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=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/opinion/21moore.html?pagewanted=print
August 21, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Take Al Qaeda to Court
By KELLY ANNE MOORE
AS the need to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility becomes moreurgent, the question that derails all conversation on the subject is, "Yes,but what do we do with the detainees?" Some have proposed a newnational-security court, a special system to detain and try terrorismsuspects, as an answer.
Proponents of such a system say that terrorism cases are too complex forordinary federal courts. In particular, they argue that the federal courtsare overburdened and too limited by the procedural guarantees of theConstitution to handle evidence without compromising intelligence sourcesand methods.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The United States does not need anew and untested detention system for terrorists. The existing federalsystem has a proven track record of dealing with complex prosecutions.
As a former federal prosecutor who worked on terrorism-related cases, I havehad firsthand experience doing just what proponents of a national-securitycourt say is impossible. In 2005, I prosecuted two Yemeni citizens whoconspired to send money from Brooklyn to members of Al Qaeda and Hamas tosupport terrorist activities. Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, the maindefendant in the case, boasted that he had met Osama bin Laden andpreviously sent both Al Qaeda and Hamas millions of dollars in assistance.
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/sfl-flapsych0821nbaug21,0,4401635,print.story
Psychologists reject Bush-approved interrogation techniques
By Shankar Vedantam
The Washington Post
August 21, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO The American Psychological Association has ruled thatpsychologists can no longer be associated with several interrogationtechniques that have been used against terrorism detainees at U.S.facilities because the methods are immoral, psychologically damaging andcounterproductive in eliciting useful information.
At a meeting of the association on Sunday, the group voted to requirepsychologists who witness interrogators using mock executions, simulateddrowning, sexual and religious humiliation, stress positions or sleepdeprivation to intervene to stop such abuse and report the activities tosuperiors. They are also required to report the involvement of any otherpsychologists in such activities to the association. It could then stripthose professionals of their memberships.
The move by the APA, the nation's largest association of behavioral experts,is a rebuke of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies becausemany of the techniques deemed unacceptable have been widely reported to beused at military facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as in Iraq andat various CIA detention centers.
But it also has practical effects. Psychologists whose membership is revokedcan lose their licenses because many state licensing boards requirepsychologists to be in good standing with the national association.
Also ruled out of bounds are the exploitation of prisoners' phobias, the useof mind-altering drugs, hooding, forced nakedness, the use of dogs tofrighten detainees, exposing prisoners to extreme heat and cold, physicalassault and threatening the use of such techniques against a prisoner or aprisoner's family.
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Advocate.com
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid48276.asp
August 21, 2007
Senator Biden airs first campaign ads in Iowa
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden aired his first campaignadvertisement Sunday, casting himself as the only candidate with a viablestrategy for a sustainable peace in Iraq.
In the 30-second spot airing in Iowa, Biden describes how a soldier'sremains accompanied him on the flight back after Biden's latest trip toIraq.
''As I climbed into the C-130, strapped into the middle of that cargo baywas a flag-draped coffin,'' Biden says. ''It turned that cargo bay into acathedral. And all I could think of was the parents waiting at the otherend.
''We must end this war in a way that doesn't require us to send theirgrandchild back.''
''Joe Biden is the only candidate with a plan to get us out of Iraq and keepus out,'' the ad states as Biden's image fades.
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Advocate.com
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid48290.asp
August 21, 2007
Thompson campaign invokes states' rights in marriage debate
After CNN ran a piece on its political blog, the Political Ticker, statingthat presumed GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson would seek to pass afederal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the candidate'scampaign sent what it called a clarification to the conservative NationalReview.
The Review's blog, the Corner, published a statement that Thompson's policywould be to allow states to adopt their own laws regarding same-sexmarriage.
"He does not believe that one state should be able to impose its marriagelaws on other states or that activist judges should construe theConstitution to require that," the statement read. "If necessary, he wouldsupport a constitutional amendment prohibiting states from imposing theirlaws on marriage on other states."
The original posting was taken down from the Political Ticker as of Monday.(The Advocate)
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ExpressGayNews.com
http://freedomtoserve.blogspot.com/2007/08/running-out-of-troops.html
The Associated Press is reporting today that the U.S. military is, quiteliterally, running out of troops.
From the AP synopsis posted at Raw Story:
"The Army's 38 available combat units are deployed, just returning home oralready tapped to go to Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, leaving no freshtroops to replace five extra brigades that President Bush sent to Baghdadthis year," Lolita C. Baldor reports for AP, based on interviews andmilitary documents.
Without enough troops to sustain current troop levels, the Pentagon willface some painful decisions if President Bush argues for a continuation ofthe surge. It can accelerate deployments of National Guard units, break themilitary's pledge to keep soldiers in Iraq for 15 months or less or reverseits commitment to give troops a year at home with their families beforereturning them to a war zone.
"For a war-fatigued nation and a Congress bent on bringing troops home, noneof those is desirable," the AP reports.
And neither, apparently, is welcoming gay Americans who want to serve.
Nowhere in the AP article is there any mention of military commandersconsidering a call to Congress in support of repealing "Don't Ask, Don'tTell."
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/printerfriendlynews.php?newsid=80175
Americans Using Painkillers More Than Ever
20 Aug 2007
According to a recent analysis by the Associated Press (AP) news agency offigures from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Americans areusing painkillers more than ever before. Between 1997 and 2007 the volume offive major painkillers sold and distributed in the United States byhospitals, retail pharmacies, doctors and teaching centres has risen by 90per cent.
The DEA figures show that in the most recent year of complete data,Americans bought in excess of 200,000 pounds of codeine, hydrocodone,meperidine, morphine, and oxycodone. That is equivalent to 300 milligrams ofpainkillers for each member of the population.
Most of the increased sales is in pills that contain oxycodone, the activeingredient in the painkiller OxyContin. Sales of this compound have risen bynearly 600 per cent in the 8 years between 1997 and 2005 says the AP report.
Oxycodone was once known as "hillbilly heroin" because of its reputation forbeing bought and sold, mostly illegally in Appalachia. Nowadays however ithas gained a strong foothold in major cities in states such as Ohio andFlorida.
The other painkiller on the rise, and mostly in rural parts of the country,is hydrocodone, the active ingredient of Vicodin. However, cities are alsoseeing sharp rises in use of all painkillers, so the problem covers thewhole nation.
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-vietnamcol21forumnbaug21,0,2824325,print.story
A conscientious objector sees Vietnam for first time
August 21, 2007
By Brian McNaught
The question is asked frequently to American visitors. "Is this your firsttime in Vietnam?" It generally means "Did you fight in the war?"
My spouse and I were asked the same question by the U.S. senator who satnext to us at breakfast in the Hanoi hotel in which we were all staying. Thedepth of our answers depends upon the questioner.
With Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who was visiting Southeast Asia with hisVietnamese wife and who offered that he had fought in DaNang, our nextdestination, we simply said, "Yes." I explained that I was in Hong Kong todo a series of presentations to Wall Street executives on gay workplaceissues, and that we came to see Vietnam and Cambodia because we had heardthey were beautiful countries. That was the truth, but the answer wasincomplete because we didn't want to exacerbate his painful memories,evidenced by the ever-so-subtle wince I witnessed when we mentioned DaNang.Knowing how emotionally torn and scarred Vietnam vets can be, I generallysay very little in their presence about my perspective on that war.
To our Vietnamese questioners, however, I quickly and gladly explained thatyes, this was our first visit, and that we both had actively and vigorouslyopposed the war. I, in fact, was a conscientious objector, I tell them. Theyalways smiled and enthusiastically said, "Thank you." It's remarkable andsurprising how good that made me feel.
Spending several days in DaNang, reflecting on what Americans call theVietnam War and the Vietnamese call the American War, can be an intenselyconflicting but nevertheless healing process both for those Americans my agewho fought in it and for those of us who fought against it. But it'ssomething we have rarely talked to each other about. I'm just assuming thatSen. Webb would be pained by my perspective on the war, as I'm assuming hislack of awareness of how deeply impacted people like me were by those times,too.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/opinion/21herbert.html?pagewanted=print
August 21, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
War's Chilling Reality
By BOB HERBERT
Bryan Anderson, a 25-year-old Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq, wasexplaining, on camera - to James Gandolfini, of all people - what happenedimmediately after a roadside bomb blew up the Humvee that he was driving.
"I was like, 'Oh, we got hit. We got hit.' And then I had blood on my faceand the flies were landing all over my face. So I wiped my face to get ridof the flies. And that is when I noticed that my fingertip was gone. So Iwas like, 'Oh. O.K.'
"So that is when I started really assessing myself. I was like, 'That's notbad.' And then I turned my hand over, and I noticed that this chunk of myhand was gone. So I was like, 'O.K., still not bad. I can live with that.'
"And then when I went to wipe the flies on my face with my left hand, therewas nothing there. So I was like, 'Uh, that's gone.' And then I looked downand I saw that my legs were gone. And then they had kind of forced my headback down to the ground, hoping that I wouldn't see."
HBO's contribution to an expanded awareness of the awful realities of warcontinues with a new documentary, "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/world/europe/21britain.html
August 21, 2007
British Civics Class Asks, What Would Muhammad Do?
By JANE PERLEZ
BRADFORD, England - At the Jamia Mosque on Victor Street in this raciallyand religiously tense town, Idris Watts, a teacher and convert to Islam,tackled a seemingly mundane subject with a dozen teenage boys: why it isbetter to have a job than to be unemployed.
"The prophet said you should learn a trade," Mr. Watts told the studentsarrayed in a semicircle before him. "What do you think he means by that?"
"If you get a trade it's good because then you can pass it on," said SafraanMahmood, 15.
"You feel better when you're standing on your own feet," offered OssamaHussain, 14.
The back and forth represented something new in Britain's mosques: agovernment-financed effort to teach basic citizenship issues in a specialcurriculum intended to reach students who might be vulnerable to Islamicextremism.
In the long haul, the British government hopes that such civics classes,which use the Koran to answer questions about daily life, will replace theoften tedious and sometimes hard-core religious lessons taught in manymosques across the land. Often, these lessons emphasize rote learning of theKoran and are taught by imams who were born in Pakistan and speak littleEnglish and have little contact with British society.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/washington/21nsa.html?pagewanted=print
August 21, 2007
Senator Threatens to Charge White House With Contempt
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 - A leading Democrat threatened on Monday to pursuecontempt charges against the White House next month over its response to asubpoena for internal documents on the National Security Agency's domesticsurveillance program.
"Time is up," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, thechairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "We've waited long enough."
Mr. Leahy's comments ratcheted up the battle between Congressional Democratsand the White House over access to secret documents on the legalunderpinnings of the eavesdropping program, which authorized the N.S.A. tolisten in without a court warrant on Americans' internationalcommunications.
Nearly two months ago, the Senate voted to subpoena the White House and theBush administration for access to the documents as part of its investigationinto the program.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082001425_pf.html
What Presidents Don't Know
By Anne Applebaum
Tuesday, August 21, 2007; A15
"You're not going to have time in January '09 to get ready for this job."
"If the position of president was a street, someone would have to holdObama's hand while he crossed it."
Like John Kerry's flip-flops or John Edwards's haircuts, the foreign policygaffes of Sen. Barack Obama have become a staple source of presidentialcampaign humor -- so much so that the candidate himself has felt compelledto come up with counter-jokes. "To prepare for this debate I rode in thebumper cars at the state fair," he told an Iowa audience on Sunday.
Yet given that his main rivals for the Democratic nomination include aone-term senator and another senator whose career, at least as an electedofficial, is only four years longer than Obama's, maybe we should pausebefore laughing. After all, the barb in the jokes comes from theassumption -- usually unquestioned -- that there really is some specific,specialized, inside knowledge of foreign countries that some candidates haveand some don't, that is essential to holding the presidency. Is that true?Or, to put it in late-night talk-show language, do you really have to knowthe name of the Pakistani president to be a good U.S. president?
Clearly you don't have to know very much of anything about other countriesto become U.S. president, this not being a criterion that matters greatly tomost voters. Famously, candidate George W. Bush couldn't identify thePakistani president (and thought Greeks were called Grecians) -- and he'dhardly traveled abroad. Candidate Bill Clinton had traveled abroad and knewthe names of lots of international politicians, but he had never beenrequired to use them, the governorship of Arkansas not being a job thatinvolves much interaction with foreign leaders. By contrast, George H.W.Bush had plenty of foreign policy experience -- as CIA director andambassador to China -- none of which helped him when he sought reelection in1992.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082001500.html
Egypt's Unchecked Repression
By Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Tuesday, August 21, 2007; A15
This month marked the fourth anniversary of the disappearance of Egyptianjournalist Reda Hilal. Rumors about the involvement of a secret governmentdeath squad tasked with silencing detractors of the ruling Mubarak family inthis and other disappearances -- such as that of Libyan dissident MansourKikhia in Cairo in 1993 -- have spiked in recent weeks.
On Aug. 8, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights reported that it hadconfirmed more than 500 cases of police abuse since 1993, including 167deaths -- three of which took place this year -- that the group "stronglysuspects were the result of torture and mistreatment." The organizationpreviously found that while Egypt's population nearly doubled during thefirst 25 years of Hosni Mubarak's regime, the number of prisons grew morethan fourfold and that the number of detainees held for more than one yearwithout charge or indictment grew to more than 20,000.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have corroborated chillingaccounts of torture in Egyptian prisons. The independent daily Eldestourrecently published two important facts: that the annual budget for internalsecurity was $1.5 billion in 2006, more than the entire national budget forhealth care, and that the security police forces comprise 1.4 millionofficers, nearly four times the size of the Egyptian army. "Egypt has becomea police state par excellence," the paper's editor noted.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082001423.html
An Unjust Judge
By Nan Aron
Tuesday, August 21, 2007; Page A15
To understand the furor over President Bush's nomination of Leslie Southwickto the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, one should start with theGoode family of Mississippi.
A propane heater exploded in their house, killing their granddaughter. TheGoodes sued the manufacturer. After the trial, new evidence emergeddemonstrating that the company had provided inaccurate information aboutservicing the heater. Yet, in a dissenting opinion, Southwick argued thatthe Goodes didn't deserve a new trial.
How about Annie Cannon? It was years before doctors determined that toxicchemicals at work caused her debilitating illnesses. No matter. Echoing thereasoning of the Roberts court's controversial decision that denied Alabamaworker Lilly Ledbetter equal pay, Southwick authored a dissent saying thatCannon should be barred by the statute of limitations from bringing suit forher damages.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082001622.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Cheney's Office Says It Has Wiretap Documents
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 21, 2007; A02
Vice President Cheney's office acknowledged for the first time yesterdaythat it has dozens of documents related to the administration's warrantlesssurveillance program, but it signaled that it will resist efforts bycongressional Democrats to obtain them.
The disclosure by Cheney's counsel, Shannen W. Coffin, came on the day thatthe Senate Judiciary Committee had set as a deadline for the Bushadministration to turn over documents related to the wiretapping program,which allowed the National Security Agency to monitor communications betweenthe United States and overseas without warrants.
White House counsel Fred F. Fielding has also declined to turn over anydocuments about the program, telling lawmakers last week that more time wasneeded to locate records that might be responsive to the panel's subpoenas.
The committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), said yesterday thathe will pursue contempt proceedings against administration officials if thedocuments are not produced.
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The Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2007/08/21/m1a_gopprez_0821.html
Undecided voters keep GOP hopefuls coming to Florida
By GEORGE BENNETT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
WINTER PARK - Voters like John and Jeana Dragash are the reason Mitt Romneyand Rudy Giuliani are spending vast amounts of time and money in Florida.
They're the reason Fred Thompson could be joining the Republicanpresidential field soon. And as GOP hopefuls come to Florida to try to woothe Dragashes and other up-for-grabs voters, state party Chairman Jim Greersounds like a chamber-of-commerce guy whose city just landed the Super Bowl.
GOP debates
Florida voters will have at least two chances to see GOP presidentialcandidates debate before the state's Jan. 29 primary.
Oct. 21: Fox News Channel will televise a debate from the RepublicanParty of Florida's Presidency IV conference in Orlando.
Nov. 28: CNN, the Internet site YouTube and the Florida GOP will hosta 'user-generated' debate from St. Petersburg.
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TBO.com
http://www.tbo.com/news/money/MGB71F6PL5F.html
Ethanol Production Gulps Down Water
By RUSSELL RAY The Tampa Tribune
Published: Aug 21, 2007
In Florida, water is on everybody's minds.
There is never a time when there isn't some type of restriction onwater use in Florida, where booming populations and furious development havereduced the state's lakes, rivers and aquifers to dangerously low levels.
A new, significant draw on Florida's water supplies is about toemerge.
The ethanol industry, which uses so much water that it has been blamedfor lowering water levels throughout the Midwest, has targeted Florida.Plans to build at least four ethanol plants in Florida, including one inTampa, have been announced and more are expected.
State officials are bent on making Florida a leader in ethanolproduction, an initiative designed to ease Florida's energy crunch, bringfarmers extra cash for their crops and create thousands of new jobs throughan emerging industry.
Ethanol plants and the crops they use to make ethanol require massiveamounts of water.
A typical ethanol plant that produces 50 million gallons of ethanol ayear consumes 411,000 gallons of water a day, enough to supply an averageTampa household for more than four years.
Some question whether the state has enough water to satisfy the needsof ethanol plants and other expanding industries.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/692/story/210089.html
Posted on Tue, Aug. 21, 2007
Obama presidency a 'stretch' for voters
By RON FOURNIER
Barack Obama knows it's a stretch to think of him as president.
Just 46 years old and three years out of the Illinois legislature, thefreshman senator also understands that the clock is ticking on his chance tosurmount that "certain threshold" and convince voters he's ready for theWhite House.
"The challenge for us is to let people know what I've accomplished ata time when the campaign schedule is getting so compressed," Obama said in arecent interview. "I just don't have much time to make that case."
He's right about that. Iowa Democrats begin winnowing the field latethis year or in early January with their first-in-the nation caucuses. Thencomes a few more early voting states before a multistate primary on Feb. 5that could determine the nomination.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and 2004 Democratic vice presidentialnominee John Edwards are tied with Obama in polls of Iowa Democrats. Theformer first lady has a huge lead in national surveys of Democratic voters,and the backing of a political machine built by her husband, formerPresident Clinton.
Obama has the broadest network of grass-roots activists, or at leastthat seems to be the case based on the record number of people who havedonated money to his campaign - often in small amounts - and the size ofcrowds at his campaign events.
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-et-cnn21aug21,1,3351681.story?coll=la-news-religion
The clash between faith and politics
By David Bauder
August 21, 2007
NEW YORK -- Christiane Amanpour's work on the documentary series"God's Warriors" took her directly to intersections of extreme religious andsecular thinking.
She watched, fascinated, as demonstrators in San Francisco accusedteenagers in the fundamentalist Christian group BattleCry of intolerance ina clash of two cultures that will probably never understand each other.
Understanding is what Amanpour is trying to promote in "God'sWarriors," airing in six prime-time hours on CNN. The three-part series onreligious fundamentalism among Christians, Muslims and Jews runs tonightthrough Thursday.
Many people know only stereotypes of these true believers, even theones in their own country, she said.
Yet it's vital to be familiar with their thinking given the growingimportance of these movements in the war on terrorism, the never-endingconflicts surrounding Israel and conservative politics in the United States.
"I'm not interested in drumming up false fears or falsely allayingfears," CNN's chief international correspondent said by phone from France,where she added last-minute touches to the series. "I just want people toknow what's going on."
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-green21aug21,1,2335565,print.story?coll=la-news-politics-national
Priority changes on green policies
Democrats in Congress turn to lower-profile projects to combat globalwarming and aim to boost funding 33%.
