Rove Criticizes Liberals on 9/11 (NYTimes.com) By PATRICK D. HEALY
Published: June 23, 2005

Karl Rove came to the heart of Manhattan last night to rhapsodize about the decline of liberalism in politics, saying Democrats responded weakly to Sept. 11 and had placed American troops in greater danger by criticizing their actions.

"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Mr. Rove, the senior political adviser to President Bush, said at a fund-raiser in Midtown for the Conservative Party of New York State.

Citing calls by progressive groups to respond carefully to the attacks, Mr. Rove said to the applause of several hundred audience members, "I don't know about you, but moderation and restraint is not what I felt when I watched the twin towers crumble to the ground, a side of the Pentagon destroyed, and almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens perish in flames and rubble."

Told of Mr. Rove's remarks, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, replied: "In New York, where everyone unified after 9/11, the last thing we need is somebody who seeks to divide us for political purposes."

Mr. Rove also said American armed forces overseas were in more jeopardy as a result of remarks last week by Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who compared American mistreatment of detainees to the acts of "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others."

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  Pentagon Creating Student Database (WashingtonPost.com) Recruiting Tool For Military Raises Privacy Concerns

By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A01

The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.

The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.

The data will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., one of many marketing firms that use computers to analyze large amounts of data to target potential customers based on their personal profiles and habits.

"The purpose of the system . . . is to provide a single central facility within the Department of Defense to compile, process and distribute files of individuals who meet age and minimum school requirements for military service," according to the official notice of the program.

Privacy advocates said the plan appeared to be an effort to circumvent laws that restrict the government's right to collect or hold citizen information by turning to private firms to do the work.

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  Democrats Say 2004 Election System Failed in Ohio (WashingtonPost.com) Party Concedes No Evidence of Fraud; Republican Decries 'Political Fiction'

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A10

Democratic Party officials charged yesterday that the election system in Ohio broke down in last year's presidential race, citing numerous problems that frustrated or disenfranchised voters while concluding there was no evidence of fraud in the outcome. The findings reignited a partisan debate that has colored efforts to improve voting procedures around the country.

"The results show that our election system failed the citizens of Ohio in 2004 and in particular failed African Americans, new registrants, younger voters and voters in places using touch-screen machines," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told reporters. During a question-and-answer period, he declined to rule out that partisan actions by the Republicans may have contributed to the problems.

Even before Dean and members of the Democratic task force finished their presentations, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman issued a statement denouncing the findings. "The report is pure political fiction," he said, charging that some Democratic-aligned groups had engaged in fraudulent or illegal voter registration activities in Ohio.

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  Not on Faith Alone (NYTimes.com) By MARIO M. CUOMO
Published: June 20, 2005

There is a way to get beyond the religious morass created by President Bush's position on embryonic stem cells.

Most scientists agree that while adult stem cells offer hope of a cure for some of the cruelest diseases and injuries, embryonic stem cells hold even greater and surer promise. As a result, while most scientists welcomed Mr. Bush's August 2001 offer of government resources to advance adult stem cell research, they and millions of other Americans were sorely disappointed by his refusal to consider retrieving any stem cells from the many thousands of unused embryos awaiting destruction. To most scientists, his compromise restricting federal financing only to research that used the 20 or so embryonic stem cell lines that had already been developed was politically clever but insufficient, not least because most of those cell lines are of limited and uncertain potential.

Mr. Bush does not deny the greater potential of embryonic stem cells: he says his decision was compelled by his belief that retrieving stem cells from the embryo destroys it, thereby resulting in the killing of a human being that cannot be justified no matter how vast the potential benefits.

The president did not claim his conclusion was based on biomedical science. He said only that it was an expression of his religious faith. Asked in March 2004 about the stem cell issue, his science adviser, Dr. John H. Marburger III (who headed a fact-finding commission on the Shoreham nuclear plant in 1983 when I was governor), said: "I can't tell when a fertilized egg becomes sacred," and added, "That's not a science issue."

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  Republican Senators Challenge Bush's Irag Optimism (Reuters.com) Sun Jun 19, 2005 03:09 PM ET

By Tim Ahmann

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush needs to tell Americans the nation faces "a long, hard slog" in Iraq, a key Republican senator said on Sunday, and another said the White House was "disconnected from reality" in its optimism over the war.

"Too often we've been told and the American people have been told that we're at a turning point," Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "What the American people should have been told and should be told ... (is that) it's long; it's hard; it's tough."

"It's going to be at least a couple more years," said McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, was quoted by U.S. News and World Report as saying the administration's Iraq policy was failing.

"Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality," said Hagel, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. "It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

The two senators' remarks came as the Bush administration makes a push to counter growing U.S. public impatience with the Iraq war, and to resist demands by some lawmakers to set a date for withdrawal of U.S. forces.

U.S. public polls show the Iraq war is losing support and hurting Bush's popularity. While Vice President Dick Cheney has asserted the insurgency is in its "last throes," a suicide bombing in Baghdad on Sunday that killed at least 23 people underscored the unabated bloodshed.

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  Biden to Seek Presidential Nomination (WashingtonPost.com) Senator Says He Plans to Run in 2008 Unless He Has Little Chance of Winning

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 20, 2005; Page A03

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said yesterday he plans to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 unless he decides later this year that he has little chance of winning.

"My intention is to seek the nomination," Biden said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "I know I'm supposed to be more coy with you. I know I'm supposed to tell you, you know, that I'm not sure. But if, in fact, I think that I have a clear shot at winning the nomination by this November or December, then I'm going to seek the nomination."

Biden said he plans to spend the year road-testing a message to see whether his views are compatible with a majority of Democrats while evaluating whether he can raise the money needed to compete in a race that is widely expected to include Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), a prodigious fundraiser.

"I've proceeded since last November as if I were going to run," he said. "I'm quite frankly going out, seeing whether I can gather the kind of support."

Biden is the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has used that pulpit to launch increasingly caustic criticisms of President Bush's policy in Iraq. Yesterday, he again accused the administration of failing to level with Americans about the situation there, saying the insurgency is far from being in its last throes, as administration officials have suggested.

"I think the administration figures they've got to paint a rosy picture in order to keep the American people in the game, and the exact opposite is happening," Biden said. "The exact opposite."

Biden, who opposes setting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq, said that, without changes in U.S. policy, the United States faces failure in Iraq.

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  Policy Shifts Felt After Bolton's Departure From State Dept. (WashingtonPost.com) By Peter Baker and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 20, 2005; Page A02

For years, a key U.S. program intended to keep Russian nuclear fuel out of terrorist hands has been frozen by an arcane legal dispute. As undersecretary of state, John R. Bolton was charged with fixing the problem, but critics complained he was the roadblock.

Now with Bolton no longer in the job, U.S. negotiators report a breakthrough with the Russians and predict a resolution will be sealed by President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an international summit in Scotland next month, clearing the way to eliminate enough plutonium to fuel 8,000 nuclear bombs.

The prospective revival of the plutonium disposal project underlines a noticeable change since Bolton's departure from his old job as arms control chief. Regardless of whether the Senate confirms him as U.N. ambassador during a scheduled vote today, fellow U.S. officials and independent analysts said his absence has already been felt at the State Department.

Without the hard-charging Bolton around, the Bush administration not only has moved to reconcile with Russia over nuclear threat reduction but also has dropped its campaign to oust the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and made common cause with European allies in offering incentives to Iran to persuade it to drop any ambitions for nuclear weapons.

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  Red Cross Hits Back at Republican Critic (Reuters.com) By Stephanie Nebehay
June 17, 2005

GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hit back at a U.S. Republican report which questioned its impartiality, dismissing the accusations as false and unsubstantiated.

ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger vowed the Swiss-based agency would stick to its principles of neutrality and expressed confidence the United States would remain its top donor.

A policy adviser for the U.S. Senate Republican majority said this week the ICRC had lost its impartiality and was advocating positions at odds with U.S. interests.

"The paper's purpose appears to be to discredit the ICRC by putting forward false allegations and unsubstantiated accusations," Kellenberger told a news briefing.

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  Climate CHange Gains Crucial Ally in U.S. Senate (Reuters.com) By Chris Baltimore
June 17, 2005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate's top Republican energy bill negotiator, risking a break with the White House over the global warming issue, on Friday said the United States must act to curb heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

Pete Domenici of New Mexico, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, "is convinced that the science now indicates that climate change is occurring and we need to do something about it," said his energy advisor Alex Flint. The stance is contrary to the Bush Administration's opposition to mandatory measures.

Domenici supports recommendations by the National Commission on Energy Policy (NCEP) for a mandatory cap-and-trade system starting in 2010, Flint said.

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  Who We Are (NYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: June 18, 2005

For more than three and a half years since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Congress has been derelict in its duty to assert control over the prison camps created by President Bush in the shadows beyond the Constitution, the rule of law and a half-century of international laws and treaties. So it was a relief to watch the hearing this week by Senator Arlen Specter's Judiciary Committee on the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and to hear Mr. Specter declare that it was time for Congress to do its job and bring the American chain of prison camps under the law.

While the hearing was too long in coming, its timing was useful - one day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who should have been fired for bungling the Iraq war and for the prison abuse scandal, offered the bizarre declaration that "no detention facility in the history of warfare has been more transparent" than Guantánamo.

Mr. Rumsfeld seems to be confusing transparency with invisibility.

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  G-8 Draft on Global Warming Is Weakened at U.S. Behest (NYTimes.com) By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: June 18, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 17 - Drafts of a joint statement being prepared for the leaders of the major industrial powers show that the Bush administration has succeeded in removing language calling for prompt action to control global warming.

The statement is being negotiated in advance of the annual Group of 8 summit, which is to be held in Scotland next month. Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, president of the group this year, has sought to focus the summit on aid to Africa and on climate change.

The statement, first outlined last month by British officials, is meant to reflect the eight countries' shared concerns and plans regarding climate change. Drafts have been batted back and forth since mid-May.

A newly disclosed version, the first showing specifically what changes were sought by the Bush administration, was provided to The New York Times on Friday by someone in Europe involved with shaping the British stance on the issue.

It is dated May 27, and the revisions, many of which are also reflected in a June 14 version, vividly illustrate the broad gulf between the United States and the group's other members: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and Russia.

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  Bush's Support on Major Issues Tumbles in Poll (NYTimes.com) By ROBIN TONER and MARJORIE CONNELLY
Published: June 17, 2005

Increasingly pessimistic about Iraq and skeptical about President Bush's plan for Social Security, Americans are in a season of political discontent, giving Mr. Bush one of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency and even lower marks to Congress, according to the New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Forty-two percent of the people responding to the poll said they approved of the way Mr. Bush was handling his job, a marked decline from his 51 percent rating after of the November election, when he embarked on an ambitious second term agenda led by the overhaul of Social Security. Sixteen months before the midterm elections, Congress fared even worse in the survey, with the approval of just 33 percent of the respondents, and 19 percent saying Congress shared their priorities.

Despite months of presidential effort, the nationwide poll found the public is not rallying toward Mr. Bush's vision of a new Social Security that would allow younger workers to put part of their payroll taxes into private investment accounts. Two-thirds said they were uneasy about Mr. Bush's ability to make sound decisions on Social Security. Only 25 percent said they approved of the way Mr. Bush was handling Social Security, down slightly from what the poll found in March.

Moreover, 45 percent said the more they heard about the Bush plan, the less they liked it. The survey also found the public shared the growing skepticism in Washington about Mr. Bush's prospects for success on Social Security, with most saying they did not think Mr. Bush would succeed.

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  Congress Assaults the Courts, Again (NYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: June 18, 2005

The House of Representatives took a little- noticed but dangerous swipe at the power of the courts this week. It passed an amendment to a budget bill that would bar money from being spent to enforce a federal court ruling regarding the Ten Commandments. The vote threatens the judiciary's long-acknowledged position as the final arbiter of the Constitution. It is important that this amendment be removed before the bill becomes law.

During consideration of an appropriations bill for the Departments of State, Justice and Commerce, Representative John Hostettler, Republican of Indiana, introduced an amendment to prohibit any funds from being used to enforce Russelburg v. Gibson County. In that case, a federal court ruled that a courthouse Ten Commandments display violated the First Amendment and had to be removed. Mr. Hostettler declared that the ruling was unconstitutional, and inconsistent with "the Christian heritage of the United States."

Since the Supreme Court decided Marbury v. Madison in 1803, it has been clearly established that the courts have the ultimate power to interpret the Constitution. But right-wing ideologues, unhappy with some of the courts' rulings, have begun to question this principle as part of a broader war on the federal judiciary. The amendment that passed this week reflected an effort to use Congress's power to stop the courts from standing up for the First Amendment and other constitutional principles.

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  Politics and Terri Schiavo (NYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: June 18, 2005

After Terri Schiavo was finally allowed to rest in peace on March 31, we hoped she would also have been granted in death what she surely would have wanted - an end to the bitterness that divided her family and made her private suffering a public spectacle. For the American people, the episode was a terrible lesson in what government should and should not do, in what is properly within the scope of our political leaders and what is not.

And so it was heartbreaking yesterday to see Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida thrust himself back into this tragedy just two days after the results of Ms. Schiavo's autopsy showed that her condition had been beyond hope and beyond therapy, that she most likely had been in a persistent vegetative state and that her relatives' allegations that she had been abused by her husband were false.

For most of the nation, that news provided closure on a wrenching episode. But not for Mr. Bush, who asked a state prosecutor to investigate Michael Schiavo, Ms. Schiavo's husband. Mr. Bush said he wanted to clear up discrepancies in Mr. Schiavo's statements over the last 15 years about the time that elapsed between his finding his wife on the floor and his 911 call. If such discrepancies existed, Mr. Bush surely knew of them long before yesterday. To seek an investigation now seems tactical, an attempt to deflect attention from the autopsy report.

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  New Memos Detail Early Plans for Invading Iraq (LATimes.com) British officials believed the U.S. favored military force a year before the war, documents show.

By John Daniszewski
Times Staff Writer
June 15, 2005

LONDON — In March 2002, the Bush administration had just begun to publicly raise the possibility of confronting Iraq. But behind the scenes, officials already were deeply engaged in seeking ways to justify an invasion, newly revealed British memos indicate.

Foreshadowing developments in the year before the war started, British officials emphasized the importance of U.N. diplomacy, which they said might force Saddam Hussein into a misstep. They also suggested that confronting the Iraqi leader be cast as an effort to prevent him from using weapons of mass destruction or giving them to terrorists.

The documents help flesh out the background to the formerly top-secret "Downing Street memo" published in the Sunday Times of London last month, which said that top British officials were told eight months before the war began that military action was "seen as inevitable." President Bush and his main ally in the war, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have long maintained that they had not made up their minds to go to war at that stage.

"Nothing could be farther from the truth," Bush said last week, responding to a question about the July 23, 2002, memo. "Both of us didn't want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option."

Publication of the Downing Street memo at the height of Britain's election campaign at first garnered little notice in U.S. media or other British newspapers. But in the weeks that followed, anger has grown among war critics, who contend that the document proves the Bush administration had already decided on military action, even while U.S. officials were saying that war was a last resort.

