"Some people pray for water, other people dig a well." - Country Singer James Hand
Monday, October 31, 2005
Samuel A. Alito Jr., 55, is a jurist in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia. Nicknamed "Scalito," or "little Scalia," by some lawyers, the federal appeals court judge is a frequent dissenter with a reputation for having one of the sharpest conservative minds in the country.
Educated at Princeton University and Yale Law School, Alito was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in 1990. He had worked for the Justice Department in the Reagan administration and served as U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.
In 1991, he was the lone dissenter in a 3rd Circuit decision striking down a Pennsylvania law's requirement that women tell their husbands before having an abortion. Alito also wrote a 1997 ruling that Jersey City officials did not violate the Constitution with a holiday display that included a creche, a menorah and secular symbols of the Christmas season.
Three years ago Alito drew conflict-of-interest accusations after he upheld a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit against the Vanguard Group. Alito had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested with the mutual fund company at the time. He denied doing anything improper but recused himself from further involvement in the case.
-- By Washington Post Staff Writer Christopher Lee
Shore Regional High School Board of Education v. P.S., on Behalf of P.S. (Aug. 20, 2004). Alito rules in favor of a complaint brought under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act by a boy badly bullied by his classmates who was seeking legal relief but had been rebuffed by a U.S. District Court.
The Pitt News v. Pappert (Jan. 22, 2004). A first amendment case that dealt with a law banning alcoholic beverage ads in media affiliated with educational institutions.
Ronald A. Williams v. Price, Fisher (Sept. 9, 2003). Writes a majority opinion granting federal court review to an African American who could not get state courts to hear his claim of racial bias on the part of a juror in his trial.
ACLU v. Schundler (Aug. 6, 1998). Holds that Jersey City, N.J.'s holiday display that included a creche and menorah did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment because it included secular symbols such as Frosty the Snowman.
Sheridan v. Dupont (May 4, 1995). Dissents and argues that the 3rd Circuit had made it too easy for discrimination complaints to reach a jury trial.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 29 - In the first public disclosure that the United States military is tracking some of the deaths of Iraqi civilians, the military has released rough figures for Iraqis who have been killed or wounded by insurgents since Jan. 1 last year.
The estimate of dead and wounded Iraqi civilians and security forces was provided by the Pentagon in a report to Congress this month.
It appeared without fanfare in a single bar graph on Page 23 of the document. But it was significant because the military had previously avoided virtually all public discussion of the issue.
The count is incomplete - it provides daily partial averages of deaths and injuries of Iraqis at the hands of insurgents, in attacks like bombings and suicide strikes. Still, it shows that the military appears to have a far more accurate picture of the toll of the war than it has been willing to acknowledge.
"They have begun to realize that when you focus only on the U.S. it gives the impression that the U.S. doesn't care about Iraqis," said Anthony H. Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research group in Washington. "In these kinds of political battles you need to count your allies, not just yourself."
According to the graph, Iraqi civilians and security forces were killed and wounded by insurgents at a rate of about 26 a day early in 2004, and at a rate of about 40 a day later that year. The rate increased in 2005 to about 51 a day, and by the end of August had jumped to about 63 a day. No figures were provided for the number of Iraqis killed by American-led forces.
Extrapolating the daily averages over the months from Jan. 1, 2004, to Sept. 16 this year results in a total of 25,902 Iraqi civilians and security forces killed and wounded by insurgents.
According to an analysis by Hamit Dardagan, who compiles statistics for Iraq Body Count, a group that tracks civilian deaths, about three Iraqis are wounded in the war for each one who dies. Given that ratio, the total Iraqi death toll from insurgent violence would be about 6,475, based on extrapolations of the military's figures. read more…
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on Friday said that the US-based retail giant Walmart's proposal to set up a shopping mall in the metropolis was against the interest of farmers.
"Though Walmart is ready to take over the retail food market, we are not prepared to open it to foreign investors," Bhattacharjee said.
"We need more time to think over it. The retail food market should be with Indian investors in the interest of local farmers," he said.
He had sought the opinion of eminent agriculture scientist Dr MS Swaminathan, he said, on whether opening up of the retail agro-based market to foreign investors would be feasible right now.
Dr Swaminathan, he said, had sought time to advise the state government on the issue.
"I cannot say no to Walmart on their face, but somehow managed to stop them at the moment," he said.
The state government, the Chief Minister said had however opened up the wholesale food market to foreign investors and a German company 'Metro' and an Indonesia-based one would soon invest in West Bengal, he said. read more…
Wal-Mart's critics, opening a new front in their war on the retail goliath, are borrowing from actor-director Mel Gibson's promotional playbook.
Producers of a new documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, will show it at about 1,000 churches, synagogues and religious sites nationwide on Nov. 13 in a bid to force changes in Wal-Mart's employment and other practices.
The film, by the director of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, comes as Wal-Mart mounts a new effort to polish its battered image. The movie is part of a broader campaign by a disparate group of critics who now include ministers asserting Wal-Mart's tactics are a moral as well as economic issue.
Producer Robert Greenwald hopes for the same success Gibson had last year building grass-roots support through churches for his blockbuster, The Passion of the Christ.
Others, such as producers of Left Behind: World at War, also are seeking promotional help from churches. That film, starring Lou Gossett Jr., about those left on Earth after the biblical rapture, was shown last weekend in 3,200 churches.
The Wal-Mart film features interviews with company employees, small-business owners, teachers and others who sharply criticize it with charges of low wages, skimpy health benefits and a poor environmental record.
“Those are moral questions,” Greenwald said Wednesday. “They're questions of who we are as people, who we are as a country.”
Consumers may be receptive. Moral values ranked No. 4 among top non-economic worries in a Gallup Poll this month.
Wal-Mart has not seen the film, says spokeswoman Christi Gallagher. But, she said, “His video is simply unabashed propaganda.”
Still, the retailer is promoting a competing documentary, Why Wal-Mart Works: And Why That Makes Some People C-r-a-z-y, about working families who benefit from the company. Brothers Ron and Robert Galloway financed the $85,000 film, with Wal-Mart's limited cooperation. It is due out Nov. 15 on DVD at major retailers. read more…
Although it is safe, effective and legal, emergency contraception - the "morning after" pill - can be hard to find in Tucson.
