**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US ATrays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
The Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/wireless/avantgo/la-na-kids15jan15,0,5708641.story
From the Los Angeles Times:
January 15, 2007
Clash emerging over child healthcare plan
The issue of whether to cover all youths in a program's renewal is likely tospark conflict among Democrats.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON - Shopkeeper Wei Vongsavanh was reeling after his healthinsurance premium hit $1,800 a month for his two young boys, both diagnosedwith autism. The bill "came to the point I could not handle it anymore,"said the father, an immigrant from Laos who owns a small Bay Area businessthat sells model airplanes.
Then he discovered a joint federal-state program that helps insure thechildren of low-income workers. Vongsavanh's total monthly costs are nowless than $100, thanks to what in California is called the Healthy Familiesprogram.
That program - known elsewhere in the country as the State Children's HealthInsurance Program, or S-CHIP - is about to become the first battleground inthe effort by newly empowered congressional Democrats to force Washington totake on healthcare.
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/la-na-dems14jan14,0,5156406,print.story
Democrats feel free to defy Bush on Iraq
Once-skittish party leaders are joining antiwar liberals in opposing abuildup.
By Noam N. Levey
Times Staff Writer
January 14, 2007
WASHINGTON - Emboldened by President Bush's deeply unpopular proposal tosend more troops to Iraq, congressional Democrats are shedding theirwariness about tackling the war and embracing positions once primarily heldby the party's most liberal fringe.
Less than two weeks after taking power, party leaders who had promised justan increase in oversight hearings on the war are now talking openly aboutcutting off funds for additional military operations.
Centrist Democrats are lining up beside longtime antiwar liberals, promisingto do everything in their power to stop the president's plans to deploy anadditional 21,500 troops in Baghdad and Al Anbar province.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/opinion/15harcourt.html?pagewanted=print
January 15, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars
By BERNARD E. HARCOURT
Chicago
LAST August, a prison inmate in Jackson, Mich. - someone the authoritiesdescribed as "floridly psychotic" - died in his segregation cell, naked,shackled to a concrete slab, lying in his own urine, scheduled for a mentalhealth transfer that never happened. Last month in Florida, the head of thestate's social services department resigned abruptly after having been fined$80,000 and is facing criminal contempt charges for failing to transferseverely mentally ill jail inmates to state hospitals.
Ten days ago, the Supreme Court agreed to determine when mentally ill deathrow inmates should be considered so deranged that their execution would beconstitutionally impermissible. The case involves a 48-year-old Navy veteranwho is a diagnosed schizophrenic. In the decade leading up to the crime hewas hospitalized 14 times for severe mental illness.
According to a study released by the Justice Department in September, 56percent of jail inmates in state prisons and 64 percent of inmates acrossthe country reported mental health problems within the past year.
Though troubling, none of this should come as a surprise. Over the past 40years, the United States dismantled a colossal mental health complex andrebuilt - bed by bed - an enormous prison. During the 20th century weexhibited a schizophrenic relationship to deviance.
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USAToday.com
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2007-01-14-google-usat_x.htm
Google contributes thousands to conservatives
Updated 1/15/2007 12:16 AM ET
By Jim Hopkins, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO - Under pressure in Washington, Google (GOOG) has giventhousands in political contributions to some of the most conservativemembers of Congress, tempering its image as a bastion of liberal campaignmoney.
The online search giant's nascent political action committee gave 61% ofcontributions to Republicans, including Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentuckyand Orrin Hatch of Utah, according to a USA TODAY analysis.
The $31,000 spent by Google NetPAC, launched three months ago, is relativelysmall. Still, the company-controlled PAC's giving came as employees gaveabout 98% of their money to Democrats in last fall's elections.
QUIZ: Google and politics
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USAToday.com
http://blogs.usatoday.com/smallbiz/2007/01/can_google_get_.html
Monday, January 15, 2007
Can Google grow political while battling 'evil?'
Take this short quiz -- and see what other readers think, too.
Online search giant Google last fall launched its first political actioncommittee, Google NetPAC, and has been busy giving thousands of dollars tosome of the most conservative members of Congress. That's a switch from thetrend among its employees: They gave 98% of their personal contributions forNovember's elections to Democrats, one of the highest shares amongtechnology companies. (See this chart.)
Google's young founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, want to make sure theircompany doesn't get left in the political dust while staying true to their"don't be evil" motto. (I wrote about that here.) Other tech companies suchas Microsoft waited too long to establish a beachhead in the nation'scapital. In Microsoft's case, that didn't help during its seemingly endlessantitrust fight with the Justice Department.
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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/01/14/the_many_stripes_of_anti_americanism?mode=PF
The many stripes of anti-Americanism
Sociologists find that anti-American sentiment is more varied -- and lesswidespread -- than you might think
By Neil Gross | January 14, 2007
LAST WEEK, VENEZUELA swore in for a third term President Hugo Chávez -- aman who routinely denounces US "imperialism" and who referred to PresidentGeorge W. Bush as the devil in a speech before the United Nations. Chávez'sreelection caused some commentators here to fret about the so-called "pinktide" of socialism that is sweeping Latin America, from Bolivia to Brazil,but there has been no sense of shock or outrage that a politician spoutingfiery anti-American rhetoric could win 63 percent of the votes in hiscountry.
In part, this is because Americans have grown used to the idea that much ofthe world hates us. Indeed, in the years since Sept. 11, 2001, we have gonefrom having the world's sympathy to being perceived as the world's bully,denounced on the streets of Caracas, Tehran, Paris, and even London for ourunilateralism, aggressive military stance, and free-market economicpolicies.
But is anti-American sentiment as rampant as it seems? In their new editedvolume, "Anti-Americanisms in World Politics" (Cornell University Press),international relations scholars Peter Katzenstein and Robert Keohane bringtogether a distinguished group of social scientists to consider how muchanti-Americanism there is, and whether, in fact, anti-Americanism is any onething at all.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/13/AR2007011300496_pf.html
New Congress Can Save Lives, or Money
By Desmond Tutu
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, January 15, 2007; 12:00 AM
The new Congress, led in the House by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is about to makeits first decision regarding how America's money should be spent - adecision that leaves millions of lives hanging in the balance. Congress'schoice to bypass 2007 appropriations legislation and extend fiscal 2006funding levels into the new year will mean, in effect, cuts of almost$1billion in funding for programs to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.If not reversed, the lack of funds will force hundreds of thousands ofpeople to forgo prevention, treatment, care and support for the three mostdeadly infectious diseases in the world.
Many of the people most affected by Congress's decision will be my fellowAfricans. Around the world, the most poor and marginalized men, women andchildren will suffer the consequences of flat-lined funding. AIDS, TB andmalaria are diseases of poverty; to truly address them, sufficient aid mustbe reliably and properly channeled in solidarity with the people who willreceive it.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/opinion/15mon1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
January 15, 2007
Editorial
Busywork for Nuclear Scientists
The Bush administration is eager to start work on a new nuclear warhead withall sorts of admirable qualities: sturdy, reliable and secure fromterrorists. To sweeten the deal, officials say that if they can replace thecurrent arsenal with Reliable Replacement Warheads (what could sound morecomforting?), they probably won’t have to keep so many extra warheads tohedge against technical failure. If you’re still not sold, the warhead comeswith something of a guarantee — that scientists can build the new bombswithout ever testing them.
Let the buyer beware. While the program has gotten very little attentionhere, it is a public-relations disaster in the making overseas. Suspicionsthat the United States is actually trying to build up its nuclearcapabilities are undercutting Washington’s arguments for restraining thenuclear appetites of Iran and North Korea.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011401139_pf.html
At Libby Trial, Power Players Face Uncomfortable Spotlight
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007; A01
When Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff goes on trial Tuesday oncharges of lying about the disclosure of a CIA officer's identity, membersof Washington's government and media elite will be answering someembarrassing questions as well.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's case will put on display the secret strategizingof an administration that cherry-picked information to justify war in Iraqand reporters who traded freely in gossip and protected their own interestsas they worked on one of the big Washington stories of 2003.
The estimated six-week trial will pit current and former Bush administrationofficials against one another and, if Cheney is called as expected, willmark the first time that a sitting vice president has testified in acriminal case. It also will force the media into painful territory, with asmany as 10 journalists called to testify for or against an official who was,for some of them, a confidential source.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/opinion/15mon4.html?pagewanted=print
January 15, 2007
Editorial
Ethics Fencing in the Senate
The Senate's promising start in reforming its ethical shortcomings isshowing signs of slippage. Senators ducked a worthy amendment that would barmembers from putting family members on campaign payrolls, or see kin becomelobbyists. The proposal was ruled unrelated to the debate over lobbyist andethics reforms, which is hardly the case.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, insisted that there's nosuch problem in the Senate. Critics instantly noted that her fellowCalifornian, Senator Barbara Boxer, paid $130,000 from her campaign funds toher son's political consultant firm. In the House, the campaign kitty ofRepresentative John Doolittle, Republican of California, paid $200,000 tohis wife as a designated campaign consultant working at home. Congress'sreputation cannot afford more such embarrassments.
As the Senate debate continues, there are key proposals that will test howreal all the talk is about reform. Some lawmakers are already trying towater down the proposal of majority leader Harry Reid, which would stopsenators from accepting the nearly free use of corporate jets. Opponents onboth sides of the aisle are also intent on blocking a measure from SenatorsBarack Obama and Russell Feingold, which would force lobbyists to disclosethe vast campaign funds they routinely raise from corporate donors eager togrease access to lawmakers. The money would still flow, but special-interestbagmen would have to list the take on public record.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16462207.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Mon, Jan. 15, 2007
ELECTIONS
New voting method improves democracy
BY STEVEN HILL
www.newamerica.net
Political reforms such as redistricting reform, fusion and campaign financereform have been foundering at the ballot box in recent years, rejected byvoters in several states. But another political reform, instant runoffvoting, has been quietly racking up impressive victories.
Instant runoff voting (IRV), which allows voters to rank their candidates 1,2, 3, made great strides forward during the Nov. 7 elections.
Voters in four jurisdictions overwhelmingly approved ballot measures forIRV. In California, voters in Oakland approved the idea with a landslide 69percent of the vote, as did 56 percent of voters in Davis. In Minneapolis, alandslide 65 percent of the voters passed an IRV ballot measure, as did 53percent of voters in Pierce County, Wash.
What was interesting about the victories was that they happened in four verydifferent locations. Oakland is a very diverse, working-class city;Minneapolis is a Midwestern-values city; Pierce County is a mix ofrural/suburban/urban areas with many independent-minded voters; and Davis isa small university town. Yet in every place IRV provided a unique solutionto problems with representative government.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/world/middleeast/16iraqcnd.html?ei=5094&en=296f5efaf8d93db8&hp=&ex=1168923600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 15, 2007
Two Hussein Allies Are Hanged, Iraqi Official Says
By JOHN F. BURNS and MARC SANTORA
BAGHDAD, Jan. 15 — Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and the head of hisrevolutionary court were executed before dawn today, according to the Iraqigovernment.
The executions follow that of Mr. Hussein by two weeks. His hanging promptedconsiderable criticism around the world because of the way it was carriedout, including guards cursing the former dictator as he stood on thegallows.
American military officials, who had custody of Mr. Hussein, wereparticularly upset, and pushed hard to ensure that the executions of hisco-defendants — Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former head of the Mukhabaratsecret police and the younger half-brother of Mr. Hussein, and Awad Hamadal-Bandar, who was chief judge of the revolutionary court under Mr.Hussein — were carried out properly.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16462115.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Mon, Jan. 15, 2007
IN MY OPINION
King's dream is summons to act, not just to hope
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
And so Dream season rolls round again.
That's Dream, of course, as in ''I Have A . . . '' We celebrate MartinLuther King Day today, which means schoolchildren dutifully reciting thegreat 1963 oration, television news dutifully replaying the grainyblack-and-white footage -- and many people dutifully missing the point.
At least, that's how it often seems to me.
In some ways, King is a victim of his own success. The controversial idealshe championed and for which he was killed -- voting rights for all, accessfor all, liberty and justice for all -- have become accepted to a degree hewould have found difficult to believe.
The march he led, the one that troubled the president and riled theconservatives, has become revered as one of the signature moments of theAmerican experience.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/opinion/15mon2.html?pagewanted=print
January 15, 2007
Editorial
Politicizing Prosecutors
The Bush administration has appointed an extreme political partisan as thenew United States attorney for Arkansas. Normally, the Senate would havevetted him, and quite possibly blocked his appointment. But the White Housetook advantage of a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act, whichallows it to do an end run around the Senate.
It is particularly dangerous to put United States attorneys' offices in thehands of political operatives because federal prosecutors have extraordinarypower to issue subpoenas and bring criminal charges. The Senate should fixthe law and investigate whether such offices in Arkansas and elsewhere arebeing politicized.
H. E. Bud Cummins, the respected United States attorney in Little Rock,recently left office. He has been replaced on an interim basis by J. TimothyGriffin, who has a thin legal record but a résumé that includes working forKarl Rove and heading up opposition research for the Republican NationalCommittee. Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, wanted to raiseconcerns about Mr. Griffin's appointment as part of the confirmationprocess. But he couldn't because there was no confirmation process.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/13/AR2007011301445_pf.html
Nationalization May Have Different Look
By FRANK BAJAK
The Associated Press
Saturday, January 13, 2007; 10:12 PM
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Hugo Chavez loves incendiary rhetoric and risk-averseinvestors understandably rushed to sell shares in Venezuela's biggesttelecommunications and power companies after he announced this week that hewould nationalize them.
