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NYTimes.com
Huckabee Shakes Up Race For Republican Nomination
By REUTERS
November 28, 2007
Filed at 4:14 a.m. ET
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's surgein Iowa has shaken up the race for the Republican presidential nomination,but it remains to be seen if the folksy Baptist preacher can extend hisappeal beyond his populist roots.
The humorous and affable Huckabee largely went unchallenged by rivals whileseen as an unthreatening dark horse, but he has faced criticism and closerscrutiny since a jump in the polls put him within reach of Iowa front-runnerMitt Romney.
The free-market Club for Growth has blasted Huckabee's tax hikes as Arkansasgovernor, conservative columnist Robert Novak has labeled him a "falseconservative" and his rivals have challenged him on issues like immigration.
Even voters in his home state seem to be ambivalent.
While he had approval ratings of around 55 percent his last years in office,an Arkansas poll two years ago found voters opposed him seeking thepresidency 44 percent to 43 percent.
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NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-aids-evangelicals.html?pagewanted=print
U.S. Evangelicals Strive to Change Attitudes on AIDS
By REUTERS
November 28, 2007
Filed at 4:11 a.m. ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kay Warren says five years ago she was a "whitesuburban mom with a minivan" helping her husband run one of the mostinfluential evangelical churches in the United States and barely aware ofthe global AIDS crisis.
Today, Warren will host the third conference on her church's role infighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic after a spiritual awakening that rocked herown faith and challenged how the evangelical community responds to what manystill regard as a "gay cancer."
More than 50 international speakers -- including the first ladies of Rwandaand Zambia and Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton -- willgather at Saddleback Valley Community Church in Southern California onWednesday for three days to mobilize local churches around the world to helpprevent HIV/AIDS and care for its victims.
"This is the passion, the call of my life," said Warren, a quintessentialCalifornia blue-eyed blonde. She admits that U.S. evangelicals have been"late to the party" on the AIDS issue and castigates the "sinful absence andpuny efforts" of her community's past track record.
"I see more and more individual churches, pastors and believers who arerecognizing that this is what the Bible teaches and that there is nothingstrange about it," Warren told Reuters of her campaign.
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NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/education/28education.html?pagewanted=print
On Education
Blurring the Line Between a College Application and a Slick Sales Pitch
By JOSEPH BERGER
November 28, 2007
The language is pure Madison Avenue, but it is richly in vogue among paidcounselors who advise students on how to make strong impressions withtop-flight colleges. Package yourself, they say. Brand yourself.
One Manhattan boutique firm specializes in "the development of each client'spersonal brand," and other coaches adopt similar approaches, if in morediscreet language. The price for their counseling services can be $4,000 andup.
Branding is a buzzword among corporations, and colleges, too, are desperateto distinguish themselves. And so the philosophy - some might call it anaffliction - has filtered down to those applying to the most selectivecolleges.
Yet it would be wrong to blame either the students or their counselors forwhat is a sickness of the zeitgeist aggravated by the mushrooming number ofapplicants and misguided notions that only 20 colleges are worth attending.The herd of applicants is so teeming that students really do find itdifficult to distinguish themselves from others who have scored in the SATstratosphere and spent summers in Guatemala working with the poor. HannahLindsell, a sophomore at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School on the WestSide of Manhattan, offered an eloquent articulation of the problem.
"People sometimes worry that they're being packaged, but at the end of theday you're just a sheet of paper," she said. "If you're not packaged to adegree, you're all over the place. It's important to be focused. Havingsomeone like a coach helps you decide where the focus is going to be."
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NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/us/politics/28repubs.html?pagewanted=print
In Iowa, Mormon Issue Is Benefiting Huckabee
By MICHAEL LUO
November 28, 2007
The religious divide over Mitt Romney's Mormon faith that his supporters hadlong feared would occur is emerging in Iowa as he is being challenged instate polls by Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor who has played up hisfaith in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
Mr. Huckabee's rise in Iowa - some recent polls now put him in a dead heatwith Mr. Romney, who had led surveys for months - has been fueled byevangelical Christians, who believe Mormonism runs counter to Christianorthodoxy.
Although Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, has been able tomake inroads among the evangelicals, an influential voting bloc in thestate, interviews with Mr. Huckabee's supporters make clear that a sizablenumber are distinctly uncomfortable with Mr. Romney's religion and cite itas a major reason they would not vote for him in the state's Jan. 3caucuses.
