Joobo the King of Wisdom

Eyeing House and Senate elections this fall, Democrats are stepping up their effort to cut into the public perception that Republicans are stronger on national security.

Congressional Democrats vow to provide U.S. agents with the resources to hunt down Osama bin Laden and ensure a "responsible redeployment of U.S. forces" from Iraq in 2006 in a national security policy statement House and Senate Democratic leaders were announcing Wednesday.

"We need a new direction on national security, and leaders with policies that are tough and smart. That is what Democrats offer," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday.

His counterpart in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats were providing a fresh strategy - "one that is strong and smart, which understands the challenges America faces in a post 9/11 world, and one that demonstrates that Democrats are the party of real national security."

Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney delayed a scheduled news conference Friday morning as U.S. Capitol police reportedly made plans to seek an arrest warrant against her for striking a police officer.

McKinney's office says the news conference is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. They say that actor Danny Glover will also be present at the news conference to be held on Howard University's campus in northwest Washington. 11Alive.com will carry the news conference live.

The incident has become the topic of much-heated debate on talk radio and for Democrats and Republicans on the Hill. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday labeled it "a mistake, an unfortunate lack of recognition of a member of Congress." She added that the police officer was not at fault. "I would not make a big deal of this," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 1:58 PM  0 comments

Boston - In a disappointment for the gay rights movement, the state's highest court ruled Thursday that same-sex couples from states where gay marriage is prohibited cannot tie the knot in Massachusetts.

Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican who is considering a run for president in 2008, welcomed the decision, saying he did not want Massachusetts to become "the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage."

The Supreme Judicial Court upheld a 1913 state law that forbids nonresidents to marry in Massachusetts if their marriage would not be recognized in their home state.

If the court had struck down the law, Massachusetts would have been thrown open to gay couples from across the country to get married. Then they could have returned to their home states to fight for legal recognition for those marriages.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 1:58 PM  0 comments

HUSAYBAH, Iraq - Extra body armor — the lack of which caused a political storm in the United States — has flooded in to Iraq, but many Marines here promptly stuck it in lockers or under bunks. Too heavy and cumbersome, many say.

Marines already carry loads as heavy as 70 pounds when they patrol the dangerous streets in towns and villages in restive Anbar province. The new armor plates, while only about five pounds per set, are not worth carrying for the additional safety they are said to provide, some say.

"We have to climb over walls and go through windows," said Sgt. Justin Shank of Greencastle, Pa. "I understand the more armor, the safer you are. But it makes you slower. People don't understand that this is combat and people are going to die."

Staff Sgt. Thomas Bain of Buffalo, N.Y., shared concerns about the extra pounds.

"Before you know it, they're going to get us injured because we're hauling too much weight and don't have enough mobility to maneuver in a fight from house to house," said Bain, who is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "I think we're starting to go overboard on the armor."

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 1:57 PM  0 comments

The folks at MSNBC's Secaucus, N.J., headquarters had something to smile about Tuesday. For the first time in almost five years, the third-place cable news channel had a prime-time victory to crow about, albeit a small one: "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" beat CNN's "Paula Zahn Now" in the key 25- to 54-year-old advertising demographic in the first quarter of 2006, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The MSNBC show drew an average of 164,000 viewers in that demographic to CNN's 156,000, as Olbermann, who has been engaged in a colorful feud with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, enjoyed an increase of 25% in total viewers compared with this point last year.

Even though MSNBC won in that demographic, CNN's Zahn still won in total viewership. "Countdown" averaged 404,000 viewers versus 626,000 for Zahn on CNN, and both shows trailed Fox's "O'Reilly Factor," which had more than 2.27 million viewers, on average.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 12:31 PM  0 comments

Almost as soon as the Kyoto Protocol on global warming came into effect on February 15, Kashmir suffered the highest snowfall in three decades with over 150 killed, and Mumbai recorded the lowest temperature in 40 years. Had temperatures been the highest for decades, newspapers would have declared this was proof of global warming. But whenever temperatures drop, the press keeps quiet.

Things were different in 1940-70, when there was global cooling. Every cold winter then was hailed as proof of a coming new Ice Age. But the moment cooling was replaced by warming, a new disaster in the opposite direction was proclaimed.

A recent Washington Post article gave this scientist's quote from 1972. "We simply cannot afford to gamble. We cannot risk inaction. The scientists who disagree are acting irresponsibly. The indications that our climate can soon change for the worse are too strong to be reasonably ignored." The warning was not about global warming (which was not happening): it was about global cooling!

In the media, disaster is news, and its absence is not. This principle has been exploited so skillfully by ecological scare-mongers that it is now regarded as politically incorrect, even unscientific, to denounce global warming hysteria as unproven speculation.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 12:31 PM  0 comments

A panel of former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges yesterday told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that President Bush did not act illegally when he created by executive order a wiretapping program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).

The five judges testifying before the committee said they could not speak specifically to the NSA listening program without being briefed on it, but that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not override the president's constitutional authority to spy on suspected international agents under executive order.

"If a court refuses a FISA application and there is not sufficient time for the president to go to the court of review, the president can under executive order act unilaterally, which he is doing now," said Judge Allan Kornblum, magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and an author of the 1978 FISA Act. "I think that the president would be remiss exercising his constitutional authority by giving all of that power over to a statute."

