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Volume 1 Issue 153 Today’s News and Views Tuesday, May 30, 2006 |
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Donle's Daily Dispatches RSS News Feeds Latest news and opinion headlines from NPR, BBC, NY Times, etc. |
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Cost of the War in Iraq
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Update of US Casualties in Iraq: 2468 Update of US Casualties in Afghanistan: 296 Figures provided by the Iraq Coalition Causality website |
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Remember
Who Made This MESS! |
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For Immediate Release May 29, 2006 2500 American Deaths in Iraq are Near: We say, “Not one more.” Call for Peace Now. Press Contacts: Harold P. Donle, Veterans for Peace, Inc. #49, hdonle@insightbb.com 317/698-2450. Heather Allen-Garde, Hoosiers for Peace, heather@hoosiersforpeace.org, 317/202-9302. Jim Wolfe, Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center, jwolfe@butler.edu, 317/255-3857. Members of Veterans for Peace, Chapter 49, Hoosiers for Peace and the Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center are asking Indiana citizens to assemble on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis on the day that the 2500th American is reported killed to mark this tragic occurrence. The target date at the current rate of KIAs is on or about Tuesday, June 13th, fifteen (15) days from today. This action is to honor the soldiers who have lost their lives in Iraq and their families, and to give our fellow Indiana citizens a visual representation of what 2500 looks like. We are against war because it kills our family members, wreaks havoc on our national treasury, makes the world a more dangerous place, and psychically damages our humanity. Hundreds of Hoosiers have been invited to participate in this event that will combine an installation of 2500 flags to honor the dead and a memorial ceremony to call for an end to war. If the number is reached on a weekday (Mon.- Fri.) the group will gather at 6 P.M and if the number is reached on a weekend the group will gather at 4 P.M. at Veterans Memorial Plaza in downtown Indianapolis.(The Plaza is bounded by Michigan to the south, Meridian to the west, North Street to the north, and Pennsylvania to the west.) At that time, the assembled will a field of flags on Veterans Memorial Plaza. The group will reserve 64 flags to represent the Hoosiers that have been lost in Iraq and they will plant those 64 flags around the base of the obelisk. There will be a period of brief remarks and a memorial ceremony in closing. For more information contact Harold Donle at (317)698-2450.
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Support Our Troops IMPEACH Bush/Cheney |
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Rep. Louise Slaughter's report "America for Sale" (pdf document) |
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Click on Play, then place cursor on Player and right click, select play in Theatre Mode. this is a one hour and thirty-nine minute long movie and well worth watching. - Harold, ed. |
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| Pasta for Peace |
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Hoosiers for Peace requests the honor of your presence… What: Share Sunday Gravy with Local Progressives at Pasta for Peace. Good Food, Stimulating Conversation, Inspirational Music, Film, and Art and a Silent Auction. Did we mention the pasta was shaped like peace signs? To reserve your seat, call 202-9302 or e-mail heather@hoosiersforpeace.org. Seats are limited and going fast. When: June 25, 2006 from 1 to 4 p.m. (with dinner at 2 p.m.) |
Where: Indianapolis Peace and Learning Center (6040 DeLong Rd.) in Eagle Creek Park. Why: Now is the time to spread the word to mainstream America to unite and stand up for peace. Hoosiers for Peace is sponsoring a statewide advertising campaign, which is focused on uniting the community to call for peace. This campaign will cost $14,000. This money will be used to pay for a full-page ad in the Indianapolis Star to ask more than 700,000 Hoosiers to call for peace. To find out more visit www.hoosiersforpeace.org Cost: Adults $20, Children 5-12 $7, Children under 5 eat free. All proceeds will go towards the advertising campaign. Seats are limited, contact Heather for tickets today: 202-9302 or e-mail heather@hoosiersforpeace.org. |
