Democrats Abroad New Zealand
3.31.2005
Patrick Kennedy Rules Out Senate Bid (USATODAY.com)
Posted 3/30/2005 1:23 PM Updated 3/30/2005 1:24 PM
The Associated Press
Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., on Wednesday ruled out a run for the Senate in 2006, saying he could better serve his constituents by staying in the House and serving on the Appropriations Committee.
Kennedy has been in Boston caring for his mother, Joan Kennedy, who was hospitalized with a concussion and a broken shoulder after a passer-by found her lying in a street Tuesday.
In a statement, Kennedy did not cite family responsibilities as a reason for his decision, but he and his brother and sister recently took temporary guardianship of his mother to ensure she receives treatment for her alcoholism. Patrick Kennedy was seeking to become her permanent legal guardian.
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The Associated Press
Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., on Wednesday ruled out a run for the Senate in 2006, saying he could better serve his constituents by staying in the House and serving on the Appropriations Committee.
Kennedy has been in Boston caring for his mother, Joan Kennedy, who was hospitalized with a concussion and a broken shoulder after a passer-by found her lying in a street Tuesday.
In a statement, Kennedy did not cite family responsibilities as a reason for his decision, but he and his brother and sister recently took temporary guardianship of his mother to ensure she receives treatment for her alcoholism. Patrick Kennedy was seeking to become her permanent legal guardian.
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Yemeni Held in Guantánamo Was Seized in Cairo, Group Says (NYTimes.com)
By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: March 30, 2005
WASHINGTON, March 29 - Sometime in September 2002, a Yemeni businessman and intelligence officer was abducted on a Cairo street, then kept incommunicado for more than a year by United States authorities, and is now among those imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to an examination of his case by Human Rights Watch.
The case of Abdul Salam Ali al-Hila is an example of what human rights groups call "reverse renditions," in which a foreign government assists or cooperates in seizing someone who is then transferred to United States custody. John Sifton, the researcher at Human Rights Watch, the advocacy group - who compiled information on the Hila case from interviews with the man's family, his letters from Guantánamo and government statements published in news reports in Arab countries - said it was "another example of the United States stretching the laws of war and human rights principles to the breaking point.
"You can't just hold people incommunicado indefinitely just by declaring them enemy combatants," he added.
Mr. Sifton and officials from other human rights groups say there are dozens of such people, defined as those who are picked up far from the battlefield of the Afghanistan war and then wind up at the detention center at Guantánamo. Once there, they are considered unlawful combatants.
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Published: March 30, 2005
WASHINGTON, March 29 - Sometime in September 2002, a Yemeni businessman and intelligence officer was abducted on a Cairo street, then kept incommunicado for more than a year by United States authorities, and is now among those imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to an examination of his case by Human Rights Watch.
The case of Abdul Salam Ali al-Hila is an example of what human rights groups call "reverse renditions," in which a foreign government assists or cooperates in seizing someone who is then transferred to United States custody. John Sifton, the researcher at Human Rights Watch, the advocacy group - who compiled information on the Hila case from interviews with the man's family, his letters from Guantánamo and government statements published in news reports in Arab countries - said it was "another example of the United States stretching the laws of war and human rights principles to the breaking point.
"You can't just hold people incommunicado indefinitely just by declaring them enemy combatants," he added.
Mr. Sifton and officials from other human rights groups say there are dozens of such people, defined as those who are picked up far from the battlefield of the Afghanistan war and then wind up at the detention center at Guantánamo. Once there, they are considered unlawful combatants.
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Three Were Told to Leave Bush Town Meeting (WashingtonPost.com)
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 30, 2005; Page A04
Three Denver residents yesterday charged that they were forcibly removed from one of President Bush's town meetings on Social Security because they displayed a bumper sticker on their car condemning the administration's Middle East policies.
The three, all self-described progressives who oppose Bush's Social Security plan, said an unidentified official at an event in Denver last week forced them to leave before the president started to speak, even though they had done nothing disruptive, said their attorney, Dan Recht.
Initially, the three believed Secret Service agents had grabbed them and ushered them out of the auditorium, Recht said. But he said that Lon Garner, the Secret Service agent in charge of the Denver office, told them the service investigated the matter and found it was a "Republican staffer" who removed them because they had a "No More Blood for Oil" bumper sticker on their car.
Garner said yesterday that he was told by headquarters not to comment on the matter, and referred calls to Washington.
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Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 30, 2005; Page A04
Three Denver residents yesterday charged that they were forcibly removed from one of President Bush's town meetings on Social Security because they displayed a bumper sticker on their car condemning the administration's Middle East policies.
The three, all self-described progressives who oppose Bush's Social Security plan, said an unidentified official at an event in Denver last week forced them to leave before the president started to speak, even though they had done nothing disruptive, said their attorney, Dan Recht.
Initially, the three believed Secret Service agents had grabbed them and ushered them out of the auditorium, Recht said. But he said that Lon Garner, the Secret Service agent in charge of the Denver office, told them the service investigated the matter and found it was a "Republican staffer" who removed them because they had a "No More Blood for Oil" bumper sticker on their car.
Garner said yesterday that he was told by headquarters not to comment on the matter, and referred calls to Washington.
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3.30.2005
Ex-Diplomats to Urge Rejection of Bolton as U.N. Ambassador (NYTimes.com)
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 29, 2005
WASHINGTON, March 28 (AP) - A group of former American diplomats plan to send a letter to urge the Senate to reject John R. Bolton's nomination to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations.
"He is the wrong man for this position," the group of 59 former diplomats say in the letter, addressed to Senator Richard G. Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Lugar, Republican of Indiana, has scheduled hearings for April 7 on Mr. Bolton's nomination.
"We urge you to reject that nomination," the former diplomats said in a letter dated Tuesday that was obtained by The Associated Press.
The former diplomats have served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, some for long terms and others briefly. They include Arthur A. Hartman, ambassador to France and the Soviet Union under Presidents Carter and Reagan and assistant secretary of state for European affairs under President Nixon.
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Published: March 29, 2005
WASHINGTON, March 28 (AP) - A group of former American diplomats plan to send a letter to urge the Senate to reject John R. Bolton's nomination to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations.
"He is the wrong man for this position," the group of 59 former diplomats say in the letter, addressed to Senator Richard G. Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Lugar, Republican of Indiana, has scheduled hearings for April 7 on Mr. Bolton's nomination.
"We urge you to reject that nomination," the former diplomats said in a letter dated Tuesday that was obtained by The Associated Press.
The former diplomats have served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, some for long terms and others briefly. They include Arthur A. Hartman, ambassador to France and the Soviet Union under Presidents Carter and Reagan and assistant secretary of state for European affairs under President Nixon.
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3.29.2005
Where Age And Power Go Together (WashingtonPost.com)
Washington Accepts Elderly Leaders
By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 29, 2005; Page A01
Among the ranks of the Fortune 500, just 11 corporate chief executives have remained in their jobs past the age of 70. Of the 100 members of the U.S. Senate, by contrast, 22 have reached septuagenarian status -- and seven of them are either older than 80 or will be before their terms expire.
Of the U.S. Supreme Court justices, only one -- Clarence Thomas, 56 -- is not old enough to collect Social Security.
These numbers make it plain that the top tier of the federal government remains the most welcoming arena in American society for people who want to keep high-powered jobs late in life. Aged and influential is such a common combination that most of the time it draws little notice.
This winter, however, a confluence of events -- most prominently, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's battle with cancer at age 80 -- has put new focus on the phenomenon of Geriatric Washington. Experts on retirement and leadership succession said the capital accepts infirmities in important officials far beyond what is typically tolerated in the highest-level jobs in the private sector.
The difference between top jobs in Washington and those in most other fields is simple: The Constitution says legislators can stay as long as voters agree, and justices can stay as long as they want.
Deciding whether this is good or bad, experts on aging say, is more complex. History offers plenty of examples of prominent officials for whom age and wisdom rose in tandem. There are also plenty of examples of people who cleaved to prestigious jobs long after physical and mental declines were obvious to colleagues, and became the stuff of capital gossip.
(More ... Where Age And Power Go Together (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 20:15 0 comments
By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 29, 2005; Page A01
Among the ranks of the Fortune 500, just 11 corporate chief executives have remained in their jobs past the age of 70. Of the 100 members of the U.S. Senate, by contrast, 22 have reached septuagenarian status -- and seven of them are either older than 80 or will be before their terms expire.
Of the U.S. Supreme Court justices, only one -- Clarence Thomas, 56 -- is not old enough to collect Social Security.
These numbers make it plain that the top tier of the federal government remains the most welcoming arena in American society for people who want to keep high-powered jobs late in life. Aged and influential is such a common combination that most of the time it draws little notice.
This winter, however, a confluence of events -- most prominently, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's battle with cancer at age 80 -- has put new focus on the phenomenon of Geriatric Washington. Experts on retirement and leadership succession said the capital accepts infirmities in important officials far beyond what is typically tolerated in the highest-level jobs in the private sector.
The difference between top jobs in Washington and those in most other fields is simple: The Constitution says legislators can stay as long as voters agree, and justices can stay as long as they want.
Deciding whether this is good or bad, experts on aging say, is more complex. History offers plenty of examples of prominent officials for whom age and wisdom rose in tandem. There are also plenty of examples of people who cleaved to prestigious jobs long after physical and mental declines were obvious to colleagues, and became the stuff of capital gossip.
(More ... Where Age And Power Go Together (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 20:15 0 comments
Rehnquist Returns to Bench After Weekend Hospitalization (USATODAY.com)
Posted 3/28/2005 7:48 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, ailing with thyroid cancer, went to the hospital over the weekend after experiencing breathing problems but returned to the bench Monday.
Rehnquist, 80, was taken by ambulance Sunday to Arlington Hospital in suburban Virginia after developing a problem with the tracheotomy tube that helps him breathe. He was treated on an outpatient basis, said Ed Turner, the court's deputy spokesman.
No other details were provided.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, ailing with thyroid cancer, went to the hospital over the weekend after experiencing breathing problems but returned to the bench Monday.