But it later emerged that the Venezuelan president _ whose "21st-centurysocialism" has managed to co-exist with a vibrant private sector _ isdisposed to pay fair market prices for the two utilities.
That would make these "nationalizations" much less radical than initiallyfeared and not all that unusual for Latin America.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/washington/15trial.html?ei=5094&en=979ef964b6c2a1d3&hp=&ex=1168923600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
January 15, 2007
Trial Is Set to Begin for Former Cheney Adviser
By NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 - I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to VicePresident Dick Cheney, will go on trial on Tuesday, nearly three years aftera C.I.A. operative's name appeared in a newspaper column, setting off amajor investigation of who leaked the name and why.
But neither Mr. Libby nor anyone else has been charged with disclosing thename, which might have violated a federal law protecting the identities ofCentral Intelligence Agency officers. Instead, he faces five felony countsthat he lied to a grand jury and the F.B.I. agents investigating the leak.
The situation of Mr. Libby, who once worked at the highest reaches ofgovernment power in Washington and now faces the possibility of a long jailsentence, is a vivid example of what has become a contemporary capitalcliché: "It's not the crime but the cover-up" that often leads to legalproblems for officials in high-profile investigations. The perjury andobstruction of justice charges against Mr. Libby stem not from the leak butfrom his behavior in the leak investigation.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/opinion/15mon3.html?pagewanted=print
January 15, 2007
Editorial
The Light-Touch Tax Audit
With corporations posting record profits amid nonstop accounting scandals,one would assume that the Internal Revenue Service is looking long and hardat big companies' tax returns. Unfortunately, the opposite is true.
Since 2003, I.R.S policy has called for spending less time on any one largecorporate audit, with the purported aim of auditing more big businesses. Butas The Times's David Cay Johnston reported last week, I.R.S. auditors arebeing pushed by the agency's top officials to prematurely close audits oflarge corporations with agreements that they pay only a fraction of theadditional taxes that could be collected. Dozens of auditors said they wereinstructed to limit their examinations to issues that the I.R.S. and thecompanies agreed to in advance, even if suspicious deductions or otherquestionable tax tactics emerged during the audit.
Recently released I.R.S statistics - which the agency is required todisclose, but which it had long withheld - underscore Mr. Johnston's report.In 2006, the time devoted to each large-company audit was nearly 21 percentbelow what it was in 2002. From 2003 through 2005, an ever larger share ofcompanies was audited; but in 2006, the share declined from a high of 44percent in 2005, to 34 percent, about where it was in 2002.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011400896_pf.html
Testing Reid's Ethical Limits
By Robert D. Novak
Monday, January 15, 2007; A15
A beaming Harry Reid basked last week in the adoration of the DemocraticParty's leading Senate reformers and its nine freshman senators. Theyextravagantly praised the new majority leader as an exemplar of ethicalreform. But within 48 hours, Reid was opposing full transparency ofearmarks. This week, Republican reformers will target Reid with an amendmentto the senate ethics package.
Sponsored by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the proposal is calledthe "Reid amendment" because he inadvertently inspired it. Coburn wouldtighten loose anti-earmark restrictions in the ethics bill by prohibitingsenators from requesting earmarks that financially benefit a senator, animmediate family member of a senator or a family member of a senator'sstaffer.
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Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/01/15/mustering_the_courage_to_end_war?mode=PF
ROERT MANN
Mustering the courage to end war
By Robert Mann
January 15, 2007
SENATOR Edward M. Kennedy's proposal last week to withhold funds forescalating the war in Iraq is a bold effort to stop what many Americansperceive as a lost cause. While the president's veto power makes it unlikelythat Kennedy and his allies will succeed, history suggests that the tacticmay ultimately be an effective way to end the war -- but only if itssupporters are willing to endure short-term political setbacks.
Opposing war has long been politically risky. Despite significant oppositionto the Mexican-American War, leaders of the Whig Party in 1846 believed theyhad little choice but to fund President James K. Polk's bold effort to seizevast regions of land from Mexico.
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The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202012_pf.html
A Mission of Understanding
At U-Md., Evangelical Christian Teen Breaks Into the Mainstream, Out of HisComfort Zone
By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007; 12:00 AM
This is an extended version of a story printed Jan. 15 in The WashingtonPost.
Danny Leydorf's world was about to be turned upside down, and he couldn'twait.
The extroverted teenager had shined at the mostly evangelical Annapolis AreaChristian School since kindergarten, but now he wanted to test his faith ina more diverse world. With hopes of becoming a lawyer or politician, hebadly wanted to understand people who didn't think like him.
"I feel like I exist to be interacting," the lanky, towheaded 19-year-oldsaid eagerly one day last summer, shortly after his graduation, "and part ofthat is just getting out there."
So he'd deliberately picked a large, secular college: the University ofMaryland. But the week before he was to leave, the wider world dealt him ablow.
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http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/opinion/15herbert.html
The New York Times
January 15, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Descending to New Depths
By BOB HERBERT
New Orleans
I was surprised recently by a sudden shift in the tone of a veterancabdriver, Stanley Taylor, who had been kind enough to take me on a nearlyfour-hour tour of the flood-wrecked regions of the city.
For most of the afternoon, Mr. Taylor had been wonderfully informative andpolite, and his comments had been filled with sympathy for those who hadlost so much to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
But as we headed back to my hotel, and darkness began to fall over theeerily still neighborhoods, his tone became unmistakably bitter. We had beentalking casually about the thousands of extremely poor evacuees, most ofthem black, who were still stranded outside New Orleans, some of themscattered to the far reaches of the United States.
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Monday, January 15, 2007
FLORIDA DIGEST January 15, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US ATrays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070114/VERGE/70112035/1035/verge&template=printart
It's tough to vote for the lesser of two evils
BY AARON BRYCE û
AARON BRYCE WALLACE
Jim Davis, a former candidate for Florida governor, pledged to raises taxesto almost a billion dollars, which some economists believe would force theaverage Floridia taxpayer to pay almost 55¤percent of their income in taxes.
The second major candidate was Charlie Crist, a man that accepted millionsof dollars in campaign donations from insurance companies, which couldpossibly lead to a slight bias.
I found myself searching in all political races of the midterm for thelesser of two evil candidates.
It seems our political system has boiled down to choosing the lesser of twoevils.
We have the freedom to vote in this country, but we have no way to expressdisdain for the candidates.
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PalmBeachPost.com
Broward Big draws bead on Wexler
Broward Big draws bead on Wexler
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007
You have to figure something's percolating when a longtime Broward Countypolitician ventures into Palm Beach County's Democratic condo belt to holdforth on foreign policy.
The politician in question is former Broward County Commissioner Ben Graberand, indeed, he's considering a challenge of reputedly unbeatable U.S. Rep.Robert Wexler in a Democratic congressional primary next year.
Graber lost a Democratic state Senate primary last year to Wexler-backedJeremy Ring. Now Graber is remaining in circulation in Wexler's PalmBeach-Broward congressional district and making it known he's available tospeak to clubs and other organizations. On Tuesday, Graber has a gig at aKings Point Democratic club confab west of Delray Beach. After a career instate and local politics, Graber will speak to Kings Pointers on a topic ofcongressional heft: Iran, Iraq, Israel and U.S. policy.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16456505.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sun, Jan. 14, 2007
THE INSURANCE CRISIS
Pay now or pay later?
The legislature meets Tuesday to tackle the insurance crisis. Homeownerswill see some rate relief, but it comes at a big price.
BY BEATRICE E. GARCIA
bgarcia@MiamiHerald.com
Relief from rocketing insurance rates is on the way.
But curb your excitement. You will pay later.
Many of the proposals to be deliberated on during this week's specialsession of the Legislature would pass more risk from insurers to consumersand the state of Florida.
That means the tab would be deferred until a major storm hits. Then allFlorida residents would pay, through hefty surcharges on insurance policiesor higher taxes.
''What we're doing is providing a short-term fix, which is great forconsumers,'' said Michael Keeby, senior vice president of HBA InsuranceGroup. ``Long-term, what's going to happen is that [this crisis] is going tokill our economy.''
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PalmBeachPost.com
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/state/epaper/2007/01/15/m1a_FLAPREZ_0115.html
Bush allies back Romney, Oct. straw poll
By Brian E. Crowley
Palm Beach Post Political Editor
Monday, January 15, 2007
Jeb Bush may be gone from Tallahassee, but his political machine is activeand plotting a course that would make Florida a major player in picking theRepublican Party's candidate for president.
Key Bush operatives are backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Theyare led by Sally Bradshaw, Bush's former campaign manager and chief ofstaff; Ann Herberger, Bush's finance director; and Mandy Fletcher, who juststepped down as executive director of Bush's Foundation for Florida'sFuture.
Romney's Florida team is pushing for an October straw ballot in which 3,500Republican delegates would cast nonbinding votes for president. The Octobervote would bring attention from the nation's news media and give the winnera boost going into the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16462114.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Mon, Jan. 15, 2007
TALLAHASSEE
Florida's finance chief tested early
Alex Sink, one of just two Democrats holding statewide office, has a lotriding on how she will handle the state's insurance crisis.
BY GARY FINEOUT
gfineout@MiamiHerald.com
TALLAHASSEE - Just days before Adelaide ''Alex'' Sink was sworn in to hernew job as Florida's chief financial officer, the company responsible forreplacing one of the state's most important computer systems walked out thedoor.
The project is already behind schedule, likely to cost at least double the$57 million the state has already spent, and the now-departed company,Bearing Point, may wind up in court to get money it says the state owes it.
And this is no ordinary computer system the state is trying to fix: It's theaccounting system that actually keeps track of the billions spent by thestate each year.
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Tampabay.com
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/14/news_pf/Opinion/What_the_senator_lear.shtml
What the senator learned in Syria
SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN
Published January 14, 2007
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, recently met with Bashar Assad,the 41-year-old president of Syria, whose country is accused by the Bushadministration of letting foreign fighters cross its border into Iraq.Syria, along with Iran, also supports the anti-Israel groups Hamas andHezbollah, and was implicated in the 2005 assassination of former LebanesePrime Minister Rafik Hariri, a critic of Syria's longtime control ofLebanon.
Nelson, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discussed histrip with Senior Correspondent Susan Taylor Martin.
Q. Why did you want to go to Syria?
A. The Iraq Study Group had just reported to our committee, and one of themajor recommendations was that there needed to be a huge diplomaticoffensive throughout the Middle East to try to solve the Iraq situation, andone of their recommendations was to start a dialogue with Syria.
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
#####
=
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070114/VERGE/70112035/1035/verge&template=printart
It's tough to vote for the lesser of two evils
BY AARON BRYCE û
AARON BRYCE WALLACE
Jim Davis, a former candidate for Florida governor, pledged to raises taxesto almost a billion dollars, which some economists believe would force theaverage Floridia taxpayer to pay almost 55¤percent of their income in taxes.
The second major candidate was Charlie Crist, a man that accepted millionsof dollars in campaign donations from insurance companies, which couldpossibly lead to a slight bias.
I found myself searching in all political races of the midterm for thelesser of two evil candidates.
It seems our political system has boiled down to choosing the lesser of twoevils.
We have the freedom to vote in this country, but we have no way to expressdisdain for the candidates.
=
PalmBeachPost.com
Broward Big draws bead on Wexler
Broward Big draws bead on Wexler
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007
You have to figure something's percolating when a longtime Broward Countypolitician ventures into Palm Beach County's Democratic condo belt to holdforth on foreign policy.
The politician in question is former Broward County Commissioner Ben Graberand, indeed, he's considering a challenge of reputedly unbeatable U.S. Rep.Robert Wexler in a Democratic congressional primary next year.
Graber lost a Democratic state Senate primary last year to Wexler-backedJeremy Ring. Now Graber is remaining in circulation in Wexler's PalmBeach-Broward congressional district and making it known he's available tospeak to clubs and other organizations. On Tuesday, Graber has a gig at aKings Point Democratic club confab west of Delray Beach. After a career instate and local politics, Graber will speak to Kings Pointers on a topic ofcongressional heft: Iran, Iraq, Israel and U.S. policy.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16456505.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sun, Jan. 14, 2007
THE INSURANCE CRISIS
Pay now or pay later?
The legislature meets Tuesday to tackle the insurance crisis. Homeownerswill see some rate relief, but it comes at a big price.
BY BEATRICE E. GARCIA
bgarcia@MiamiHerald.com
Relief from rocketing insurance rates is on the way.
But curb your excitement. You will pay later.
Many of the proposals to be deliberated on during this week's specialsession of the Legislature would pass more risk from insurers to consumersand the state of Florida.
That means the tab would be deferred until a major storm hits. Then allFlorida residents would pay, through hefty surcharges on insurance policiesor higher taxes.
''What we're doing is providing a short-term fix, which is great forconsumers,'' said Michael Keeby, senior vice president of HBA InsuranceGroup. ``Long-term, what's going to happen is that [this crisis] is going tokill our economy.''