After a sexual assault one recent weekend, a young Tucson woman spent three frantic days trying to obtain the drug to prevent a pregnancy, knowing that each passing day lowered the chance the drug would work.
While calling dozens of Tucson pharmacies trying to fill a prescription for emergency contraception, she found that most did not stock the drug.
When she finally did find a pharmacy with it, she said she was told the pharmacist on duty would not dispense it because of religious and moral objections.
"I was so shocked," said the 20-year-old woman, who, as a victim of sexual assault, is not being named by the Star. "I just did not understand how they could legally refuse to do this."
But many stores are. A 2004 survey of more than 900 Arizona pharmacies found less than half keep emergency contraception drugs in stock, with most saying there is too little demand, but some cite moral reasons, according to the Arizona Family Planning Council.
Yet, family-planning agencies say they've seen a 60 percent increase in demand for the drug in recent years. The statistics are creating what advocates say is a frightening situation for some women. But others are glad pharmacists have a choice.
Women who report sexual assaults to police receive treatment, examination and the immediate offer of emergency contraception at a local emergency room, according to the policy of most Tucson hospitals.
But, like many sexual assault victims, the 20-year-old woman did not report the assault because she felt traumatized and guilty she had put herself in a situation that left her vulnerable. She was mistakenly locked outside a gathering at a friend's house and accepted the offer of a neighbor to stay at his place. read more…
SNL spoofs the Teleconference: The gang lampoons the troop photo-op and Brit Hume from Fox News by having President Bush put on another, unscripted get together with the troops. Quote from Reuben: “Too Damn Funny… I gotta start Tivo’n more SNL spoofs like this!!”
(CNN) -- A majority would vote for a Democrat over President Bush if an election were held this year, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday.
In the latest poll, 55 percent of the respondents said that they would vote for the Democratic candidate if Bush were again running for the presidency this year.
Thirty-nine percent of those interviewed said they would vote for Bush in the hypothetical election.
The latest poll results, released Tuesday, were based on interviews with 1,008 adults conducted by telephone October 21-23.
In the poll, 42 percent of those interviewed approved of the way the president is handling his job and 55 percent disapproved. In the previous poll, released October 17, 39 percent approved of Bush's job performance -- the lowest number of his presidency -- and 58 percent disapproved. read more…
We simply asked readers who took our customer-experience survey to name names. By soliciting complaints from our 1,700 respondents, we hoped to get some broad sense of which companies consistently rubbed them the wrong way.
The top three offenders? Wal-Mart, Cingular, and Sprint PCS, in that order.
Wal-Mart’s appearance (along with other big-box retailers, such as Home Depot at No. 4) wasn’t too shocking. Something about shopping in a warehouse doesn’t quite compare to sitting in a cozy Starbucks sipping a mocha-latte-cino while lapping up Brazilian jazz. The chief complaint was that employees are unhappy, unhelpful, and impossible to find (but the prices are great!).
In what other surveys would Wal-Mart rank dead last? Employee wages? Affordable health care? American job creation?
An internal memo sent to Wal-Mart's board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer's reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart.
In the memorandum, M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits. The memo voices concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive.
To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)."
The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefit costs because critics had attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.
Wal-Mart executives said the memo was part of an effort to rein in benefit costs, which to Wall Street's dismay have soared by 15 percent a year on average since 2002. Like much of corporate America, Wal-Mart has been squeezed by soaring health costs. The proposed plan, if approved, would save the company more than $1 billion a year by 2011.
In an interview, Ms. Chambers said she was focusing not on cutting costs, but on serving employees better by giving them more choices on their benefits.
"We are investing in our benefits that will take even better care of our associates," she said. "Our benefit plan is known today as being generous."
Ms. Chambers also said that she made her recommendations after surveying employees about how they felt about the benefits plan. "This is not about cutting," she said. "This is about redirecting savings to another part of their benefit plans." read more…
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Monday pledged to more closely monitor suppliers' factories for labor abuses, improve health benefits for employees and support an increase in the federal minimum wage — taking on critics of its treatment of employees while acknowledging the needs of working-class customers.
In addition, Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. said the retail giant would improve the efficiency of its massive truck fleet and reduce solid waste at its stores to help the environment.
In a teleconference with thousands of store personnel and executives around the world, Scott said Wal-Mart had taken heed of mounting criticism of some of its business practices.
"For us, there is virtually no distinction between being a responsible citizen and a successful business. They are one and the same for Wal-Mart," he said.
Critics, however, questioned whether the company could achieve meaningful change while maintaining its boast as the low-cost leader.
Nelson Lichtenstein, a professor of history at UC Santa Barbara and editor of the forthcoming book "Wal-Mart: The Face of 21st Century Capitalism," said Wal-Mart's new initiative was simply good business. The Bentonville, Ark., company needs to expand into areas that have grown increasingly hostile.
"From their point of view, the problem is how to get into the other half of America, basically coastal America, and to do that they adopted a number of strategies: attack their opponents and also, maybe on some issues, accommodate their opponents," Lichtenstein said. "Part of it is smoke and mirrors, and part of it will be real accommodations."
Criticism of Wal-Mart has billowed alongside its sales, which at $285 billion last year made it the world's biggest company. Through local outreach and websites such as Wake Up Wal-Mart, supported by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the anti-Wal-Mart forces have whipped up resistance to new stores and pressed local governments to enact ordinances aimed at forcing the retailer to improve wages and benefits.
As Americans have struggled with higher gasoline prices and worries about the economy, the company has watched its once-phenomenal sales growth slow.
Wal-Mart's stock, which is off 13% this year, rose 49 cents Monday to $46.21.
Scott's speech is part of a public effort to fight back.
The executive outlined what Wal-Mart calls a framework — with broad goals but few specifics in most areas — that the company says it will elaborate on in the next 12 to 18 months.
Among those goals, Scott said, is working with other multinational companies to better enforce and reward proper working conditions at supplier factories. Scott said Wal-Mart would implement an independent monitoring program, which global labor experts maintain is crucial to proper oversight.