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 12:30 PM  0 comments

I am an English major at Adelphi University in New York and I am in the teaching program. I have good domestic skills including cooking, cleaning,sewing, and raising farm animals.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 1:48 PM  0 comments

Despite national political trends indicating that the GOP is in serious trouble, a race-by-race "micro" analysis suggests that Democrats cannot easily seize control of the House or the Senate this fall.

In the Senate, Democrats need a net gain of six seats. Republicans are truly fortunate to have only one senator retiring, Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. Although Democratic Rep. Harold Ford is a talented candidate, he will have his work cut out for him against the winner of a competitive three-way August GOP primary for Frist's seat. The South has become a GOP stronghold. In 2004, Democrats went 0 for 5 in attempting to hold open Senate seats in that region

Democrats need to win in Tennessee and knock off five GOP incumbents. Only five look truly vulnerable: Conrad Burns of Montana, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Jim Talent of Missouri.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 5:29 PM  0 comments

Britain's elderly are being neglected, poorly treated and marginalised by the country's health system, according to a shocking study published today.

The scathing report, by three Government inspectorates, criticises the "patronising and thoughtless" manner in which NHS hospitals and care institutions treat older patients. It also identifies a catalogue of sins and omissions practised by hospitals, that are condemning the elderly to second-class status in Britain's hospital wards.

Inspectors found that many older patients went hungry because meals were taken away before they could eat them, while others suffered embarrassment through being cared for on mixed-sex wards. There were also frequent complaints about dirty wards, the strong smell of urine from unemptied bottles and people waiting on trolleys.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 5:29 PM  0 comments

Mr. Moussaoui said there were times when a Muslim can lie without being immoral: to reconcile Muslims, to answer "yes" when a wife asks, "Am I beautiful?" and to carry out jihad.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 4:11 AM  0 comments

Below you will find a speech that Bill Cosby's wife gave at a function. Everyone please read this and pass it on to as many African Americans you come in contact with.

Camille Cosby just made a reference about the Voting Rights Act in her most open letter on racism. This is extremely important. We are quickly approaching the 21st Century and we were wondering, and when I saw "we", I mean others of us out there who wonder if everyone else out there knows what the significance of the year 2007 is to Black America?

Did you know that our right to VOTE will expire in the year 2007? Seriously! The Voting Rights Act signed in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson was just an ACT. It was not made a law. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan amended the Voters Rights Act for another 25 years. Which means that in the year 2007 we could lose the Right to vote!

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 4:10 AM  0 comments

Washington - A federal appeals court on Tuesday sided with House Majority Leader John Boehner in a longtime dispute with a Democratic colleague who leaked a tape of an illegally recorded cell phone call to reporters.

The Democratic congressman, Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state, said he was merely trying to get valuable information to the media. But Boehner's attorneys successfully convinced the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that McDermott went too far when he distributed an audio tape that should never have even been recorded.

"Violating the law in pursuit of your political opponents is, in fact, against the law, and should not be tolerated," said Boehner, a Republican from West Chester and the first member of Congress to sue another. He said he filed the lawsuit to make the point that in politics, "there is a line beyond which you cannot go."

The lawsuit stemmed from a Dec. 21, 1996, phone call between Boehner and Republican Party leaders, including then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, that involved strategy on how to handle an expected House Ethics Committee reprimand to Gingrich.

A couple in Florida, where Boehner was vacationing, illegally picked up his conversation on a police scanner, taped it, and gave it to McDermott, who distributed it to the media. The couple were fined $500 for eavesdropping.

Two of the three judges who reviewed the case filed an opinion that affirmed a lower court decision that ordered McDermott to pay Boehner more than $700,000 in legal fees and damages. They said McDermott knew the tape was obtained illegally and shouldn't have distributed it.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 4:10 AM  0 comments

Actress SHARON STONE is adamant teenagers should be prepared to engage in oral sex, if it saves from them the dangers of unprotected penetrative sex. The BASIC INSTINCT spends much of her time away from Hollywood working as an activist raising AIDS awareness, and she always carries condoms with her to hand out in a bid to increase safe sex levels. She explains, "I was in the store the other day and I watched a young girl trying on clothes, showing her abdomen. "Her mother was trying to talk to her about not being inappropriately luring. I said, 'Gee that would look much nicer with a camisole under.' "Her mother walked away, and I said to the girl, 'I'd like to give you a two-minute conversation about sex.' "Young people talk to me about what to do if they're being pressed for sex? I tell them (what I believe): oral sex is a hundred times safer than vaginal or anal sex. "If you're in a situation where you cannot get out of sex, offer a blow job. I'm not embarrassed to tell them."

"I THINK Hillary Clinton is fantastic. But I think it is too soon for her to run. This may sound odd, but a woman should be past her sexuality when she runs. Hillary still has sexual power and I don't think people will accept that. It's too threatening."

So says Sharon Stone, a sexual power if ever there was one.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 1:40 PM  0 comments

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has sought to dispel views that he is an unquestioning ally of the United States and condemned growing anti-Americanism as a hindrance to closer global ties.

Blair, who has faced domestic criticism for his support for the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, told a rare joint sitting of the Australian parliament in Canberra that isolating the United States on the world stage was "madness".

Solving the world's problems needed an "active foreign policy of engagement, not isolation" between countries, the British Labour Party leader told lawmakers, and Washington needed to be on board as much as possible.

But he pointed out: "This alliance does not end with, but it does begin with America. For us in Europe and for you, this alliance is central. And I want to speak plainly here. I do not always agree with the US.