=
PalmBeachPost.com
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/state/epaper/2007/01/15/m1a_FLAPREZ_0115.html
Bush allies back Romney, Oct. straw poll
By Brian E. Crowley
Palm Beach Post Political Editor
Monday, January 15, 2007
Jeb Bush may be gone from Tallahassee, but his political machine is activeand plotting a course that would make Florida a major player in picking theRepublican Party's candidate for president.
Key Bush operatives are backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Theyare led by Sally Bradshaw, Bush's former campaign manager and chief ofstaff; Ann Herberger, Bush's finance director; and Mandy Fletcher, who juststepped down as executive director of Bush's Foundation for Florida'sFuture.
Romney's Florida team is pushing for an October straw ballot in which 3,500Republican delegates would cast nonbinding votes for president. The Octobervote would bring attention from the nation's news media and give the winnera boost going into the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16462114.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Mon, Jan. 15, 2007
TALLAHASSEE
Florida's finance chief tested early
Alex Sink, one of just two Democrats holding statewide office, has a lotriding on how she will handle the state's insurance crisis.
BY GARY FINEOUT
gfineout@MiamiHerald.com
TALLAHASSEE - Just days before Adelaide ''Alex'' Sink was sworn in to hernew job as Florida's chief financial officer, the company responsible forreplacing one of the state's most important computer systems walked out thedoor.
The project is already behind schedule, likely to cost at least double the$57 million the state has already spent, and the now-departed company,Bearing Point, may wind up in court to get money it says the state owes it.
And this is no ordinary computer system the state is trying to fix: It's theaccounting system that actually keeps track of the billions spent by thestate each year.
=
Tampabay.com
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/14/news_pf/Opinion/What_the_senator_lear.shtml
What the senator learned in Syria
SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN
Published January 14, 2007
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, recently met with Bashar Assad,the 41-year-old president of Syria, whose country is accused by the Bushadministration of letting foreign fighters cross its border into Iraq.Syria, along with Iran, also supports the anti-Israel groups Hamas andHezbollah, and was implicated in the 2005 assassination of former LebanesePrime Minister Rafik Hariri, a critic of Syria's longtime control ofLebanon.
Nelson, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discussed histrip with Senior Correspondent Susan Taylor Martin.
Q. Why did you want to go to Syria?
A. The Iraq Study Group had just reported to our committee, and one of themajor recommendations was that there needed to be a huge diplomaticoffensive throughout the Middle East to try to solve the Iraq situation, andone of their recommendations was to start a dialogue with Syria.
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
#####
Sunday, January 14, 2007
GLBT DIGEST - January 14, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US ATrays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Lesbian-Custody-Battle.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
January 14, 2007
Case Tests Handling of Gay Relationships
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:57 p.m. ET
RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) -- A court has ordered a woman to pay $240 a month to herformer lesbian partner for child support in a case that is testing legalquestions on how states differ in their recognition of same-sexrelationships.
Last month's order by the Rutland Family Court comes amid a continuingcustody battle between Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller over a 4-year-old girl,Isabella.
Jenkins said Sunday that she has obeyed the child-support order. She saidshe has sent a check by certified mail, only to have it returned becauseMiller did not pick it up.
Miller did not immediately return a call for comment on Sunday.
Miller gave birth to the girl, who was conceived through artificialinsemination, after the two women were legally joined in a civil union in2002.
About a year later, Miller renounced her homosexuality, returned to Virginiaand denied Jenkins' demands for visitation rights.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.sovo.com/2007/1-12/news/localnews/pastor.cfm
Atlanta gay pastor faces Lutheran church trial
Hearing begins Jan. 19 on future of clergy leader
By ZACK HUDSON
Friday, January 12, 2007
A gay Lutheran pastor who has been accused of violating church rules byremaining in a relationship with another man soon faces a trial for hisprofessional life.
Bradley Schmeling leads an Atlanta congregation of about 350 members aspastor of St. John's Lutheran Church, which is affiliated under thehierarchy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Southeastern Synod.
In August, synod Bishop Ronald Warren filed charges within the ELCA againstSchmeling after Schmeling told Warren about his ongoing relationship withDarin Easler, a former Lutheran pastor.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.sovo.com/print.cfm?content_id=6373
Savannah passes gay-inclusive resolution
By ZACK HUDSON
Jan. 12, 2007
In keeping with a 2006 agreement with Georgia's largest gay rightsorganization, the Savannah City Council passed a resolution stating itscommitment to fair treatment for gay men and lesbians, among other minoritygroups.
The legislation, titled " A resolution to re-affirm Savannah's commitment tobe an inclusive community," passed Jan. 4 by a unanimous vote of theSavannah City Council, which is comprised of eight aldermen and SavannahMayor Otis Johnson.
The resolution condemns "individual and collective acts" of abuse anddiscrimination "directed toward any resident or visitor" based on race,religion, sexual orientation and other categories.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4468001.html
Jan. 14, 2007, 10:03AM
Houston
Pride parade weighs move
Some oppose any relocation from Montrose
By ALLAN TURNER and ANNE MARIE KILDAY
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Even as musicians, float owners and other performers race to secure primespots in this June's Pride Houston Parade, Houston's gay and lesbiancommunity is marching to a contentious showdown over whether the city'sbest-known homosexual celebration should next year abandon its longtimeroute through Montrose.
Pride Houston, whose directors will vote on that and other issues later thismonth, has called a public meeting for today to discuss the possible 2008move.
Speaking at a Thursday night meeting called by opponents of the move,longtime gay activist Ray Hill said Montrose was only "a run-down oldneighborhood" when gays began moving into the inner-city area almost 50years ago.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://redeye.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/red-011107-boyonboystown,0,1984935,print.column?coll=red-columnists
Does this mannerism make me look gay?
Jason Steele
Boy on Boystown
January 11 2007
Are gay men easy to identify, or do we just think we act "gayer" than wereally do?
My boyfriend Brad and I celebrated New Year's Eve at the LakeviewBroadcasting Company with a crowd of men and women both straight and gay. Atone point, as we were all preparing to ring in 2007, two straight women whoseemed to be drunk were dirty dancing with each other. They weren't going atit; they were just sort of sexy dancing in a playful way.
The women were trying to get our attention so we might join them. But Bradand I were watching a straight guy who in turn was gawking at the dancingwomen. This guy was clearly into what he was witnessing. We could tell byhis wide-eyed, amazed look and devilish smirk.
The guy then turned to us, nodded and gave a look as if to say, "These girlsare hot, don't you think?" It was evident from his demeanor that he thoughthe, Brad and I were all on the same team.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2007/01/14/tough_times_often_await_youths_aging_out_of_foster_care_system?mode=PF
Tough times often await youths aging out of foster care system
By David Crary, AP National Writer | January 14, 2007
NEW YORK --Articulate and engaging, 20-year-old Shakhina Bellamy appears anunlikely fit in the ranks of New York City's homeless.
After hearing her story, told through tears and flashes of anger, her stateof limbo seems an almost inevitable result of an adolescence spent bouncingthrough a dozen group homes and foster families as a ward of New York'schild welfare agency.
She entered the system at 9 and walked away from it at 17.
"I didn't leave because I thought I was grown up -- I left because no onewas helping me," she said.
Across the country, child welfare advocates are increasingly aware of theproblems faced by young people like Bellamy -- 20,000 or so each year who"age out" of the foster care system with neither an adoptive nor ablood-relation family to support them. Scores of state and local initiativesare being launched to assist them; their plight may be addressed by the newDemocratic majority in Congress.
Front-line child welfare workers say even the best new programs won'tsuffice without the hard work of engaging foster children one-on-one as theyenter adolescence, soliciting their input and mentoring them in ways thatreplicate the best of a parent-child relationship. Bellamy agrees.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=17387&pf=1
Getting an adoption in the United States
by Gena Hymowech
Gaywired.com
Thursday Jan 11, 2007
Foreign adoption has decreased, according to a recent article in the ChicagoTribune.
"Overall, according to the State Department, international adoptions byAmericans fell to 20,679 in the 2006 fiscal year from 22,728 in 2005--thefirst significant decline since 1992. Adoptions from China, the No. 1 sourceof children since 2000, fell 18 percent, from 7,906 to 6,493," the paperreported.
Adoption by gay people in China is "virtually forbidden," according to a2002 Advocate article, but many gays and lesbians get around the rule byhiding their sexuality from the government. China's new rules will make iteven more difficult for gay parents to adopt. The new guidelines arescheduled to be enforced starting May 1st. "They give priority to stablemarried couples between 30 and 50. Single people, and those suffering fromobesity or depression, will lose out," the Tribune said. Obviously, thisaffects gay people who are not allowed to get married, and must remainsingle by their state's law.
=
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/14/wbish14.xml
Spain's bishops in legal battle to keep flock
By Graham Keeley in Barcelona, Sunday Telegraph 14/01/2007
Once they used the Inquisition to forceunbelievers to worship, but now Spanish bishopsare adopting more conventional means to keep their flock true to the faith.The Pope greets a bishop on his visit to Valencia
In the face of steadily falling attendance atchurches in this once devoutly Catholic country,religious leaders have gone to court to stop parishioners deserting.
Thousands of Spaniards are seeking apostasy - aformal request to leave the Roman Catholic Churchand revoke all the Christian vows that they oncemade. They are demanding that the church canceltheir baptism records, in order to annulofficially any connection with Catholicism.
The Spanish Church, alarmed at this growingmovement away from its teachings, is refusing toallow its former followers to sever their linksso easily. Archbishops in Madrid and Valencia arefighting in the courts to try to prevent lapsedbelievers from formally leaving the faith.
=
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200607/ldhansrd/text/70109-0011.htm#07010985000001
Gay vote - House of Lords defeat for fundamentalism
"Victory for tolerance and human rights"
Muslim Council of Britain refuses to join anti-gay campaign
London - 10 January 2007
"The House of Lords vote was a huge defeat for religiousfundamentalism and a significant victory for gay rights and humanrights in general," said Brett Lock of gay human rights groupOutRage!
Mr Lock was commenting on the 199 - 68 vote in the House of Lords lastnight, 9 January 2007, in favour of the new sexual orientationregulations which outlaw discrimination against lesbian and gay peoplein the provision of goods and services.
"It demonstrates that liberal Britain can defeat the forces ofreligious fanaticism.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Cherry Hill Courier Post, NJ, January 13, 2007
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070113/OPINION/701130309/1046
Editorial-- Rabner wise to issue opinion on civil unions
The state attorney general is correct that clergy members shouldn't beforced to perform civil union ceremonies that go against their religiousbeliefs. State Attorney General Stuart Rabner was smart to issue a legalopinion Thursday which makes clear that members of the clergy are notrequired to perform civil union ceremonies under the state's civil unionslaw that goes into effect next month.
Marriage, and now the "civil union" for gay couples, is a tricky thing. In asociety where church and state are separate in almost every way, it is aninstitution that is both a government and religious function. Most peopleget married by a clergy member, and many in a church. Yet their marriagelicense and legal recognition as a married couple comes from the government.
For obvious religious reasons, many churches and clergy members do not wantto perform what they see as marriage between gay couples. Performing a"marriage"ceremony for a gay couple would violate the tenets of their religion.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Boston Globe, MA, January 13, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/01/13/gay_rights_group_hailed_for_election_role/
Gay rights group hailed for election role Democrats say work key to partygains
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- The Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation's leading gaypolitical organizations, played a quiet but pivotal role electing Democratsat the federal and local level in November, a startling turnaround for agroup whose demands for gay marriage helped defeat Democratic candidates in2004, according to party leaders and lawmakers.
Playing down its support for gay marriage, the HRC mobilized its 650,000members to staff phone banks, raise money, and participate inget-out-the-vote campaigns to elect candidates sympathetic to gay issues,even if they didn't support gay marriage. The group was the single biggestdonor to Democratic state Senate races in New Hampshire, helping the partytake control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since1874.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Loiusville Courier-Journal, KY, January 13, 2007
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070113/NEWS0104/701130427/1008/NEWS01
Domestic partner health benefits backed
UK panel urges their approval
By Deborah Yetter, dyetter@courier-journal.com
The University of Kentucky should offer health insurance coverage fordomestic partners of employees in same-sex and opposite-sex relationships, aUK committee said in a report released yesterday.
The proposal still must go through several layers of administrative reviewbefore reaching UK President Lee Todd, who said he will consider it.
Todd remained non-committal yesterday, saying in a written statement onlythat he appreciated the committee's work and looked forward to reading thefindings.
Todd doesn't want to appear to "pre-judge the process," UK spokesman JayBlanton said.
=
365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/01/011307vatican.htm
Vatican Protest Denounces Papal Stand On Gay Marriage
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: January 13, 2007 - 4:00 pm ET
(Vatican City) Gay rights protestors took the fight for same-sex marriage tothe Pope's front door on Saturday.
About 150 members of the Italian LGBT civil rights group Arcigay held thedemonstration on the ninth anniversary of the suicide of a gay man in StPeter's Square.
Some members of the group carried Rainbow flags while other held placardscondemning the stand taken by Pope Benedict on same-sex marriage. OtherArcigay protestors carried signs calling for the legalization of gaymarriage in Italy.
On Thursday the Pope warned Italian lawmakers that the Vatican will use allof its influence to defeat planned legislation to create civil partnerships.