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Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. -- Martin Luther King, Jr. May 7, 2006 Dear Peacemakers, Will you help to spread and encourage peace? With a record number of American soldiers dying in April 2006 and possible military action against Iran becoming daily news, now is the time to spread the word to mainstream America to unite and stand up for peace. Hoosiers for Peace is sponsoring a statewide advertising campaign, which is focused on uniting the community to call for peace. This campaign will cost $14,000. This money will be used to pay for a full-page ad in the Indianapolis Star to ask more than 700,000 Hoosiers to call for peace. We are contacting dozens of organizations to make a proposal to form a coalition to raise funds and send a collaborative message to Hoosiers to Call for Peace. The message is: Call your friends, your family, and your representatives and ask them to support the Call for Peace. Like most Americans, we oppose war based on the following, which will be reflected in the advertisement: A. War Kills. More than 2,400 American Soldiers have died and nearly 1,000 Hoosier soldiers are in harms way. B. War depletes our resources. Billions of dollars are going to sustain war efforts while ordinary citizens struggle for social services. C. War will not make us secure. Studies have shown that the U.S. is no more secure today than it was before 911. Hoosiers for Peace, a website sponsored by Progressive Indiana, requests your support to make this advertisement a success. We will use the advertisement to call for peace. Each group in the coalition working on this project will be listed in the ad. Each group will be asked to raise $1000 by October 1, 2006. Below are some suggestions for fundraising: |
1. Letter Writing Campaign: Contact your family and friends and ask them to support this call for peace. Tell them how many people we can reach and ask them to make a generous donation and spread the word. You may collect the money through your organization or you may refer them to Progressive Indiana. Donations may be sent through our secure online giving by going to www.progressiveindiana.org and click on donate now or log onto www.hoosiersforpeace and click on donate now. Checks may also be made payable to Progressive Indiana and mailed to: Progressive Indiana P.O. Box 55253 Indianapolis, Indiana 46205-0253 2. Host a house party. Go grassroots and organize a pasta dinner or backyard barbecue and ask for a donation from each guest. Play poker and donate half of each pot to the campaign for peace. Have a bake sale through your church or place of employment. 3. Plan a small event. Invite your community to an event and ask for donations for the ad. Small concerts, speakers, and socials are some ideas for these events. Get creative and network! We need at least 14 groups to join the coalition and many more people to join the campaign to help fill in possible gaps. If we join together we can make this happen and we can bring Hoosiers together through this ad. As we Honor the Dead, Heal the Wounded, and call for an End to the War we can stand united for peace. We can make a difference by showing ordinary Hoosiers that there are many people like them working for peace. Please contact us as soon as possible if you would like to participate in this campaign. With a little work and collaboration we can make a large impact on our community. In Peace, Heather Allen-Garde Director, Hoosiers For Peace heatherreneeallen@yahoo.com 317/202-9302 It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it – Eleanor Roosevelt |
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Listen to Air America Radio while reading today's news and views |
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Sign the ACLU's Petition against torture! We demand our country back. |
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The Not Your Soldier Project gives youth the tools we need to stop the military invasion of our schools and our communities. Not Your Soldier Action Camps bring together young people who are heavily targeted by military recruitment. At the camps, youth learn how to take action to fight military recruitment, the poverty draft, and the corporations that profit off of war. In 2006, Not Your Soldier will be hosting a national camp for youth and adult allies. >>Go to the Pick a Camp section to find out more! If you're interested in hosting a regional Not Your Soldier gathering, find out more here. Not Your Soldier National Days of Action are coordinated days of creative, non-violent direct action where youth take leadership and tell recruiters, "We are Not Your Soldiers!" >>Sign up for our action alert e-mail list! Parents: have questions? Check out Info for Parents, and our FAQ's to find out what the camps will be like. copyright 2005 Not Your Soldier. |
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Today's News and Views |
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| This is an import film, be sure to watch it from the beginning. If you have trouble viewing it here go to the original site and view it. -Harold, ed. | ||
| Isahaqi, - Children of Abraham: Death in the Desert | ||
FreeVideoCoding.com |
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| Nothing in Indiana law or
