**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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ExpressGayNews.com
http://expressgaynews.com/print.cfm?content_id=4156
Villiage voices
Village People bring '70s anthems to South Florida
By ZACK HUDSON
Nov. 01, 2007
"I know that every time I run out on that stage, I carry a bit of historywith me," says Felipe Rose, better known to just about anybody, anywhere asthe Native American chief from the Village People.
Rose became the very first person to inhabit the village after Europeandisco king Jacques Morali discovered him dancing and wearing an Indian chiefcostume in 1975 at The Anvil, a famed New York City bathhouse.
The rest really is history - more than 30 years worth. The Village Peoplecame out of the gate with an eponymous debut of club tracks like "FireIsland" and "San Francisco (You've Got Me)" that set a precedent foroh-so-tongue-in-cheek, thinly veiled gay innuendo blockbusters to come.
A couple of albums and years of riding the disco wave later came "YMCA" offthe "Cruising" LP.
The ode to cheap cruising spots hit number one in just about every countryon Earth, save the United States, where Rod Stewart's "D'Ya Think I'm Sexy"held it at bay in January 1979.
more . . . . .
Forwarded by Bill Sterling
Los Angeles Tiimes
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-rodriguez5nov05,1,7225510.column
Gay? Who cares?
As more homosexuals come out and join the mainstream, the gay identitybecomes less distinctive.
November 5, 2007
Last Tuesday, the New York Times ran a front-page story on the diminishingallure of gay enclaves in the United States. The next day, the San FranciscoChronicle published a Page 1 story explaining how same-sex couples inCalifornia are a lot more socioeconomically and ethnically diverse -- read:less white and less wealthy -- than you might believe. The WilliamsInstitute at UCLA Law School will release a report today by demographer GaryGates that all but poses the question: Is gay the new straight?
Gates' research on U.S. Census data drives home a point that the gayvanguard has been wrestling with for a while: The hedonistic, transgressive,radical ethos (and stereotype) that once characterized gay culture doesn'trepresent reality anymore. The decline of urban coastal gay communities, theincrease in the gay population in the interior U.S. and the overalldiversification of the gay population are facts. What's more, Gates argues,these trends are a function of the growing acceptance of homosexuality amongthe American public.
Acceptance? Really? Has Gates forgotten about the 45 states that have lawsor constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage, or the anti-gaydiscrimination bill that is stalled in Congress and faces opposition fromthe White House?
Not at all. There is, he says, a vocal, virulent -- and sometimes violent --anti-gay movement, but it doesn't negate decades of opinion surveys thatshow a marked increase in tolerance in most Americans' attitudes toward gaysand lesbians. In 1998, for example, a Gallup poll found that only 33% ofAmericans thought that homosexual relations between consenting adults shouldbe legal. By 2007, that figure had risen to 59%.
more....
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Forwarded by Ron Mills
http://ronnmills.blogspot.com
Bill Maher: the Haves and Been-Hads
To Watch The Clip From Friday's Show
go to:
http://ronnmills.blogspot.com/2007/11/bill-maher-haves-and-been-hads.html
To stay up to date on the Day's news visit http://RonMills.us
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Forwarded from EuroQueer
Sexshop in Berlin
When one hears about prostitution, one normally thinks of women forced tosell their sexual services for money. The fact that young men also findtheir way onto the streets is less well known.
In Berlin, as in most major cities, boys and young men from as young as14-years old work the curbs, sex cinemas and gay bars of the German capital.
The fact that the rent boys of Berlin barely register on most people'sradars led to the creation of an association in 1992 to help those inprostitution. The employees of "Sub/Way" visit the districts of Berlinwhere the boys work and supply them with condoms and advice on how to besafe on the streets.
Once a week, the Sub/Way team loads their van up with condoms,lubricants, sexual health pamphlets, instant soups and hot chocolate beforeentering the dark underbelly of the German capital.
The first stop is usually a Berlin train station where rent boys, manyof whom have drug problems, punt for clients. The van is watched withinterest and a little suspicion until a couple of boys come over and ask forhot chocolate.
Social workers form a bond with rent boys
Helmut Wanner is a social worker with Sub/Way and looks after the rentboys, knows them by name and knows many of their life stories.
more....
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Forwarded by Bill Sterling
San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/31/MNJET3CR3.DTL
Same-sex couples raising children less likely to be white, wealthy
Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 (SF Chronicle)
Oakland mom Huda Jadallah spent Tuesday afternoon balancing last-minuteHalloween costume shopping for her twin boys against her daughter's soccerpractice. It was a familiar conundrum for a woman used to juggling avariety of identities - as a Palestinian American, a lesbian and a mother.
Jadallah and her partner, Deanna Karraa, are among more than 26,000 gayand lesbian couples across the state who are raising an estimated 70,000children. Like most - and unlike common public perception - these same-sexparents are neither white nor above the average in income.
A study released Tuesday by a group of Bay Area organizations servinglesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families found that same-sexcouples raising children in California are more likely to be people ofcolor and that their median household income is 17 percent lower than theincome of married couples with children.
"There is an idea of LGBT families, when people think about it at all,there's this perception that it's affluent white folks, and the data showthat's based on our own misperceptions," said Judy Appel, director of theOur Family Coalition in San Francisco. "We're in every neighborhood, everyrace, ethnicity and economic group. Our kids are playing in theplaygrounds and parks with all other kids."
more....
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/110407med.htm
Medicare Drug Changes Ahead
by The Associated Press
Posted: November 4, 2007 - 10:00 am ET
(Washington) Nearly 2 million low-income Medicare participants could beswitched to different insurance plans for their prescription drug coveragenext year.
Millions more will have to shop around if they want to avoid double-digitincreases in their monthly premiums.
The reassignment of the poorest beneficiaries and the higher premiums formany others are just two reasons why seniors and the disabled may want tolook into other plans as the Medicare drug benefit enters its third year.
The shopping season officially begins Nov. 15 - the first day of an openenrollment period that continues through Dec. 31.
Advocacy groups warn the benefit's 24.5 million participants to take nothingfor granted even if they're happy with their current coverage.
more . . . . .
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/110407hiv.htm
HIV/AIDS In India Explored In New Film
by The Associated Press
Posted: November 4, 2007 - 3:00 pm ET
(Washington) Ashley Judd says education and prevention is the best way tocombat AIDS and HIV, which disproportionately affect women and girls andprey upon the vulnerable and less fortunate.
Speaking about her new documentary film, "India's Hidden Plague," in aninterview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week," the actress said it costsjust $10 to educate a person about the risks and protect them for an entireyear.
The actress met with HIV/AIDS orphans in India while making the film,including two sisters, ages 9 and 12, whose parents died in quick successionafter their father infected their mother with the disease.
"It's very real and it's real stories and real heartache and also realopportunity to focus on a solution that is very cost effective and has anextraordinarily meaningful impact in the lives of young people," Judd said.
In a previous documentary film, "Confronting the Pandemic," Judd and actressSalma Hayek traveled to Central America to look at AIDS prevention there.
"India's Hidden Plague" is set to premiere Nov. 30 on the NationalGeographic Channel.
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365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/110507families.htm
Study: Same-Sex Couples Becoming More Visible In All Parts Of Country
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 5, 2007 - 9:00 am ET
(New York City) Gay and lesbian couples have become more visible in allareas of the country but the biggest increase is in areas of the countryconsidered the most conservative according to a study issued Monday.
The report, prepared by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, isbased on recently released data from the US Census Bureau's American
Community Survey.
It shows that the number of same-sex couples in the US has quadrupled since1990 - growing at a rate 21 times that of the population.
Increases, the report says, have been the most dramatic in the Midwest,Mountain, and Southern states.
The Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy advanceslaw and public policy through independent research and scholarship.
more . . . . .
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PinkNews.co.uk
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-5955.html
Daughter of homophobic activist is out and proud
5th November 2007 12:54
Maryam Omidi
The daughter of a vehemently anti-gay activist has revealed that she is alesbian.
Claudia Contrada, whose mother Amy Contrada forms one half of the US hategroup MassResistance, has stood up for young people struggling withhomophobia in their homes or communities.
In 2005, Mrs Contrada attended a conference which advocated sending gayteenagers to conversion camps.
MassResistance is a homophobic organisation in Massachusetts, which hascampaigned zealously against all pro-gay developments since its inception in1995.
In 2006 it successfully led a fight to prevent bills to introduce mandatorysexuality and homosexuality education in schools and the legalisation ofsame-sex marriages through statute.
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PinkNews.co.uk
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-5952.html
Gay teenagers are homecoming couple
5th November 2007 11:45
Maryam Omidi
A gay couple have made school history in the United States by being thefirst-ever elected homecoming prince and prince.
Brandon Raphael and Kiernan Gatewood, both 16, wore sashes proudlyproclaiming their royalty as they rode through the city of Davis,California, in the school's annual homecoming parade.
According to the Sacramento Bee, "They stood in the back of a pick-up truck,arm-in-arm, smiling warmly despite the rain."
The couple, who have been dating for four months, were elected in a write-inballot election at Davis Senior High School in a city renowned for itsliberal leanings.
"[Davis] is a liberal town," said Raphael.
more . . . . .
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PinkNews.co.uk
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-5951.html
Homophobic bullying to feature on Teachers TV
5th November 2007 11:35
PinkNews.co.uk staff writer
A special week of programming from a digital channel for teachers willexplore ways to stamp out bullying in schools.
Highlights of the Anti-Bullying Week on Teachers TV later this month willinclude Coming Out To Class,a documentary presented by gay British rapperMarcos 'QBoy' Brito.
Originally broadcast by Channel 4 earlier this year, it investigates therealities of coming out in Britain's schools.
While he is now considered a brave man for coming out in the traditionallyhomophobic world of hip hop, he felt completely unable to do this while atschool.
QBoy embarks on a journey to investigate what it is like for children tocome out to class, and how those at the highest level of the school systemcan ensure fairness and equality for all.
more . . . . .
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WashingtonPost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/04/AR2007110401235_pf.html
By Carolyn Hax
Monday, November 5, 2007; C08
Carolyn:
Will someone please come up with a new rule -- man pays, woman pays, taketurns, split it -- and stick with it? Because I've known plenty of men whoget offended if the woman offers to pay, and vice versa. I'm not talkingabout replacing common sense and decency with strict rules. It's just thatwe've got this system that dates from the times when a man had income and awoman didn't, and we seem too emotionally attached to it to trash itcompletely, but no one has figured out quite what the new rules should be.And whatever set of rules and guidelines you go by, someone is going to beoffended. What do gay couples do?
Middletown, N.Y.
There is a rule already, there really is! And it works: Whoever initiatesthe date pays for the date. And if it happens that the man always initiates,then he conveniently gets to ask himself first how he feels about doing allthe asking, before he wades into the morass of how he feels about alwayspaying.
Meanwhile, if one person feels uncomfortable about being treated so often,s/he can promise to get the next one or propose extending the date -- todessert, a movie, a club -- and pick up the tab for it.
Once a couple is established as a Couple, then the nature of theirrelationship takes over as the rulemaker.
Who has more, who wants expensive things more, who cares more about paying,etc., all come into play, along with both of their notions (and suspicions)of "tradition."
If their own system doesn't evolve naturally, then it's an opportunity tosee if they can talk about things naturally.
Fair, flexible, gender-neutral -- seems like a great system to me.
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WashingtonPost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/04/AR2007110400959_pf.html
Scientists Track Time and Place of HIV's Arrival
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 5, 2007; A10
In the decades since young gay men in the United States started dying from amysterious syndrome in the 1980s, scientists have wondered how and when theAIDS virus arrived. Many scenarios have been proposed, including one earlybut now-discounted theory that the disease was imported by a promiscuousCanadian flight attendant dubbed "patient zero."
Now, however, scientists reconstructing the genetic evolution of the deadlyvirus say they have traced its true path -- concluding that the insidiouspathogen used Haiti as a steppingstone from Africa to the United States andarrived much earlier than had been thought. It then simmered silently herefor more than a decade before it was detected, beginning its global spreadalong the way.
"This is the first time that we've been able to bring together thegeographical picture with the timing picture to show with a pretty highdegree of certainty where the virus went from Africa, and when," saidMichael Worobey, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at theUniversity of Arizona in Tucson, who led the research.
Others praised the detailed genetic analysis of human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) from around the world as an impressive bit of biomedical sleuthing.
"For those of us who have been interested in HIV evolution and the originsof the virus, this is very interesting," said Beatrice H. Hahn, a professorof medicine at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. "It's a very nicepiece of work."
more . . . . .
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[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
#####
Monday, November 05, 2007
Sunday, November 04, 2007
GLBT DIGEST November 4, 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://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/travel/04COMgay.html?pagewanted=print
Comings and Goings
Canada a Favorite Among Gays
By HILARY HOWARD
November 4, 2007
Canadian cities dominated a recent list of the top 10 internationaldestinations for gay and lesbian travelers, according to a recent surveypublished by Community Marketing Inc. (www.communitymarketinginc.com), a SanFrancisco-based gay and lesbian market research company. The 12th annualtourism survey queried 7,561 consumers, who answered 42 questions in anonline survey in September. Canada, where same sex marriage is legal, wasthe overall country favorite with three cities in the top 10 - Montreal,Toronto and Vancouver, the latter known for its gay-themed cruiseswww.cruiseyt.com). Among individual cities, London took the No. 1 spot.Other popular destinations included Paris, Rome, and Puerto Vallarta andCancún in Mexico. New York took top honors in the domestic Top 10 list,which also included Las Vegas, San Francisco and Fort Lauderdale.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/education/edlife/tufts-blackboard.html
Blackboard | Admissions
Tufts Asks for 250 Words of Wisdom
By SAMANTHA STAINBURN
November 4, 2007
Tufts has a problem shared by most competitive universities: After itrejects the weak and admits the geniuses, too many decent applicantsremain - about three for every spot. Recommendations and polished essays"all pretty much say the same things," says Lee Coffin, dean ofundergraduate admissions.
So for the second year, Tufts is inviting applicants to write an optionalessay to help admissions officers pinpoint qualities the university values -ractical intelligence, analytical ability, creativity and wisdom. Theseattributes make students intellectual leaders, according to Tufts's dean ofarts and sciences, Robert J. Sternberg, a psychologist whose work onmeasuring intelligence inspired the experiment. Applicants choose one ofeight unlabeled questions, each designed to home in on a differentattribute. Questions will change every year.
In the last admissions cycle, Mr. Coffin says, only a third of the essayistsdemonstrated one of the four qualities. They were twice as likely to beadmitted as other applicants. Below are examples of each quality, asillustrated by members of this fall's freshman class.
Practicality
Tufts's Definition Can implement an idea - gather the necessary resources,attract others to the cause and lead them to a solution.
Question Describe a moment in which you took a risk and achieved anunexpected goal. How did you persuade others to follow your lead? Whatlessons do you draw from this experience?
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/magazine/04lives-t.html
Lives: Son of the South
By ROBERT LELEUX
November 4, 2007
When I was 16, my father left my mother and me for his pregnant mistress,who happened to be a jockey at the racetrack and didn't ride sidesaddle, ifyou know what I mean. Well, we're from Houston; off-color divorce is ourmunicipal hobby. Mother's first words after reading Daddy's Dear Janeletter - "All that goes back tomorrow!" - referred to a cluster of shoppingbags we collected earlier that day at Neiman's and addressed the realproblem for both of us: with my father gone, the gravy train was over.
What can I say about a gay boy's love for his mother? Especially my mother,who's outrageous, even by the standards of over-the-hill Southern belles.From the fitting room to the Costa Brava, our life was one long looping of"Suddenly, Last Summer."
After Daddy left, Mother spent weeks in bed drinking Smirnoff out of Evianbottles before starting a campaign to win a new, rich husband - cruisingBible-study groups at the better-off Baptist churches, along with someRepublican luncheon clubs. "But Mother," I said, "you're a registeredDemocrat." "From now on, Robert," Mother replied, "I vote with theDemocrats, but I lunch with the Republicans." Mother's husband hunt wasreally the first thing we'd ever not done together. It wasn't long before Ifigured out that a man doesn't propose to a middle-aged jeune fille withanother fellow's son around. And it wasn't long before Mother'sshoot-where-the-ducks-are strategy proved winning; she was soon off toCalifornia with a right-wing fiancé.
more...
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/us/politics/04vote-web.html
A Year Still to Go, and Presidential Politics Have Shifted Already
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
November 4, 2007
DES MOINES, Nov. 3 - With a year to go until Election Day, the Republicanand Democratic Parties are going through internal battles over their veryidentity, even as the races for their presidential nominations intensify. Inmany ways, the battles over how the parties will define themselves in thepost-Bush era are nearly as significant a political fight as thepresidential contest itself.
The continued strength of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor whosupports abortion rights and gay rights, is testing the question of whethersocial issues still drive Republican primary voters. Mr. Giuliani is talkingabout terrorism, cutting taxes, his record in managing New York Citygovernment - but he has made no serious effort to shade his positions toappeal to the social conservatives who helped reshape the party over thepast three decades and helped President Bush win the White House twice.
Should Mr. Giuliani win the nomination, he would give the party a verydifferent definition and face than the Southerners and evangelicals who havebeen ascendant until now.
The challenge to orthodoxy is slightly less marked on the Democratic side,where the party has tilted from the left to the center over the past 20years. Tough talk about Iran by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New Yorkhas put her at odds with much of her party, and her nomination would suggestthe party is willing to embrace a relatively hawkish foreign policy even asit promises to end the war in Iraq.
It typically falls to the nominee to provide the ideological framework forhis or her party. That appears to be especially so this time, reflecting howboth parties are somewhat adrift after eight years under Mr. Bush.
"The Republican Party is waiting for a nominee to voice a post-Bush visionfor the party," said Richard N. Bond, a former Republican National Committeechairman.
Of the two, the Republican Party seems to be at more of a turning point.Even if Mr. Giuliani fails to win the nomination, the fact that so manyRepublicans were willing to consider a candidate who was openly for abortionrights and gay rights - something that would have been unthinkable fouryears ago - suggests just how much the definition of what it means to be aRepublican is changing.
On the Democratic side, the thirst to retake the White House is easing someof the party's traditional internal divisions. "Ideological battles tend notto happen when parties believe they are going to win," said Joe Andrews, aformer chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301111.html
A Vehicle for Self-Expression? Not on These Roads.
By Marc Fisher
Sunday, November 4, 2007; C01
For 11 years, over nearly 200,000 miles, with the blessing of the state ofVirginia, David Phillips has driven his Tracker with the "POOFTER" licenseplate, and nobody has complained -- not even when he parked at the BritishEmbassy, where everybody knows "poofter" is British slang for a gay man.