"Sometimes they can be difficult friends to have. But the strain of, frankly, anti-American feeling in parts of European politics is madness when set against the long-term interests of the world we believe in.

"The danger with America today is not that they are too much involved. The danger is that they decide to pull up the drawbridge and disengage. We need them involved. We want them engaged."

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 6:45 PM  0 comments

Dateline, Washington: Wuss Feingold Plays Peek-a-Boo in the Senate

Washington, D.C., March 23 - Today during a hearing in the US Senate, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) played Peek-a-boo as stunned Senators sat back and watched his charade. One Senate staffer said afterwards, "I think this censure motion and the party's lack of support for it have made Russ a little unhinged. Next he will ask to wear a frilly pink negligee during hearings.

Feingold's office had no comment for this story.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 7:48 PM  0 comments

Recently released documents from Iraq have thrown important new light on the fantasies, failures and foreign activities of Saddam Hussein's government.

In particular, an assessment by US military analysts has shown Saddam Hussein's confusion as he was caught between trying to assure the UN that he had no weapons of mass destruction while wanting to leave the impression to others that he had.

It also reveals how and why Saddam believed that there would be no US invasion in 2003 and that he could defeat it anyway.

The Russian ambassador in Baghdad channelled information to Saddam during the war, some of it wrong, according to one document.

There was also evidence that the Russians had a spy in the in the US high command. An Iraqi document refers to "sources at US Central Command in Doha, Qatar."

Among the documents is one that appears to demonstrate how the Iraqis supported the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines.

And there is a reference, so far unexplained, to plans being drawn up at the time of the invasion for a "Blessed July" series of suicide attacks in the West.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 4:33 PM  0 comments

The UN refugee agency has said it is increasingly concerned about the worsening situation of Palestinians living in the Iraqi capital, Bagdad.

More than 100 Palestinian families had received written death threats on Thursday and were concerned by the worsening situation, the agency said.

There is also concern about the health of 89 Palestinians who tried to flee Iraq but were refused entry to Jordan.

The refugees have spent a week stranded in the desert at the border crossing.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 10:25 PM  0 comments

CAIRO, Egypt - A former Democratic senator and 9/11 commissioner says a recently declassified Iraqi account of a 1995 meeting between Osama bin Laden and a senior Iraqi envoy presents a "significant set of facts," and shows a more detailed collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

In an interview yesterday, the current president of the New School University, Bob Kerrey, was careful to say that new documents translated last night by ABC News did not prove Saddam Hussein played a role in any way in plotting the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Nonetheless, the former senator from Nebraska said that the new document shows that "Saddam was a significant enemy of the United States." Mr. Kerrey said he believed America's understanding of the deposed tyrant's relationship with Al Qaeda would become much deeper as more captured Iraqi documents and audiotapes are disclosed.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 10:55 PM  0 comments

A GOP radio ad accuses Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin of proposing to censure President Bush "for pursuing suspected members of al Qaeda," which isn't true. Feingold has stated he supports wiretapping suspected terrorists. His measure would censure Bush for ordering wiretaps on US soil without a court warrant, for failing to notify all members of the Senate and House intelligence committees, and for "efforts to mislead the American people" about the legality of the program.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 9:32 PM  0 comments

In the period before the Iraq war, the CIA and the Bush administration erroneously believed that Saddam Hussein was hiding major programs for weapons of mass destruction. Now NBC News has learned that for a short time the CIA had contact with a secret source at the highest levels within Saddam Hussein’s government, who gave them information far more accurate than what they believed. It is a spy story that has never been told before, and raises new questions about prewar intelligence.

What makes the story significant is the high rank of the source. His name, officials tell NBC News, was Naji Sabri, Iraq’s foreign minister under Saddam. Although Sabri was in Saddam's inner circle, his cosmopolitan ways also helped him fit into diplomatic circles.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 6:15 PM  0 comments

Moody's Investors Service on Friday placed New York Times Co.'s A2 senior unsecured long term debt, and P-1 commercial paper ratings on review for possible downgrade. The agency said the review is prompted by Moody's growing concerns about the media company's high financial leverage, deteriorating operating margins and weak free cash flow available for debt reduction, combined with concerns over intensifying cross media competition, including the Internet, and growing event risk in the newspaper sector.

The New York Times said on Saturday it had identified the wrong man as the hooded prisoner standing on a box in a photograph that came to symbolize U.S. military abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

The newspaper's March 11 profile about Ali Shalal Qaissi was challenged by online magazine Salon.com, which said an Army investigation had concluded the prisoner was a different man.

"The Times did not adequately research Mr. Qaissi's insistence that he was the man in the photograph," The Times said in an editor's note accompanying a front page story on the misidentification.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 2:08 PM  0 comments

LONDON (AP) -- Thousands of people held anti-war demonstrations Saturday in global protests that marked the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq by demanding that coalition troops pull out.

But the demonstrations attracted less people than organizers had hoped.

In London, police said about 15,000 people joined a march from Parliament and Big Ben to a rally in Trafalgar Square, fewer than the 100,000 organizers had expected to attend.

Protesters in several cities carried posters showing pictures of U.S. President George W. Bush, calling him the "world's No. 1 terrorist." In London, other posters pictured British Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying "Blair must go!"

"We are against this war, both for religious reasons and on a humanitarian basis, too," said student Imran Saghir, 25, a Muslim who attended the London rally.

Speakers in London demanded coalition forces be withdrawn from Iraq, warning that the fighting could spread to neighboring Iran because of the international standoff over Tehran's nuclear program.