By Richard Simon
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 21, 2007
WASHINGTON - Reflecting a shift in priorities under the Democraticmajority, Congress is moving to spend as much as $6.7 billion next fiscalyear to combat global warming, an increase of nearly one-third from thecurrent year.
House appropriations bills call for about $2 billion in new spendingon initiatives aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and oil dependency,significantly expanding the budgets for numerous federal researchinitiatives and launching some new ones.
While legislation to raise vehicle miles-per-gallon standards and capemissions from power plants has been slower moving -- because of resistancefrom some lawmakers -- Democrats have turned to the budget to advance theirenvironmental priorities by increasing spending on a variety oflower-profile programs.
That is likely to set up a showdown this fall between Congress and
President Bush, who wants to spend less on climate-change initiatives. TheWhite House budget office, which has criticized excessive spending in theoverall appropriations bills, noted that the president's proposed budgetprovides for a 3% increase in spending for climate-change activities.
"Congress is putting its money where its mouth is," said Lowell Ungar,senior policy analyst at the Alliance to Save Energy, a Washington coalitionof business, consumer, environmental and government leaders. "They aredevoting real resources to trying to address the problem of climate change."
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ChicagoTribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-obama-black-voters,1,4546684,print.story
chicagotribune.com
Obama Says He Can Turn Out Black Voters
By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer
8:16 PM CDT, August 20, 2007
CONCORD, N.H.
Barack Obama predicted that black voter turnout would swell by atleast 30 percent if he wins the presidential nomination, giving Democratsvictory in Southern states that have been voting Republican for decades.
"I'm probably the only candidate who having won the nomination canactually redraw the political map," Obama told a Democratic voter skepticalthat he could defeat a Republican candidate.
"I guarantee you African-American turnout, if I'm the nominee, goes up30 percent around the country, minimum," Obama said. "Young people'spercentage of the vote goes up 25-30 percent. So we're in a position to putstates in play that haven't been in play since LBJ."
Lyndon Baines Johnson ran for president in 1964 and won in alandslide. But since then the South has turned into a Republican stronghold.
Obama's comment came in response to former New Hampshire state Rep.Carol Moore, who told him the candidate to get her vote will be the one shefeels has the best chance of winning in the general election because she'sso scared another Republican will replace President Bush.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
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**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail777xnbaug20,0,4498305,print.story
Gay tourism isn't only reason to criticize Naugle's commentsAugust 20, 2007
As a gay man, I wish to thank the members of the Fort Lauderdale communityfor their expressions of support during the current Mayor Jim Nauglecontroversy.
Yet, after seeing the mayor's picture and the accompanying story inThursday's New York Times and recalling the several reports in this paper Irealized that the support for the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgenderedcommunity is based on the economic benefit of "gay tourism."
Seldom is mention made of the necessity of combatting the spread of bigotryand anti-gay violence because they are attacks against human beings who,whether rich or poor, tourist or beggar, deserve respect and support simplybecause they are human beings.
Albert J. Hamilton
Fort Lauderdale
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.northjersey.com/print.php?qstr=ZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxODMwMzcmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNA==
Why the GOP should welcome gays into the party
Sunday, August 19, 2007
By STEVE LONEGAN
SOMETIMES tragic occurrences force us to stop and think - those are themoments that crystallize our perceptions of human relations. I found myselfin such a state with the passing of a constituent, friend and fellowconservative who also happened to be gay.
Our conversations convinced me that my beliefs in limited government can beshared across the chasms that liberals and conservatives perceive toseparate us - ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. That conclusion isnot popular on either side of the left-right spectrum: Liberals don'tbelieve gays should be conservative and conservatives don't believe gays canbe conservative, especially when a radical left gay contingent dominatesmedia attention and right-wing conformists place their own moral judgmentbefore individual freedom.
The Republican Party claims to be a "Big Tent," and rightfully so, as thecore conservative principles of the party revolve around individual libertyand a limited government that serves to protect that liberty. These ideascan help our party cut across lines of "group identity," because the idea offreedom is appealing to groups that lack the political clout necessary tokeep government out of their pocketbooks and lives.
Historically, gay Americans have struggled for the freedom to live theirlives the way they choose in order to pursue happiness. This is the AmericanDream, the cornerstone of conservative thinking, and it is these principlesthat make the increasingly influential gay community the conservativemovement's natural ally.
It may surprise some to learn that the very same conservative who refused tobe coerced into performing civil union ceremonies by government believes gayvoters should be conservative, yet this very instance points to our commonground - a commitment to the rights of the individual and opposition to thepower of a collectivist state.
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=13830
Settlement reached in gravesite battle
Body of Baltimore man's partner won't be moved
By JOSHUA LYNSEN | Aug 15, 2:59 PM
A gay Baltimore man has won a legal battle to keep his late partner'sremains buried in the Tennessee grave the two men chose.
Kevin-Douglas Olive reached a settlement Aug. 10 with the parents of hislate partner, Russell Groff, who sought to move the body to a family plot.The settlement ended a legal battle that lasted two years.
"It's been pretty traumatic," Olive said. "I'm just ready to put it allbehind me and see what comes next."
The settlement, which ends all attempts by Lowell and Carolyn Groff tooverturn their son's will, stipulates that a large gravestone intended toalso accommodated Olive be replaced by separate headstones at each grave.
Olive said he'd hoped to avoid replacing the gravestone, but was willing tomake that concession to end the case.
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070819/NEWS/70817007/1032&template=printart
Article published Aug 19, 2007
Gay teen says state isn't always so civil
At first glance, Will Holden, standing 6 foot 4 inches, seems as timid as heis tall. Ask if he has a cell phone and he subtly, silently shakes his headno. Ask if he's modest and he says, "At times I can be," unaware of thecomedy in that confirmation. So what spurred the mild-mannered teenager toannounce his homosexuality at a high school football game and in an essayfor Vermont's gay and lesbian newspaper?
Holden was a freshman at Fair Haven Union High School when, cheering fromthe sidelines four years ago, he told a classmate his secret.
"She said, 'Don't care what people think - just come out.'"
Holden's friends and family know he wears muted solid-color shirts becausehe doesn't believe in loud statements. But he soon surprised them bydeclaring he was gay.
This may not seem like news in the first state to adopt same-sex civilunions. But Holden says for all its progressive stereotypes, Vermont can bea hard place for young people like himself.
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2007/aug/19/081910734.html
August 19, 2007
Hundreds turn out for annual Reno Gay Pride Parade
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Drag queens and transsexuals waved from floats to thecrowd as the annual Reno Gay Pride Parade was staged Sunday in downtownReno.
Police said about 600 to 700 people watched the 11th edition of the paradeon Arlington Street.
"It is a big statement for gay pride," participant Glenn Prather of Renotold the Reno Gazette-Journal. "The county is starting to get more tolerantof it."
Some participants said they paraded specifically for Hispanic gay pride.
"We want to let them know that they are not alone because so many gay peoplefeel they are alone," said Nicole Ramirez of Sparks, the reigning Ms. GayReno. "This helps people understand that it is OK to be yourself."
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NationalGayNews.com
http://origin.dailynews.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=6660421&siteId=200
THE SEX APPEAL OF SPORTS
Gay-themed sites play it straight
BY GREG HERNANDEZ Staff Writer
Inside SOCAL
Article Last Updated:08/19/2007 03:55:35 AM PDT
When David Beckham finally started in a game for the Galaxy on Wednesdaynight, the event didn't just make the front pages of mainstream newspapersand sports Web sites. It also warranted the posting of a shirtless photo ofthe soccer star on Kenneth Walsh's gay-themed blog.
Walsh, a 40-year-old writer and editor living in New York, doesn't care thatBeckham isn't gay. He knows that readers of Kennethinthe212.com enjoylooking at photos of male athletes such as Beckham, Brady Quinn, JeremyBloom and Andy Roddick.
"I'm sure there is some deep-rooted psychological reason that we areattracted to the guy that probably would have beat us up in high school,"said Walsh, chuckling.
Jim Buzinski, CEO of Outsports.com, thinks it's simple: Men are men.
"When it comes to visuals in sports, gay men and straight men are verysimilar except for the genders that we look at," Buzinski said. "Men aremore visual. So we are just doing what mainstream sites do but we arecatering to our audiences. If you look at Sports Illustrated or ESPNmagazines, they all have some kind of photo gallery of hot babes in sports,or cheerleaders of the week. In a sense, that is geared toward what theiraudience mostly is: heterosexual."
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.blueoregon.com/2007/08/time-running-ou.html
Time running out for anti-gay activists
in the news
The Oregonian flirts with the idea that those looking to put the OregonEquality Act and the Oregon Family Fairness Act on the ballot in 2008 mightjust come up short.
Groups gathering signatures to overturn two Oregon gay-rights laws say theyare disconnected, frustrated and uncertain whether they can muster enoughvoter names to qualify for the statewide ballot.
They have less than seven weeks to collect the 55,179 valid signaturesneeded to refer each of two laws passed by the Legislature to the November2008 ballot. Chief petitioner Janice Bentson estimates that only 5,000 to10,000 signatures have arrived at her Salem home.
While that would certainly be a relief and would allow Progressives toconcentrate our efforts on things like building a Progressive Majority inthe state rather than playing defense once again, as Basic Rights Oregonreminds us, we cannot underestimate the extreme right. Executive DirectorJohn Hummel gives us a much-needed history lesson.
And while we may become overjoyed with the notion, the worst thing at thismoment would be for us to become complacent.
In 2004, for example, many speculated that Measure 36 could have troublemaking the ballot. Yet the opposition collected an unprecedented 244,000signatures (more than four times the signatures needed this year) in just 5short weeks. Compare that to today, when our opponents still have 7 weeks tocollect just 55,179 valid signatures.
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ExpressGayNews.com
http://expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=3957
Visitors bureau sends letter reassuring gay groups
County commissioners, Wilton Manors mayor sign welcoming letter
By PHIL LAPADULA
Aug. 16, 2007
The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau sent out a letterlast week to several gay and lesbian groups that extols the area'sgay-friendly reputation and assures them that they are welcome.
The letter, which was a response to the controversy surrounding FortLauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle, was signed by all nine Broward CountyCommissioners, Wilton Manors Mayor Scott Newton and Nicki Grossman,president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. Itwas sent to several GLBT groups that are planning visits to the area,according to Jessica Taylor, media relations director for the visitorsbureau.
"As representatives of Greater Fort Lauderdale and Broward County'shospitality industry, residential and business communities, we wish toreassure visitors that Greater Fort Lauderdale welcomes all travelers," theletter says. "Greater Fort Lauderdale is a warmly welcoming destination thatis safe, unbiased and gay friendly."
The letter does not mention Naugle by name, nor does it directly refer toany of his recent remarks, which gay activists and others have denounced asdemeaning and insulting. But the letter refers to Naugle's remarksindirectly, stating, "Please understand that our long-standing and positivereputation in the hospitality industry and the actions of our communityspeak far louder than the words of any one individual."
The letter notes that greater Fort Lauderdale is home to the InternationalGay and Lesbian Travel Association and more than 100 gay-ownedestablishments. It also notes that the International Conference on Gay andLesbian Tourism will be held in the Fort Lauderdale area soon.
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ExpressGayNews.com
http://www.365gay.com/opinion/oped/oped.htm
Churches That Won't Bury Gays?
Let's Hold A Funeral For Misguided Principles
by Rev. Lea Brown
[BACKGROUND: In August 2007, a fundamentalist mega-church in Texas refusedto conduct funeral services when it found out the deceased man was gay. Rev.Lea Brown, the openly lesbian pastor of Wichita Falls Metropolitan CommunityChurch (Texas) and a veteran of the U.S. Army, has a few thoughts aboutthat.]
Whew. I don't know about you, but I sure sleep better at night knowing theChristian churches in Texas are standing by their principles.
Take the High Point Church in Arlington, Texas, led by Rev. Gary Simons(brother-in-law of mega-church pastor Joel Osteen). The church believes thathomosexuality is a sin. When they recently found out that they hadinadvertently (according to their version) agreed to provide a funeral for agay man, they withdrew their invitation 24 hours before the event on theprinciple that they didn't want to appear to be endorsing "that lifestyle."Sure, the grieving family was left scrambling to find an appropriate venuein which to say goodbye to their loved one, and then contact 100 expectedguests about the change of location in their time of sorrow. But hey,principles are principles.
Aren't you glad that at least in Texas there are church folks who arewilling to risk looking like heartless bigots rather than betray what theybelieve to be their "Christian" beliefs?
I mean, let's give credit where credit is due. They chose one principle thatthey believe is true (homosexuality and homosexuals must be rejected), whenthere are so many principles that they could have chosen instead. Let'sreview a few, shall we?
First, there is the principle of compassion, which dictates that we seek tounderstand the suffering of others, and do what we can through kindness tohelp in times of need. Cecil Howard Sinclair, the gay man who died at theage of 46 from an infection prior to heart surgery, didn't really need tohave the funeral at High Point Church. But his mentally challenged brotherprobably did. Mr. Sinclair's brother works as a High Point janitor, cleaningthe toilets, dusting the pews, and sweeping the floors that church memberssoil each week. Perhaps saying goodbye to his brother in a familiar placewould have been comforting to him, and would have given him some peace as hereturned to work each day in the weeks and months after his brother'spassing. Perhaps all of Mr. Sinclair's family, including his partner, mighthave been comforted by the knowledge that the 5,000-member church actuallycared about them at such a difficult time.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/08/082007saf.htm
Bush Official Praises South Africa Controversial AIDS Plan
by The Associated Press
Posted: August 20, 2007 - 9:00 am ET
(Johannesburg, South Africa) The top U.S. health official praised SouthAfrica's new national AIDS plan on Sunday, but sidestepped questions aboutthe dismissal of a deputy minister seen as a driving force behind thecountry's program.
South Africa's five-year plan, launched earlier this year, aims to reducethe number of new HIV infections and to extend treatment to 80 percent ofthose with AIDS by 2011. South Africa "has constructed a good plan," MikeLeavitt, the U.S. secretary of health and human services, said at the startof his visit. "Now it must be executed in a way that makes good on theprospects it offers and the hope it can provide."
Nearly 1,000 people die of AIDS each day and an estimated 1,400 are newlyinfected with the virus that causes AIDS every day. The government has saidit is concerned about the increasing costs of anti-retroviral drugs.
Leavitt was on a four-nation tour to highlight U.S. health care programs inAfrica, with a focus on HIV/AIDS and malaria. His visit follows PresidentBush's call to Congress to double the initial $15 billion funding of thePresident's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
The program helps provide treatment for 1.1 million people worldwide, withmore than a million in Africa. But it has been criticized for emphasizingabstinence and fidelity over the use of condoms in its prevention efforts.
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Windy City Times
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=15784
Empowering Men Who Have Sex With Men to Fight AIDS
2007-08-15
In 85 countries of the world, it is illegal for men to have sex withother men. Male-male sexual relationships are stigmatized, drivingmen to hide their activities from friends, family members and healthworkers, according to a recent report by the International Lesbianand Gay Association. Because these men are forced to live part oftheir lives underground, they often lack access to basic servicesand, as a result, are at increased risk of HIV/AIDS.
Men who have sex with men ( MSM ) is a term that applies to those whoidentify as "gay," but it also includes many MSM throughout the worldwhose gender and sexual identities defy Western categorization. Forinstance, in India there are at least three designations: "Kothis"are effeminate MSM who may nonetheless be married to women and havefamilies; "panthis" are masculine men who have sex with kothis;and "hijras," who are often castrated, are often considered to be athird gender altogether.
While these groups often do not identify as a cohesive community,they share a vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Men who have sex with men areamong the most vulnerable populations to HIV transmission worldwide,and yet they continue to be one of the most underserved. Today, fewerthan one in 20 MSM has access to basic HIV education, preventionservices or care. Many will die of AIDS simply because appropriateprograms to support them do not exist.
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Irish Times, Saturday 4 August 2007
Churches must not be immune from sections of equality law
An exemption that makes it possible for religious-run institutions to optout of certain provisions of equality legislation is in need of reform,writes Mark Coen
Legislative developments in Ireland over the last 30 years, such as theUnfair Dismissals Act and, more recently, the Employment Equality and EqualStatus Acts, have sought to build and promote equality of access andopportunity in employment, as well as equal treatment for consumers ofservices.
A parallel development over the same period has been the decline of theCatholic Church and its consequent loss of authority and influence.
These developments form the backdrop to Section 37 of the EmploymentEquality Act, which provides for an exemption from equality for religious,educational or medical institutions under the control of a religious body.
In my opinion this exemption amounts to an overly broad interference withthe privacy, personal autonomy and right to family life of employees inreligious organisations. There is a clear case for reform.
Despite its decline in political and social authority, the church remains animportant influence in education and healthcare. In the face of dwindlingnumbers, the question for religious trustees has become one of "ethos" - howbest to promote and sustain their message in a secularising Ireland.
more....
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UK
The Independent on Sunday - 19 August 2007
Profile Peter Tatchell
Peter Tatchell: 'There may be a case for the people of Zimbabwe to killRobert Mugabe'
Despite many beatings in pursuit of equal rights, Peter Tatchell hasalways abhorred violence. Now he says he could understand the murderof an African dictator
Interviewed by Cole Moreton
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2876507.ece
Peter Tatchell speaks very carefully. He stops in mid-sentence to edithis words - "Sorry, let me rephrase that" - as if a conversation is aradio interview. Remember that when the famed campaigner for humanrights says something truly shocking about what he would like to seedone to Robert Mugabe. But first this thin, intense man is telling methe terrible things that other people would like to do to him.
"We are going to kill you gays," says Tatchell, reading from atranscript he has made of threatening telephone calls. "The punishmentfor sodomy is death." The calls have been frequent, usually late atnight. He takes them in this musty room, where every spare space isfilled with stacks of books or papers. They tell him: "You are goingto be beheaded: that is the punishment in Islamic law."
I was going to start lightly, with a question about the ManchesterPride festival, where he will be on Thursday, arguably the biggest,most joyfully riotous celebration of gay culture in the country. I was goingto ask Tatchell, best known forhis outrageous direct action in support of lesbian and gay rights,whether the battle for equality had been won and it was time to kickback and party. But instead we're talking about death threats.
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An appeal to the United Kingdom Government and all (the) democraticinstitutions.
http://www.irqo.net
Pegah Emambakhsh (40) is a lesbian Iranian woman. She risks of beeingsentenced to death by the judges of the Islamic Republic of Iran because ofher homosexuality. She took refuge in Sheffied, Great Britain, where shesought political asylum. This right was denied her for unconvincing reasons,among which the fact that she cannot prove she is a lesbian.
In Germany too, a young lesbian woman, Jasmine K. requested politicalasylum, but she too was turned down by the authorities for the sameinsubstantialreason: she cannot prove she is a lesbian.
The "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" protects those who arepersecuted because of their diversity without them having to prove it.Homosexuality isa state that exists at the moment it is perceived or merely declared by ahuman being. Asking for proof of such inclination is a violation of humanrights.Even the State of Israel took in Jewish refugees from the Holocaust on themere basis of their declarations. Many of them were without identificationpapers.
This is the only way to respect human rights. The alternative would be thehumiliating demonstration of one's sexual preferences, pointless clinical and psychological testing and inquisitorial procedures damaging to a person'sprivacy and human dignity.
The EveryOne group firmly requests that Pegah Emambakhsh, Jasmine K and allthe other people persecuted for their homosexuality be taken in as refugeesby countries that consider themselves civilized and safeguarded from theeffects of intolerance.