"It's always a rolling good laugh for them," says Phillips, who is gay andchose his tags' message because "it's just an amusing word that Iself-identify with."
The commonwealth of Virginia is not amused. It gave Phillips his vanityplates in error, Carolyn Easley, coordinator of the special license platesoffice, wrote in a recent letter. "You may have grown fond of yourpersonalized plates," but they are "socially, racially or ethnicallyoffensive or disparaging" and "you must return them." There was noexplanation for why it took Virginia 11 years to figure out what "poofter"means.
They'll have to pry those plates from Phillips's cold dead hands, orsomething like that. The 42-year-old Arlington County resident, who works asa computer consultant, says he's not sending back the tags, even if thestate has generously provided a prepaid envelope for that purpose.
The next step: a hearing in Richmond. But Phillips's chances are not good,because his case has been to the Word Committee, a panel of a dozenDepartment of Motor Vehicles employees who review vanity plate applicationsthat have either drawn a citizen complaint or been flagged by a computerprogram that searches proposed plate messages -- forward and backward -- forobscene, explicit, excretory, violent or offensive content.
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-forum04potternbnov04,0,5929725.story
Can't Rowling just be quiet?
November 4, 2007
With apologies to Raymond Carver, the late great short-story writer, wouldsomeone tell J.K. Rowling to please be quiet, please?
Rowling has incited much chatter since Oct. 19, when she made the deplorableannouncement that Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts boarding school,was, in fact, a homosexual.
This is wrong. Just wrong.
Oh, wait - you thought I meant it's wrong she made Dumbledore gay?
No, what I find objectionable is Rowling's decision to deliver thisbombshell not within her books, but by casually announcing it in a publicgathering.
I'm aware this may seem trivial to those focused on the political and socialimport of Dumbledore's outing, but to those of us foolish enough to stillrevere the integrity of the implicit compact between author and reader, it'sno small matter.
It all started at a reading Rowling gave to 1,000 fans at Carnegie Hall. Ayoungster asked if Dumbledore, "who believed in the prevailing power oflove, ever fell in love himself?"
"I always thought of Dumbledore as gay," Rowling replied.
The audience first gasped at the revelation, then gave the author a standingovation. "If I'd known this would make you this happy," Rowling said, "Iwould have announced it years ago."
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-protests2nov02,1,1442204.story?track=rss
Award over funeral protest may not stand
Constitutional scholars say the 1st Amendment will probably protect anti-gaychurch members who picket military services.
By Matthew Dolan
Baltimore Sun
November 2, 2007
BALTIMORE - Leading constitutional scholars say the multimillion-dollaraward this week to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq is likely to beoverturned because the church members who protested his son's funeral enjoybroad protection under the 1st Amendment.
Wednesday, a jury in U.S. District Court in Baltimore found in favor ofAlbert Snyder, the Marine's father, after deliberating for about nine hoursover two days.
Jurors unanimously agreed that the Snyders' privacy had been breached by theWestboro Baptist Church, a family-based conservative religious group thatassembled on public property near the funeral motorcade. As mourners forLance Cpl. Matthew Snyder drove by March 10, 2006, members of thefundamentalist Christian church based in Topeka, Kan., held up signs readingsuch things as "Thank God for dead soldiers."
The $10.9-million verdict marked the first successful civil claim againstWestboro, whose congregants have picketed with anti-gay placards at militaryfunerals across the United States.
Experts on the 1st Amendment expressed doubt that the verdict and sizabledamage award against Westboro would survive appellate review before the U.S.4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.
"I have spoken to a number of 1st Amendment attorneys today, and every oneof them believe the case will be reversed and should be reversed," saidRonald K.L. Collins, a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington.
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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/110307clinton.htm
Clinton Shrugs Off Criticism
by The Associated Press
Posted: November 3, 2007 - 11:00 am ET
(Concord, New Hampshire) Hillary Rodham Clinton says her status as theDemocratic presidential front-runner - not her gender - has led her maleprimary rivals to intensify their criticism of her.
"I don't think they're piling on because I'm a woman. I think they're pilingon because I'm winning," Clinton told reporters after filing paperwork toappear on the New Hampshire primary ballot.
"I anticipate it's going to get even hotter, and if you can't stand the heatget out of the kitchen. I'm very much at home in the kitchen," she said.
The New York senator's comments came three days after a televised debate inwhich her six male opponents challenged her character, electability andapparent unwillingness to answer tough questions.
The Clinton campaign reacted strongly to what it called "piling on." Onefundraising e-mail it sent out called her "one tough woman" and decried the"six on one" nature of the debate criticism. Clinton herself referred to the"all boys club of presidential politics" in a speech at Wellesley CollegeThursday.
The complaints haven't deterred her rivals. On Friday, John Edwards told acampaign audience in South Carolina that Clinton hasn't been candid withvoters.
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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/110307rudy.htm
Giuliani On Ropes Over Cancer Claims
by The Associated Press
Posted: November 3, 2007 - 11:00 am ET
(Washington) Rudy Giuliani is defending the survival rates he quotes whentalking about his prostate cancer, amid criticism he understates the figuresand makes unfair comparisons.
In a radio ad running this week in New Hampshire, Giuliani says: "My chanceof surviving prostate cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in the UnitedStates: 82 percent. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only44 percent under socialized medicine."
The American Cancer Society says the survival rates are actually higher andit's misleading to compare the two countries.
Regardless, Giuliani said Friday, his point is clear.
"Even if you want to quibble about the statistics, you find me the personwho leaves the United States and goes to England for prostate cancertreatment, and I'd like to meet that person," he told reporters inWashington.
The American Cancer Society says five-year survival rates were 95 percent inthe U.S. and 60 percent in the United Kingdom, which includes Britain, in1993-1995, the most recent time period with data to compare.
Rates are even higher today - 99 percent in the U.S. and an estimated 74percent in the U.K.
Moreover, experts from the American Cancer Society say it's misleading tocompare the countries at all.
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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/110207lapd.htm
LAPD Settlement Will Improve Lot Gay Officers
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 2, 2007 - 5:00 pm ET
(Los Angeles, California) With less than two weeks before a trial isscheduled to begin, the Los Angeles City Council has voted unanimously toapprove settlement of the non-damages portion of a lawsuit brought by theLos Angeles Police Department's first openly gay officer.
Throughout his career on the LAPD Sgt. Mitchell Grobeson found himselfbattling discrimination on the force.
In 1988 Grobeson filed a civil rights suit against the force. It wassettled in 1993 with a court settlement that the city provide gay andlesbian officers a discrimination-free workplace.
Grobeson returned to the force, but found little was done to implement theagreement.
Two years later, in 1995, he was accused of discrediting the force bywearing his uniform and attempting to encourage gays in West Hollywood tojoin the force.
He went on disability and decided to go back to court.
The settlement agreed to be city council this week provides an array ofprotections for LGBT employees and job applicants in Los Angeles, as well asthose living with HIV.
It mandates recruitment from the LGBT community, and strengthens the city'santi-discrimination policies by writing them into the city's administrativecode.
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AfterEllen.com
http://www.afterellen.com/blwe/11-02-2007
Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (November 2, 2007)
by scribegrrrl, Sr. Editor
November 2, 2007
FROM DR. LECTER TO DR. YANG: NOW THAT'S TRADING UP!
TVGuide.com's Michael Ausiello recently talked to Brooke Smith about heronce guest-starring, now regular role on Grey's Anatomy.
Smith plays Seattle Grace's new chief heart surgeon, Erica Hahn. Now thatshe's going to be around more often, Smith is pondering some possibleromantic entanglements for her character. "The other day I joked, 'I knowwhoI'm hooking up with!'" she told Ausiello. "There's this surgical nursewho's always there. When she's there I'm thrilled, because she always makesme feel very real - 'cause she's a real [surgical nurse]. I turned to her atone point and said, 'Are you single on the show?' She doesn't even have aname on the show and I'm already trying to hook up with her."
You make me feel mighty real, too, Brooke. But it gets even better:
Ausiello: I can see Dr. Hahn hitting it off with Cristina.
Smith: Secretly, we pushed for that. You know, Sandra [Oh] and I playedlovers in [the off-Broadway play] Stop Kiss.
Ausiello: You know, there were rumors a while back that Cristina might bebisexual..
Smith: I know. I heard those rumors.
Ausiello: Then it's destined to happen!
Smith: That's what I think. But I don't know..
Ausiello: I think Dr. Hahn would make an awesome lesbian.
Smith: I think so, too.
Ausiello: Could it happen?
Smith: I honestly don't know. I've certainly let [the producers] know I'mopen to it.
Wow! Before you ask, Brooke herself isn't gay, despite that impressiveopenness. But with a friend like her, who needs a girlfriend? Other than Dr.Yang, I mean.
more....
=
To Form a More Perfect Union: Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to the website, above, for the following articles:
--
[Ex- state representative Richard] Curtis, 48, resigned his staterepresentative position Wednesday afternoon, only slightly more than 48hours after becoming embroiled in a sex scandal that includes allegationsthat he wore women's lingerie at a Spokane Valley porn shop and offered topay a 26-year-old male gay porn model he met there $1,000 for unprotectedsex. Curtis, a married Republican who lives in La Center, had epresentedportions of Clark and Cowlitz counties in the Legislature for three years.Since news of the rapidly unfolding scandal first broke Monday morning,Brancaccio is the only journalist to speak with the former lawmaker.
--
Major properties on the Las Vegas Strip are now offering lavish commitmentceremonies to same-sex couples (though same-sex marriage is illegal inNevada), as well as special hotel and entertainment packages gearedspecifically toward gay and lesbian travelers. Some resorts have mandatedsensitivity programs to teach employees how to make gay and lesbiantravelers feel welcome. Las Vegas began courting the gay community a fewyears ago as part of a broader effort to target a range of minorityaudiences. But the gay-targeted campaign intensified as casino-commissionedmarket studies showed the gay and lesbian travel market to be among the mostlucrative. According to research from Community Marketing Inc., a gay andlesbian market-research company, gay and lesbian travel accounts for $55billion of the overall U.S. travel market.
--
BUENOS AIRES, November 2, 2007 -- A civil appeals court in Argentina hasruled against a homosexual couple asserting a "right" to marry each other,stating that "the standard that establishes that matrimony should becelebrated between people of different sexes has an absolutely objective andreasonable justification, which consists in the interest of the governmentin granting a privilege to unions that tend to continue the species." Theyare the first such cases in Argentine history. The plaintiffs argue thatArgentina's civil code, in particular articles 172 and 188, is"unconstitutional" because it is "discriminatory" and violates "equalityunder the law". Article 172 states that "The full and free consent expressedpersonally by a man and woman before the competent authority to celebrateit, is indispensable for the existence of marriage. The act that lacks anyof these requirements will not produce civil effects..." Article 188requires the couple to register as "husband and wife".
=
National Gay News
http://nationalgaynews.com/
Go to the website above for the following articles:
--
Union City, NJ: Two former employees of a Burger King on Bergenline Avenuehave been indicted on hate crime charges in connection with the viciousbeating of a same-sex couple outside the restaurant earlier this year,officials said yesterday. Angel Caraballo, 28, of Duncan Avenue, andChristopher Soto of Prospect Street, both of Jersey City, were charged withaggravated assault and a first-degree hate crime in connection with the July22 beating, officials said. The hate crime offense carries a possiblesentence of 10 to 20 years in prison.
--
The bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States says church membersunhappy with the ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire should worryabout more pressing world problems.
--
A West Michigan teenager recently took his own life, a death that is part ofa startling statistic among individuals who literally feel they were bornwith the wrong bodies. Ian, a 16-year-old transgender, died Monday. Familyand friends held a vigil for him in Holland Friday night. Ian's mom and KimPearson started TransYouth Family Advocates, a group that organized theevent.
--
Logo, the MTV Networks network that targets lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender viewers, has beefed up its animation slate. The network saidThursday that it has renewed "Rick & Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in Allthe World" for a second season and given the green light to a pilot from theJim Henson Co. as well as a shortform series.
=
Forwarded by David Sterling
Daytona Beach News-Journal
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD01110207.htm
Ex Daytona commissioner, teacher charged in sex sting
By KARI COBHAM
Staff Writer
November 02, 2007
DAYTONA BEACH -- A former Daytona Beach city commissioner and a local highschool teacher arrested Thursday during a sex sting at a Volusia mallbathroom were released from the Volusia County Brach Jail today, authoritiessaid.
Former commissioner and mayoral candidate Mike Shallow and David Behringer,an athletic trainer and teacher at Seabreeze High School, posted $1,000 bailtoday after midnight, a jail spokesman said.
Behringer resigned today, according to officials with the Volusia CountySchool District.
Shallow and Behringer were among nine men charged with lewd and lasciviousconduct and exposure of a sexual organ, both misdemeanors, police said.
=
Miami Herald
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/
World Cup rugby ref's gay award
From BBC NEWS:
Top rugby referee Nigel Owens has been named sportsperson of the year at agay awards ceremony in London.
Owens, from Carmarthenshire, made his Rugby World Cup debut last month, andis regarded as the first openly gay man to referee at the highest level.
The 36-year-old said winning the award was "up there with being elected toreferee the Rugby Word Cup".
Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said Owens was a great role model for all youngsportsmen and women across Wales.
Organised by gay rights group Stonewall, the awards recognised those who hadraised the profile of gay people in the world of sport, acted as rolemodels, and challenged homophobia.
Owens said he was honoured to win the award, and praised the work ofStonewall and other similar organisations.
He said although he had come out for his own piece of mind, he was glad ifit had helped others.
"Just by coming out in the public eye it obviously made news, and obviouslyif it helps people in that way, than that's great," he said.
"It was no intention of mine to raise my profile as a person for being gay.
"I'm just a normal person living a normal life."
more....
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Jesse's Journal
by Jesse Monteagudo
Gay Heroes
What is a hero? According to the "Illustrated Oxford Dictionary" (revisedand updated), a hero is "1. A person noted or admired for nobility, courage,outstanding achievements, etc." In Greek antiquity, a hero was a "man ofsuperhuman qualities, favored by the gods; a demigod" such as Herakles orAchilles. Modern culture is full of men and women who have unique powersthat they use for the common goods, whether in comic books or movies or thetelevision series "Heroes." Not as powerful but equally as memorable arethose real-life individuals who became heroes by leading a worthy cause, asdid Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa orAung San Suu Kyi.
Like everyone else, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community isalways searching for heroes who would lead us in the fight for freedom andequality. Recently the Advocate celebrated its 40th anniversary bycompiling a list of 40 GLBT heroes. It asked its readers to go online(advocate.com) and vote from a prepared list, along with a line for write-incandidates. Not surprisingly, the resulting "top 40" list, as published inthe September 25th issue, favored celebrities over activists. Though I haveno problem with Ellen Degeneres being # 1 -- she did, after all, put her jobon the line by coming out on TV - the absence of Virginia Apuzzo, SamuelDelany, Barbara Grier, Marsha Johnson, Jim Kepner, Franklin Kameny, MorrisKight, Paul Monette, Joan Nestle, Jack Nichols, Jean O'Leary, John Preston,Sylvia Rivera, Marty Robinson, Craig Rodwell, Eric Rofes, Vito Russo, JoséSarria, Nadine Smith or others like them is appalling. (Barbara Gittingsmade it, but barely, at # 40.) On the other hand, celebs Billie Jean Kingand Elton John, who had to be dragged out of their closets kicking andscreaming, scored high in the Advocate's list (at # 6 and # 8,respectively).
more...
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[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
#####
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/travel/04COMgay.html?pagewanted=print
Comings and Goings
Canada a Favorite Among Gays
By HILARY HOWARD
November 4, 2007
Canadian cities dominated a recent list of the top 10 internationaldestinations for gay and lesbian travelers, according to a recent surveypublished by Community Marketing Inc. (www.communitymarketinginc.com), a SanFrancisco-based gay and lesbian market research company. The 12th annualtourism survey queried 7,561 consumers, who answered 42 questions in anonline survey in September. Canada, where same sex marriage is legal, wasthe overall country favorite with three cities in the top 10 - Montreal,Toronto and Vancouver, the latter known for its gay-themed cruiseswww.cruiseyt.com). Among individual cities, London took the No. 1 spot.Other popular destinations included Paris, Rome, and Puerto Vallarta andCancún in Mexico. New York took top honors in the domestic Top 10 list,which also included Las Vegas, San Francisco and Fort Lauderdale.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/education/edlife/tufts-blackboard.html
Blackboard | Admissions
Tufts Asks for 250 Words of Wisdom
By SAMANTHA STAINBURN
November 4, 2007
Tufts has a problem shared by most competitive universities: After itrejects the weak and admits the geniuses, too many decent applicantsremain - about three for every spot. Recommendations and polished essays"all pretty much say the same things," says Lee Coffin, dean ofundergraduate admissions.
So for the second year, Tufts is inviting applicants to write an optionalessay to help admissions officers pinpoint qualities the university values -ractical intelligence, analytical ability, creativity and wisdom. Theseattributes make students intellectual leaders, according to Tufts's dean ofarts and sciences, Robert J. Sternberg, a psychologist whose work onmeasuring intelligence inspired the experiment. Applicants choose one ofeight unlabeled questions, each designed to home in on a differentattribute. Questions will change every year.
In the last admissions cycle, Mr. Coffin says, only a third of the essayistsdemonstrated one of the four qualities. They were twice as likely to beadmitted as other applicants. Below are examples of each quality, asillustrated by members of this fall's freshman class.
Practicality
Tufts's Definition Can implement an idea - gather the necessary resources,attract others to the cause and lead them to a solution.
Question Describe a moment in which you took a risk and achieved anunexpected goal. How did you persuade others to follow your lead? Whatlessons do you draw from this experience?
more....
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/magazine/04lives-t.html
Lives: Son of the South
By ROBERT LELEUX
November 4, 2007
When I was 16, my father left my mother and me for his pregnant mistress,who happened to be a jockey at the racetrack and didn't ride sidesaddle, ifyou know what I mean. Well, we're from Houston; off-color divorce is ourmunicipal hobby. Mother's first words after reading Daddy's Dear Janeletter - "All that goes back tomorrow!" - referred to a cluster of shoppingbags we collected earlier that day at Neiman's and addressed the realproblem for both of us: with my father gone, the gravy train was over.
What can I say about a gay boy's love for his mother? Especially my mother,who's outrageous, even by the standards of over-the-hill Southern belles.From the fitting room to the Costa Brava, our life was one long looping of"Suddenly, Last Summer."