"We must redouble our efforts not just to stop this war, but to say 'no' to an attack on Iran," said Mark Serwotka, the head of the Public and Commercial Services union.

Britain, the United States' strongest supporter in the Iraq war, has about 8,000 troops in Iraq but plans to pull out 800 of them by May. The British military has reported 103 deaths there.

In Stockholm, about 1,000 demonstrators gathered for a rally and march to the U.S. Embassy. Protesters carried banners reading "No to U.S. warmongering" and "USA out of Iraq," while some held up a U.S. flag with the white stars replaced by dollar signs.

One protester was dressed as the hooded figure shown in an iconic photograph from the Abu Ghraib prison. "We do not need Abu Ghraib democracy, or Guantanamo Bay freedom," said Eftikar Hashem Alhusainy, addressing the rally.

In Copenhagen, more than 2,000 demonstrators marched from the U.S. embassy to the British embassy, demanding that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen withdraws the 530 Danish troops stationed in southern Iraq.

Demonstrations were also held in three other Danish cities, drawing close to 2,000 protesters, said Joern Andersen, one of the organizers.

In Turkey, where opposition to the war is nearly universal and cuts across all political stripes, about 3,000 protesters gathered in Istanbul, police said.

"Murderer USA," read a sign unfurled by a communist in Taksim Square in European Istanbul. "USA, go home!" said red-and-black signs carried in Kadikoy on the city's Asian coast.

Turkey, Iraq's northern neighbor, is the only Muslim-majority member of NATO alliance. Previously close relations with Washington were severely strained after parliament refused to allow U.S. troops to launch operations into Iraq from Turkish territory.

In Italy, Romano Prodi, the center-left leader who is challenging conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi in next month's election, said he and his supporters wouldn't join Rome's march because of a risk of violence.

The rally drew several thousand people and Francesco Romano, a 46- year old state railway worker said protesters were proving "people are not in favor of the war in Iraq and will not be in favor of future wars."

In Greece, about 600 demonstrators marched through central Athens to the U.S. embassy, where protesters chanted "Stop the War now," and "American killers get out of Iraq."

About 700 protesters marched peacefully through an inner-city district of Berlin during a rally, police said.

In Austria, protesters marching through Vienna - about 200 by police estimates - chanted "Freedom, freedom for Iraq and Palestine," as they made their way to the U.S. embassy.

Anti-war demonstrations were also planned later Saturday in Spain. On Sunday, up to 3,000 demonstrators were expected in Seoul, South Korea, which has the third-largest contingent of foreign troops in Iraq after the U.S. and Britain, while a rally was planned outside the U.S. Embassy in Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 2:07 PM  0 comments

Joe Lieberman has come a long way since the Democratic Party nominated him as its vice presidential candidate in 2000.

Then, Democrats from Florida to Oregon cheered the Connecticut senator and praised his decency. But today the party’s intense, left-leaning bloggers — such as Matt Stoller of MyDD.com — vilify Lieberman, mostly for his support of the war in Iraq.

In August the anti-Lieberman forces may get their chance for vengeance, as Ned Lamont, a Greenwich, Conn. cable television entrepreneur, tries to knock Lieberman off in the Democratic Senate primary.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 12:34 PM  0 comments

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday sounded a rallying cry for countries in South-East Asia in the war on terrorism, saying Muslim extremists were trying to turn the region into "a ring of fire."

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 11:19 PM  0 comments

ON THE sidewalk stood hordes of the righteous, some leaning forward like wind-bent grasses, the better to deliver their imprecations against gays and fags to the open windows of the limos - the windows open by order of the security people - creeping towards the Kodak Theatre for the 78th Academy Awards. Others held up sturdy, professionally crafted signs expressing the same hatred.

The red carpet in front of the theatre was larger than the Red Sea. Inside, we climbed grand staircases designed for showing off dresses. The circular levels filled with men in black and women mostly in pale, frothy gowns. Sequins, diamonds, glass beads, trade beads sparkled like the interior of a salt mine. More exquisite dresses appeared every moment, some made from six metres of taffeta and many with sweeping trains that demanded vigilance from strolling attendees lest they step on a mermaid's tail. There was one man in a kilt - there is always one at award ceremonies - perhaps a professional roving Scot hired to give colour to the otherwise monotone showing of clustered males. Larry McMurtry, Brokeback's screenwriter, defied the dress code by wearing his usual jeans and cowboy boots.

The people connected with Brokeback Mountain, including me, hoped that, having been nominated for eight Academy Awards, it would get best picture, as it had at the funny, lively Independent Spirit awards the day before. (If you are looking for smart judging based on merit, skip the Academy Awards next year and pay attention to the Independent Spirit choices.) We should have known conservative heffalump academy voters would have rather different ideas of what was stirring contemporary culture. Roughly 6000 film industry voters, most in the Los Angeles area, many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city, decide which films are good. And rumour has it that Lions Gate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of Trash - excuse me - Crash a few weeks before the ballot deadline. Next year we can look to the awards for controversial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway slaves, and the debate over free silver.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 10:02 PM  0 comments

In this cycle, many reporters have been contemplating the possibility that Democrats will take it back this November. That's partly because most reporters are Democrats and find that result congenial. More important, Democrats can take control with a net gain of only 15 seats this year, while Republicans needed 40 in 1994 (and got 52). It's always easier to see how a party can gain 15 seats than 40 — although 1994 was the only time in the past 20 years that any party gained more than 10.