Rehnquist, 80, was taken by ambulance Sunday to Arlington Hospital in suburban Virginia after developing a problem with the tracheotomy tube that helps him breathe. He was treated on an outpatient basis, said Ed Turner, the court's deputy spokesman.
No other details were provided.
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Censorship in the Science Museums (NYTimes.com)
EDITORIAL
Published: March 28, 2005
Big-screen Imax theaters typically offer lavish visual spectacles with bland and uplifting scripts. Their films are seldom the stuff of controversy. So it was a bit of a shock to learn, from an article by Cornelia Dean in The Times on March 19, that a dozen or so Imax theaters, mostly in the South, have been shying away from science documentaries that might offend Christian fundamentalists. Worse yet, some of those theaters are located in science centers or museums, the supposed expositors of scientific truth for public education.
Some of the documentaries whose distribution has been affected by religious controversy include "Cosmic Voyage," a journey through the far-flung universe, and "Galápagos," about the islands where Charles Darwin made observations that played a crucial role in his theory of evolution. "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea," depicting the bizarre creatures that flourish near hot, sulfurous vents in the ocean floor, is the current focus of controversy. It was vetted for accuracy by a panel of scientists and was sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation, a government funding agency, and Rutgers University. It raised hackles by suggesting that life on Earth may have originated at these undersea vents.
No one can object if Imax theaters, whether commercial or located in museums, turned down the deep sea film in the belief that it was too boring to draw much of an audience, as some managers indicated. But it is surely unacceptable for science museums to reject the film in part because some people in test audiences complained that the material was blasphemous. The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, which made that judgment initially, wisely reversed itself and agreed to show the film after its cowardice became known and was widely criticized.
(More ... The New York Times > Opinion > Editorial: Censorship in the Science Museums) ¶ 20:02 0 comments
Published: March 28, 2005
Big-screen Imax theaters typically offer lavish visual spectacles with bland and uplifting scripts. Their films are seldom the stuff of controversy. So it was a bit of a shock to learn, from an article by Cornelia Dean in The Times on March 19, that a dozen or so Imax theaters, mostly in the South, have been shying away from science documentaries that might offend Christian fundamentalists. Worse yet, some of those theaters are located in science centers or museums, the supposed expositors of scientific truth for public education.
Some of the documentaries whose distribution has been affected by religious controversy include "Cosmic Voyage," a journey through the far-flung universe, and "Galápagos," about the islands where Charles Darwin made observations that played a crucial role in his theory of evolution. "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea," depicting the bizarre creatures that flourish near hot, sulfurous vents in the ocean floor, is the current focus of controversy. It was vetted for accuracy by a panel of scientists and was sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation, a government funding agency, and Rutgers University. It raised hackles by suggesting that life on Earth may have originated at these undersea vents.
No one can object if Imax theaters, whether commercial or located in museums, turned down the deep sea film in the belief that it was too boring to draw much of an audience, as some managers indicated. But it is surely unacceptable for science museums to reject the film in part because some people in test audiences complained that the material was blasphemous. The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, which made that judgment initially, wisely reversed itself and agreed to show the film after its cowardice became known and was widely criticized.
(More ... The New York Times > Opinion > Editorial: Censorship in the Science Museums) ¶ 20:02 0 comments
A New Deal (WashingtonPost.com)
How to Shake Up the Bureaucracy? Change the Work Rules.
By Ann Gerhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 28, 2005; Page C01
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers made a deal when they signed up with Uncle Sam. Whether they were janitors pushing a broom or naval designers floating tiny model destroyers or econometricians micro-simulating Social Security scenarios, the deal was the same:
They would do good work, even rewarding, satisfying work. It wouldn't be sexy work, and it wouldn't make them rich. But what they would get was stability, the federal holidays, transit subsidies, Cadillac health care, the flextime allowing every other Friday off. The hours would be regular. The raises would come -- click, click, click up the general service scale. No one would insist that a GS-5 or GS-15 be anyone's political crony. And, when the day came to get out, they would get their pot at the end of the rainbow -- a fat federal pension, plump enough for a cabin in the woods, maybe, or a fishing skiff and condo in Florida.
Hand in hand with Uncle Sam, they would construct lives of comforting predictability.
Oh, every decade or so, some politicians would rumble about the bloated bureaucracy and talk sternly of the need to shrink big government. They would insult the workforce. Deride them as lazy. Red-tape creators. And the civil servants, the very engine of this region's economy, would put their heads down, mumble to each other in the agency cafeterias and wait them out. Eventually, those politicians would go back to wherever they came from. They always did.
Until now. President Bush and his Texas comrades have succeeded in doing what no one else could in 120 years of civil service.
They have ended the deal.
(More ... A New Deal (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 09:09 0 comments
By Ann Gerhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 28, 2005; Page C01
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers made a deal when they signed up with Uncle Sam. Whether they were janitors pushing a broom or naval designers floating tiny model destroyers or econometricians micro-simulating Social Security scenarios, the deal was the same:
They would do good work, even rewarding, satisfying work. It wouldn't be sexy work, and it wouldn't make them rich. But what they would get was stability, the federal holidays, transit subsidies, Cadillac health care, the flextime allowing every other Friday off. The hours would be regular. The raises would come -- click, click, click up the general service scale. No one would insist that a GS-5 or GS-15 be anyone's political crony. And, when the day came to get out, they would get their pot at the end of the rainbow -- a fat federal pension, plump enough for a cabin in the woods, maybe, or a fishing skiff and condo in Florida.
Hand in hand with Uncle Sam, they would construct lives of comforting predictability.
Oh, every decade or so, some politicians would rumble about the bloated bureaucracy and talk sternly of the need to shrink big government. They would insult the workforce. Deride them as lazy. Red-tape creators. And the civil servants, the very engine of this region's economy, would put their heads down, mumble to each other in the agency cafeterias and wait them out. Eventually, those politicians would go back to wherever they came from. They always did.
Until now. President Bush and his Texas comrades have succeeded in doing what no one else could in 120 years of civil service.
They have ended the deal.
(More ... A New Deal (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 09:09 0 comments
India Doesn't Need Lessons from America (IHT.com)
A visa denied
By Ramesh Thakur
Bloomberg News, International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
TOKYO In the same week, Washington announced it would not be seeking a resolution criticizing China's human rights record at the annual UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva this year, and denied an entry visa to Narendra Modi, the head of government of the Indian state of Gujarat.
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The reason? His failure to protect 2,000 Muslims killed by rampaging Hindu mobs three years ago.
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The State Department decision, which plays to Indian prejudices about American ignorance and arrogance, has already proved counterproductive. Modi had been widely criticized throughout India for the Gujarat government's failure to protect innocent Muslims. As a result he was a political pariah even for his own Bharatiya Janata Party in the rest of India. I witnessed last month's general elections in India's second-most populous state, Bihar. The BJP had forbidden Modi from campaigning there.
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Thanks to the State Department, Modi has now been rehabilitated as a political victim. All parties have expressed dismay at this insult to India. The government has been compelled to protest on a point of principle, rejecting judgments made on the basis of allegations without due process. On March 19, the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, unanimously condemned the denial of a visa to "a constitutionally elected authority" of the country.
Although 80 percent of Indians are Hindus, India has a Sikh prime minister and army chief, a Muslim bachelor as president, and an Italian-born Roman Catholic widow as the power behind the throne.
(More ... India doesn't need lessons from America) ¶ 09:03 0 comments
By Ramesh Thakur
Bloomberg News, International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
TOKYO In the same week, Washington announced it would not be seeking a resolution criticizing China's human rights record at the annual UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva this year, and denied an entry visa to Narendra Modi, the head of government of the Indian state of Gujarat.
.
The reason? His failure to protect 2,000 Muslims killed by rampaging Hindu mobs three years ago.
.
The State Department decision, which plays to Indian prejudices about American ignorance and arrogance, has already proved counterproductive. Modi had been widely criticized throughout India for the Gujarat government's failure to protect innocent Muslims. As a result he was a political pariah even for his own Bharatiya Janata Party in the rest of India. I witnessed last month's general elections in India's second-most populous state, Bihar. The BJP had forbidden Modi from campaigning there.
.
Thanks to the State Department, Modi has now been rehabilitated as a political victim. All parties have expressed dismay at this insult to India. The government has been compelled to protest on a point of principle, rejecting judgments made on the basis of allegations without due process. On March 19, the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, unanimously condemned the denial of a visa to "a constitutionally elected authority" of the country.
Although 80 percent of Indians are Hindus, India has a Sikh prime minister and army chief, a Muslim bachelor as president, and an Italian-born Roman Catholic widow as the power behind the throne.
(More ... India doesn't need lessons from America) ¶ 09:03 0 comments
Australians View U.S. as a Threat to Peace (IHT.com)
America lags behind Japan and China in popularity, poll finds
By Raymond Bonner and Donald Greenlees
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
SYDNEY U.S. foreign policy poses as big a threat to world peace as Islamic fundamentalism, while the rise of China is the last on a list of potential threats, according to a survey released Monday of public opinion in Australia, one of Washington's closest allies in the Asia-Pacific.
The results of the comprehensive survey of opinion in a country that has been a close and valued ally of the U.S. in the war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq have rrorism and the invasion of Iraq have surprised foreign policy analysts in Australia and underscore the problems facing the Bush administration as it tries to improve the international image of the United States.
The survey - the most comprehensive ever conducted on public opinion in Australia on international relations - shows that America trails far behind China and Japan in public popularity. Although 84 percent of Australians had positive views of Japan and 69 percent expressed positive views of China, only 58 percent felt the same way about the United States.
The 53-year-old U.S.-Australia alliance, or ANZUS, is one of Washington's strategic anchors in the Pacific. But the ambivalence of popular opinion in Australia toward the United States shows the difficulty ahead in an administration project in public perceptions.
Australians view U.S. as a threat to peace ¶ 08:58 0 comments
By Raymond Bonner and Donald Greenlees
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
SYDNEY U.S. foreign policy poses as big a threat to world peace as Islamic fundamentalism, while the rise of China is the last on a list of potential threats, according to a survey released Monday of public opinion in Australia, one of Washington's closest allies in the Asia-Pacific.