After Daddy left, Mother spent weeks in bed drinking Smirnoff out of Evianbottles before starting a campaign to win a new, rich husband - cruisingBible-study groups at the better-off Baptist churches, along with someRepublican luncheon clubs. "But Mother," I said, "you're a registeredDemocrat." "From now on, Robert," Mother replied, "I vote with theDemocrats, but I lunch with the Republicans." Mother's husband hunt wasreally the first thing we'd ever not done together. It wasn't long before Ifigured out that a man doesn't propose to a middle-aged jeune fille withanother fellow's son around. And it wasn't long before Mother'sshoot-where-the-ducks-are strategy proved winning; she was soon off toCalifornia with a right-wing fiancé.
more...
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/us/politics/04vote-web.html
A Year Still to Go, and Presidential Politics Have Shifted Already
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
November 4, 2007
DES MOINES, Nov. 3 - With a year to go until Election Day, the Republicanand Democratic Parties are going through internal battles over their veryidentity, even as the races for their presidential nominations intensify. Inmany ways, the battles over how the parties will define themselves in thepost-Bush era are nearly as significant a political fight as thepresidential contest itself.
The continued strength of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor whosupports abortion rights and gay rights, is testing the question of whethersocial issues still drive Republican primary voters. Mr. Giuliani is talkingabout terrorism, cutting taxes, his record in managing New York Citygovernment - but he has made no serious effort to shade his positions toappeal to the social conservatives who helped reshape the party over thepast three decades and helped President Bush win the White House twice.
Should Mr. Giuliani win the nomination, he would give the party a verydifferent definition and face than the Southerners and evangelicals who havebeen ascendant until now.
The challenge to orthodoxy is slightly less marked on the Democratic side,where the party has tilted from the left to the center over the past 20years. Tough talk about Iran by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New Yorkhas put her at odds with much of her party, and her nomination would suggestthe party is willing to embrace a relatively hawkish foreign policy even asit promises to end the war in Iraq.
It typically falls to the nominee to provide the ideological framework forhis or her party. That appears to be especially so this time, reflecting howboth parties are somewhat adrift after eight years under Mr. Bush.
"The Republican Party is waiting for a nominee to voice a post-Bush visionfor the party," said Richard N. Bond, a former Republican National Committeechairman.
Of the two, the Republican Party seems to be at more of a turning point.Even if Mr. Giuliani fails to win the nomination, the fact that so manyRepublicans were willing to consider a candidate who was openly for abortionrights and gay rights - something that would have been unthinkable fouryears ago - suggests just how much the definition of what it means to be aRepublican is changing.
On the Democratic side, the thirst to retake the White House is easing someof the party's traditional internal divisions. "Ideological battles tend notto happen when parties believe they are going to win," said Joe Andrews, aformer chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
more.....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301111.html
A Vehicle for Self-Expression? Not on These Roads.
By Marc Fisher
Sunday, November 4, 2007; C01
For 11 years, over nearly 200,000 miles, with the blessing of the state ofVirginia, David Phillips has driven his Tracker with the "POOFTER" licenseplate, and nobody has complained -- not even when he parked at the BritishEmbassy, where everybody knows "poofter" is British slang for a gay man.
"It's always a rolling good laugh for them," says Phillips, who is gay andchose his tags' message because "it's just an amusing word that Iself-identify with."
The commonwealth of Virginia is not amused. It gave Phillips his vanityplates in error, Carolyn Easley, coordinator of the special license platesoffice, wrote in a recent letter. "You may have grown fond of yourpersonalized plates," but they are "socially, racially or ethnicallyoffensive or disparaging" and "you must return them." There was noexplanation for why it took Virginia 11 years to figure out what "poofter"means.
They'll have to pry those plates from Phillips's cold dead hands, orsomething like that. The 42-year-old Arlington County resident, who works asa computer consultant, says he's not sending back the tags, even if thestate has generously provided a prepaid envelope for that purpose.
The next step: a hearing in Richmond. But Phillips's chances are not good,because his case has been to the Word Committee, a panel of a dozenDepartment of Motor Vehicles employees who review vanity plate applicationsthat have either drawn a citizen complaint or been flagged by a computerprogram that searches proposed plate messages -- forward and backward -- forobscene, explicit, excretory, violent or offensive content.
more....
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-forum04potternbnov04,0,5929725.story
Can't Rowling just be quiet?
November 4, 2007
With apologies to Raymond Carver, the late great short-story writer, wouldsomeone tell J.K. Rowling to please be quiet, please?
Rowling has incited much chatter since Oct. 19, when she made the deplorableannouncement that Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts boarding school,was, in fact, a homosexual.
This is wrong. Just wrong.
Oh, wait - you thought I meant it's wrong she made Dumbledore gay?
No, what I find objectionable is Rowling's decision to deliver thisbombshell not within her books, but by casually announcing it in a publicgathering.
I'm aware this may seem trivial to those focused on the political and socialimport of Dumbledore's outing, but to those of us foolish enough to stillrevere the integrity of the implicit compact between author and reader, it'sno small matter.
It all started at a reading Rowling gave to 1,000 fans at Carnegie Hall. Ayoungster asked if Dumbledore, "who believed in the prevailing power oflove, ever fell in love himself?"
"I always thought of Dumbledore as gay," Rowling replied.
The audience first gasped at the revelation, then gave the author a standingovation. "If I'd known this would make you this happy," Rowling said, "Iwould have announced it years ago."
more....
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-protests2nov02,1,1442204.story?track=rss
Award over funeral protest may not stand
Constitutional scholars say the 1st Amendment will probably protect anti-gaychurch members who picket military services.
By Matthew Dolan
Baltimore Sun
November 2, 2007
BALTIMORE - Leading constitutional scholars say the multimillion-dollaraward this week to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq is likely to beoverturned because the church members who protested his son's funeral enjoybroad protection under the 1st Amendment.
Wednesday, a jury in U.S. District Court in Baltimore found in favor ofAlbert Snyder, the Marine's father, after deliberating for about nine hoursover two days.
Jurors unanimously agreed that the Snyders' privacy had been breached by theWestboro Baptist Church, a family-based conservative religious group thatassembled on public property near the funeral motorcade. As mourners forLance Cpl. Matthew Snyder drove by March 10, 2006, members of thefundamentalist Christian church based in Topeka, Kan., held up signs readingsuch things as "Thank God for dead soldiers."
The $10.9-million verdict marked the first successful civil claim againstWestboro, whose congregants have picketed with anti-gay placards at militaryfunerals across the United States.
Experts on the 1st Amendment expressed doubt that the verdict and sizabledamage award against Westboro would survive appellate review before the U.S.4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.
"I have spoken to a number of 1st Amendment attorneys today, and every oneof them believe the case will be reversed and should be reversed," saidRonald K.L. Collins, a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington.
more....
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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/110307clinton.htm
Clinton Shrugs Off Criticism
by The Associated Press
Posted: November 3, 2007 - 11:00 am ET
(Concord, New Hampshire) Hillary Rodham Clinton says her status as theDemocratic presidential front-runner - not her gender - has led her maleprimary rivals to intensify their criticism of her.
"I don't think they're piling on because I'm a woman. I think they're pilingon because I'm winning," Clinton told reporters after filing paperwork toappear on the New Hampshire primary ballot.
"I anticipate it's going to get even hotter, and if you can't stand the heatget out of the kitchen. I'm very much at home in the kitchen," she said.
The New York senator's comments came three days after a televised debate inwhich her six male opponents challenged her character, electability andapparent unwillingness to answer tough questions.
The Clinton campaign reacted strongly to what it called "piling on." Onefundraising e-mail it sent out called her "one tough woman" and decried the"six on one" nature of the debate criticism. Clinton herself referred to the"all boys club of presidential politics" in a speech at Wellesley CollegeThursday.
The complaints haven't deterred her rivals. On Friday, John Edwards told acampaign audience in South Carolina that Clinton hasn't been candid withvoters.
more....
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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/110307rudy.htm
Giuliani On Ropes Over Cancer Claims
by The Associated Press
Posted: November 3, 2007 - 11:00 am ET
(Washington) Rudy Giuliani is defending the survival rates he quotes whentalking about his prostate cancer, amid criticism he understates the figuresand makes unfair comparisons.
In a radio ad running this week in New Hampshire, Giuliani says: "My chanceof surviving prostate cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in the UnitedStates: 82 percent. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only44 percent under socialized medicine."
The American Cancer Society says the survival rates are actually higher andit's misleading to compare the two countries.
Regardless, Giuliani said Friday, his point is clear.
"Even if you want to quibble about the statistics, you find me the personwho leaves the United States and goes to England for prostate cancertreatment, and I'd like to meet that person," he told reporters inWashington.
The American Cancer Society says five-year survival rates were 95 percent inthe U.S. and 60 percent in the United Kingdom, which includes Britain, in1993-1995, the most recent time period with data to compare.
Rates are even higher today - 99 percent in the U.S. and an estimated 74percent in the U.K.
Moreover, experts from the American Cancer Society say it's misleading tocompare the countries at all.
more....
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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/110207lapd.htm
LAPD Settlement Will Improve Lot Gay Officers
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 2, 2007 - 5:00 pm ET
(Los Angeles, California) With less than two weeks before a trial isscheduled to begin, the Los Angeles City Council has voted unanimously toapprove settlement of the non-damages portion of a lawsuit brought by theLos Angeles Police Department's first openly gay officer.
Throughout his career on the LAPD Sgt. Mitchell Grobeson found himselfbattling discrimination on the force.
In 1988 Grobeson filed a civil rights suit against the force. It wassettled in 1993 with a court settlement that the city provide gay andlesbian officers a discrimination-free workplace.
Grobeson returned to the force, but found little was done to implement theagreement.
Two years later, in 1995, he was accused of discrediting the force bywearing his uniform and attempting to encourage gays in West Hollywood tojoin the force.
He went on disability and decided to go back to court.
The settlement agreed to be city council this week provides an array ofprotections for LGBT employees and job applicants in Los Angeles, as well asthose living with HIV.
It mandates recruitment from the LGBT community, and strengthens the city'santi-discrimination policies by writing them into the city's administrativecode.
more....
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AfterEllen.com
http://www.afterellen.com/blwe/11-02-2007
Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (November 2, 2007)
by scribegrrrl, Sr. Editor
November 2, 2007
FROM DR. LECTER TO DR. YANG: NOW THAT'S TRADING UP!
TVGuide.com's Michael Ausiello recently talked to Brooke Smith about heronce guest-starring, now regular role on Grey's Anatomy.
Smith plays Seattle Grace's new chief heart surgeon, Erica Hahn. Now thatshe's going to be around more often, Smith is pondering some possibleromantic entanglements for her character. "The other day I joked, 'I knowwhoI'm hooking up with!'" she told Ausiello. "There's this surgical nursewho's always there. When she's there I'm thrilled, because she always makesme feel very real - 'cause she's a real [surgical nurse]. I turned to her atone point and said, 'Are you single on the show?' She doesn't even have aname on the show and I'm already trying to hook up with her."
You make me feel mighty real, too, Brooke. But it gets even better:
Ausiello: I can see Dr. Hahn hitting it off with Cristina.
Smith: Secretly, we pushed for that. You know, Sandra [Oh] and I playedlovers in [the off-Broadway play] Stop Kiss.
Ausiello: You know, there were rumors a while back that Cristina might bebisexual..
Smith: I know. I heard those rumors.
Ausiello: Then it's destined to happen!
Smith: That's what I think. But I don't know..
Ausiello: I think Dr. Hahn would make an awesome lesbian.
Smith: I think so, too.
Ausiello: Could it happen?
Smith: I honestly don't know. I've certainly let [the producers] know I'mopen to it.
Wow! Before you ask, Brooke herself isn't gay, despite that impressiveopenness. But with a friend like her, who needs a girlfriend? Other than Dr.Yang, I mean.
more....
=
To Form a More Perfect Union: Marriage Equality News
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to the website, above, for the following articles:
--
[Ex- state representative Richard] Curtis, 48, resigned his staterepresentative position Wednesday afternoon, only slightly more than 48hours after becoming embroiled in a sex scandal that includes allegationsthat he wore women's lingerie at a Spokane Valley porn shop and offered topay a 26-year-old male gay porn model he met there $1,000 for unprotectedsex. Curtis, a married Republican who lives in La Center, had epresentedportions of Clark and Cowlitz counties in the Legislature for three years.Since news of the rapidly unfolding scandal first broke Monday morning,Brancaccio is the only journalist to speak with the former lawmaker.
--
Major properties on the Las Vegas Strip are now offering lavish commitmentceremonies to same-sex couples (though same-sex marriage is illegal inNevada), as well as special hotel and entertainment packages gearedspecifically toward gay and lesbian travelers. Some resorts have mandatedsensitivity programs to teach employees how to make gay and lesbiantravelers feel welcome. Las Vegas began courting the gay community a fewyears ago as part of a broader effort to target a range of minorityaudiences. But the gay-targeted campaign intensified as casino-commissionedmarket studies showed the gay and lesbian travel market to be among the mostlucrative. According to research from Community Marketing Inc., a gay andlesbian market-research company, gay and lesbian travel accounts for $55billion of the overall U.S. travel market.
--
BUENOS AIRES, November 2, 2007 -- A civil appeals court in Argentina hasruled against a homosexual couple asserting a "right" to marry each other,stating that "the standard that establishes that matrimony should becelebrated between people of different sexes has an absolutely objective andreasonable justification, which consists in the interest of the governmentin granting a privilege to unions that tend to continue the species." Theyare the first such cases in Argentine history. The plaintiffs argue thatArgentina's civil code, in particular articles 172 and 188, is"unconstitutional" because it is "discriminatory" and violates "equalityunder the law". Article 172 states that "The full and free consent expressedpersonally by a man and woman before the competent authority to celebrateit, is indispensable for the existence of marriage. The act that lacks anyof these requirements will not produce civil effects..." Article 188requires the couple to register as "husband and wife".
=
National Gay News
http://nationalgaynews.com/
Go to the website above for the following articles:
--
Union City, NJ: Two former employees of a Burger King on Bergenline Avenuehave been indicted on hate crime charges in connection with the viciousbeating of a same-sex couple outside the restaurant earlier this year,officials said yesterday. Angel Caraballo, 28, of Duncan Avenue, andChristopher Soto of Prospect Street, both of Jersey City, were charged withaggravated assault and a first-degree hate crime in connection with the July22 beating, officials said. The hate crime offense carries a possiblesentence of 10 to 20 years in prison.
--
The bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States says church membersunhappy with the ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire should worryabout more pressing world problems.
--
A West Michigan teenager recently took his own life, a death that is part ofa startling statistic among individuals who literally feel they were bornwith the wrong bodies. Ian, a 16-year-old transgender, died Monday. Familyand friends held a vigil for him in Holland Friday night. Ian's mom and KimPearson started TransYouth Family Advocates, a group that organized theevent.
--
Logo, the MTV Networks network that targets lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender viewers, has beefed up its animation slate. The network saidThursday that it has renewed "Rick & Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in Allthe World" for a second season and given the green light to a pilot from theJim Henson Co. as well as a shortform series.
=
Forwarded by David Sterling
Daytona Beach News-Journal
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD01110207.htm
Ex Daytona commissioner, teacher charged in sex sting
By KARI COBHAM
Staff Writer
November 02, 2007
DAYTONA BEACH -- A former Daytona Beach city commissioner and a local highschool teacher arrested Thursday during a sex sting at a Volusia mallbathroom were released from the Volusia County Brach Jail today, authoritiessaid.
Former commissioner and mayoral candidate Mike Shallow and David Behringer,an athletic trainer and teacher at Seabreeze High School, posted $1,000 bailtoday after midnight, a jail spokesman said.
Behringer resigned today, according to officials with the Volusia CountySchool District.
Shallow and Behringer were among nine men charged with lewd and lasciviousconduct and exposure of a sexual organ, both misdemeanors, police said.
=
Miami Herald
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/
World Cup rugby ref's gay award
From BBC NEWS:
Top rugby referee Nigel Owens has been named sportsperson of the year at agay awards ceremony in London.
Owens, from Carmarthenshire, made his Rugby World Cup debut last month, andis regarded as the first openly gay man to referee at the highest level.
The 36-year-old said winning the award was "up there with being elected toreferee the Rugby Word Cup".
Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said Owens was a great role model for all youngsportsmen and women across Wales.
Organised by gay rights group Stonewall, the awards recognised those who hadraised the profile of gay people in the world of sport, acted as rolemodels, and challenged homophobia.
Owens said he was honoured to win the award, and praised the work ofStonewall and other similar organisations.
He said although he had come out for his own piece of mind, he was glad ifit had helped others.
"Just by coming out in the public eye it obviously made news, and obviouslyif it helps people in that way, than that's great," he said.
"It was no intention of mine to raise my profile as a person for being gay.
"I'm just a normal person living a normal life."
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Jesse's Journal
by Jesse Monteagudo
Gay Heroes
What is a hero? According to the "Illustrated Oxford Dictionary" (revisedand updated), a hero is "1. A person noted or admired for nobility, courage,outstanding achievements, etc." In Greek antiquity, a hero was a "man ofsuperhuman qualities, favored by the gods; a demigod" such as Herakles orAchilles. Modern culture is full of men and women who have unique powersthat they use for the common goods, whether in comic books or movies or thetelevision series "Heroes." Not as powerful but equally as memorable arethose real-life individuals who became heroes by leading a worthy cause, asdid Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa orAung San Suu Kyi.
Like everyone else, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community isalways searching for heroes who would lead us in the fight for freedom andequality. Recently the Advocate celebrated its 40th anniversary bycompiling a list of 40 GLBT heroes. It asked its readers to go online(advocate.com) and vote from a prepared list, along with a line for write-incandidates. Not surprisingly, the resulting "top 40" list, as published inthe September 25th issue, favored celebrities over activists. Though I haveno problem with Ellen Degeneres being # 1 -- she did, after all, put her jobon the line by coming out on TV - the absence of Virginia Apuzzo, SamuelDelany, Barbara Grier, Marsha Johnson, Jim Kepner, Franklin Kameny, MorrisKight, Paul Monette, Joan Nestle, Jack Nichols, Jean O'Leary, John Preston,Sylvia Rivera, Marty Robinson, Craig Rodwell, Eric Rofes, Vito Russo, JoséSarria, Nadine Smith or others like them is appalling. (Barbara Gittingsmade it, but barely, at # 40.) On the other hand, celebs Billie Jean Kingand Elton John, who had to be dragged out of their closets kicking andscreaming, scored high in the Advocate's list (at # 6 and # 8,respectively).