For the the EveryOne Group: Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro, Ahmad Rafat,Dario Picciau, Steed Gamero, Rami Lavitzky
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UKGayNews.org.uk
http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/07/Aug/1601.htm
LONDON, August 16, 2007 - A gay Iranian woman came within minutes of beingput onto a non-stop flight to Tehran at Heathrow this evening as the UKGovernment's Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) - part of the Home Office -went through the final process of deportation.
It was only the late intervention of the office of Sheffield Central Memberof Parliament Richard Caborn - the Minister of Sport - that prevented thedeportation today.
However, the deportation is only "on hold" until August 27, a spokespersonat Asylum Seeker Support Initiative in Sheffield told UK Gay News thisevening.
Pegah Emambakhsh arrived in the UK in 2005 and sought asylum, having fledIran after her same-sex partner was arrested and subsequently tortured andsentenced to death by stoning. Her father was also arrested andinterrogated about her whereabouts - he was eventually released, but notbefore he had been tortured himself.
The claim for asylum was rejected by the BIA, despite her appeals. Ms.Emambakhsh was finally arrested in Sheffield last Monday and was taken onWednesday to Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Clapham, Bedfordshire.
If returned to Iran, Ms. Emambakhsh faces certain imprisonment and possibleexecution by stoning. Her 'crime' - she was in a lesbian relationship.
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Hanging crackdown in Iran
Critics say public execution of 'thugs' is really targeting politicalactivists
Robert Tait in Tehran
Sunday August 19, 2007
The Observer
Iran has hanged up to 30 people in the past month amid a clampdownprompted by alleged US-backed plots to topple the regime, The Observercan reveal.
Many executions have been carried out in public in an apparent bid tocreate a climate of intimidation while sending out uncompromisingsignals to the West. Opposition sources say at least three of them werepolitical activists, contradicting government insistence that it istargeting 'thugs' and dangerous criminals. The executions have coincidedwith a crackdown on student activists and academics accused of trying tofoment a 'soft revolution' with American support.
The most high-profile recent executions involved Majid Kavousifar, 28,and his nephew, Hossein Kavousifar, 24, hanged for the murder of ahardline judge, Hassan Moghaddas, a man notorious for jailing politicaldissidents. They were hanged from cranes and hoisted high above one ofTehran's busiest thoroughfares.
The spectacle, the first public executions in Tehran for five years,took place outside the judiciary department headquarters where Moghaddaswas murdered. But the location, near many office blocks and theAustralian and Japanese embassies, meant they were seen by manymiddle-class Iranians who would not normally witness such events.
The previous day seven men were publicly executed in the north-easterncity of Masshad, including five said to be guilty of 'rape, kidnapping,theft and committing indecent acts'. Another two were hanged separatelyfor raping and robbing a young woman. The executions were also shownlive on state television.
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Ft. Lauderdale
Announcing Auditions- in HARMONY Productions is holding auditions startingWednesday, September 5th for their annual holiday show, titled "Simple Gifts", in December 2007. All voice parts are open, and actors, dancers,and instrumentalists also needed. Call 954-593-5741 or emailpalmsong@covad.net for your audition and more information.
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Times Colonist (Victoria)
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=2814b3fe-c87a-4a72-9398-22dde331b24b
Quebec gay rights group gets UN status
World body needs 'diverse voices' Canada argues
Steven Edwards
CanWest News Service
Saturday, July 21, 2007
UNITED NATIONS -- Canada came out swinging in favour of a Quebec gay-rightsactivist group yesterday, successfully lobbying for the United Nations toreverse a rejection of the group by a UN committee dominated by Muslim anddeveloping countries.
Canada's Hugh Adsett said the UN should be where "diverse voices" can beheard, and "even if some governments don't agree with some [activists], theyshould not be excluded," note-takers reported.
The charge led to UN approval for the Coalition gaie et lesbienne du Quebecto receive "observer" status at the world body.
But Canada's siding with political activists who'd upset China over theinternational status of Taiwan -- which Beijing considers to be a Chineseprovince -- wasn't enough to prevent a one-year suspension of their groupfrom the "observer" list.
After Adsett said Canada "deplored" the action against LiberalInternational, Cuba's Maria Del Carmen claimed China had acted out of a"spirit of flexibility, understanding and compromise."
The drama took place in Geneva at a meeting of the Economic and SocialCouncil -- a central UN arm run by 54 member governments, includingCanada's.
Among other business, the council was reviewing recommendations from its19-member committee on non-governmental organizations about giving groupspermission to campaign at ECOSOC meetings as "observers."
Committee members Egypt, Guinea, Pakistan, Qatar and Sudan led thesuccessful blocking of the Quebec group's application in January despite itsstrong record in Canada as a bona-fide campaigner.
The vote reflected hostility towards the idea of homosexuality in many partsof the world -- in particular in Muslim countries, but also by thegovernments of some big powers such as China and Russia.
But the countries holding those views form a far smaller proportion of theECOSOC membership, and the vote was 22 in the Quebec group's favour, 13against, 13 abstentions and the rest absent. "We're surprised and happy,"said Yvan Lapointe, CGLQ executive director, who said his group now plannedto use the UN as a platform to spread homosexual rights to many of the samecountries that voted against it.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-china-aids.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
August 20, 2007
Sex Now Primary Cause Of China HIV Spread: Report
By REUTERS
Filed at 12:42 a.m. ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - Unsafe sex has overtaken intravenous drug use as theprimary cause of new HIV infections in China, suggesting that AIDS isspreading from high-risk groups to the general public, state media reportedon Monday.
Of the 70,000 new HIV infections recorded in 2005, nearly half contractedthe virus through sexual contact, the China Daily reported, citing a reportreleased jointly by the Ministry of Health and the China Centre for DiseaseControl and Prevention.
"It's the first time since 1989, when the first HIV infection was detected,for sex to top the transmission list nationwide," the newspaper quoted GaoQi, of the China HIV/AIDS Information Network, as saying.
China has an estimated 650,000 people living with HIV or AIDS, and while thegovernment has become increasingly open about the problem, efforts to fightthe spread of the virus are still hampered by conservative attitudes aboutsex and suspicion of grassroots activists and non-governmentalorganizations.
Surveys show that one in 10 sexually active men in China have been involved
with prostitution at least once, and the government was taking measures toinitiate condom use programs and AIDS education among sex workers, thenewspaper said.
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The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081900885.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Anti-AIDS Program To Fund Circumcision
U.S. Initiative Targets African Men
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 20, 2007; Page A10
JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 19 -- President Bush's $15 billion anti-AIDS program willbegin investing significant money in making circumcision available toAfrican men seeking to protect themselves from HIV, top U.S. healthofficials said Sunday.
Recent research showing that circumcision dramatically cuts the rate of HIVinfection is highly convincing, a delegation of U.S. officials, led byHealth and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, told reporters inJohannesburg.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/story/206731.html
Posted on Sun, Aug. 19, 2007
Laws apply even to those we don't like
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
Meet Jack McClellan. You might want to shower afterward.
Nobody in the greater Los Angeles area will have to ask what I mean. In thelast month or so, McClellan has roiled Southern California by saying ineffect: I'm a pedophile, and there's nothing you can do about it.
The hell of it is, he's right. You cannot, or in any event, should not, bearrested for what you are, only for what you've done. McClellan has donenothing. Or at least, nothing for which he should be prosecuted, there beingno law against making people nauseous.
The story goes as follows. In late July, McClellan was confronted by police.They had been summoned by a woman who saw him loitering around thechildren's section of a library in Santa Monica. McClellan, who, accordingto news reports, lives mostly out of his car, was cooperative even to thepoint of allowing officers to take his picture. He was also candid andunapologetic about his sexual attraction to little girls. But McClellan, 45,evidently has no arrest record or warrants anywhere in the country, sopolice had no choice but to let him go.
The bizarre encounter quickly catapulted McClellan onto the local news andtalk show circuit, where people learned that he had a website (since takendown) featuring photos taken of little girls in public places and rankingthe best places for pedophiles to see children. It was also said thatMcClellan was thinking of moving to the city of Santa Clarita.
Two Santa Clarita lawyers were sufficiently alarmed to seek a restrainingorder requiring McClellan to stay away from the city's children.
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Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/2007/8-16/news/localnews/3948.cfm
Locals give mixed reviews to HRC's candidates forum
Presidential contenders charm and dodge in casual talk-show format
By JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
Thursday, August 16, 2007
South Florida's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered voters gathered atviewing parties Aug. 9 to watch the 2008 Democratic candidates for presidentaddress their concerns in the first-ever presidential candidates forumdevoted solely to gay issues.
Broward's Dolphin Democratic Club and SAVE Inc., a Miami gay rightsorganization, organized the gatherings at local restaurants and lounges inWilton Manors, South Beach and Miami's upper Biscayne corridor. While mostwho watched said they were disappointed with much of the rhetoric regardingmarriage rights, they were satisfied and surprised at the level of supportthat the candidates expressed about other gay issues.
"We've come a long way," said Mario Rodriguez, a financial analyst. "But westill have a long way to go."
There were shouts of support, objections to evasive answers, critical quipsat Hillary Rodham Clinton's coral-colored outfit and an air of surprise asviewers watched the historic discourse sponsored by the Human RightsCampaign and broadcast throughout the nation on Logo, a gay and lesbian TVstation.
"These are issues that a few election cycles ago were not even discussed,"said Kevin Walsh, a sales manager who brought his neighbors - both straightand gay - to South Beach's Lucky Strike Lanes to watch. "To have a forumwhere openly gay persons ask questions and express their concerns is trulyhistoric."
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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail777xnbaug20,0,4498305,print.story
Gay tourism isn't only reason to criticize Naugle's commentsAugust 20, 2007
As a gay man, I wish to thank the members of the Fort Lauderdale communityfor their expressions of support during the current Mayor Jim Nauglecontroversy.
Yet, after seeing the mayor's picture and the accompanying story inThursday's New York Times and recalling the several reports in this paper Irealized that the support for the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgenderedcommunity is based on the economic benefit of "gay tourism."
Seldom is mention made of the necessity of combatting the spread of bigotryand anti-gay violence because they are attacks against human beings who,whether rich or poor, tourist or beggar, deserve respect and support simplybecause they are human beings.
Albert J. Hamilton
Fort Lauderdale
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.northjersey.com/print.php?qstr=ZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxODMwMzcmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNA==
Why the GOP should welcome gays into the party
Sunday, August 19, 2007
By STEVE LONEGAN
SOMETIMES tragic occurrences force us to stop and think - those are themoments that crystallize our perceptions of human relations. I found myselfin such a state with the passing of a constituent, friend and fellowconservative who also happened to be gay.
Our conversations convinced me that my beliefs in limited government can beshared across the chasms that liberals and conservatives perceive toseparate us - ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. That conclusion isnot popular on either side of the left-right spectrum: Liberals don'tbelieve gays should be conservative and conservatives don't believe gays canbe conservative, especially when a radical left gay contingent dominatesmedia attention and right-wing conformists place their own moral judgmentbefore individual freedom.
The Republican Party claims to be a "Big Tent," and rightfully so, as thecore conservative principles of the party revolve around individual libertyand a limited government that serves to protect that liberty. These ideascan help our party cut across lines of "group identity," because the idea offreedom is appealing to groups that lack the political clout necessary tokeep government out of their pocketbooks and lives.
Historically, gay Americans have struggled for the freedom to live theirlives the way they choose in order to pursue happiness. This is the AmericanDream, the cornerstone of conservative thinking, and it is these principlesthat make the increasingly influential gay community the conservativemovement's natural ally.
It may surprise some to learn that the very same conservative who refused tobe coerced into performing civil union ceremonies by government believes gayvoters should be conservative, yet this very instance points to our commonground - a commitment to the rights of the individual and opposition to thepower of a collectivist state.
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=13830
Settlement reached in gravesite battle
Body of Baltimore man's partner won't be moved
By JOSHUA LYNSEN | Aug 15, 2:59 PM
A gay Baltimore man has won a legal battle to keep his late partner'sremains buried in the Tennessee grave the two men chose.
Kevin-Douglas Olive reached a settlement Aug. 10 with the parents of hislate partner, Russell Groff, who sought to move the body to a family plot.The settlement ended a legal battle that lasted two years.
"It's been pretty traumatic," Olive said. "I'm just ready to put it allbehind me and see what comes next."
The settlement, which ends all attempts by Lowell and Carolyn Groff tooverturn their son's will, stipulates that a large gravestone intended toalso accommodated Olive be replaced by separate headstones at each grave.
Olive said he'd hoped to avoid replacing the gravestone, but was willing tomake that concession to end the case.
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070819/NEWS/70817007/1032&template=printart
Article published Aug 19, 2007
Gay teen says state isn't always so civil
At first glance, Will Holden, standing 6 foot 4 inches, seems as timid as heis tall. Ask if he has a cell phone and he subtly, silently shakes his headno. Ask if he's modest and he says, "At times I can be," unaware of thecomedy in that confirmation. So what spurred the mild-mannered teenager toannounce his homosexuality at a high school football game and in an essayfor Vermont's gay and lesbian newspaper?
Holden was a freshman at Fair Haven Union High School when, cheering fromthe sidelines four years ago, he told a classmate his secret.
"She said, 'Don't care what people think - just come out.'"
Holden's friends and family know he wears muted solid-color shirts becausehe doesn't believe in loud statements. But he soon surprised them bydeclaring he was gay.
This may not seem like news in the first state to adopt same-sex civilunions. But Holden says for all its progressive stereotypes, Vermont can bea hard place for young people like himself.
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2007/aug/19/081910734.html
August 19, 2007
Hundreds turn out for annual Reno Gay Pride Parade
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Drag queens and transsexuals waved from floats to thecrowd as the annual Reno Gay Pride Parade was staged Sunday in downtownReno.
Police said about 600 to 700 people watched the 11th edition of the paradeon Arlington Street.
"It is a big statement for gay pride," participant Glenn Prather of Renotold the Reno Gazette-Journal. "The county is starting to get more tolerantof it."
Some participants said they paraded specifically for Hispanic gay pride.
"We want to let them know that they are not alone because so many gay peoplefeel they are alone," said Nicole Ramirez of Sparks, the reigning Ms. GayReno. "This helps people understand that it is OK to be yourself."
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NationalGayNews.com
http://origin.dailynews.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=6660421&siteId=200
THE SEX APPEAL OF SPORTS
Gay-themed sites play it straight
BY GREG HERNANDEZ Staff Writer
Inside SOCAL
Article Last Updated:08/19/2007 03:55:35 AM PDT
When David Beckham finally started in a game for the Galaxy on Wednesdaynight, the event didn't just make the front pages of mainstream newspapersand sports Web sites. It also warranted the posting of a shirtless photo ofthe soccer star on Kenneth Walsh's gay-themed blog.
Walsh, a 40-year-old writer and editor living in New York, doesn't care thatBeckham isn't gay. He knows that readers of Kennethinthe212.com enjoylooking at photos of male athletes such as Beckham, Brady Quinn, JeremyBloom and Andy Roddick.
"I'm sure there is some deep-rooted psychological reason that we areattracted to the guy that probably would have beat us up in high school,"said Walsh, chuckling.
Jim Buzinski, CEO of Outsports.com, thinks it's simple: Men are men.
"When it comes to visuals in sports, gay men and straight men are verysimilar except for the genders that we look at," Buzinski said. "Men aremore visual. So we are just doing what mainstream sites do but we arecatering to our audiences. If you look at Sports Illustrated or ESPNmagazines, they all have some kind of photo gallery of hot babes in sports,or cheerleaders of the week. In a sense, that is geared toward what theiraudience mostly is: heterosexual."
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.blueoregon.com/2007/08/time-running-ou.html
Time running out for anti-gay activists
in the news
The Oregonian flirts with the idea that those looking to put the OregonEquality Act and the Oregon Family Fairness Act on the ballot in 2008 mightjust come up short.
Groups gathering signatures to overturn two Oregon gay-rights laws say theyare disconnected, frustrated and uncertain whether they can muster enoughvoter names to qualify for the statewide ballot.
They have less than seven weeks to collect the 55,179 valid signaturesneeded to refer each of two laws passed by the Legislature to the November2008 ballot. Chief petitioner Janice Bentson estimates that only 5,000 to10,000 signatures have arrived at her Salem home.
While that would certainly be a relief and would allow Progressives toconcentrate our efforts on things like building a Progressive Majority inthe state rather than playing defense once again, as Basic Rights Oregonreminds us, we cannot underestimate the extreme right. Executive DirectorJohn Hummel gives us a much-needed history lesson.
And while we may become overjoyed with the notion, the worst thing at thismoment would be for us to become complacent.
In 2004, for example, many speculated that Measure 36 could have troublemaking the ballot. Yet the opposition collected an unprecedented 244,000signatures (more than four times the signatures needed this year) in just 5short weeks. Compare that to today, when our opponents still have 7 weeks tocollect just 55,179 valid signatures.
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ExpressGayNews.com
http://expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=3957
Visitors bureau sends letter reassuring gay groups
County commissioners, Wilton Manors mayor sign welcoming letter
By PHIL LAPADULA
Aug. 16, 2007
The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau sent out a letterlast week to several gay and lesbian groups that extols the area'sgay-friendly reputation and assures them that they are welcome.
The letter, which was a response to the controversy surrounding FortLauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle, was signed by all nine Broward CountyCommissioners, Wilton Manors Mayor Scott Newton and Nicki Grossman,president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. Itwas sent to several GLBT groups that are planning visits to the area,according to Jessica Taylor, media relations director for the visitorsbureau.
"As representatives of Greater Fort Lauderdale and Broward County'shospitality industry, residential and business communities, we wish toreassure visitors that Greater Fort Lauderdale welcomes all travelers," theletter says. "Greater Fort Lauderdale is a warmly welcoming destination thatis safe, unbiased and gay friendly."
The letter does not mention Naugle by name, nor does it directly refer toany of his recent remarks, which gay activists and others have denounced asdemeaning and insulting. But the letter refers to Naugle's remarksindirectly, stating, "Please understand that our long-standing and positivereputation in the hospitality industry and the actions of our communityspeak far louder than the words of any one individual."
The letter notes that greater Fort Lauderdale is home to the InternationalGay and Lesbian Travel Association and more than 100 gay-ownedestablishments. It also notes that the International Conference on Gay andLesbian Tourism will be held in the Fort Lauderdale area soon.
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ExpressGayNews.com
http://www.365gay.com/opinion/oped/oped.htm
Churches That Won't Bury Gays?
Let's Hold A Funeral For Misguided Principles
by Rev. Lea Brown
[BACKGROUND: In August 2007, a fundamentalist mega-church in Texas refusedto conduct funeral services when it found out the deceased man was gay. Rev.Lea Brown, the openly lesbian pastor of Wichita Falls Metropolitan CommunityChurch (Texas) and a veteran of the U.S. Army, has a few thoughts aboutthat.]
Whew. I don't know about you, but I sure sleep better at night knowing theChristian churches in Texas are standing by their principles.
Take the High Point Church in Arlington, Texas, led by Rev. Gary Simons(brother-in-law of mega-church pastor Joel Osteen). The church believes thathomosexuality is a sin. When they recently found out that they hadinadvertently (according to their version) agreed to provide a funeral for agay man, they withdrew their invitation 24 hours before the event on theprinciple that they didn't want to appear to be endorsing "that lifestyle."Sure, the grieving family was left scrambling to find an appropriate venuein which to say goodbye to their loved one, and then contact 100 expectedguests about the change of location in their time of sorrow. But hey,principles are principles.
Aren't you glad that at least in Texas there are church folks who arewilling to risk looking like heartless bigots rather than betray what theybelieve to be their "Christian" beliefs?
I mean, let's give credit where credit is due. They chose one principle thatthey believe is true (homosexuality and homosexuals must be rejected), whenthere are so many principles that they could have chosen instead. Let'sreview a few, shall we?