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Lesbian-Custody-Battle.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
January 14, 2007
Case Tests Handling of Gay Relationships
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:57 p.m. ET
RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) -- A court has ordered a woman to pay $240 a month to herformer lesbian partner for child support in a case that is testing legalquestions on how states differ in their recognition of same-sexrelationships.
Last month's order by the Rutland Family Court comes amid a continuingcustody battle between Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller over a 4-year-old girl,Isabella.
Jenkins said Sunday that she has obeyed the child-support order. She saidshe has sent a check by certified mail, only to have it returned becauseMiller did not pick it up.
Miller did not immediately return a call for comment on Sunday.
Miller gave birth to the girl, who was conceived through artificialinsemination, after the two women were legally joined in a civil union in2002.
About a year later, Miller renounced her homosexuality, returned to Virginiaand denied Jenkins' demands for visitation rights.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.sovo.com/2007/1-12/news/localnews/pastor.cfm
Atlanta gay pastor faces Lutheran church trial
Hearing begins Jan. 19 on future of clergy leader
By ZACK HUDSON
Friday, January 12, 2007
A gay Lutheran pastor who has been accused of violating church rules byremaining in a relationship with another man soon faces a trial for hisprofessional life.
Bradley Schmeling leads an Atlanta congregation of about 350 members aspastor of St. John's Lutheran Church, which is affiliated under thehierarchy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Southeastern Synod.
In August, synod Bishop Ronald Warren filed charges within the ELCA againstSchmeling after Schmeling told Warren about his ongoing relationship withDarin Easler, a former Lutheran pastor.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.sovo.com/print.cfm?content_id=6373
Savannah passes gay-inclusive resolution
By ZACK HUDSON
Jan. 12, 2007
In keeping with a 2006 agreement with Georgia's largest gay rightsorganization, the Savannah City Council passed a resolution stating itscommitment to fair treatment for gay men and lesbians, among other minoritygroups.
The legislation, titled " A resolution to re-affirm Savannah's commitment tobe an inclusive community," passed Jan. 4 by a unanimous vote of theSavannah City Council, which is comprised of eight aldermen and SavannahMayor Otis Johnson.
The resolution condemns "individual and collective acts" of abuse anddiscrimination "directed toward any resident or visitor" based on race,religion, sexual orientation and other categories.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4468001.html
Jan. 14, 2007, 10:03AM
Houston
Pride parade weighs move
Some oppose any relocation from Montrose
By ALLAN TURNER and ANNE MARIE KILDAY
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Even as musicians, float owners and other performers race to secure primespots in this June's Pride Houston Parade, Houston's gay and lesbiancommunity is marching to a contentious showdown over whether the city'sbest-known homosexual celebration should next year abandon its longtimeroute through Montrose.
Pride Houston, whose directors will vote on that and other issues later thismonth, has called a public meeting for today to discuss the possible 2008move.
Speaking at a Thursday night meeting called by opponents of the move,longtime gay activist Ray Hill said Montrose was only "a run-down oldneighborhood" when gays began moving into the inner-city area almost 50years ago.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://redeye.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/red-011107-boyonboystown,0,1984935,print.column?coll=red-columnists
Does this mannerism make me look gay?
Jason Steele
Boy on Boystown
January 11 2007
Are gay men easy to identify, or do we just think we act "gayer" than wereally do?
My boyfriend Brad and I celebrated New Year's Eve at the LakeviewBroadcasting Company with a crowd of men and women both straight and gay. Atone point, as we were all preparing to ring in 2007, two straight women whoseemed to be drunk were dirty dancing with each other. They weren't going atit; they were just sort of sexy dancing in a playful way.
The women were trying to get our attention so we might join them. But Bradand I were watching a straight guy who in turn was gawking at the dancingwomen. This guy was clearly into what he was witnessing. We could tell byhis wide-eyed, amazed look and devilish smirk.
The guy then turned to us, nodded and gave a look as if to say, "These girlsare hot, don't you think?" It was evident from his demeanor that he thoughthe, Brad and I were all on the same team.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2007/01/14/tough_times_often_await_youths_aging_out_of_foster_care_system?mode=PF
Tough times often await youths aging out of foster care system
By David Crary, AP National Writer | January 14, 2007
NEW YORK --Articulate and engaging, 20-year-old Shakhina Bellamy appears anunlikely fit in the ranks of New York City's homeless.
After hearing her story, told through tears and flashes of anger, her stateof limbo seems an almost inevitable result of an adolescence spent bouncingthrough a dozen group homes and foster families as a ward of New York'schild welfare agency.
She entered the system at 9 and walked away from it at 17.
"I didn't leave because I thought I was grown up -- I left because no onewas helping me," she said.
Across the country, child welfare advocates are increasingly aware of theproblems faced by young people like Bellamy -- 20,000 or so each year who"age out" of the foster care system with neither an adoptive nor ablood-relation family to support them. Scores of state and local initiativesare being launched to assist them; their plight may be addressed by the newDemocratic majority in Congress.
Front-line child welfare workers say even the best new programs won'tsuffice without the hard work of engaging foster children one-on-one as theyenter adolescence, soliciting their input and mentoring them in ways thatreplicate the best of a parent-child relationship. Bellamy agrees.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=17387&pf=1
Getting an adoption in the United States
by Gena Hymowech
Gaywired.com
Thursday Jan 11, 2007
Foreign adoption has decreased, according to a recent article in the ChicagoTribune.
"Overall, according to the State Department, international adoptions byAmericans fell to 20,679 in the 2006 fiscal year from 22,728 in 2005--thefirst significant decline since 1992. Adoptions from China, the No. 1 sourceof children since 2000, fell 18 percent, from 7,906 to 6,493," the paperreported.
Adoption by gay people in China is "virtually forbidden," according to a2002 Advocate article, but many gays and lesbians get around the rule byhiding their sexuality from the government. China's new rules will make iteven more difficult for gay parents to adopt. The new guidelines arescheduled to be enforced starting May 1st. "They give priority to stablemarried couples between 30 and 50. Single people, and those suffering fromobesity or depression, will lose out," the Tribune said. Obviously, thisaffects gay people who are not allowed to get married, and must remainsingle by their state's law.
=
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/14/wbish14.xml
Spain's bishops in legal battle to keep flock
By Graham Keeley in Barcelona, Sunday Telegraph 14/01/2007
Once they used the Inquisition to forceunbelievers to worship, but now Spanish bishopsare adopting more conventional means to keep their flock true to the faith.The Pope greets a bishop on his visit to Valencia
In the face of steadily falling attendance atchurches in this once devoutly Catholic country,religious leaders have gone to court to stop parishioners deserting.
Thousands of Spaniards are seeking apostasy - aformal request to leave the Roman Catholic Churchand revoke all the Christian vows that they oncemade. They are demanding that the church canceltheir baptism records, in order to annulofficially any connection with Catholicism.
The Spanish Church, alarmed at this growingmovement away from its teachings, is refusing toallow its former followers to sever their linksso easily. Archbishops in Madrid and Valencia arefighting in the courts to try to prevent lapsedbelievers from formally leaving the faith.
=
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200607/ldhansrd/text/70109-0011.htm#07010985000001
Gay vote - House of Lords defeat for fundamentalism
"Victory for tolerance and human rights"
Muslim Council of Britain refuses to join anti-gay campaign
London - 10 January 2007
"The House of Lords vote was a huge defeat for religiousfundamentalism and a significant victory for gay rights and humanrights in general," said Brett Lock of gay human rights groupOutRage!
Mr Lock was commenting on the 199 - 68 vote in the House of Lords lastnight, 9 January 2007, in favour of the new sexual orientationregulations which outlaw discrimination against lesbian and gay peoplein the provision of goods and services.
"It demonstrates that liberal Britain can defeat the forces ofreligious fanaticism.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Cherry Hill Courier Post, NJ, January 13, 2007
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070113/OPINION/701130309/1046
Editorial-- Rabner wise to issue opinion on civil unions
The state attorney general is correct that clergy members shouldn't beforced to perform civil union ceremonies that go against their religiousbeliefs. State Attorney General Stuart Rabner was smart to issue a legalopinion Thursday which makes clear that members of the clergy are notrequired to perform civil union ceremonies under the state's civil unionslaw that goes into effect next month.
Marriage, and now the "civil union" for gay couples, is a tricky thing. In asociety where church and state are separate in almost every way, it is aninstitution that is both a government and religious function. Most peopleget married by a clergy member, and many in a church. Yet their marriagelicense and legal recognition as a married couple comes from the government.
For obvious religious reasons, many churches and clergy members do not wantto perform what they see as marriage between gay couples. Performing a"marriage"ceremony for a gay couple would violate the tenets of their religion.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Boston Globe, MA, January 13, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/01/13/gay_rights_group_hailed_for_election_role/
Gay rights group hailed for election role Democrats say work key to partygains
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- The Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation's leading gaypolitical organizations, played a quiet but pivotal role electing Democratsat the federal and local level in November, a startling turnaround for agroup whose demands for gay marriage helped defeat Democratic candidates in2004, according to party leaders and lawmakers.
Playing down its support for gay marriage, the HRC mobilized its 650,000members to staff phone banks, raise money, and participate inget-out-the-vote campaigns to elect candidates sympathetic to gay issues,even if they didn't support gay marriage. The group was the single biggestdonor to Democratic state Senate races in New Hampshire, helping the partytake control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since1874.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Loiusville Courier-Journal, KY, January 13, 2007
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070113/NEWS0104/701130427/1008/NEWS01
Domestic partner health benefits backed
UK panel urges their approval
By Deborah Yetter, dyetter@courier-journal.com
The University of Kentucky should offer health insurance coverage fordomestic partners of employees in same-sex and opposite-sex relationships, aUK committee said in a report released yesterday.
The proposal still must go through several layers of administrative reviewbefore reaching UK President Lee Todd, who said he will consider it.
Todd remained non-committal yesterday, saying in a written statement onlythat he appreciated the committee's work and looked forward to reading thefindings.
Todd doesn't want to appear to "pre-judge the process," UK spokesman JayBlanton said.
=
365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/01/011307vatican.htm
Vatican Protest Denounces Papal Stand On Gay Marriage
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: January 13, 2007 - 4:00 pm ET
(Vatican City) Gay rights protestors took the fight for same-sex marriage tothe Pope's front door on Saturday.
About 150 members of the Italian LGBT civil rights group Arcigay held thedemonstration on the ninth anniversary of the suicide of a gay man in StPeter's Square.
Some members of the group carried Rainbow flags while other held placardscondemning the stand taken by Pope Benedict on same-sex marriage. OtherArcigay protestors carried signs calling for the legalization of gaymarriage in Italy.
On Thursday the Pope warned Italian lawmakers that the Vatican will use allof its influence to defeat planned legislation to create civil partnerships.
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NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST January 14, 2007
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/299253_inconvenient11.html
Federal Way schools restrict Gore film'Inconvenient Truth' called too controversial
Thursday, January 11, 2007
By ROBERT MCCLURE AND LISA STIFFLER
P-I REPORTERS
NOTE: This story has been altered since it was originally published. Thecomputer program Al Gore uses to present scientists' findings in the movie"An Inconvenient Truth" is Keynote. A competing software program's name wasmentioned in the earlier version of the story.
This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show oneof the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert"An Inconvenient Truth."
After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sexeducation complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesdayplaced what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film. The movie consistslargely of a computer presentation by former Vice President Al Gorerecounting scientists' findings.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_011407Y.shtml
Bush Breaks 150-Year History of Higher US Taxes in Wartime
By Brian Faler
Bloomberg
Friday 12 January 2007
It was once considered Americans' patriotic duty: enduring extraordinarytax increases in wartime to help finance the fight.
Not today. Iraq is the only major U.S. conflict, except for the 1846-48Mexican-American War, in which citizens haven't been asked to make a specialfinancial sacrifice. President George W. Bush opposes tax increases, even asthe costs escalate far beyond predictions and he calls for more troops.
"It's a reflection of either a lack of public support for the war orperhaps an unwillingness of the Bush administration" to test its popularity,said Elliot Brownlee, an economic historian retired from the University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara.
The Bush administration, which says any tax increase would harm theeconomy, is financing the Iraq conflict with borrowed money. That sparespolicy makers and pro-war politicians from riling voters already soured onthe war.
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http://citizenchris.typepad.com/
January 12, 2007
A thoughtful 'primal scream' on Iraq
A hearty "Amen, brother!" to my friend Terry Michael, for his blisteringcritique of how Democrats rolled over for the president in the monthsleading up to the Iraq war. And worse yet, as Terry points out, they'restill rolling over - though, I would add, for the opposite reason.
Even though Terry's "primal scream" is from the left, it found a home in aright-wing newspaper- the Washington Times - that no doubt considers theenemy of its enemy its friend:
Like millions of other Americans, I can no longer contain the primalscream I want to direct at the members of my party who declined to engage areal debate in the run-up to this completely avoidable misjudgment of oldmen and women, willing to send boys and girls to die for their ideologicalhallucinations and political cowardice.
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Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070114obama-story,1,7654298,print.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed
Meet Obama's inner circle
Ahead of likely presidential campaign, senator relies on core of trustedadvisers
By Mike Dorning and Christi Parsons
Tribune staff reporter
January 14, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The gravitational pull around Sen. Barack Obama grows strongerday by day, as he and his advisers seek commitments from politicaloperatives and donors in preparation for a likely run for the presidency.