Last month a labor rights group sued Wal-Mart in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging that the company failed to enforce its code of conduct at supplier factories around the world, misleading the American public while ignoring sweatshop conditions.
Scott's most detailed remarks Monday involved environmental initiatives. The company, he said, would increase the energy efficiency of its truck fleet — the nation's largest — by 25% in the next three years and double efficiency in the next decade; design a store prototype that is 25% to 30% more efficient and produces 30% fewer emissions of so-called greenhouse gases; and reduce solid waste from U.S. stores by 25% in the next three years.
Scott pledged to bring insurance within reach of all his employees — a sticking point with labor, which contends that Wal-Mart's combination grocery and general merchandise Supercenters drive out unionized supermarkets that offer higher wages and low-cost family healthcare. Fewer than half of 1.2 million U.S. workers at more than 3,600 stores are covered by the company's insurance programs.
Wal-Mart will offer some associates a new plan with premiums as low as $11 a month, a program the company hopes to expand nationally. Other employees will be offered a plan for about $25 a month for individuals and $65 for families — about 40% to 60% less than the current plan.
The new plan has a $1,000 deductible, similar to the company's current program, but will allow three doctor visits for each family member, with a $20 co-pay, before the deductible kicks in, a spokesman said.
Scott said Wal-Mart would support an increase in the federal minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour. On average, the company says, it pays full-time U.S. associates $9.68, so a higher minimum wage would have a much tougher effect on Wal-Mart's smaller rivals. read more…
The US death toll in Iraq reportedly hit 2,000 amid a sharp spike in violence that killed 14 Iraqis as the nation awaited results of a key vote on a charter aimed at curbing sectarian violence.
The US network CNN, quoting Pentagon sources, reported Tuesday that the number of soldiers killed since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq had reached 2,000 with the deaths of two more soldiers, a toll likely to add pressure on the US administration over its role in the violence-wracked country.
For the first time, a majority of Americans believe the Iraq war was the "wrong thing to do", according to a poll published in The Wall Street Journal.
Ten people were killed in a string of bombings in the Kurdish stronghold of Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq, while another four were killed in Baghdad, the day after a spectacular bombing blitz on hotels housing international reporters and contractors killed 17.
The Sulaimaniyah attacks targeted a building housing Kurdish peshmerga militamen and the convoy of a senior Kurdish politician, while security sources also defused a bomb outside a hotel used by journalists.
In Baghdad, four people were killed, including two security officials shot dead in the violent southern neighborhood of Dura.
The capital was recovering from a triple suicide car bomb attack against hotels which killed at least 17 people Monday as Iraqis sat down to break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
A cement truck packed with explosives was stopped before it reached the Sheraton hotel, and disappeared in a massive flash that sent up a towering column of gray and black smoke. read more…
Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, October 25, 2005; Page A01
The Bush administration has proposed exempting employees of the Central Intelligence Agency from a legislative measure endorsed earlier this month by 90 members of the Senate that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoners in U.S. custody.
The proposal, which two sources said Vice President Cheney handed last Thursday to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the company of CIA Director Porter J. Goss, states that the measure barring inhumane treatment shall not apply to counterterrorism operations conducted abroad or to operations conducted by "an element of the United States government" other than the Defense Department.
Although most detainees in U.S. custody in the war on terrorism are held by the U.S. military, the CIA is said by former intelligence officials and others to be holding several dozen detainees of particular intelligence interest at locations overseas -- including senior al Qaeda figures Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaida.
Cheney's proposal is drafted in such a way that the exemption from the rule barring ill treatment could require a presidential finding that "such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack." But the precise applicability of this section is not clear, and none of those involved in last week's discussions would discuss it openly yesterday.
McCain, the principal sponsor of the legislation, rejected the proposed exemption at the meeting with Cheney, according to a government source who spoke without authorization and on the condition of anonymity. McCain spokeswoman Eileen McMenamin declined to comment. But the exemption has been assailed by human rights experts critical of the administration's handling of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This is the first time they've said explicitly that the intelligence community should be allowed to treat prisoners inhumanely," said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "In the past, they've only said that the law does not forbid inhumane treatment." Now, he said, the administration is saying more concretely that it cannot be forbidden. read more…
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 10/23/2005)
Millions of Iraqis believe that suicide attacks against British troops are justified, a secret military poll commissioned by senior officers has revealed.
The poll, undertaken for the Ministry of Defence and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, shows that up to 65 per cent of Iraqi citizens support attacks and fewer than one per cent think Allied military involvement is helping to improve security in their country.
The nationwide survey also suggests that the coalition has lost the battle to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, which Tony Blair and George W Bush believed was fundamental to creating a safe and secure country.
The results come as it was disclosed yesterday that Lt Col Nick Henderson, the commanding officer of the Coldstream Guards in Basra, in charge of security for the region, has resigned from the Army. He recently voiced concerns over a lack of armoured vehicles for his men, another of whom was killed in a bomb attack in Basra last week.
The secret poll appears to contradict claims made by Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff, who only days ago congratulated British soldiers for "supporting the Iraqi people in building a new and better Iraq".
Andrew Robathan, a former member of the SAS and the Tory shadow defence minister, said last night that the poll clearly showed a complete failure of Government policy.
He said: "This clearly states that the Government's hearts-and-minds policy has been disastrous. The coalition is now part of the problem and not the solution. read more…
Wal-Mart, which has long been criticized for the benefits it offers to its workers, is introducing a cheaper health insurance plan, with monthly premiums as low as $11, that the company hopes will greatly increase the number of its employees who can afford coverage.
Jumping into a new area, Wal-Mart is also offering health savings accounts, which the federal government introduced last year. Few employers offer them.
The new benefits, which Wal-Mart calls the Value Plan, follow years of complaints that at Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer, health insurance is out of reach for many of its 1.2 million workers in the United States, forcing thousands of them to turn to state-sponsored programs or forgo health coverage altogether.
"We are lowering the costs to make health insurance more affordable," said a Wal-Mart spokesman, Dan Fogleman, who declined to comment on how much the plan would cost the company. Asked if the new insurance plan was in response to growing criticism, he said, "It's fair to say we are listening, but more so to our associates than anyone else."