The results of the comprehensive survey of opinion in a country that has been a close and valued ally of the U.S. in the war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq have rrorism and the invasion of Iraq have surprised foreign policy analysts in Australia and underscore the problems facing the Bush administration as it tries to improve the international image of the United States.
The survey - the most comprehensive ever conducted on public opinion in Australia on international relations - shows that America trails far behind China and Japan in public popularity. Although 84 percent of Australians had positive views of Japan and 69 percent expressed positive views of China, only 58 percent felt the same way about the United States.
The 53-year-old U.S.-Australia alliance, or ANZUS, is one of Washington's strategic anchors in the Pacific. But the ambivalence of popular opinion in Australia toward the United States shows the difficulty ahead in an administration project in public perceptions.
Australians view U.S. as a threat to peace ¶ 08:58 0 comments
Patrick Kennedy Considers Taking on Chafee (CNN.com)
Monday, March 28, 2005 Posted: 8:35 AM EST (1335 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It would be the battle of the dynasties: Kennedy versus Chafee. The son of a Democratic icon against the son of a revered Republican senator and governor in the nation's smallest state.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy is considering a run against Sen. Lincoln Chafee for the only congressional seat held by a Republican in heavily Democratic Rhode Island. The mere prospect of such a matchup next year has set tongues in motion.
"It would be a great race. The two are very evenly matched," said Brown University professor Darrell West, who has written a biography of Kennedy, 37. "Chafee is a sitting senator and people like him, but he has an 'R' next to his name in a 'D' state."
Kennedy, a six-term Democrat, initially ruled out running against Chafee, leaving the door open for his House colleague, Rep. James Langevin. But Langevin opted out earlier this week, and now Kennedy is taking a second look.
A Kennedy-Chafee race could thrust Rhode Island into the national political spotlight.
(More ... CNN.com - Patrick Kennedy considers taking on Chafee - Mar 28, 2005) ¶ 08:05 0 comments
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It would be the battle of the dynasties: Kennedy versus Chafee. The son of a Democratic icon against the son of a revered Republican senator and governor in the nation's smallest state.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy is considering a run against Sen. Lincoln Chafee for the only congressional seat held by a Republican in heavily Democratic Rhode Island. The mere prospect of such a matchup next year has set tongues in motion.
"It would be a great race. The two are very evenly matched," said Brown University professor Darrell West, who has written a biography of Kennedy, 37. "Chafee is a sitting senator and people like him, but he has an 'R' next to his name in a 'D' state."
Kennedy, a six-term Democrat, initially ruled out running against Chafee, leaving the door open for his House colleague, Rep. James Langevin. But Langevin opted out earlier this week, and now Kennedy is taking a second look.
A Kennedy-Chafee race could thrust Rhode Island into the national political spotlight.
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3.28.2005
Bush Decries School Rampage; Critics Question Delay (Reuters.com)
By Adam Entous
Sunday, March 27, 2005
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush broke his public silence on Saturday about the deadliest U.S. school shooting in six years, touting the government's response "at this tragic time" after some American Indian leaders complained he paid little attention to the rampage.
Bush's delayed public reaction to the shooting stood in contrast to his swift and high-profile intervention earlier this week to try to prolong the life of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman in Florida whose feeding tube was removed.
Bush's job-approval rating has sunk to the lowest level of his presidency in the latest national survey, with some pollsters citing a public backlash against his intervention in the Schiavo case.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 20:46 0 comments
Sunday, March 27, 2005
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush broke his public silence on Saturday about the deadliest U.S. school shooting in six years, touting the government's response "at this tragic time" after some American Indian leaders complained he paid little attention to the rampage.
Bush's delayed public reaction to the shooting stood in contrast to his swift and high-profile intervention earlier this week to try to prolong the life of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman in Florida whose feeding tube was removed.
Bush's job-approval rating has sunk to the lowest level of his presidency in the latest national survey, with some pollsters citing a public backlash against his intervention in the Schiavo case.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 20:46 0 comments
A Gloomier Twilight (LATimes.com)
By Michael Kinsley
March 27, 2005
Based on the two big domestic stories of last week — Terri Schiavo's feeding tube and Social Security personoramification (or whatever they want us to call it instead of privatization) — the Republican philosophy seems to be that people need more control over their own retirements, but less control over their own deaths. Based on recent polls, most people feel the exact opposite. They prefer the modest but certain Social Security check they get every month over the opportunity to spend their twilight years nursing their portfolios and worrying every time Alan Greenspan's successors open their mouths.
On the other hand, they want to set for themselves the rules about their own final departures. Specifically, people are terrified of being kept joylessly alive — active minds trapped in a shut-down body or lost minds mocking the dignity of a lifetime — just to prove somebody's political point.
The Schiavo case is not exactly about anyone's right to die, because we don't know for sure whether Schiavo would want to die in her current circumstances. But concern about being able to choose death over pain and/or extreme degradation is what has riveted people to her story.
This is far from illogical. A Congress that has diddled for decades while a growing fraction of the populace has no health insurance, and a president who lectures us constantly about the evils of big government, managed to pass and sign a law within a day trying to keep Schiavo on life supports for possibly another 15 or 30 or 45 years.
(More ... A Gloomier Twilight) ¶ 11:12 0 comments
March 27, 2005
Based on the two big domestic stories of last week — Terri Schiavo's feeding tube and Social Security personoramification (or whatever they want us to call it instead of privatization) — the Republican philosophy seems to be that people need more control over their own retirements, but less control over their own deaths. Based on recent polls, most people feel the exact opposite. They prefer the modest but certain Social Security check they get every month over the opportunity to spend their twilight years nursing their portfolios and worrying every time Alan Greenspan's successors open their mouths.
On the other hand, they want to set for themselves the rules about their own final departures. Specifically, people are terrified of being kept joylessly alive — active minds trapped in a shut-down body or lost minds mocking the dignity of a lifetime — just to prove somebody's political point.
The Schiavo case is not exactly about anyone's right to die, because we don't know for sure whether Schiavo would want to die in her current circumstances. But concern about being able to choose death over pain and/or extreme degradation is what has riveted people to her story.
This is far from illogical. A Congress that has diddled for decades while a growing fraction of the populace has no health insurance, and a president who lectures us constantly about the evils of big government, managed to pass and sign a law within a day trying to keep Schiavo on life supports for possibly another 15 or 30 or 45 years.
(More ... A Gloomier Twilight) ¶ 11:12 0 comments
Undeliberative Democracy (WashingtonPost.com)
EDITORIAL
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page B06
IF THE HALLMARK of the Senate is the ability of the minority to have its say or even to block action, the nature of the House of Representatives is the reverse: The majority can reduce the minority party to pesky irrelevance, choking off its opportunity to offer amendments or engage in debate. That was the legitimate gripe of House Republicans during their long years out of power. As Republicans on the House Rules Committee put it in a 1993 report, "While the majority party always has the right to establish the rules and legislative agenda for the House, it should recognize the need to place responsible limits on those powers which permit all members to fully participate in the truly deliberative process. . . . "
When they took back the House in 1994, Republicans vowed to act differently. Indeed, they have -- they have been even worse. Their behavior is that of a majority more interested in jamming through legislation than in providing for considered, open debate. The chief, most disturbing technique for doing this is to conduct floor debate under a "closed rule" -- permitting only an up-or-down vote on the measure, with no amendments allowed -- or a rule so restrictive that the only alternative vote would be on a single Democratic substitute. According to a new analysis by Rules Committee Democrats, the number of closed rules doubled -- to 36 -- between the 103rd Congress, the last with Democrats in control, and the most recent Congress.
(More ... Undeliberative Democracy (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 11:05 0 comments
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page B06
IF THE HALLMARK of the Senate is the ability of the minority to have its say or even to block action, the nature of the House of Representatives is the reverse: The majority can reduce the minority party to pesky irrelevance, choking off its opportunity to offer amendments or engage in debate. That was the legitimate gripe of House Republicans during their long years out of power. As Republicans on the House Rules Committee put it in a 1993 report, "While the majority party always has the right to establish the rules and legislative agenda for the House, it should recognize the need to place responsible limits on those powers which permit all members to fully participate in the truly deliberative process. . . . "
When they took back the House in 1994, Republicans vowed to act differently. Indeed, they have -- they have been even worse. Their behavior is that of a majority more interested in jamming through legislation than in providing for considered, open debate. The chief, most disturbing technique for doing this is to conduct floor debate under a "closed rule" -- permitting only an up-or-down vote on the measure, with no amendments allowed -- or a rule so restrictive that the only alternative vote would be on a single Democratic substitute. According to a new analysis by Rules Committee Democrats, the number of closed rules doubled -- to 36 -- between the 103rd Congress, the last with Democrats in control, and the most recent Congress.
(More ... Undeliberative Democracy (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 11:05 0 comments
GOP Governors Fight Tax Limits (WashingtonPost.com)
Foes of Big Government Blame Crunch on Cuts in Federal Aid
By T.R. Reid
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A04
DENVER -- Gov. Bill Owens (R) has been crisscrossing the country for years promoting the virtues of this state's strict constitutional limits on government spending. He has repeatedly urged other states to adopt restrictions of their own, based on Colorado's "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" amendment, known here as TABOR.
But this summer, Owens says, he'll be traversing his own mountainous state pushing the opposite message. Midway through his second term, Owens is working to persuade Coloradans to suspend the limits he championed and let the state government spend $3 billion more in tax money than TABOR would allow.
Owens thus becomes another low-tax, limited-government advocate who has found those principles hard to hold onto amid a sluggish economy and a sharply diminished flow of federal money to the states.
In the past two years, Republican governors including Nevada's Kenny Guinn, Idaho's Dirk Kempthorne, Georgia's Sonny Perdue and Ohio's Bob Taft have dumped no-new-taxes pledges to push for major new revenue and increased state spending.
(More ... GOP Governors Fight Tax Limits (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 11:01 0 comments
By T.R. Reid
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A04
DENVER -- Gov. Bill Owens (R) has been crisscrossing the country for years promoting the virtues of this state's strict constitutional limits on government spending. He has repeatedly urged other states to adopt restrictions of their own, based on Colorado's "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" amendment, known here as TABOR.