administrative code prohibits gays or lesbians as foster parents. State
guidelines focus on maturity and judgment, health, financial resources, home
conditions and personal care capabilities. "We as an agency feel that is a legislative issue and would take our directive from the legislature," said agency spokeswoman Susan Tielking. "We just follow the statutes the way they are written." But Drozda said he thinks legislators should seek input from child welfare professionals. "I would like to get their perspective to see if foster parenting should be included in the proposed (adoption) legislation.'' Indiana spends more than $41 million a year on foster care, with about 5,000 children in 4,638 licensed homes at any given time. At some point during a year, nearly 11,000 children are in state foster homes. There are no records about how many caregivers are gay. Chris Morrison, executive director of Indiana Foster Care and Adoption Association, said Indiana needs more foster parents, many of whom eventually adopt. "That need is especially great for sibling groups, teens and children with medical or other special needs," she said. "In Indiana, more than 60 percent of the kids adopted out of our child welfare system are adopted by people who are foster parents." Morrison said the group does not take a position on gays as foster parents, although some members associated with faith-based groups may not license people for various reasons, from alcohol use to sexual orientation. "Our organization represents thousands of foster and adoptive parents," she said, "so we are not going to take the position of excluding one over the other." A helping hand The shortage of foster parents and a desire to love and help children are what prompted Brennan, 36, and Hamilton, 37, to seek a state license in 2003. "We didn't intend to get into the middle of some big thing," said Brennan. "We got into this because the state was in dire need of foster parents." After two of their foster children were placed elsewhere, the couple sought to care for additional foster children. Despite the shortage of foster parents, the Department of Child Services hasn't needed their help since the Martinsville women challenged a Morgan County judge's effort to overturn the April 2005 adoption of their foster daughter. "It's pretty obvious we're being shunned since the suit," said Brennan. "No one will come out and say it, but we had three placements right off, then none." Brennan said she and Hamilton -- who also coach T-ball and help with a 4-H club -- were open about their relationship and desire to adopt when they sought their foster parenting license. "We just wanted to love a child and take care of her for the rest of her life and have a family.'' Brennan said Indiana's seemingly incongruous stance -- letting gays be foster parents while trying to keep them from adopting -- may lead to some troubled children being further traumatized. Children, and especially those placed with foster parents as newborns, bond with those adults. But if the foster parents aren't allowed to adopt, that bond must be broken at the expense of the children's welfare. The debate continues Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, a group that promotes a traditional view of families, said he thinks foster homes consisting of a mother and father are best for children. But Evans, of the Human Rights Campaign, said there are no peer-reviewed studies that show children of lesbian and gay parents grow up any less successfully than the children of heterosexual parents. Evans said children will be the losers if gays are prohibited from foster parenting. "To shut out a whole class of people who could qualify to provide stable, loving homes is just illogical and so patently unfair to these children." Copyright 2006 IndyStar.com. |
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| A 7-year-old boy was among the
dead, and two more schoolchildren were badly wounded, said Dr. Amin, the
duty doctor at Khair Khana Hospital in the northern part of Kabul, who like
many Afghans uses only one name. Four people died at the hospital, he said,
and 60 wounded people were given first aid before being transferred to other