First, there is the principle of compassion, which dictates that we seek tounderstand the suffering of others, and do what we can through kindness tohelp in times of need. Cecil Howard Sinclair, the gay man who died at theage of 46 from an infection prior to heart surgery, didn't really need tohave the funeral at High Point Church. But his mentally challenged brotherprobably did. Mr. Sinclair's brother works as a High Point janitor, cleaningthe toilets, dusting the pews, and sweeping the floors that church memberssoil each week. Perhaps saying goodbye to his brother in a familiar placewould have been comforting to him, and would have given him some peace as hereturned to work each day in the weeks and months after his brother'spassing. Perhaps all of Mr. Sinclair's family, including his partner, mighthave been comforted by the knowledge that the 5,000-member church actuallycared about them at such a difficult time.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/08/082007saf.htm
Bush Official Praises South Africa Controversial AIDS Plan
by The Associated Press
Posted: August 20, 2007 - 9:00 am ET
(Johannesburg, South Africa) The top U.S. health official praised SouthAfrica's new national AIDS plan on Sunday, but sidestepped questions aboutthe dismissal of a deputy minister seen as a driving force behind thecountry's program.
South Africa's five-year plan, launched earlier this year, aims to reducethe number of new HIV infections and to extend treatment to 80 percent ofthose with AIDS by 2011. South Africa "has constructed a good plan," MikeLeavitt, the U.S. secretary of health and human services, said at the startof his visit. "Now it must be executed in a way that makes good on theprospects it offers and the hope it can provide."
Nearly 1,000 people die of AIDS each day and an estimated 1,400 are newlyinfected with the virus that causes AIDS every day. The government has saidit is concerned about the increasing costs of anti-retroviral drugs.
Leavitt was on a four-nation tour to highlight U.S. health care programs inAfrica, with a focus on HIV/AIDS and malaria. His visit follows PresidentBush's call to Congress to double the initial $15 billion funding of thePresident's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
The program helps provide treatment for 1.1 million people worldwide, withmore than a million in Africa. But it has been criticized for emphasizingabstinence and fidelity over the use of condoms in its prevention efforts.
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Windy City Times
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=15784
Empowering Men Who Have Sex With Men to Fight AIDS
2007-08-15
In 85 countries of the world, it is illegal for men to have sex withother men. Male-male sexual relationships are stigmatized, drivingmen to hide their activities from friends, family members and healthworkers, according to a recent report by the International Lesbianand Gay Association. Because these men are forced to live part oftheir lives underground, they often lack access to basic servicesand, as a result, are at increased risk of HIV/AIDS.
Men who have sex with men ( MSM ) is a term that applies to those whoidentify as "gay," but it also includes many MSM throughout the worldwhose gender and sexual identities defy Western categorization. Forinstance, in India there are at least three designations: "Kothis"are effeminate MSM who may nonetheless be married to women and havefamilies; "panthis" are masculine men who have sex with kothis;and "hijras," who are often castrated, are often considered to be athird gender altogether.
While these groups often do not identify as a cohesive community,they share a vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Men who have sex with men areamong the most vulnerable populations to HIV transmission worldwide,and yet they continue to be one of the most underserved. Today, fewerthan one in 20 MSM has access to basic HIV education, preventionservices or care. Many will die of AIDS simply because appropriateprograms to support them do not exist.
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Irish Times, Saturday 4 August 2007
Churches must not be immune from sections of equality law
An exemption that makes it possible for religious-run institutions to optout of certain provisions of equality legislation is in need of reform,writes Mark Coen
Legislative developments in Ireland over the last 30 years, such as theUnfair Dismissals Act and, more recently, the Employment Equality and EqualStatus Acts, have sought to build and promote equality of access andopportunity in employment, as well as equal treatment for consumers ofservices.
A parallel development over the same period has been the decline of theCatholic Church and its consequent loss of authority and influence.
These developments form the backdrop to Section 37 of the EmploymentEquality Act, which provides for an exemption from equality for religious,educational or medical institutions under the control of a religious body.
In my opinion this exemption amounts to an overly broad interference withthe privacy, personal autonomy and right to family life of employees inreligious organisations. There is a clear case for reform.
Despite its decline in political and social authority, the church remains animportant influence in education and healthcare. In the face of dwindlingnumbers, the question for religious trustees has become one of "ethos" - howbest to promote and sustain their message in a secularising Ireland.
more....
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UK
The Independent on Sunday - 19 August 2007
Profile Peter Tatchell
Peter Tatchell: 'There may be a case for the people of Zimbabwe to killRobert Mugabe'
Despite many beatings in pursuit of equal rights, Peter Tatchell hasalways abhorred violence. Now he says he could understand the murderof an African dictator
Interviewed by Cole Moreton
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2876507.ece
Peter Tatchell speaks very carefully. He stops in mid-sentence to edithis words - "Sorry, let me rephrase that" - as if a conversation is aradio interview. Remember that when the famed campaigner for humanrights says something truly shocking about what he would like to seedone to Robert Mugabe. But first this thin, intense man is telling methe terrible things that other people would like to do to him.
"We are going to kill you gays," says Tatchell, reading from atranscript he has made of threatening telephone calls. "The punishmentfor sodomy is death." The calls have been frequent, usually late atnight. He takes them in this musty room, where every spare space isfilled with stacks of books or papers. They tell him: "You are goingto be beheaded: that is the punishment in Islamic law."
I was going to start lightly, with a question about the ManchesterPride festival, where he will be on Thursday, arguably the biggest,most joyfully riotous celebration of gay culture in the country. I was goingto ask Tatchell, best known forhis outrageous direct action in support of lesbian and gay rights,whether the battle for equality had been won and it was time to kickback and party. But instead we're talking about death threats.
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An appeal to the United Kingdom Government and all (the) democraticinstitutions.
http://www.irqo.net
Pegah Emambakhsh (40) is a lesbian Iranian woman. She risks of beeingsentenced to death by the judges of the Islamic Republic of Iran because ofher homosexuality. She took refuge in Sheffied, Great Britain, where shesought political asylum. This right was denied her for unconvincing reasons,among which the fact that she cannot prove she is a lesbian.
In Germany too, a young lesbian woman, Jasmine K. requested politicalasylum, but she too was turned down by the authorities for the sameinsubstantialreason: she cannot prove she is a lesbian.
The "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" protects those who arepersecuted because of their diversity without them having to prove it.Homosexuality isa state that exists at the moment it is perceived or merely declared by ahuman being. Asking for proof of such inclination is a violation of humanrights.Even the State of Israel took in Jewish refugees from the Holocaust on themere basis of their declarations. Many of them were without identificationpapers.
This is the only way to respect human rights. The alternative would be thehumiliating demonstration of one's sexual preferences, pointless clinical and psychological testing and inquisitorial procedures damaging to a person'sprivacy and human dignity.
The EveryOne group firmly requests that Pegah Emambakhsh, Jasmine K and allthe other people persecuted for their homosexuality be taken in as refugeesby countries that consider themselves civilized and safeguarded from theeffects of intolerance.
For the the EveryOne Group: Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro, Ahmad Rafat,Dario Picciau, Steed Gamero, Rami Lavitzky
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UKGayNews.org.uk
http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/07/Aug/1601.htm
LONDON, August 16, 2007 - A gay Iranian woman came within minutes of beingput onto a non-stop flight to Tehran at Heathrow this evening as the UKGovernment's Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) - part of the Home Office -went through the final process of deportation.
It was only the late intervention of the office of Sheffield Central Memberof Parliament Richard Caborn - the Minister of Sport - that prevented thedeportation today.
However, the deportation is only "on hold" until August 27, a spokespersonat Asylum Seeker Support Initiative in Sheffield told UK Gay News thisevening.
Pegah Emambakhsh arrived in the UK in 2005 and sought asylum, having fledIran after her same-sex partner was arrested and subsequently tortured andsentenced to death by stoning. Her father was also arrested andinterrogated about her whereabouts - he was eventually released, but notbefore he had been tortured himself.
The claim for asylum was rejected by the BIA, despite her appeals. Ms.Emambakhsh was finally arrested in Sheffield last Monday and was taken onWednesday to Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Clapham, Bedfordshire.
If returned to Iran, Ms. Emambakhsh faces certain imprisonment and possibleexecution by stoning. Her 'crime' - she was in a lesbian relationship.
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Hanging crackdown in Iran
Critics say public execution of 'thugs' is really targeting politicalactivists
Robert Tait in Tehran
Sunday August 19, 2007
The Observer
Iran has hanged up to 30 people in the past month amid a clampdownprompted by alleged US-backed plots to topple the regime, The Observercan reveal.
Many executions have been carried out in public in an apparent bid tocreate a climate of intimidation while sending out uncompromisingsignals to the West. Opposition sources say at least three of them werepolitical activists, contradicting government insistence that it istargeting 'thugs' and dangerous criminals. The executions have coincidedwith a crackdown on student activists and academics accused of trying tofoment a 'soft revolution' with American support.
The most high-profile recent executions involved Majid Kavousifar, 28,and his nephew, Hossein Kavousifar, 24, hanged for the murder of ahardline judge, Hassan Moghaddas, a man notorious for jailing politicaldissidents. They were hanged from cranes and hoisted high above one ofTehran's busiest thoroughfares.
The spectacle, the first public executions in Tehran for five years,took place outside the judiciary department headquarters where Moghaddaswas murdered. But the location, near many office blocks and theAustralian and Japanese embassies, meant they were seen by manymiddle-class Iranians who would not normally witness such events.
The previous day seven men were publicly executed in the north-easterncity of Masshad, including five said to be guilty of 'rape, kidnapping,theft and committing indecent acts'. Another two were hanged separatelyfor raping and robbing a young woman. The executions were also shownlive on state television.
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Ft. Lauderdale
Announcing Auditions- in HARMONY Productions is holding auditions startingWednesday, September 5th for their annual holiday show, titled "Simple Gifts", in December 2007. All voice parts are open, and actors, dancers,and instrumentalists also needed. Call 954-593-5741 or emailpalmsong@covad.net for your audition and more information.
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Times Colonist (Victoria)
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=2814b3fe-c87a-4a72-9398-22dde331b24b
Quebec gay rights group gets UN status
World body needs 'diverse voices' Canada argues
Steven Edwards
CanWest News Service
Saturday, July 21, 2007
UNITED NATIONS -- Canada came out swinging in favour of a Quebec gay-rightsactivist group yesterday, successfully lobbying for the United Nations toreverse a rejection of the group by a UN committee dominated by Muslim anddeveloping countries.
Canada's Hugh Adsett said the UN should be where "diverse voices" can beheard, and "even if some governments don't agree with some [activists], theyshould not be excluded," note-takers reported.
The charge led to UN approval for the Coalition gaie et lesbienne du Quebecto receive "observer" status at the world body.
But Canada's siding with political activists who'd upset China over theinternational status of Taiwan -- which Beijing considers to be a Chineseprovince -- wasn't enough to prevent a one-year suspension of their groupfrom the "observer" list.
After Adsett said Canada "deplored" the action against LiberalInternational, Cuba's Maria Del Carmen claimed China had acted out of a"spirit of flexibility, understanding and compromise."
The drama took place in Geneva at a meeting of the Economic and SocialCouncil -- a central UN arm run by 54 member governments, includingCanada's.
Among other business, the council was reviewing recommendations from its19-member committee on non-governmental organizations about giving groupspermission to campaign at ECOSOC meetings as "observers."
Committee members Egypt, Guinea, Pakistan, Qatar and Sudan led thesuccessful blocking of the Quebec group's application in January despite itsstrong record in Canada as a bona-fide campaigner.
The vote reflected hostility towards the idea of homosexuality in many partsof the world -- in particular in Muslim countries, but also by thegovernments of some big powers such as China and Russia.
But the countries holding those views form a far smaller proportion of theECOSOC membership, and the vote was 22 in the Quebec group's favour, 13against, 13 abstentions and the rest absent. "We're surprised and happy,"said Yvan Lapointe, CGLQ executive director, who said his group now plannedto use the UN as a platform to spread homosexual rights to many of the samecountries that voted against it.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-china-aids.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
August 20, 2007
Sex Now Primary Cause Of China HIV Spread: Report
By REUTERS
Filed at 12:42 a.m. ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - Unsafe sex has overtaken intravenous drug use as theprimary cause of new HIV infections in China, suggesting that AIDS isspreading from high-risk groups to the general public, state media reportedon Monday.
Of the 70,000 new HIV infections recorded in 2005, nearly half contractedthe virus through sexual contact, the China Daily reported, citing a reportreleased jointly by the Ministry of Health and the China Centre for DiseaseControl and Prevention.
"It's the first time since 1989, when the first HIV infection was detected,for sex to top the transmission list nationwide," the newspaper quoted GaoQi, of the China HIV/AIDS Information Network, as saying.
China has an estimated 650,000 people living with HIV or AIDS, and while thegovernment has become increasingly open about the problem, efforts to fightthe spread of the virus are still hampered by conservative attitudes aboutsex and suspicion of grassroots activists and non-governmentalorganizations.
Surveys show that one in 10 sexually active men in China have been involved
with prostitution at least once, and the government was taking measures toinitiate condom use programs and AIDS education among sex workers, thenewspaper said.
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The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081900885.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Anti-AIDS Program To Fund Circumcision
U.S. Initiative Targets African Men
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 20, 2007; Page A10
JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 19 -- President Bush's $15 billion anti-AIDS program willbegin investing significant money in making circumcision available toAfrican men seeking to protect themselves from HIV, top U.S. healthofficials said Sunday.
Recent research showing that circumcision dramatically cuts the rate of HIVinfection is highly convincing, a delegation of U.S. officials, led byHealth and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, told reporters inJohannesburg.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/story/206731.html
Posted on Sun, Aug. 19, 2007
Laws apply even to those we don't like
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
Meet Jack McClellan. You might want to shower afterward.
Nobody in the greater Los Angeles area will have to ask what I mean. In thelast month or so, McClellan has roiled Southern California by saying ineffect: I'm a pedophile, and there's nothing you can do about it.
The hell of it is, he's right. You cannot, or in any event, should not, bearrested for what you are, only for what you've done. McClellan has donenothing. Or at least, nothing for which he should be prosecuted, there beingno law against making people nauseous.
The story goes as follows. In late July, McClellan was confronted by police.They had been summoned by a woman who saw him loitering around thechildren's section of a library in Santa Monica. McClellan, who, accordingto news reports, lives mostly out of his car, was cooperative even to thepoint of allowing officers to take his picture. He was also candid andunapologetic about his sexual attraction to little girls. But McClellan, 45,evidently has no arrest record or warrants anywhere in the country, sopolice had no choice but to let him go.
The bizarre encounter quickly catapulted McClellan onto the local news andtalk show circuit, where people learned that he had a website (since takendown) featuring photos taken of little girls in public places and rankingthe best places for pedophiles to see children. It was also said thatMcClellan was thinking of moving to the city of Santa Clarita.
Two Santa Clarita lawyers were sufficiently alarmed to seek a restrainingorder requiring McClellan to stay away from the city's children.
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Express Gay News
http://www.expressgaynews.com/2007/8-16/news/localnews/3948.cfm
Locals give mixed reviews to HRC's candidates forum
Presidential contenders charm and dodge in casual talk-show format
By JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
Thursday, August 16, 2007
South Florida's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered voters gathered atviewing parties Aug. 9 to watch the 2008 Democratic candidates for presidentaddress their concerns in the first-ever presidential candidates forumdevoted solely to gay issues.
Broward's Dolphin Democratic Club and SAVE Inc., a Miami gay rightsorganization, organized the gatherings at local restaurants and lounges inWilton Manors, South Beach and Miami's upper Biscayne corridor. While mostwho watched said they were disappointed with much of the rhetoric regardingmarriage rights, they were satisfied and surprised at the level of supportthat the candidates expressed about other gay issues.
"We've come a long way," said Mario Rodriguez, a financial analyst. "But westill have a long way to go."
There were shouts of support, objections to evasive answers, critical quipsat Hillary Rodham Clinton's coral-colored outfit and an air of surprise asviewers watched the historic discourse sponsored by the Human RightsCampaign and broadcast throughout the nation on Logo, a gay and lesbian TVstation.
"These are issues that a few election cycles ago were not even discussed,"said Kevin Walsh, a sales manager who brought his neighbors - both straightand gay - to South Beach's Lucky Strike Lanes to watch. "To have a forumwhere openly gay persons ask questions and express their concerns is trulyhistoric."
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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST August 20, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/opinion/20kristof.html?pagewanted=print
August 20, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
In Search of Cheney's 'Virtue'
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Dick Cheney once scoffed that energy conservation can be a "personal virtue"but is no basis for an energy policy.
Growing evidence suggests he had it exactly wrong.
Concern about greenhouse gases and reliance on imported oil usually leads toa focus on the supply side of the energy equation, particularly exoticsources such as wind, solar, waves and hydrogen. The coolest car in historyis a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle I once drove on a G.M. test track: It couldgo 100 miles per hour and nothing came out the exhaust but water vapor.
The catch: It cost $5 million to make.
So we need to push ahead with hydrogen and renewables, but the low-hangingfruit on the energy front is curbing demand - meaning more energyconservation. And it's appalling that our government isn't leading us onthat.
"The best source of new energy is efficiency and conservation," notes PeterRobertson, vice chairman of Chevron. "The best source is not to use as much."
Mr. Cheney's image seems to be of a dour stoic shivering in a cardigan in afrigid home, squinting under a dim light bulb, showering under a tinytrickle of (barely) solar-heated water, and then bicycling to work in therain. If that's the alternative, then many of us might be willing to see theoceans rise, whatever happens to Florida.
But new research has shown that improvements in energy efficiency often payfor themselves, actually leaving us better off.
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The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901724.html?hpid=topnews
India's Lower Castes Seek Social Progress In Global Job Market
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 20, 2007; Page A01
PUNE, India -- As a Dalit, Pratibha Valmik Kamble is part of the poorest andmost ostracized community in this subcontinent's ancient caste system, agroup of people so shunned that they are still known as untouchables. Hermother is a maid, her father a day laborer.
Yet here in this prospering city, Kamble, 24, was recently applying to anIndian firm called Temp Solutions to go to Philadelphia for a well-paidsocial service job there. During the interview, she twisted her handsnervously in her lap, knowing that if she landed the position, she would notonly make more money than both of her parents combined, she would enhancetheir social status, and her own.
India has long had an affirmative action program for federal governmentjobs, setting aside 23 percent of positions for the most oppressed castes.Now activists are campaigning to open the private sector to them as well,whether the employer is Indian or multinational. Prime Minister ManmohanSingh recently said he favors that goal.
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The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081900391.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Israel to Block New Refugees From Darfur
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 20, 2007; Page A10
CAIRO, Aug. 19 -- Israel closed the door Sunday on a surge of asylum-seekersfrom Sudan's Darfur region and from other African countries, the largestinflux of non-Jewish refugees in the modern history of the Jewish state.
Authorities announced that they had expelled 48 of more than 2,000 Africanrefugees who have entered illegally from Egypt in recent weeks. Officialssaid they would allow 500 Darfurians among them to remain, but would deporteveryone else back to Egypt and accept no more illegal migrants from Darfuror other places.
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The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901513.html?hpid=nation
APA Rules on Interrogation Abuse
Psychologists' Group Bars Member Participation in Certain Techniques
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 20, 2007; Page A03
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19 -- The American Psychological Association ruledSunday that psychologists can no longer be associated with severalinterrogation techniques that have been used against terrorism detainees atU.S. facilities because the methods are immoral, psychologically damagingand counterproductive in eliciting useful information.
Psychologists who witness interrogators using mock executions, simulateddrowning, sexual and religious humiliation, stress positions or sleepdeprivation are required to intervene to stop such abuse, to report theactivities to superiors and to report the involvement of any otherpsychologists in such activities to the association. It could then stripthose professionals of their membership.