But this summer, Owens says, he'll be traversing his own mountainous state pushing the opposite message. Midway through his second term, Owens is working to persuade Coloradans to suspend the limits he championed and let the state government spend $3 billion more in tax money than TABOR would allow.
Owens thus becomes another low-tax, limited-government advocate who has found those principles hard to hold onto amid a sluggish economy and a sharply diminished flow of federal money to the states.
In the past two years, Republican governors including Nevada's Kenny Guinn, Idaho's Dirk Kempthorne, Georgia's Sonny Perdue and Ohio's Bob Taft have dumped no-new-taxes pledges to push for major new revenue and increased state spending.
(More ... GOP Governors Fight Tax Limits (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 11:01 0 comments
Business Sees Gain In GOP Takeover (WashingtonPost.com)
Political Allies Push Corporate Agenda
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A01
Fortune 500 companies that invested millions of dollars in electing Republicans are emerging as the earliest beneficiaries of a government controlled by President Bush and the largest GOP House and Senate majority in a half century.
MBNA Corp., the credit card behemoth and fifth-largest contributor to Bush's two presidential campaigns, is among those on the verge of prevailing in an eight-year fight to curtail personal bankruptcies. Exxon Mobil Corp. and others are close to winning the right to drill for oil in Alaska's wildlife refuge, which they have tried to pass for better than a decade. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., another big contributor to Bush and the GOP, and other big companies recently won long-sought protections from class-action lawsuits.
Republicans have pursued such issues for much of the past decade, asserting that free market policies are the smartest way to grow the economy. But now it appears they finally have the legislative muscle to push some of their agenda through Congress and onto the desk of a president eager to sign pro-business measures into law. The chief reason is Bush's victory in 2004 and GOP gains in Congress, especially in the Senate, where much of corporate America's agenda has bogged down in recent years, according to Republicans and Democrats.
(More ... Business Sees Gain In GOP Takeover (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 10:54 0 comments
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A01
Fortune 500 companies that invested millions of dollars in electing Republicans are emerging as the earliest beneficiaries of a government controlled by President Bush and the largest GOP House and Senate majority in a half century.
MBNA Corp., the credit card behemoth and fifth-largest contributor to Bush's two presidential campaigns, is among those on the verge of prevailing in an eight-year fight to curtail personal bankruptcies. Exxon Mobil Corp. and others are close to winning the right to drill for oil in Alaska's wildlife refuge, which they have tried to pass for better than a decade. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., another big contributor to Bush and the GOP, and other big companies recently won long-sought protections from class-action lawsuits.
Republicans have pursued such issues for much of the past decade, asserting that free market policies are the smartest way to grow the economy. But now it appears they finally have the legislative muscle to push some of their agenda through Congress and onto the desk of a president eager to sign pro-business measures into law. The chief reason is Bush's victory in 2004 and GOP gains in Congress, especially in the Senate, where much of corporate America's agenda has bogged down in recent years, according to Republicans and Democrats.
(More ... Business Sees Gain In GOP Takeover (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 10:54 0 comments
Panel Ignored Evidence on Detainee (WashingtonPost.com)
U.S. Military Intelligence, German Authorities Found No Ties to Terrorists
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A01
A military tribunal determined last fall that Murat Kurnaz, a German national seized in Pakistan in 2001, was a member of al Qaeda and an enemy combatant whom the government could detain indefinitely at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The three military officers on the panel, whose identities are kept secret, said in papers filed in federal court that they reached their conclusion based largely on classified evidence that was too sensitive to release to the public.
In fact, that evidence, recently declassified and obtained by The Washington Post, shows that U.S. military intelligence and German law enforcement authorities had largely concluded there was no information that linked Kurnaz to al Qaeda, any other terrorist organization or terrorist activities.
In recently declassified portions of a January ruling, a federal judge criticized the military panel for ignoring the exculpatory information that dominates Kurnaz's file and for relying instead on a brief, unsupported memo filed shortly before Kurnaz's hearing by an unidentified government official.
Kurnaz has been detained at Guantanamo Bay since at least January 2002.
(More ... Panel Ignored Evidence on Detainee (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 10:52 0 comments
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A01
A military tribunal determined last fall that Murat Kurnaz, a German national seized in Pakistan in 2001, was a member of al Qaeda and an enemy combatant whom the government could detain indefinitely at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The three military officers on the panel, whose identities are kept secret, said in papers filed in federal court that they reached their conclusion based largely on classified evidence that was too sensitive to release to the public.
In fact, that evidence, recently declassified and obtained by The Washington Post, shows that U.S. military intelligence and German law enforcement authorities had largely concluded there was no information that linked Kurnaz to al Qaeda, any other terrorist organization or terrorist activities.
In recently declassified portions of a January ruling, a federal judge criticized the military panel for ignoring the exculpatory information that dominates Kurnaz's file and for relying instead on a brief, unsupported memo filed shortly before Kurnaz's hearing by an unidentified government official.
Kurnaz has been detained at Guantanamo Bay since at least January 2002.
(More ... Panel Ignored Evidence on Detainee (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 10:52 0 comments
Movement in the Pews Tries to Jolt Ohio (NYTimes.com)
By JAMES DAO
Published: March 27, 2005
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Christian conservative leaders from scores of Ohio's fastest growing churches are mounting a campaign to win control of local government posts and Republican organizations, starting with the 2006 governor's race.
In a manifesto that is being circulated among church leaders and on the Internet, the group, which is called the Ohio Restoration Project, is planning to mobilize 2,000 evangelical, Baptist, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic leaders in a network of so-called Patriot Pastors to register half a million new voters, enlist activists, train candidates and endorse conservative causes in the next year.
The initial goal is to elect Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a conservative Republican, governor in 2006. The group hopes to build grass-roots organizations in Ohio's 88 counties and take control of local Republican organizations.
(More ... The New York Times > Washington > Movement in the Pews Tries to Jolt Ohio) ¶ 10:48 0 comments
Published: March 27, 2005
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Christian conservative leaders from scores of Ohio's fastest growing churches are mounting a campaign to win control of local government posts and Republican organizations, starting with the 2006 governor's race.
In a manifesto that is being circulated among church leaders and on the Internet, the group, which is called the Ohio Restoration Project, is planning to mobilize 2,000 evangelical, Baptist, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic leaders in a network of so-called Patriot Pastors to register half a million new voters, enlist activists, train candidates and endorse conservative causes in the next year.
The initial goal is to elect Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a conservative Republican, governor in 2006. The group hopes to build grass-roots organizations in Ohio's 88 counties and take control of local Republican organizations.
(More ... The New York Times > Washington > Movement in the Pews Tries to Jolt Ohio) ¶ 10:48 0 comments
Geo-Greening by Example (NYTimes.com)
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: March 27, 2005
How will future historians explain it? How will they possibly explain why President George W. Bush decided to ignore the energy crisis staring us in the face and chose instead to spend all his electoral capital on a futile effort to undo the New Deal, by partially privatizing Social Security? We are, quite simply, witnessing one of the greatest examples of misplaced priorities in the history of the U.S. presidency.
"Ah, Friedman, but you overstate the case." No, I understate it. Look at the opportunities our country is missing - and the risks we are assuming - by having a president and vice president who refuse to lift a finger to put together a "geo-green" strategy that would marry geopolitics, energy policy and environmentalism.
By doing nothing to lower U.S. oil consumption, we are financing both sides in the war on terrorism and strengthening the worst governments in the world.
(More ... The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Geo-Greening by Example) ¶ 10:40 0 comments
Published: March 27, 2005
How will future historians explain it? How will they possibly explain why President George W. Bush decided to ignore the energy crisis staring us in the face and chose instead to spend all his electoral capital on a futile effort to undo the New Deal, by partially privatizing Social Security? We are, quite simply, witnessing one of the greatest examples of misplaced priorities in the history of the U.S. presidency.
"Ah, Friedman, but you overstate the case." No, I understate it. Look at the opportunities our country is missing - and the risks we are assuming - by having a president and vice president who refuse to lift a finger to put together a "geo-green" strategy that would marry geopolitics, energy policy and environmentalism.
By doing nothing to lower U.S. oil consumption, we are financing both sides in the war on terrorism and strengthening the worst governments in the world.
(More ... The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Geo-Greening by Example) ¶ 10:40 0 comments
3.27.2005
Okay, We Give Up (www.SciAmDigital.com)
SA PERSPECTIVES
Staff Editor
April 1, 2005
There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong.
In retrospect, this magazine's coverage of so-called evolution has been hideously one-sided. For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it. Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.
(Snip)
Get ready for a new Scientific American. No more discussions of how science should inform policy. If the government commits blindly to building an anti-ICBM defense system that can't work as promised, that will waste tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars and imperil national security, you won't hear about it from us. If studies suggest that the administration's antipollution measures would actually increase the dangerous particulates that people breathe during the next two decades, that's not our concern. No more discussions of how policies affect science either -- ”so what if the budget for the National Science Foundation is slashed? This magazine will be dedicated purely to science, fair and balanced science, and not just the science that scientists say is science. And it will start on April Fools' Day.
(More ... Scientific American Digital: Browse) ¶ 12:31 0 comments
Staff Editor
April 1, 2005
There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong.
In retrospect, this magazine's coverage of so-called evolution has been hideously one-sided. For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it. Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.
(Snip)
Get ready for a new Scientific American. No more discussions of how science should inform policy. If the government commits blindly to building an anti-ICBM defense system that can't work as promised, that will waste tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars and imperil national security, you won't hear about it from us. If studies suggest that the administration's antipollution measures would actually increase the dangerous particulates that people breathe during the next two decades, that's not our concern. No more discussions of how policies affect science either -- ”so what if the budget for the National Science Foundation is slashed? This magazine will be dedicated purely to science, fair and balanced science, and not just the science that scientists say is science. And it will start on April Fools' Day.
(More ... Scientific American Digital: Browse) ¶ 12:31 0 comments
How Much Longer Can the American Economy Live on Credit? (TruthOut.org--LeMonde.fr)
By Eric Leser
Le Monde
Thursday 24 March 2005
Growth of today's global economy rests in large part on American consumption. It represents a little less than 70% of the United States' Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and close to 20% of world economic activity. In counterpart to the Bush administration budgetary negligence, the United States' trade and payment deficits continue to grow - all the more quickly given that Americans devote practically all their income to spending and debt repayment.