hospitals. Although the sudden explosion of violence may have been a reaction to the five deaths in the crash, it is a sign that Afghans are losing patience with the government and the foreign military presence in Afghanistan, residents said. Ali Seraj, a businessman and a descendant of the Afghan royal family, contended that the American military showed a careless attitude toward human life that was becoming a growing problem, whether it was the bombing of villages in counterinsurgency activities in southern Afghanistan or car accidents in the capital. "This type of attitude has created a great deal of mistrust and hatred," he said. Just last week, President Karzai ordered an investigation of an American airstrike on a village near Kandahar in the south that killed at least 35 civilians. In another episode, the United States military said last month that it would investigate the killings of seven members of a family in an airstrike in Kunar Province in the east during an operation against insurgents. On Monday, clashes began early in the morning when a truck leading an American military convoy smashed into 12 cars in rush-hour traffic as it went down a long hill from the Khair Khana pass just north of Kabul. Five civilians were killed and more injured in the multiple crash, a statement from Mr. Karzai's office said. The United States military said in a statement, "A large cargo truck apparently experienced a mechanical failure." The statement continued, "This was a tragic incident, and we deeply regret any deaths or injuries resulting from this incident." An angry crowd gathered and began stoning the American convoy, and the Afghan police when they arrived. "There are indications that at least one coalition military vehicle fired warning shots over the crowd," the United States military statement said. "We will determine the facts regarding the incident and cooperate fully with Afghan authorities." Demonstrators and townspeople said the American troops had fired into the crowd as people gathered and started throwing stones. One demonstrator, called Ahmadullah, was still shouting, "Death to Karzai!" and "Death to America!" hours after the initial event. Demonstrators and townspeople also asserted that the American truck driver had deliberately rammed vehicles as he led the convoy from Bagram Air Base through outlying villages and then into the city. "The Americans came all the way from Bagram to Kabul and killed about 20 people along the way," said Fraidoon, a youth who was among the demonstrators. He and other bystanders said up to a dozen demonstrators had been shot by guards as they tried to break into a British security company's compound in a downtown area. Other protesters tried to reach the United States Embassy across town but were prevented by armed blockades of Afghan police officers and soldiers. Others attacked buildings in the commercial center of the city, and some marched on Parliament in the city's southwest, attacking a television company and pizzeria nearby. By late afternoon the crowds had dispersed, leaving people to count the casualties and put out fires. The offices of the aid organization CARE International and the French nongovernmental organization known by the acronym Acted, a pizzeria, a Chinese guesthouse and a post office were among the buildings that were gutted by fire and ransacked. Ground-floor windows of the newly opened Serena Hotel, Kabul's first five-star hotel, were smashed, and traffic police officers sat outside burnt roadside police posts. NATO troops evacuated diplomats and staff members from a European Commission compound downtown. Mr. Karzai blamed opportunists and rioters for the violence. "Wherever you face these elements, do not let them destroy our home once again," he said. In a sign of the political implications the event has for the government, the president promised to investigate the circumstances of the crash and to see that the Americans involved were punished if found to be guilty. He added that he had received a visit Monday afternoon from the United States ambassador, who had expressed his "deep regrets." The demonstrators — overwhelmingly young men, even schoolchildren, carrying sticks and stones — were angry at the reports of deaths, but some also expressed frustration with the government, the police and the generally poor standard of living. "Most of the demonstrators are people who have lost their jobs, and the government cannot provide the people with the basic necessities," said Mukhtar Ziayee, 33, a real estate salesman. "The people are disappointed." But others were armed and intent on violence and robbery, residents said. Mohammed Arif Safajoy, the owner of the pizzeria that was attacked, estimated the rioters had done $50,000 damage there. "This was just a demonstration in name," he said. "They were looters, these people who came to my restaurant." Among them were students from a nearby high school, and they carried off electric fans, dishes and antique ornaments, he said. Hunger Strike at Guantánamo MIAMI, May 29 (Reuters) — Seventy-five prisoners at the American naval base at Guantánamo Bay were on a hunger strike on Monday, joining a few who had refused food and been force-fed since August, a military official said. Detainees are counted as hunger strikers if they miss nine consecutive meals, and most of the 75 reached that mark on Sunday, said a spokesman for the Guantánamo detention operation. Most are refusing food but continuing to drink liquids, he said. Hunger strikes have occurred periodically since the first suspected Taliban and Qaeda fighters were taken to the base in 2002. Ruhullah Khapalwak and Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting for this article. |