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flfpipqa0820nbaug20,0,7803806,print.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Floridians may see 'momentous changes' in car insurance in 6 weeks
By Linda Kleindienst
Tallahassee Bureau Chief
August 20, 2007
Florida drivers are likely to see momentous changes in less than six weeks,barring last-minute action by the Legislature.
For one thing, most of us may no longer have to carry auto insurance.
On Oct. 1, the state's no-fault insurance law, which requires every Floridadriver to have at least $10,000 in PIP, or personal injury protection, isset to expire. That would make Florida one of only three states, along withNew Hampshire and Wisconsin, that do not mandate minimum insurance coveragefor drivers.
Legislators could decide to extend the law when they meet again next month.But there have been no signals yet that they will.
To help you plan for the expected change, we've highlighted the key issues.
Q Will I be required by law to have auto insurance after Oct. 1?
A. Probably not, but there is some confusion.
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_top13aug20,0,2617311,print.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Bush Seeks to Boost Canada, Mexico Ties
By BEN FELLER
Associated Press Writer
6:34 AM EDT, August 20, 2007
OTTAWA
President Bush, tending to relations with two border nations, will try togive a boost Monday to his partnerships with the like-minded leaders ofCanada and Mexico.
Bush's two-day summit with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper andMexican President Felipe Calderon is the third of its kind during hispresidency. Each one has been meant to bolster an evolving compact -- dubbedthe Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America -- that serves as away for the nations to team up on health, security and commerce.
Yet for Bush, the event also allows him to show he does not take hisneighbors for granted; they are both vital trading partners and energyproviders for the U.S.
"The message for Canada and Mexico is that despite the ongoing emphasis onIraq and terrorism in U.S. foreign policy ... the U.S. is investing time andattention on relationships with our own region," said Chris Sands, a scholarof North American studies and senior associate at the Center for Strategicand International Studies.
=
The Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-debate20aug20,1,1630454.story?coll=la-politics-campaign
Clinton, Obama take center stage at Iowa debate
In a tame 90-minute session, the two candidates dominate as participants andas topics of discussion.
By Mark Z. Barabak and Peter Nicholas
August 20, 2007
DES MOINES, Iowa - Debating for the first time in Iowa, eight Democraticpresidential hopefuls on Sunday renewed their sparring over experience, Iraqand their ability to overcome the country's red-blue electoral divide.
Whether it was the early hour -- the local starting time was 8 a.m. -- orthe churchly sanctity of a Sunday morning, the session was among the tamestof the campaign season. Much of the 90-minute program was dominated by thetwo front-runners, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obamaof Illinois, both as participants and as topics of discussion.
The first question from moderator George Stephanopoulos of ABC News went tothe heart of what many Democrats are mulling over: whether Obama is tooinexperienced and Clinton too divisive to be elected president.
The candidates were read some of the harsher remarks they have uttered onthe campaign trail. For the most part they declined to repeat them on stageat Drake University, with one exception: Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. ofDelaware did not back away from his assertion that Obama, who is midwaythrough his first Senate term, lacked the seasoning to be president. "Istand by the statement," Biden said.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut also took a veiled shot at Obama."You're not going to have time in January of '09 to get ready for this job,"said Dodd, a veteran of more than three decades in Congress.
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-forum20andersonnbaug20,0,321284,print.story
Church should not be used as voting site
August 20, 2007
By Jerry Rabinowitz
I am the plaintiff in the Rabinowitz v. Anderson lawsuit about voting inchurches. Recently the decision in this case received attention in local andnational press but nobody has contacted me for my viewpoint. This is therest of my story.
I am a husband, son, uncle, neighbor, small businessman, property owner,taxpayer and voter. But, though I was reported as a non-observant Jew, Ipractice no religion. Nor am I an atheist. I believe that all are free andequal to believe and practice their chosen convictions. However, I objectedin court to being forced to vote in a religiously charged, politicalatmosphere that disregarded every viewpoint but that of the host church.Over 30 witnesses came forward to say they too objected to voting in achurch.
My experience was this. As I approached my polling location I passed alarge, anti-abortion banner put there by the host, Emanuel Church. Insidethe religious classroom that served as the voting location, I was presentedwith religious iconography in every direction, including directly above thevoting booths. While our constitution grants this right of free expression,the church was acting in a secular capacity on election day.
Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson said under oath that he has no powerto control the contents of a polling place inside a church building unlessthere is electioneering - and abortion banners and religious icons aren'telectioneering. And the judge's ruling says that since Anderson didn't placethese objects there, they aren't in violation. I disagree on both counts.
Does this mean we may now vote in a sanctuary or confessional booth so longas it isn't placed there by the state? Is it now OK for any privately ownedpolling place to exhibit any display of beliefs right over the votingbooths? I always believed voting should be in a neutral setting, so much sothat I raised a constitutional question.
Although abortion, stem cell research, and gay rights weren't on thatballot, they are issues candidates run on and use to receive support. Andthey are religious concerns. Thus religion is, in that sense, on the ballot,making a church polling place inappropriate in any fair election.
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/v-print/story/208846.html
Posted on Mon, Aug. 20, 2007
The treasured second place in Iowa
By DAVID S. BRODER
Buoyed by his surprise second-place finish in the Iowa Republican strawpoll, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is plotting an even bigger coupagainst Mitt Romney in the first presidential primary in New Hampshire.
His inspiration for the audacious plot comes from two unlikely people: PatBuchanan and Bill Clinton.
Clinton, the original man from Hope, Ark., Huckabee's hometown, was nobetter known to New Hampshire voters in 1991 than Huckabee is today, whileRomney, the former governor of Massachusetts, leads the Granite State field.But, despite the Gennifer Flowers and draft-dodging scandals that plaguedhis campaign there, Clinton won enough friends to finish second in NewHampshire to 1992's neighboring candidate, former Massachusetts Sen. PaulTsongas.
Thanks to New Hampshire, Clinton proclaimed himself ''the comeback kid,''and went on to thrash Tsongas in the follow-up contests in Florida, Georgiaand the rest of the South.
Huckabee figures that if he can just get past Romney in New Hampshire, hecan do the same thing to him when the 2008 battle shifts south to Floridaand South Carolina next January.
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/v-print/story/208800.html
Posted on Mon, Aug. 20, 2007
Broward schools try to remove fear factor for freshmen
BY NIRVI SHAH
Of 21,000 freshmen entering Broward County high schools Monday, 2,400 mightnot graduate, if last year's dropout figures are a good predictor.
Schools Superintendent Jim Notter and his team are determined to preventthat by using some strategies to reinvent the freshman experience.
One of those strategies was in place last week, as bewildered Pompano BeachHigh freshmen converged on the school for a first-time full-day orientation.
They stuck name tags on their shirts, including an A, B or C to designatewhich team they are assigned to. The team concept -- a throwback to middleschool -- is a key part of the ''ninth-grade academies'' created at everyBroward high school this year.
The format keeps a set of kids together for most classes, helping studentsbond and allowing teachers to watch the neophytes closely, said Dan Traeger,who oversees Broward's high school reform.
=
365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/08/081907debate.htm
Rivals Take On Obama
by The Associated Press
Posted: August 19, 2007 - 1:00 pm ET
(Des Moines, Iowa) Democrat Barack Obama on Sunday accused his presidentialrivals of political maneuvering for saying he lacks experience and heinsisted he could handle the rigors of international diplomacy.
The candidates began their latest debate by critiquing the freshmansenator's recent comments on Pakistan and whether he would meet with foreignleaders - including North Korea's head of state - without conditions.
"To prepare for this debate I rode in the bumper cars at the state fair,"the Illinois lawmaker said to laughter and applause from the audience atDrake University.
The debate capped an intense week of politicking in Iowa, an early votingstate in the process of picking a nominee. The Iowa State Fair is a magnetfor White House hopefuls each presidential election. This year was noexception, especially for Democrats who swept into the state after a GOPstraw poll last week.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she and Obama disagreed over how to conductinternational relations with leaders who have been foes of the UnitedStates. Obama said at an earlier debate that he would have no qualms aboutsitting down with leaders of renegade nations such as Cuba, North Korea andIran.
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/opinion/20kristof.html?pagewanted=print
August 20, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
In Search of Cheney's 'Virtue'
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Dick Cheney once scoffed that energy conservation can be a "personal virtue"but is no basis for an energy policy.
Growing evidence suggests he had it exactly wrong.
Concern about greenhouse gases and reliance on imported oil usually leads toa focus on the supply side of the energy equation, particularly exoticsources such as wind, solar, waves and hydrogen. The coolest car in historyis a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle I once drove on a G.M. test track: It couldgo 100 miles per hour and nothing came out the exhaust but water vapor.
The catch: It cost $5 million to make.
So we need to push ahead with hydrogen and renewables, but the low-hangingfruit on the energy front is curbing demand - meaning more energyconservation. And it's appalling that our government isn't leading us onthat.
"The best source of new energy is efficiency and conservation," notes PeterRobertson, vice chairman of Chevron. "The best source is not to use as much."
Mr. Cheney's image seems to be of a dour stoic shivering in a cardigan in afrigid home, squinting under a dim light bulb, showering under a tinytrickle of (barely) solar-heated water, and then bicycling to work in therain. If that's the alternative, then many of us might be willing to see theoceans rise, whatever happens to Florida.
But new research has shown that improvements in energy efficiency often payfor themselves, actually leaving us better off.
=
The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901724.html?hpid=topnews
India's Lower Castes Seek Social Progress In Global Job Market
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 20, 2007; Page A01
PUNE, India -- As a Dalit, Pratibha Valmik Kamble is part of the poorest andmost ostracized community in this subcontinent's ancient caste system, agroup of people so shunned that they are still known as untouchables. Hermother is a maid, her father a day laborer.
Yet here in this prospering city, Kamble, 24, was recently applying to anIndian firm called Temp Solutions to go to Philadelphia for a well-paidsocial service job there. During the interview, she twisted her handsnervously in her lap, knowing that if she landed the position, she would notonly make more money than both of her parents combined, she would enhancetheir social status, and her own.
India has long had an affirmative action program for federal governmentjobs, setting aside 23 percent of positions for the most oppressed castes.Now activists are campaigning to open the private sector to them as well,whether the employer is Indian or multinational. Prime Minister ManmohanSingh recently said he favors that goal.
=
The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081900391.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Israel to Block New Refugees From Darfur
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 20, 2007; Page A10
CAIRO, Aug. 19 -- Israel closed the door Sunday on a surge of asylum-seekersfrom Sudan's Darfur region and from other African countries, the largestinflux of non-Jewish refugees in the modern history of the Jewish state.
Authorities announced that they had expelled 48 of more than 2,000 Africanrefugees who have entered illegally from Egypt in recent weeks. Officialssaid they would allow 500 Darfurians among them to remain, but would deporteveryone else back to Egypt and accept no more illegal migrants from Darfuror other places.
=
The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081901513.html?hpid=nation
APA Rules on Interrogation Abuse
Psychologists' Group Bars Member Participation in Certain Techniques
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 20, 2007; Page A03
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19 -- The American Psychological Association ruledSunday that psychologists can no longer be associated with severalinterrogation techniques that have been used against terrorism detainees atU.S. facilities because the methods are immoral, psychologically damagingand counterproductive in eliciting useful information.
Psychologists who witness interrogators using mock executions, simulateddrowning, sexual and religious humiliation, stress positions or sleepdeprivation are required to intervene to stop such abuse, to report theactivities to superiors and to report the involvement of any otherpsychologists in such activities to the association. It could then stripthose professionals of their membership.
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flfpipqa0820nbaug20,0,7803806,print.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Floridians may see 'momentous changes' in car insurance in 6 weeks
By Linda Kleindienst
Tallahassee Bureau Chief
August 20, 2007
Florida drivers are likely to see momentous changes in less than six weeks,barring last-minute action by the Legislature.
For one thing, most of us may no longer have to carry auto insurance.
On Oct. 1, the state's no-fault insurance law, which requires every Floridadriver to have at least $10,000 in PIP, or personal injury protection, isset to expire. That would make Florida one of only three states, along withNew Hampshire and Wisconsin, that do not mandate minimum insurance coveragefor drivers.
Legislators could decide to extend the law when they meet again next month.But there have been no signals yet that they will.
To help you plan for the expected change, we've highlighted the key issues.
Q Will I be required by law to have auto insurance after Oct. 1?
A. Probably not, but there is some confusion.
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_top13aug20,0,2617311,print.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Bush Seeks to Boost Canada, Mexico Ties
By BEN FELLER
Associated Press Writer
6:34 AM EDT, August 20, 2007
OTTAWA
President Bush, tending to relations with two border nations, will try togive a boost Monday to his partnerships with the like-minded leaders ofCanada and Mexico.
Bush's two-day summit with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper andMexican President Felipe Calderon is the third of its kind during hispresidency. Each one has been meant to bolster an evolving compact -- dubbedthe Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America -- that serves as away for the nations to team up on health, security and commerce.
Yet for Bush, the event also allows him to show he does not take hisneighbors for granted; they are both vital trading partners and energyproviders for the U.S.
"The message for Canada and Mexico is that despite the ongoing emphasis onIraq and terrorism in U.S. foreign policy ... the U.S. is investing time andattention on relationships with our own region," said Chris Sands, a scholarof North American studies and senior associate at the Center for Strategicand International Studies.
=
The Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-debate20aug20,1,1630454.story?coll=la-politics-campaign
Clinton, Obama take center stage at Iowa debate
In a tame 90-minute session, the two candidates dominate as participants andas topics of discussion.
By Mark Z. Barabak and Peter Nicholas
August 20, 2007
DES MOINES, Iowa - Debating for the first time in Iowa, eight Democraticpresidential hopefuls on Sunday renewed their sparring over experience, Iraqand their ability to overcome the country's red-blue electoral divide.
Whether it was the early hour -- the local starting time was 8 a.m. -- orthe churchly sanctity of a Sunday morning, the session was among the tamestof the campaign season. Much of the 90-minute program was dominated by thetwo front-runners, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obamaof Illinois, both as participants and as topics of discussion.
The first question from moderator George Stephanopoulos of ABC News went tothe heart of what many Democrats are mulling over: whether Obama is tooinexperienced and Clinton too divisive to be elected president.
The candidates were read some of the harsher remarks they have uttered onthe campaign trail. For the most part they declined to repeat them on stageat Drake University, with one exception: Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. ofDelaware did not back away from his assertion that Obama, who is midwaythrough his first Senate term, lacked the seasoning to be president. "Istand by the statement," Biden said.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut also took a veiled shot at Obama."You're not going to have time in January of '09 to get ready for this job,"said Dodd, a veteran of more than three decades in Congress.
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-forum20andersonnbaug20,0,321284,print.story
Church should not be used as voting site
August 20, 2007
By Jerry Rabinowitz
I am the plaintiff in the Rabinowitz v. Anderson lawsuit about voting inchurches. Recently the decision in this case received attention in local andnational press but nobody has contacted me for my viewpoint. This is therest of my story.
I am a husband, son, uncle, neighbor, small businessman, property owner,taxpayer and voter. But, though I was reported as a non-observant Jew, Ipractice no religion. Nor am I an atheist. I believe that all are free andequal to believe and practice their chosen convictions. However, I objectedin court to being forced to vote in a religiously charged, politicalatmosphere that disregarded every viewpoint but that of the host church.Over 30 witnesses came forward to say they too objected to voting in achurch.
My experience was this. As I approached my polling location I passed alarge, anti-abortion banner put there by the host, Emanuel Church. Insidethe religious classroom that served as the voting location, I was presentedwith religious iconography in every direction, including directly above thevoting booths. While our constitution grants this right of free expression,the church was acting in a secular capacity on election day.
Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson said under oath that he has no powerto control the contents of a polling place inside a church building unlessthere is electioneering - and abortion banners and religious icons aren'telectioneering. And the judge's ruling says that since Anderson didn't placethese objects there, they aren't in violation. I disagree on both counts.
Does this mean we may now vote in a sanctuary or confessional booth so longas it isn't placed there by the state? Is it now OK for any privately ownedpolling place to exhibit any display of beliefs right over the votingbooths? I always believed voting should be in a neutral setting, so much sothat I raised a constitutional question.
Although abortion, stem cell research, and gay rights weren't on thatballot, they are issues candidates run on and use to receive support. Andthey are religious concerns. Thus religion is, in that sense, on the ballot,making a church polling place inappropriate in any fair election.
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/v-print/story/208846.html
Posted on Mon, Aug. 20, 2007
The treasured second place in Iowa
By DAVID S. BRODER
Buoyed by his surprise second-place finish in the Iowa Republican strawpoll, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is plotting an even bigger coupagainst Mitt Romney in the first presidential primary in New Hampshire.
His inspiration for the audacious plot comes from two unlikely people: PatBuchanan and Bill Clinton.
Clinton, the original man from Hope, Ark., Huckabee's hometown, was nobetter known to New Hampshire voters in 1991 than Huckabee is today, whileRomney, the former governor of Massachusetts, leads the Granite State field.But, despite the Gennifer Flowers and draft-dodging scandals that plaguedhis campaign there, Clinton won enough friends to finish second in NewHampshire to 1992's neighboring candidate, former Massachusetts Sen. PaulTsongas.
Thanks to New Hampshire, Clinton proclaimed himself ''the comeback kid,''and went on to thrash Tsongas in the follow-up contests in Florida, Georgiaand the rest of the South.
Huckabee figures that if he can just get past Romney in New Hampshire, hecan do the same thing to him when the 2008 battle shifts south to Floridaand South Carolina next January.
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/v-print/story/208800.html
Posted on Mon, Aug. 20, 2007
Broward schools try to remove fear factor for freshmen
BY NIRVI SHAH
Of 21,000 freshmen entering Broward County high schools Monday, 2,400 mightnot graduate, if last year's dropout figures are a good predictor.
Schools Superintendent Jim Notter and his team are determined to preventthat by using some strategies to reinvent the freshman experience.
One of those strategies was in place last week, as bewildered Pompano BeachHigh freshmen converged on the school for a first-time full-day orientation.
They stuck name tags on their shirts, including an A, B or C to designatewhich team they are assigned to. The team concept -- a throwback to middleschool -- is a key part of the ''ninth-grade academies'' created at everyBroward high school this year.
The format keeps a set of kids together for most classes, helping studentsbond and allowing teachers to watch the neophytes closely, said Dan Traeger,who oversees Broward's high school reform.
=
365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/08/081907debate.htm
Rivals Take On Obama
by The Associated Press
Posted: August 19, 2007 - 1:00 pm ET
(Des Moines, Iowa) Democrat Barack Obama on Sunday accused his presidentialrivals of political maneuvering for saying he lacks experience and heinsisted he could handle the rigors of international diplomacy.
The candidates began their latest debate by critiquing the freshmansenator's recent comments on Pakistan and whether he would meet with foreignleaders - including North Korea's head of state - without conditions.
"To prepare for this debate I rode in the bumper cars at the state fair,"the Illinois lawmaker said to laughter and applause from the audience atDrake University.
The debate capped an intense week of politicking in Iowa, an early votingstate in the process of picking a nominee. The Iowa State Fair is a magnetfor White House hopefuls each presidential election. This year was noexception, especially for Democrats who swept into the state after a GOPstraw poll last week.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she and Obama disagreed over how to conductinternational relations with leaders who have been foes of the UnitedStates. Obama said at an earlier debate that he would have no qualms aboutsitting down with leaders of renegade nations such as Cuba, North Korea andIran.