The existing core of advisers around the Illinois Democrat simultaneouslyanchors him in the pragmatic sensibility of his urban Midwestern home baseand encompasses the world of ideas of his Harvard Law School classmates.
The political professionals who are Obama's closest formal advisers arecareful, deliberate counselors, wary of unnecessary risks and no strangersto campaign street fights. The informal coterie is a multihued collection ofhigh achievers, men and women who are friends and intellectual peers.
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http://www.news-journalonline.com/scripts/printme.asp
January 14, 2007
Sharpton: Don't celebrate yet, King's fight not over
By JOHN BOZZO
Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- Speaking at a posh banquet in the Hilton Oceanfront Resorthere Saturday, the Rev. Al Sharpton warned against letting celebrations hidethe legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The slain civil rights leader, who is remembered with a national holiday onMonday, fought for social justice, fairness and an end to war andsegregation, Sharpton said.
"If we are not careful, people will forget the mission and the work thatmade Dr. King worthy of this holiday," said Sharpton, a politician, civilrights activist and Pentecostal minister. "Dr King was a fighter for justiceand for peace when it wasn't popular."
Sharpton said black people with same backgrounds as white people are stillmore likely to be unemployed, go to jail, have a major disease and be turneddown for a bank loan.
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http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/210208,CST-NWS-harry14.articleprint
Prince Harry preparing for Iraq?
January 14, 2007
LONDON -- A British newspaper reported today that Prince Harry was to startfinal training for deployment to Iraq with his army regiment, but theDefense Ministry said no decision had been made on whether he would bedeployed.
The News of the World said the 22-year-old prince, who is third in line tothe throne, would take part in a two-day pre-deployment course that includesinstruction in basic Arabic phrases.
Harry, known as ''Cornet Wales'' by his Blues and Royals regiment, hastrained to command 11 soldiers and four Scimitar tanks.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201952_pf.html
The Imperial Presidency
By Dahlia Lithwick
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B02
Why is the United States poised to try Jose Padilla as a dangerousterrorist, long after it has become clear that he was just the wrong Muslimin the wrong airport on the wrong day?
Why is Washington still holding hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay,Cuba, long after years of interrogation and abuse have established that few,if any, of them are the deadly terrorists they have been held out to be?
And why is President Bush still issuing grandiose and provocative signingstatements, the latest of which claims that the executive branch has thepower to open mail when it sees fit?
I once believed that the common thread here is presidential blindness -- anextreme executive-branch myopia that leads the chief executive to believethat these futile measures are integral to combating terrorism; aself-delusion that precludes Bush and his advisers from recognizing thatPadilla is a chump and Guantanamo Bay is just a holding pen for a jumble ofinnocent or half-guilty wretches.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201951_pf.html
In Baghdad, a Test Of the Petraeus Principles
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B07
Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the soldier-intellectual chosen by President Bushto provide new leadership in the war in Iraq, got one thing he needed fromthe president Wednesday night. But what was missing will ultimately be moreimportant than what was provided.
Petraeus, who holds a doctorate from Princeton, is often described as thesmartest and most ambitious member of the class of generals and admiralsavailable to Bush. He has been given a rare opportunity to put the theorieshe has developed as a man of ideas into battlefield practice as a man ofaction.
Shortly before Bush appointed him to command the multinational forces inIraq, Petraeus finished assembling a new counterinsurgency training manualfor U.S. forces. The manual's opening sections emphasize the importance ofpolitical will in avoiding defeat in unconventional warfare:
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16447851.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sun, Jan. 14, 2007
Yes, you could say mistakes have been made
By CARL HIAASEN
President Bush's prime-time TV appearance on Wednesday night was way morethan a speech. It was a séance.
The man was plainly in a deep trance, channeling Lyndon Johnson and RichardNixon.
Give us more, more, more, the president kept saying, and we'll fix thismess.
More soldiers. More money. More time.
It's what is best for the country, Bush recited somberly -- our nationalsecurity is at stake.
Good morning, Vietnam!
The president didn't mention that nasty ''conflict'' by name, but he didn'tneed to. You remember the old script -- just scratch out ''communists'' andpencil in ``terrorists.''
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201955_pf.html
Petraeus on Vietnam's Legacy
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B04
Among Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus's qualifications for the post of seniorU.S. military commander in Iraq is his work training Iraqi security forces,as well as his oversight of the Army and Marine Corps' updatedcounterinsurgency field manual. But another document may prove useful toPetraeus in Iraq. In 1987, he earned a PhD from Princeton's Woodrow WilsonSchool with a 328-page thesis titled "The American Military and the Lessonsof Vietnam: A Study of Military Influence and the Use of Force in thePost-Vietnam Era." Excerpts below.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202056_pf.html
The Time to Negotiate Is Now
By Robert K. Brigham
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B01
They're reportedly favorite reruns on Arab television: scenes of U.S. troopspacking up and going home, from Beirut in 1983, Mogadishu in 1993 and thatpanicked flight from Vietnam in 1975. The message in these images, broadcastrepeatedly on al-Jazeera, al-Manar and other channels, is clear: The UnitedStates doesn't have the will to win. Soon, it will pull out of Baghdad justas its diplomats hightailed it out of Saigon.
Islamic radicals' fervent dream that Iraq will turn out to be anotherVietnam has now become Washington's nightmare. Despite President Bush's callfor more troops in Iraq, each day seems to bring closer an endgame therethat could echo the one of three decades earlier, with U.S. helicopterslanding "inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof," as Sen. JosephR. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) recently put it.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202061_pf.html
Don't Ban Your Instincts, Ban Ki-moon
By John R. Bolton
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B01
Ban Ki-moon, the new U.N. secretary general, has done some unusual things tokick off his tenure. At the recent annual dinner of the U.N. CorrespondentsAssociation in New York, for instance, he entertained the guests briefly bysinging, to the tune originally written for Santa Claus, his ownarrangement: "Ban Ki-moon is coming to town."
On Tuesday, Ban is coming to this town, his first visit since assumingoffice on Jan. 1. The former South Korean foreign minister has already madeit clear that he intends to be a different kind of "SG" from hispredecessor. The United States backed Ban for his new post, largely withsuch a change in mind. Nonetheless, his first few days in office havealready raised some questions. The struggle is underway to determine whatsort of leader Ban will be: Will the status quo of the U.N. system overwhelmhim, or will he follow his instincts and those of his supporters, includingWashington?
Consider the following issues:
First, responding to Iraq's recent execution of Saddam Hussein, Ban saidthat the decision of whether to invoke the death penalty is a matter foreach U.N. member state to decide for itself. This provoked howls of outragefrom the international high-minded, who over the past decade hadsuccessfully encouraged U.N. resolutions opposing the death penalty from theU.N. Human Rights Commission (a body that eventually was abolished becauseit had only an incidental relationship with human rights).
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202054_pf.html
Trapped by Hubris, Again
By Robert G. Kaiser
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B01
After nearly four years of ineffectual war-fighting, after the collapse ofdomestic support for President Bush and his policies, after the expenditureof thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, it no longerseems possible to avoid the grim conclusion: For the United States, Iraq hasbecome another Vietnam.
Fortunately, the overall death toll in Iraq so far, while high, is stillsmaller than it was in Vietnam. But tragically, the most importantdifference between the two conflicts may be that defeat in Iraq is likely toproduce catastrophic consequences for that nation, its neighbors and theUnited States, too.
For a gray-haired journalist whose career included 18 months covering theVietnam War for The Washington Post, it is a source of amazement to realizethat my country has done this again. We twice took a huge risk in the hopethat we could predict and dominate events in a nation whose history we didnot know, whose language few of us spoke, whose rivalries we didn'tunderstand, whose expectations for life, politics and economics were allforeign to many Americans.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/americas/14iran.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
Iranian President Visits Venezuela to Strengthen Ties
By SIMON ROMERO
CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 13 - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran arrivedhere on Saturday for talks with President Hugo Chávez, on the first leg of aLatin American visit to enhance Tehran's stature with governments wheredistrust of the Bush administration already runs deep.
It is Mr. Ahmadinejad's second visit to Venezuela in the past five months,and the two leaders were scheduled to talk about strengthening theireconomic ties. From here, the Iranian president is to visit Ecuador andNicaragua, where leftist presidents aligned with Mr. Chávez are takingoffice this month.
Venezuela's government promoted the visit as an example of Middle Easternsolidarity with Mr. Chávez's opposition to American foreign policy.Venezuela has been a vociferous defender of Iran as the United States stepsup efforts to circumscribe Mr. Ahmadinejad's government, most recentlythrough military raids this week on people suspected of being Iranianoperatives in Iraq.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/nyregion/14title.html?ei=5094&en=090f473f31a8e170&hp=&ex=1168837200&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1168794056-w14wke+F2FVfCXUZjvr5oQ
January 14, 2007
Equal Cheers for Boys and Girls Draw Some Boos
By WINNIE HU
WHITNEY POINT, N.Y. - Thirty girls signed up for the cheerleading squad thiswinter at Whitney Point High School in upstate New York. But upon learningthey would be waving their pompoms for the girls' basketball team as well asthe boys', more than half of the aspiring cheerleaders dropped out.
The eight remaining cheerleaders now awkwardly adjust their routines forwhichever team is playing here on the home court - "Hands Up You Guys"becomes "Hands Up You Girls"- to comply with a new ruling from federaleducation officials interpreting Title IX, the law intended to guaranteegender equality in student sports.
"It feels funny when we do it," said Amanda Cummings, 15, the cheerleadingco-captain, who forgot the name of a female basketball player mid-cheer lastmonth.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/middleeast/14rice.html?pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
Rice Backs Mideast Moderates, but Offers No Plan
By THOM SHANKER and GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Jan. 13 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Israelicounterpart declared their mutual backing on Saturday for a bilateraldiplomatic strategy that would support moderate political leaders across theMiddle East, but after a first evening of talks here offered little new topush ahead any agreement with the Palestinians.
Ms. Rice played down expectations for any breakthrough during her travels.
"I expect this trip to really be one in which we have intensiveconsultations," she said to open weeklong travels across the Middle East andthe Persian Gulf before consulting with allies in Western Europe. "I'm notcoming with a proposal. I'm not coming with a plan."
The focus of her first two days is to push Israeli and Palestinian leadersto move forward on a number of smaller issues, and then she will speak withother regional allies to try to gather support for President Bush's newstrategy for Iraq.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/washington/14spy.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en=203bd3d1f0cd9644&hp=&ex=1168750800&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1168772846-tOy/rT1FTk70g7N3mBUsBA&pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
Military Is Expanding Its Intelligence Role in U.S.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 - The Pentagon has been using a little-known power toobtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and otherssuspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of anaggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering.
The C.I.A. has also been issuing what are known as national security lettersto gain access to financial records from American companies, though it hasdone so only rarely, intelligence officials say.
Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions receiving theletters usually have turned over documents voluntarily, allowinginvestigators to examine the financial assets and transactions of Americanmilitary personnel and civilians, officials say.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/opinion/14sun1.html?pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
Editorial
Picking Up the Pieces
It was surreal how disconnected President Bush was the other night, bothfrom Iraq's horrifying reality and America's anguish over this unnecessary,mismanaged and now unwinnable war. Indeed, most Americans seem far ahead ofthe president. They understand that what the country urgently needs is forMr. Bush to chart a way out of Iraq that also limits the chaos that will beleft behind.
The president's disconnect goes far to explain the harshly critical reactionof Congress and the public to his plan to further bleed America'soverstretched forces by sending some 20,000 additional troops in an attemptto impose peace on Baghdad's vengeful streets. He proposes to do thatwithout any enforceable commitments from the Iraqi government that it willtake the necessary political steps that are the only hope for tamping down aspiraling civil war.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/13/AR2007011301189_pf.html
House GOP Shows Its Fractiousness In the Minority
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 14, 2007; A01
House Republican leaders, who confidently predicted they would drive a wedgethrough the new Democratic majority, have found their own party splintering,with Republican lawmakers siding with Democrats in droves on the House'sopening legislative blitz.
Freed from the pressures of being the majority and from the heavy hand offormer leaders including retired representative Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), manyback-bench Republicans are showing themselves to be more moderate than theirconservative leadership and increasingly mindful of shifting votersentiment. The closest vote last week -- Friday's push to require thefederal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare -- pulled 24Republicans. The Democrats' homeland security bill attracted 68 Republicans,the minimum wage increase 82.
"You're freer to vote your conscience," said Rep. Jo Anne Emerson (R-Mo.),who received an 88 percent voting record from the American ConservativeUnion in 2005 but has so far sided with Democrats on new budget rules,Medicare prescription-drug negotiations, raising the minimum wage andfunding stem cell research. "Or, really, I feel free to represent myconstituents exactly as they want me to be."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/washington/14spyside.html?_r=1&adxnnl=0&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1168751148-sWwJH98TCgDIqJjz7/XSLg&pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
Deletions in Army Manual Raise Wiretapping Concerns
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 - Deep into an updated Army manual, the deletion of 10words has left some national security experts wondering whether governmentlawyers are again asserting the executive branch's right to wiretapAmericans without a court warrant.
The manual, described by the Army as a "major revision" tointelligence-gathering guidelines, addresses policies and procedures forwiretapping Americans, among other issues.