On Monday, Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, raised the stakeswhen he began broadcasting an advertisement in Iowa that emphasizes hisfaith and declares him to be a "Christian leader" - all in capital letters -which some might view as a shot at Mr. Romney.
Chip Saltsman, Mr. Huckabee's campaign manager, said the campaign had nointention of making any kind of allusion to Mr. Romney's being a Mormon,saying the idea was simply to introduce Mr. Huckabee to Iowans.
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NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/us/28minyan.html?pagewanted=print
Challenging Tradition, Young Jews Worship on Their Terms
By NEELA BANERJEE
November 28, 2007
WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 - There are no pews at Tikkun Leil Shabbat, no rabbis,no one with children or gray hair.
Instead, one rainy Friday night, the young worshipers sat in concentriccircles in the basement of an office building, damp stragglers four deepagainst the walls. In the middle, Megan Brudney and Rob Levy played guitar,drums and sang, leading about 120 people through the full Shabbat liturgy inHebrew.
Without a building and budget, Tikkun Leil Shabbat is one of the independentprayer groups, or minyanim, that Jews in their 20s and 30s have organized inthe last five years in at least 27 cities around the country. They arechallenging traditional Jewish notions of prayer, community and identity.
In places like Atlanta; Brookline, Mass.; Chico, Calif.; and Manhattan theminyanim have shrugged off what many participants see as the passive,rabbi-led worship of their parents' generation to join services led by theirpeers, with music sung by all, and where the full Hebrew liturgy and fullinclusion of men and women, gay or straight, seem to be equal priorities.
Members of the minyanim are looking for "redemptive, transformativeexperiences that give rhythm to their days and weeks and give meaning totheir lives," said Joelle Novey, 28, a founder of Tikkun Leil Shabbat, whosename alludes to the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, or repairing the world.It is an experience they are not finding in traditional Jewish institutions,she said.
Many synagogues feel threatened by the minyanim, and in some cases havetried to adopt their approach, but with only limited success.
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Inside Higher Education
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/11/28/immigrant
Berkeley as the 'Immigrant University'
California has long been a land of immigrants; in 1920, almost a quarter ofits residents were foreign-born, though the vast majority of the populationhad European roots. So it probably won't shock anyone that the state'sflagship public university, the University of California at Berkeley, todayhas a strong immigrant tilt to its undergraduate student body. But evenseasoned observers of the state and the university might be surprised by theextent of the immigrant presence at Berkeley, which the authors of a newstudy characterize as "tremendous and unprecedented": 63 percent of thecampus's undergraduate students (excluding international students) wereeither born outside the United States or have at least one foreign-bornparent.
The figure is lower, but still strikingly high, in the University ofCalifornia system broadly, with 54 percent of undergraduates at all ninecampuses being first- or second-generation immigrants (the university'scampuses at Irvine, Riverside, Los Angeles and Merced have the largestimmigrant populations after Berkeley).
The authors of the study, "The Immigrant University: Assessing the Dynamicsof Race, Major and Socioeconomic Characteristics at the University ofCalifornia," released by Berkeley's Center for Studies in Higher Education,say their analysis is designed to show the need for a more complex method ofdefining "diversity," "beyond older racial and ethnic paradigms."
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International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/27/africa/mideast.php?WT.mc_id=newsalert
Israelis and Palestinians pledge to reach peace pact by end of 2008
By Steven Lee Myersand Helene Cooper
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland: The Israeli and Palestinian leaders committedthemselves Tuesday to negotiate a peace treaty by the end of 2008, settingthemselves a deadline for ending a conflict that has endured for sixdecades.
President George W. Bush announced the agreement at the opening of aninternational gathering here at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he declaredthat a peace between Israelis and Palestinians was part of a broaderstruggle against extremism in the Middle East.
"We meet to lay the foundation for the establishment of a new nation: Ademocratic Palestinian state that will live side by side with Israel inpeace and security," Bush said, appearing in the academy's Memorial Hall,flanked by the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and Mahmoud Abbas,president of the Palestinian authority.
"We meet to help bring an end to the violence that has been the true enemyof the aspirations of both the Israelis and Palestinians."