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Sunday, August 19, 2007
GLBT DIGEST August 19, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
NationalGayNews.com
http://www.gay.com/content/tools/print.html?coll=news_articles&sernum=2007/08/16/1&navpath=channels/news
Feds accuse gay Iowa lawmaker of extortion
published Thursday, August 16, 2007
Iowa's highest-ranking openly gay elected official has been indicted by theU.S. Department of Justice for extortion, facing fines up to $250,000 and 20years in prison.
State Sen. Matt McCoy, 41, allegedly attempted to obtain $100 for eachinstallation of a home security system from an ADT dealership in Des Moines,according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The motion-sensor system, called QuietCare, is placed in senior citizens'homes to keep track of their safety. The ndictment alleges that McCoycollected about $2,000 from the company between Dec. 29, 2005, and March 24,2006.
McCoy, D-Des Moines, who was outed on the Senate floor in 2003 byultraconservative Republican Sen. Ken Veenstra, was first elected to thestate House in 1992. Veenstra lost his bid for reelection in 2004, as didseveral other antigay Iowa officials.
McCoy intimated the charges were politically inspired.
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.heraldnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070818/ENT/708180316&template=printart
Published: Saturday, August 18, 2007
Neil Patrick Harris is gay: So?
By Scott Collins
Los Angeles Times
HOLLYWOOD - Just on the merits alone, it makes sense that Neil PatrickHarris snagged a supporting-actor Emmy nomination for "How I Met YourMother." The CBS comedy has earned plenty of critical praise, if less thanfabulous ratings, and as Barney, the dapper, sardonic ladies' man with thememorable catchphrases ("Suit up!") and the extensive porn collection,Harris has thrived in the type of juicy, scene-stealing role he neverthought he'd get.
"The romantic cad is always a fun foil to the sympathetic lead," Harris saidrecently. "I think it's hilarious I was cast as that guy. I've always beencast as the average, Middle American nice guy."
Yet it's possible, just possible, that Emmy voters were looking to send alarger message than simply patting Harris on the back for a job well done.His is the latest career swept up in a larger cultural debate about actors'roles and their personal lives and the willingness of the public todistinguish between the two.
The Emmy nod comes following an awkward year in which Harris, the onetimechild actor who became famous playing the title role in "Doogie Howser,M.D.," reluctantly came out as gay after Web sites questioned his sexuality;for the first time, his personal life became tabloid fodder. (It seems to bethe year for this kind of thing - "Grey's Anatomy's" T.R. Knight also scoredhis first Emmy nod, as supporting actor in a drama series, after coming out.In Knight's case, the decision to go public came after co-star IsaiahWashington reportedly tagged him with a gay slur.)
In November, after the Internet rumors surfaced, Harris' PR rep at the timesaid the actor was "not of that persuasion." The next day, though, Harrisissued a statement to People magazine, saying he was "quite proud to saythat I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel mostfortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love." Wow.The actor who plays Barney, TV's irrepressibly heterosexual playboy, is gay!
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.dailynews.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=6651550&siteId=200
Mormons soften stance on homosexuality
BY REBECCA ROSEN LUM, MediaNews Staff Writer
LA Daily News
Article Last Updated:08/17/2007 08:22:38 PM PDT
The Mormon Church has quietly moved further from defining homosexuality asevil and the result of faulty parenting.
An unheralded new church publication, "God Loveth His Children," says gayfeelings are neither learned nor chosen, and it counsels against rejecting agay child.
Seemingly aimed at young people, the statement gently counsels individualswho feel attraction to and love for same-gender people to trust in God'splan and not act upon the transitory desires of mortal life - a period of"probation during which we face a variety of temptations and challenges."
"Attractions alone do not make you unworthy," the pamphlet says. "If youavoid immoral thoughts and actions, you have not transgressed even if youfeel such an attraction."
It also says: "The Lord's command to `forgive all men' includes therequirement to forgive yourself."
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NationalGayNews.com
http://nationalgaynews.com/content/view/1444/
Saturday, 18 August 2007 11:01
New Gay & Lesbian Escorted Tours of Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs,San Francisco & Las Vegas
Based in West Hollywood CA, Rainbow Tours (formerly "Amerigay Tours") is thefirst and only inbound tour operator company in California serving the gayand lesbian community exclusively. The company offers escorted tours of LosAngeles, Palm Springs, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas and the Nationalparks.
California has so much to offer the gay and lesbian traveler. From Gay Mecca'ssuch as San Francisco, West Hollywood in L.A., San Diego, and Palm Springs,to mountains, rivers, wineries, deserts, parks, beaches and neighboring LasVegas.
Gay owned and operated, the tours are designed for gay and lesbiantravelers, both domestic and international, singles, couples, families andgroups. Rainbow Tours offers Escorted Van Tours as well as Private CarTours. These tours allow gay and lesbian travelers the unique opportunity totravel in California and Las Vegas with other gay and lesbian travelers fromall over the world (families and friends are welcome). All tours featurecasual and friendly English speaking gay and lesbian guides, includecomplementary soft drinks, snacks, and fruit along the way, and hotelpick-up and drop-off service.
Rainbow Tours offers over 30 popular itineraries ranging from day tours ofL.A. and San Francisco ($95) to 3 days tours to Las Vegas or San Francisco($395), to a 5 days tour of L.A., Palm Springs and San Diego ($695), to 8and 9 days tours of California's Coasts and America's National parks($1,595).
Tours include transportation by vans or by private car, accommodations at 3and 4 stars gay friendly hotels, daily breakfast, attractions and service ofa professional gay or lesbian tour guide.
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.bgay.com/bnews/news70817_siegfried_and_roy_comes_out.htm
Siegfried & Roy: Yes, We're Gay
Las Vegas magicians Siegfried & Roy are coming out of the closet in a highlyanticipated autobiography soon to be released. It may not come as a bigsurprise to most people that the two performers are gay but it will be thefirst time they admit to this officially.
According to details from the upcoming book leaked to the National Enquirer,Siegfried and Roy were once very much in love but have since transformedtheir relationship into a working partnership and a deep friendship.
The close relationship between the two stars became evident when Roy wasattacked by one of their tigers on stage in 2003. Roy needed months ofrehabilitation following the attack and during that time, Siegfried hardlyleft his partner's side.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/08/081807brison.htm
Political Movers And Shakers Attend Gay Politician's Wedding
by The Canadian Press
Posted: August 18, 2007 - 6:00 pm ET
(Cheverie, Nova Scotia) As a heavy rain poured down on this picturesqueNova Scotia community, Scott Brison made history Saturday by becoming thefirst MP to marry his same-sex partner since gay marriage was legallyrecognized two years ago.
The Liberal politician wed his partner Maxime St. Pierre at a ceremony in asmall white church near Brison's country home in Cheverie.
The ceremony was originally planned at the edge of a beach, where a largewhite tent had been set up, but it was relocated to a United church just upthe road.
Guests included Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, former prime minister JoeClark, former Liberal defence minister Bill Graham, former New Brunswickpremier Frank McKenna and Liberal MP John Godfrey.
``Scott's a good friend of all of ours and we're pleased to be here tosupport him,'' McKenna said before the ceremony, adding that the weddingwould help further legitimize same-sex marriage.
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New Times
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-08-16/news/letters-for-august-16-22-2007/
Broward-Palm Beach - News - Letters for August 16-22, 2007
by Paul Harris
Hardly a day goes by when I am having a quiet conversation with a gay orlesbian friend and the subject of the sexual behavior of our city'sheterosexuals does not come up. I understand it is the same during coffeehour after the services at the Metropolitan Community Church at the SunshineCathedral as well as many other houses of worship used by this area's gaysand lesbians. And it is always the same thing: Why, oh why, can'theterosexuals have sex at home or, at the very least, if they are cheatingon their husbands or wives, in a hotel or motel?
As a God-fearing gay man, I am fed up and disgusted when I walk along thebeach on A1A in the evening and I hear and am forced to watch heterosexualcouples fornicating on the beach. Alternatively, one comes across carsparked at night whose movement suggests fornication happening within. Whyshould we decent, moral, taxpaying, gay and lesbian citizens have to put upwith having to observe this disgraceful behavior?
One suspects, though one cannot prove, that these heterosexual people areengaging in unprotected sex. As a result, apart from the possibletransmission of diseases, there is the very real possibility of unwanted andunplanned pregnancies. Far be it for me to criticize other people's morals -I would hate to be thought to be a moralizing puritan commenting upon thesexual behavior of others - but at least in the gay and lesbian community,when a couple decides to have a child, it is very much planned and wanted.When was the last time you heard of a child from a gay relationship windingup in a foster home or orphanage? When was the last time you heard of ashotgun wedding between two gay men or two lesbians?
Fort Lauderdale and the whole of Broward County is very dependent upon thetourism industry. Statistics from the Convention and Visitors Bureau showthat 950,000 gay and lesbian tourists visit every year, spending $1.2billion. The behavior of heterosexuals having illicit sex in the backs ofcars or on the beach after dark could have a very negative effect upon gaytourism. What middle-class gay tourist couple, having had an expensivedinner at a pleasant Las Olas restaurant, wants to be walking their goldenretriever along the beach on A1A for an evening stroll only to encounterheterosexuals having sex all over the place?
Plainly, the police and Mayor Naugle are unconcerned about this significantand major problem, which should concern us all. Is it too much to askheterosexuals to get a room?
Paul Harris
Wilton Manors
=
Forwarded from Marc Adams
Volunteer Executive Director - HeartStrong
http://heartstrong.org/
Religious School Does A 360 (maybe a 325)
Last year, we shared the story of a young woman in a Catholic highschool who was experiencing ongoing harassment. She shared herown story and that of a fellow student in one of our newsletters.After repeated attempts to talk to her school counselor about the abuseand abusive language she was enduring, she contacted HeartStrong after aneducational forum in her town.
Aside from personal support, HeartStrong then provided her withinformation to present to her counselor at her Catholic high school.HeartStrong also sent letters to administrators as well as the counselor.A few days ago, the student received her student handbook for the2007-2008 school year. To her surprise she found the following policiespublished in the book.
"Salpointe Catholic High School students will not...verbalize slurs orremarks concerting gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, orsexual orientation."
Also in the handbook is a written policy by one of the teachers for herown classroom.
"...discriminatory or inflammatory behavior will not be tolerated. Theseinclude sexist, racist, and homophobic comments."
Obviously, the new school policy for students is not the absolute best inits wording, but it is a gigantic step for this school.
Most importantly, this young woman has seen the results of her personalempowerment to stand up to faith-based bullying at her school.
HeartStrong is not revealing the name of the school because the last timethat there was major progress at a Catholic school like this there was alot of (nonHeartStrong) media attention and within a month the progresswas recinded by an archbishop.
This is a very rare example of what can happen when a courageous studentdoes the right thing.
20th Outreach Trip Continues
Many exciting things are happening on this trip. We have extended thefirst portion of this trip in northern California after students atseveral schools requested visits. So we are still near San Franciscoworking hard to get as much accomplished in a short time as possible.The latest stats from the CA Dept. of Education show that San FranciscoCounty is still the county with the most religious schools in the countryand the highest enrollments in the state.
We will be leaving soon to do more work in southern California and Nevada.We still need your financial help! We are $8,000.00 short on the fundsneeded for this trip which extends until December 18.
http://www.heartstrong.org
Thanks for your support!
Marc Adams
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/19Rparenting.html?pagewanted=print
August 19, 2007
Parenting
A Reason to Take the Early Bus Home
By MICHAEL WINERIP
MONTCLAIR, N.J.
EIGHT years ago, when Thad Hayes gave Adam Lippin his phone number, he wasthinking of a fun night out in Manhattan, not a family. But life takessurprising turns.
The two hit it off, and not long into the relationship, Mr. Lippin mentionedthat he wanted children someday. Mr. Hayes, now 51, is a nationally knowninterior designer based in New York City. He worked long hours, then headedto the gym, rarely arriving home at his Greenwich Village apartment before9. "I wasn't thinking about children," Mr. Hayes says. "I thought I wascapable of talking anyone out of anything."
But Mr. Lippin, 43, who owns Atomic Wings, a small restaurant chain, wasn'tfooling around. He couldn't really explain why he wanted children, he justalways knew that he did, and periodically, as the relationship grew serious,he'd bring it up. "I never said, 'I'd leave you if we don't have a child,' "he says. "I just said, 'I have a strong desire.' I pressed the issue. Thadwasn't against it."
"Yeah," Mr. Hayes says, "I wasn't against it. It just wasn't in myconsciousness."
In 2002, they bought an apartment together that had a second bedroom. "A lotwas unspoken," Mr. Lippin says.
"Definitely," Mr. Hayes says. "But this place had a cute little extrabedroom on the street. We were thinking - "
"We were like a straight couple not trying to get pregnant, but not tryingnot to get pregnant," Mr. Lippin says.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/fashion/19maupin.html?pagewanted=print
August 19, 2007
These Hills Still Talk to Him
By GUY TREBAY
San Francisco
PEOPLE ask him how his city has changed over the years, and Armistead Maupintells them it has not. One of the better-kept secrets of San Francisco ishow little time has altered the place, at least in a superficial sense,since the days when Mr. Maupin arrived in the early 1970s, fresh from theNavy and looking for his future.
Yet in the decades since "Sure of You," the last installment in Mr. Maupin'sbest-selling "Tales of the City" series was published, waves of newimmigrants have arrived, not necessarily looking to make fortunes so much asto spend them. The sexual frontier that once beckoned to adventurers asunalike as Gianni Versace and Michel Foucault has largely shifted to thecybersphere. Gay San Francisco, so vivid a presence in Mr. Maupin's writing,now gives the appearance of having slumped into cozy middle-age.
And that, in some ways, is a good thing, or anyway a surprising one, asreaders who have propelled Mr. Maupin's latest book, "Michael TolliverLives," toward the best-seller list have found. Ask him about San Franciscotoday, and Mr. Maupin will observe that the need for gay enclaves is lessgreat than the need for gay retirement centers. Michael Tolliver, thecharming naïf Mr. Maupin invented decades ago as a fictitious alter ego, wasnever expected to reach 55, his age at the beginning of the new novel. Yetthere he is, slightly creaky but vital, thriving on "a fine tuned mélange"of the retroviral drugs Viramune and Combivir, kept sexually humming thanksto a little blue pill.
He has a partner, as does Mr. Maupin, many years his junior. He has a cozybusiness, as one might say Mr. Maupin does - considering that the "Tales ofthe City" franchise has spawned two miniseries and a passionate globalreadership. He drives a hybrid car, as does Mr. Maupin, a Toyota Prius witha bossy G.P.S. he calls Carlotta.
Carlotta was on mute the day Mr. Maupin conducted a visitor on a drivingtour of gay San Francisco, starting at the house atop Parnassus Heights thathe shares with Christopher Turner, whom he married last February in a smallceremony in Vancouver, British Columbia.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/18/AR2007081801022.html
New York Activists Say Giuliani Has Retreated on Gay Issues
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 19, 2007; A04
NEW YORK -- Frustrated by what he regards as the shifting stance ofRepublican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani on gay rights, RyanDavis logged on to MySpace, gathered a few of his friends and grabbed avideo camera. Together, they created a minute-long YouTube video aimed athurting the former New York mayor with social conservatives in early primarystates.
"Gays for Giuliani," it's called.
"I couldn't think of a more ironic title," said Davis, a 25-year-old gaywriter and director, sitting in his cramped Hell's Kitchen apartment,showing off what he calls his masterpiece. With the theme music of "The WestWing" in the background, the video shows gay New Yorkers saying things suchas: "I would be hard-pressed to think of any conservative politician whoembraces the gay community like Giuliani does."
"When he was our mayor, Giuliani was pro-gay rights," said Davis, whodescribes himself as a libertarian Democrat who supported Howard Dean forpresident in 2004 and Republican John McCain in 2000. "Now that he's runningfor president, Giuliani has abandoned us. I wanted to remind voters,especially conservative voters, who Giuliani was."
Many gay New Yorkers share Davis's opinion of Giuliani's two terms as mayor,when he spoke openly about anti-gay violence and campaigned for a statewidehate crimes law early in his administration.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/18/AR2007081801167.html
Rift Over Gay Unions Reflects Battle New to Black Churches
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 19, 2007; C01
Never in a "million years" did Robert Renix think he would find a Baptistchurch that would accept someone like him: a black Baptist gay man. Nevermind one that would allow what happened one Saturday last month, when atuxedo-clad Renix stood in front of the pulpit at Covenant Baptist Church inAnacostia, exchanging vows with his partner, Antonio Long.
It didn't turn out to be that simple, though.
About 140 members jammed into the fellowship hall a few weeks later for atense meeting about the recent decision of Covenant co-pastors Dennis andChristine Wiley to conduct same-sex union ceremonies. Some expressed theiropposition through Bible verses, saying they were worried that Covenant wasgetting a reputation as a "gay church." Others wept as they defended theWileys, said people who were there.
"I don't care who does it in their bedroom with whom," said Yvonne Moore, alongtime member who left the church over the same-sex ceremonies. "But don'tbring that foolishness into my church."
Other heterosexual church members defend the Wileys and their actions. "It'snever been a traditional church," said Jeffrey Canady, a lifetime member wholives in Takoma Park. "That's the beauty of the church. It has always beenat the forefront of change."
The split reflects a tug of war that is developing between a few blackchurches willing to welcome gays and black denominations that considerhomosexuality a sin.
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/08/19/s1c_bino_0819.html
By Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 19, 2007
It's generally believed that the sexcapades of politicians are amusing but not important beyond their entertainment value.
But that's not always so. There are two of these stories swirling around that represent the opposite ends of this spectrum.
One matters, and the other ...
Florida state Rep. Bob Allen, R-Merritt Island, has been on the slow boat to blivion since he was arrested last month on suspicion of soliciting an undercover male Titusville police officer for sex in a park restroom. Allen allegedly offered to pay the cop $20 if he would agree to drive with him to a more secluded spot for sex.
"This is kind of a public place, isn't it?" Allen allegedly said.
What we have here is a misdemeanor charge folded into a burrito grande of hypocrisy.
Allen is one of those family values guys with a stellar rating from the Christian Coalition. Naturally. And as a legislator, he has championed increasing the penalties for men who solicit sex in public places. Naturally.
Pile gets deeper
This would all be entertaining enough. But Allen has managed to make a bad situation worse.
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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.gay.com/content/tools/print.html?coll=news_articles&sernum=2007/08/16/1&navpath=channels/news
Feds accuse gay Iowa lawmaker of extortion
published Thursday, August 16, 2007
Iowa's highest-ranking openly gay elected official has been indicted by theU.S. Department of Justice for extortion, facing fines up to $250,000 and 20years in prison.
State Sen. Matt McCoy, 41, allegedly attempted to obtain $100 for eachinstallation of a home security system from an ADT dealership in Des Moines,according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The motion-sensor system, called QuietCare, is placed in senior citizens'homes to keep track of their safety. The ndictment alleges that McCoycollected about $2,000 from the company between Dec. 29, 2005, and March 24,2006.
McCoy, D-Des Moines, who was outed on the Senate floor in 2003 byultraconservative Republican Sen. Ken Veenstra, was first elected to thestate House in 1992. Veenstra lost his bid for reelection in 2004, as didseveral other antigay Iowa officials.
McCoy intimated the charges were politically inspired.
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.heraldnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070818/ENT/708180316&template=printart
Published: Saturday, August 18, 2007
Neil Patrick Harris is gay: So?
By Scott Collins
Los Angeles Times
HOLLYWOOD - Just on the merits alone, it makes sense that Neil PatrickHarris snagged a supporting-actor Emmy nomination for "How I Met YourMother." The CBS comedy has earned plenty of critical praise, if less thanfabulous ratings, and as Barney, the dapper, sardonic ladies' man with thememorable catchphrases ("Suit up!") and the extensive porn collection,Harris has thrived in the type of juicy, scene-stealing role he neverthought he'd get.