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U.S. Will Reinforce Troops in
West Iraq By Ellen Knickmeyer BAGHDAD, May 29 -- The U.S. military said Monday it was deploying the main reserve fighting force for Iraq, a full 3,500-member armored brigade, as emergency reinforcements for the embattled western province of Anbar, where a surge of violence linked to the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has severely damaged efforts to turn Sunni Arab tribal leaders against the insurgency. The insurgents have assassinated 11 tribal leaders in the Ramadi area since the end of last year, when Sunni sheiks in the city began open cooperation with the U.S. military. That alliance was heralded by U.S. commanders as a sign of a major split between Sunni insurgents and the larger Sunni community of western Iraq. The insurgent attacks since then have all but frozen the cooperation between Sunni tribal leaders and U.S. forces in Ramadi, local leaders say. Disclosure of the plan came on a day when insurgent bombings and other attacks killed more than 40 people around the country, including two members of a CBS News team. The team's correspondent, Iraq veteran Kimberly Dozier, was wounded and listed in critical condition. [Details, A9.] Last week, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad conceded, in answer to a question about Ramadi in an interview with CNN, that parts of Anbar were under insurgent control. Ramadi is the capital of the overwhelmingly Sunni province. The difficulties facing stretched-thin U.S. Marines in Ramadi suggest the continuing obstacles to a reduction of American forces in Iraq. "We hope to get rid of al-Qaeda, which is a huge burden on the city. Unfortunately, Zarqawi's fist is stronger than the Americans'," said one Sunni sheik, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of insurgent retaliation. He was referring to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, an umbrella group for many of the foreign and local resistance fighters in Iraq. Local Sunni leaders often insist that the most violent insurgent attacks are by foreign fighters, not Iraqi Sunnis. In Ramadi, "Zarqawi is the one who is in control," the sheik said, speaking to a Washington Post special correspondent in Ramadi. "He kills anyone who goes in and out of the U.S. base. We have stopped meetings with the Americans, because, frankly speaking, we have lost confidence in the U.S. side, as they can't protect us." Another sheik, Bashir Abdul Qadir al-Kubaisi of the Kubaisat tribe in Ramadi, expressed similar views. "Today, there is no tribal sheik or a citizen who dares to go to the city hall or the U.S. base, because Zarqawi issued a statement ordering his men to kill anyone seen leaving the base or city hall," he said. "We are very upset. But being upset is better than mourning the death of a sheik or tribal leader," Kubaisi said. "Zarqawi has imposed himself on us. We started thinking of appeasing Zarqawi and his group, because rejecting them means death." Gen. George W. Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has called up the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, the main standby reserve force for the roughly 130,000 American troops in Iraq, Maj. Todd Breasseale, a Marine spokesman in Baghdad, confirmed. The call-up leaves a Marine Expeditionary Unit, which typically includes one combat infantry battalion and air and logistical support, in Kuwait as the only American reserve in the Iraqi theater, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said. CNN reported last week that as many as two of the brigade's three battalions were headed to Ramadi. U.S. military officials would not comment then, citing security of any ongoing troop movements. Breasseale confirmed Monday that the full armored brigade is headed to Anbar, where both U.S. Marines and many local tribal leaders -- particularly in Ramadi -- have appealed for more U.S. troops. "Enough is never enough" when it comes to commanders on the ground wanting more troops, Breasseale said. "It might be when these guys get into position they might be in a better position to provide the force structure on the ground that would reenergize the sheiks to begin their work." Although Anbar province is heavily Sunni, many local residents have grown weary of the presence of the foreign fighters who joined the Sunni insurgents. They have tired of the violent control the fighter groups wield over cities and towns, and of the U.S. attacks the insurgents draw. Scores of local Sunni tribal leaders turned out for a groundbreaking meeting with U.S. Marine officers in Ramadi in November. Robed sheiks and Marine officers in camouflage faced each other in a town hall, ignoring mortar rounds that insurgents lobbed at the meeting, to start talking about