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NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST November 4, 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://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/world/asia/04assess.html
News Analysis: Straying Partner Leaves White House in a Lurch
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and HELENE COOPER
November 4, 2007
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 - For more than five months the United States has beentrying to orchestrate a political transition in Pakistan that would manageto somehow keep Gen. Pervez Musharraf in power without making a mockery ofPresident Bush's promotion of democracy in the Muslim world.
On Saturday, those carefully laid plans fell apart spectacularly. Now theWhite House is stuck in wait-and-see mode, with limited options and a lackof clarity about the way forward.
General Musharraf's move to seize emergency powers and abandon theConstitution left Bush administration officials close to their nightmare: anAmerican-backed military dictator who is risking civil instability in acountry with nuclear weapons and an increasingly alienated public.
Mr. Bush entered a delicate dance with Pakistan immediately after theattacks on Sept. 11, 2001, when General Musharraf pledged his cooperation inthe fight against Al Qaeda, whose top leaders, including Osama bin Laden,are believed to be hiding out in the mountainous border region betweenPakistan and Afghanistan.
The United States has given Pakistan more than $10 billion in aid, mostly tothe military, since 2001. Now, if the state of emergency drags on, theadministration will be faced with the difficult decision of whether to cutoff that aid and risk undermining Pakistan's efforts to pursue terrorists -a move the White House believes could endanger the security of the UnitedStates.
Adm. William J. Fallon, the senior American military commander in the MiddleEast, told General Musharraf and his top generals in Islamabad on Fridaythat he would put that aid at risk if he seized emergency powers.
But after the declaration on Saturday, there was no immediate action by theadministration to accompany the tough talk, as officials monitoreddevelopments in Pakistan. Inside the White House the hope is that the stateof emergency will be short-lived and that General Musharraf will fulfill hispromise to abandon his post as Army chief of staff and hold elections byJan. 15.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Romney-Profile.html?pagewanted=print
Romney's Life Is His Father's Legacy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 4, 2007
Filed at 3:06 a.m. ET
BOSTON (AP) -- From his slicked, carefully coifed hair to his data-drivenbusiness principles to his unwavering devotion to his oft-maligned Mormonfaith, Mitt Romney is the spitting image of his father physically,professionally and morally.
The depth of their bond can be seen in one early story.
As an 18-year-old, Mitt Romney met a 15-year-old girl with whom he felt hecould share his life. He then left for a year of college and a 2 1/2-yearMormon mission in France, during which time his father not only took hisfuture wife, Ann Davies, to church, but converted her to their faith.
''Your gal looked lovely as always,'' George Romney wrote to his son inFebruary 1967. ''I sat next to her in church and asked if that ring of yourson her engagement finger meant what it usually means, and she said it did.''
At the time, George Romney was governor of Michigan and former chairman ofAmerican Motors; Ann's father, Edward Davies, had a less lofty title as thepart-time mayor of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., where both families lived.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/weekinreview/04rutenberg.html
Flip-Flopery: Said That vs. Meant This, a Hot Matchup for '08
By JIM RUTENBERG
WASHINGTON
November 4, 2007
TO hear the presidential candidates tell it, this has been a great year for"personal evolution." Less self-interested parties have considered it theseason of the "flip-flop."
The flip-flop is not a new ingredient in presidential politics. But it isespecially pronounced this year, with every major candidate getting into theact in some way.
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has said his views haveevolved on abortion and gay rights, among other issues. Rudolph Giuliani,the former New York mayor, was once a dogged opponent of the National RifleAssociation; now he is courting the group by saying his views on thenecessity of handguns in part changed after 9/11. A die-hard Yankees fan nowfishing for votes in New Hampshire, he also threw in with the nearby Red Soxin the World Series. Blasphemy!
Last week, it was Senator Hillary Clinton's turn. Under questioning from TimRussert of NBC News in a debate Tuesday, she acknowledged saying recentlythat a proposal by Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York to give illegal immigrantsdriver licenses "makes a lot of sense," but that, in fact, "I did not say itshould be done." On Wednesday, her campaign said she supported the idea.
It all raises the question of what does it take for a flip-flop to become apublic flap? And, better still, when does the flap become a candidacykiller? Accusations of flip-flopping work - occasionally.
Their success often depends on the public mood, the moment in history andwhether the charges feed into existing doubts about a candidate.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/world/asia/04pakistan.html?hp
Pakistani Sets Emergency Rule, Defying the U.S.
By DAVID ROHDE
November 4, 2007
This article was reported by David Rohde, Jane Perlez and Salman Masood, andwas written by Mr. Rohde.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sunday, Nov. 4 - The Pakistani leader, Gen. PervezMusharraf, declared a state of emergency on Saturday night, suspending thecountry's Constitution, firing the chief justice of the Supreme Court andfilling the streets of this capital city with police officers.
The move appeared to be an effort by General Musharraf to reassert hisfading power in the face of growing opposition from the country's SupremeCourt, political parties and hard-line Islamists. Pakistan's Supreme Courthad been expected to rule within days on the legality of General Musharraf'sre-election last month as the country's president.
The emergency act, which analysts and opposition leaders said was more adeclaration of martial law, also boldly defied the Bush administration,which had repeatedly urged General Musharraf to avoid such a path andinstead move toward democracy. Washington has generously backed the general,sending him more than $10 billion in aid since 2001, mostly for themilitary. Now the administration finds itself in the bind of having topublicly castigate the man it has described as one of its closest allies infighting terrorism.
In blunt and brief comments on Saturday, American officials condemnedGeneral Musharraf's move. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanded a"quick return to constitutional law." And in Washington, the White Housespokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe, said, "This action is very disappointing,"and he called on General Musharraf to honor his earlier pledge to resign asarmy commander and hold nationwide elections before Jan. 15.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04rich.html?ref=opinion
Noun + Verb + 9/11 + Iran = Democrats' Defeat?
By FRANK RICH
Op-Ed Columnist
November 4, 2007
WHEN President Bush started making noises about World War III, he onlyconfirmed what has been a Democratic article of faith all year: Between nowand Election Day he and Dick Cheney, cheered on by the mob of neocondead-enders, are going to bomb Iran.
But what happens if President Bush does not bomb Iran? That is good news forthe world, but potentially terrible news for the Democrats. If we do go towar in Iran, the election will indeed be a referendum on the results, whichthe Republican Party will own no matter whom it nominates for president. Butif we don't, the Democratic standard-bearer will have to take a clear standon the defining issue of the race. As we saw once again at Tuesday night'sdebate, the front-runner, Hillary Clinton, does not have one.
The reason so many Democrats believe war with Iran is inevitable, of course,is that the administration is so flagrantly rerunning the sales campaignthat gave us Iraq. The same old scare tactic - a Middle East Hitler plottinga nuclear holocaust - has been recycled with a fresh arsenal of hyped,loosey-goosey intelligence and outright falsehoods that are sometimesregurgitated without corroboration by the press.
Mr. Bush has gone so far as to accuse Iran of shipping arms to its Sunniantagonists in the Taliban, a stretch Newsweek finally slapped down lastweek. Back in the reality-based community, it is Mr. Bush who has mostconspicuously enabled the Taliban's resurgence by dropping the ball as itregrouped in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Administration policy also opened thedoor to Iran's lethal involvement in Iraq. The Iraqi "unity government" thatour troops are dying to prop up has more allies in its Shiite counterpart inTehran than it does in Washington.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04dowd.html?ref=opinion
Gift of Gall
By MAUREEN DOWD
Op-Ed Columnist
November 4, 2007
WASHINGTON
Girlfriend had a rough week.
First Hillary got brushed back by the boys in the debate. Then some womenbemoaned Hillaryland's "Don't hit me, I'm a girl" strategy.
The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus deplored the "antifeminist subtext" ofHillary's campaign playing the woman-as-victim card. "Using gender this way," she said, "is a setback."
I must rush to a sister's defense.
Women need to rally to support Hillary and send her money because there aremen, men like Tim Russert, who have the temerity to ask her questions duringa debate. If there are six male rivals on stage and two male moderators andheaven knows how many men manning lights and boom mikes, the one womanshould have the right to have it two ways.
It's simple math, really, an estrogen equation.
If she wants to run on her record as first lady while keeping the lid on herfirst lady record, that's only fair for the fairer sex. And if she wants tohave it both ways on illegal immigrants getting driver's licenses, then sheshould, especially if those illegal immigrants are men, or if Lou Dobbs isranting on the issue, because he's not only a man, he's a grumpy, cranky,border-crazed man.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04friedman.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Columnist
No, No, No, Don't Follow Us
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
November 4, 2007
New Delhi
India is in serious danger - no, not from Pakistan or internal strife. Indiais in danger from an Indian-made vehicle: a $2,500 passenger car, the world'scheapest.
India's Tata Motors recently announced that it plans to begin turning out afour-door, four-seat, rear-engine car for $2,500 next year and hopes to sellone million of them annually, primarily to those living at the "bottom ofthe pyramid" in India and the developing world.
Welcome to one of the emerging problems of the flat world: Blessedly, manymore people now have the incomes to live an American lifestyle, and theIndian and Chinese low-cost manufacturing platforms can deliver them thatlifestyle at lower and lower costs. But the energy and environmentalimplications could be enormous, for India and the world.
We have no right to tell Indians what cars to make or drive. But we can urgethem to think hard about following our model, without a real mass transitalternative in place. Cheap conventional four-wheel cars, which wouldencourage millions of Indians to give up their two-wheel motor scooters andthree-wheel motorized rickshaws, could overwhelm India's already strainedroad system, increase its dependence on imported oil and gridlock thecountry's megacities.
Yes, Indian families whose only vehicle now is a two-seat scooter often maketwo trips back and forth to places to get their whole family around, so acar that could pack a family of four is actually a form of mini-masstransit. And yes, Tata, by striving to make a car that could sell for$2,500, is forcing the entire Indian auto supply chain to become much moreefficient and therefore competitive.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04sun2.html?ref=opinion
Editorial
Republican Tricks on Children's Health
November 4, 2007
Cynicism and hypocrisy were on full display in the Senate last week whenRepublican leaders refused to wait for a possible compromise on a bill thatwould provide health coverage for millions of uninsured children. Instead,they forced a vote on a bill that they know President Bush will veto, withno chance of being overridden.
For weeks now, the president and his Congressional allies have charged thatthe Democrats are unwilling to negotiate a compromise on expanding the StateChildren's Health Insurance Program, or S-chip, because they want to useRepublican opposition as a campaign issue. But it is the Senate's Republicanleaders who are doing their best to block any compromise.
They clearly would prefer to have no bill enacted - and provide ammunitionfor the president's campaign to depict Congress as a failure - than doanything meaningful to help children.
The bill up for consideration in the Senate had already passed the Housewith substantial bipartisan support - but not quite enough votes to overcomeanother veto. As a result, a few prominent senators from both parties hadbeen meeting with House Republicans to work out a compromise that couldattract enough moderate Republicans to overcome a veto. Those talks,according to a key participant, were making "really good progress."
That is when Senate Republican leaders stepped in and, under the rules,refused to postpone a scheduled vote to allow more negotiations. The resultwas predictable. The Senate, which has always been enthusiastic aboutexpanding S-chip, approved the House-passed bill by a thumping 64-to-30vote. But the bill lacks enough Republican support in the House for anoverride.
The efforts to find a compromise are expected to continue, and we can onlyhope they ultimately bear fruit. Surely there are enough Republicans in theHouse who are more concerned with children's health than with ideologicalposturing and gamesmanship.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04sun3.html?ref=opinion
Editorial
Selling America
November 4, 2007
Karen Hughes brought strengths to the job of public diplomacy, a critical,often overlooked tool for advancing the national interest. She was aninsider's insider, a confidante from President Bush's Texas inner circle whocould speak for him authoritatively. Yet as she prepares to leave office,polls shows the United States is hated more than ever in the Muslim world.
President Bush originally picked Charlotte Beers, a former advertisingexecutive who once marketed Uncle Ben's rice, as under secretary of statefor public diplomacy. But Madison Avenue slickness did not play well whenpromoting Mr. Bush's go-it-alone foreign policy after 9/11, and in less thantwo years, she was out.
Next up was Margaret Tutwiler, formerly Secretary of State James Baker'sspokeswoman and ambassador to Morocco, who had a deft political touch. Shesoon moved on to a big executive job on Wall Street.
Ms. Hughes's weaknesses quickly became apparent when she took over. She hadnever been to the Middle East and had no expertise in the Muslim communitythat was a main target of the administration's public diplomacy efforts. Herearly forays to the region were embarrassing. "I am a mom, I love kids" isone phrase reflecting the folksy approach derided by the Arab media.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04essig.html?ref=opinion
This Is Going to Hurt
By MARK ESSIG
November 4, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
ASHEVILLE, N.C.
WHEN the Supreme Court last week granted a stay of execution for a murdererin Mississippi, it imposed a de facto moratorium on capital punishment inthe United States. With prosecutors in Texas and other states now sayingthey will stop seeking execution dates, that moratorium is likely to last atleast until the court issues a ruling on another death penalty case, Baze v.Rees, probably in June.
Some foes of capital punishment are celebrating this as a sign of a shift inthe national debate. They're mistaken.
Yes, in one sense, Baze v. Rees is a departure. For the first time since1878, when the Supreme Court gave its approval to Utah's firing squad, itwill rule on the constitutionality of a particular method of capitalpunishment. But the court won't rule on whether lethal injection violatesthe Eighth Amendment, and it certainly won't decide if the death penaltyitself is unconstitutional. Instead, it plans at most a minor tuneup, a bitof tinkering intended to salve the national conscience regarding theinfliction of pain.
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The New York Times
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/orphans-of-rwanda/index.html?ref=opinion
Orphans of Rwanda
By Josh Ruxin
November 3, 2007, 2:08 am
Josh Ruxin is a Columbia University expert on public health who has spentthe last couple of years living in Rwanda. He's an unusual mix of academicexpert and mud-between-the-toes aid worker.
Ange Benitha Bamuyugire is not your typical orphan in Rwanda. Orphans inRwanda are generally living at or beyond the brink of desperate poverty.Ange, however, is a terrific student who's studying computer science at thecountry's finest technical institution, the Kigali Institute of Science andTechnology. She'll be starting an internship soon at a Rwandan company thatdevelops websites. But there's more to her story.
She survived the 1994 genocide. She saw her father brutally slain by a bandof killers wielding machetes. Although she survived with her mother andbrother, she lost her entire extended family: grandparents, aunts, unclesand cousins.
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The New York Times
http://homefires.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/single-dad-soliloquy/index.html?ref=opinion
Single Dad Soliloquy
By Lee Kelley
November 2, 2007, 4:26 pm
Just yesterday, it seems, I was in the middle of an 18-month deployment. Andmy life back home, and my family, went through drastic changes during thattime. I felt that the pieces of everything I found familiar were beingshattered apart like a busy marketplace during a suicide bombing or athousand sparrows lifting off from a single tree. I wrote this, and this,and this to describe my feelings back then.
These days my life is mostly defined by the fact that I am a single parent.After all, transitioning from a married man with two kids, to an active dutyArmy officer in Iraq, to suddenly fulfilling the roles of Dad, caretaker,cleaner, cooker, provider, driver, chauffeur, good guy, bad guy,breadwinner, tooth fairy, Santa Claus, birthday planner, shopper, medic, andmentor, does require a bit of an adjustment to the way I approach the days,my awareness of time passing, and to the overall pursuit of happiness andmeaning.
All of the things I dreamed about in Iraq I have since experienced time andtime again. I have sat beside a mountain stream, fishing, contemplating myplace in the world like a character from one of Hemingway's short stories. Ihave been reunited with family and friends, and spent countless hours withmy kids. I've gone to restaurants, movies, and parks with them. I have hadconversations with them and laughed out loud one million times.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/us/nationalspecial3/04gitmo.html?hp
New Detainee Rights Weighed in Plans to Close Guantánamo
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
November 4, 2007
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 - Administration officials are considering grantingGuantánamo detainees substantially greater rights as part of an effort toclose the detention center and possibly move much of its population to theUnited States, according to officials involved in the discussions.
One proposal that is being widely discussed in the administration wouldoverhaul the procedure for determining whether detainees are properly heldby granting them legal representation at detention hearings and by givingfederal judges, not military officers, the power to decide whether suspectsshould be held.
Although the Bush administration has long defended the legal protectionsafforded detainees at Guantánamo against strenuous criticism, some officialsnow say that moving them to American soil would require giving them enhancedprotections.
"If you were to bring them to the United States, there is a recognition thatfor policy reasons you would need even more robust procedures than thosecurrently at Guantánamo," one senior official involved in the discussionssaid, speaking on the condition of anonymity because no decisions have beenmade.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/washington/04earmarks.html?hp
Even Cut 50 Percent, Earmarks Clog a Military Bill
By MARILYN W. THOMPSON and RON NIXON
November 4, 2007
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 - Even though members of Congress cut back their porkbarrel spending this year, House lawmakers still tacked on to the militaryappropriations bill $1.8 billion to pay 580 private companies for projectsthe Pentagon did not request.
Twenty-one members were responsible for about $1 billion in earmarks, orfinancing for pet projects, according to data lawmakers were required todisclose for the first time this year. Each asked for more than $20 millionfor businesses mostly in their districts, ranging from major militarycontractors to little known start-ups.
The list is topped by the veteran earmark champions Representative John P.Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who is the chairman of the powerful defenseappropriations subcommittee, and Representative C. W. Bill Young of Florida,the top Republican on the panel, who asked for $166 million and $117 millionrespectively. It also includes $92 million in requests from RepresentativeJerry Lewis, Republican of California, a committee member who is underfederal investigation for his ties to a lobbying firm whose clients oftenbenefited from his earmarks.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, requested $32 million in earmarks, whileSteny H. Hoyer, the majority leader, asked for $26 million for projects inthe $459.6 billion defense bill, the largest of the appropriations billsthat go through Congress.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/technology/04jammer.html?hp
Devices Enforce Cellular Silence, Sweet but Illegal
By MATT RICHTEL
November 4, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 2 - One afternoon in early September, an architectboarded his commuter train and became a cellphone vigilante. He sat downnext to a 20-something woman who he said was "blabbing away" into her phone.
"She was using the word 'like' all the time. She sounded like a Valley Girl," said the architect, Andrew, who declined to give his last namebecause what he did next was illegal.