In the presence of representatives of 49 nations and internationalorganizations, including Arab countries that do not recognize Israel, Olmertand Abbas pledged to "to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuousnegotiations" to conclude a treaty that would recognize two neighboringstates.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/opinion/28friedman.html?ref=opinion
News Analysis
Iran Casts Big Shadow on Mideast Talks
By STEVEN ERLANGER
November 28, 2007
ANNAPOLIS, Md., Nov. 27 - The Middle East peace conference here on Tuesdaywas officially about ending the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. But there wasan unspoken goal just below the surface: stopping the rising regionalinfluence of Iran and Islamic radicalism.
That is why, despite enormous skepticism about the ability of the Israelisand Palestinians to reach a final peace treaty, there is enormous reliefamong the many Sunni Arab countries in attendance that the United States hasre-engaged in what they see as the larger and more important battle forMuslim hearts and minds.
"The Arabs have come here not because they love the Jews or even thePalestinians," said an adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team who spokeon condition of anonymity. "They came because they need a strategic alliancewith the United States against Iran."
Hovering over Annapolis are deep anxieties over the challenge from aresurgent Shiite and non-Arab Iran, with its nuclear program and itssuccessful allies and proxies in southern Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinianterritories. Those Arab nations fear that the tide of history is moving awayfrom them, and that they are losing their own youth to religious militancy.
"There is a genuine concern and fear among political classes in the Arabworld that the Islamic trend hasn't reached its plateau," said HishamMelhem, the Washington bureau chief for Al Arabiya television. "They worrythat Iran and its allies act as if this may be the beginning of the end ofAmerica's moment in the Middle East."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/opinion/28wed2.html?ref=opinion
A Loss for Privacy Rights
Editorial
November 28, 2007
The Constitution protects individuals against unreasonable searches, but forthis protection to have practical meaning, the courts must enforce it. Thisweek, the Supreme Court let stand a disturbing ruling out of California thatallows law enforcement to barge into people's homes without a warrant. Thecase has not prompted much outrage, perhaps because the people whose privacyis being invaded are welfare recipients, but it is a serious setback for theprivacy rights of all Americans.
San Diego County's district attorney has a program called Project 100% thatis intended to reduce welfare fraud. Applicants for welfare benefits arevisited by law enforcement agents, who show up unannounced and examine thefamily's home, including the insides of cabinets and closets. Applicants whorefuse to let the agents in are generally denied benefits.
The program does not meet the standards set out by the Fourth Amendment. Fora search to be reasonable, there generally must be some kind ofindividualized suspicion of wrongdoing. These searches are done in the homesof people who have merely applied for welfare and have done nothing toarouse suspicion.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in SanFrancisco, rejected a challenge brought by welfare recipients. In rulingthat the program does not violate the Constitution, the majority made thebizarre assertion that the home visits are not "searches."
The Supreme Court has long held that when the government intrudes on aperson's reasonable expectation of privacy, it is a search for purposes ofthe Fourth Amendment. It is a fun-house mirrors version of constitutionalanalysis for a court to say that government agents are not conducting asearch when they show up unannounced in a person's home and rifle throughher bedroom dresser.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/opinion/28wed3.html?ref=opinion
House Cleaning
Editorial
November 28, 2007
After months of delay, a legislative task force is now expected to recommendthe creation of an independent office to goad action and accountability fromthe House's ethically challenged ethics committee. In a bipartisan ode tothe unrocked boat, the committee sat passively through corruption scandalsinthe last Congress that put two lawmakers behind bars.
The proposed new oversight office, appointed by the two parties' Houseleaders, reportedly would have the power to conduct preliminaryinvestigations of complaints, make recommendations for action to the ethicscommittee and let the public know the result of complaints that currentlydisappear into the legislative maw. This would be a groundbreaking stepagainst Capitol Hill misbehavior. Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered thefeasibility study of an enforcement arm, venturing where her fellowDemocratic leaders in the Senate dare not go.
But there's still one more crucial fight for the speaker in taking on the"culture of corruption" her party campaigned against. The new oversightoffice, by all current reports, would be crimped in its fact-finding missionby having no access to subpoena power. There's still time for repairs beforethe enforcement proposal is finalized next month. If members bridle at theidea of outside watchdogs with independent subpoena power, a logicalcompromise would be to allow the new office to request the ethics committeeto issue its own subpoenas.
The House has already adopted noteworthy bans on gifts, meals and freetravel from the legions of influence brokers. Failure to follow through withadequate enforcement muscle threatens to reduce the ballyhooed ethics cleanup to a cosmetic touch up.