the first major, open cooperation between Ramadi's sheiks and U.S. forces. But when U.S. and Iraqi forces held the first local recruiting drive for local Sunni young men in January, bombs killed more than 60 of the Sunni tribal enlistees and others. The local residents said the bombs were set by Zarqawi's group. The assassinations of the tribal leaders then mounted, in what was seen as a clear warning to them not to cooperate with U.S. forces. Violence surged in Ramadi in April and May. In many weeks, Marines in Ramadi have accounted for one-third to half of all American combat deaths in Iraq. U.S. forces say scores of insurgents have been killed in the same period; no full tally of the civilian toll is known. U.S. forces have called in repeated strikes by air and by artillery on the heart of Ramadi. Marines defend a five-block area of downtown that holds the local government, now a sniper's alley where U.S. forces move at a run to elude insurgent guns. Marines have temporarily suspended new embedding of journalists in Ramadi. Time magazine, U.S. News & World Report and the Associated Press, all with embedded reporters already in Ramadi last week, quoted both officers and the enlisted Marines at sandbag firing positions as saying that Ramadi had to have reinforcements to do more than fight insurgents to a draw around the town hall. Time quoted officers as estimating it would take three brigades, up from one. Marine officers on the ground have been open for more than a year now about needing more troops in Anbar, whose Sunni population, remoteness and comparative lawlessness have made it a stronghold for the insurgency. Anbar borders Syria, a conduit for some of the weapons, money and fighters. In Ramadi, people describe themselves as under siege. The fighters are moving to enforce the strictest form of Islam on the city, requiring head scarves for women and banning shorts and jeans for men, residents said. Insurgent groups, calling themselves "Promoting Virtue and Banning Vice" regiments, have threatened households that have Internet service and warned that they will monitor rooftops for satellite dishes turned toward European satellites, said Imad Mohammed, a resident. "Is it possible that the U.S. Marines are able to control only the government buildings, while al-Qaeda is walking freely in the streets and in the buildings with no one to deter it?" Mohammed asked. "Until the Arab fighters start to interfere with the daily, smallest and personal details of our lives?" Residents say basic services have fallen, with electricity, water and schooling interrupted and the university closed for long periods. The imported Shiite police force, they say, has collapsed, and many doctors, professors and other professionals are fleeing. "The city has gone back to the 14th century, if not further," said Akram Fadhil, a 40-year-old man with seven children and no job. Rumors routinely circulate of a Fallujah-style clearing operation in Ramadi. Residents say they both hope for it and fear it. The November 2004 operation in Fallujah, a largely Sunni Arab city about 35 miles west of Baghdad, involved a major deployment of troops and sometimes intense fighting with insurgents. "The city has become an unburnable hell," said Abdul Salam Ahmed al-Rawi, owner of a now-shuttered ice cream shop in Ramadi. "We hope this will end soon, and that Americans will clean the city," Rawi said early last week. "But first they have to change the troops here now, and bring in more, better troops, just like a year and a half ago in Fallujah." "For I expect if these troops were given the orders to launch a military campaign, many civilians will fall," Rawi said. "The Marines in Ramadi now are considering the whole situation as a matter of a challenge, or revenge, because of the daily strikes they get. It makes them put civilians and the al-Qaeda men all in one category." Staff writer Thomas E. Ricks in Washington and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report. © 2006 The Washington Post Company |
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| "Senators and Senate staff should
be wary of accepting any gift where it appears that the gift is motivated by
a desire to reward, influence, or elicit favorable official action," the
Senate ethics manual states. It cites the 1990s example of an Oregon
lawmaker who took gifts for personal use from a South Carolina state
university and its president while that school was trying to influence his