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  Exxon Chief Makes A Cold Calculation On Global Warming (CommonDreams.org) By Jeffrey Ball
Wall Street Journal
June 15, 2005

ANNANDALE, N.J. -- At Exxon Mobil Corp.'s laboratories here, there isn't a solar panel or windmill in sight. About the closest Exxon's scientists get to "renewable" energy is perfecting an oil that Exxon could sell to companies operating wind turbines.

Oil giants such as BP PLC and Royal Dutch/Shell Group are trumpeting a better-safe-than-sorry approach to global warming. They accept a growing scientific consensus that fossil fuels are a main contributor to the problem and endorse the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which caps emissions from developed nations that have ratified it. BP and Shell also have begun to invest in alternatives to fossil fuels.

What particularly riles the green movement is Exxon's funding of several groups that continue to argue that the science doesn't justify caps. Among them is the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which received a total of $465,000 in 2003 from Exxon and the company's charitable foundation, according to a corporate-giving report that Exxon posts on its Web site.

Not Exxon. Openly and unapologetically, the world's No. 1 oil company disputes the notion that fossil fuels are the main cause of global warming. Along with the Bush administration, Exxon opposes the Kyoto accord and the very idea of capping global-warming emissions. Congress is debating an energy bill that may be amended to include a cap, but the administration and Exxon say the costs would be huge and the benefits uncertain. Exxon also contributes money to think tanks and other groups that agree with its stance.

Exxon publicly predicts that solar and wind energy will continue to provide less than 1% of the world's energy supply in 2025, a subject that others shy away from. Even if fossil fuels are the chief global-warming culprit, Exxon argues, the sensible response is to figure out how to burn them more efficiently.

"We're not playing the issue. I'm not sure I can say that about others," Lee Raymond, Exxon's chairman and chief executive, said in a recent interview at Exxon headquarters in Irving, Texas. "I get this question a lot of times: 'Why don't you just go spend $50 million on solar cells? Charge it off to the public-affairs budget and just say it's like another dry hole?' The answer is: That's not the way we do things."

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  L.A.'s Mayor-elect Faces Challenges Head-on (USATODAY.com) By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — The day after he won election as the first Hispanic mayor here since 1872, Antonio Villaraigosa started getting calls about running for state and national office. "I just laughed," he says.

Villaraigosa's May 17 victory vaults him into the top tier of Hispanic Democrats, along with statewide officials such as New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar. But he knows his star will fade unless he proves he can manage this huge, unwieldy city. "Any continued national prominence will hinge on how successful I am as mayor," he says.

To say the job is tough is an understatement. This city, the nation's second largest at 3.7 million, is plagued by school violence and transportation problems, racial and ethnic tensions, poverty and homelessness, and periodic attempts by various communities to secede.

Though he doesn't take office until July 1, Villaraigosa is already dealing with problems such as an imminent hotel labor crisis. He's winning praise for his visibility in a city craving public leadership after four years of Mayor James Hahn's reserved, bureaucratic style.

"This is a hands-on guy. He jumped right in," says Joe Cerrell, a veteran Democratic consultant close to Hahn.

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  Anti-Terror Absurdity in America: Hemorrhaging Money for Homeland Security (Speigel.de) By Georg Mascolo
June 13, 2005

Fear can be a lucrative business. That, at least, is what American companies selling security gadgets are finding out as the US government continues to spend billions of dollars on a variety of different Homeland Security programs. The only problem? Most of them are useless.

Clark Kent Ervin, 46, is one of those people on whom the US president likes to depend. The staunch Republican is an old friend from Texas who once worked for George W. Bush in the governor's mansion and who, on Bush Junior's recommendation, managed to get a job in Bush Senior's administration. Ervin is an amiable man who is usually quick to smile. The exception? When you mention his last employer -- the two-and-a-half-year-old US Department of Homeland Security.

The problems at the bureaucratic behemoth -- with its 180,000 employees -- are myriad, says Ervin, a graduate of Harvard. "I've never experienced anything like it before," he says.

And now Ervin, appointed by his friend Bush to the position of highest-ranking internal auditor on the homeland security front, is suddenly without a job. His reports on the chaos, corruption and wastefulness at the department were so thorough and full-throated that he became a liability to the president. Since Ervin was forced out of the department, the gold rush-like mood in the American security industry, whose excesses were at the center of Ervin's complaints, has continued unabated.

The business of fear in the United States of America has been booming ever since September 11, 2001 and the price tag for the protective cordon of high-tech gadgetry intended to keep the US safe from more terrorist attacks is enormous. Devices designed to detect nuclear material in shipping containers will cost the US government $300 million. The budget for the American Shield Initiative, a plan that calls for monitoring the country's borders with sensors or drones, comes at the hefty price of $2.5 billion. A further $10 billion is budgeted for a new computer system designed to monitor visitors, while outfitting all 6,800 aircraft in US commercial aviation with anti-missile systems will cost about the same amount. The total 2005 Homeland Security budget weighs in at a whopping $50 billion -- roughly equivalent to the gross national product of New Zealand.

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  Military Numbers (IHT.com) EDITORIAL

Tuesday, June 14, 2005
The New York Times

The U.S. Army's inability to recruit enough new soldiers to sustain its worldwide commitments is already serious, is becoming alarming and poses a real threat to the future of America's all-volunteer military.

The requisite political energies to address the problem aren't likely to be mobilized, however, if the army keeps massaging monthly numbers to conceal the extent of the shortfall. In May for example, the army originally hoped to send 8,050 new soldiers to training camps. Early in the month, the target was dropped significantly, to just 6,700. Even that lowered target, it turns out, was missed by a whopping 25 percent, with only about 5,000 new recruits entering boot camp.

Even if enlistments spurt temporarily during the summer, as the Pentagon now desperately hopes, it is hard to see how the army expects to train the 80,000 new troops it will need this year to maintain its authorized strength.

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  Military Action Won't End Insurgency, Growing Number of US Officers Believe (CommonDreams.org) by Tom Lasseter
Knight-Ridder
June 13, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A growing number of senior American military officers in Iraq have concluded that there is no long-term military solution to an insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and more than 1,300 U.S. troops during the past two years.

The message is markedly different from previous statements by U.S. officials who spoke of quashing the insurgency by rounding up or killing "dead enders" loyal to former dictator Saddam Hussein. As recently as two weeks ago, in a Memorial Day interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Vice President Dick Cheney said he believed the insurgency was in its "last throes."

Instead, officers say, the only way to end the guerilla war is through Iraqi politics - an arena that so far has been crippled by divisions between Shiite Muslims, whose coalition dominated the January elections, and Sunni Muslims, who are a minority in Iraq but form the base of support for the insurgency.

"I think the more accurate way to approach this right now is to concede that ... this insurgency is not going to be settled, the terrorists and the terrorism in Iraq is not going to be settled, through military options or military operations," Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said last week, in a comment that echoes what other senior officers say. "It's going to be settled in the political process."

Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, expressed similar sentiments, calling the military's efforts "the Pillsbury Doughboy idea" - pressing the insurgency in one area only causes it to rise elsewhere.

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  Blair and Putin Agree to Push for Action on Climate Change (news.Independent.co.uk) By Colin Brown in Moscow

14 June 2005

Tony Blair has the support of Vladimir Putin for action on climate change at the forthcoming G8 summit at Gleneagles.

The Prime Minister and the Russian President agreed yesterday to work together to put pressure on other countries which have not signed the Kyoto agreement, including the United States, to do more to meet the challenges of global warming.

Speaking at the presidential dacha on the outskirts of Moscow, Mr Blair said he was optimistic about making "progress'' on climate change at the G8 summit early next month.

"I think there is a real prospect of progress on Africa and climate change at the G8 summit,'' he said. "One thing I have learnt about these negotiations is that it is not too wise to claim progress until it is certain, but the debt deal [on Africa] announced at the weekend is a good omen for the summit.''