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The New York Times
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/romney-and-muslims-and-that-other-religion/index.html?ref=opinion
Romney and Muslims (And That Other Religion .)
By Tobin Harshaw
November 27, 2007, 3:18 pm
Tags: Islam, Mitt Romney, the cabinet
A Christian Science Monitor opinion piece claims that, when asked the ratherodd question of whether he "would consider including qualified Americans ofthe Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters,"Mitt Romney reportedly gave an even odder answer: "Based on the numbers ofAmerican Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that acabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine thatMuslims could serve at lower levels of my administration."
(It's worth mentioning that "Team Romney indicates that they are skeptical"of the accuracy of the column, according to Jim Geraghty at NationalReview.)
Nonetheless, Salon's Tim Grieve brings some common sense to the table: "Now,we weren't aware that Cabinet positions were supposed to be doled outproportionally by religious faith or other demographic qualifiers -especially when the doling is done by representatives of a party that sooften claims to eschew quotas and set-asides."
And Christopher Hitchens, writing at Slate, thinks Romney should be facingquestions about a different religion - the candidate's own. "Mostjournalists have tacitly agreed that it's off-limits to ask the formergovernor about the tenets of the Mormon cult," notes Hitchens. "The Mormonsclaim that their leadership is prophetic and inspired and that its rulingstake precedence over any human law. The constitutional implications of thisare too obvious to need spelling out, but it would be good to see Romneyspell them out all the same. So phooey, say I, to the false reticence of thepress and to the bogus sensitivities that underlie it."
(Note: Here's some background information on Mansoor Ijaz, the author of theChristian Science Monitor op-ed.)
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/us/28girlscout.html?hp
To Muslim Girls, Scouts Offer a Chance to Fit In
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
November 28, 2007
MINNEAPOLIS - Sometimes when Asma Haidara, a 12-year-old Somali immigrant,wants to shop at Target or ride the Minneapolis light-rail system, she putsher Girl Scout sash over her everyday clothes, which usually include a longskirt worn over pants as well as a swirling head scarf.
She has discovered that the trademark green sash - with its American flag,troop number (3009) and colorful merit badges - reduces the number ofglowering looks she draws from people otherwise bothered by her traditionalMuslim dress.
"When you say you are a girl scout, they say, 'Oh, my daughter is a girlscout, too,' and then they don't think of you as a person from anotherplanet," said Asma, a slight, serious girl with a bright smile. "They aremore comfortable about sitting next to me on the train."
Scattered Muslim communities across the United States are forming Girl Scouttroops as a sort of assimilation tool to help girls who often feel alienatedfrom the mainstream culture, and to give Muslims a neighborly aura. BoyScout troops are organized with the same inspiration, but often the leap forgirls is greater because many come from conservative cultures that frownupon their participating in public physical activity.
By teaching girls to roast hot dogs or fix a flat bicycle tire, FarheenHakeem, one troop leader here, strives to help them escape the perception ofmany non-Muslims that they are different.
Scouting is a way of celebrating being American without being any lessMuslim, Ms. Hakeem said.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/education/28roberts.html
Oral Roberts U. and President Part Ways
By GRETEL C. KOVACH
November 28, 2007
DALLAS, Nov. 27 - Oral Roberts University's regents announced Tuesday thatthey would legally and financially separate the university from the ministryheaded by Richard Roberts, the television evangelist accused last month in alawsuit of tapping university and ministry money to finance a lavishlifestyle .
The regents also decided during a two-day closed-door meeting to accept theresignation of Dr. Roberts, who began a leave of absence Oct. 17 from hisposition as university president when he and his wife, Lindsay Roberts, wereaccused of financial and personal misconduct.
University officials recently disclosed that the institution was more than$50 million in debt.
George Pearsons, chairman of the Board of Regents, initially announced at anews conference on Tuesday that the university had received $10 million indonations during the two-day meeting. Then Mart Green, whose family startedchains of hobby and Christian education stores, increased his $8 milliongift to $70 million, provided the university could show good governance.
Dr. Roberts, son of the television evangelist and university founder OralRoberts, had led the university for 14 years. He also serves as chairman andchief executive of the multimillion-dollar Oral Roberts Ministries, whichfinances his television shows and outreach programs.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/nyregion/28shoot.html
Defense in Teenager's Death Invokes Memories of Lynch Mobs
By PAUL VITELLO
November 28, 2007
RIVERHEAD, N.Y., Nov. 27 - The trial of a black man accused of killing awhite youth who threatened his son will be as much about race and the echoesof Jim Crow lynch mobs as about the five minutes on a hot August night in2006 when a white teenager was shot in the face, defense lawyers for the mansuggested on Tuesday.