The savings rate of American households has fallen to the unprecedentedly low level of 1.5% of available income. This system functions only because the central banks of countries that export to the United States recycle their considerable dollar surpluses. In 2004, China cleared a surplus with the United States of 162 billion dollars (125 billion Euros), with the European Union of 114 billion dollars, with Canada and Mexico of 111 billion, and of 75 billion dollars with Japan.
In the face of such imbalances, the principle adjustment variable is exchange rates. That's why the dollar has not stopped declining the last three years. It's lost close to 38% of its value against the Euro and 23% against the Yen. In theory, that should make American products more competitive. In practice, it has no effect at all. In January, the trade deficit once again attained a record 58 billion dollars. The explanation for this situation is at once the fixed linkage between key countries like China's currency and the dollar, and the incapacity of American industry to substitute for imports.
(More ... t r u t h o u t - Eric Leser | How Much Longer Can the American Economy Live on Credit?) ¶ 12:20 0 comments
Le Monde
Thursday 24 March 2005
Growth of today's global economy rests in large part on American consumption. It represents a little less than 70% of the United States' Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and close to 20% of world economic activity. In counterpart to the Bush administration budgetary negligence, the United States' trade and payment deficits continue to grow - all the more quickly given that Americans devote practically all their income to spending and debt repayment.
The savings rate of American households has fallen to the unprecedentedly low level of 1.5% of available income. This system functions only because the central banks of countries that export to the United States recycle their considerable dollar surpluses. In 2004, China cleared a surplus with the United States of 162 billion dollars (125 billion Euros), with the European Union of 114 billion dollars, with Canada and Mexico of 111 billion, and of 75 billion dollars with Japan.
In the face of such imbalances, the principle adjustment variable is exchange rates. That's why the dollar has not stopped declining the last three years. It's lost close to 38% of its value against the Euro and 23% against the Yen. In theory, that should make American products more competitive. In practice, it has no effect at all. In January, the trade deficit once again attained a record 58 billion dollars. The explanation for this situation is at once the fixed linkage between key countries like China's currency and the dollar, and the incapacity of American industry to substitute for imports.
(More ... t r u t h o u t - Eric Leser | How Much Longer Can the American Economy Live on Credit?) ¶ 12:20 0 comments
Pentagon Will Not Try 17 G.I.'s Implicated in Prisoners' Deaths (NYTimes.com)
By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: March 26, 2005
WASHINGTON, March 25 - Despite recommendations by Army investigators, commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 American soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, according to a new accounting released Friday by the Army.
Investigators had recommended that all 17 soldiers be charged in the cases, according to the accounting by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The charges included murder, conspiracy and negligent homicide. While none of the 17 will face any prosecution, one received a letter of reprimand and another was discharged after the investigations.
To date, the military has taken steps toward prosecuting some three dozen soldiers in connection with a total of 28 confirmed or suspected homicides of detainees. The total number of such deaths is believed to be between 28 and 31.
(More ... The New York Times > Washington > Pentagon Will Not Try 17 G.I.'s Implicated in Prisoners' Deaths) ¶ 12:09 0 comments
Published: March 26, 2005
WASHINGTON, March 25 - Despite recommendations by Army investigators, commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 American soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, according to a new accounting released Friday by the Army.
Investigators had recommended that all 17 soldiers be charged in the cases, according to the accounting by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The charges included murder, conspiracy and negligent homicide. While none of the 17 will face any prosecution, one received a letter of reprimand and another was discharged after the investigations.
To date, the military has taken steps toward prosecuting some three dozen soldiers in connection with a total of 28 confirmed or suspected homicides of detainees. The total number of such deaths is believed to be between 28 and 31.
(More ... The New York Times > Washington > Pentagon Will Not Try 17 G.I.'s Implicated in Prisoners' Deaths) ¶ 12:09 0 comments
Hot Air and Global Warming (IHT.com)
By Derrick Z. Jackson
The Boston Globe
Saturday, March 26, 2005
BOSTON Every time the world calls for action on climate change, the United States emits more White House gases. The latest puff came from James Connaughton, the director of environmental quality, during last week's conference of 20 nations that met in London to try once again to make global warming a global priority.
At the conference, Gordon Brown, Britain's finance minister, said: "Climate change is a consequence of the buildup of greenhouse gases over the past 200 years in the atmosphere, and virtually all these emissions came from the rich countries. Indeed, we became rich through those emissions." Connaughton's response, in a BBC interview, was, "We're still working on the issue of causation."
Brown said, "We now have sufficient evidence that human-made climate change is the most far-reaching and almost certainly the most threatening of all the environmental challenges facing us." Connaughton's response as to "the extent to which humans are a factor," was, "They may be."
Brown said, "The industrialized countries must take responsibility first in reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases." Connaughton complained instead that the Kyoto target for the United States to reduce emissions "was so unreasonable ... that the only way we could have met it was to shift energy-intensive manufacturing to other countries."
Derrick Z. Jackson: Hot air and global warming ¶ 11:46 0 comments
The Boston Globe
Saturday, March 26, 2005
BOSTON Every time the world calls for action on climate change, the United States emits more White House gases. The latest puff came from James Connaughton, the director of environmental quality, during last week's conference of 20 nations that met in London to try once again to make global warming a global priority.
At the conference, Gordon Brown, Britain's finance minister, said: "Climate change is a consequence of the buildup of greenhouse gases over the past 200 years in the atmosphere, and virtually all these emissions came from the rich countries. Indeed, we became rich through those emissions." Connaughton's response, in a BBC interview, was, "We're still working on the issue of causation."
Brown said, "We now have sufficient evidence that human-made climate change is the most far-reaching and almost certainly the most threatening of all the environmental challenges facing us." Connaughton's response as to "the extent to which humans are a factor," was, "They may be."
Brown said, "The industrialized countries must take responsibility first in reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases." Connaughton complained instead that the Kyoto target for the United States to reduce emissions "was so unreasonable ... that the only way we could have met it was to shift energy-intensive manufacturing to other countries."
Derrick Z. Jackson: Hot air and global warming ¶ 11:46 0 comments
U.S. Is Examining Plan to Bolster Detainee Rights (NYTimes.com)
By TIM GOLDEN
Published: March 27, 2005
The Defense Department is considering substantial changes to the military tribunals that the Bush administration established to prosecute foreign terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, military and administration officials say.
The proposed changes, many of which are detailed in a 232-page draft manual for the tribunals that has been circulating among Pentagon lawyers, come after widespread criticism from the federal courts, foreign governments and human rights groups.
Those changes include strengthening the rights of defendants, establishing more independent judges to lead the panels and barring confessions obtained by torture, the officials said.
The draft manual has renewed a sharp debate within the Bush administration between military and civilian lawyers who are pushing to overhaul the tribunals and other officials who have long insisted that suspected terrorists held at Guantánamo are not entitled to many of the basic rights granted defendants in United States courts.
(More ... The New York Times > Washington > U.S. Is Examining Plan to Bolster Detainee Rights) ¶ 11:37 0 comments
Published: March 27, 2005
The Defense Department is considering substantial changes to the military tribunals that the Bush administration established to prosecute foreign terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, military and administration officials say.
The proposed changes, many of which are detailed in a 232-page draft manual for the tribunals that has been circulating among Pentagon lawyers, come after widespread criticism from the federal courts, foreign governments and human rights groups.
Those changes include strengthening the rights of defendants, establishing more independent judges to lead the panels and barring confessions obtained by torture, the officials said.
The draft manual has renewed a sharp debate within the Bush administration between military and civilian lawyers who are pushing to overhaul the tribunals and other officials who have long insisted that suspected terrorists held at Guantánamo are not entitled to many of the basic rights granted defendants in United States courts.
(More ... The New York Times > Washington > U.S. Is Examining Plan to Bolster Detainee Rights) ¶ 11:37 0 comments
3.26.2005
Add-On Accounts Add No Value (NYTimes.com)
EDITORIAL
Published: March 26, 2005
The latest trial balloon in the Social Security battle is something called "add-on accounts." Touted as a possible compromise between friends and foes of privatization, they would be like souped-up I.R.A.'s - subsidized savings accounts intended to supplement government-guaranteed Social Security benefits, not to reduce or replace them.
Add-ons appeal to some lawmakers who reject President Bush's privatization idea yet want to look as if they're doing something. But Social Security loyalists warn that add-ons would be the first step in dismantling the system, while ardent privatizers turn thumbs down because such accounts would leave the current system intact.
Both sides are right about one thing: add-on accounts are a bad idea. But their objections miss the most important point. Like the Bush privatization plan, this hybrid does nothing to address the real problem: over the next 75 years, Social Security comes up short by $4 trillion. The only way to close that gap is to raise taxes or cut benefits, or both. A fair and adequate fix would include some of each, phased in over decades. By spreading the burden widely and slowly, the cost would not be unduly heavy for anyone and could be distributed in ways that reflect various groups' fair share of Social Security's shortfall.
(More ... The New York Times > Opinion > Editorial: Add-On Accounts Add No Value) ¶ 20:59 0 comments
Published: March 26, 2005
The latest trial balloon in the Social Security battle is something called "add-on accounts." Touted as a possible compromise between friends and foes of privatization, they would be like souped-up I.R.A.'s - subsidized savings accounts intended to supplement government-guaranteed Social Security benefits, not to reduce or replace them.
Add-ons appeal to some lawmakers who reject President Bush's privatization idea yet want to look as if they're doing something. But Social Security loyalists warn that add-ons would be the first step in dismantling the system, while ardent privatizers turn thumbs down because such accounts would leave the current system intact.
Both sides are right about one thing: add-on accounts are a bad idea. But their objections miss the most important point. Like the Bush privatization plan, this hybrid does nothing to address the real problem: over the next 75 years, Social Security comes up short by $4 trillion. The only way to close that gap is to raise taxes or cut benefits, or both. A fair and adequate fix would include some of each, phased in over decades. By spreading the burden widely and slowly, the cost would not be unduly heavy for anyone and could be distributed in ways that reflect various groups' fair share of Social Security's shortfall.