"The romantic cad is always a fun foil to the sympathetic lead," Harris saidrecently. "I think it's hilarious I was cast as that guy. I've always beencast as the average, Middle American nice guy."
Yet it's possible, just possible, that Emmy voters were looking to send alarger message than simply patting Harris on the back for a job well done.His is the latest career swept up in a larger cultural debate about actors'roles and their personal lives and the willingness of the public todistinguish between the two.
The Emmy nod comes following an awkward year in which Harris, the onetimechild actor who became famous playing the title role in "Doogie Howser,M.D.," reluctantly came out as gay after Web sites questioned his sexuality;for the first time, his personal life became tabloid fodder. (It seems to bethe year for this kind of thing - "Grey's Anatomy's" T.R. Knight also scoredhis first Emmy nod, as supporting actor in a drama series, after coming out.In Knight's case, the decision to go public came after co-star IsaiahWashington reportedly tagged him with a gay slur.)
In November, after the Internet rumors surfaced, Harris' PR rep at the timesaid the actor was "not of that persuasion." The next day, though, Harrisissued a statement to People magazine, saying he was "quite proud to saythat I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel mostfortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love." Wow.The actor who plays Barney, TV's irrepressibly heterosexual playboy, is gay!
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NationalGayNews.com
http://www.dailynews.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=6651550&siteId=200
Mormons soften stance on homosexuality
BY REBECCA ROSEN LUM, MediaNews Staff Writer
LA Daily News
Article Last Updated:08/17/2007 08:22:38 PM PDT
The Mormon Church has quietly moved further from defining homosexuality asevil and the result of faulty parenting.
An unheralded new church publication, "God Loveth His Children," says gayfeelings are neither learned nor chosen, and it counsels against rejecting agay child.
Seemingly aimed at young people, the statement gently counsels individualswho feel attraction to and love for same-gender people to trust in God'splan and not act upon the transitory desires of mortal life - a period of"probation during which we face a variety of temptations and challenges."
"Attractions alone do not make you unworthy," the pamphlet says. "If youavoid immoral thoughts and actions, you have not transgressed even if youfeel such an attraction."
It also says: "The Lord's command to `forgive all men' includes therequirement to forgive yourself."
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NationalGayNews.com
http://nationalgaynews.com/content/view/1444/
Saturday, 18 August 2007 11:01
New Gay & Lesbian Escorted Tours of Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs,San Francisco & Las Vegas
Based in West Hollywood CA, Rainbow Tours (formerly "Amerigay Tours") is thefirst and only inbound tour operator company in California serving the gayand lesbian community exclusively. The company offers escorted tours of LosAngeles, Palm Springs, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas and the Nationalparks.
California has so much to offer the gay and lesbian traveler. From Gay Mecca'ssuch as San Francisco, West Hollywood in L.A., San Diego, and Palm Springs,to mountains, rivers, wineries, deserts, parks, beaches and neighboring LasVegas.
Gay owned and operated, the tours are designed for gay and lesbiantravelers, both domestic and international, singles, couples, families andgroups. Rainbow Tours offers Escorted Van Tours as well as Private CarTours. These tours allow gay and lesbian travelers the unique opportunity totravel in California and Las Vegas with other gay and lesbian travelers fromall over the world (families and friends are welcome). All tours featurecasual and friendly English speaking gay and lesbian guides, includecomplementary soft drinks, snacks, and fruit along the way, and hotelpick-up and drop-off service.
Rainbow Tours offers over 30 popular itineraries ranging from day tours ofL.A. and San Francisco ($95) to 3 days tours to Las Vegas or San Francisco($395), to a 5 days tour of L.A., Palm Springs and San Diego ($695), to 8and 9 days tours of California's Coasts and America's National parks($1,595).
Tours include transportation by vans or by private car, accommodations at 3and 4 stars gay friendly hotels, daily breakfast, attractions and service ofa professional gay or lesbian tour guide.
=
NationalGayNews.com
http://www.bgay.com/bnews/news70817_siegfried_and_roy_comes_out.htm
Siegfried & Roy: Yes, We're Gay
Las Vegas magicians Siegfried & Roy are coming out of the closet in a highlyanticipated autobiography soon to be released. It may not come as a bigsurprise to most people that the two performers are gay but it will be thefirst time they admit to this officially.
According to details from the upcoming book leaked to the National Enquirer,Siegfried and Roy were once very much in love but have since transformedtheir relationship into a working partnership and a deep friendship.
The close relationship between the two stars became evident when Roy wasattacked by one of their tigers on stage in 2003. Roy needed months ofrehabilitation following the attack and during that time, Siegfried hardlyleft his partner's side.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/08/081807brison.htm
Political Movers And Shakers Attend Gay Politician's Wedding
by The Canadian Press
Posted: August 18, 2007 - 6:00 pm ET
(Cheverie, Nova Scotia) As a heavy rain poured down on this picturesqueNova Scotia community, Scott Brison made history Saturday by becoming thefirst MP to marry his same-sex partner since gay marriage was legallyrecognized two years ago.
The Liberal politician wed his partner Maxime St. Pierre at a ceremony in asmall white church near Brison's country home in Cheverie.
The ceremony was originally planned at the edge of a beach, where a largewhite tent had been set up, but it was relocated to a United church just upthe road.
Guests included Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, former prime minister JoeClark, former Liberal defence minister Bill Graham, former New Brunswickpremier Frank McKenna and Liberal MP John Godfrey.
``Scott's a good friend of all of ours and we're pleased to be here tosupport him,'' McKenna said before the ceremony, adding that the weddingwould help further legitimize same-sex marriage.
=
New Times
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-08-16/news/letters-for-august-16-22-2007/
Broward-Palm Beach - News - Letters for August 16-22, 2007
by Paul Harris
Hardly a day goes by when I am having a quiet conversation with a gay orlesbian friend and the subject of the sexual behavior of our city'sheterosexuals does not come up. I understand it is the same during coffeehour after the services at the Metropolitan Community Church at the SunshineCathedral as well as many other houses of worship used by this area's gaysand lesbians. And it is always the same thing: Why, oh why, can'theterosexuals have sex at home or, at the very least, if they are cheatingon their husbands or wives, in a hotel or motel?
As a God-fearing gay man, I am fed up and disgusted when I walk along thebeach on A1A in the evening and I hear and am forced to watch heterosexualcouples fornicating on the beach. Alternatively, one comes across carsparked at night whose movement suggests fornication happening within. Whyshould we decent, moral, taxpaying, gay and lesbian citizens have to put upwith having to observe this disgraceful behavior?
One suspects, though one cannot prove, that these heterosexual people areengaging in unprotected sex. As a result, apart from the possibletransmission of diseases, there is the very real possibility of unwanted andunplanned pregnancies. Far be it for me to criticize other people's morals -I would hate to be thought to be a moralizing puritan commenting upon thesexual behavior of others - but at least in the gay and lesbian community,when a couple decides to have a child, it is very much planned and wanted.When was the last time you heard of a child from a gay relationship windingup in a foster home or orphanage? When was the last time you heard of ashotgun wedding between two gay men or two lesbians?
Fort Lauderdale and the whole of Broward County is very dependent upon thetourism industry. Statistics from the Convention and Visitors Bureau showthat 950,000 gay and lesbian tourists visit every year, spending $1.2billion. The behavior of heterosexuals having illicit sex in the backs ofcars or on the beach after dark could have a very negative effect upon gaytourism. What middle-class gay tourist couple, having had an expensivedinner at a pleasant Las Olas restaurant, wants to be walking their goldenretriever along the beach on A1A for an evening stroll only to encounterheterosexuals having sex all over the place?
Plainly, the police and Mayor Naugle are unconcerned about this significantand major problem, which should concern us all. Is it too much to askheterosexuals to get a room?
Paul Harris
Wilton Manors
=
Forwarded from Marc Adams
Volunteer Executive Director - HeartStrong
http://heartstrong.org/
Religious School Does A 360 (maybe a 325)
Last year, we shared the story of a young woman in a Catholic highschool who was experiencing ongoing harassment. She shared herown story and that of a fellow student in one of our newsletters.After repeated attempts to talk to her school counselor about the abuseand abusive language she was enduring, she contacted HeartStrong after aneducational forum in her town.
Aside from personal support, HeartStrong then provided her withinformation to present to her counselor at her Catholic high school.HeartStrong also sent letters to administrators as well as the counselor.A few days ago, the student received her student handbook for the2007-2008 school year. To her surprise she found the following policiespublished in the book.
"Salpointe Catholic High School students will not...verbalize slurs orremarks concerting gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, orsexual orientation."
Also in the handbook is a written policy by one of the teachers for herown classroom.
"...discriminatory or inflammatory behavior will not be tolerated. Theseinclude sexist, racist, and homophobic comments."
Obviously, the new school policy for students is not the absolute best inits wording, but it is a gigantic step for this school.
Most importantly, this young woman has seen the results of her personalempowerment to stand up to faith-based bullying at her school.
HeartStrong is not revealing the name of the school because the last timethat there was major progress at a Catholic school like this there was alot of (nonHeartStrong) media attention and within a month the progresswas recinded by an archbishop.
This is a very rare example of what can happen when a courageous studentdoes the right thing.
20th Outreach Trip Continues
Many exciting things are happening on this trip. We have extended thefirst portion of this trip in northern California after students atseveral schools requested visits. So we are still near San Franciscoworking hard to get as much accomplished in a short time as possible.The latest stats from the CA Dept. of Education show that San FranciscoCounty is still the county with the most religious schools in the countryand the highest enrollments in the state.
We will be leaving soon to do more work in southern California and Nevada.We still need your financial help! We are $8,000.00 short on the fundsneeded for this trip which extends until December 18.
http://www.heartstrong.org
Thanks for your support!
Marc Adams
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/19Rparenting.html?pagewanted=print
August 19, 2007
Parenting
A Reason to Take the Early Bus Home
By MICHAEL WINERIP
MONTCLAIR, N.J.
EIGHT years ago, when Thad Hayes gave Adam Lippin his phone number, he wasthinking of a fun night out in Manhattan, not a family. But life takessurprising turns.
The two hit it off, and not long into the relationship, Mr. Lippin mentionedthat he wanted children someday. Mr. Hayes, now 51, is a nationally knowninterior designer based in New York City. He worked long hours, then headedto the gym, rarely arriving home at his Greenwich Village apartment before9. "I wasn't thinking about children," Mr. Hayes says. "I thought I wascapable of talking anyone out of anything."
But Mr. Lippin, 43, who owns Atomic Wings, a small restaurant chain, wasn'tfooling around. He couldn't really explain why he wanted children, he justalways knew that he did, and periodically, as the relationship grew serious,he'd bring it up. "I never said, 'I'd leave you if we don't have a child,' "he says. "I just said, 'I have a strong desire.' I pressed the issue. Thadwasn't against it."
"Yeah," Mr. Hayes says, "I wasn't against it. It just wasn't in myconsciousness."
In 2002, they bought an apartment together that had a second bedroom. "A lotwas unspoken," Mr. Lippin says.
"Definitely," Mr. Hayes says. "But this place had a cute little extrabedroom on the street. We were thinking - "
"We were like a straight couple not trying to get pregnant, but not tryingnot to get pregnant," Mr. Lippin says.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/fashion/19maupin.html?pagewanted=print
August 19, 2007
These Hills Still Talk to Him
By GUY TREBAY
San Francisco
PEOPLE ask him how his city has changed over the years, and Armistead Maupintells them it has not. One of the better-kept secrets of San Francisco ishow little time has altered the place, at least in a superficial sense,since the days when Mr. Maupin arrived in the early 1970s, fresh from theNavy and looking for his future.
Yet in the decades since "Sure of You," the last installment in Mr. Maupin'sbest-selling "Tales of the City" series was published, waves of newimmigrants have arrived, not necessarily looking to make fortunes so much asto spend them. The sexual frontier that once beckoned to adventurers asunalike as Gianni Versace and Michel Foucault has largely shifted to thecybersphere. Gay San Francisco, so vivid a presence in Mr. Maupin's writing,now gives the appearance of having slumped into cozy middle-age.
And that, in some ways, is a good thing, or anyway a surprising one, asreaders who have propelled Mr. Maupin's latest book, "Michael TolliverLives," toward the best-seller list have found. Ask him about San Franciscotoday, and Mr. Maupin will observe that the need for gay enclaves is lessgreat than the need for gay retirement centers. Michael Tolliver, thecharming naïf Mr. Maupin invented decades ago as a fictitious alter ego, wasnever expected to reach 55, his age at the beginning of the new novel. Yetthere he is, slightly creaky but vital, thriving on "a fine tuned mélange"of the retroviral drugs Viramune and Combivir, kept sexually humming thanksto a little blue pill.
He has a partner, as does Mr. Maupin, many years his junior. He has a cozybusiness, as one might say Mr. Maupin does - considering that the "Tales ofthe City" franchise has spawned two miniseries and a passionate globalreadership. He drives a hybrid car, as does Mr. Maupin, a Toyota Prius witha bossy G.P.S. he calls Carlotta.
Carlotta was on mute the day Mr. Maupin conducted a visitor on a drivingtour of gay San Francisco, starting at the house atop Parnassus Heights thathe shares with Christopher Turner, whom he married last February in a smallceremony in Vancouver, British Columbia.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/18/AR2007081801022.html
New York Activists Say Giuliani Has Retreated on Gay Issues
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 19, 2007; A04
NEW YORK -- Frustrated by what he regards as the shifting stance ofRepublican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani on gay rights, RyanDavis logged on to MySpace, gathered a few of his friends and grabbed avideo camera. Together, they created a minute-long YouTube video aimed athurting the former New York mayor with social conservatives in early primarystates.
"Gays for Giuliani," it's called.
"I couldn't think of a more ironic title," said Davis, a 25-year-old gaywriter and director, sitting in his cramped Hell's Kitchen apartment,showing off what he calls his masterpiece. With the theme music of "The WestWing" in the background, the video shows gay New Yorkers saying things suchas: "I would be hard-pressed to think of any conservative politician whoembraces the gay community like Giuliani does."
"When he was our mayor, Giuliani was pro-gay rights," said Davis, whodescribes himself as a libertarian Democrat who supported Howard Dean forpresident in 2004 and Republican John McCain in 2000. "Now that he's runningfor president, Giuliani has abandoned us. I wanted to remind voters,especially conservative voters, who Giuliani was."
Many gay New Yorkers share Davis's opinion of Giuliani's two terms as mayor,when he spoke openly about anti-gay violence and campaigned for a statewidehate crimes law early in his administration.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/18/AR2007081801167.html
Rift Over Gay Unions Reflects Battle New to Black Churches
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 19, 2007; C01
Never in a "million years" did Robert Renix think he would find a Baptistchurch that would accept someone like him: a black Baptist gay man. Nevermind one that would allow what happened one Saturday last month, when atuxedo-clad Renix stood in front of the pulpit at Covenant Baptist Church inAnacostia, exchanging vows with his partner, Antonio Long.
It didn't turn out to be that simple, though.
About 140 members jammed into the fellowship hall a few weeks later for atense meeting about the recent decision of Covenant co-pastors Dennis andChristine Wiley to conduct same-sex union ceremonies. Some expressed theiropposition through Bible verses, saying they were worried that Covenant wasgetting a reputation as a "gay church." Others wept as they defended theWileys, said people who were there.
"I don't care who does it in their bedroom with whom," said Yvonne Moore, alongtime member who left the church over the same-sex ceremonies. "But don'tbring that foolishness into my church."
Other heterosexual church members defend the Wileys and their actions. "It'snever been a traditional church," said Jeffrey Canady, a lifetime member wholives in Takoma Park. "That's the beauty of the church. It has always beenat the forefront of change."
The split reflects a tug of war that is developing between a few blackchurches willing to welcome gays and black denominations that considerhomosexuality a sin.
=
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/08/19/s1c_bino_0819.html
By Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 19, 2007
It's generally believed that the sexcapades of politicians are amusing but not important beyond their entertainment value.
But that's not always so. There are two of these stories swirling around that represent the opposite ends of this spectrum.
One matters, and the other ...
Florida state Rep. Bob Allen, R-Merritt Island, has been on the slow boat to blivion since he was arrested last month on suspicion of soliciting an undercover male Titusville police officer for sex in a park restroom. Allen allegedly offered to pay the cop $20 if he would agree to drive with him to a more secluded spot for sex.
"This is kind of a public place, isn't it?" Allen allegedly said.
What we have here is a misdemeanor charge folded into a burrito grande of hypocrisy.
Allen is one of those family values guys with a stellar rating from the Christian Coalition. Naturally. And as a legislator, he has championed increasing the penalties for men who solicit sex in public places. Naturally.
Pile gets deeper
This would all be entertaining enough. But Allen has managed to make a bad situation worse.
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST August 19, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19sun4.html?pagewanted=print
August 19, 2007
Editorial Observer
The Founders Had an Idea for Handling Alberto Gonzales
By ADAM COHEN
William Belknap, Ulysses S. Grant's disgraced secretary of war, isexperiencing a revival. Impeached in 1876 for taking bribes, he has becomethe inspiration for a movement to remove Attorney General Alberto Gonzalesfrom office. Impeachment is usually thought of as limited to presidents, butthe Constitution not only allows the impeachment of Cabinet members, inBelknap's case, it was actually done.
Impeaching Mr. Gonzales has moved beyond the hypothetical, now that JayInslee, Democrat of Washington, and five otherprosecutors-turned-representatives have introduced a resolution to conductan impeachment inquiry. Congress is wary, and not only because ofpost-Clinton impeachment hangover. The grounds set out in the Constitutionare vague, and the Democrats do not want to be seen as overreaching.
Members of Congress should keep in mind, however, that the founders gavethem the impeachment power for a reason - and Mr. Gonzales's malfeasance isjust the sort they were worried about.
The Constitution provides for impeachment for "treason, bribery, or otherhigh crimes and misdemeanors." Not a clear formula, but it wasn't meant tobe. Impeachment, Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist 65, cannot be"tied down" by "strict rules, either in the delineation of the offense" bythe House, or "in the construction of it" by the Senate.
=
365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/08/081807snow.htm
After Losing 'Brain' Bush About To Lose 'Mouth'
by The Associated Press
Posted: August 18, 2007 - 1:00 pm ET
(Washington) White House press secretary Tony Snow has announced he'll leavebefore the end of the Bush presidency because he needs to make more money.
"I'm going to stay as long as I can," he said without elaborating on adeparture date.
Snow's comment caught White House colleagues by surprise, and they said theycould not hazard a guess about when he might leave.
The 52-year-old Snow, the father of three children, earns $168,000 as anassistant to the president but made considerably more as a conservativepundit and syndicated talk-show host on Fox News Radio. He was named presssecretary on April 26, 2006.
White House press secretaries in recent administrations have found thespeechmaking circuit to be lucrative once they've stepped down. Snow waseagerly sought by Republican audiences before the elections last year, andin a break with tradition he made a number of fundraising speeches for GOPcandidates.
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19friedman.html?pagewanted=print
August 19, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Seeing Is Believing
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Is the surge in Iraq working? That is the question that Gen. David Petraeusand U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker will answer for us next month. I, alas, amnot interested in their opinions.
It is not because I don't hold both men in very high regard. I do. But I'mstill not interested in their opinions. I'm only interested in yours. Yes,you - the person reading this column. You know more than you think.
You see, I have a simple view about both Arab-Israeli peace-making and Iraqisurge-making, and it goes like this: Any Arab-Israeli peace overture thatrequires a Middle East expert to explain to you is not worth considering. It'sgoing nowhere.