Andrew reached into his shirt pocket and pushed a button on a black devicethe size of a cigarette pack. It sent out a powerful radio signal that cutoff the chatterer's cellphone transmission - and any others in a 30-footradius.
"She kept talking into her phone for about 30 seconds before she realizedthere was no one listening on the other end," he said. His reaction when hefirst discovered he could wield such power? "Oh, holy moly! Deliverance."
As cellphone use has skyrocketed, making it hard to avoid hearing half aconversation in many public places, a small but growing band of rebels isturning to a blunt countermeasure: the cellphone jammer, a gadget thatrenders nearby mobile devices impotent.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pakistan.html
Activists Detained in Pakistan Emergency
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 4, 2007
Filed at 5:05 a.m. ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Authorities rounded up opposition leaders Sundayafter military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan'sconstitution, replaced the chief judge and blacked out independent TVoutlets, saying the country must fight rising Islamic extremism.
Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup but had given a conditionalpledge to step down as military chief and become a civilian president thisyear, declared a state of emergency Saturday night, dashing recent hopes ofa smooth transition to democracy for the nuclear-armed nation.
He vowed to go ahead with parliamentary elections, originally due byJanuary, but gave no timeline.
''Unfortunately everything has been put on the back burner,'' DeputyMinister for Information, Tariq Azeem, said Sunday when asked about plansfor the polls. ''I'm still hoping the election will happen shortly ... but Ican't give you the exact date.''
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/us/04pagan.html
At a West Virginia University, New Protections for Pagans
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 4, 2007
CHARLESTON, W.Va., Nov. 3 (AP) - At Marshall University, pagan students arenow allowed to miss classes to observe religious holidays or festivals.
A new policy makes the university in Huntington, W.Va., with an enrollmentof about 14,000, possibly the only college in the country to protect pagansformally from being penalized for missing classes, although manyinstitutions have policies intended to protect students of every faith.
One Marshall student, George Fain, took advantage of the policy on Thursday,missing class in observance of Samhain, a pagan and Wiccan holiday honoringthe dead.
"I think we may have opened a door," Ms. Fain said of the policy. "Now thatwe know we can be protected, that the government will stand behind us and wefeel safe, it's going to be more prevalent."
The decision to allow pagan students to make up missed work is an extensionof existing policy toward members of other religious groups, said SteveHensley, the dean of student affairs at Marshall.
"I don't think there are a lot of students here who have those beliefs," Mr.Hensley said, "but we want to respect them. It was really just a matter oflooking into it, and deciding what was the right thing."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/us/politics/04dems.html?pagewanted=print
Clinton Rebuts Accusations of Secrecy
By PATRICK HEALY
November 4, 2007
DES MOINES, Nov. 3 - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's political camp struckback on Saturday against rivals who were attacking her as overly secretive,circulating legal arguments from a Clinton ally asserting that the Clintonsare not blocking the release of presidential papers about their discussionsin the White House in the 1990s.
Bruce Lindsey, a top adviser to former President Bill Clinton, issued alengthy statement on Friday evening saying that, contrary to some newsreports, Mr. Clinton had "not asked that records related to communicationswith Senator Clinton be withheld," and that Mr. Clinton had not blocked therelease of any presidential documents.
In pushing to clarify the issue, the Clinton camp is trying to correct animage of Mrs. Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate, that is beingpainted by her critics - that she is too secretive, and that because shewill not release the papers more quickly, her experience argument lackscredibility.
Mrs. Clinton, in an interview with Radio Iowa on Saturday, said she did notknow what the papers would reveal, but she supported releasing them asquickly as possible. "I think it's like people think we have boxes ofrecords in our basement and why don't I just go and get them and hand themover," she said. "And you know my husband has never blocked a record ever.He has been the most forthcoming of all presidents."
Three Iowa supporters of another candidate, Senator Barack Obama, ofIllinois, sent Mrs. Clinton, of New York, a letter Saturday, urging that sheexpedite the release of documents, to "be as open as possible with theAmerican people."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301053.html
Democrats Appear to Resurge in Kentucky
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 4, 2007; A05
CADIZ, Ky. -- Republicans are making Steve Beshear's life look easy.
Beshear, a Democrat, is expected to sail past the GOP incumbent into theKentucky governor's mansion Tuesday, and Republicans in the Bluegrass Stateare already concerned about next year, when the White House is in play andSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) faces reelection.
No wonder Beshear bounded into the Cadiz Restaurant on Main Street lastweek, all smiles and confidence, his tie knotted tightly and his pennyloafers gleaming. A new statewide poll showed him with a 23 percentage-pointlead over Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R), an ordained minister whose ethicalchallenges have merged in voters' minds with frustration over Republicanleadership in Washington.
Beshear joked to an equally upbeat crowd that Fletcher is now called "thegreat unifier": unifying Democrats, Republicans and independents who want tothrow him out.
Four years ago, when Fletcher became the state's first GOP governor in threedecades, the mood in Kentucky's political parties was reversed. Kentuckyappeared reliably Republican and the Democrats were scrambling to fieldwinners. But recent results indicate fresh doubts.
Last year, progressive political newcomer John Yarmuth (D) took the northernKentucky seat of five-term Rep. Anne M. Northup (R). In 2004, DanielMongiardo, an unknown state senator now running for lieutenant governor withBeshear, came surprisingly close to beating Sen. Jim Bunning (R), 76.
Most analysts think it unlikely that McConnell could lose. But KentuckyDemocrats no longer think it out of the question. Beshear points toMcConnell's ties to Bush, his firm support of the Iraq war and his leadingrole in an unpopular Congress.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301115.html
Immigration, Democratic Shift Compete to Steer Va. Elections
By Amy Gardner and Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 4, 2007; A01
Candidates for the Virginia General Assembly entered the final sprintyesterday toward a hard-fought election Tuesday in which two major forcesare likely to determine which party controls the Senate: the resurgence ofDemocrats in vote-rich Northern Virginia, and the Republican advantage inthe emotional debate over illegal immigration.
Dozens of candidates knocked on doors, phoned voters and held rallies toencourage their supporters to go to the polls Tuesday, when all 140 seats ofthe legislature will be decided, as well as county and school boardpositions throughout the state.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, former governor Mark R. Warner and U.S. Sen. JamesWebb, all Democrats, traveled to southern and southwest Virginia yesterdayto stump for candidates. Republicans, led by Attorney General Robert F.McDonnell, gathered in Fairfax County in an attempt to stem the Democratictide that has swept Northern Virginia in recent elections.
"I don't need to tell you that winning Fairfax County is the key to ourwinning the Virginia Senate and keeping strong leadership in the House,"said McDonnell, referring to the fact that three of the five closest Senateraces in the state are in Fairfax, where incumbent Republicans are trying tohang on in increasingly GOP-unfriendly districts.
Democrats have maintained all year that the Republicans' 23-17 majority inthe Senate is in jeopardy. Although Democrats don't expect to take controlof the Republican-heavy House of Delegates, they think they can gain as manyas six seats. That kind of swing could give Kaine more leverage to push hisprograms regarding such issues as protecting the environment, finding moneyfor an academic pre-kindergarten and reforming the state's mental healthsystem, which has been in the spotlight since the Virginia Tech shootings inApril. It also would dramatically shift power in the legislature to NorthernVirginia, whose lawmakers would control nearly all leadership and committeepositions in the Senate.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201783.html
What Burma's Junta Must Fear
By U Gambira
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B07
In August, the Burmese people began to write a new chapter in theirdetermination to find peace and freedom. Burmese monks peacefully protestedto bring change to our long-suffering country. As we marched, hundreds ofthousands of Burmese and our ethnic cousins joined us to reinforce ourcollective demand: that military rule finally give way to the people'sdesire for democracy.
Video and the Internet have allowed the world to witness the brutal responsedirected by Gen. Than Shwe, Burma's de facto ruler and military leader. ThanShwe unleashed his soldiers and the regime's thugs, who attacked us. Onceagain the streets in Rangoon and Mandalay ran red with the blood of innocentcivilians seeking o save our country from the moral, social, political andeconomic crises that onsume us.
Hundreds of our monks and nuns have been beaten and arrested. Many have eenmurdered. Alarmingly, thousands of clergy have disappeared. Our acredmonasteries have been looted and destroyed. As darkness falls each ight,intelligence units try to round up political and religious leaders.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201785.html
Congress's Unused War Powers
By George F. Will
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B07
Americans are wondering, with the lassitude of uninvolved spectators,whether the president will initiate a war with Iran. Some Democraticpresidential candidates worry, or purport to, that he might claim anauthorization for war in a Senate resolution labeling an IranianRevolutionary Guard unit a terrorist organization. Some Democraticrepresentatives oppose the president's request for $88 million to equip B-2stealth bombers to carry huge "bunker-buster" bombs, hoping to therebyimpede a presidential decision to attack Iran's hardened nuclear facilities.
While legislators try to leash a president by tinkering with a weapon, theyare ignoring a sufficient leash -- the Constitution. They are derelict intheir sworn duty to uphold it. Regarding the most momentous thing governmentdoes, make war, the constitutional system of checks and balances is broken.
Congress can, however, put the Constitution's bridle back on the presidency.Congress can end unfettered executive war-making by deciding to. That mightnot require, but would be facilitated by, enacting the Constitutional WarPowers Resolution. Introduced last week by Rep. Walter B. Jones, a NorthCarolina Republican, it technically amends but essentially would supplantthe existing War Powers Resolution, which has been a nullity ever since itwas passed in 1973 over President Richard Nixon's veto.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201781.html
How to Rein in Iran Without War
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B07
Iran is working to produce a 20-to-50-pound stockpile of enriched uraniumthat it can use to build atomic weapons within eight to 10 weeks, once itdecides to do so -- and has consistently lied to the United Nations aboutthose efforts.
That headline conclusion is one of two basic points that I draw from aseries of private meetings on Iran's nuclear ambitions involving diplomats,leading academic experts, senior military officers and experienced analystsfrom around the globe. The other: The impressive unity that the Bushadministration has established in imposing sanctions on Iran is frayingbecause of war fears and commercial pressures and temptations.
Held over the course of this year in Europe, China and Russia, theseunofficial traveling seminars provide a snapshot of international reactionto the unmistakable effort by Iran to develop nuclear weapons and to thethreats by President Bush and Vice President Cheney to prevent that fromhappening.
The conversations, organized by the London-based International Institute forStrategic Studies (IISS), have dealt in mind-numbing detail with Iran'suranium-enrichment program, diplomatic and military options open to theWest, and more. In Moscow two weeks ago, I was treated to several hours ofexplication on precisely how a subclause in a recent Russia-Kazakhstannuclear power treaty prevents Russia from demanding that Iran forsakeenriching uranium on its own territory.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110300886.html
Two for Mr. Mukasey: Sens. Schumer and Feinstein buck the crowd.
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B06
THE HALLS of Congress are too often filled with cowardice and groupthink. Soit is reassuring when not one but two lawmakers show the moral fortitude todefy party politics to take a stand on principle.
Democratic Sens. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.)showed such courage Friday when they announced their support forattorney-general nominee Michael B. Mukasey. Both are members of theJudiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote Tuesday on Mr. Mukasey'snomination. It is likely that their support salvaged Mr. Mukasey'snomination, imperiled because he would not state outright that theinterrogation method known as waterboarding, or simulated drowning, isillegal. While we, like Mr. Schumer, Ms. Feinstein and others, would havewished for such an answer, supplying it would have put Mr. Mukasey inconflict with Justice Department memos that likely allow the technique --memos that those who may have carried out or authorized waterboarding reliedon for legal protection. Both Mr. Schumer and Ms. Feinstein cited Mr.Mukasey's intellect, his stellar qualifications and his reputation for beingstraightforward and independent as reasons to support his nomination.
Nonetheless, that decision seems not to have been an easy one for eitherlawmaker, particularly Mr. Schumer, who recommended the former New Yorkfederal trial judge for the position. "When an administration, so political,so out of touch with the realities of governing and so contemptuous of therule of law is in charge, we are never left with an ideal choice. JudgeMukasey is not my ideal choice," Mr. Schumer said in a statement. But hesaid that given his integrity and independence, "Judge Mukasey . . . is farbetter than anyone could expect from this administration."
Both lawmakers also deserve credit for taking the occasion of announcingtheir support for Mr. Mukasey to renew their call for passage of legislationthat would once and for all unquestionably outlaw waterboarding and othertactics most Americans would recognize as torture. One such measure, theNational Security with Justice Act, would forbid U.S. military and civilianpersonnel from using any interrogation techniques not explicitly authorizedby the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation. The manual,which military officials say contains all the interrogation tools they needto procure reliable information from even difficult subjects, expresslyprohibits waterboarding. Many of the senators objecting to Mr. Mukasey couldhave embraced such a measure long ago. It's not too late now.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110300888.html
A Bet Goes Sour: President Bush can hardly be surprised by Pakistan's state of emergency.
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B06
ON FRIDAY, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pleaded with Pakistan'spresident, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, not to declare a state of emergency.Yesterday, he declared a state of emergency, suspending the constitution.Did he not believe that the Bush administration really would object, or didhe not care?
If the former, his judgment would be understandable. From the start, theadministration has exempted Pakistan's dictator (among many others) fromPresident Bush's supposed commitment to democracy promotion, which is basedon the idea that freedom offers the most attractive alternative to Islamistextremism. Mr. Musharraf took power in a coup in 1999, promising to bring"true" democracy to his Muslim state. That promise, like many others -- togive up his uniform, for example -- was discarded. But with every brokenpromise, the administration was tolerant, even supportive, always citing thegeneral's claimed willingness to fight the extremists. Even yesterday, asthere was no mention of suspending military cooperation or otherwise givingmeaning to those words.
The irony is that Pakistan seems to be bearing witness to Mr. Bush'sprofessed belief that autocracy breeds more extremism. The Taliban andal-Qaeda have strengthened in parts of the country, rebuilding safe havensthey can use to plan attacks in Afghanistan, in Europe and beyond. They havemanaged to bring their battle to urban Pakistan in ways they never didbefore. The institutions that could have provided some defense againstextremism -- Pakistan's two largest political parties, the judicialsystem -- have been weakened by Mr. Musharraf in his desperation to cling topower. That was again his motive yesterday; he feared that the Supreme Courtwas about to rule that he was ineligible to serve another five-year term aspresident. His declaration, punctuated by arrests, the firing of the chiefjustice and the seizure of television networks, will further weakenmoderation and exacerbate Pakistan's crisis.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301153.html?hpid=topnews
Thompson Adviser Has Criminal Past
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 4, 2007; A01
Republican presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson has been crisscrossingthe country since early this summer on a private jet lent to him by abusinessman and close adviser who has a criminal record for drug dealing.
Thompson selected the businessman, Philip Martin, to raise seed money forhis White House bid. Martin is one of four campaign co-chairmen and the headof a group called the "first day founders." Campaign aides jokingly began torefer to Martin, who has been friends with Thompson since the early 1990s,as the head of "Thompson's Airforce."
Thompson's frequent flights aboard Martin's twin-engine Cessna 560 Citationhave saved him more than $100,000, because until the law changed inSeptember, campaign-finance rules allowed presidential candidates toreimburse private jet owners for just a fraction of the true cost offlights.
Martin entered a plea of guilty to the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana in1979; the court withheld judgment pending completion of his probation. Hewas charged in 1983 with violating his probation and with multiple counts offelony bookmaking, cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded no contestto the cocaine-trafficking and conspiracy charges, which stemmed from a planto sell $30,000 worth of the drug, and was continued on probation.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201650.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Why Her Dreams Crashed: Rice's Worldview Flipped, And Her Policies Flopped
By Fred Kaplan
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B01
As Condoleezza Rice jets around the world, she must sometimes wonder whereshe's going. Over her three years as secretary of state, she has squanderedgreat opportunities by putting faith and loyalty above her old worldview.The problem isn't just that she has swerved from the realism that propelledher to prominence; it's that the result has been a shambles.
Rice isn't used to failure, and most Americans aren't used to thinking ofher as one. In Beltway wisdom, she's the star of President Bush'ssecond-term team, someone who has employed smarts, sense and style to try tosteer a wiser course in the world. But if she is now veering back torealism, it's after too long a detour into post-9/11 messianism. Riceremains one of the architects of a fantasy foreign policy, and her record assecretary of state gives little hope that she'll be able to reverse thatverdict in the administration's final months.
The case against Condi starts with her dismal tenure as national securityadviser in Bush's first term -- perhaps the worst in the office's history.Her main task was to coordinate policy, but she was outmaneuvered at everyturn by the ruthless infighters around her, especially Vice President Cheneyand Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. So she focused on the job's othermandate: counseling the unschooled president on foreign affairs. As Bush'stutor in the 2000 campaign, she'd gained his trust, which became the basisof her power: When she spoke, everybody knew that she was speaking on Bush'sbehalf, not advancing her own agenda.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110300427.html?hpid=sec-politics
Ohio Dems Hope to Cement 2006 Gains
By DAVID ESPO
The Associated Press
Saturday, November 3, 2007; 7:50 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The way Democrats figure it, they borrowed about 500,000voters in bellwether Ohio last year and ended more than a decade ofstatewide political frustration. Now they seek a more durable relationshipin time for the 2008 presidential election.
Their salesman of choice?
That would be Gov. Ted Strickland, off to a fast start as the state's firstDemocratic chief executive in 16 years, and the face of an attempt to remakethe party in his own soothing, centrist image.
As governor, he said in an interview in his statehouse office, "we've triedto avoid being overly partisan." As party builder, he said he wants to focuson "what I call the kitchen table issues ... the basic issues that areimportant to a family's quality of life."
Strickland's first budget passed with only one dissenting vote in theRepublican-controlled legislature. It included a property tax cut forseniors and the disabled as well as more money for higher education. It alsoprovided health insurance for children living in families with up to about$62,000 in income _ a bipartisan accomplishment that stands in contrast tothe veto struggle now unfolding in Washington over the same issue.
No Republican has ever won the White House without carrying Ohio, andPresident Bush sealed his second term with a statewide victory of 118,601votes. Two years later, an estimated 563,000 Ohioans who supported Bushbacked Strickland for governor, and 442,000 of the president's voters helpedSherrod Brown topple Republican Sen. Mike DeWine.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301095.html?hpid=sec-religion
Fugitives Find Relief in 'Safe Surrender'
Hundreds of Offenders Go to Face Judge
By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 4, 2007; C11
Over the past three days, more than 475 people have come to a NorthwestWashington church to turn themselves in to a government-run "safe surrenderprogram" for fugitives, including a man who walked from Landover, a womanwho had been wanted for 20 years for shoplifting and a father encouraged byhis son, who had just finished a 15-year prison sentence.