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  Beckett Exposes G8 Rift on Global Warming (news.Independent.co.uk) By Marie Woolf in London and Colin Brown in Moscow

13 June 2005

The British Government is deeply disappointed that President George Bush has not made a greater commitment to tackling climate change before the G8 summit, the Environment Secretary has disclosed. In a rare, outspoken critique of the US position on global warming, Margaret Beckett told The Independent of the Government's frustration at the lack of "common ground" with Washington on the need for action on the environment. The US has consistently blocked attempts by Britain to put progress on tackling climate change alongside G8's moves to scrap African debt at the Gleneagles meeting of the leading industrialised nations next month.

Mrs Beckett added that signing the Kyoto protocol was clearly "off the agenda" for President Bush, who was "coming from a different place in the dialogue" on the issue of global warming. She said the Government had made no secret that it wants the White House to be "more engaged" on climate change. "Certainly there is a degree of disappointment that there isn't more common ground than there already is," she said.

Her remarks come days after Mr Blair returned from talks with President Bush about global warming in Washington.

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  Global Warming: The US Contribution in Figures (news.Independent.co.uk) 13 June 2005

* The United States constitutes 4 per cent of the world population
* It is responsible for a quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions - an average of 40,000 pounds of carbon dioxide is released by each US citizen every year - the highest of any country in the world, and more than China, India and Japan combined
* Americans use 50 million tons of paper annually - consuming more than 850 million trees
* There are more than 200 million cars and light trucks on american roads
* According to the Federal Department of Transportation, they use over 200 million gallons of petrol a day
* Motor vehicles account for 56 per cent of all air pollution in The United States

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  Poll: USA is Losing Patience on Iraq (USATODAY.com) Posted 6/12/2005 11:11 PM Updated 6/13/2005 4:59 AM

By Susan Page, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Nearly six in 10 Americans say the United States should withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq, a new Gallup Poll finds, the most downbeat view of the war since it began in 2003.

Patience for the war has dropped sharply as optimism about the Iraqi elections in January has ebbed and violence against U.S. troops hasn't abated. For the first time, a majority would be "upset" if President Bush sent more troops. A new low, 36%, say troop levels should be maintained or increased.

The souring of public opinion presents challenges for the president, who has vowed to stay the course until democracy is established and Iraqi forces can ensure security. He hasn't suggested sending more U.S. troops.

"We have reached a tipping point," says Ronald Spector, a military historian at George Washington University. "Even some of those who thought it was a great idea to get rid of Saddam (Hussein) are saying, 'I want our troops home.' "

The pattern of public opinion on Iraq — strong support for the first two years that then erodes — is reminiscent of the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, he says.

(More ... USATODAY.com - Poll: USA is losing patience on Iraq)  ¶ 21:53 0 comments

  Cheney Slams Howard Dean As 'Over the Top' (Reuters.com) Sun Jun 12, 2005 01:50 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney slammed Democratic Party boss Howard Dean as "over the top" in a television interview to air on Monday, saying Dean had helped Republicans more than Democrats.

"I think Howard Dean's over the top. I've never been able to understand his appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does," Cheney told Fox News Channel.

"So far, I think he's probably helped us more than he has them. That's not the kind of individual you want to have representing your political party," Cheney said.

Cheney's attack was the latest in a chorus of Republican complaints about the Democratic National Committee chairman, who recently said Republicans "never made an honest living in their lives" and were "pretty much a white, Christian party."

(More ... a href="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=8765250">Politics News Article | Reuters.com)  ¶ 08:05 0 comments

  Dean Urges Appeal to Moral Values (NYTimes.com) DNC Chairman Calls for Democrats to Adopt GOP's Language to Woo Voters

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page A05

Unrepentant after a week of controversy over his inflammatory remarks, Democratic chairman Howard Dean told party leaders yesterday that casting traditionally liberal issues in moral terms is a key to breaking Republicans' eight-year hold on the White House.

Dean acknowledged that he sees his party's national campaign apparatus as being "30 years behind" the one fielded in November by the Bush-Cheney campaign, and said the solution is for Democrats to be tough, describe themselves boldly and get organized in all 50 states.

"People want us to fight, and we are here to fight," Dean said during a quarterly meeting of the party's 64-member executive committee. "We are not going to lie down in front of the Republican machine anymore."

Dean's aides said he now realizes he needs to choose his words more carefully but plans to keep the pressure on Republicans.

Several key Democrats had said early last week that Dean should resign but concluded by week's end that there was no viable movement to oust him. Dean yesterday embraced his reputation for volatility, saying he is being buoyed by activists and donors. At one point, Chicago alderman Joseph A. Moore had trouble getting recognized and joked that next time he would "jump up and down."

"That's my job!" Dean said, and the room shook with applause.

(More ... Dean Urges Appeal to Moral Values)  ¶ 16:20 0 comments

  Army Recruiting More High School Dropouts to Meet Goals (NYTimes.com) By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: June 11, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 10 - The Army is having to turn to more high school dropouts and lower-achieving applicants to fill its ranks, accepting hundreds of recruits in recent months who would have been rejected a year ago, according to Army statistics.

Eight months into the recruiting year, the percentage of new recruits in the Army without a high school diploma has risen to 10 percent, the upper limit of what the Army is willing to accept, from 8 percent last year. The percentage of recruits with scores in the lowest acceptable range on the standardized test used to screen potential soldiers has also risen to 2 percent, also reaching the Army's limit, from slightly more than a half-percent last year, reaching the highest level since 2001.

The number of lower-achieving recruits is a relatively small part of the more than 41,000 recruits who have signed an enlistment contract or entered basic training since October. Officials emphasized that this year's recruits still met or exceeded the Army's quality goals, and that the service would not lower its standards to meet its overall enlistment target of 80,000 recruits.

But as the Army formally announced Friday that it had missed its recruiting goal for the fourth consecutive month, military personnel specialists said the profile of this year's enlistees raised questions about recruit quality, and whether the Army would fail to reach its annual recruiting goal for the first time since 1999.

"The overall quality of the force today is lower than it was a year ago," said David R. Segal, who directs the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. "It means they can anticipate more problem situations with recruits in the training cycle."

(More ... Army Recruiting More High School Dropouts to Meet Goals - New York Times)  ¶ 13:21 0 comments

  George Bush's Man in Wellington (Stuff.co.nz) 10 June 2005
By TRACY WATKINS

A restaurant king and big Bush campaign donor is tipped to become the next United States ambassador to New Zealand.

William P McCormick, the co-founder and chairman of Oregon-based McCormick & Schmick's seafood restaurants, is reported to be in line for the ambassadorship when Charles "Butch" Swindells completes his Wellington posting this year.

Mr McCormick is a member of the elite "rangers and pioneers" group of Republican Party supporters who raised money to re-elect President George W Bush last year.

Like Mr Swindells, who is also from Oregon, Mr McCormick has been a significant fundraiser for the US president - often a route to diplomatic postings.

As a Bush "pioneer", Mr McCormick, 65, pledged to raise at least $US100,000 in individual contributions for the 2004 campaign.

(More ... STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website)  ¶ 20:32 0 comments

  US Ambassador to Head Home After Four Years (Stuff.co.nz) 09 June 2005
By HANK SCHOUTEN

United States ambassador Charles Swindells is leaving after four years in New Zealand.

Mr Swindells' departure was announced in invitations sent out yesterday for July 4 Independence Day celebrations, which will also double as a farewell function.

His successor has not yet been named by the White House though the diplomatic process, where a nominee is formally put up and agreed to by the New Zealand Government, has been completed.