"In the South, black men were hung because they were accused of rape, andironically, the incident that propelled the events of that night had thesame sort of background," said Paul Gianelli, the lawyer for the defendant,John H. White, 54, a construction foreman. Mr. White, who moved with hisfamily into the predominantly white Long Island hamlet of Miller Place onlytwo years before the killing, faces charges of manslaughter and gunpossession in Suffolk County Criminal Court here.
"They were a mob, a lynch mob," Mr. Gianelli said of the five youths whotracked Mr. White's son, Aaron, 20, to his home that night.
The lawyer said the victim, Daniel Cicciaro, 17, and the other youths spewedracial epithets at Mr. White and his son that night. Police have said thatthe youths wanted to beat Aaron White because they believed he had posted amessage on an Internet chat room threatening to rape a 15-year-girl they allknew.
Mr. White intended to use the gun only to disperse the group, Mr. Gianellisaid, and it went off accidentally when Mr. Cicciaro grabbed for it.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/world/28climate.html
U.N. Warns of Climate-Related Setbacks
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
November 28, 2007
A new United Nations report warns that progress toward prosperity in theworld's poorest regions will be reversed unless rich countries promptlybegin curbing emissions linked to global warming while also helping poorerones leapfrog to energy sources that pollute less than coal and oil.
The world's poorest regions will also need much more help than has beenprovided to adapt to climate changes that are already unfolding, said theauthors of the study, the United Nations' annual Human Development Report.
The report's focus on climate and its release date - one week beforeinternational talks begin in Bali to shape a new international climatepact - reflect a top goal set by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: proddingworld leaders to act more swiftly on global warming.
Released yesterday in Brasília and online at hdr.undp.org/en/, the reportbuilds on findings of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange earlier in the year showing that poor countries face outsize risks ina warming world.
It also offers a more detailed view of how poverty, particularly in areasnear the Equator, creates zones of extreme vulnerability to water shortages,droughts, flooding rains and severe storms - all of which are projected tobe more frequent or intense if concentrations of greenhouse gases continueto build.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112702029.html
Obama's Amnesia Problem
By Peter Beinart
Wednesday, November 28, 2007; A23
It's a cultural cliche: Americans don't care about the past. De Tocquevillenoticed it in the 1830s, speculating that in 50 years Americans would knowless about the America he visited than the French knew about the MiddleAges. Nearly two centuries later, people are still making the point. Fiveyears ago, Bruce Cole, the chairman of the National Endowment for theHumanities, bemoaned a "worsening of our case of American amnesia." Hisevidence? More than half of high school seniors didn't know whom we foughtin World War II; 18 percent thought Germany was our ally.
This is bad news for Barack Obama. As a candidate, the junior senator fromIllinois has several advantages over the junior senator from New York. He'smore charismatic, he's less polarizing and he's a fresh face at a time whenmany Americans are sick of the old ones. But in the Democratic primary,surely his biggest advantage is that a little more than five years ago, hedenounced the Iraq war and Hillary Clinton voted for it. In other words, onwhat many Democrats consider the biggest issue of their adult lives, he wasright and she was wrong.
Yet he's getting virtually no credit for it. In late September, when ThePost and ABC News asked Democrats nationally whom they trusted most on thewar, Obama trailed Clinton by 30 points. Even among Democrats who support animmediate withdrawal, he trailed her by more than 25 points, in a recent Pewpoll. That's true in the early primary states, as well. In New Hampshire,for instance, according to the Los Angeles Times, likely Democratic primaryvoters who say they want U.S. troops out of Iraq "as soon as possible"choose Clinton over Obama by more than 2 to 1.
How is this possible? Part of it is that Clinton has moved steadily andskillfully toward where most Democrats are. She now regularly pledges thatif President Bush doesn't end the war, she will. Critics say she'sfudging -- that asterisks in her plan would keep combat troops in Iraq asfar as the eye can see. But most Democratic voters don't seem to care. Fromwhat they can tell, there's no difference between Clinton and her opponents.As of today, she's as antiwar as anyone else.