John Carrington Jr., 39, said he held his father's hand as the two walkedinto Bible Way Church on Friday. John Carrington Sr. had been facing a drugpossession misdemeanor for three years but didn't want to turn himself inuntil his son got out, "so we could be together without any bars betweenus," Carrington said yesterday.
"When I heard about this program on the radio, I said, 'Dad, I heardsomething that I think is really meant for us,' " said the youngerCarrington, who was released three weeks ago. He was convicted of possessionof a firearm during a violent crime.
Like dozens of others who filed into Bible Way's basement, the elderCarrington went before a robed judge in a makeshift courtroom, where the62-year-old, of Northeast Washington, pleaded guilty and was given sixmonths' probation.
An additional 55 people turned themselves in to the courts after hearingabout the Fugitive Safe Surrender program, which is being run by the U.S.Marshals Service in Washington and five other cities. It aims to enticenonviolent offenders with favorable consideration of their cases on neutralground.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110300146.html
Why You Pay Social Security Benefit Taxes
By Martha M. Hamilton
Sunday, November 4, 2007; F01
I see Jack Woodard almost every Sunday when I pick up my mother at herapartment building. Woodard works at the building one day a week, and forseveral months, he's been asking me a question I couldn't answer.
"Tell me something," he would say. "Tell me why I have to pay taxes on mySocial Security when I've already paid taxes on it."
During the week, Woodard, 73, is an addiction counselor for the Departmentof Veterans Affairs, and he plans to work two more years so he can collecthigher retirement benefits. Then he hopes to move to Honolulu where hisdaughter and her husband live.
He has been working a long time -- "since I was knee-high to a duck," as hesays. At age 9 he was helping bricklayers and other laborers at constructionsites operated by his dad, who was a contractor. He has been working eversince and paying taxes on his earnings, including the portion that went intoSocial Security.
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-wills4nov04,0,7799993.story?coll=la-opinion-center
Abortion isn't a religious issue
Evangelicals are adamant, but religion really has nothing to say about theissue.
By Garry Wills
November 4, 2007
What makes opposition to abortion the issue it is for each of the GOPpresidential candidates is the fact that it is the ultimate "wedge issue" --it is nonnegotiable. The right-to-life people hold that it is as strong apoint of religion as any can be. It is religious because the SixthCommandment (or the Fifth by Catholic count) says, "Thou shalt not kill."For evangelical Christians, in general, abortion is murder. That is why whatothers think, what polls say, what looks practical does not matter for them.One must oppose murder, however much rancor or controversy may ensue.
But is abortion murder? Most people think not. Evangelicals may argue thatmost people in Germany thought it was all right to kill Jews. But theparallel is not valid. Killing Jews was killing persons. It is notdemonstrable that killing fetuses is killing persons. Not even evangelicalsact as if it were. If so, a woman seeking an abortion would be the mostculpable person. She is killing her own child. But the evangelical communitydoes not call for her execution.
About 10% of evangelicals, according to polls, allow for abortion in thecase of rape or incest. But the circumstances of conception should notchange the nature of the thing conceived. If it is a human person, killingit is punishing it for something it had nothing to do with. We do not killpeople because they had a criminal parent.
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Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-jindal_thinknov04,0,6233325,print.story
THAT'S BOBBY, NOT BARACK
GOP trailblazer has a life story to rival Obama's
By Jay J. Chaudhuri
November 4, 2007
Who's the skinny brown kid with a funny name, a son of immigrants who couldbe president of the United States one day?
Barack Obama? You're only half right.
Try Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, a 36-year-old Indian-American who late last monthwas elected governor of Louisiana.
While political reporters have amply charted Obama's meteoric rise fromIllinois state senator to United States senator to Democratic candidate forpresident, they have given us only a glimpse of an equally compellingbiography and background with Jindal.
Both men are second-generation Americans with fathers who came from pooragrarian backgrounds in developing countries. Both excelled academically tonational acclaim. Obama became the first African-American president of TheHarvard Law Review. Jindal was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship after graduatingwith a perfect grade point average from Brown University.
Both men gave back to their communities at an early age. Obama became acommunity activist at 24; Jindal became Louisiana's state secretary ofhealth and hospitals at 24.
And both arrived at their Christian faith after soul-searching.
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[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/world/asia/04assess.html
News Analysis: Straying Partner Leaves White House in a Lurch
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and HELENE COOPER
November 4, 2007
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 - For more than five months the United States has beentrying to orchestrate a political transition in Pakistan that would manageto somehow keep Gen. Pervez Musharraf in power without making a mockery ofPresident Bush's promotion of democracy in the Muslim world.
On Saturday, those carefully laid plans fell apart spectacularly. Now theWhite House is stuck in wait-and-see mode, with limited options and a lackof clarity about the way forward.
General Musharraf's move to seize emergency powers and abandon theConstitution left Bush administration officials close to their nightmare: anAmerican-backed military dictator who is risking civil instability in acountry with nuclear weapons and an increasingly alienated public.
Mr. Bush entered a delicate dance with Pakistan immediately after theattacks on Sept. 11, 2001, when General Musharraf pledged his cooperation inthe fight against Al Qaeda, whose top leaders, including Osama bin Laden,are believed to be hiding out in the mountainous border region betweenPakistan and Afghanistan.
The United States has given Pakistan more than $10 billion in aid, mostly tothe military, since 2001. Now, if the state of emergency drags on, theadministration will be faced with the difficult decision of whether to cutoff that aid and risk undermining Pakistan's efforts to pursue terrorists -a move the White House believes could endanger the security of the UnitedStates.
Adm. William J. Fallon, the senior American military commander in the MiddleEast, told General Musharraf and his top generals in Islamabad on Fridaythat he would put that aid at risk if he seized emergency powers.
But after the declaration on Saturday, there was no immediate action by theadministration to accompany the tough talk, as officials monitoreddevelopments in Pakistan. Inside the White House the hope is that the stateof emergency will be short-lived and that General Musharraf will fulfill hispromise to abandon his post as Army chief of staff and hold elections byJan. 15.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Romney-Profile.html?pagewanted=print
Romney's Life Is His Father's Legacy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 4, 2007
Filed at 3:06 a.m. ET
BOSTON (AP) -- From his slicked, carefully coifed hair to his data-drivenbusiness principles to his unwavering devotion to his oft-maligned Mormonfaith, Mitt Romney is the spitting image of his father physically,professionally and morally.
The depth of their bond can be seen in one early story.
As an 18-year-old, Mitt Romney met a 15-year-old girl with whom he felt hecould share his life. He then left for a year of college and a 2 1/2-yearMormon mission in France, during which time his father not only took hisfuture wife, Ann Davies, to church, but converted her to their faith.
''Your gal looked lovely as always,'' George Romney wrote to his son inFebruary 1967. ''I sat next to her in church and asked if that ring of yourson her engagement finger meant what it usually means, and she said it did.''
At the time, George Romney was governor of Michigan and former chairman ofAmerican Motors; Ann's father, Edward Davies, had a less lofty title as thepart-time mayor of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., where both families lived.
more...
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/weekinreview/04rutenberg.html
Flip-Flopery: Said That vs. Meant This, a Hot Matchup for '08
By JIM RUTENBERG
WASHINGTON
November 4, 2007
TO hear the presidential candidates tell it, this has been a great year for"personal evolution." Less self-interested parties have considered it theseason of the "flip-flop."
The flip-flop is not a new ingredient in presidential politics. But it isespecially pronounced this year, with every major candidate getting into theact in some way.
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has said his views haveevolved on abortion and gay rights, among other issues. Rudolph Giuliani,the former New York mayor, was once a dogged opponent of the National RifleAssociation; now he is courting the group by saying his views on thenecessity of handguns in part changed after 9/11. A die-hard Yankees fan nowfishing for votes in New Hampshire, he also threw in with the nearby Red Soxin the World Series. Blasphemy!
Last week, it was Senator Hillary Clinton's turn. Under questioning from TimRussert of NBC News in a debate Tuesday, she acknowledged saying recentlythat a proposal by Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York to give illegal immigrantsdriver licenses "makes a lot of sense," but that, in fact, "I did not say itshould be done." On Wednesday, her campaign said she supported the idea.
It all raises the question of what does it take for a flip-flop to become apublic flap? And, better still, when does the flap become a candidacykiller? Accusations of flip-flopping work - occasionally.
Their success often depends on the public mood, the moment in history andwhether the charges feed into existing doubts about a candidate.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/world/asia/04pakistan.html?hp
Pakistani Sets Emergency Rule, Defying the U.S.
By DAVID ROHDE
November 4, 2007
This article was reported by David Rohde, Jane Perlez and Salman Masood, andwas written by Mr. Rohde.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sunday, Nov. 4 - The Pakistani leader, Gen. PervezMusharraf, declared a state of emergency on Saturday night, suspending thecountry's Constitution, firing the chief justice of the Supreme Court andfilling the streets of this capital city with police officers.
The move appeared to be an effort by General Musharraf to reassert hisfading power in the face of growing opposition from the country's SupremeCourt, political parties and hard-line Islamists. Pakistan's Supreme Courthad been expected to rule within days on the legality of General Musharraf'sre-election last month as the country's president.
The emergency act, which analysts and opposition leaders said was more adeclaration of martial law, also boldly defied the Bush administration,which had repeatedly urged General Musharraf to avoid such a path andinstead move toward democracy. Washington has generously backed the general,sending him more than $10 billion in aid since 2001, mostly for themilitary. Now the administration finds itself in the bind of having topublicly castigate the man it has described as one of its closest allies infighting terrorism.
In blunt and brief comments on Saturday, American officials condemnedGeneral Musharraf's move. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanded a"quick return to constitutional law." And in Washington, the White Housespokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe, said, "This action is very disappointing,"and he called on General Musharraf to honor his earlier pledge to resign asarmy commander and hold nationwide elections before Jan. 15.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04rich.html?ref=opinion
Noun + Verb + 9/11 + Iran = Democrats' Defeat?
By FRANK RICH
Op-Ed Columnist
November 4, 2007
WHEN President Bush started making noises about World War III, he onlyconfirmed what has been a Democratic article of faith all year: Between nowand Election Day he and Dick Cheney, cheered on by the mob of neocondead-enders, are going to bomb Iran.
But what happens if President Bush does not bomb Iran? That is good news forthe world, but potentially terrible news for the Democrats. If we do go towar in Iran, the election will indeed be a referendum on the results, whichthe Republican Party will own no matter whom it nominates for president. Butif we don't, the Democratic standard-bearer will have to take a clear standon the defining issue of the race. As we saw once again at Tuesday night'sdebate, the front-runner, Hillary Clinton, does not have one.
The reason so many Democrats believe war with Iran is inevitable, of course,is that the administration is so flagrantly rerunning the sales campaignthat gave us Iraq. The same old scare tactic - a Middle East Hitler plottinga nuclear holocaust - has been recycled with a fresh arsenal of hyped,loosey-goosey intelligence and outright falsehoods that are sometimesregurgitated without corroboration by the press.
Mr. Bush has gone so far as to accuse Iran of shipping arms to its Sunniantagonists in the Taliban, a stretch Newsweek finally slapped down lastweek. Back in the reality-based community, it is Mr. Bush who has mostconspicuously enabled the Taliban's resurgence by dropping the ball as itregrouped in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Administration policy also opened thedoor to Iran's lethal involvement in Iraq. The Iraqi "unity government" thatour troops are dying to prop up has more allies in its Shiite counterpart inTehran than it does in Washington.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04dowd.html?ref=opinion
Gift of Gall
By MAUREEN DOWD
Op-Ed Columnist
November 4, 2007
WASHINGTON
Girlfriend had a rough week.
First Hillary got brushed back by the boys in the debate. Then some womenbemoaned Hillaryland's "Don't hit me, I'm a girl" strategy.
The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus deplored the "antifeminist subtext" ofHillary's campaign playing the woman-as-victim card. "Using gender this way," she said, "is a setback."
I must rush to a sister's defense.
Women need to rally to support Hillary and send her money because there aremen, men like Tim Russert, who have the temerity to ask her questions duringa debate. If there are six male rivals on stage and two male moderators andheaven knows how many men manning lights and boom mikes, the one womanshould have the right to have it two ways.
It's simple math, really, an estrogen equation.
If she wants to run on her record as first lady while keeping the lid on herfirst lady record, that's only fair for the fairer sex. And if she wants tohave it both ways on illegal immigrants getting driver's licenses, then sheshould, especially if those illegal immigrants are men, or if Lou Dobbs isranting on the issue, because he's not only a man, he's a grumpy, cranky,border-crazed man.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04friedman.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Columnist
No, No, No, Don't Follow Us
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
November 4, 2007
New Delhi
India is in serious danger - no, not from Pakistan or internal strife. Indiais in danger from an Indian-made vehicle: a $2,500 passenger car, the world'scheapest.
India's Tata Motors recently announced that it plans to begin turning out afour-door, four-seat, rear-engine car for $2,500 next year and hopes to sellone million of them annually, primarily to those living at the "bottom ofthe pyramid" in India and the developing world.
Welcome to one of the emerging problems of the flat world: Blessedly, manymore people now have the incomes to live an American lifestyle, and theIndian and Chinese low-cost manufacturing platforms can deliver them thatlifestyle at lower and lower costs. But the energy and environmentalimplications could be enormous, for India and the world.
We have no right to tell Indians what cars to make or drive. But we can urgethem to think hard about following our model, without a real mass transitalternative in place. Cheap conventional four-wheel cars, which wouldencourage millions of Indians to give up their two-wheel motor scooters andthree-wheel motorized rickshaws, could overwhelm India's already strainedroad system, increase its dependence on imported oil and gridlock thecountry's megacities.
Yes, Indian families whose only vehicle now is a two-seat scooter often maketwo trips back and forth to places to get their whole family around, so acar that could pack a family of four is actually a form of mini-masstransit. And yes, Tata, by striving to make a car that could sell for$2,500, is forcing the entire Indian auto supply chain to become much moreefficient and therefore competitive.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04sun2.html?ref=opinion
Editorial
Republican Tricks on Children's Health
November 4, 2007
Cynicism and hypocrisy were on full display in the Senate last week whenRepublican leaders refused to wait for a possible compromise on a bill thatwould provide health coverage for millions of uninsured children. Instead,they forced a vote on a bill that they know President Bush will veto, withno chance of being overridden.
For weeks now, the president and his Congressional allies have charged thatthe Democrats are unwilling to negotiate a compromise on expanding the StateChildren's Health Insurance Program, or S-chip, because they want to useRepublican opposition as a campaign issue. But it is the Senate's Republicanleaders who are doing their best to block any compromise.
They clearly would prefer to have no bill enacted - and provide ammunitionfor the president's campaign to depict Congress as a failure - than doanything meaningful to help children.
The bill up for consideration in the Senate had already passed the Housewith substantial bipartisan support - but not quite enough votes to overcomeanother veto. As a result, a few prominent senators from both parties hadbeen meeting with House Republicans to work out a compromise that couldattract enough moderate Republicans to overcome a veto. Those talks,according to a key participant, were making "really good progress."
That is when Senate Republican leaders stepped in and, under the rules,refused to postpone a scheduled vote to allow more negotiations. The resultwas predictable. The Senate, which has always been enthusiastic aboutexpanding S-chip, approved the House-passed bill by a thumping 64-to-30vote. But the bill lacks enough Republican support in the House for anoverride.
The efforts to find a compromise are expected to continue, and we can onlyhope they ultimately bear fruit. Surely there are enough Republicans in theHouse who are more concerned with children's health than with ideologicalposturing and gamesmanship.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04sun3.html?ref=opinion
Editorial
Selling America
November 4, 2007
Karen Hughes brought strengths to the job of public diplomacy, a critical,often overlooked tool for advancing the national interest. She was aninsider's insider, a confidante from President Bush's Texas inner circle whocould speak for him authoritatively. Yet as she prepares to leave office,polls shows the United States is hated more than ever in the Muslim world.
President Bush originally picked Charlotte Beers, a former advertisingexecutive who once marketed Uncle Ben's rice, as under secretary of statefor public diplomacy. But Madison Avenue slickness did not play well whenpromoting Mr. Bush's go-it-alone foreign policy after 9/11, and in less thantwo years, she was out.
Next up was Margaret Tutwiler, formerly Secretary of State James Baker'sspokeswoman and ambassador to Morocco, who had a deft political touch. Shesoon moved on to a big executive job on Wall Street.
Ms. Hughes's weaknesses quickly became apparent when she took over. She hadnever been to the Middle East and had no expertise in the Muslim communitythat was a main target of the administration's public diplomacy efforts. Herearly forays to the region were embarrassing. "I am a mom, I love kids" isone phrase reflecting the folksy approach derided by the Arab media.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04essig.html?ref=opinion
This Is Going to Hurt
By MARK ESSIG
November 4, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
ASHEVILLE, N.C.
WHEN the Supreme Court last week granted a stay of execution for a murdererin Mississippi, it imposed a de facto moratorium on capital punishment inthe United States. With prosecutors in Texas and other states now sayingthey will stop seeking execution dates, that moratorium is likely to last atleast until the court issues a ruling on another death penalty case, Baze v.Rees, probably in June.
Some foes of capital punishment are celebrating this as a sign of a shift inthe national debate. They're mistaken.
Yes, in one sense, Baze v. Rees is a departure. For the first time since1878, when the Supreme Court gave its approval to Utah's firing squad, itwill rule on the constitutionality of a particular method of capitalpunishment. But the court won't rule on whether lethal injection violatesthe Eighth Amendment, and it certainly won't decide if the death penaltyitself is unconstitutional. Instead, it plans at most a minor tuneup, a bitof tinkering intended to salve the national conscience regarding theinfliction of pain.
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The New York Times
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/orphans-of-rwanda/index.html?ref=opinion
Orphans of Rwanda
By Josh Ruxin
November 3, 2007, 2:08 am
Josh Ruxin is a Columbia University expert on public health who has spentthe last couple of years living in Rwanda. He's an unusual mix of academicexpert and mud-between-the-toes aid worker.
Ange Benitha Bamuyugire is not your typical orphan in Rwanda. Orphans inRwanda are generally living at or beyond the brink of desperate poverty.Ange, however, is a terrific student who's studying computer science at thecountry's finest technical institution, the Kigali Institute of Science andTechnology. She'll be starting an internship soon at a Rwandan company thatdevelops websites. But there's more to her story.