The ambassador, a wealthy financier and major fundraiser during George W Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, took up his Wellington post a month after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Mr Swindells, a suave and personable figure, has been the US face in an uneasy relationship with New Zealand. New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy, its unwillingness to contribute troops to the war in Iraq, and its unease at US policies on international issues such as global warming continue to be major irritants.

(More ... STUFF : POLITICS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website)  ¶ 20:29 0 comments

  An Important Election Safeguard (NYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: June 10, 2005

There are many problems with American elections, but none more serious than the rise of paperless electronic voting, whose results cannot be trusted. Grass-roots reformers are in the middle of a two-day lobbying blitz on Capitol Hill in support of a House bill that would require that electronic voting machines in federal elections produce voter-verifiable paper records. It is an important measure that should be passed without delay.

Electronic voting has been rolled out nationwide without necessary safeguards. The machines' computers can be programmed to steal votes from one candidate and give them to another. There are also many ways hackers can break in to tamper with the count. Polls show that many Americans do not trust electronic voting in its current form; such doubts are a serious problem in a democracy.

The solution is to require that each machine produce a paper record that can be inspected and verified by the voter. The paper records are then stored, and can be counted after the polls close. If the results on the machine do not match the tally of the paper records, it will be clear that there is a problem.

The states have taken the lead on electronic voting reform. Nineteen states have paper-trail requirements, including major states like California and Ohio. But a federal law is still badly needed. Any state can cast the deciding electoral votes in a presidential election. Voters across the country are entitled to know that the president was elected on machines that can be trusted.

The House resolution, sponsored by Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat, would require not only paper trails, but also random audits of the macmachines' vote counts, and it would ban the use of undisclosed software. The bill, H.R. 550, has 135 co-sponsors, but it needs more support, especially from Republicans.

(More ... An Important Election Safeguard - New York Times)  ¶ 20:19 0 comments

  Losing Our Country (NYTimes.com) By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: June 10, 2005

Baby boomers like me grew up in a relatively equal society. In the 1960's America was a place in which very few people were extremely wealthy, many blue-collar workers earned wages that placed them comfortably in the middle class, and working families could expect steadily rising living standards and a reasonable degree of economic security.

But as The Times's series on class in America reminds us, that was another country. The middle-class society I grew up in no longer exists.

Working families have seen little if any progress over the past 30 years. Adjusted for inflation, the income of the median family doubled between 1947 and 1973. But it rose only 22 percent from 1973 to 2003, and much of that gain was the result of wives' entering the paid labor force or working longer hours, not rising wages.

Meanwhile, economic security is a thing of the past: year-to-year fluctuations in the incomes of working families are far larger than they were a generation ago. All it takes is a bit of bad luck in employment or health to plunge a family that seems solidly middle-class into poverty.

But the wealthy have done very well indeed. Since 1973 the average income of the top 1 percent of Americans has doubled, and the income of the top 0.1 percent has tripled.

(More ... Losing Our Country - New York Times)  ¶ 20:14 0 comments

  Reid: No Documents, No Bolton (CNN.com) Thursday, June 9, 2005 Posted: 2247 GMT (0647 HKT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senate Democrats will not allow a vote on President Bush's choice for U.N. ambassador unless the White House hands over records of communications intercepts Bolton sought from the secretive National Security Agency, Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

"You can't ignore the Senate. We've told them what we've wanted. The ball is in his court," Reid, D-Nevada, told CNN. "If they want John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, give us this information. If they don't, there will be no Bolton."

The Senate fell four votes shy of the 60 needed to cut off debate on Bolton's nomination in May after two Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee urged their colleagues to hold the issue open. (Full story)

Sens. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the committee, and Christopher Dodd have demanded the Bush administration produce documents 10 National Security Agency communications intercepts that Bolton, the State Department's undersecretary for arms control, had requested since 2001.

White House Communications Director Nicole Devenish called Reid's stance "another effort to distract from the work that the people want to see done here in Washington."

"This request for additional information is clearly a stalling tactic, and one that I think the American people are growing weary of," she said.

But Reid said Bush is responsible for breaking the impasse -- not Democrats.

(More ... CNN.com - Reid: No documents, no Bolton - Jun 9, 2005)  ¶ 20:05 0 comments

  Kaptur Alerts Colleagues of Unfolding Scandal (ToledoBlade.com) Brown says illegalities put presidential election in question

By STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON - As the word spread Tuesday night that the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation had lost $215 million in a high-risk investment, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur alerted her colleagues to the mounting concerns in her home state.

Miss Kaptur, during a statement on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday night, said "there is a major political scandal that is unfolding in the state of Ohio."

"The governor of our state has permitted millions and millions of dollars of workers' money from the Ohio Worker's Compensation Fund to be invested in high-risk investments," Miss Kaptur said in a statement that was placed on the congressional record.

Her accusations came just hours after the bureau acknowledged that it lost $215 million in a high-risk fund run by Pittsburgh businessman Mark D. Lay, who has contributed to Gov. Bob Taft's campaign, and other candidates, including some Democrats. The governor's office was notified of the loss last October, but a spokesman for Mr. Taft said yesterday he was not made aware of the concerns.

The $215 million loss - coupled with a failed $50 million rare-coin investment with Tom Noe, a prominent Republican campaign contributor - have given Democrats political ammunition against the GOP, which has dominated state government for years.

Democrats such as Miss Kaptur and U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown of Lorain say the latest scandals mirror problems in Washington and even call into question the results of the 2004 presidential election.

(More ... toledoblade.com)  ¶ 19:05 0 comments

  Deans Says Democrats Forging Ahead on Issues (USATODAY.com) Posted 6/9/2005 12:58 PM Updated 6/9/2005 1:08 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Thursday that the recent controversy over his comments isn't going to stop congressional Democrats from focusing on issues like Social Security, gas prices and the war in Iraq.

"You know, I think a lot of this is exactly what the Republicans want, and that's a diversion," Dean said after meeting with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid about the Democrats' agenda for the next few weeks of Congress. "The truth is that we need to focus on exactly the issues that Harry Reid just talked about, and we're going to."

Dean's has come under fire for recent comments, including his observation that Republicans are "pretty much a white, Christian party." While some Democrats have joined the criticism of Dean, Reid refused to join in.

"No matter how people focus on other issues, we're going to talk about what we feel is so important to people all across this country," Reid said.

Dean said he hasn't talked to Reid about his comments.

(More ... USATODAY.com - Deans says Democrats forging ahead on issues)  ¶ 08:25 0 comments

  Dean Defends Remarks About GOP (CNN.com) Wednesday, June 8, 2005 Posted: 9:45 AM EDT (1345 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday defended his recent harsh criticism of Republicans, including his observation that they are "pretty much a white, Christian party."

Dean noted that he, too, is a white Christian. But he said the GOP is too narrow in its scope and the Democratic Party is far more diverse.

While even prominent Democrats in recent days have distanced themselves from some of his comments, the outspoken Dean, appearing on NBC"s "Today" show, said criticism of him is meant by Republicans to divert attention from the country's problems and make him the issue instead.

Dean told a forum of journalists and minority leaders Monday that Republicans are "not very friendly to different kinds of people, they are a pretty monolithic party ... it's pretty much a white, Christian party."

Challenged on that during the NBC interview, Dean said "unfortunately, by and large it is. And they have the agenda of the conservative Christians."

"This is a diversion from the issues that really matter: Social Security, and adequate job opportunity, strong public schools, a strong defense," Dean said.

(More ... CNN.com - Dean defends remarks about GOP - Jun 8, 2005)  ¶ 08:06 0 comments

  Bush Aide Softened Greenhouse Gas Links to Global Warming (NYTimes.com) By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: June 8, 2005

A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents.

In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved. In many cases, the changes appeared in the final reports.

The dozens of changes, while sometimes as subtle as the insertion of the phrase "significant and fundamental" before the word "uncertainties," tend to produce an air of doubt about findings that most climate experts say are robust.