That's why the 2002 vote is so important. If the debate is about Iraq today,Obama looks like he's splitting hairs. But if he can get Democrats to focuson 2002, he has a clean shot. So he keeps bringing it up, saying hisoriginal opposition to the war proves he has the judgment to be presidentand that (by implication) Clinton does not.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112702030.html
Ghosts of Rwanda
By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, November 28, 2007; A23
KIGALI, Rwanda -- We are used to seeing aged Holocaust survivors with fadedphotographs, telling their stories to remind the young and forgetful. So itis shocking to meet a 31-year-old genocide survivor with memories so freshthey bleed.
I talked to Freddy Mutanguha in a field of white crosses, near ahalf-finished monument to perhaps 800,000 victims of the Rwandan genocide."My mom," he recalled, "gave money to be killed by a bullet, because she sawthe machetes and knew what they would do to her. But the bullet was tooexpensive."
The mass violence of Hutu against Tutsi left a nation of corpses -- and anation of stories. A young man took me on a tour of the neighborhood wherehe had been hunted for weeks by soldiers and informers. At one point, afriend purchased his life with the bribe of a case of beer. He hugs a womanalong the dirt street, commenting as she walks away, "She lost all of herchildren."
A man I met in passing, I later learned, was 14 when he performed the lonelytask of burying his mother, father and siblings in a grave near their home.
And the ghosts seem to gather in sacred places. At Ntarama Church, soldierssurrounded thousands of Tutsis seeking refuge, blocked the door and threwgrenades inside. The walls and rafters of the dark sanctuary are coveredwith the clothing in which the victims were found. Light comes through thetin roof in holes from shrapnel, like constellations frozen at the hour ofdeath.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112702242.html?hpid=topnews
Musharraf Steps Down as Head of Pakistani Army
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 28, 2007; A17
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 28 -- President Pervez Musharraf formally steppeddown as the chief of Pakistan's powerful army Wednesday morning, reluctantlybowing to international pressure to end his eight-year reign as theincreasingly unpopular military ruler of this nuclear-armed Muslim nation of160 million.
Gen. Musharraf, 64, handed over his post as promised to the vice-army chiefand retired from the army at an elaborate ceremony on a vast parade groundinside army headquarters in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi. He isnow scheduled to take his oath Thursday as Pakistan's civilian president forthe next five years.
A military band played, a cleric chanted a prayer, and hundreds of troopsstood at attention as officials gathered for the change of command.Musharraf looked grave and dignified as he addressed the audience beforerelinquishing his post, wearing for the last time the uniform he oftencalled his second skin.
"The army has been my life. The army has been my passion. The army has beenmy pride. The system has to carry on, there is a time when everyone has togo," he said. "Tomorrow I will no longer be in command, but I am happy Ispent these 46 years in very excellent manner. What I am is just because ofthis force."
Just before 11 a.m., after a lengthy performance of military music, heformally handed over the symbol of army command, a long bamboo stick, to hissuccessor, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani.
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Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2007/11/28/a5a_cristyoutube_1128.html
Debate snubs questions sent by Gov. Crist, Kirk Douglas
Palm Beach Post Staff Report
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
ST. PETERSBURG - Gov. Charlie Crist's video submission didn't make the cutfor tonight's CNN/YouTube presidential debate, a CNN executive revealedTuesday.
"Gov. Crist sort of has access to these people. I think it's time forregular people out there to get their questions asked," explained CNN SeniorVice President David Bohrman.
Crist submitted a question about a national catastrophic insurance fund.
Other famous people whose questions were rejected, Bohrman said, includedactor Kirk Douglas and Democratic presidential candidates Chris Dodd andDennis Kucinich.
- George Bennett
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://holycoast.blogspot.com/2007/11/backlash-over-robertson-endorsement.html
Backlash Over Robertson Endorsement
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The endorsement of Rudy Giuliani by Pat Robertson seems to have caused asplit among evangelicals:When the Rev. Pat Robertson endorsed former New York City Mayor RudyGiuliani for the presidency, he created a schism among evangelicalRepublicans - one that may cost the GOP the White House next year.
Since Robertson, the founder of the influential 700 Club, stood withGiuliani at a joint press conference on Nov. 7, a major backlash has beenunder way in the evangelical community over the endorsement.
"It is my pleasure to announce my support for America's Mayor, RudyGiuliani, a proven leader who is not afraid of what lies ahead and who willcast a hopeful vision for all Americans," Robertson said during the newsconference in Washington, D.C.