She survived the 1994 genocide. She saw her father brutally slain by a bandof killers wielding machetes. Although she survived with her mother andbrother, she lost her entire extended family: grandparents, aunts, unclesand cousins.
more....
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The New York Times
http://homefires.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/single-dad-soliloquy/index.html?ref=opinion
Single Dad Soliloquy
By Lee Kelley
November 2, 2007, 4:26 pm
Just yesterday, it seems, I was in the middle of an 18-month deployment. Andmy life back home, and my family, went through drastic changes during thattime. I felt that the pieces of everything I found familiar were beingshattered apart like a busy marketplace during a suicide bombing or athousand sparrows lifting off from a single tree. I wrote this, and this,and this to describe my feelings back then.
These days my life is mostly defined by the fact that I am a single parent.After all, transitioning from a married man with two kids, to an active dutyArmy officer in Iraq, to suddenly fulfilling the roles of Dad, caretaker,cleaner, cooker, provider, driver, chauffeur, good guy, bad guy,breadwinner, tooth fairy, Santa Claus, birthday planner, shopper, medic, andmentor, does require a bit of an adjustment to the way I approach the days,my awareness of time passing, and to the overall pursuit of happiness andmeaning.
All of the things I dreamed about in Iraq I have since experienced time andtime again. I have sat beside a mountain stream, fishing, contemplating myplace in the world like a character from one of Hemingway's short stories. Ihave been reunited with family and friends, and spent countless hours withmy kids. I've gone to restaurants, movies, and parks with them. I have hadconversations with them and laughed out loud one million times.
more....
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/us/nationalspecial3/04gitmo.html?hp
New Detainee Rights Weighed in Plans to Close Guantánamo
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
November 4, 2007
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 - Administration officials are considering grantingGuantánamo detainees substantially greater rights as part of an effort toclose the detention center and possibly move much of its population to theUnited States, according to officials involved in the discussions.
One proposal that is being widely discussed in the administration wouldoverhaul the procedure for determining whether detainees are properly heldby granting them legal representation at detention hearings and by givingfederal judges, not military officers, the power to decide whether suspectsshould be held.
Although the Bush administration has long defended the legal protectionsafforded detainees at Guantánamo against strenuous criticism, some officialsnow say that moving them to American soil would require giving them enhancedprotections.
"If you were to bring them to the United States, there is a recognition thatfor policy reasons you would need even more robust procedures than thosecurrently at Guantánamo," one senior official involved in the discussionssaid, speaking on the condition of anonymity because no decisions have beenmade.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/washington/04earmarks.html?hp
Even Cut 50 Percent, Earmarks Clog a Military Bill
By MARILYN W. THOMPSON and RON NIXON
November 4, 2007
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 - Even though members of Congress cut back their porkbarrel spending this year, House lawmakers still tacked on to the militaryappropriations bill $1.8 billion to pay 580 private companies for projectsthe Pentagon did not request.
Twenty-one members were responsible for about $1 billion in earmarks, orfinancing for pet projects, according to data lawmakers were required todisclose for the first time this year. Each asked for more than $20 millionfor businesses mostly in their districts, ranging from major militarycontractors to little known start-ups.
The list is topped by the veteran earmark champions Representative John P.Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who is the chairman of the powerful defenseappropriations subcommittee, and Representative C. W. Bill Young of Florida,the top Republican on the panel, who asked for $166 million and $117 millionrespectively. It also includes $92 million in requests from RepresentativeJerry Lewis, Republican of California, a committee member who is underfederal investigation for his ties to a lobbying firm whose clients oftenbenefited from his earmarks.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, requested $32 million in earmarks, whileSteny H. Hoyer, the majority leader, asked for $26 million for projects inthe $459.6 billion defense bill, the largest of the appropriations billsthat go through Congress.
more....
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/technology/04jammer.html?hp
Devices Enforce Cellular Silence, Sweet but Illegal
By MATT RICHTEL
November 4, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 2 - One afternoon in early September, an architectboarded his commuter train and became a cellphone vigilante. He sat downnext to a 20-something woman who he said was "blabbing away" into her phone.
"She was using the word 'like' all the time. She sounded like a Valley Girl," said the architect, Andrew, who declined to give his last namebecause what he did next was illegal.
Andrew reached into his shirt pocket and pushed a button on a black devicethe size of a cigarette pack. It sent out a powerful radio signal that cutoff the chatterer's cellphone transmission - and any others in a 30-footradius.
"She kept talking into her phone for about 30 seconds before she realizedthere was no one listening on the other end," he said. His reaction when hefirst discovered he could wield such power? "Oh, holy moly! Deliverance."
As cellphone use has skyrocketed, making it hard to avoid hearing half aconversation in many public places, a small but growing band of rebels isturning to a blunt countermeasure: the cellphone jammer, a gadget thatrenders nearby mobile devices impotent.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pakistan.html
Activists Detained in Pakistan Emergency
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 4, 2007
Filed at 5:05 a.m. ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Authorities rounded up opposition leaders Sundayafter military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan'sconstitution, replaced the chief judge and blacked out independent TVoutlets, saying the country must fight rising Islamic extremism.
Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup but had given a conditionalpledge to step down as military chief and become a civilian president thisyear, declared a state of emergency Saturday night, dashing recent hopes ofa smooth transition to democracy for the nuclear-armed nation.
He vowed to go ahead with parliamentary elections, originally due byJanuary, but gave no timeline.
''Unfortunately everything has been put on the back burner,'' DeputyMinister for Information, Tariq Azeem, said Sunday when asked about plansfor the polls. ''I'm still hoping the election will happen shortly ... but Ican't give you the exact date.''
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/us/04pagan.html
At a West Virginia University, New Protections for Pagans
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 4, 2007
CHARLESTON, W.Va., Nov. 3 (AP) - At Marshall University, pagan students arenow allowed to miss classes to observe religious holidays or festivals.
A new policy makes the university in Huntington, W.Va., with an enrollmentof about 14,000, possibly the only college in the country to protect pagansformally from being penalized for missing classes, although manyinstitutions have policies intended to protect students of every faith.
One Marshall student, George Fain, took advantage of the policy on Thursday,missing class in observance of Samhain, a pagan and Wiccan holiday honoringthe dead.
"I think we may have opened a door," Ms. Fain said of the policy. "Now thatwe know we can be protected, that the government will stand behind us and wefeel safe, it's going to be more prevalent."
The decision to allow pagan students to make up missed work is an extensionof existing policy toward members of other religious groups, said SteveHensley, the dean of student affairs at Marshall.
"I don't think there are a lot of students here who have those beliefs," Mr.Hensley said, "but we want to respect them. It was really just a matter oflooking into it, and deciding what was the right thing."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/us/politics/04dems.html?pagewanted=print
Clinton Rebuts Accusations of Secrecy
By PATRICK HEALY
November 4, 2007
DES MOINES, Nov. 3 - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's political camp struckback on Saturday against rivals who were attacking her as overly secretive,circulating legal arguments from a Clinton ally asserting that the Clintonsare not blocking the release of presidential papers about their discussionsin the White House in the 1990s.
Bruce Lindsey, a top adviser to former President Bill Clinton, issued alengthy statement on Friday evening saying that, contrary to some newsreports, Mr. Clinton had "not asked that records related to communicationswith Senator Clinton be withheld," and that Mr. Clinton had not blocked therelease of any presidential documents.
In pushing to clarify the issue, the Clinton camp is trying to correct animage of Mrs. Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate, that is beingpainted by her critics - that she is too secretive, and that because shewill not release the papers more quickly, her experience argument lackscredibility.
Mrs. Clinton, in an interview with Radio Iowa on Saturday, said she did notknow what the papers would reveal, but she supported releasing them asquickly as possible. "I think it's like people think we have boxes ofrecords in our basement and why don't I just go and get them and hand themover," she said. "And you know my husband has never blocked a record ever.He has been the most forthcoming of all presidents."
Three Iowa supporters of another candidate, Senator Barack Obama, ofIllinois, sent Mrs. Clinton, of New York, a letter Saturday, urging that sheexpedite the release of documents, to "be as open as possible with theAmerican people."
more....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301053.html
Democrats Appear to Resurge in Kentucky
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 4, 2007; A05
CADIZ, Ky. -- Republicans are making Steve Beshear's life look easy.
Beshear, a Democrat, is expected to sail past the GOP incumbent into theKentucky governor's mansion Tuesday, and Republicans in the Bluegrass Stateare already concerned about next year, when the White House is in play andSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) faces reelection.
No wonder Beshear bounded into the Cadiz Restaurant on Main Street lastweek, all smiles and confidence, his tie knotted tightly and his pennyloafers gleaming. A new statewide poll showed him with a 23 percentage-pointlead over Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R), an ordained minister whose ethicalchallenges have merged in voters' minds with frustration over Republicanleadership in Washington.
Beshear joked to an equally upbeat crowd that Fletcher is now called "thegreat unifier": unifying Democrats, Republicans and independents who want tothrow him out.
Four years ago, when Fletcher became the state's first GOP governor in threedecades, the mood in Kentucky's political parties was reversed. Kentuckyappeared reliably Republican and the Democrats were scrambling to fieldwinners. But recent results indicate fresh doubts.
Last year, progressive political newcomer John Yarmuth (D) took the northernKentucky seat of five-term Rep. Anne M. Northup (R). In 2004, DanielMongiardo, an unknown state senator now running for lieutenant governor withBeshear, came surprisingly close to beating Sen. Jim Bunning (R), 76.
Most analysts think it unlikely that McConnell could lose. But KentuckyDemocrats no longer think it out of the question. Beshear points toMcConnell's ties to Bush, his firm support of the Iraq war and his leadingrole in an unpopular Congress.
more....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301115.html
Immigration, Democratic Shift Compete to Steer Va. Elections
By Amy Gardner and Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 4, 2007; A01
Candidates for the Virginia General Assembly entered the final sprintyesterday toward a hard-fought election Tuesday in which two major forcesare likely to determine which party controls the Senate: the resurgence ofDemocrats in vote-rich Northern Virginia, and the Republican advantage inthe emotional debate over illegal immigration.
Dozens of candidates knocked on doors, phoned voters and held rallies toencourage their supporters to go to the polls Tuesday, when all 140 seats ofthe legislature will be decided, as well as county and school boardpositions throughout the state.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, former governor Mark R. Warner and U.S. Sen. JamesWebb, all Democrats, traveled to southern and southwest Virginia yesterdayto stump for candidates. Republicans, led by Attorney General Robert F.McDonnell, gathered in Fairfax County in an attempt to stem the Democratictide that has swept Northern Virginia in recent elections.
"I don't need to tell you that winning Fairfax County is the key to ourwinning the Virginia Senate and keeping strong leadership in the House,"said McDonnell, referring to the fact that three of the five closest Senateraces in the state are in Fairfax, where incumbent Republicans are trying tohang on in increasingly GOP-unfriendly districts.
Democrats have maintained all year that the Republicans' 23-17 majority inthe Senate is in jeopardy. Although Democrats don't expect to take controlof the Republican-heavy House of Delegates, they think they can gain as manyas six seats. That kind of swing could give Kaine more leverage to push hisprograms regarding such issues as protecting the environment, finding moneyfor an academic pre-kindergarten and reforming the state's mental healthsystem, which has been in the spotlight since the Virginia Tech shootings inApril. It also would dramatically shift power in the legislature to NorthernVirginia, whose lawmakers would control nearly all leadership and committeepositions in the Senate.
more....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201783.html
What Burma's Junta Must Fear
By U Gambira
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B07
In August, the Burmese people began to write a new chapter in theirdetermination to find peace and freedom. Burmese monks peacefully protestedto bring change to our long-suffering country. As we marched, hundreds ofthousands of Burmese and our ethnic cousins joined us to reinforce ourcollective demand: that military rule finally give way to the people'sdesire for democracy.
Video and the Internet have allowed the world to witness the brutal responsedirected by Gen. Than Shwe, Burma's de facto ruler and military leader. ThanShwe unleashed his soldiers and the regime's thugs, who attacked us. Onceagain the streets in Rangoon and Mandalay ran red with the blood of innocentcivilians seeking o save our country from the moral, social, political andeconomic crises that onsume us.
Hundreds of our monks and nuns have been beaten and arrested. Many have eenmurdered. Alarmingly, thousands of clergy have disappeared. Our acredmonasteries have been looted and destroyed. As darkness falls each ight,intelligence units try to round up political and religious leaders.
more....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201785.html
Congress's Unused War Powers
By George F. Will
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B07
Americans are wondering, with the lassitude of uninvolved spectators,whether the president will initiate a war with Iran. Some Democraticpresidential candidates worry, or purport to, that he might claim anauthorization for war in a Senate resolution labeling an IranianRevolutionary Guard unit a terrorist organization. Some Democraticrepresentatives oppose the president's request for $88 million to equip B-2stealth bombers to carry huge "bunker-buster" bombs, hoping to therebyimpede a presidential decision to attack Iran's hardened nuclear facilities.
While legislators try to leash a president by tinkering with a weapon, theyare ignoring a sufficient leash -- the Constitution. They are derelict intheir sworn duty to uphold it. Regarding the most momentous thing governmentdoes, make war, the constitutional system of checks and balances is broken.
Congress can, however, put the Constitution's bridle back on the presidency.Congress can end unfettered executive war-making by deciding to. That mightnot require, but would be facilitated by, enacting the Constitutional WarPowers Resolution. Introduced last week by Rep. Walter B. Jones, a NorthCarolina Republican, it technically amends but essentially would supplantthe existing War Powers Resolution, which has been a nullity ever since itwas passed in 1973 over President Richard Nixon's veto.
more.....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201781.html
How to Rein in Iran Without War
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B07
Iran is working to produce a 20-to-50-pound stockpile of enriched uraniumthat it can use to build atomic weapons within eight to 10 weeks, once itdecides to do so -- and has consistently lied to the United Nations aboutthose efforts.
That headline conclusion is one of two basic points that I draw from aseries of private meetings on Iran's nuclear ambitions involving diplomats,leading academic experts, senior military officers and experienced analystsfrom around the globe. The other: The impressive unity that the Bushadministration has established in imposing sanctions on Iran is frayingbecause of war fears and commercial pressures and temptations.
Held over the course of this year in Europe, China and Russia, theseunofficial traveling seminars provide a snapshot of international reactionto the unmistakable effort by Iran to develop nuclear weapons and to thethreats by President Bush and Vice President Cheney to prevent that fromhappening.
The conversations, organized by the London-based International Institute forStrategic Studies (IISS), have dealt in mind-numbing detail with Iran'suranium-enrichment program, diplomatic and military options open to theWest, and more. In Moscow two weeks ago, I was treated to several hours ofexplication on precisely how a subclause in a recent Russia-Kazakhstannuclear power treaty prevents Russia from demanding that Iran forsakeenriching uranium on its own territory.
more....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110300886.html
Two for Mr. Mukasey: Sens. Schumer and Feinstein buck the crowd.
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B06
THE HALLS of Congress are too often filled with cowardice and groupthink. Soit is reassuring when not one but two lawmakers show the moral fortitude todefy party politics to take a stand on principle.
Democratic Sens. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.)showed such courage Friday when they announced their support forattorney-general nominee Michael B. Mukasey. Both are members of theJudiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote Tuesday on Mr. Mukasey'snomination. It is likely that their support salvaged Mr. Mukasey'snomination, imperiled because he would not state outright that theinterrogation method known as waterboarding, or simulated drowning, isillegal. While we, like Mr. Schumer, Ms. Feinstein and others, would havewished for such an answer, supplying it would have put Mr. Mukasey inconflict with Justice Department memos that likely allow the technique --memos that those who may have carried out or authorized waterboarding reliedon for legal protection. Both Mr. Schumer and Ms. Feinstein cited Mr.Mukasey's intellect, his stellar qualifications and his reputation for beingstraightforward and independent as reasons to support his nomination.
Nonetheless, that decision seems not to have been an easy one for eitherlawmaker, particularly Mr. Schumer, who recommended the former New Yorkfederal trial judge for the position. "When an administration, so political,so out of touch with the realities of governing and so contemptuous of therule of law is in charge, we are never left with an ideal choice. JudgeMukasey is not my ideal choice," Mr. Schumer said in a statement. But hesaid that given his integrity and independence, "Judge Mukasey . . . is farbetter than anyone could expect from this administration."
Both lawmakers also deserve credit for taking the occasion of announcingtheir support for Mr. Mukasey to renew their call for passage of legislationthat would once and for all unquestionably outlaw waterboarding and othertactics most Americans would recognize as torture. One such measure, theNational Security with Justice Act, would forbid U.S. military and civilianpersonnel from using any interrogation techniques not explicitly authorizedby the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation. The manual,which military officials say contains all the interrogation tools they needto procure reliable information from even difficult subjects, expresslyprohibits waterboarding. Many of the senators objecting to Mr. Mukasey couldhave embraced such a measure long ago. It's not too late now.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110300888.html
A Bet Goes Sour: President Bush can hardly be surprised by Pakistan's state of emergency.
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B06
ON FRIDAY, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pleaded with Pakistan'spresident, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, not to declare a state of emergency.Yesterday, he declared a state of emergency, suspending the constitution.Did he not believe that the Bush administration really would object, or didhe not care?
If the former, his judgment would be understandable. From the start, theadministration has exempted Pakistan's dictator (among many others) fromPresident Bush's supposed commitment to democracy promotion, which is basedon the idea that freedom offers the most attractive alternative to Islamistextremism. Mr. Musharraf took power in a coup in 1999, promising to bring"true" democracy to his Muslim state. That promise, like many others -- togive up his uniform, for example -- was discarded. But with every brokenpromise, the administration was tolerant, even supportive, always citing thegeneral's claimed willingness to fight the extremists. Even yesterday, asthere was no mention of suspending military cooperation or otherwise givingmeaning to those words.
The irony is that Pakistan seems to be bearing witness to Mr. Bush'sprofessed belief that autocracy breeds more extremism. The Taliban andal-Qaeda have strengthened in parts of the country, rebuilding safe havensthey can use to plan attacks in Afghanistan, in Europe and beyond. They havemanaged to bring their battle to urban Pakistan in ways they never didbefore. The institutions that could have provided some defense againstextremism -- Pakistan's two largest political parties, the judicialsystem -- have been weakened by Mr. Musharraf in his desperation to cling topower. That was again his motive yesterday; he feared that the Supreme Courtwas about to rule that he was ineligible to serve another five-year term aspresident. His declaration, punctuated by arrests, the firing of the chiefjustice and the seizure of television networks, will further weakenmoderation and exacerbate Pakistan's crisis.
more....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301153.html?hpid=topnews
Thompson Adviser Has Criminal Past
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 4, 2007; A01
Republican presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson has been crisscrossingthe country since early this summer on a private jet lent to him by abusinessman and close adviser who has a criminal record for drug dealing.