Democrats' chances of taking those 15 seats are not very good — if the voting patterns and political contours that have held steady since the 1995-96 budget showdown continue to prevail. Ordinarily in a decade we see a shift in these patterns. Some geographic regions or demographic groups move to one party or the other, or the whole electorate does. But that hasn't happened in the past 10 years. In the five House elections starting in 1996, Republicans have won between 49 and 51 percent of the popular votes, Democrats between 46 and 48.5 percent of the popular votes. Nor have regional patterns changed much. From 1990 to 1996, the nation's largest metro areas became more Democratic while rural areas and the South became more Republican. Since then, things have stayed about the same. And this is regardless of whatever problems were facing party leaders like Bill Clinton, Gingrich, and George W. Bush.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 12:30 PM  0 comments

WEST PALM BEACH — The people of "these United States are going to stand up and take our country back," former Vice President Al Gore said Sunday at a Florida Democratic Party fund-raiser at the Kravis Center's Cohen Pavilion.

"Let's start right here in Palm Beach County," said Gore, speaking to a crowd of about 450 in what became the epicenter of the hotly contested 2000 presidential election.

[...]

Citing a Bible verse, "Where there is no vision, the people perish," Gore cited issues in which he believes the Bush administration has left the country far removed from the Founding Fathers' ideals.

"How many times have we listened to the current administration and in (state and national Republican offices), and after a few years, we wake up and say that what they have been telling us is completely wrong," Gore said. "I'm not calling it a lie," but a "false impression."

Before he was introduced, Mayor Lois Frankel said, "I'm not one to hold a grudge . . . but this was the scene of a crime (in 2000). I haven't forgotten it, and you haven't forgotten it."

A liberal Democrat and potential White House contender is proposing censuring President Bush for authorizing domestic eavesdropping, saying the White House misled Americans about its legality.

"The president has broken the law and, in some way, he must be held accountable," Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., told The Associated Press in an interview.

A censure resolution, which simply would scold the president, has been used just once in U.S. history - against Andrew Jackson in 1834.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., called the proposal "a crazy political move" that would weaken the U.S. during wartime.

While Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., took to the Senate floor to blast President Bush's domestic spying program, other Senate Democrats concentrated on an issue they believe may hold more sway with the average voter — the national debt.

"The president broke the law, ignored the Constitution and disregarded the rights and freedoms on which our country was founded," Feingold thundered on the Senate floor as he introduced his resolution. If Feingold gets enough of his colleagues' support to censure the president, it would be the first time for such a move since Senate Republicans censured Democrat Andrew Jackson in 1834.

But Feingold's Democratic colleagues gave him tepid support at best. Instead, they spent the day attacking the White House's budget for cutting programs that help fund police and firefighters, unveiling charts and graphs that purport to show how this White House has amassed more debt in five years than the previous 42 presidents combined.

Sen. Russell Feingold on Tuesday blamed fellow Democrats for inaction on his stalled resolution to censure President Bush for his authorizing the National Security Agency's electronic terrorist surveillance program.

"I'm amazed at Democrats ... cowering with this president's numbers so low," said Feingold, D-Wis. "The administration ... just has to raise the specter of the War on Terror, and Democrats run and hide."

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 10:00 PM  0 comments

The question of whether Valerie Plame's employment by the Central Intelligence Agency was a secret is the key issue in the two-year investigation to determine if someone broke the law by leaking her CIA affiliation to the news media.

Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald contends that Plame's friends "had no idea she had another life." But Plame's secret life could be easily penetrated with the right computer sleuthing and an understanding of how the CIA's covert employees work.

When the Chicago Tribune searched for Plame on an Internet service that sells public information about private individuals to its subscribers, it got a report of more than 7,600 words. Included was the fact that in the early 1990s her address was "AMERICAN EMBASSY ATHENS ST, APO NEW YORK NY 09255."

A former senior American diplomat in Athens, who remembers Plame as "pleasant, very well-read, bright," said he had been aware that Plame, who was posing as a junior consular officer, really worked for the CIA.

According to CIA veterans, U.S. intelligence officers working in American embassies under "diplomatic cover" are almost invariably known to friendly and opposition intelligence services alike.
"If you were in an embassy," said a former CIA officer who posed as a U.S. diplomat in several countries, "you could count 100 percent on the Soviets knowing."

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 12:17 PM  0 comments

MONTPELIER -- Vermont Law School is unlikely to begin admitting military recruiters to its South Royalton campus even though the U.S. Supreme Court says it's legal for the federal government to withhold money as a result.

Dean Geoffrey Shields said the decision would be up to the school's trustees, but he did not anticipate a change of position just because the high court had ruled unanimously against Vermont Law and other law schools.

"Our position on this issue was really not a freedom of speech issue," he said. "It was a position taken in deference to wanting our students to be treated equally. The original rationale for the position remains intact."

The Supreme Court upheld a law that requires colleges that take federal money to allow military recruiters to work on campus.

"I'm not surprised by the Supreme Court's decision," Shields said. "What it essentially says is the military has the right to recruit wherever they want and the government has the right to impose whatever sanctions they want."

Vermont Law School would be faced with a different situation, however, if Congress directly demanded military access on campus -- even without threatening to withhold money -- as the Supreme Court said Congress could, Shields said.

That could jeopardize the school itself or threaten its professors if the law were ignored and the law school would have to change its position, he said.