Robertson, himself a former presidential candidate who ran on a staunchlypro-family platform in 1988, has bewildered Christian conservatives bybacking Giuliani, a staunch supporter of abortion and gay rights.
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/323310.html
Blacks doubt black candidate can win
BY MARGARET TALEV
Posted on Wed, Nov. 28, 2007
Black voters may be leaning toward supporting Hillary Clinton for theDemocratic presidential nomination even though they prefer Barack Obama,because they're dubious that the United States is ready to elect a blackpresident, a new survey suggests.
The national poll released Tuesday by the Joint Center for Political andEconomic Studies, a liberal policy organization in Washington, and AARP, thesenior citizens group, confirms that black likely voters favor the twoleading Democrats, and it underscores the stakes for both in Iowa's Jan. 3caucuses, where the voting begins. Obama and Clinton are running neck andneck in Iowa, recent polls show, though many voters are undecided.
If Illinois Sen. Obama were to win there, in a nearly all-white state, thatmight convince black voters that he's electable and persuade them to votefor him over New York Sen. Clinton in later contests where their votes couldspell the difference, such as in South Carolina.
WHO'S ELECTABLE?
''I think there are a lot of black voters who think Hillary Clinton has abetter chance of being elected president,'' said David Bositis, seniorpolicy analyst for the center, which specializes in analyzing issuesimportant to blacks.
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Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-hastert_27nov27,1,998099.story
Hastert formally leaves Congress: He says timing can cut election costs
By Rick Pearson
Tribune political reporter
November 27, 2007
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert resigned from Congress Monday, formallysetting in motion a rare special election to succeed him.
The veteran lawmaker said the timing of his resignation was based on theadvice of attorneys, with the aim of saving taxpayers money on electioncosts.
Hastert suggested the special primary election to fill out the remainder ofhis term could be held on Feb. 5, the same day as Illinois' regular primaryelection, which will decide nominees for Hastert's long-term replacement aswell.
The former speaker said he also decided to step down now because hisinterests in developing new national energy policies were being sidetrackedin the Democratic-controlled Congress, which is focused on the presidentialelection campaign.
"I wanted to get some energy policy done, but everything is being donebehind closed doors on a partisan basis," Hastert told the Tribune. "Youknow, it seems to get tougher as we move into a presidential election year,and so I figured it was time for me to go out and live the rest of my life."
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-lott27nov27,1,2632124.story?coll=la-news-politics-national&track=crosspromo
Lott to quit Senate only one year into new term
The 35-year veteran's decision to leave by year's end will let him avoid atwo-year wait if he wants a lobbying job.
By Richard Simon
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 27, 2007
WASHINGTON - Sen. Trent Lott, a 35-year Capitol Hill veteran who staged apolitical comeback after losing his Senate leadership post because ofracially insensitive remarks, plans to resign from office before the year isout.
With his decision, the Senate's No. 2 Republican will avoid a new ethicsrule that takes effect by the end of the year, allowing him to pursue alucrative lobbying job after a year's wait rather than after two years.
The Mississippi senator is the latest veteran Republican lawmaker toannounce plans to depart Congress after the party lost its majority toDemocrats in the 2006 election. Among them is former House Speaker J. DennisHastert, who resigned Monday night.
Lott is the sixth GOP senator planning to leave the narrowly dividedchamber, which is mired by partisan conflict that is expected to worsen asthe 2008 campaign heats up.
"One of the things that troubles me now is the great difficulty in passingneeded legislation," Lott said Monday in Pascagoula, Miss. The 66-year-old,who only last year won reelection, said he had made no decision on hispost-congressional career. "I don't know what the future holds for us," hesaid. "A lot of options, hopefully, will be available."
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/26/AR2007112602039.html
Politics Creates Odd Pair: Sanchez and Democrats
Ex-Iraq Commander Now Criticizing War
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 27, 2007; A01
It may be among the strangest of political alliances: a former commandinggeneral in Iraq, blocked from a fourth star and forced into retirementpartly for his role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and the speaker of theHouse, desperate to end a war that the general helped start.
But in partisan Washington, the enemy of one's enemy can quickly become afriend, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the new marriage ofconvenience between Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S.Sanchez.