(More ... The New York Times > Opinion > Editorial: Add-On Accounts Add No Value) ¶ 20:59 0 comments
Good Judgment (WashingtonPost.com)
EDITORIAL
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A14
NEITHER CONGRESS nor President Bush acquitted themselves well last weekend in enacting a law to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo. But in the days that have followed, one institution of American government has distinguished itself in its handling of the matter: the federal courts.
The new law put the courts in an impossible position. It gave the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida jurisdiction to hear any federal claims brought by Mrs. Schiavo's parents, and it instructed that it do so without deference to the previous state court adjudication. It thereby sent an unmistakable message that the legislature wanted the federal courts to order Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted and her life prolonged. But if Congress dumped Mrs. Schiavo's tragedy into federal court, it did not change the substantive law that governs it there. And there is no serious question under federal law concerning the state court's determination that Mrs. Shiavo was entitled to refuse artificial life support and would not have chosen to live in a "persistent vegetative state." In short, Congress leaned on the courts to consider a case that had little merit and to take a step within that case that the law would not support easily. To their credit, up and down the appellate ladder, the courts refused.
(More ... Good Judgment (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 20:54 0 comments
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A14
NEITHER CONGRESS nor President Bush acquitted themselves well last weekend in enacting a law to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo. But in the days that have followed, one institution of American government has distinguished itself in its handling of the matter: the federal courts.
The new law put the courts in an impossible position. It gave the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida jurisdiction to hear any federal claims brought by Mrs. Schiavo's parents, and it instructed that it do so without deference to the previous state court adjudication. It thereby sent an unmistakable message that the legislature wanted the federal courts to order Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted and her life prolonged. But if Congress dumped Mrs. Schiavo's tragedy into federal court, it did not change the substantive law that governs it there. And there is no serious question under federal law concerning the state court's determination that Mrs. Shiavo was entitled to refuse artificial life support and would not have chosen to live in a "persistent vegetative state." In short, Congress leaned on the courts to consider a case that had little merit and to take a step within that case that the law would not support easily. To their credit, up and down the appellate ladder, the courts refused.
(More ... Good Judgment (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 20:54 0 comments
Jimmy Carter to Chair Election Reform Commission (Reuters.com)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Jimmy Carter will lead a bipartisan commission to examine problems with the U.S. election system, American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management said on Thursday.
Carter, a Democrat whose Carter Center has monitored more than 50 elections around the world, will co-chair the private commission with Republican James Baker, who served as Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush.
Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat who lost his seat in the 2004 election, will also participate.
"I am concerned about the state of our electoral system and believe we need to improve it," Carter said in a statement. He said the group will assess "issues of inclusion" in federal voting and propose recommendations to improve the process.
"We will try to define an electoral system for the 21st century that will make Americans proud again," he said.
Though disputes over recounts and voter eligibility marred the 2000 U.S. presidential election, international monitors in place in November 2004 reported the polls were mostly fair.
Still, concerns emerged about exceedingly long lines that kept voters from the polls in several states including Ohio, whose 20 electoral college votes ultimately decided the election in President Bush's favor.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 20:52 0 comments
Carter, a Democrat whose Carter Center has monitored more than 50 elections around the world, will co-chair the private commission with Republican James Baker, who served as Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush.
Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat who lost his seat in the 2004 election, will also participate.
"I am concerned about the state of our electoral system and believe we need to improve it," Carter said in a statement. He said the group will assess "issues of inclusion" in federal voting and propose recommendations to improve the process.
"We will try to define an electoral system for the 21st century that will make Americans proud again," he said.
Though disputes over recounts and voter eligibility marred the 2000 U.S. presidential election, international monitors in place in November 2004 reported the polls were mostly fair.
Still, concerns emerged about exceedingly long lines that kept voters from the polls in several states including Ohio, whose 20 electoral college votes ultimately decided the election in President Bush's favor.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 20:52 0 comments
Globalist: Gratitude Toward U.S. Turns Into Resentment (IHT.com)
By Roger Cohen
International Herald Tribune
Saturday, March 26, 2005
SEOUL America's children have come of age and, as befits this rite of passage, they bridle at their parent.
South Korea is one such country, birthed under American protection, saved from North Korea's invasion in 1950 by United States forces, guarded through the cold war as its per-capita output went from $100 in 1965 to over $15,000 today, and still made safe by the presence of 32,500 American soldiers.
But what young and not-so-young Koreans feel today is less gratitude than resentment or unease at America's global muscle. Many are more moved by the democratic struggle of the 1970s and 1980s against American-backed military rule than by the American-driven retaking of Seoul from North Korean communists in 1950.
Globalist: Gratitude toward U.S. turns into resentment ¶ 10:36 0 comments
International Herald Tribune
Saturday, March 26, 2005
SEOUL America's children have come of age and, as befits this rite of passage, they bridle at their parent.
South Korea is one such country, birthed under American protection, saved from North Korea's invasion in 1950 by United States forces, guarded through the cold war as its per-capita output went from $100 in 1965 to over $15,000 today, and still made safe by the presence of 32,500 American soldiers.
But what young and not-so-young Koreans feel today is less gratitude than resentment or unease at America's global muscle. Many are more moved by the democratic struggle of the 1970s and 1980s against American-backed military rule than by the American-driven retaking of Seoul from North Korean communists in 1950.
Globalist: Gratitude toward U.S. turns into resentment ¶ 10:36 0 comments
U.S. Terror Suspects Are Tortured in Uzbekistan, Briton Says (IHT.com)
By Farah Stockman
The Boston Globe
Friday, March 25, 2005
WASHINGTON The former British ambassador to Uzbekistan says that over the past three years, the United States has routinely handed over dozens of low-level terrorism suspects to Uzbekistan, an authoritarian regime that systematically uses torture to obtain terrorist confessions during interrogations.
The former ambassador, Craig Murray, also contends that the CIA and the British intelligence agency MI6 routinely cited information in their regular intelligence briefings that had been passed on by Uzbek authorities and almost certainly obtained under torture.
Murray's allegations, made in a telephone interview and in a series of confidential memos to the British Foreign Office, raise questions about the close cooperation between the United States and war-on-terror allies such as Uzbekistan.
The State Department's annual human rights reports detail how the Uzbek authorities routinely use torture to elicit confessions, allegedly burning one man on his genitals, killing another with a pair of pliers and apparently boiling two prisoners alive.
U.S. terror suspects are tortured in Uzbekistan, Briton says ¶ 10:26 0 comments
The Boston Globe
Friday, March 25, 2005
WASHINGTON The former British ambassador to Uzbekistan says that over the past three years, the United States has routinely handed over dozens of low-level terrorism suspects to Uzbekistan, an authoritarian regime that systematically uses torture to obtain terrorist confessions during interrogations.
The former ambassador, Craig Murray, also contends that the CIA and the British intelligence agency MI6 routinely cited information in their regular intelligence briefings that had been passed on by Uzbek authorities and almost certainly obtained under torture.
Murray's allegations, made in a telephone interview and in a series of confidential memos to the British Foreign Office, raise questions about the close cooperation between the United States and war-on-terror allies such as Uzbekistan.
The State Department's annual human rights reports detail how the Uzbek authorities routinely use torture to elicit confessions, allegedly burning one man on his genitals, killing another with a pair of pliers and apparently boiling two prisoners alive.
U.S. terror suspects are tortured in Uzbekistan, Briton says ¶ 10:26 0 comments
Outsourcing Rights (WashingtonPost.com)
Friday, March 25, 2005; Page A18
THE CASE OF Gary Sherwood Small didn't get much attention when the Supreme Court considered it last fall. It raised what may have seemed a trivial question of whether the words "any court" in a federal criminal law mean any court in this country or include foreign courts as well. Yet the recent public debate between Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen G. Breyer and the high court's opinion striking down the death penalty for juveniles have together pushed into the public arena the once academic question of how U.S. courts should regard foreign legal decisions. In that context, Mr. Small's disturbing and illuminating case deserves a second look.
The debate over foreign law has grown in importance as the court has heard more cases involving America's role in the world. Should U.S. courts consult foreign practice when assessing whether a punishment is "cruel and unusual" for purposes of the Eighth Amendment? Should international court judgments made under treaties this country has signed bind U.S. courts? Should the judiciary apply international humanitarian law to detainees in the war on terrorism in the absence of explicit congressional direction?
This panoply of questions has triggered a depressingly ideological response, with many conservatives decrying the use of foreign court judgments to inform U.S. adjudication in all circumstances and many liberals and human rights activists keen to have U.S. courts consult foreign sources as a matter of course. In recent years, the centrist faction on the Supreme Court has embraced the transnational approach as well.
(More ... Outsourcing Rights (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 10:19 0 comments
THE CASE OF Gary Sherwood Small didn't get much attention when the Supreme Court considered it last fall. It raised what may have seemed a trivial question of whether the words "any court" in a federal criminal law mean any court in this country or include foreign courts as well. Yet the recent public debate between Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen G. Breyer and the high court's opinion striking down the death penalty for juveniles have together pushed into the public arena the once academic question of how U.S. courts should regard foreign legal decisions. In that context, Mr. Small's disturbing and illuminating case deserves a second look.
The debate over foreign law has grown in importance as the court has heard more cases involving America's role in the world. Should U.S. courts consult foreign practice when assessing whether a punishment is "cruel and unusual" for purposes of the Eighth Amendment? Should international court judgments made under treaties this country has signed bind U.S. courts? Should the judiciary apply international humanitarian law to detainees in the war on terrorism in the absence of explicit congressional direction?
This panoply of questions has triggered a depressingly ideological response, with many conservatives decrying the use of foreign court judgments to inform U.S. adjudication in all circumstances and many liberals and human rights activists keen to have U.S. courts consult foreign sources as a matter of course. In recent years, the centrist faction on the Supreme Court has embraced the transnational approach as well.