Thompson selected the businessman, Philip Martin, to raise seed money forhis White House bid. Martin is one of four campaign co-chairmen and the headof a group called the "first day founders." Campaign aides jokingly began torefer to Martin, who has been friends with Thompson since the early 1990s,as the head of "Thompson's Airforce."
Thompson's frequent flights aboard Martin's twin-engine Cessna 560 Citationhave saved him more than $100,000, because until the law changed inSeptember, campaign-finance rules allowed presidential candidates toreimburse private jet owners for just a fraction of the true cost offlights.
Martin entered a plea of guilty to the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana in1979; the court withheld judgment pending completion of his probation. Hewas charged in 1983 with violating his probation and with multiple counts offelony bookmaking, cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded no contestto the cocaine-trafficking and conspiracy charges, which stemmed from a planto sell $30,000 worth of the drug, and was continued on probation.
more....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201650.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Why Her Dreams Crashed: Rice's Worldview Flipped, And Her Policies Flopped
By Fred Kaplan
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B01
As Condoleezza Rice jets around the world, she must sometimes wonder whereshe's going. Over her three years as secretary of state, she has squanderedgreat opportunities by putting faith and loyalty above her old worldview.The problem isn't just that she has swerved from the realism that propelledher to prominence; it's that the result has been a shambles.
Rice isn't used to failure, and most Americans aren't used to thinking ofher as one. In Beltway wisdom, she's the star of President Bush'ssecond-term team, someone who has employed smarts, sense and style to try tosteer a wiser course in the world. But if she is now veering back torealism, it's after too long a detour into post-9/11 messianism. Riceremains one of the architects of a fantasy foreign policy, and her record assecretary of state gives little hope that she'll be able to reverse thatverdict in the administration's final months.
The case against Condi starts with her dismal tenure as national securityadviser in Bush's first term -- perhaps the worst in the office's history.Her main task was to coordinate policy, but she was outmaneuvered at everyturn by the ruthless infighters around her, especially Vice President Cheneyand Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. So she focused on the job's othermandate: counseling the unschooled president on foreign affairs. As Bush'stutor in the 2000 campaign, she'd gained his trust, which became the basisof her power: When she spoke, everybody knew that she was speaking on Bush'sbehalf, not advancing her own agenda.
more....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110300427.html?hpid=sec-politics
Ohio Dems Hope to Cement 2006 Gains
By DAVID ESPO
The Associated Press
Saturday, November 3, 2007; 7:50 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The way Democrats figure it, they borrowed about 500,000voters in bellwether Ohio last year and ended more than a decade ofstatewide political frustration. Now they seek a more durable relationshipin time for the 2008 presidential election.
Their salesman of choice?
That would be Gov. Ted Strickland, off to a fast start as the state's firstDemocratic chief executive in 16 years, and the face of an attempt to remakethe party in his own soothing, centrist image.
As governor, he said in an interview in his statehouse office, "we've triedto avoid being overly partisan." As party builder, he said he wants to focuson "what I call the kitchen table issues ... the basic issues that areimportant to a family's quality of life."
Strickland's first budget passed with only one dissenting vote in theRepublican-controlled legislature. It included a property tax cut forseniors and the disabled as well as more money for higher education. It alsoprovided health insurance for children living in families with up to about$62,000 in income _ a bipartisan accomplishment that stands in contrast tothe veto struggle now unfolding in Washington over the same issue.
No Republican has ever won the White House without carrying Ohio, andPresident Bush sealed his second term with a statewide victory of 118,601votes. Two years later, an estimated 563,000 Ohioans who supported Bushbacked Strickland for governor, and 442,000 of the president's voters helpedSherrod Brown topple Republican Sen. Mike DeWine.
more....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301095.html?hpid=sec-religion
Fugitives Find Relief in 'Safe Surrender'
Hundreds of Offenders Go to Face Judge
By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 4, 2007; C11
Over the past three days, more than 475 people have come to a NorthwestWashington church to turn themselves in to a government-run "safe surrenderprogram" for fugitives, including a man who walked from Landover, a womanwho had been wanted for 20 years for shoplifting and a father encouraged byhis son, who had just finished a 15-year prison sentence.
John Carrington Jr., 39, said he held his father's hand as the two walkedinto Bible Way Church on Friday. John Carrington Sr. had been facing a drugpossession misdemeanor for three years but didn't want to turn himself inuntil his son got out, "so we could be together without any bars betweenus," Carrington said yesterday.
"When I heard about this program on the radio, I said, 'Dad, I heardsomething that I think is really meant for us,' " said the youngerCarrington, who was released three weeks ago. He was convicted of possessionof a firearm during a violent crime.
Like dozens of others who filed into Bible Way's basement, the elderCarrington went before a robed judge in a makeshift courtroom, where the62-year-old, of Northeast Washington, pleaded guilty and was given sixmonths' probation.
An additional 55 people turned themselves in to the courts after hearingabout the Fugitive Safe Surrender program, which is being run by the U.S.Marshals Service in Washington and five other cities. It aims to enticenonviolent offenders with favorable consideration of their cases on neutralground.
more....
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110300146.html
Why You Pay Social Security Benefit Taxes
By Martha M. Hamilton
Sunday, November 4, 2007; F01
I see Jack Woodard almost every Sunday when I pick up my mother at herapartment building. Woodard works at the building one day a week, and forseveral months, he's been asking me a question I couldn't answer.
"Tell me something," he would say. "Tell me why I have to pay taxes on mySocial Security when I've already paid taxes on it."
During the week, Woodard, 73, is an addiction counselor for the Departmentof Veterans Affairs, and he plans to work two more years so he can collecthigher retirement benefits. Then he hopes to move to Honolulu where hisdaughter and her husband live.
He has been working a long time -- "since I was knee-high to a duck," as hesays. At age 9 he was helping bricklayers and other laborers at constructionsites operated by his dad, who was a contractor. He has been working eversince and paying taxes on his earnings, including the portion that went intoSocial Security.
more....
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-wills4nov04,0,7799993.story?coll=la-opinion-center
Abortion isn't a religious issue
Evangelicals are adamant, but religion really has nothing to say about theissue.
By Garry Wills
November 4, 2007
What makes opposition to abortion the issue it is for each of the GOPpresidential candidates is the fact that it is the ultimate "wedge issue" --it is nonnegotiable. The right-to-life people hold that it is as strong apoint of religion as any can be. It is religious because the SixthCommandment (or the Fifth by Catholic count) says, "Thou shalt not kill."For evangelical Christians, in general, abortion is murder. That is why whatothers think, what polls say, what looks practical does not matter for them.One must oppose murder, however much rancor or controversy may ensue.
But is abortion murder? Most people think not. Evangelicals may argue thatmost people in Germany thought it was all right to kill Jews. But theparallel is not valid. Killing Jews was killing persons. It is notdemonstrable that killing fetuses is killing persons. Not even evangelicalsact as if it were. If so, a woman seeking an abortion would be the mostculpable person. She is killing her own child. But the evangelical communitydoes not call for her execution.
About 10% of evangelicals, according to polls, allow for abortion in thecase of rape or incest. But the circumstances of conception should notchange the nature of the thing conceived. If it is a human person, killingit is punishing it for something it had nothing to do with. We do not killpeople because they had a criminal parent.
more....
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Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-jindal_thinknov04,0,6233325,print.story
THAT'S BOBBY, NOT BARACK
GOP trailblazer has a life story to rival Obama's
By Jay J. Chaudhuri
November 4, 2007
Who's the skinny brown kid with a funny name, a son of immigrants who couldbe president of the United States one day?
Barack Obama? You're only half right.
Try Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, a 36-year-old Indian-American who late last monthwas elected governor of Louisiana.
While political reporters have amply charted Obama's meteoric rise fromIllinois state senator to United States senator to Democratic candidate forpresident, they have given us only a glimpse of an equally compellingbiography and background with Jindal.
Both men are second-generation Americans with fathers who came from pooragrarian backgrounds in developing countries. Both excelled academically tonational acclaim. Obama became the first African-American president of TheHarvard Law Review. Jindal was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship after graduatingwith a perfect grade point average from Brown University.
Both men gave back to their communities at an early age. Obama became acommunity activist at 24; Jindal became Louisiana's state secretary ofhealth and hospitals at 24.
And both arrived at their Christian faith after soul-searching.
more....
=
[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
#####
FLORIDA DIGEST November 4, 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.
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flb3bdigest11041nbnov04,0,1430543.story
This Tuesday: - Nov. 6
Davie: Legal rights for sexual minorities topic of speech
November 4, 2007
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force,will speak at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center onTuesday as part of the 2007 Goodwin Symposium on sexuality, morality and thelaw.
Foreman's speech, "30 Years After Anita Bryant's Crusade: The ContinuingRole of Morality in the Development of Legal Rights for Sexual Minorities,"will address how views about morality have evolved since Anita Bryant'santi-gay rights campaign in the 1970s and to what extent morality influencesthe laws impacting sexual minorities in the United States and abroad.
The lecture will begin at 6 p.m. in the Large Lecture Hall, 3305 CollegeAve. It is free but reservations are required. Visit www.nsulaw.nova.edu
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-editgswaternbnov03,0,2380433.story?track=rss
Water crisis even worse elsewhere
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
November 3, 2007
ISSUE: Southern states sharing water woes.
It's small consolation, but if you think South Florida's drought is bad, youonly have to look a bit north to find a worse situation.
The drought in Atlanta and the surrounding region is so bad, it is estimatedwater supplies for some cities in Georgia could be running out in 90 days.
Thus, following a summit with the governors of three states and the Bushadministration, Georgia gets the best of a temporary respite in the waterbattle between Florida, Alabama and Georgia that has been waged in courtsince 1990. For now at least, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommendssending less water to Alabama and Florida from Georgia reservoirs.
The plan to slow the flow from the reservoirs that eventually reach Floridais being criticized, particularly in North Florida, where oysters are dyingreportedly because of high salinity in Apalachicola Bay. Gov. Charlie Cristhad sent a letter to President Bush saying that low water flows arethreatening the commercial seafood industry in the Panhandle.
But the water needs of a major metropolitan area rightfully get precedenceat this time. And while the latest battle in the water wars is being foughtnorth of here, South Florida needs to learn from the crisis, and realize itcould get serious here, too, especially in terms of agricultural irrigationneeds.
more . . . . .
=
Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/tcoast/epaper/2007/11/04/m4c_mccaneside_1104.html
Gas stations still out of compliance with generator law
By JASON SCHULTZ
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 04, 2007
As the state struggles to find the money to install generators atspecial-needs shelters, it continues to lag behind in the number of gasstations required under a 2006 law to be better prepared for hurricanes.
The law required large gas stations along evacuation routes to installgenerators, or at least be wired to use a portable generator, by this pastJune 1. As of last week, however, only 81 percent of the 978 retail gasstations statewide had complied, according to state officials.
In Martin County, 15 of the 17 required stations had complied, but in St.Lucie, only 17 of 28 had done so. Okeechobee was also lagging, with eight ofthe required 13 stations in compliance.
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs spokesman Terence McElroysaid most stations that have not complied are in the process of havingwiring installed.
Failure to comply is a second-degree misdemeanor, but McElroy said the statehas not taken any of the stations to court.
more . . . . .
=
Jupiter Courier
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2007/nov/04/ways-to-cheatbi/
Treasure Coast schools crack down on students' high-tech cheating methods
By Kelly Tyko
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Students still are using old-fashioned ways to cheat on exams, but now theyalso have an arsenal of high-tech devices at their fingertips.
Rather than hide cheat sheets in their sleeves, modern technology allowsstudents to download the answers onto an iPod. Students might still whisperto one another during the test, but they also can trade answers by typingtext messages with cell phones.
"At this school and probably at every school in the nation, both high schooland college, using electronic media of some sort to cheat happensperiodically and maybe even regularly," said Jack Valerio, an assistantprincipal at Martin County High School.
To combat the problem, Treasure Coast schools have banned iPods and otherMP3 players from their campuses. Schools have also warned students of theconsequences of getting caught with a cell phone -- especially during examtimes.
In the spring, when students throughout the state take the FloridaComprehensive Assessment Test, they risk their exam being invalidated ifcaught with a cell phone or other electronic device.
more . . . . .
=
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus of the Florida DemocraticParty has called on U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa to withdraw herendorsement of a St. Petersburg City Council candidate who expressed lack ofsympathy with gay rights causes.
The candidate, Gershom Faulkner, is outreach director for Castor.The caucus made its request in a letter Saturday to Castor from MichaelAlbetta, president of the Florida GLBT Caucus.
According to the letter, Faulkner said during an Aug. 16 appearance beforethe Pinellas gay Democratic group that he considers homosexuality a lifestyle "preference" or "choice"; he won't attend the annual St. PetePride celebration; he won't oppose the proposed state constitutionalamendment "that would write discrimination into Florida's Constitution" bylimiting marriage to men and women; that he won't support repealing Florida's ban on gay adoptions or gay foster parents; and won't oppose prohibitingstraight-gay alliance organizations in public schools.
Contact Castor At:
Washington Office
317 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202)225-3376
Fax: (202)225-5652
Tampa Office
4144 N Armenia Ave
Suite 300
Tampa, FL 33607
Phone: (813)871-2817
Fax: (813)871-2864
To email Rep. Castor, please click here
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
=
[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
#####
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flb3bdigest11041nbnov04,0,1430543.story
This Tuesday: - Nov. 6
Davie: Legal rights for sexual minorities topic of speech
November 4, 2007
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force,will speak at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center onTuesday as part of the 2007 Goodwin Symposium on sexuality, morality and thelaw.
Foreman's speech, "30 Years After Anita Bryant's Crusade: The ContinuingRole of Morality in the Development of Legal Rights for Sexual Minorities,"will address how views about morality have evolved since Anita Bryant'santi-gay rights campaign in the 1970s and to what extent morality influencesthe laws impacting sexual minorities in the United States and abroad.
The lecture will begin at 6 p.m. in the Large Lecture Hall, 3305 CollegeAve. It is free but reservations are required. Visit www.nsulaw.nova.edu
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-editgswaternbnov03,0,2380433.story?track=rss
Water crisis even worse elsewhere
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
November 3, 2007
ISSUE: Southern states sharing water woes.
It's small consolation, but if you think South Florida's drought is bad, youonly have to look a bit north to find a worse situation.
The drought in Atlanta and the surrounding region is so bad, it is estimatedwater supplies for some cities in Georgia could be running out in 90 days.
Thus, following a summit with the governors of three states and the Bushadministration, Georgia gets the best of a temporary respite in the waterbattle between Florida, Alabama and Georgia that has been waged in courtsince 1990. For now at least, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommendssending less water to Alabama and Florida from Georgia reservoirs.
The plan to slow the flow from the reservoirs that eventually reach Floridais being criticized, particularly in North Florida, where oysters are dyingreportedly because of high salinity in Apalachicola Bay. Gov. Charlie Cristhad sent a letter to President Bush saying that low water flows arethreatening the commercial seafood industry in the Panhandle.
But the water needs of a major metropolitan area rightfully get precedenceat this time. And while the latest battle in the water wars is being foughtnorth of here, South Florida needs to learn from the crisis, and realize itcould get serious here, too, especially in terms of agricultural irrigationneeds.
more . . . . .
=
Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/tcoast/epaper/2007/11/04/m4c_mccaneside_1104.html
Gas stations still out of compliance with generator law
By JASON SCHULTZ
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 04, 2007
As the state struggles to find the money to install generators atspecial-needs shelters, it continues to lag behind in the number of gasstations required under a 2006 law to be better prepared for hurricanes.
The law required large gas stations along evacuation routes to installgenerators, or at least be wired to use a portable generator, by this pastJune 1. As of last week, however, only 81 percent of the 978 retail gasstations statewide had complied, according to state officials.
In Martin County, 15 of the 17 required stations had complied, but in St.Lucie, only 17 of 28 had done so. Okeechobee was also lagging, with eight ofthe required 13 stations in compliance.
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs spokesman Terence McElroysaid most stations that have not complied are in the process of havingwiring installed.
Failure to comply is a second-degree misdemeanor, but McElroy said the statehas not taken any of the stations to court.
more . . . . .
=
Jupiter Courier
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2007/nov/04/ways-to-cheatbi/
Treasure Coast schools crack down on students' high-tech cheating methods
By Kelly Tyko
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Students still are using old-fashioned ways to cheat on exams, but now theyalso have an arsenal of high-tech devices at their fingertips.
Rather than hide cheat sheets in their sleeves, modern technology allowsstudents to download the answers onto an iPod. Students might still whisperto one another during the test, but they also can trade answers by typingtext messages with cell phones.
"At this school and probably at every school in the nation, both high schooland college, using electronic media of some sort to cheat happensperiodically and maybe even regularly," said Jack Valerio, an assistantprincipal at Martin County High School.
To combat the problem, Treasure Coast schools have banned iPods and otherMP3 players from their campuses. Schools have also warned students of theconsequences of getting caught with a cell phone -- especially during examtimes.
In the spring, when students throughout the state take the FloridaComprehensive Assessment Test, they risk their exam being invalidated ifcaught with a cell phone or other electronic device.
more . . . . .
=
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus of the Florida DemocraticParty has called on U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa to withdraw herendorsement of a St. Petersburg City Council candidate who expressed lack ofsympathy with gay rights causes.
The candidate, Gershom Faulkner, is outreach director for Castor.The caucus made its request in a letter Saturday to Castor from MichaelAlbetta, president of the Florida GLBT Caucus.
According to the letter, Faulkner said during an Aug. 16 appearance beforethe Pinellas gay Democratic group that he considers homosexuality a lifestyle "preference" or "choice"; he won't attend the annual St. PetePride celebration; he won't oppose the proposed state constitutionalamendment "that would write discrimination into Florida's Constitution" bylimiting marriage to men and women; that he won't support repealing Florida's ban on gay adoptions or gay foster parents; and won't oppose prohibitingstraight-gay alliance organizations in public schools.
Contact Castor At:
Washington Office
317 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202)225-3376
Fax: (202)225-5652
Tampa Office
4144 N Armenia Ave
Suite 300
Tampa, FL 33607
Phone: (813)871-2817
Fax: (813)871-2864
To email Rep. Castor, please click here
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
=
[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
#####
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