The original guidelines, from 1984, said the Army could seek to wiretappeople inside the United States on an emergency basis by going to the secretcourt set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, orby obtaining certification from the attorney general "issued under theauthority of section 102(a) of the Act."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/us/14library.html?pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
A Discordant Chorus Questions Visions for a Bush Library at SouthernMethodist
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
HOUSTON, Jan. 13 - With growing faculty unease over plans to enshrinePresident Bush's official papers and a policy institute at SouthernMethodist University in Dallas, the process of creating the nation's 13thpresidential library is off to a familiar start: discord.
On Thursday, 68 theologians, professors and other faculty members presentand past, citing complaints about President Bush's "poor marks" on civilliberties, the environment, gay rights and the war in Iraq, sent theuniversity president a letter questioning whether visions of the librarywere consistent with the school's religious and academic values.
"According to George Bush's closest associates, the half-billion-dollarendowment will be used by the institute to hire conservative scholars toagree to 'write papers and books favorable to the president's policies,' "said the letter calling for a campuswide dialogue on the affiliation.
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http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/opinion/14brooks.html?pagewanted=print
The New York Times
January 14, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
The American Way of Equality
By DAVID BROOKS
Income inequality is on the rise. The rich are getting better at passingtheir advantages on to their kids. Lifestyle and values gaps are wideningbetween the educated and uneducated. So the big issue is: Will Americansdemand new policies to reverse these trends — to redistribute wealth, toprovide greater economic security? Are we about to see a mass populistmovement in this country?
Nobody was smarter on this subject than Seymour Martin Lipset, the eminentsociologist who died at 84 on New Year’s Eve. Lipset had been a socialist inthe hothouse atmosphere of City College during the 1940s, and though helater became a moderate Democrat, he continued to wonder, with some regret,why America never had a serious socialist movement, why America neveradopted a European-style welfare state.
Lipset was aware of the structural and demographic answers to suchquestions. For example, racially diverse nations tend to have lower levelsof social support than homogeneous ones. People don’t feel as bound togetherwhen they are divided on ethnic lines and are less likely to embrace mutualsupport programs. You can have diversity or a big welfare state. It’s hardto have both.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/opinion/14rich.html
January 14, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
He’s in the Bunker Now
By FRANK RICH
PRESIDENT BUSH always had one asset he could fall back on: theself-confidence of a born salesman. Like Harold Hill in “The Music Man,” heknew how to roll out a new product, however deceptive or useless, withconviction and stagecraft. What the world saw on Wednesday night was adefeated Willy Loman who looked as broken as his war. His flop sweat waspalpable even if you turned down the sound to deflect despair-inducingphrases like “Prime Minister Maliki has pledged ...” and “Secretary Ricewill leave for the region. ...”
Mr. Bush seemed to know his product was snake oil, and his White Househandlers did too. In the past, they made a fetish of situating their star intelegenic settings, from aircraft carriers to Ellis Island. Or they placedhim against Orwellian backdrops shrieking “Plan for Victory." But this timeeven the audio stuttered, as if in solidarity with Baghdad’s continuingelectricity blackout, and the Oval Office was ditched, lest it summon upmemories of all those past presidential sightings of light at the end of theIraqi tunnel. Mr. Bush was banished to the White House library, where thebackdrop was acres of books, to signify the studiousness of his rethinkingof the “way forward.”
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http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/opinion/14kristof.html
The New York Times
January 14, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Stumbling Around the World
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
With Iraq sliding off a cliff, and now tugging another 20,000 youngAmericans along as well, it’s worth wrestling with a larger question: Whyare we so awful at foreign policy?
Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize, dropped bythe other day, and she made the same point with characteristic bluntness.“It amazes me that the U.S., with all its scientific accomplishments, is soshortsighted in its foreign policy,” she noted.
It is pathetic. We can go safely to the moon but not to Anbar Province. Wecan peer into the farthest reaches of the universe, but we fail to notice(until it’s too late) that many Iraqis loathe us. We produce movies thatdelight audiences all over the world, but we can’t devise a foreign policythat anybody likes.
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http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_abbas_sa_070111_bush_3a_alcohol_2c_dumbb.htm
January 12, 2007
The Neuropsychology of George W. Bush
By Abbas Sadeghian, Ph.D.
"Why don't they have Bibles? Can we get them Bibles? Would they likeBibles?"
The most reported inquiry by George Bush about the fate of the US Air crewof the American surveillance plane downed over China.
Newsweek, April 23, 2001, Atlantic edition
When I read of the above quote in the papers during the Chinese stand off, Iwas happy to find the missing link in understanding George Bush.
The incident occurred five months before 911. An American spy plane collidedwith a Chinese fighter plane, forcing the American plane to land on anisland off of China. The crew had infuriated the Chinese by remaining lockedin the plane until they had destroyed sensitive material and equipment. Whenthey emerged, they were taken prisoner and were held for 22 days whileAmerica negotiated for their release.
As State Department officials worked on the situation, President Bush madethe above comment, which was considered the most reported statement of theevent.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/299253_inconvenient11.html
Federal Way schools restrict Gore film'Inconvenient Truth' called too controversial
Thursday, January 11, 2007
By ROBERT MCCLURE AND LISA STIFFLER
P-I REPORTERS
NOTE: This story has been altered since it was originally published. Thecomputer program Al Gore uses to present scientists' findings in the movie"An Inconvenient Truth" is Keynote. A competing software program's name wasmentioned in the earlier version of the story.
This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show oneof the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert"An Inconvenient Truth."
After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sexeducation complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesdayplaced what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film. The movie consistslargely of a computer presentation by former Vice President Al Gorerecounting scientists' findings.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_011407Y.shtml
Bush Breaks 150-Year History of Higher US Taxes in Wartime
By Brian Faler
Bloomberg
Friday 12 January 2007
It was once considered Americans' patriotic duty: enduring extraordinarytax increases in wartime to help finance the fight.
Not today. Iraq is the only major U.S. conflict, except for the 1846-48Mexican-American War, in which citizens haven't been asked to make a specialfinancial sacrifice. President George W. Bush opposes tax increases, even asthe costs escalate far beyond predictions and he calls for more troops.
"It's a reflection of either a lack of public support for the war orperhaps an unwillingness of the Bush administration" to test its popularity,said Elliot Brownlee, an economic historian retired from the University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara.
The Bush administration, which says any tax increase would harm theeconomy, is financing the Iraq conflict with borrowed money. That sparespolicy makers and pro-war politicians from riling voters already soured onthe war.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://citizenchris.typepad.com/
January 12, 2007
A thoughtful 'primal scream' on Iraq
A hearty "Amen, brother!" to my friend Terry Michael, for his blisteringcritique of how Democrats rolled over for the president in the monthsleading up to the Iraq war. And worse yet, as Terry points out, they'restill rolling over - though, I would add, for the opposite reason.
Even though Terry's "primal scream" is from the left, it found a home in aright-wing newspaper- the Washington Times - that no doubt considers theenemy of its enemy its friend:
Like millions of other Americans, I can no longer contain the primalscream I want to direct at the members of my party who declined to engage areal debate in the run-up to this completely avoidable misjudgment of oldmen and women, willing to send boys and girls to die for their ideologicalhallucinations and political cowardice.
=
Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070114obama-story,1,7654298,print.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed
Meet Obama's inner circle
Ahead of likely presidential campaign, senator relies on core of trustedadvisers
By Mike Dorning and Christi Parsons
Tribune staff reporter
January 14, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The gravitational pull around Sen. Barack Obama grows strongerday by day, as he and his advisers seek commitments from politicaloperatives and donors in preparation for a likely run for the presidency.
The existing core of advisers around the Illinois Democrat simultaneouslyanchors him in the pragmatic sensibility of his urban Midwestern home baseand encompasses the world of ideas of his Harvard Law School classmates.
The political professionals who are Obama's closest formal advisers arecareful, deliberate counselors, wary of unnecessary risks and no strangersto campaign street fights. The informal coterie is a multihued collection ofhigh achievers, men and women who are friends and intellectual peers.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.news-journalonline.com/scripts/printme.asp
January 14, 2007
Sharpton: Don't celebrate yet, King's fight not over
By JOHN BOZZO
Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- Speaking at a posh banquet in the Hilton Oceanfront Resorthere Saturday, the Rev. Al Sharpton warned against letting celebrations hidethe legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The slain civil rights leader, who is remembered with a national holiday onMonday, fought for social justice, fairness and an end to war andsegregation, Sharpton said.
"If we are not careful, people will forget the mission and the work thatmade Dr. King worthy of this holiday," said Sharpton, a politician, civilrights activist and Pentecostal minister. "Dr King was a fighter for justiceand for peace when it wasn't popular."
Sharpton said black people with same backgrounds as white people are stillmore likely to be unemployed, go to jail, have a major disease and be turneddown for a bank loan.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/210208,CST-NWS-harry14.articleprint
Prince Harry preparing for Iraq?
January 14, 2007
LONDON -- A British newspaper reported today that Prince Harry was to startfinal training for deployment to Iraq with his army regiment, but theDefense Ministry said no decision had been made on whether he would bedeployed.
The News of the World said the 22-year-old prince, who is third in line tothe throne, would take part in a two-day pre-deployment course that includesinstruction in basic Arabic phrases.
Harry, known as ''Cornet Wales'' by his Blues and Royals regiment, hastrained to command 11 soldiers and four Scimitar tanks.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201952_pf.html
The Imperial Presidency
By Dahlia Lithwick
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B02
Why is the United States poised to try Jose Padilla as a dangerousterrorist, long after it has become clear that he was just the wrong Muslimin the wrong airport on the wrong day?
Why is Washington still holding hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay,Cuba, long after years of interrogation and abuse have established that few,if any, of them are the deadly terrorists they have been held out to be?
And why is President Bush still issuing grandiose and provocative signingstatements, the latest of which claims that the executive branch has thepower to open mail when it sees fit?
I once believed that the common thread here is presidential blindness -- anextreme executive-branch myopia that leads the chief executive to believethat these futile measures are integral to combating terrorism; aself-delusion that precludes Bush and his advisers from recognizing thatPadilla is a chump and Guantanamo Bay is just a holding pen for a jumble ofinnocent or half-guilty wretches.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201951_pf.html
In Baghdad, a Test Of the Petraeus Principles
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B07
Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the soldier-intellectual chosen by President Bushto provide new leadership in the war in Iraq, got one thing he needed fromthe president Wednesday night. But what was missing will ultimately be moreimportant than what was provided.
Petraeus, who holds a doctorate from Princeton, is often described as thesmartest and most ambitious member of the class of generals and admiralsavailable to Bush. He has been given a rare opportunity to put the theorieshe has developed as a man of ideas into battlefield practice as a man ofaction.
Shortly before Bush appointed him to command the multinational forces inIraq, Petraeus finished assembling a new counterinsurgency training manualfor U.S. forces. The manual's opening sections emphasize the importance ofpolitical will in avoiding defeat in unconventional warfare:
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16447851.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sun, Jan. 14, 2007
Yes, you could say mistakes have been made
By CARL HIAASEN
President Bush's prime-time TV appearance on Wednesday night was way morethan a speech. It was a séance.
The man was plainly in a deep trance, channeling Lyndon Johnson and RichardNixon.
Give us more, more, more, the president kept saying, and we'll fix thismess.
More soldiers. More money. More time.
It's what is best for the country, Bush recited somberly -- our nationalsecurity is at stake.
Good morning, Vietnam!
The president didn't mention that nasty ''conflict'' by name, but he didn'tneed to. You remember the old script -- just scratch out ''communists'' andpencil in ``terrorists.''
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201955_pf.html
Petraeus on Vietnam's Legacy
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B04
Among Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus's qualifications for the post of seniorU.S. military commander in Iraq is his work training Iraqi security forces,as well as his oversight of the Army and Marine Corps' updatedcounterinsurgency field manual. But another document may prove useful toPetraeus in Iraq. In 1987, he earned a PhD from Princeton's Woodrow WilsonSchool with a 328-page thesis titled "The American Military and the Lessonsof Vietnam: A Study of Military Influence and the Use of Force in thePost-Vietnam Era." Excerpts below.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202056_pf.html
The Time to Negotiate Is Now
By Robert K. Brigham
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B01
They're reportedly favorite reruns on Arab television: scenes of U.S. troopspacking up and going home, from Beirut in 1983, Mogadishu in 1993 and thatpanicked flight from Vietnam in 1975. The message in these images, broadcastrepeatedly on al-Jazeera, al-Manar and other channels, is clear: The UnitedStates doesn't have the will to win. Soon, it will pull out of Baghdad justas its diplomats hightailed it out of Saigon.
Islamic radicals' fervent dream that Iraq will turn out to be anotherVietnam has now become Washington's nightmare. Despite President Bush's callfor more troops in Iraq, each day seems to bring closer an endgame therethat could echo the one of three decades earlier, with U.S. helicopterslanding "inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof," as Sen. JosephR. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) recently put it.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202061_pf.html
Don't Ban Your Instincts, Ban Ki-moon
By John R. Bolton
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B01
Ban Ki-moon, the new U.N. secretary general, has done some unusual things tokick off his tenure. At the recent annual dinner of the U.N. CorrespondentsAssociation in New York, for instance, he entertained the guests briefly bysinging, to the tune originally written for Santa Claus, his ownarrangement: "Ban Ki-moon is coming to town."