(More ... Outsourcing Rights (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 10:19 0 comments
Native Americans Criticize Bush's Silence (WashingtonPost.com)
Response to School Shooting Is Contrasted With President's Intervention in Schiavo Case
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 25, 2005; Page A06
MINNEAPOLIS, March 24 -- Native Americans across the country -- including tribal leaders, academics and rank-and-file tribe members -- voiced anger and frustration Thursday that President Bush has responded to the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with silence.
Three days after 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed nine members of his Red Lake tribe before taking his own life, grief-stricken American Indians complained that the White House has offered little in the way of sympathy for the tribe situated in the uppermost region of Minnesota.
"From all over the world we are getting letters of condolence, the Red Cross has come, but the so-called Great White Father in Washington hasn't said or done a thing," said Clyde Bellecourt, a Chippewa Indian who is the founder and national director of the American Indian Movement here. "When people's children are murdered and others are in the hospital hanging on to life, he should be the first one to offer his condolences. . . . If this was a white community, I don't think he'd have any problem doing that."
(More ... Native Americans Criticize Bush's Silence (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 10:16 0 comments
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 25, 2005; Page A06
MINNEAPOLIS, March 24 -- Native Americans across the country -- including tribal leaders, academics and rank-and-file tribe members -- voiced anger and frustration Thursday that President Bush has responded to the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with silence.
Three days after 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed nine members of his Red Lake tribe before taking his own life, grief-stricken American Indians complained that the White House has offered little in the way of sympathy for the tribe situated in the uppermost region of Minnesota.
"From all over the world we are getting letters of condolence, the Red Cross has come, but the so-called Great White Father in Washington hasn't said or done a thing," said Clyde Bellecourt, a Chippewa Indian who is the founder and national director of the American Indian Movement here. "When people's children are murdered and others are in the hospital hanging on to life, he should be the first one to offer his condolences. . . . If this was a white community, I don't think he'd have any problem doing that."
(More ... Native Americans Criticize Bush's Silence (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 10:16 0 comments
Edwards Tosses His Hat Into . . . Podcasting (WashingtonPost.com)
By Brian Faler
Friday, March 25, 2005; Page A05
John Edwards may be out of office, but that doesn't mean you still can't hear him.
The former vice presidential candidate this week released his first podcast, an online audio recording featuring Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, chatting about the NCAA basketball tournament, her breast cancer treatments, his opposition to President Bush's Social Security plans and (pander alert) his respect for bloggers.
"I also want to say that I know bloggers have really taken a leading role in this effort to fight to protect Social Security," Edwards says, mentioning a few names and sites, such as www.thereisnocrisis.com. The 25-minute recording is available on his Web site, www.oneamericacommittee.com.
(More ... Edwards Tosses His Hat Into . . . Podcasting (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 10:15 0 comments
Friday, March 25, 2005; Page A05
John Edwards may be out of office, but that doesn't mean you still can't hear him.
The former vice presidential candidate this week released his first podcast, an online audio recording featuring Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, chatting about the NCAA basketball tournament, her breast cancer treatments, his opposition to President Bush's Social Security plans and (pander alert) his respect for bloggers.
"I also want to say that I know bloggers have really taken a leading role in this effort to fight to protect Social Security," Edwards says, mentioning a few names and sites, such as www.thereisnocrisis.com. The 25-minute recording is available on his Web site, www.oneamericacommittee.com.
(More ... Edwards Tosses His Hat Into . . . Podcasting (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 10:15 0 comments
House Allots $37M for Wal-Mart Street (USATODAY.com)
NZDEMS--More corporate welfare!?
Posted 3/25/2005 10:41 AM Updated 3/25/2005 10:45 AM
BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) — The U.S. House has approved a federal highway bill that includes $37 million for widening and extending the Bentonville street that provides the main access to the headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT).
The company says it asked U.S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., to help get federal money for the project. U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, added an amendment that put the work into the $284 billion bill, now before the Senate.
Wal-Mart spokesman Jay Allen says the company wants Eighth Street improved so workers will have an easier time getting to their jobs. In the time Wal-Mart's headquarters has been at the site, the company has grown at a much greater rate than the street has been improved. Wal-Mart, measured by sales, is the world's largest company.
"We have people living all over the area," Allen said. "Infrastructure in northwest Arkansas is a big issue for us. This would represent another east-west corridor connected to the interstate, which would benefit everybody."
(More ... USATODAY.com - House allots $37M for Wal-Mart street) ¶ 10:12 0 comments
Posted 3/25/2005 10:41 AM Updated 3/25/2005 10:45 AM
BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) — The U.S. House has approved a federal highway bill that includes $37 million for widening and extending the Bentonville street that provides the main access to the headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT).
The company says it asked U.S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., to help get federal money for the project. U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, added an amendment that put the work into the $284 billion bill, now before the Senate.
Wal-Mart spokesman Jay Allen says the company wants Eighth Street improved so workers will have an easier time getting to their jobs. In the time Wal-Mart's headquarters has been at the site, the company has grown at a much greater rate than the street has been improved. Wal-Mart, measured by sales, is the world's largest company.
"We have people living all over the area," Allen said. "Infrastructure in northwest Arkansas is a big issue for us. This would represent another east-west corridor connected to the interstate, which would benefit everybody."
(More ... USATODAY.com - House allots $37M for Wal-Mart street) ¶ 10:12 0 comments
3.25.2005
Game Over: Fischer Freed, Heads to Iceland (Asahi.com)
03/25/2005
The Asahi Shimbun
After eight months in detention, chess master Bobby Fischer left on a flight for Iceland on Thursday, but not before taking some parting shots at the Japanese government.
Fischer, wearing a baseball cap and sporting a long gray beard, was released from a detention center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, and taken to Narita International Airport in a limousine provided by the Icelandic Embassy.
He flew to Reykjavik. Iceland has granted him citizenship.
As he walked through the airport, Fischer told reporters that his detention was ``a kidnapping.''
``I am not free until I get out of Japan,'' Fischer, 62, said.
At the same airport last July, Fischer was taken into custody by immigration authorities as he tried to leave Japan with an invalid U.S. passport.
The chess master has been wanted by the United States since 1992 when he played a chess rematch against his Russian rival, Boris Spassky, in the former Yugoslavia, an area then subject to U.S. economic sanctions.
Washington issued an arrest warrant after Fischer won the match and $3 million in prize money, a suspected violation of the U.S. sanction law.
While in custody, Fischer and his supporters opposed any plan for a deportation order to the United States.
He also renounced his U.S. citizenship, and among many requests, asked that he be sent instead to Iceland. It was in Iceland in 1972 that Fischer became a local hero for defeating Spassky in a Cold War-era match.
(More ... asahi.com：Game over: Fischer freed, heads to Iceland - ENGLISH) ¶ 18:47 0 comments
The Asahi Shimbun
After eight months in detention, chess master Bobby Fischer left on a flight for Iceland on Thursday, but not before taking some parting shots at the Japanese government.
Fischer, wearing a baseball cap and sporting a long gray beard, was released from a detention center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, and taken to Narita International Airport in a limousine provided by the Icelandic Embassy.
He flew to Reykjavik. Iceland has granted him citizenship.
As he walked through the airport, Fischer told reporters that his detention was ``a kidnapping.''
``I am not free until I get out of Japan,'' Fischer, 62, said.
At the same airport last July, Fischer was taken into custody by immigration authorities as he tried to leave Japan with an invalid U.S. passport.
The chess master has been wanted by the United States since 1992 when he played a chess rematch against his Russian rival, Boris Spassky, in the former Yugoslavia, an area then subject to U.S. economic sanctions.
Washington issued an arrest warrant after Fischer won the match and $3 million in prize money, a suspected violation of the U.S. sanction law.
While in custody, Fischer and his supporters opposed any plan for a deportation order to the United States.
He also renounced his U.S. citizenship, and among many requests, asked that he be sent instead to Iceland. It was in Iceland in 1972 that Fischer became a local hero for defeating Spassky in a Cold War-era match.
(More ... asahi.com：Game over: Fischer freed, heads to Iceland - ENGLISH) ¶ 18:47 0 comments
Bushies Kvelling Over Orthodox Jeff Ballabon (Observer.com)
By Ben Smith
March 25, 2005
In a rapid, confidential near-whisper, Jeff Ballabon was offering his counterintuitive take on former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"If you go to his house today, he has a mezuzah on the door," Mr. Ballabon said. And when they went to a Baltimore Orioles baseball game together, he recalled, Mr. Ashcroft knew that combining hot dogs and ice cream wouldn't be kosher.
"Ashcroft isn't an 'evangelical,'" Mr. Ballabon explained. "He's not a 'fundamentalist.'"
If you're looking for a New Yorker with deep ties to the Christian right--you know, the folks running America--Mr. Ballabon is your man. Which is odd, first of all, because he's not Christian, but an ultra-Orthodox Jew from Long Island. And, second, because he's spent most of his career as the lobbyist for New York media companies, including Court TV and Primedia.
(More ... Bushies Kvelling Over Orthodox Jeff Ballabon) ¶ 14:51 0 comments
March 25, 2005
In a rapid, confidential near-whisper, Jeff Ballabon was offering his counterintuitive take on former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"If you go to his house today, he has a mezuzah on the door," Mr. Ballabon said. And when they went to a Baltimore Orioles baseball game together, he recalled, Mr. Ashcroft knew that combining hot dogs and ice cream wouldn't be kosher.
"Ashcroft isn't an 'evangelical,'" Mr. Ballabon explained. "He's not a 'fundamentalist.'"
If you're looking for a New Yorker with deep ties to the Christian right--you know, the folks running America--Mr. Ballabon is your man. Which is odd, first of all, because he's not Christian, but an ultra-Orthodox Jew from Long Island. And, second, because he's spent most of his career as the lobbyist for New York media companies, including Court TV and Primedia.
(More ... Bushies Kvelling Over Orthodox Jeff Ballabon) ¶ 14:51 0 comments
The 500-Mile-Per-Gallon Solution (LATimes.com)
Soaring oil prices — crude is over $55 a barrel and unleaded gasoline over $2 a gallon — are not much of an economic or political issue. Yet.