Mr. Cooney is chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office that helps devise and promote administration policies on environmental issues.

Before going to the White House in 2001, he was the "climate team leader" and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the interests of the oil industry. A lawyer with a bachelor's degree in economics, he has no scientific training.

The documents were obtained by The New York Times from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit legal-assistance group for government whistle-blowers.

(More ... Bush Aide Softened Greenhouse Gas Links to Global Warming - New York Times)  ¶ 08:03 0 comments

  Senator Clinton Assails G.O.P. at Fund-Raiser (NYTimes.com) By PATRICK D. HEALY
Published: June 7, 2005

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton castigated President Bush and Congressional Republicans yesterday as being mad with power and self-righteousness, complained that the news media have been timid in taking on the administration, and suggested that some Washington Republicans have a God complex.

Senator Clinton, who is running for a second term in 2006 and is widely seen as a possible Democratic nominee for the presidency in 2008, said that her party was hamstrung in fighting back because Republicans dissemble and smear without shame.

While she has recently highlighted her moderate views, her remarks yesterday were starkly partisan and meant to rally her most loyal supporters at a time when at least four New York Republicans are preparing to run against her. She made the remarks at a Midtown hotel to about 1,000 supporters at a "Women for Hillary" breakfast that was her first major Senate re-election fund-raiser. Contributions from the event totaled about $250,000.

The senator said that left unchallenged, Republican leaders could ram through extremist judges, wreck Social Security, and make unacceptable concessions to China, Saudi Arabia and other nations that finance the United States budget deficit.

"There has never been an administration, I don't believe in our history, more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda," Mrs. Clinton told the gathering.

(More ... Senator Clinton Assails G.O.P. at Fund-Raiser - New York Times)  ¶ 08:15 0 comments

  Bill Would Give CIA More Power Overseas (WashingtonPost.com) Legislation Covers All Human Intelligence

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; Page A04

The CIA would be given authority to coordinate all human intelligence activities overseas, including those carried out by Pentagon and FBI personnel, under legislation proposed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the fiscal 2006 intelligence authorization bill.

At a time when the CIA appears to be losing its preeminence in clandestine operations abroad, the House panel suggested language in the bill that it said was designed to clarify roles of the CIA director and the new director of national intelligence (DNI) regarding the collection of human intelligence outside the United States "by any department, agency or element" of the U.S. government.

In the past, the CIA has exercised similar authority in most cases, but the House panel decided to try to put that into law as a result of increased overseas operations by many government agencies, and reports that several Pentagon teams had been found operating overseas without the knowledge of CIA officials.

Under the House committee proposal, CIA Director Porter J. Goss would develop a process for coordinating clandestine human intelligence activities overseas, but it would be "subject to the approval of the DNI," John D. Negroponte, according to the panel's report, made available yesterday.

The House panel also revived a proposal that would limit Negroponte's authority to transfer Pentagon or other intelligence specialists within the intelligence community. Under the current law, Negroponte must provide prompt notice of any transfer only to the appropriate congressional committees.

(More ... Bill Would Give CIA More Power Overseas)  ¶ 08:12 0 comments

  No Signs Yet of a 'Torpedo' in the New Book on Hillary Clinton (WashingtonPost.com) By Howard Kurtz
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; Page A07

The conservative buzz about Edward Klein's forthcoming book on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton began two months ago, when Internet gossip Matt Drudge quoted "a source close to Klein" as warning that the book's revelations "should sink her candidacy."

"The sources say the revelations inside could torpedo Hillary Clinton's chances at a run at the White House," said MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman. The book "could prove a roadblock" to the New York senator's White House ambitions, said the Washington Times.

Well, maybe. But an excerpt from July's Vanity Fair is less than devastating. Klein reports that then-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), who endorsed Clinton for his seat, didn't much like the first lady and was concerned that she told people he never held hearings on her health care plan, when he had convened numerous hearings. Moynihan's wife, Liz, is described as telling a "friend" that Clinton is "duplicitous" and "would say or do anything that would forward her ambitions."

Vanity Fair outed Mark Felt as Deep Throat last week, but the hard shots against Clinton here are taken by unnamed sources.

Klein, a former New York Times Magazine editor and author of several volumes on the Kennedys, depicts Clinton as an incompetent candidate who somehow managed to get elected in 2000. She is described by visitors as a baggy-eyed "zombie" and is now transforming herself "from the old, radical Hillary into the new, moderate Hillary." One unattributed tidbit says that former president Bill Clinton wanted his wife to seek the presidency last year but that she decided she needed to establish a longer record and deemed President Bush to be unbeatable as a wartime president.

(More ... No Signs Yet of a 'Torpedo' in the New Book on Hillary Clinton)  ¶ 08:09 0 comments

  Despite U.S. Pledges, Fear of Draft Persists (SeattleTimes.com) By Christian Davenport
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Rarely in the more than 30 years since the draft was abolished has the Selective Service triggered such angst. Two years into the Iraq war, concern that the draft will be reinstated to supplement an overextended military persists — no matter how often, or emphatically, President Bush and members of Congress say it won't.

In this atmosphere of suspicion, the Selective Service System, the agency that conscripted 1.8 million Americans during the Vietnam War and 10 million in World War II, quietly pursues its delicate dual mission: keeping the draft machinery ready, without sparking fear that it is coming back.

"We're told not to do a particular thing but to be prepared to do it," said Dan Amon, a spokesman for the Selective Service, which last year registered about 15.6 million young men between the draft-eligible ages of 18 and 25. "We just continue to carry out our mission as mandated by Congress."

These days, the agency spends a lot of time allaying fears and dispelling rumors.

One of the first things you see at the Selective Service Web site, www.sss.gov/, is an explanation of how Congress voted 402 to 2 against a bill to make military service mandatory.

(More ... The Seattle Times: Despite U.S. pledges, fear of draft persists)  ¶ 07:58 0 comments

  Washington Governor's Vote Upheld (CNN.com) Monday, June 6, 2005 Posted: 1733 GMT (0133 HKT)

WENATCHEE, Washington (AP) -- A judge on Monday upheld Washington's 2004 gubernatorial election, rejecting Republicans' bid to nullify the 129-vote victory of Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges denied Republican claims that election errors, illegal voters and fraud stole the election from GOP candidate Dino Rossi. He announced his decision in court, saying the state's election process was flawed but that he was not the proper person to remedy those flaws.

"This court is not in the position to fix the deficiencies in the election process," Bridges said. "However, the voters are in a position to demand of their legislative and executive bodies that remedial measures be taken immediately."

Republicans were seeking a new election in November. They have said they plan to appeal Bridges' decision to the state Supreme Court.

(More ... CNN.com - Washington governor's�vote upheld - Jun 6, 2005)  ¶ 08:16 0 comments

  US, Venezuela Clash at OAS Meeting (XinhuaNet.com) BEIJING, June 6 -- The US' call to support what they called "fragile" democracies in the West was immediately met by Venezuelan accusation of seeking to impose what they called a "global dictatorship."

The United States hopes to use a three-day meeting of the 34-member Organization of American States to advance its idea of allowing private groups to help monitor democracy by raising their concerns with the OAS.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters that it's very clear that the institution needs to be better capable of dealing with fragile democracies.

She did not directly mention Venezuela, but Washington and other critics of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez did say that although twice elected, the Venezuelan President is showing authoritarian tendencies in office.

On his weekly "Hello President" TV and radio show, Chavez said the US is going to try to monitor the Venezuelan government through the OAS.

He added that if there is any government that should be monitored by the OAS, it should be the US government. He argued that the US government backs terrorists, invades nations, tramples over its own people, and seeks to install a global dictatorship.