official actions. "Repeatedly taking gifts which the Gifts Rule otherwise permits to be accepted may, nonetheless, reflect discredit upon the institution, and should be avoided," the manual states. Several ethics experts said Reid should have paid for the tickets, which were close to the ring and worth between several hundred and several thousand dollars each, to avoid the appearance he was being influenced by gifts. Two senators who joined Reid for fights with the complimentary tickets took markedly differently steps. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) insisted on paying $1,400 for the tickets he shared with Reid for a 2004 championship fight. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) accepted free tickets to another fight with Reid but already had recused himself from Reid's federal boxing legislation because his father was an executive for a Las Vegas hotel that hosts fights. In an interview Thursday in his Capitol office, Reid defended his decisions to accept the tickets and to take several actions benefiting former lobbyist Jack Abramoff's clients and partners as they donated to him. "I'm not Goodie Two Shoes. I just feel these events are nothing I did wrong," Reid said. Reid had separate meetings in June 2003 in his Senate offices with two Abramoff tribal clients and Edward Ayoob, a former staff member who went to work with Abramoff. The meetings occurred over a five-day span in which Ayoob also threw a fundraiser for Reid at the firm where Ayoob and Abramoff worked that netted numerous donations from Abramoff's partners, firm and clients. Reid said he viewed the two official meetings and the fundraiser as a single event. "I think it all was one, the way I look at it," he said. One of the tribes, the Saginaw Chippewa of Michigan, donated $9,000 to Reid at the fundraiser and the next morning tribal officials met briefly with Reid and Ayoob at Reid's office to discuss federal programs. Reid and the tribal chairman posed for a picture. Five days earlier, Reid met with Ayoob and representatives of the Sac & Fox tribe of Iowa for about 15 minutes to discuss at least two legislative requests. Reid's office said the senator never acted on those requests. A few months after the fundraiser, Reid did sponsor a spending bill that targeted $100,000 to another Abramoff tribe, the Chitimacha of Louisiana, to pay for a soil erosion study for which Ayoob was lobbying. Reid said he sponsored the provision because Louisiana lawmakers sent him a letter requesting it. Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist, has pleaded guilty in a widespread corruption probe of Capitol Hill. Reid used that conviction earlier this year to accuse Republicans of fostering a culture of corruption inside Congress. Reid also wrote at least four letters favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients around the time Reid collected donations from those clients and Abramoff's partners, the Associated Press reported recently. Reid has declined to return the donations, unlike other lawmakers, saying his letters were consistent with his beliefs. Senate ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance that any official meetings or actions they took were in any way connected with political donations. Reid defended his actions, stating he would never change his position because of donations, free tickets or a request from a former staffer turned lobbyist. "People who deal with me and have over the years know that I am an advocate for what I believe in. I always try to do it fair, never take advantage of people on purpose," he said. Asked if he would have done anything differently, the Senate Democratic leader said his only concern was "the willingness of the press . . . to take these instances and try to make a big deal out of them." © 2006 The Washington Post Company |
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| Reid needs a clue. In fact all Democrats, with very, very, very few exceptions need a clue. - Harold, ed. | ||
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His lecture - part
promotion of his new film, An Inconvenient Truth, part environmental
rallying cry and part self-deprecating stand-up routine - earned him a
standing ovation from the sell-out crowd. Referring to the urgency of the "planetary emergency", he urged his audience to take their own action to combat climate change. "I want you to arm yourselves with knowledge. I want you to learn it in your own words. I want you to make the changes in your own lives," he said. "Become an activist as a consumer, as a voter, as a citizen." Describing the threat posed by global warming, he said there had been "an utter transformation in the relationship between the human species and our planet", which gave humankind the capacity to do lasting damage. "We now have the capacity to literally change the relationship between the Earth and the sun." He warned that action or inaction would be judged by future generations. They would ask, he said: "What were they thinking? Didn't they see this coming? Were they too distracted? Were they too busy? Didn't they care?" Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006 |
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| All of this would seem to call out
for a re-thinking of positions or assumptions on newspaper editorial pages.