Health insurance specialists generally praised the new plan, saying its lower premiums were likely to attract more employees and thereby reduce the ranks of the uninsured. They also noted, however, that the plan's $1,000 deductible would be high for Wal-Mart workers, particularly older employees who are likely to visit doctors more often, and might not cover expensive treatments, particularly in its first year. read more…
Duo Considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement
Oct. 20, 2005 — - Thirteen-year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede have one album out, another on the way, a music video, and lots of fans.
They may remind you another famous pair of singers, the Olsen Twins, and the girls say they like that. But unlike the Olsens, who built a media empire on their fun-loving, squeaky-clean image, Lamb and Lynx are cultivating a much darker personna. They are white nationalists and use their talents to preach a message of hate.
Known as "Prussian Blue" -- a nod to their German heritage and bright blue eyes -- the girls from Bakersfield, Calif., have been performing songs about white nationalism before all-white crowds since they were nine.
"We're proud of being white, we want to keep being white," said Lynx. "We want our people to stay white ... we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race."
Lynx and Lamb have been nurtured on racist beliefs since birth by their mother April. "They need to have the background to understand why certain things are happening," said April, a stay-at-home mom who no longer lives with the twins' father. "I'm going to give them, give them my opinion just like any, any parent would."
April home-schools the girls, teaching them her own unique perspective on everything from current to historical events. In addition, April's father surrounds the family with symbols of his beliefs -- specifically the Nazi swastika. It appears on his belt buckle, on the side of his pick-up truck and he's even registered it as his cattle brand with the Bureau of Livestock Identification.
"Because it's provocative," explains April of the cattle brand, "to him he thinks it's important as a symbol of freedom of speech that he can use it as his cattle brand."
Teaching Hate
Songs like "Sacrifice" -- a tribute to Nazi Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy Fuhrer -- clearly show the effect of the girls' upbringing. The lyrics praise Hess as a "man of peace who wouldn't give up."
"It really breaks my heart to see those two girls spewing out that kind of garbage," said Ted Shaw, civil rights advocate and president of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund -- though Shaw points out that the girls aren't espousing their own opinions but ones they're being taught. read more…
Moby has urged the American public to boycott Southwest Airlines flights after a passenger was thrown off for wearing an anti-George Bush T Shirt.
Passenger Lorrie Heasely wore a top with a picture of President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and Vice-President Dick Cheney alongside the slogan ‘Meet The Fockers’.
Moby, who famously hates President Bush, was appalled at Heasely’s treatment and has joined the campaign to boycott the airline.
He said through his website: “A woman who was wearing a T-shirt with pictures of Bush, Cheney and Condi Rice and with the slogan 'Meet The Fockers' was kicked off of a Southwest Airlines flight.
"Let's just get this straight: she was kicked off of the flight for wearing a T-shirt that the staff found offensive.
"You know what? I find Southwest Airlines offensive. I do hereby encourage you and everyone you know to boycott Southwest Airlines."
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- The Republican candidate for Virginia governor is drawing fire for campaign ads that suggest his Democratic opponent is so averse to the death penalty he would have spared Adolph Hitler from execution.
The radio and TV ads feature victims' relatives who tearfully recount the crimes that killed their loved ones and say they don't trust Democrat Tim Kaine to administer the state's death penalty.
Kaine, who says his moral objections to capital punishment are rooted in his Roman Catholic faith, responded with an ad pledging to carry out death sentences "because it's the law."
One of the ads supporting Jerry Kilgore, Virginia's attorney general, cites a Richmond Times-Dispatch column that said Kaine had "suggested he would not favor sending even Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin or Idi Amin to the gallows."
A commercial featuring death penalty proponent Stanley Rosenbluth has him looking into the camera and saying: "Tim Kaine says Adolf Hitler doesn't qualify for the death penalty. This was one of the worst mass murderers in modern times."
Some Jewish leaders said Friday that the commercials trivialize the Holocaust and should be withdrawn. read more…
Wal-Mart called the police on a high-school student who brought in a pic of a homemade anti-George Bush poster for photo-finishing. The Secret Service went to the kid's high-school and confiscated the poster.
Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class "to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights," she says. One student "had taken a photo of George Bush out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb's-down sign with his own hand next to the President's picture, and he had a photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster..."
An employee in that Wal-Mart photo department called the Kitty Hawk police on the student. And the Kitty Hawk police turned the matter over to the Secret Service. On Tuesday, September 20, the Secret Service came to Currituck High.
"At 1:35, the student came to me and told me that the Secret Service had taken his poster," Jarvis says. "I didn't believe him at first. But they had come into my room when I wasn't there and had taken his poster, which was in a stack with all the others."
Freedom of speech and the press…gone. Protection from unreasonable searches and seizures… vanished. Speedy and public trial…pfft. Pour in a hot beverage and watch the Bill of Rights disappear. 12-oz. ceramic mug. Set of Two Mugs. Order yours here.
In a deliciously ironic twist of fate, shortly before airing a segment aimed at embarrassing the Bush administration by suggesting that it had staged a video conversation between the president and soldiers in Iraq, the Today show was caught staging . . . a video stunt.
In the Bush/Iraq segment, Today screened footage indicating that prior to engaging in a video conversation with President Bush, soldiers on the ground in Iraq were given tips by a Department of Defense official.
But the only advice that the official was shown as giving was a suggestion to one solider to "take a little breath" before speaking to the president so he would actually be speaking to him. It was also stated that some of the soldiers practiced their comments so as to appear as articulate as possible. But there was no indication, or even allegation, that the soldiers were coached as to the substance of their comments or in any way instructed what to say.
Today's timing couldn't have been worse. A preceding segment focused on the incessant rains and ensuing flooding in the northeast. For days now, beautiful, blonde - and one senses highly ambitious - young reporter Michelle Kosinski has been on the scene for Today in New Jersey, working the story. In an apparent effort to draw attention to herself, in yesterday's segment she turned up in hip waders, standing thigh-deep in the flood waters.