"It's a clear opinion and if the government wants to get feisty and increase the pressure at some point, we'll have to go along with what the Department of Defense wants here," he said.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 12:16 PM  0 comments

For the past two weeks, Patrick Sookhdeo has been canvassing the opinions of Muslim clerics in Britain on the row over the cartoons featuring images of Mohammed that were first published in Denmark and then reprinted in several other European countries.

"They think they have won the debate," he says with a sigh. "They believe that the British Government has capitulated to them, because it feared the consequences if it did not.

"The cartoons, you see, have not been published in this country, and the Government has been very critical of those countries in which they were published. To many of the Islamic clerics, that's a clear victory.

"It's confirmation of what they believe to be a familiar pattern: if spokesmen for British Muslims threaten what they call 'adverse consequences' - violence to the rest of us - then the British Government will cave in. I think it is a very dangerous precedent."

Dr Sookhdeo adds that he believes that "in a decade, you will see parts of English cities which are controlled by Muslim clerics and which follow, not the common law, but aspects of Muslim sharia law.

"It is already starting to happen - and unless the Government changes the way it treats the so-called leaders of the Islamic community, it will continue."

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 11:57 PM  0 comments

ALBANY, N.Y. — Six in 10 New York voters believe Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is planning to run for president in 2008, but only about a third of her home-state voters say they would back her if she did so, a statewide poll reported Thursday.

Almost half of New York voters, including three of every 10 Democrats, said they would not vote for her for president, according to the poll from Siena College's Research Institute.

The Siena findings mirror those reported by Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion in a January poll that found 59 percent of New York voters said they expect Clinton to run for president, but 62 percent said it was unlikely she could win.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 10:41 PM  0 comments

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 250 doctors from seven countries urged the U.S. government on Friday to abandon force-feeding and the use of restraints on hunger strikers at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

The doctors from Britain, the United States, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Italy and the Netherlands said prisoners at the camp in eastern Cuba have the right to refuse treatment and that physicians must respect their decision.

"We urge the U.S. government to ensure that detainees are assessed by independent physicians and that techniques such as force-feeding and restraint chairs are abandoned," the doctors said in an open letter published in The Lancet medical journal.

Authorities at the camp have been accused of inserting a tube into the nose and down to the stomach of a prisoner on hunger strike and keeping him strapped in a chair for hours at a time, forcing him to defecate and urinate in his clothes.

The prisoner, Mohammed Bawazir, has been held at the base since May 2002. He claims he was tortured when he was force-fed and forced to end his 5-month hunger strike.

At 1.17 a.m. on Tuesday, May 5th, having completed sixty-five days on hunger-strike, Bobby Sands MP, died in the H-Block prison hospital at Long Kesh.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 8:32 PM  0 comments

Late last year, as an international crisis was brewing over Danish cartoons of Muhammad, Muslims raised a furor in this little alpine town over a much older provocateur: Voltaire, the French champion of the 18th-century Enlightenment.

A municipal cultural center here on France's border with Switzerland organized a reading of a 265-year-old play by Voltaire, whose writings helped lay the foundations of modern Europe's commitment to secularism. The play, "Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet," uses the founder of Islam to lampoon all forms of religious frenzy and intolerance.

The production quickly stirred up passions that echoed the cartoon uproar. "This play ... constitutes an insult to the entire Muslim community," said a letter to the mayor of Saint-Genis-Pouilly, signed by Said Akhrouf, a French-born cafe owner of Moroccan descent and three other Islamic activists representing Muslim associations. They demanded the performance be cancelled.

Instead, Mayor Hubert Bertrand called in police reinforcements to protect the theater. On the night of the December reading, a small riot broke out involving several dozen people and youths who set fire to a car and garbage cans. It was "the most excitement we've ever had down here," says the socialist mayor.

Iran warned the United States on Wednesday it would feel the "pain" if tough measures were imposed against the Islamic republic for its nuclear program by the U.N. Security Council.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei also said the United States should negotiate directly with Iran if talks reach the stage of focusing on security guarantees to Tehran in exchange for concessions on its nuclear program.

The end of Wednesday's meeting of the 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency set the path for Security Council action. ElBaradei said his staff would send his report on Iran's nuclear program to the council by Thursday.

Under terms agreed to by the five permanent Security Council members, that would formally lead to the start of council deliberations. Those are meant to cajole Iran into cooperating with an IAEA probe seeking to banish fears Tehran may be seeking nuclear arms and persuade it to reimpose a freeze on uranium enrichment.

That process can produce both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads.

The United States and its European allies said Iran's nuclear intransigence left the world no choice. The Security Council could impose economic and political sanctions on Iran, but such a move is considered unlikely because of opposition from Russia and China, which have strategic and commercial ties with Tehran and wield veto power in the U.N. body.

While the United States hopes for at least a binding Security Council resolution calling on Iran to comply, it might have to settle for a milder statement.

Wednesday's meeting began with both Iran and the nations opposing its enrichment plans sticking to their positions.

"The United States has the power to cause harm and pain," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a senior Iranian delegate to the IAEA. "But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll."

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 9:10 PM  0 comments

Cindy Sheehan, who drew international attention when she camped outside President Bush's ranch to protest the Iraq war, was arrested Monday along with three other women during a demonstration demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

The march to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations by about a dozen U.S. and Iraqi anti-war activists followed a news conference at U.N. headquarters, where Iraqi women described daily killings and ambulance bombings as part of the escalating violence that keeps women in their homes.