In absolute terms, today's prices are still half of the 1970s peaks, and the U.S. economy has become much less dependent on petroleum since then. (Computers run on electricity, not gasoline.) But imagine what would happen if Al Qaeda were to hit the giant Ras Tanura terminal in Saudi Arabia, where a tenth of global oil supplies are processed every day. Prices could soar past $100 a barrel, and the U.S. economy could go into a tailspin. As it is, high oil prices provide money for Saudi Arabia to subsidize hate-spewing madrasas and for Iran to develop nuclear weapons.
Both Democrats and Republicans know this, but neither party is serious about solving this growing crisis. Democrats who couldn't tell the difference between a caribou and a cow grandstand about the sanctity of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even though 70% of Alaskans are happy to see a bit of drilling in this remote tundra. Republicans, for their part, pretend that tapping ANWR will somehow solve all of our problems. If only. A government study finds that, with ANWR on line, the U.S. will be able to reduce its dependence on imported oil from 68% to 65% in 2025.
How to do better? Biking to work or taking the train isn't the answer. Even if Americans drive less, global oil demand will surge because of breakneck growth in India and China. The Middle East, home of two-thirds of the world's proven oil reserves, will remain of vital strategic importance unless we can develop alternative sources of automotive propulsion and substantially decrease global, not just American, demand for petroleum. An ambitious agenda to achieve those goals has been produced by Set America Free, a group set up by R. James Woolsey, Frank Gaffney and other national security hawks.
(More ... The 500-Mile-Per-Gallon Solution) ¶ 14:39 0 comments
In absolute terms, today's prices are still half of the 1970s peaks, and the U.S. economy has become much less dependent on petroleum since then. (Computers run on electricity, not gasoline.) But imagine what would happen if Al Qaeda were to hit the giant Ras Tanura terminal in Saudi Arabia, where a tenth of global oil supplies are processed every day. Prices could soar past $100 a barrel, and the U.S. economy could go into a tailspin. As it is, high oil prices provide money for Saudi Arabia to subsidize hate-spewing madrasas and for Iran to develop nuclear weapons.
Both Democrats and Republicans know this, but neither party is serious about solving this growing crisis. Democrats who couldn't tell the difference between a caribou and a cow grandstand about the sanctity of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even though 70% of Alaskans are happy to see a bit of drilling in this remote tundra. Republicans, for their part, pretend that tapping ANWR will somehow solve all of our problems. If only. A government study finds that, with ANWR on line, the U.S. will be able to reduce its dependence on imported oil from 68% to 65% in 2025.
How to do better? Biking to work or taking the train isn't the answer. Even if Americans drive less, global oil demand will surge because of breakneck growth in India and China. The Middle East, home of two-thirds of the world's proven oil reserves, will remain of vital strategic importance unless we can develop alternative sources of automotive propulsion and substantially decrease global, not just American, demand for petroleum. An ambitious agenda to achieve those goals has been produced by Set America Free, a group set up by R. James Woolsey, Frank Gaffney and other national security hawks.
(More ... The 500-Mile-Per-Gallon Solution) ¶ 14:39 0 comments
Poll: Even Evangelicals Oppose Bush, Congress on Schiavo (CommonDreams.org--AP)
WASHINGTON - More than two-thirds of people who describe themselves as evangelicals and conservatives disapprove of the intervention by Congress and President Bush in the case of the Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of a national debate.
A CBS News poll found that four of five people polled opposed federal intervention, with levels of disapproval among key groups supporting the GOP almost that high.
Bush's overall approval was at 43 percent, down from 49 percent last month.
(More ... Poll: Even Evangelicals Oppose Bush, Congress on Schiavo) ¶ 14:29 0 comments
A CBS News poll found that four of five people polled opposed federal intervention, with levels of disapproval among key groups supporting the GOP almost that high.
Bush's overall approval was at 43 percent, down from 49 percent last month.
(More ... Poll: Even Evangelicals Oppose Bush, Congress on Schiavo) ¶ 14:29 0 comments
UA Young Democrat Banned From Bush Forum (www.arizona.edu/papers/)
By Cassie Tomlin
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
A UA student was banned from attending President Bush's Social Security forum at the Tucson Convention Center yesterday.
UA Young Democrat Steven Gerner, a political science and pre-pharmacy sophomore, said he and three other Young Democrats had been waiting in line with their tickets for about 40 minutes when a staff member approached him and asked to read his T-shirt.
Gerner was the only one of the four wearing a UAYD T-shirt, which read, "Don't be a smart (image of a donkey, the Democratic Party symbol). UA Young Democrats."
Gerner said the staffer, who refused to provide his name, asked for Gerner's ticket and crumpled it up.
The staffer walked away, returned in 20 minutes, and told Gerner his name had been added to a list banning him from entering the convention center for the speech.
"I was certainly shocked," Gerner said. "Everyone should have access to this information."
(More ... Arizona Daily Wildcat - UA Young Democrat banned from forum - Tuesday, March 22, 2005) ¶ 11:39 0 comments
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
A UA student was banned from attending President Bush's Social Security forum at the Tucson Convention Center yesterday.
UA Young Democrat Steven Gerner, a political science and pre-pharmacy sophomore, said he and three other Young Democrats had been waiting in line with their tickets for about 40 minutes when a staff member approached him and asked to read his T-shirt.
Gerner was the only one of the four wearing a UAYD T-shirt, which read, "Don't be a smart (image of a donkey, the Democratic Party symbol). UA Young Democrats."
Gerner said the staffer, who refused to provide his name, asked for Gerner's ticket and crumpled it up.
The staffer walked away, returned in 20 minutes, and told Gerner his name had been added to a list banning him from entering the convention center for the speech.
"I was certainly shocked," Gerner said. "Everyone should have access to this information."
(More ... Arizona Daily Wildcat - UA Young Democrat banned from forum - Tuesday, March 22, 2005) ¶ 11:39 0 comments
Where Are the Democrats? (WashingtonPost.com)
By Richard Cohen
Thursday, March 24, 2005; Page A19
Rep. Tom DeLay is called "The Hammer." He is a man of fierce beliefs who has long confused politics with war -- religious war at that. At one time he would have been labeled an "extremist," the sort of politician whom reporters seek out for colorful, wacko quotes. But now he is in the GOP mainstream where, among other things, he has bludgeoned the Democratic Party into pathetic meekness. On the Terri Schiavo debate, the party went AWOL.
By late Sunday, when the debate had reached the House of Representatives, Barney Frank stood almost alone in opposing the bill. Cliches suffered. Here was an openly gay Democrat, the Massachusetts liberal of all Massachusetts liberals, defending the Founding Fathers, federalism and the American tradition of keeping the government's nose out of a family's business.
It was a bravura performance and one could only have wished that it had been matched by John Kerry or Hillary Clinton -- or any of the other Democrats who are being mentioned as presidential candidates. Most of them seemed to be cowering in some bunker, calling their consultants and pollsters, asking what they should do and how they should do it. Please, have a memo on the desk by morning.
(More ... Where Are the Democrats? (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 11:31 0 comments
Thursday, March 24, 2005; Page A19
Rep. Tom DeLay is called "The Hammer." He is a man of fierce beliefs who has long confused politics with war -- religious war at that. At one time he would have been labeled an "extremist," the sort of politician whom reporters seek out for colorful, wacko quotes. But now he is in the GOP mainstream where, among other things, he has bludgeoned the Democratic Party into pathetic meekness. On the Terri Schiavo debate, the party went AWOL.
By late Sunday, when the debate had reached the House of Representatives, Barney Frank stood almost alone in opposing the bill. Cliches suffered. Here was an openly gay Democrat, the Massachusetts liberal of all Massachusetts liberals, defending the Founding Fathers, federalism and the American tradition of keeping the government's nose out of a family's business.
It was a bravura performance and one could only have wished that it had been matched by John Kerry or Hillary Clinton -- or any of the other Democrats who are being mentioned as presidential candidates. Most of them seemed to be cowering in some bunker, calling their consultants and pollsters, asking what they should do and how they should do it. Please, have a memo on the desk by morning.
(More ... Where Are the Democrats? (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 11:31 0 comments
Reopening Government (WashingtonPost.com)
Thursday, March 24, 2005; Page A18
OPENNESS IN government has diminished during the Bush administration. Classification actions rose 75 percent between 2001 and 2004. Immigration authorities kept secret the names of hundreds of detainees rounded up after Sept. 11, as did military authorities for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Legal memorandums authorizing key tactics in the war on terrorism were needlessly kept secret. The administration has stiffed Congress on oversight requests across a wide range of areas, and it has aggressively sought to withhold material -- even such obviously nonsensitive data as aggregate intelligence spending from the late 1940s -- under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Some secrecy is inevitable during wartime, but that's not the whole story; too often the Bush administration has viewed it as a positive value.
It is, consequently, encouraging to see a bipartisan consensus slowly emerging that open government needs a helping hand. A Senate Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing last week on a bill by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) to bolster FOIA. The act creates a presumption that government documents are available to the public on request, subject to a limited number of exemptions. But over time, because of congressional amendments and judicial interpretations, the exemptions have sometimes seemed to swallow up the presumption.
(More ... Reopening Government (washingtonpost.com)
¶ 11:28 0 comments
OPENNESS IN government has diminished during the Bush administration. Classification actions rose 75 percent between 2001 and 2004. Immigration authorities kept secret the names of hundreds of detainees rounded up after Sept. 11, as did military authorities for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Legal memorandums authorizing key tactics in the war on terrorism were needlessly kept secret. The administration has stiffed Congress on oversight requests across a wide range of areas, and it has aggressively sought to withhold material -- even such obviously nonsensitive data as aggregate intelligence spending from the late 1940s -- under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Some secrecy is inevitable during wartime, but that's not the whole story; too often the Bush administration has viewed it as a positive value.
It is, consequently, encouraging to see a bipartisan consensus slowly emerging that open government needs a helping hand. A Senate Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing last week on a bill by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) to bolster FOIA. The act creates a presumption that government documents are available to the public on request, subject to a limited number of exemptions. But over time, because of congressional amendments and judicial interpretations, the exemptions have sometimes seemed to swallow up the presumption.
(More ... Reopening Government (washingtonpost.com)