Taking her act one step further, this morning she appeared on a suburban street . . . paddling a canoe. There was one small problem. Just as the segment came on the air, two men waded in front of Kosinki . . . and the water barely covered their shoe tops! That's right, Kosinski's canoe was in no more than four to six inches of water!
An embarrassed Kosinski claimed the water was deeper down the street but that her producers didn't want to let her go there for fear she'd drift away. But Katie and Matt, perhaps peeved by her attempted scene-stealing, couldn't resist ribbing her.
Matt: "Are these holy men, perhaps walking on top of the water?"
"Gee, is your oar hitting ground, Michelle?" inquired Katie, as she and Matt dissolved into laughter. read more…
Big Box Mart tells the story an unsuspecting consumer who learns an economic lesson the hard way when his high-skilled factory job is shipped overseas to accommodate the "everyday low prices" he's come to expect from his favorite retailer. At the end of the song, the only work he can find is as a janitor at Big Box Mart. Visit our website to see it for yourself and make sure to spread the word to your family and friends.
Wal-Mart is being taken to task on the big screen as well. Trailers for Robert Greenwald's upcoming documentary WALMART: The High Cost of Low Price are being shown in movie theaters in Los Angeles and New York. The documentary will premiere during Higher Expectations Week (November 13-19), a national week of action sponsored by Wal-Mart Watch and more than 400 national and local organizations.?Hundreds of events in 32 states are already planned with more being added daily. Make sure you are registered on our website to find out about events in your area.
It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution.
"This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."
Barber said the president was interested in three topics: the overall security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the weekend vote and efforts to train Iraqi troops.
As she spoke in Washington, a live shot of 10 soldiers from the Army's 42nd Infantry Division and one Iraqi soldier was beamed into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building from Tikrit — the birthplace of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"I'm going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," Barber said.
A brief rehearsal ensued.
"OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"
"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.
"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.
"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.
And so it went.
"If the question comes up about partnering — how often do we train with the Iraqi military — who does he go to?" Barber asked.
"That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.
"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit — the hometown — and how they're handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked.
Before he took questions, Bush thanked the soldiers for serving and reassured them that the U.S. would not pull out of Iraq until the mission was complete.
"So long as I'm the president, we're never going to back down, we're never going to give in, we'll never accept anything less than total victory," Bush said.
The president told them twice that the American people were behind them.
"You've got tremendous support here at home," Bush said.
Less than 40 percent in an AP-Ipsos poll taken in October said they approved of the way Bush was handling Iraq. Just over half of the public now say the Iraq war was a mistake. read more…
WASHINGTON — A newly released report published by the CIA rebukes the Bush administration for not paying enough attention to prewar intelligence that predicted the factional rivalries now threatening to split Iraq.
Policymakers worried more about making the case for the war, particularly the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, than planning for the aftermath, the report says. The report was written by a team of four former CIA analysts led by former deputy CIA director Richard Kerr.
"In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program), where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right," they write.
White House spokesman Fred Jones said Tuesday that the administration considered many scenarios involving postwar instability in Iraq. The report's assertion "has been vehemently disputed," he said.
Then-CIA director George Tenet commissioned the report after the invasion of Iraq. The authors had access to highly classified intelligence data and produced three reports concerning Iraq intelligence.
Only the third has been released in declassified form. It is published in the current issue of Studies in Intelligence, a CIA quarterly written primarily for intelligence professionals. The report was finished in July 2004 just as Tenet was ending his tenure as CIA director. read more…
The cheeky website buzzflash.com recently posted a petition calling for Jenna and Barbara Bush to serve in Iraq. But the famously private Bush twins have never disclosed their views on the war; they may even be opposed. So calling for them to serve might not be fair. But there are young and prominent Bush-backers who deserve to be targets of such a petition: The assorted leaders of the College Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) are cheerleaders for a war they are unwilling to fight.
Both YAF and College Republicans have staged prowar demonstrations on college campuses across the country. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, the College Republican National Committee released a statement proclaiming, "As our troops prepare for battle, the College Republican National Committee and its 100,000 members are prepared to show the world that the majority of students support the efforts of the president and our troops to liberate the people of Iraq and to rid the world of this murderous dictator and his weapons of mass destruction." The CRNC's website praises George W. Bush for "defending the peace by taking the fight to the terrorists."
The even more zealous YAFers have made it clear that they not only support the war but are openly hostile to those who oppose it. read more…
A word of advice from a friend: If your GOP pals turn on you, take them down with you.
By Garrison Keillor
Oct. 12, 2005 | My Dear Mr. DeLay:
I have been waiting two weeks for one Republican to leap to your defense and express outrage at a grand jury so callous as to indict a virtuous man, and nobody has. They've all been coy and cautious and whispering to the press that you are not their favorite guy in the whole world, so I am going to stand with you, sir, and cover your back. I don't like to see a man abandoned that way. When you're a Jet and the spit hits the fan, you've got brothers around. You're a family man. I am an old liberal and if we had a Hammer, we would support him in the morning, and in the evening, all over this land. You are the greatest political fundraiser since William Marcy Tweed, sir, and that Texas grand jury is trying to referee a football game by the rules of badminton.
Corporate money not used for political campaigns? The thought is preposterous on its face. Any schoolchild knows that politics is not about highfalutin debates and policy papers; it is about putting the screws to the fat cats and squeezing them until they squeak and then hiring agents to level your hapless opponent with a barrage of rotten fruit and dead cats as you yourself stand above the fray, Bible in hand, your arm around some orphans, eyes upraised to Old Glory, your face nicely lit. And you win the race and go to work flogging your timid colleagues and raising truckloads of dough and building your war chest and scaring the bejeebers out of people. That's how it's done.