Women Say No to War, which helped organize the news conference and march, said Sheehan and three other women were arrested while trying to deliver a petition to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations with more than 60,000 signatures urging the "withdrawal all troops and all foreign fighters from Iraq." Police said they were arrested for criminal trespassing and resisting arrest.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 11:04 AM  0 comments

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that fighting between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq will lead to civil war, and half say the United States should begin withdrawing its forces from that violence-torn country, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey also found growing doubt that the Bush administration has a strategy in Iraq. Two-thirds of those interviewed said they do not think the president has a clear plan for handling the Iraq situation, the highest level of doubt recorded since the question was first asked three years ago. But an even larger share -- 70 percent -- questions whether Democrats in Congress have a plan for dealing with Iraq, suggesting Americans see neither party as offering a coherent exit strategy.

[...]

Recent U.S. reversals in Iraq have not dramatically reduced overall support for President Bush, in contrast to some other national polls. His overall job approval rating stood at 41 percent, essentially unchanged from January. Nearly six in 10 disapproved of his job performance, the 11th consecutive survey since last April in which at least half the country has been critical of Bush's leadership.

[...]

Americans also expressed disappointment with Congress, which is now controlled by Republicans. Slightly more than a third -- 36 percent -- said they approve of the way Congress is doing its job, down seven percentage points in the past five weeks and the lowest marks for the legislative branch since October 1997.

But the survey showed Democrats slipping also. Asked which party they trust to deal with the country's biggest problems, 42 percent said the Democratic Party and 40 percent said the GOP. Barely five weeks ago, Democrats held a 14-point advantage.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 11:03 AM  0 comments

If the Netherlands becomes the first European country to ban the burqa and other Muslim face veils this month, Hope says she'll resort to wearing a surgical mask to dress in accordance with her religious beliefs.

"I'll wear one of those things they wore during the SARS epidemic if I have to," said the Dutch-born Muslim, one of about 50 women in the Netherlands who wear the head-to-toe burqa or the niqab, a face veil that conceals everything but the eyes.

"I'm very practical," the 22-year-old added.

Last December, parliament voted to forbid women from wearing the burqa or any Muslim face coverings in public, justifying the move in part as a security measure.

The cabinet is awaiting the results of a study into the legality of such a ban under European human rights laws, before making its final decision. The results are expected in the second half of this month.

"This is an enormous victory for traditional Dutch decency," said Geert Wilders, the populist member of parliament who first proposed the burqa ban, after hearing parliament had backed it.

"The burqa is hostile to women, and medieval. For a woman to walk around on the streets completely covered is an insult to everyone who believes in equal rights."

The Dutch may have been among the first to legalize cannabis, prostitution and euthanasia -- earning them a reputation for tolerance -- but they are now in the process of imposing some of Europe's toughest entry and integration laws.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 11:02 AM  0 comments

AIR America is close to losing its New York flagship station - knocking Al Franken and his liberal colleagues off the air on their second anniversary.

The network has a two-year lease with WLIB (AM 1190) that is reportedly set to expire April 1 - and at least one reliable report says it is "extremely likely" the deal will not be renewed.

Losing its New York outlet would be a serious blow to the fledgling liberal radio network. "Radio Equalizer" blogger Brian Maloney - who blew the whistle on questionable loans to the lefty network last year - published the first report that WLIB was on the verge of evicting Air America some time soon.

Air America's options for a new home are not promising. All of the city's other strong-signal stations are spoken for, leaving only weak-signal "fringe" stations that do not cover the entire city and suburbs.

Air America parent Piquant LLC has reportedly been paying Inner City Broadcasting - controlled by former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and his son, Pierre - $2.5 million a year to air Franken and others.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 10:54 AM  0 comments

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that colleges that accept federal money must allow military recruiters on campus, despite university objections to the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays.

Justices rejected a free-speech challenge from law schools and their professors who claimed they should not be forced to associate with military recruiters or promote their campus appearances.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court, said that the campus visits are an effective military recruiting tool.

"A military recruiter's mere presence on campus does not violate a law school's right to associate, regardless of how repugnant the law school considers the recruiter's message," he wrote.

The ruling upheld a law that requires colleges that take federal money to accommodate recruiters. In addition, justices said that Congress could directly demand military access on campus, even without the threat of losing federal money.

Law schools had become the latest battleground over the "don't ask, don't tell" policy allowing gay men and women to serve in the military only if they keep their sexual orientation to themselves.

Many universities forbid the participation of recruiters from public agencies and private companies that have discriminatory policies.

The ruling was announced on a day that the court was jammed with visitors from the military, all dressed in uniform. Justices heard arguments in the case in December, and signaled then that they were concerned about hindering a Defense Department need to fill its ranks when the nation is at war.

"This is an important victory for the military and ultimately for our national security," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.

College leaders have said they could not afford to lose federal help, some $35 billion a year.

Joshua Rosenkranz, the attorney for the challengers of the law, said that the case called attention to the military policy.

"We lost a skirmish in a much larger civil rights battle for the rights of gays and lesbians, which is a movement we are winning," he said.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 11:35 AM  0 comments

The man who for two years led Iran's nuclear negotiations has laid out in unprecedented detail how the regime took advantage of talks with Britain, France and Germany to forge ahead with its secret atomic programme.

In a speech to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and academics, Hassan Rowhani, who headed talks with the so-called EU3 until last year, revealed how Teheran played for time and tried to dupe the West after its secret nuclear programme was uncovered by the Iranian opposition in 2002.