Either a peace overture is so obvious and grabs you in the gut - Anwar Sadat's trip to Israel - or it's going nowhere. That is why the Saudi-Arab Leaguepeace overture is going nowhere. No emotional content. It was basicallyfaxed to the Israeli people, and people don't give up land for peace in adeal that comes over the fax.
Ditto with Iraqi surges. If it takes a Middle East expert to explain to youwhy it is working, it's not working. To be sure, it is good news if thenumber of Iraqis found dead in Baghdad each night is diminishing. Indeed, itis good news if casualties are down everywhere that U.S. troops have madetheir presence felt. But all that tells me is something that was obviousfrom the start of the war, which Donald Rumsfeld ignored: where you put inlarge numbers of U.S. troops you get security, and where you don't you getinsecurity.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/washington/19fisa.html?hp
August 19, 2007
Concerns Raised on Wider Spying Under New Law
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 - Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congressthis month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operationsthat go well beyond wiretapping to include - without court approval -certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection ofAmericans' business records, Democratic Congressional officials and otherexperts said.
Administration officials acknowledged that they had heard such concerns fromDemocrats in Congress recently, and that there was a continuing debate overthe meaning of the legislative language. But they said the Democrats weresimply raising theoretical questions based on a harsh interpretation of thelegislation.
They also emphasized that there would be strict rules in place to minimizethe extent to which Americans would be caught up in the surveillance.
The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-sessionscramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may havegiven the administration more surveillance powers than it sought.
It also offers a case study in how changing a few words in a complex pieceof legislation has the potential to fundamentally alter the ForeignIntelligence Surveillance Act, a landmark national security law. The newlegislation is set to expire in less than six months; two weeks after it wassigned into law, there is still heated debate over how much power Congressgave to the president.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Torture-Psychology.html?pagewanted=print
August 19, 2007
Psychologists Weigh Interrogation Ban
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:29 a.m. ET
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Stung by reports implicating mental health specialistsin prisoner abuse scandals at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, the nation'slargest group of psychologists is considering banning its members frominterrogations of terror suspects.
The American Psychological Association, which is holding its annual meetingin San Francisco, is scheduled to vote Sunday on two competing measuresconcerning its 148,000 members' participation in military interrogations atGuantanamo Bay and other U.S. military detention centers.
One measure would bar members from any involvement in interrogations at U.S.detention facilities where foreigners are held. The moratorium would not bebacked by sanctions, but it would carry the APA's ''moral authority,'' saidpsychologist Neil Altman, who wrote the proposed resolution.
The other proposal, which is backed by APA's board of directors, wouldreaffirm the group's opposition to torture and prohibit members from takingpart in more than a dozen specific practices, including forced nakedness,mock executions and simulated drowning.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081900370_pf.html
Democrats Meet for Yet Another Debate [TODAY - SUNDAY]
By MIKE GLOVER
The Associated Press
Sunday, August 19, 2007; 5:05 AM
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Even as their differences on the issues become morepronounced, the Democratic presidential front-runners seem to agree on onething: The schedule of candidate forums and debates has become overwhelming.
Nonetheless, they were gathering in Des Moines on Sunday morning for anotherdebate, this time to be broadcast live on ABC's "This Week."
The rivals have been appearing at a relentless series of forums and debatesand now there are signs that may change.
David Plouffe, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign manager, said Saturday, "Wesimply cannot continue to hopscotch from forum to forum and run a campaigntrue to the bottom-up movement for change that propelled Barack into thisrace."
He said Obama was committed to five remaining debates sanctioned by theDemocratic National Committee, two Iowa debates in December and one inFlorida on Sept. 9. But after that, Plouffe said, the campaign will limitthe number of debates Obama attends.
Other campaigns have grumbled privately about the same thing and some willprobably follow suit. The forums are virtually the only way for lesser-knowncandidates like former Sen. Mike Gravel and Rep. Dennis Kucinich to getattention.
Meanwhile, the top contenders continue to fight over the role big moneyplays in politics. Obama has railed against "lobby-driven, divisivepolitics," a coded shot at rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Former Sen.John Edwards was urging his rivals and the party to distance themselves fromlobbyists and their money, warning that Democrats risk being seen as a"party of Washington insiders."
Lately, Clinton has sought to cast herself as a defender of workingfamilies, saying "the American middle class is under attack" and promisingto reverse that.
The other candidates scheduled to participate in Sunday's debate were Gov.Bill Richardson and Sens. Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd. "This Week" hostGeorge Stephanopoulos was moderating the 90-minute forum.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/17/AR2007081701693.html
The Model That India Offers
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, August 19, 2007; B07
India celebrated its 60th birthday last week with a raucous parliamentarydebate over nuclear energy and its new strategic relationship with theUnited States. New Delhi had the air of the capital of an emerging worldpower looking ahead into a promising, if complicated, future.
Pakistan marked the same occasion by sinking deeper into the past. Thecorrupt backroom dealing between military rulers and politicians that hasproduced a cycle of disasters for the Pakistani nation resumed -- aided bythe hidden hand of U.S. diplomacy working to preserve President PervezMusharraf's dwindling power in Islamabad.
The anniversary of the partition of the Asian subcontinent six decades agoshowed the region's two contrasting faces: a giant, open democracy and asclerotic but nuclear-armed garrison state. It also revealed two contrastingfaces of the Bush administration's foreign policy, where pockets of boldthinking about the future compete with the need for short-term fixes thatrely heavily on illusion.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defended the nuclear accord against abarrage of attacks from the communist left and the reactionary Hindu right,keeping alive Bush administration hopes that the president can finallytranslate unconventional thinking in foreign policy into a substantialachievement.
The accord underpins a transformed U.S.-India relationship that is essentialto the struggle against transnational jihadist terrorism. It sets the stagefor a badly needed reframing of the global nuclear nonproliferationagreements and practices that failed to stop Pakistan from becoming theworld's nuclear Wal-Mart. And it is a key to hopes for a more effectiveinternational approach to the real dangers of global warming.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/17/AR2007081701691_pf.html
Risks in a Muslim Reformation
By Diana Muir
Sunday, August 19, 2007; B07
Salman Rushdie, Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof and Mansour al-Nogaidanare among the well-intentioned people who have called for an IslamicReformation. They should be careful what they wish for.
The Protestant Reformation did precede the things these men admire aboutmodernity in the West, including women's emancipation, political liberty,scientific breakthroughs, the wealth and opportunity created by theIndustrial Revolution, and permission to think freely regarding God. But allthis came later, and the Reformation was only part of what brought themabout.
The Reformation was a time of intense focus on God and what He requires ofpeople. As a movement, it was enthusiastic, narrow and far from tolerant. Itand the Counter-Reformation brought two centuries of repression, war andmassacre to the West. It's unlikely that anyone who lived through it wouldconsider wishing a Reformation on Muslims.
And yet, even as some hope for such a turn of events -- presuming, it seems,a certain conclusion -- a Reformation is sweeping through the Muslim world.Westerners are generally aware that the Shiite and Sunni sects of Islam arestruggling for dominance in Iraq. But more broadly, the words and doctrinepromoted by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis or Wahhabists are eerilysimilar to those of our 16th-century forebears.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/458/story/208083.html
CAR INSURANCE
Whose fault is no-fault mess?
Florida's no-fault car insurance law ends in a little over a month, andthere is little agreement among several powerful interest groups on findinga solution.
Posted on Sun, Aug. 19, 2007
By MARC CAPUTO AND GARY FINEOUT
mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com
TALLAHASSEE --
Drivers could face more lawsuits and more uninsured motorists when Florida'sno-fault car insurance law ends Oct. 1, a situation that, according tonearly everyone involved in the Capitol, is someone else's fault.State legislators had planned to fix the troubled insurance system during aspecial three-week lawmaking session that begins Sept. 18, but they'regridlocked. There's little agreement among the powerful lobbies that fuelthe process and have a stake in a system worth as much as $1.7 billion ayear.
Gov. Charlie Crist and state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink have stayedout of the fray. There's little for the different interest groups to gain bytangling with the Legislature when there is no clear solution or agreementand the competing interests are numerous.
Consider:
. Chiropractors, doctors and pain-treatment centers want to keep much of thecurrent personal injury protection system, called PIP. For a decade, they'vefought plans to cap fees and the number of treatments, which have helpedjack up costs.
. Big auto insurers, led by State Farm and Allstate, have fought to killPIP, saying there's so much fraud in places like South Florida that somecall Broward County's seat ''Fraud Lauderdale.'' Scrapping the system, theysay, will lower rates by as much as 16 percent and could help more peoplebuy affordable insurance.
more....
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19sun4.html?pagewanted=print
August 19, 2007
Editorial Observer
The Founders Had an Idea for Handling Alberto Gonzales
By ADAM COHEN
William Belknap, Ulysses S. Grant's disgraced secretary of war, isexperiencing a revival. Impeached in 1876 for taking bribes, he has becomethe inspiration for a movement to remove Attorney General Alberto Gonzalesfrom office. Impeachment is usually thought of as limited to presidents, butthe Constitution not only allows the impeachment of Cabinet members, inBelknap's case, it was actually done.
Impeaching Mr. Gonzales has moved beyond the hypothetical, now that JayInslee, Democrat of Washington, and five otherprosecutors-turned-representatives have introduced a resolution to conductan impeachment inquiry. Congress is wary, and not only because ofpost-Clinton impeachment hangover. The grounds set out in the Constitutionare vague, and the Democrats do not want to be seen as overreaching.
Members of Congress should keep in mind, however, that the founders gavethem the impeachment power for a reason - and Mr. Gonzales's malfeasance isjust the sort they were worried about.
The Constitution provides for impeachment for "treason, bribery, or otherhigh crimes and misdemeanors." Not a clear formula, but it wasn't meant tobe. Impeachment, Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist 65, cannot be"tied down" by "strict rules, either in the delineation of the offense" bythe House, or "in the construction of it" by the Senate.
=
365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/08/081807snow.htm
After Losing 'Brain' Bush About To Lose 'Mouth'
by The Associated Press
Posted: August 18, 2007 - 1:00 pm ET
(Washington) White House press secretary Tony Snow has announced he'll leavebefore the end of the Bush presidency because he needs to make more money.
"I'm going to stay as long as I can," he said without elaborating on adeparture date.
Snow's comment caught White House colleagues by surprise, and they said theycould not hazard a guess about when he might leave.
The 52-year-old Snow, the father of three children, earns $168,000 as anassistant to the president but made considerably more as a conservativepundit and syndicated talk-show host on Fox News Radio. He was named presssecretary on April 26, 2006.
White House press secretaries in recent administrations have found thespeechmaking circuit to be lucrative once they've stepped down. Snow waseagerly sought by Republican audiences before the elections last year, andin a break with tradition he made a number of fundraising speeches for GOPcandidates.
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19friedman.html?pagewanted=print
August 19, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Seeing Is Believing
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Is the surge in Iraq working? That is the question that Gen. David Petraeusand U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker will answer for us next month. I, alas, amnot interested in their opinions.
It is not because I don't hold both men in very high regard. I do. But I'mstill not interested in their opinions. I'm only interested in yours. Yes,you - the person reading this column. You know more than you think.
You see, I have a simple view about both Arab-Israeli peace-making and Iraqisurge-making, and it goes like this: Any Arab-Israeli peace overture thatrequires a Middle East expert to explain to you is not worth considering. It'sgoing nowhere.
Either a peace overture is so obvious and grabs you in the gut - Anwar Sadat's trip to Israel - or it's going nowhere. That is why the Saudi-Arab Leaguepeace overture is going nowhere. No emotional content. It was basicallyfaxed to the Israeli people, and people don't give up land for peace in adeal that comes over the fax.
Ditto with Iraqi surges. If it takes a Middle East expert to explain to youwhy it is working, it's not working. To be sure, it is good news if thenumber of Iraqis found dead in Baghdad each night is diminishing. Indeed, itis good news if casualties are down everywhere that U.S. troops have madetheir presence felt. But all that tells me is something that was obviousfrom the start of the war, which Donald Rumsfeld ignored: where you put inlarge numbers of U.S. troops you get security, and where you don't you getinsecurity.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/washington/19fisa.html?hp
August 19, 2007
Concerns Raised on Wider Spying Under New Law
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 - Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congressthis month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operationsthat go well beyond wiretapping to include - without court approval -certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection ofAmericans' business records, Democratic Congressional officials and otherexperts said.
Administration officials acknowledged that they had heard such concerns fromDemocrats in Congress recently, and that there was a continuing debate overthe meaning of the legislative language. But they said the Democrats weresimply raising theoretical questions based on a harsh interpretation of thelegislation.
They also emphasized that there would be strict rules in place to minimizethe extent to which Americans would be caught up in the surveillance.
The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-sessionscramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may havegiven the administration more surveillance powers than it sought.
It also offers a case study in how changing a few words in a complex pieceof legislation has the potential to fundamentally alter the ForeignIntelligence Surveillance Act, a landmark national security law. The newlegislation is set to expire in less than six months; two weeks after it wassigned into law, there is still heated debate over how much power Congressgave to the president.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Torture-Psychology.html?pagewanted=print
August 19, 2007
Psychologists Weigh Interrogation Ban
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:29 a.m. ET
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Stung by reports implicating mental health specialistsin prisoner abuse scandals at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, the nation'slargest group of psychologists is considering banning its members frominterrogations of terror suspects.
The American Psychological Association, which is holding its annual meetingin San Francisco, is scheduled to vote Sunday on two competing measuresconcerning its 148,000 members' participation in military interrogations atGuantanamo Bay and other U.S. military detention centers.
One measure would bar members from any involvement in interrogations at U.S.detention facilities where foreigners are held. The moratorium would not bebacked by sanctions, but it would carry the APA's ''moral authority,'' saidpsychologist Neil Altman, who wrote the proposed resolution.
The other proposal, which is backed by APA's board of directors, wouldreaffirm the group's opposition to torture and prohibit members from takingpart in more than a dozen specific practices, including forced nakedness,mock executions and simulated drowning.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/19/AR2007081900370_pf.html
Democrats Meet for Yet Another Debate [TODAY - SUNDAY]
By MIKE GLOVER
The Associated Press
Sunday, August 19, 2007; 5:05 AM
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Even as their differences on the issues become morepronounced, the Democratic presidential front-runners seem to agree on onething: The schedule of candidate forums and debates has become overwhelming.
Nonetheless, they were gathering in Des Moines on Sunday morning for anotherdebate, this time to be broadcast live on ABC's "This Week."
The rivals have been appearing at a relentless series of forums and debatesand now there are signs that may change.
David Plouffe, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign manager, said Saturday, "Wesimply cannot continue to hopscotch from forum to forum and run a campaigntrue to the bottom-up movement for change that propelled Barack into thisrace."
He said Obama was committed to five remaining debates sanctioned by theDemocratic National Committee, two Iowa debates in December and one inFlorida on Sept. 9. But after that, Plouffe said, the campaign will limitthe number of debates Obama attends.
Other campaigns have grumbled privately about the same thing and some willprobably follow suit. The forums are virtually the only way for lesser-knowncandidates like former Sen. Mike Gravel and Rep. Dennis Kucinich to getattention.
Meanwhile, the top contenders continue to fight over the role big moneyplays in politics. Obama has railed against "lobby-driven, divisivepolitics," a coded shot at rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Former Sen.John Edwards was urging his rivals and the party to distance themselves fromlobbyists and their money, warning that Democrats risk being seen as a"party of Washington insiders."
Lately, Clinton has sought to cast herself as a defender of workingfamilies, saying "the American middle class is under attack" and promisingto reverse that.
The other candidates scheduled to participate in Sunday's debate were Gov.Bill Richardson and Sens. Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd. "This Week" hostGeorge Stephanopoulos was moderating the 90-minute forum.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/17/AR2007081701693.html
The Model That India Offers
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, August 19, 2007; B07
India celebrated its 60th birthday last week with a raucous parliamentarydebate over nuclear energy and its new strategic relationship with theUnited States. New Delhi had the air of the capital of an emerging worldpower looking ahead into a promising, if complicated, future.
Pakistan marked the same occasion by sinking deeper into the past. Thecorrupt backroom dealing between military rulers and politicians that hasproduced a cycle of disasters for the Pakistani nation resumed -- aided bythe hidden hand of U.S. diplomacy working to preserve President PervezMusharraf's dwindling power in Islamabad.
The anniversary of the partition of the Asian subcontinent six decades agoshowed the region's two contrasting faces: a giant, open democracy and asclerotic but nuclear-armed garrison state. It also revealed two contrastingfaces of the Bush administration's foreign policy, where pockets of boldthinking about the future compete with the need for short-term fixes thatrely heavily on illusion.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defended the nuclear accord against abarrage of attacks from the communist left and the reactionary Hindu right,keeping alive Bush administration hopes that the president can finallytranslate unconventional thinking in foreign policy into a substantialachievement.
The accord underpins a transformed U.S.-India relationship that is essentialto the struggle against transnational jihadist terrorism. It sets the stagefor a badly needed reframing of the global nuclear nonproliferationagreements and practices that failed to stop Pakistan from becoming theworld's nuclear Wal-Mart. And it is a key to hopes for a more effectiveinternational approach to the real dangers of global warming.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/17/AR2007081701691_pf.html
Risks in a Muslim Reformation
By Diana Muir
Sunday, August 19, 2007; B07
Salman Rushdie, Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof and Mansour al-Nogaidanare among the well-intentioned people who have called for an IslamicReformation. They should be careful what they wish for.
The Protestant Reformation did precede the things these men admire aboutmodernity in the West, including women's emancipation, political liberty,scientific breakthroughs, the wealth and opportunity created by theIndustrial Revolution, and permission to think freely regarding God. But allthis came later, and the Reformation was only part of what brought themabout.
The Reformation was a time of intense focus on God and what He requires ofpeople. As a movement, it was enthusiastic, narrow and far from tolerant. Itand the Counter-Reformation brought two centuries of repression, war andmassacre to the West. It's unlikely that anyone who lived through it wouldconsider wishing a Reformation on Muslims.
And yet, even as some hope for such a turn of events -- presuming, it seems,a certain conclusion -- a Reformation is sweeping through the Muslim world.Westerners are generally aware that the Shiite and Sunni sects of Islam arestruggling for dominance in Iraq. But more broadly, the words and doctrinepromoted by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis or Wahhabists are eerilysimilar to those of our 16th-century forebears.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/458/story/208083.html
CAR INSURANCE
Whose fault is no-fault mess?
Florida's no-fault car insurance law ends in a little over a month, andthere is little agreement among several powerful interest groups on findinga solution.
Posted on Sun, Aug. 19, 2007
By MARC CAPUTO AND GARY FINEOUT
mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com
TALLAHASSEE --
Drivers could face more lawsuits and more uninsured motorists when Florida'sno-fault car insurance law ends Oct. 1, a situation that, according tonearly everyone involved in the Capitol, is someone else's fault.State legislators had planned to fix the troubled insurance system during aspecial three-week lawmaking session that begins Sept. 18, but they'regridlocked. There's little agreement among the powerful lobbies that fuelthe process and have a stake in a system worth as much as $1.7 billion ayear.
Gov. Charlie Crist and state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink have stayedout of the fray. There's little for the different interest groups to gain bytangling with the Legislature when there is no clear solution or agreementand the competing interests are numerous.
Consider:
. Chiropractors, doctors and pain-treatment centers want to keep much of thecurrent personal injury protection system, called PIP. For a decade, they'vefought plans to cap fees and the number of treatments, which have helpedjack up costs.
. Big auto insurers, led by State Farm and Allstate, have fought to killPIP, saying there's so much fraud in places like South Florida that somecall Broward County's seat ''Fraud Lauderdale.'' Scrapping the system, theysay, will lower rates by as much as 16 percent and could help more peoplebuy affordable insurance.
more....
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
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