On Saturday, Sanchez delivered the Democrats' weekly radio address. Heexcoriated what he called the Bush administration's "failure to devise astrategy for victory in Iraq," then embraced Democratic legislation linkingcontinued war funding with a timeline aimed at ending U.S. combat operationsby December 2008.
Other senior military figures have turned on the White House, but none assenior as Sanchez, whose command of coalition forces in Iraq in 2003 and2004 coincided with an explosion of violence, the emergence of a brutalinsurgency and a prison-abuse scandal that still haunts the war effort.
For Democratic leaders, Sanchez's address has been a triumph, covered by themedia nationwide. It interrupted a stream of stories about decliningviolence, which had stalled efforts to force a shift of war policy.
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/323436.html
Recall of ambassador a sign of rising tension
BY TYLER BRIDGES
Posted on Wed, Nov. 28, 2007
Venezuela ratcheted up a diplomatic row with neighboring Colombia on Tuesdaywhen President Hugo Chávez called home his ambassador to Bogotá for an''exhaustive evaluation'' of bilateral relations.
With the move, Chávez appeared to have rejected cautions against allowing anexchange of insults between him and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe onSunday to threaten the close political and economic ties between the twocountries.
The Colombian government said it would not reply by recalling its ambassadorin Caracas -- a diplomatic maneuver that shows displeasure but stops shortof a break in formal relations.
''Uribe wants this to blow over,'' said Elsa Cardozo, a professor ofinternational relations at Venezuela's Metropolitan University.
Myles Frechette, who served as U.S. ambassador to Colombia in the 1990s andas a lower-level diplomat to Venezuela in the 1970s, said Chávez undoubtedlyacted out of personal pique and with an eye toward a crucial vote Sunday onconstitutional reforms.
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/321977.html
Venezuela's future in the balance
Posted on Tue, Nov. 27, 2007
Venezuelans will have a choice on Sunday: Vote No to stop President HugoChávez from assuming absolute power -- or accept the sweeping loss ofpolitical and economic rights that a new constitution will bring.
Fortunately, a student movement has galvanized the opposition. Still, voterswill have to show up in large numbers to stop the power grab.
No term limits?
Proposed constitutional changes would remove presidential term limits thatnow end Mr. Chavez's rule in 2012. They would grant the president power todecree limitless states of emergency, during which Mr. Chávez could suspendfreedom of speech and detain people without charges. Other provisions wouldallow him to easily expropriate private property, control local governmentsand unleash an ''anti-imperialist'' military on ideological missions.
All that authority would be added to Mr. Chávez's already considerablepower. He now controls the judiciary, congress, national electoral body, theoil industry and much of the media. Altogether, Sunday's vote threatens toenshrine a president for life.
Supporters argue that the changes are needed to help Venezuela's poor. Theynote that the economy has grown since 2004 and say that poverty hasdecreased. To some extent, these Chavistas have a point. Frustrated votersswept Mr. Chávez into office in 1999. Venezuelans were fed up with a corruptpolitical system that did little to address poverty or other social ills.
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/story/323325.html
Leave education to principals, teachers, parents
By LEONARD PITTS
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
Posted on Wed, Nov. 28, 2007
GASTON, N.C. -- As I wandered about looking lost, I chanced upon a teacherwho volunteered to lead me where I needed to be. When I told her why I washere -- a series of columns on What Works to change the culture ofdysfunction that entraps too many African-American kids -- she told me I hadcome to the right place: KIPP Gaston College Preparatory and KIPP Pride, twocharter schools serving 600 kids here in farm country. She said she believesso much in what KIPP schools are doing -- longer school day and year, higherexpectations, more teacher freedom -- that she came from Iowa to teach here.
In my last column, I told you about KIPP (the Knowledge Is Power Program), anetwork of 57 charter schools across the country that are reporting stellarresults with their 14,000 mostly black and Hispanic students. Today I wantto talk about the role teachers play in that, and all, academic success.
I'm not unmindful -- a handful of readers brought this up -- that parentalinvolvement is also a key ingredient in that success. Some sorry parentsnever meet a child's teacher until graduation day -- if then. But even themost involved parent is limited in his or her ability to make a differencewhen teacher quality is, in the words of GCP Principal Caleb Dolan, ``a crapshoot.''
''I understand how parents feel,'' he said. ''If my child gets this side ofthe hall, they're in great shape. If they get that side of the hall . . . ''He doesn't finish the sentence. He doesn't need to.
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