He boasted that while talks were taking place in Teheran, Iran was able to complete the installation of equipment for conversion of yellowcake - a key stage in the nuclear fuel process - at its Isfahan plant but at the same time convince European diplomats that nothing was afoot.

"From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them'," he said.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 5:54 PM  0 comments

"At a time when Arab and Islamic leaders and organizations are investing great efforts and large amounts of money and time in order to improve the image of Islam and of the Muslims, some imams are working in an organized manner to brainwash adolescents in the Muslim community and to plant bogus ideas in their minds concerning Islam, jihad, takfir [accusing other Muslims of apostasy], heresy and the way [Muslim] society has strayed from the right path. They give them interpretations of Koranic verses that have been [deliberately] chosen so as to lead them to rebel against their parents, their families, and even against the society in which they live.

"[The youths] neglect their studies and spend their time watching videotapes and listening to audio tapes - most of which are given to them for free - on ways to train Muslim youth in military and ideological jihad, along with reports on the suffering of Muslims in some Muslim countries, as well as Koranic verses and sermons that encourage jihad, martyrdom, self-sacrifice, and the striking of terror into the hearts of the enemy."

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 10:56 PM  0 comments

In his first weeks on the Supreme Court, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. sent a note to Dr. James C. Dobson, the influential Christian conservative, thanking him for his support and vowing that "as long as I serve on the Supreme Court, I will keep in mind the trust that has been placed in me," Dr. Dobson said Wednesday in a radio broadcast.

Kathy Arberg, a spokeswoman for the court, said Justice Alito had written the note in response to a letter of congratulations from Dr. Dobson. "The justice has responded to scores of congratulatory letters from people of all walks of life, and he has included as a standard sentiment in the letters the hope that he will live up to the trust and confidence that has been placed in him," Ms. Arberg said.

She declined to identify who else had received such letters from Justice Alito.

WASHINGTON - A key Supreme Court justice said Wednesday that Texas Republicans appeared to hurt minority voters when they redrew congressional boundaries that helped the GOP entrench its power in Congress.

But despite Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's misgivings, it did not appear there was broad support on the high court to throw out the entire map promoted by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to help Republicans win six more seats.

[...]

The subject matter was extremely technical, and near the end of the argument Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dozed in her chair. Justices David Souter and Samuel Alito, who flank the 72-year-old, looked at her but did not give her a nudge.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 9:18 PM  0 comments

Ministers will today propose a new offence of falsely applying for a postal or proxy vote as part of a range of measures aimed at stamping out electoral fraud.

A further offence of supplying false information or failing to provide details to the electoral registration officer at any time will be put forward.

Concern about "vote rigging" reached its height when Sir Richard Mawrey, QC, the Electoral Commissioner, found evidence of postal ballot abuse during an investigation in 2004 that he said would disgrace a banana republic.

Harriet Harman will outline a package of measures intended to be in place before local elections next May. The measures are being introduced in the House of Commons as parliamentary orders, which MPs are due to debate next week.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 8:50 PM  0 comments

Two former aides to Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) have alleged that he repeatedly violated House ethics rules.

Deanna Maher, a former deputy chief of staff in Conyers’s Detroit office, and Sydney Rooks, a former legal counsel in the district office, provided evidence for the allegations by sharing numerous letters, memorandums and copies of e-mails, handwritten notes and expense reports with The Hill.

In letters sent separately by each woman to the House ethics committee, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office, they allege that Conyers demanded that aides work on several local and state campaigns and forced them to baby-sit and chauffeur his children. They also charge that some aides illegally used Conyers’s congressional offices to enrich themselves.

Maher decided she could no longer work for Conyers in such an unethical environment and quit in May 2005. Rooks had left Conyers years earlier; she was a full-time staffer working in the office for him from 1997 to 1999. Before leaving, Conyers placed her on paid administrative leave for several months and stopped paying her in April 2000.

“I could not tolerate any longer being involved with continual unethical, if not criminal, practices which were accepted as ‘business as usual,’” Maher wrote in a letter to the ethics panel dated Jan. 13, 2006.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 11:14 AM  0 comments

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) -- When poor students from this impoverished city got into college, Charlie Powell Jr. chipped in so they could attend.

He got a trophy case for a junior high school. He ran a clean, loving boarding home for people who were homeless or mentally ill, keeping them safe and off the streets.

Along the way, he rose to great political power, in recent years as a precinct committeeman and head of the local Democratic Party. It's that position that proved to be his undoing.

In a federal courtroom Tuesday, despite testimony reciting his good works, Powell was ordered to spend a year and nine months in prison for scheming to buy votes in the November 2004 election.

Opting to let his attorney and four character witnesses speak for him, Powell, 62, didn't get the probation he was seeking. But he still caught a break from U.S. District Judge G. Patrick Murphy, who turned back a federal prosecutor's request that Powell get something close to nearly three years behind bars.

"He's done a very good job for himself and the people he serves," Murphy noted. "The simple truth is that politics in the state of Illinois is a real contact sport and obviously a very dangerous occupation to undertake."

Powell is appealing, and the judge allowed him to remain free until his sentence starts. Powell lost his re-election bid to the City Council in April after his arrest.

Powell became the last person sentenced among the five convicted of conspiracy to commit vote fraud. Three co-defendants were sentenced to prison terms - the longest was four and a half years - while the fourth defendant got probation.

# posted by Simon Lazarus : 11:14 AM  0 comments