(More ... Xinhua - English)  ¶ 19:48 3 comments

  Biden Urges U.S. to Take Steps to Close Prison at Guantánamo (NYTimes.com) By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 6, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 5 (AP) - A leading Senate Democrat said Sunday that the United States needed to move toward shutting down the military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

"This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world," said the senator, Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, on the ABC News program "This Week." "And it is unnecessary to be in that position."

A Pentagon report released Friday cited cases in which American guards at Guantánamo Bay mishandled the Koran, and last month, Amnesty International called the detention center for terrorism suspects "the gulag of our time," a charge Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld dismissed as "reprehensible."

Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is planning hearings this month on the treatment of detainees at the camp.

Mr. Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, proposed that an independent commission take a look at Guantánamo Bay and make recommendations. "But the end result is, I think we should end up shutting it down, moving those prisoners," he said. "Those that we have reason to keep, keep. And those we don't, let go."

He added, "I think more Americans are in jeopardy as a consequence of the perception that exists worldwide with its existence than if there were no Gitmo."

(More ... Biden Urges U.S. to Take Steps to Close Prison at Guantánamo - New York Times)  ¶ 16:29 0 comments

  Dean Sticks to His Guns, Still Aimed at GOP (CNN.com) Saturday, June 4, 2005 Posted: 12:14 PM EDT (1614 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean is defending remarks he made that enraged Republican leaders this week.

"I don't hate Republicans," he said, in an interview Friday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "But I sure hate what this Republican Party is doing to America."

In a speech Thursday before a Washington conference sponsored by the "Campaign for America's Future," Dean told the audience that many Republicans "had never made an honest living in their lives."

His comments irked Republican leaders and sparked a quick response by Republican National Committee press secretary, Tracey Schmitt. In her statement, issued Thursday, she said, "Dean's priority is to generate mudslinging headlines rather than engage in substantive debate."

His speech, she added, "illustrates that the Democrat Party not only lacks leadership but is overflowing with anger."

In Friday's interview, Dean said that he did not intend his remarks to refer to the more than 50 million American people who voted for President Bush's re-election, but rather to Republican leaders whom he said do not understand the difficulties of waiting in line for eight hours to vote, as some did in Florida during the last election.

"We don't go after voters," he said. "But we do go after bad leadership," and cited the national deficit and the war in Iraq as evidence of the Republican administration's incompetence.

(More ... CNN.com - Dean sticks to his guns, still aimed at GOP - Jun 4, 2005)  ¶ 16:27 0 comments

  Two Democrats Disavow Dean's Jab at GOP (WashingtonPost.com) By Mike Allen and Alan Cooperman

Monday, June 6, 2005; Page A06

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) distanced themselves over the weekend from remarks by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who is facing criticism for the pace of the party's fundraising.

Dean, who inspired a passionate following when he ran for president in 2003-04 and showed the potential of Internet fundraising, has been as unpredictable with his public remarks since becoming party chairman in mid-February as his Republican counterpart, Ken Mehlman, has been on message.

Biden made his comment on ABC's "This Week" after the host, George Stephanopoulos, played a clip of Dean saying Thursday that perhaps Republicans can wait in line to cast ballots because a "lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives."

Asked whether Dean is doing the party any good, Biden said, "Not with that kind of rhetoric. He doesn't speak for me with that kind of rhetoric. And I don't think he speaks for the majority of Democrats. . . . I wish that rhetoric would change."

Edwards, the party's vice presidential nominee last year, said at an annual party fundraising dinner Saturday in Nashville that he disagreed with Dean's comment. "The chairman of the DNC is not the spokesman for the party," Edwards said, according to the Associated Press. "He's a voice. I don't agree with it."

(More ... Two Democrats Disavow Dean's Jab at GOP)  ¶ 16:23 0 comments

  Un-American by Any Name (NYTimes.com) EDITORIAL

Published: June 5, 2005

Now that the Bush administration has made clear how offended it is at Amnesty International's word choice in characterizing the Guantánamo Bay detention camp "the gulag of our times," we hope it will soon get around to dealing with the substantive problems that the Amnesty report is only the latest to identify. What Guantánamo exemplifies - harsh, indefinite detention without formal charges or legal recourse - may or may not bring to mind the Soviet Union's sprawling network of Stalinist penal colonies. It certainly has nothing in common with any American notions of justice or the rule of law.

Our colleague Thomas L. Friedman offered just the right solution a few days back. The best thing Washington can now do about this national shame is to shut it down. It is a propaganda gift to America's enemies; an embarrassment to our allies; a damaging repudiation of the American justice system; and a highly effective recruiting tool for Islamic radicals, including future terrorists.

(More ... Un-American by Any Name - New York Times)  ¶ 16:50 0 comments

  Centrist Democrat a Test of GOP Hold (WashingtonPost.com) Nebraska's Nelson Could Help Thwart Drive to Build Filibuster-Proof Senate

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 5, 2005; Page A05

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Republican hopes of expanding the party's Senate majority begin in Nebraska, where first-term Democrat Ben Nelson is bidding for reelection in a state President Bush won by a landslide.

But Nelson, a leader in putting together last month's bipartisan pact on judicial nominees, is proving that red-state Democrats can still win fans by sticking to the political center and acting as can-do problem solvers who put pragmatism above party.

Already known for breaking with his party's leaders by backing Bush's tax cuts and considering the administration's Social Security proposals, Nelson thrust himself into the center of the effort to avert a Senate meltdown over judges. Last week, he proudly told Nebraskans that he wants Congress to stay focused on highway construction, retirement security and other issues they care about. One detail Nelson routinely omitted did not surprise those who watch him closely.

(More ... Centrist Democrat a Test of GOP Hold)  ¶ 16:44 0 comments

  'Team Jesus Christ' (WashingtonPost.com) EDITORIAL

Saturday, June 4, 2005; Page A16

THE REPORTS OF the religious climate at the Air Force Academy are unsettling: A chaplain instructs cadets to try to convert classmates by warning that they "will burn in the fires of hell" if they do not accept Christ. During basic training, freshman cadets who decline to attend after-dinner chapel are marched back to their dormitories in "heathen flights" organized by upperclassmen. A Jewish student is taunted as a Christ killer and told that the Holocaust was the just punishment for that offense. The academy's head football coach posts a banner in the locker room that proclaims, "I am a Christian first and last. . . . I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."

Though there are disputes over the specifics of some of these cases, academy officials don't disagree that there has been a problem on campus with religious tolerance. They argue that they recognized and responded to it promptly, instituting training programs for students and faculty alike. But critics say the response was belated and grudging, treating the problem as one of a few instances of insensitivity by out-of-line cadets rather than, as they see it, a broader culture of intolerance fostered from the top down.


A task force appointed by the Pentagon to examine the religious climate on campus reported last week to acting Air Force Secretary Michael L. Dominguez about its findings, and a public report is due soon. Although the task force's work should not be judged in advance, it is of concern that the group doesn't seem to have spent much time with those who have been most outspoken about the issue. Mikey Weinstein, a 1977 academy graduate who says his cadet son has been harassed for being Jewish, said his only contact with the task force was a phone call asking him to stop criticizing it. Capt. MeLinda Morton, a chaplain who spoke out against what she considers strident evangelizing on campus, said she was interviewed for a scant 15 minutes on the task force's last day of investigation. A Yale Divinity School professor who helped flag the religious problems at the academy was never contacted.

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  Al Jazeera Denies Rumsfeld Charge It Airs Killings (Reuters.com) Sat Jun 4, 2005 07:57 AM ET

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Arab TV channel Al Jazeera rejected on Saturday as unfounded Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's accusations that it was encouraging Islamic militant groups by airing beheadings of foreign hostages in Iraq.