On Tuesday, Ban is coming to this town, his first visit since assumingoffice on Jan. 1. The former South Korean foreign minister has already madeit clear that he intends to be a different kind of "SG" from hispredecessor. The United States backed Ban for his new post, largely withsuch a change in mind. Nonetheless, his first few days in office havealready raised some questions. The struggle is underway to determine whatsort of leader Ban will be: Will the status quo of the U.N. system overwhelmhim, or will he follow his instincts and those of his supporters, includingWashington?
Consider the following issues:
First, responding to Iraq's recent execution of Saddam Hussein, Ban saidthat the decision of whether to invoke the death penalty is a matter foreach U.N. member state to decide for itself. This provoked howls of outragefrom the international high-minded, who over the past decade hadsuccessfully encouraged U.N. resolutions opposing the death penalty from theU.N. Human Rights Commission (a body that eventually was abolished becauseit had only an incidental relationship with human rights).
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202054_pf.html
Trapped by Hubris, Again
By Robert G. Kaiser
Sunday, January 14, 2007; B01
After nearly four years of ineffectual war-fighting, after the collapse ofdomestic support for President Bush and his policies, after the expenditureof thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, it no longerseems possible to avoid the grim conclusion: For the United States, Iraq hasbecome another Vietnam.
Fortunately, the overall death toll in Iraq so far, while high, is stillsmaller than it was in Vietnam. But tragically, the most importantdifference between the two conflicts may be that defeat in Iraq is likely toproduce catastrophic consequences for that nation, its neighbors and theUnited States, too.
For a gray-haired journalist whose career included 18 months covering theVietnam War for The Washington Post, it is a source of amazement to realizethat my country has done this again. We twice took a huge risk in the hopethat we could predict and dominate events in a nation whose history we didnot know, whose language few of us spoke, whose rivalries we didn'tunderstand, whose expectations for life, politics and economics were allforeign to many Americans.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/americas/14iran.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
Iranian President Visits Venezuela to Strengthen Ties
By SIMON ROMERO
CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 13 - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran arrivedhere on Saturday for talks with President Hugo Chávez, on the first leg of aLatin American visit to enhance Tehran's stature with governments wheredistrust of the Bush administration already runs deep.
It is Mr. Ahmadinejad's second visit to Venezuela in the past five months,and the two leaders were scheduled to talk about strengthening theireconomic ties. From here, the Iranian president is to visit Ecuador andNicaragua, where leftist presidents aligned with Mr. Chávez are takingoffice this month.
Venezuela's government promoted the visit as an example of Middle Easternsolidarity with Mr. Chávez's opposition to American foreign policy.Venezuela has been a vociferous defender of Iran as the United States stepsup efforts to circumscribe Mr. Ahmadinejad's government, most recentlythrough military raids this week on people suspected of being Iranianoperatives in Iraq.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/nyregion/14title.html?ei=5094&en=090f473f31a8e170&hp=&ex=1168837200&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1168794056-w14wke+F2FVfCXUZjvr5oQ
January 14, 2007
Equal Cheers for Boys and Girls Draw Some Boos
By WINNIE HU
WHITNEY POINT, N.Y. - Thirty girls signed up for the cheerleading squad thiswinter at Whitney Point High School in upstate New York. But upon learningthey would be waving their pompoms for the girls' basketball team as well asthe boys', more than half of the aspiring cheerleaders dropped out.
The eight remaining cheerleaders now awkwardly adjust their routines forwhichever team is playing here on the home court - "Hands Up You Guys"becomes "Hands Up You Girls"- to comply with a new ruling from federaleducation officials interpreting Title IX, the law intended to guaranteegender equality in student sports.
"It feels funny when we do it," said Amanda Cummings, 15, the cheerleadingco-captain, who forgot the name of a female basketball player mid-cheer lastmonth.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/middleeast/14rice.html?pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
Rice Backs Mideast Moderates, but Offers No Plan
By THOM SHANKER and GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Jan. 13 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Israelicounterpart declared their mutual backing on Saturday for a bilateraldiplomatic strategy that would support moderate political leaders across theMiddle East, but after a first evening of talks here offered little new topush ahead any agreement with the Palestinians.
Ms. Rice played down expectations for any breakthrough during her travels.
"I expect this trip to really be one in which we have intensiveconsultations," she said to open weeklong travels across the Middle East andthe Persian Gulf before consulting with allies in Western Europe. "I'm notcoming with a proposal. I'm not coming with a plan."
The focus of her first two days is to push Israeli and Palestinian leadersto move forward on a number of smaller issues, and then she will speak withother regional allies to try to gather support for President Bush's newstrategy for Iraq.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/washington/14spy.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en=203bd3d1f0cd9644&hp=&ex=1168750800&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1168772846-tOy/rT1FTk70g7N3mBUsBA&pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
Military Is Expanding Its Intelligence Role in U.S.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 - The Pentagon has been using a little-known power toobtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and otherssuspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of anaggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering.
The C.I.A. has also been issuing what are known as national security lettersto gain access to financial records from American companies, though it hasdone so only rarely, intelligence officials say.
Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions receiving theletters usually have turned over documents voluntarily, allowinginvestigators to examine the financial assets and transactions of Americanmilitary personnel and civilians, officials say.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/opinion/14sun1.html?pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
Editorial
Picking Up the Pieces
It was surreal how disconnected President Bush was the other night, bothfrom Iraq's horrifying reality and America's anguish over this unnecessary,mismanaged and now unwinnable war. Indeed, most Americans seem far ahead ofthe president. They understand that what the country urgently needs is forMr. Bush to chart a way out of Iraq that also limits the chaos that will beleft behind.
The president's disconnect goes far to explain the harshly critical reactionof Congress and the public to his plan to further bleed America'soverstretched forces by sending some 20,000 additional troops in an attemptto impose peace on Baghdad's vengeful streets. He proposes to do thatwithout any enforceable commitments from the Iraqi government that it willtake the necessary political steps that are the only hope for tamping down aspiraling civil war.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/13/AR2007011301189_pf.html
House GOP Shows Its Fractiousness In the Minority
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 14, 2007; A01
House Republican leaders, who confidently predicted they would drive a wedgethrough the new Democratic majority, have found their own party splintering,with Republican lawmakers siding with Democrats in droves on the House'sopening legislative blitz.
Freed from the pressures of being the majority and from the heavy hand offormer leaders including retired representative Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), manyback-bench Republicans are showing themselves to be more moderate than theirconservative leadership and increasingly mindful of shifting votersentiment. The closest vote last week -- Friday's push to require thefederal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare -- pulled 24Republicans. The Democrats' homeland security bill attracted 68 Republicans,the minimum wage increase 82.
"You're freer to vote your conscience," said Rep. Jo Anne Emerson (R-Mo.),who received an 88 percent voting record from the American ConservativeUnion in 2005 but has so far sided with Democrats on new budget rules,Medicare prescription-drug negotiations, raising the minimum wage andfunding stem cell research. "Or, really, I feel free to represent myconstituents exactly as they want me to be."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/washington/14spyside.html?_r=1&adxnnl=0&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1168751148-sWwJH98TCgDIqJjz7/XSLg&pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
Deletions in Army Manual Raise Wiretapping Concerns
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 - Deep into an updated Army manual, the deletion of 10words has left some national security experts wondering whether governmentlawyers are again asserting the executive branch's right to wiretapAmericans without a court warrant.
The manual, described by the Army as a "major revision" tointelligence-gathering guidelines, addresses policies and procedures forwiretapping Americans, among other issues.
The original guidelines, from 1984, said the Army could seek to wiretappeople inside the United States on an emergency basis by going to the secretcourt set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, orby obtaining certification from the attorney general "issued under theauthority of section 102(a) of the Act."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/us/14library.html?pagewanted=print
January 14, 2007
A Discordant Chorus Questions Visions for a Bush Library at SouthernMethodist
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
HOUSTON, Jan. 13 - With growing faculty unease over plans to enshrinePresident Bush's official papers and a policy institute at SouthernMethodist University in Dallas, the process of creating the nation's 13thpresidential library is off to a familiar start: discord.
On Thursday, 68 theologians, professors and other faculty members presentand past, citing complaints about President Bush's "poor marks" on civilliberties, the environment, gay rights and the war in Iraq, sent theuniversity president a letter questioning whether visions of the librarywere consistent with the school's religious and academic values.
"According to George Bush's closest associates, the half-billion-dollarendowment will be used by the institute to hire conservative scholars toagree to 'write papers and books favorable to the president's policies,' "said the letter calling for a campuswide dialogue on the affiliation.
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http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/opinion/14brooks.html?pagewanted=print
The New York Times
January 14, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
The American Way of Equality
By DAVID BROOKS
Income inequality is on the rise. The rich are getting better at passingtheir advantages on to their kids. Lifestyle and values gaps are wideningbetween the educated and uneducated. So the big issue is: Will Americansdemand new policies to reverse these trends — to redistribute wealth, toprovide greater economic security? Are we about to see a mass populistmovement in this country?
Nobody was smarter on this subject than Seymour Martin Lipset, the eminentsociologist who died at 84 on New Year’s Eve. Lipset had been a socialist inthe hothouse atmosphere of City College during the 1940s, and though helater became a moderate Democrat, he continued to wonder, with some regret,why America never had a serious socialist movement, why America neveradopted a European-style welfare state.
Lipset was aware of the structural and demographic answers to suchquestions. For example, racially diverse nations tend to have lower levelsof social support than homogeneous ones. People don’t feel as bound togetherwhen they are divided on ethnic lines and are less likely to embrace mutualsupport programs. You can have diversity or a big welfare state. It’s hardto have both.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/opinion/14rich.html
January 14, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
He’s in the Bunker Now
By FRANK RICH
PRESIDENT BUSH always had one asset he could fall back on: theself-confidence of a born salesman. Like Harold Hill in “The Music Man,” heknew how to roll out a new product, however deceptive or useless, withconviction and stagecraft. What the world saw on Wednesday night was adefeated Willy Loman who looked as broken as his war. His flop sweat waspalpable even if you turned down the sound to deflect despair-inducingphrases like “Prime Minister Maliki has pledged ...” and “Secretary Ricewill leave for the region. ...”
Mr. Bush seemed to know his product was snake oil, and his White Househandlers did too. In the past, they made a fetish of situating their star intelegenic settings, from aircraft carriers to Ellis Island. Or they placedhim against Orwellian backdrops shrieking “Plan for Victory." But this timeeven the audio stuttered, as if in solidarity with Baghdad’s continuingelectricity blackout, and the Oval Office was ditched, lest it summon upmemories of all those past presidential sightings of light at the end of theIraqi tunnel. Mr. Bush was banished to the White House library, where thebackdrop was acres of books, to signify the studiousness of his rethinkingof the “way forward.”
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http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/opinion/14kristof.html
The New York Times
January 14, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Stumbling Around the World
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
With Iraq sliding off a cliff, and now tugging another 20,000 youngAmericans along as well, it’s worth wrestling with a larger question: Whyare we so awful at foreign policy?
Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize, dropped bythe other day, and she made the same point with characteristic bluntness.“It amazes me that the U.S., with all its scientific accomplishments, is soshortsighted in its foreign policy,” she noted.
It is pathetic. We can go safely to the moon but not to Anbar Province. Wecan peer into the farthest reaches of the universe, but we fail to notice(until it’s too late) that many Iraqis loathe us. We produce movies thatdelight audiences all over the world, but we can’t devise a foreign policythat anybody likes.
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http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_abbas_sa_070111_bush_3a_alcohol_2c_dumbb.htm
January 12, 2007
The Neuropsychology of George W. Bush
By Abbas Sadeghian, Ph.D.
"Why don't they have Bibles? Can we get them Bibles? Would they likeBibles?"
The most reported inquiry by George Bush about the fate of the US Air crewof the American surveillance plane downed over China.
Newsweek, April 23, 2001, Atlantic edition
When I read of the above quote in the papers during the Chinese stand off, Iwas happy to find the missing link in understanding George Bush.
The incident occurred five months before 911. An American spy plane collidedwith a Chinese fighter plane, forcing the American plane to land on anisland off of China. The crew had infuriated the Chinese by remaining lockedin the plane until they had destroyed sensitive material and equipment. Whenthey emerged, they were taken prisoner and were held for 22 days whileAmerica negotiated for their release.
As State Department officials worked on the situation, President Bush madethe above comment, which was considered the most reported statement of theevent.
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
FLORIDA DIGEST January 14, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US ATrays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cyearlater14jan14,0,7313997.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
One year later, a family mourns while accused teens grapple with prison
By Tonya Alanez and Elizabeth Baier
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 2007
From his dirty eighth-floor window at the Broward County Main Jail, ThomasDaugherty looks out, hoping one day he might see his best friend.
He spends his days reading the Bible, doing push-ups and sit-ups inside his70-square-foot cell. He writes letters to family and friends on notebookpaper he buys from the jail commissary.
It has been one year since Daugherty, Brian Hooks and William Ammons areaccused of going on a violent pre-dawn spree against homeless men in FortLauderdale.
It's been a year of renewing their sense of family for the siblings andparents of Norris Gaynor, who was clubbed to death with a baseball bat thatJan. 12, 2006, morning. It's been a year of endurance for the two men whosurvived separate attacks. A year of reflection for the accused teens. Oneof coping for the people who know them best.