This country was not built by nervous Nellies and Sunday school teachers but by bold marauders, dodgers, Sooners, buffalo hunters, forty-niners -- people who saw what they wanted and took it. You're one of them. Politics is about power. You grabbed hold of it and became King of the Republican Hill, a majority leader who knows that one can never have too much majority. I am disappointed by your attempts to beautify yourself. It's pitiful, sir, and demeaning to blow-dry your hair and try to project warmth through those drill-sergeant eyes and belt-sander voice. You're the man, sir, who redrew the map of Texas to squeeze more Republican congressmen out of it, and got Indian tribes to pay for you and yours to fly to Scotland first class and play golf, and who paid his wife as a consultant, etc., etc., etc. Personal warmth was not what got you to the dance. The rest of us tiptoe through the tulips, fearful of giving offense, but you, sir, are one brass monkey. read more…
Chief Warrant Officer William Howell was a 15-year Army Special Forces veteran who had seen combat duty all over the world. Sgt. 1st Class Andre McDaniel was a military accountant. Spc. Jeremy Wilson repaired electronics.
They had little in common, other than having served in Iraq with the 10th Special Forces Group based at Fort Carson, Colo. They did not know each other, and they had vastly different duties.
Each, however, committed suicide shortly after returning home, all within about a 17-month period.
The Army says there appears to be no connection between the men's overseas service and their deaths, and Army investigators found no "common contributing cause" among the three. The fact they were in the same unit is only a coincidence, Special Operations Command spokeswoman Diane Grant said at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Others are not so sure. Steve Robinson, a former Army Ranger and veterans' advocate, said he suspects there were problems in the men's unit — namely, a macho refusal to acknowledge stress and seek help.
"It could be that there's a climate there that creates the stigma which prevents people from coming forward," said Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center. "The mentality of this particular group seemed to be `Ignore what you think and feel and keep doing your job and don't talk to me about that (expletive) combat stress reaction stuff.'"
Special Forces soldiers specialize in what the Army calls "unconventional warfare" — commando raids, search-and-destroy missions, intelligence gathering. They go through specialized psychological screening. They also undergo rigorous physical training and learn survival techniques and other skills, including foreign languages.
Howell, 36, a father of three, shot himself March 14, 2004 — three weeks after returning from Iraq — after hitting and threatening to kill his wife, Laura.
She said she did not see any warning signs until the night he threatened her.
"You look back every day and think what could I have done different. I can't think of anything," she said. read more…
Airmen Fill the Gaps in Wartime Thousands of Air Force personnel are being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan to perform low-tech roles and help the Army keep up force levels.
October 11, 2005
By Mark Mazzetti and Greg Miller, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — Straining to find ground troops to maintain its force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has begun deploying thousands of Air Force personnel to combat zones in new jobs as interrogators, prison sentries and gunners on supply trucks.
The Air Force years ago banked its future on state-of-the-art fighter jets and billion-dollar satellites. Yet the service that has long avoided being pulled into ground operations is now finding that its people — rather than its weapons — are what the Pentagon needs most as it wages a prolonged war against a low-tech, insurgent enemy.
Individual branches have spent decades carving out unique roles within the U.S. military, and Air Force officials insist that the redeployment of its personnel is temporary. Nonetheless, the reassignments come as another sign that the Pentagon is struggling to meet the demands of what military officials have begun calling "the long war."
As part of the effort, more than 3,000 Air Force personnel are being assigned new roles. And they are being dispatched to combat zones for longer tours of duty — as much as 12 months rather than four.
The changes within the Air Force, even if temporary, run counter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's overall vision of the military as a lighter, faster and more lethal force that relies on technology and efficiency to accomplish national security goals more quickly.
The situation also represents a reversal of sorts for the Air Force, which had played a dominant role in recent conflicts, including the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the war to expel Serbian troops from Kosovo.
"At that point the Air Force looked to be the dominant service," said Steve Kosiak, a military analyst at the independent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
"That has changed."
In the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, Kosiak said, the Army has been the dominant branch.
"It's been the Army, and the Air Force has played a supporting role," Kosiak said.
Air Force officials said they are expecting to commit another 1,000 airmen to missions such as guarding prisons and driving trucks over the next few years, but they don't plan to make these jobs "core competencies" within the Air Force. read more…
On paper, the Iraqi Army barracks was a gleaming example of the future Iraq. The plans called for a two-story, air-conditioned barracks housing 850 soldiers, a movie theater, classrooms, basketball courts, a shooting range, even an officer's club.
But when the $10 million project in southern Iraq is finished this month, it will fall far short of those ambitious plans. The theater, classrooms, officer's club, basketball courts and shooting range have all been scrapped. The barracks will be one story instead of two.
The reason for scaling back the barracks? The U.S. government is running out of money. The higher than expected cost of protecting workers against insurgent attacks - about 25 cents of every reconstruction dollar now pays for security - has sent the cost of projects skyward.
The result: Some projects have been eliminated and others cut back.
"American money has dried up," says Brent Rose, chief of program/project management for the Army Corps of Engineers in southern Iraq.
And tracking the billions of dollars that flooded into a war zone in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion has proved difficult, too. Nearly $100 million in reconstruction money is unaccounted for.
The ultimate price of a slowdown in Iraq's reconstruction could be steep. U.S. strategy here is based on the premise that jobs and prosperity will sap the strength of the insurgency and are as important as military successes in defeating terrorists.
"A free and prosperous Iraq will be a major blow to the terrorists and their desire to establish a safe haven in Iraq where they can plan and plot attacks," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said last week.
But there are signs that some of the early momentum is gone, particularly for big infrastructure projects. The Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works initially planned to use U.S. funds for 81 much-needed water and sewage treatment projects across the country, says Humam Misconi, a ministry official. That list has dwindled to 13.
Canceled projects include the $50 million project that was supposed to provide potable water to the second-largest city in the Kurdish region, and a $60 million water treatment plant in Babil province, which would have served about 360,000 residents, Misconi says.
Some progress has been made. More than 2,800 projects have begun since the transfer of sovereignty last summer, and 1,700 of those have been completed, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. They include refurbished schools, new police stations, hospitals, bridges and new roads.
It is the larger, more expensive projects such as water treatment plants, sewage networks and power grids that are being cut back. read more…
The National Guard and Reserves are suffering a strikingly higher share of U.S. casualties in Iraq, their portion of total American military deaths nearly doubling since last year.
Reservists have accounted for one-quarter of all U.S. deaths since the Iraq war began, but the proportion has grown over time. It was 10 percent for the five weeks it took to topple Baghdad in the spring of 2003, and 20 percent for 2004 as a whole.