"Al Jazeera ... has never at any time transmitted pictures of killings or beheadings and ... any talk about this is absolutely unfounded," the television said in a statement.

Al Jazeera, repeatedly accused by Washington of biased reporting on Iraq, has often shown video of hostages pleading at gunpoint for their government to withdraw its troops. But it does not broadcast footage of killings, posted on the Internet by militants.

The channel voiced "deep regret and surprise" over Rumsfeld's remarks.

Rumsfeld earlier said: "If anyone lived in the Middle East and watched a network like the Al Jazeera day after day after day, even if he was an American, he would start waking up and asking what's wrong. But America is not wrong.

"It's the people who are going on television chopping off people's heads, that is wrong," he told a security conference in Singapore.

"And television networks that carry it and promote it and jump on the spark every time there is a terrorist act are promoting the acts," he said.

(More ... Top News Article | Reuters.com)  ¶ 16:25 0 comments

  Bush S.E.C. Pick Is Seen as Friend to Corporations (NYTimes.com) By STEPHEN LABATON
Published: June 3, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 2 - In Republican and business circles, William H. Donaldson has been viewed as the David Souter of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a disappointingly independent choice who sided too frequently with the Democrats.

Donaldson's record from across the business spectrum, responded on Thursday by nominating Representative Christopher Cox, a conservative Republican from California, as a successor whose loyalties seem clear. And unlike the Supreme Court, where Justice Souter has a lifetime appointment, the S.E.C. provides the White House with an immediate opportunity to tip the balance of the five-person commission in a more favorable direction.

Mr. Cox - a devoted student of Ayn Rand, the high priestess of unfettered capitalism - has a long record in the House of promoting the agenda of business interests that are a cornerstone of the Republican Party's political and financial support.

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  One Clinton, at Least, Finds 2008 Run Worth Discussing (NYTimes.com) By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: June 3, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 2 - In two television interviews this week, former President Bill Clinton talked up Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential prospects and left open the possibility that she would run in 2008.

While Mr. Clinton made it clear that his wife had not decided what to do about 2008, he said she would make a "magnificent" president and even mused aloud about how she might lay the groundwork for a national run.

In the process, Mr. Clinton seemed to stray from the strict party line put forth by Mrs. Clinton and her tight-lipped cadre of advisers: that she is totally focused on getting re-elected to the Senate in 2006 - and not even thinking about 2008.

Mr. Clinton, for example, said Mrs. Clinton should not rule out the possibility of running for president in 2008, even if that means she cannot pledge to serve out a full second term.

(More ... One Clinton, at Least, Finds 2008 Run Worth Discussing - New York Times)  ¶ 11:10 0 comments

  Acid Rain on Increase in China (Guardian.co.uk) Associated Press in Beijing
Friday June 3, 2005
The Guardian

More of China's cities are suffering from acid rain and its big rivers and lakes are heavily polluted, the government said yesterday in a report that highlighted the environmental costs of surging economic growth.
Two-thirds of the countries household sewage was untreated last year, while 'heavy pollution' tainted some cities' air, according to a report by the state environmental protection agency.
Acid rain - blamed on smoke from coal-burning factories and power plants - is spreading, with the number of cities suffering from severe levels rising last year to 218. "

China's environment has been ravaged by two decades of breakneck growth, and by the pressure of feeding and housing a population of 1.3 billion. Official efforts to reduce pollution have had limited success.
"Rapid economic growth has intensified China's environmental problems," Wang Jirong, a deputy director of the environmental agency, said at a news conference.

(More ... Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Acid rain on increase in China)  ¶ 11:04 0 comments

  Los Angeles Mayor-elect Says Democrats Need to Diversify (CNN.com) Antonio Villaraigosa: 'I'm unabashedly a progressive'

Thursday, June 2, 2005 Posted: 1954 GMT (0354 HKT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Los Angeles Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa told Democrats on Wednesday they need to diversify.

"We need to look long and hard within our movement," said Villaraigosa, the former California Assembly speaker who was elected mayor in mid-May.

"Look at this room today," he told a largely white crowd at a rally for the liberal group Campaign for America's Future. "You don't see the kind of diversity that we need to build a strong movement in America."

Villaraigosa becomes the first Hispanic mayor in Los Angeles in more than a century. While his victory has been hailed as a sign of the rising political power of Hispanics, Villaraigosa said it was about more than that.

"It wasn't just a Latino victory," he said. "It was about building a coalition."

(More ... CNN.com - Los Angeles mayor-elect says Democrats need to diversify - Jun 2, 2005)  ¶ 10:55 0 comments

  Dean Rallies liberal Activists (CNN.com) Friday, June 3, 2005 Posted: 0440 GMT (1240 HKT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean told liberal activists Thursday they have an extraordinary opportunity to provide an alternative to the country after more than four years of the "dark, difficult and dishonest vision the Republican Party offers for America."

Dean told the annual meeting of the Campaign for America's Future that a big problem facing the country is "the belief that propaganda and manipulation will succeed in America. I think it will not."

The gathering at a Washington hotel was described by leaders as the "largest gathering of progressives since the November election." Speakers said the Bush administration and GOP power in Washington were the greatest unifying force for Democrats and liberal activists in many years.

The Democratic chairman said Republicans already have control of the White House and Congress and are now trying to seize control of the judiciary. He was referring to the struggle in the Senate over conservative judicial nominees that have drawn unified Democratic opposition.

"I always thought an independent judiciary was important for a strong democracy," Dean said. "This administration is beginning to erode the core of democracy."

(More ... CNN.com - Dean rallies liberal activists - Jun 2, 2005)  ¶ 10:53 0 comments

  FBI's No. 2 Was 'Deep Throat' (WashingtonPost.com) Mark Felt Ends 30-Year Mystery of The Post's Watergate Source

By David Von Drehle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 1, 2005; Page A01

Deep Throat, the secret source whose insider guidance was vital to The Washington Post's groundbreaking coverage of the Watergate scandal, was a pillar of the FBI named W. Mark Felt, The Post confirmed yesterday.

As the bureau's second- and third-ranking official during a period when the FBI was battling for its independence against the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, Felt had the means and the motive to help uncover the web of internal spies, secret surveillance, dirty tricks and coverups that led to Nixon's unprecedented resignation on Aug. 9, 1974, and to prison sentences for some of Nixon's highest-ranking aides.

Felt's identity as Washington's most celebrated secret source had been an object of speculation for more than 30 years until yesterday, when his role was revealed by his family in a Vanity Fair magazine article. Even Nixon was caught on tape speculating that Felt was "an informer" as early as February 1973, at a time when Deep Throat was supplying confirmation and context for some of The Post's most explosive Watergate stories.

But Felt's repeated denials, and the stalwart silence of the reporters he aided -- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein -- kept the cloak of mystery drawn up around Deep Throat. In place of a name and a face, the source acquired a magic and a mystique.

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  'Watergate Source' Breaks Cover (news.BBC.co.uk) Last Updated: Tuesday, 31 May, 2005, 19:06 GMT 20:06 UK

A former deputy chief of the FBI has reportedly admitted to being "Deep Throat", the source who leaked secrets during the Watergate scandal.

Mark Felt says he only told his secret to his family three years ago
A former deputy chief of the FBI has reportedly admitted to being "Deep Throat", the source who leaked secrets during the Watergate scandal.

Vanity Fair magazine says that Mark Felt owned up to being the source whose identity has been secret for decades.

The scandal forced the resignation of US President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Deep Throat helped Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the Watergate affair. They would not confirm Mr Felt's claim.

In a statement read on US channel MSNBC, Mr Bernstein said: "We've said all along that when the source, known as Deep Throat, dies, we will reveal his identity.

(More ... BBC NEWS | Americas | 'Watergate source' breaks cover)  ¶ 08:07 0 comments