"The hardest part of this year has been not having him around. Not gettingto see him, not getting to hold him, not getting to give him a high five orgiving him a bear hug," friend Cecilia Leonard, 16, said of Daugherty.
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tampabay.com
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/14/news_pf/State/White_House_snub_It_c.shtml
White House snub? It cuts both ways
By ADAM C. SMITH, Times Political Editor
Published January 14, 2007
Gov. Charlie Crist confirmed last week that it's still pretty icy betweenhimself and the White House following his snub of the president at anelection eve rally in Pensacola.
Asked whether he had been briefed by the Defense Department on PresidentBush's planned troop surge in Iraq -- since it will affect National Guardtroops in Florida - Crist spoke very slowly for emphasis: "Not sincePensacola. No."
Sen. Mel Martinez, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee,has publicly acknowledged a deep rift, and has said that "healing" will benecessary over time, but that the wound will heal.
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SPTimes.com
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/13/news_pf/State/Crist_selects_five_to.shtml
Crist selects five to study lethal injection
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 13, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Charlie Crist named former Florida Corrections SecretaryHarry Singletary and four other members Friday to a commission that willstudy the state's lethal injection procedure after a botched execution.
Singletary, of Tallahassee, headed the Corrections Department for eightyears in the 1990s. The electric chair was used for executions during histenure.
Crist's other appointments include two from Tampa: Bill Jennings, a capitalcollateral regional counsel representing death row inmates in court; and Dr.David Varlotta, an anesthesiologist. He also named Rodney Doss ofTallahassee, director of victim services for the Attorney General's Office,and Dr. Peter Springer of Ormond Beach, Volusia County Emergency MedicalServices medical director.
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PalmBeachPost.com
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/01/14/a1e_schultzcol_0114.html
Crist shifts the debate on insurance
By Randy Schultz
Palm Beach Post Page Editor
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Over and over, Charlie Crist has called Jeb Bush America's greatestgovernor. But it took less than two weeks for Gov. Crist to show howdifferent he is from Jeb Bush, and he did so on the biggest issue facing thestate.
As property insurance premiums shot up following the 2004 and 2005 hurricaneseasons, Jeb Bush said Florida had a "hurricane problem, not an insuranceproblem." Last year, he paid little attention to the insurance crisis. Hewanted one final year of tax cuts. He wanted lawsuit reform that took rightsfrom innocently injured people. He signed a weak insurance bill andpronounced it a good start. When rates kept going up, Mr. Bush formed acommittee to study the problem, but he ordered the members to recommend onlychanges that would help the private market.
Then Mr. Bush's party lost seats in the House. Then the Senate president,who didn't take up insurance until the next-to-last day of the session, losthis race for chief financial officer; all other Republicans running forstatewide offices won. Now, barely six months after Republican leaders inthe Legislature said that they couldn't do much to lower rates, the Houseand Senate are competing to see which chamber can lower rates more, andfaster. After doing nothing, they may try to do too much.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flwater0114jan14,0,7846274,print.story?coll=sfl-news-browardcomm
Consultant's bill may be $60 million
Lauderdale OKs water project's management costs
By Brittany Wallman
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 2007
Fort Lauderdale ? The outside consultant who oversees the city's largestpublic works program, WaterWorks 2011, will receive another $5.6 million forsix months of work managing the water-sewer projects.
The $5.6 million deal brings the total payment to Denver-based CH2M Hill to$37.5 million, and the company is expected to earn even more -- about $60million total -- for managing the program. The company is not doingconstruction but is overseeing the many companies doing the actual work.
City officials said CH2M Hill is not to blame for large increases in theWaterWorks 2011 costs. The commission at its Dec. 19 meeting voted 4-1 onthe deal, with Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom dissenting. Rodstrom has beencritical of CH2M Hill's oversight and has questioned the consistently risingcost of construction projects. She said the company hasn't proven it iseffectively managing the program, considering WaterWorks 2011 was originallyannounced in 2001 as a $555 million project but has ballooned to $768million.
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cdillardjan14,0,5857386,print.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
Dillard High School looks at triumphs as it celebrates 100 years
The Fort Lauderdale school that gave birth to black education in BrowardCounty marks 100 years
By Akilah Johnson
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 2007
Fort Lauderdale -- This is the story of a school, of a century really. Of aplace that represents moments through time.
This is a tale of segregation, integration, the depth of love, the startingpoint of Broward's black education.
The buildings are still there. Stand in the Old Dillard School -- now amuseum -- and listen to the music of Julian "Cannonball" Adderly. Walk twomiles and hear divas sing in the new Dillard High School's $2 millionrecording studio.
Then and now. Old and new. The beginning, but not the end.
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pbock14jan14,0,3161118,print.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Auditor's aggressive style shakes up Palm Beach County
By Josh Hafenbrack
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 2007
Three years into her career as a countywide political figure, Palm BeachCounty Clerk Sharon Bock finds herself increasingly in a limelight role sherelishes: the aggressive auditor.
Bock is asserting a broader authority for her office as a watchdog fortaxpayers, a move that has irked some county leaders and won praise fromothers. Her style rankled Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson so much thathe broke away from the county financial system this month to form his own.
The lawyer and political novice turned county clerk has beefed up her staffof professional auditors, aiming for a prominent role in remaking how countygovernment manages its ever-growing share of tax dollars.
"When you have a county with $4.3 billion budgeted, we're larger than somecountries in the world," Bock, 54, said. "The control, the systems of theentire county need to be reviewed and updated.
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-still14jan14,0,4589132,print.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Former Broward Superintendent Till to lead Boys & Girls Clubs
By Douane D. James
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 2007
Former Broward Schools Superintendent Frank Till will remain a chiefexecutive of an organization responsible for children, after all.
Till will be the next CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County,officials announced Saturday.
"I've had lots of different offers," Till said. "[But] none of the otherswere working with children. I'm at a place in my life where that's what Iwanted to do."
Till's seven-year term as head of Broward County's public schools endedabruptly in November after School Board members voted to fire him with sevenmonths left on his contract.
"At end of the superintendency, people were afraid I would leave to go backto California," said Till, who was hired to run Broward County schools in1999 after leading the San Diego school system. "What I told them was Iwould try to find a way to stay."
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cyearlater14jan14,0,7313997.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
One year later, a family mourns while accused teens grapple with prison
By Tonya Alanez and Elizabeth Baier
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 2007
From his dirty eighth-floor window at the Broward County Main Jail, ThomasDaugherty looks out, hoping one day he might see his best friend.
He spends his days reading the Bible, doing push-ups and sit-ups inside his70-square-foot cell. He writes letters to family and friends on notebookpaper he buys from the jail commissary.
It has been one year since Daugherty, Brian Hooks and William Ammons areaccused of going on a violent pre-dawn spree against homeless men in FortLauderdale.
It's been a year of renewing their sense of family for the siblings andparents of Norris Gaynor, who was clubbed to death with a baseball bat thatJan. 12, 2006, morning. It's been a year of endurance for the two men whosurvived separate attacks. A year of reflection for the accused teens. Oneof coping for the people who know them best.
"The hardest part of this year has been not having him around. Not gettingto see him, not getting to hold him, not getting to give him a high five orgiving him a bear hug," friend Cecilia Leonard, 16, said of Daugherty.
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tampabay.com
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/14/news_pf/State/White_House_snub_It_c.shtml
White House snub? It cuts both ways
By ADAM C. SMITH, Times Political Editor
Published January 14, 2007
Gov. Charlie Crist confirmed last week that it's still pretty icy betweenhimself and the White House following his snub of the president at anelection eve rally in Pensacola.
Asked whether he had been briefed by the Defense Department on PresidentBush's planned troop surge in Iraq -- since it will affect National Guardtroops in Florida - Crist spoke very slowly for emphasis: "Not sincePensacola. No."
Sen. Mel Martinez, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee,has publicly acknowledged a deep rift, and has said that "healing" will benecessary over time, but that the wound will heal.
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SPTimes.com
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/13/news_pf/State/Crist_selects_five_to.shtml
Crist selects five to study lethal injection
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 13, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Charlie Crist named former Florida Corrections SecretaryHarry Singletary and four other members Friday to a commission that willstudy the state's lethal injection procedure after a botched execution.
Singletary, of Tallahassee, headed the Corrections Department for eightyears in the 1990s. The electric chair was used for executions during histenure.
Crist's other appointments include two from Tampa: Bill Jennings, a capitalcollateral regional counsel representing death row inmates in court; and Dr.David Varlotta, an anesthesiologist. He also named Rodney Doss ofTallahassee, director of victim services for the Attorney General's Office,and Dr. Peter Springer of Ormond Beach, Volusia County Emergency MedicalServices medical director.
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PalmBeachPost.com
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/01/14/a1e_schultzcol_0114.html
Crist shifts the debate on insurance
By Randy Schultz
Palm Beach Post Page Editor
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Over and over, Charlie Crist has called Jeb Bush America's greatestgovernor. But it took less than two weeks for Gov. Crist to show howdifferent he is from Jeb Bush, and he did so on the biggest issue facing thestate.
As property insurance premiums shot up following the 2004 and 2005 hurricaneseasons, Jeb Bush said Florida had a "hurricane problem, not an insuranceproblem." Last year, he paid little attention to the insurance crisis. Hewanted one final year of tax cuts. He wanted lawsuit reform that took rightsfrom innocently injured people. He signed a weak insurance bill andpronounced it a good start. When rates kept going up, Mr. Bush formed acommittee to study the problem, but he ordered the members to recommend onlychanges that would help the private market.
Then Mr. Bush's party lost seats in the House. Then the Senate president,who didn't take up insurance until the next-to-last day of the session, losthis race for chief financial officer; all other Republicans running forstatewide offices won. Now, barely six months after Republican leaders inthe Legislature said that they couldn't do much to lower rates, the Houseand Senate are competing to see which chamber can lower rates more, andfaster. After doing nothing, they may try to do too much.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flwater0114jan14,0,7846274,print.story?coll=sfl-news-browardcomm
Consultant's bill may be $60 million
Lauderdale OKs water project's management costs
By Brittany Wallman
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 2007
Fort Lauderdale ? The outside consultant who oversees the city's largestpublic works program, WaterWorks 2011, will receive another $5.6 million forsix months of work managing the water-sewer projects.
The $5.6 million deal brings the total payment to Denver-based CH2M Hill to$37.5 million, and the company is expected to earn even more -- about $60million total -- for managing the program. The company is not doingconstruction but is overseeing the many companies doing the actual work.
City officials said CH2M Hill is not to blame for large increases in theWaterWorks 2011 costs. The commission at its Dec. 19 meeting voted 4-1 onthe deal, with Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom dissenting. Rodstrom has beencritical of CH2M Hill's oversight and has questioned the consistently risingcost of construction projects. She said the company hasn't proven it iseffectively managing the program, considering WaterWorks 2011 was originallyannounced in 2001 as a $555 million project but has ballooned to $768million.
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cdillardjan14,0,5857386,print.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
Dillard High School looks at triumphs as it celebrates 100 years
The Fort Lauderdale school that gave birth to black education in BrowardCounty marks 100 years
By Akilah Johnson
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 2007
Fort Lauderdale -- This is the story of a school, of a century really. Of aplace that represents moments through time.
This is a tale of segregation, integration, the depth of love, the startingpoint of Broward's black education.
The buildings are still there. Stand in the Old Dillard School -- now amuseum -- and listen to the music of Julian "Cannonball" Adderly. Walk twomiles and hear divas sing in the new Dillard High School's $2 millionrecording studio.
Then and now. Old and new. The beginning, but not the end.
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pbock14jan14,0,3161118,print.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Auditor's aggressive style shakes up Palm Beach County
By Josh Hafenbrack
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 2007
Three years into her career as a countywide political figure, Palm BeachCounty Clerk Sharon Bock finds herself increasingly in a limelight role sherelishes: the aggressive auditor.
Bock is asserting a broader authority for her office as a watchdog fortaxpayers, a move that has irked some county leaders and won praise fromothers. Her style rankled Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson so much thathe broke away from the county financial system this month to form his own.
The lawyer and political novice turned county clerk has beefed up her staffof professional auditors, aiming for a prominent role in remaking how countygovernment manages its ever-growing share of tax dollars.
"When you have a county with $4.3 billion budgeted, we're larger than somecountries in the world," Bock, 54, said. "The control, the systems of theentire county need to be reviewed and updated.
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Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-still14jan14,0,4589132,print.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Former Broward Superintendent Till to lead Boys & Girls Clubs
By Douane D. James
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 14, 2007
Former Broward Schools Superintendent Frank Till will remain a chiefexecutive of an organization responsible for children, after all.
Till will be the next CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County,officials announced Saturday.
"I've had lots of different offers," Till said. "[But] none of the otherswere working with children. I'm at a place in my life where that's what Iwanted to do."
Till's seven-year term as head of Broward County's public schools endedabruptly in November after School Board members voted to fire him with sevenmonths left on his contract.
"At end of the superintendency, people were afraid I would leave to go backto California," said Till, who was hired to run Broward County schools in1999 after leading the San Diego school system. "What I told them was Iwould try to find a way to stay."
[ Send your comments about any of the articles in Ray's List Digest toRays.List@Comcast.net ]
#####
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