The trend accelerated this year. For the first nine months of 2005 reservists accounted for 36 percent of U.S. deaths, and for August and September it was 56 percent, according to Pentagon figures.
The Army National Guard, Army Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve accounted for more than half of all U.S. deaths in August and in September — the first time that has happened in consecutive months. The only other month in which it even approached 50 percent was June 2004.
Casualties in Iraq have shifted toward citizen soldiers as their combat role has grown to historic levels. National Guard officials say their soldiers have been sent into combat in Iraq in numbers not previously seen in modern times — far more than were sent to Vietnam, where active-duty troops did the vast majority of the fighting.
Charles Krohn, a former Army deputy chief of public affairs, said the reservists are taking up the slack for the highly stressed active-duty Army. read more…
I was honored and humbled to be in the presence of holy man, Thich Nhat Hahn, today at MacArthur Park in a very Hispanic neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Tha^y, (teacher) as he is known, is a Buddhist monk who was active during the Vietnam War years bringing peace and reconciliation to the countries of North and South Vietnam. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. He walks with an aura of peace and acceptance radiating from him.
Every day we do things, we are things that have to do with peace. If we are aware of our life..., our way of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment, we are alive. Thich Nhat Hahn
In a speech I delivered at the Riverside Church in NYC on the one year anniversary of Casey's death, which was also the 37 th anniversary of MLK, Jr's death, I said: We must all do one thing for peace each day. I now know that is not enough. We must live peace and embody peace if we want peace on earth. Our entire lives must be for peace. Not just one activity a day.
Every step is peace.
That was the theme for today's walk in Mac Arthur Park. Tha^y reminded us to be in the "present" and take every step in peace and know that we are walking on the earth in peace. He lovingly admonished the hundreds of people who came to hear his witness to do everything in peace: eat, walk, talk, breathe, sleep, work, play, etc. No yelling, no angry words, no harsh statements. This admonishment struck me to the bone because I have been so "strident" in my criticism of the Bushies in their quest for power, greed, and destruction. There must be a better way now if we truly want our country to live in eternal peace and not eternal war.
I have arrived. I am home.
This was the first sign we passed as we started on our walk. Tha^y told us we should say those phrases with every other step. I have arrived. Every second we live is a new arriving in the present. I see so much conflict and struggle in our world because we don't live in this second. We are worried about the next second and mourning the past second. Camp Casey taught me to live each moment in the arrival moment. One of the reasons I have been able to remain so calm in the face of an onslaught of troubles and evil is because I realized in Camp Casey that I could not struggle against the current of my life and change my destiny any more than I could bring my son back from the land of the dead. Each second of each day is our precious arrival and we should honor each moment. Another holy man, Jesus Christ said: Why worry about tomorrow? Today has enough worries of its own.
I am home.
I met a new friend today named Jewel whose son was a medic on the front lines in Iraq and has tried to commit suicide three times since he returned from the desert of pain. read more…
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A retired elementary teacher who was repeatedly punched in the head by police in an incident caught on videotape said Monday he was not drunk, put up no resistance and was baffled by what happened.
Robert Davis said he had returned to New Orleans to check on property his family owns in the storm-ravaged city, and was out looking to buy cigarettes when he was beaten and arrested Saturday night in the French Quarter.
Police have alleged that the 64-year-old Davis was publicly intoxicated, a charge he strongly denied as he stood on the street corner where the incident played out Saturday.
``I haven't had a drink in 25 years,'' Davis said. He had stitches beneath his left eye, a bandage on his left hand and complained of soreness in his back and aches in his left shoulder.
A federal civil rights investigation was begin in the case. Davis is black. The three city police officers seen on the tape are white. Police spokesman Marlon Defillo said race was not an issue. read more…
Published: October 10, 2005 11:45 AM ET NEW YORKAfter news broke that local law enforcement officials were investigating complaints that Louis Beres, longtime chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon, had molested three female family members when they were pre-teens, The Oregonian in Portland went out and interviewed Beres' family members.
Two told reporters that Beres, indeed, had molested them. All three said they have been interviewed for several hours by detectives.
"I was molested," said one of the women, now in her early 50s. "I was victimized, and I've suffered all my life for it. I'm still afraid to be in the same room with [Beres]."
The coalition led by Beres, 70, champions socially conservative candidates and causes. Its Web site describes the group as "Oregon's leading grassroots organization defending our Godly heritage." The group opposes abortion, gay rights, and stem cell research. It is affiliated with the national Christian Coalition, which was founded in 1989 by television evangelist Pat Robertson.
The group confirmed Beres is under investigation for alleged molestation. According to The Oregonian, Beres blamed "personal and political enemies" for the reports and said, "I never molested anybody."
Beres is also former chairman of the Multnomah County Republican Party.
In a statement on the coalition's Web site today, Beres denied any criminal conduct and said he wanted to "reconcile" with those making the accusations, if he can find out who they are. "I have asked The Oregonian to provide the information so I might proceed as the Bible tells each of us to proceed," he wrote.
Two of the alleged molestations occurred decades ago and likely would not result in criminal charges because state law limits prosecution of certain crimes. But one case may fall within statutory timelines. It involves a female family member who was allegedly molested by Beres when she was in elementary school, authorities said. read more…
Sen. Russ Feingold says it's time to admit the war was a disaster -- and accuses his fellow Democrats of going along with Bush out of fear.
By Michael Scherer
Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold has latched his political future to the third rail of American foreign policy. This summer, he proposed a date for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq: Dec. 31, 2006. The date raises a specter that no one in Washington -- and especially no Democrat -- has been willing to broach: that the American people should begin to prepare for a political failure in Iraq, at least a failure by President Bush's standard of establishing, before the troops leave, a fully functional, Democratic Iraqi state.
It is not the first time Feingold has gone out on a political limb. In September, he was the only Democratic senator with presidential ambitions to support John Roberts. He was the only senator to vote against the USA Patriot Act. Before that, he spent nearly a decade fighting the culture of political payola, a fight he won in 2002 with passage of McCain-Feingold legislation.
Salon sat down with Feingold last week in his Capitol Hill office, which he has decorated with the trophies of his career as a populist politician. There was a photo of his garage door, where he wrote out a contract to voters in 1992 during his first statewide race. There were the framed roll-call votes from the final passage of his campaign-finance legislation. And there was the senator himself, dressed in pinstripes and a blue-gray tie, speaking with the urgency of a politician with his eyes on the White House in 2008. In a wide-ranging interview, he spoke about the "timidity and weakness" of his own party, the mistakes of Sen. John Kerry, the qualifications of Harriet Miers and his plan for winning the War on Terror.
If President Bush came to you this afternoon and said, "I've got trouble in Iraq. What should I do now?" what would you say to him?
"Well, Mr. President," I would say, "we need to get the focus back on those who attacked us on 9/11." I would say to him that I was proud of the way he and his administration conducted themselves after 9/11. I thought his speech to the Congress after 9/11 was one of the best speeches I've ever heard by a president. I admired not only the focus but the bipartisanship of his approach in the lead-up to Afghanistan. We had a historic unity in this country, and I was pleased to be a part of it.
I would then say to the president that I believe the Iraq war was a divergence from the real issue. Unfortunately, in many ways, it has played into the hands of those who attacked us on 9/11. I witnessed the connection that has grown between Osama bin Laden, al-Zarqawi and now Iraqis who have been radicalized because of our invasion of Iraq. So I would urge him to think in terms of a strategy where we finish the military mission. I would ask him to put forward a plan to identify what that mission is, what the benchmarks are that need to be achieved and when they can be achieved, and that he publicly announce a target withdrawal date, so that the American people, the Iraqi people and the world can see that this is in no way intended to be a permanent American occupation.
Can you be any more specific about what that plan should entail?
Well, I think it's his job to come up with the specifics. But among the things that I would certainly be looking for would be first a recognition that the military mission and the mission of having a democratic and stable Iraq are actually different things read more…
Inside Inside the Bubble The film about John Kerry's campaign won't tell you why he lost. By John Dickerson Posted Friday, Sept. 30, 2005, at 4:27 PM PT
Inside the Bubble, a documentary that promises to reveal how the Kerry campaign lost the 2004 election, has restored a bit of campaign-season buzz to Washington. The Drudge Report called the film a "devastating behind-the-scenes look." Lloyd Grove promised despair among Kerry loyalists and snickering from Hillary's followers as the doc revealed the Massachusetts senator, who still hopes to run in 2008, as boobish and flailing. Democrats e-mailed preview clips and weighed how much exposing the underbelly of a Democratic campaign would hurt the party. Defensive quotes from Kerry staffers about the film suggested they had something to hide.
Titillating possibilities flitted through my head: grainy footage of John Kerry flip-flopping late at night in his hotel room. Strategist Bob Shrum controlling the candidate's every move from behind a glowing orb. Modern campaigns are so freeze-dried and antiseptic that one longs for unscripted moments, even after the fact. Plus, the film arrives as Democrats are still mulling the lessons of their loss. Should leaders of the party be cautious and calibrated to appeal to moderates and independents—or should they roar and stomp in an attempt to rally the base and captivate voters with authenticity?
Unfortunately, Inside the Bubble, which premiered at the New York Television Festival Thursday, doesn't do much to answer those questions. The movie overpromises the way sham politicians do. There are some amusing and entertaining moments, but there is little in it to explain why Kerry lost—no inside scoop from his senior advisers or much insight into the man himself. The strategists who may have botched the effort are either not seen or pass through in a blink. Instead, we spend a lot of time with secondary and tertiary players. read more…
Jon appeared with David Thursday night on the Late Show and talked about TDS, the Emmy, father hood, Harriett Miers, blogging, Hurricane Katrina, Tom Delay and President Bush
WAL-MART -- NOT GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY: A new report by the National Center for Responsive Philanthropy faults Wal-Mart and the Walton family (which controls the largest family fortune in the world) for a "rather low level of philanthropic giving," and judges the purpose of their giving to be primarily "self-interested." "Behind the Wal-Mart facade, the goals of the company and the family have nothing to do with promoting the community’s or the public’s or even their customers’ interest," the report states. "Instead, there is one goal, and that is to make one of the wealthiest families in the country even richer." According to the New York Sun, Wal-Mart's giving is likely intended to "divert attention from a host of thorny problems" that have dogged the company. "The report also criticizes the Walton family for directing millions of dollars in gifts to organizations involved with charter school and school voucher efforts."
BUDGET -- CONSERVATIVES PLAN TO CUT 300,000 POOR FROM FEDERAL FOOD PROGRAMS: Conservatives in Congress are planning to cut $574 million from food programs for the poor. Earlier this year, Congress passed a budget framework that called for $3 billion in agriculture spending cuts. "Leading Republicans indicated they would rather target food stamps and conservation programs than simply make the deep cuts [in farmers' payments] that Bush was seeking." The $574 million cut in food stamps, brought on primarily because Bush's irresponsible tax cuts have exacerbated the nation's deficit, would come from restricting access to this benefit for certain families that receive other government assistance. The restriction would shut an estimated 300,000 people out of the program. Gerry Roll writes in the Christian Science Monitor, "We can keep our food stamp program intact. It just might mean putting big corporate farmers on a thrifty food plan."
NATIONAL SECURITY -- CIA LEAK INDICTMENTS COULD BE COMING SOON, ROVE SILENT: Reuters reports today that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald "is expected to signal within days whether he intends to bring indictments in the [CIA leak] case." Fitzgerald "could announce plea agreements, bring indictments, or conclude that no crime was committed," though if he is issuing indictments, he would have to notify Bush officials via letter telling them if they are targets of the investigation. Karl Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, refused to say yesterday whether Fitzgerald had contacted Rove, despite having said in the past "that Rove was assured that he was not a target." President Bush has raised the goalposts for firing members of his administration involved in the leak of Valerie Plame's identity. "After initially promising to fire anyone found to have leaked information in the case, Bush in July offered a more qualified pledge: 'If someone committed a crime they will no longer work in my administration.'"
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