Indeed, three of the most influential did weigh in Sunday with Iraq
editorials. All of them, despite voicing strong crtiicism in the same
editorials, came out against starting to bring the boys home. This continues the depressing tradition of newspaper editorials saying most of the right things, and pressing charges against the administration’s handling of the war – while arguing for “more time” or “a few more months” for the latest “turning point” in Iraq to produce a positive outcome. This pattern could – and possibly will – go on nearly forever. It ain’t funny how time slips away. As Bob Herbert, the New York Times columnist, put it on Monday: "Pretty soon this war in Iraq will have lasted as long as our involvement in World War II, with absolutely no evidence of any sort of conclusion in sight." Then, on Tuesday, the military announced it was actually increasing troop levels in Iraq, transfering forces from Kuwait to troubled Anbar province. This is progress? So, with that in mind, let’s examine the latest from the editorial boards of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. The New York Times called its editorial “The Price of Iraq.” As usual, it offered bitter truths on this subject. The following passages seemed to be leading to a call for a pullout. In fact, there seemed to be no other logical conclusion: “American forces can never be a substitute for Iraqi soldiers and police officers who take seriously their duty to protect all the people, regardless of religion or ethnicity. Mr. Bush's premise that American troops should simply stay on the ground until Iraq gets things right and defeats all insurgent forces and terrorist groups, however long it takes, is flat wrong. The United States presence is dangerous — to the soldiers themselves, to American standing in the world, and most tellingly to large numbers of innocent Iraqis. “The currently emerging story about what happened last November in Haditha, where at least two dozen Iraqi men, women and children were apparently shot by a small group of American marines, is only the latest indication of what terrible things can happen when soldiers are required to occupy hostile civilian territory in the midst of an armed insurrection and looming civil war. A military investigation is currently deciding whether any of the marines should be charged with murder, and whether a cover-up took place. All these questions have awful resonance for those who remember Vietnam, and what that prolonged and ultimately pointless war did to both the Vietnamese and the American social fabric. “It was somewhat reassuring that Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair have stopped trying to pretend that everything has gone just fine in Iraq, since most of the rest of the world already knows otherwise. But it was very disturbing to hear them follow their expressions of regret with the same old ‘stay the course’ fantasy.” Surely the time-to-set-a-deadline call would follow. But no, the Times concluded with: “It's time for Mr. Bush either to chart a course that can actually be followed, or admit that there is none.” This leaves standing the essential blunder that the Times editorial page, its star columnist Thomas Friedman, and so many other commentators have made: a) trusting that, surely, the president and his team will come up with a wise plan -- and even if they did b) could be trusted to carry it out successfully. That’s why all of these fine editorials nailing the administration for stupidly and incompetence in regard to Iraq are so hollow—if they are as stupid and incompetent as the Times suggests, why spend even one more day entrusting 135,000 American soldiers to their care? To quote another wise lyric: History is a cruel judge of overconfidence. The Washington Post, always more hawkish on the war, in an editorial called “Iraq's Uncertain Progress,” worried that the small progress in forming a government there may “presage” troop withdrawals – before the new Iraqi government has a full chance to fix things: “If the ultimate measure of success is Iraq's pacification, the U.S. mission is producing results but no visible progress.” So, maybe, the Iraqis are using the U.S. as a crutch – or as an excuse? Perhaps we are doing more harm there than good? We are part of the problem, not the solution? Alas, the newspaper argued that it’s ”too early to draw that conclusion,” to admit our “strategy is wrong” or “should be abandoned.” Instead, the “new government and its army&hellipshould be given a chance to tackle the insurgency and stabilize the country with U.S. support.” You may be glad, and not surprised, to learn that there “is also a new plan to pacify Baghdad.” On balance, the paper is more afraid of withdrawals too soon rather than too late. It says it hopes Bush last week “was sincere when he declared that any reduction will be based on military rather than political considerations,” such as the November elections. Supporting a statement by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, it declared that “our sense of mission should be equal to that" of the insurgents. Unfortunately, the sense of mission for the insurgents is likely to last a long, long time. The Los Angeles, which has grown increasingly critical on the war (and separately has called for Vice President Cheney’s resignation) weighed in Sunday with a review of Bush’s statement on Iraq last week: “What the president did not do was connect the dots between the disaffection he described and the need to hasten the disengagement of U.S. forces from Iraq. We hope his actions in the next several months reckon with that reality even if his words didn't.” But the editorial hastily added: “We aren't talking about a firm deadline for withdrawal, which we continue to believe would be a tactical mistake that might embolden Iraqi insurgents — or Shiite elements within the government who'd like to settle scores with the Sunni minority that was privileged under Hussein. But Bush needn't set a date for an American exit to make it clear that he wants it to occur sooner rather than later.” Of course, nearly everyone has wished for “sooner rather than later” for&hellip.years. The editorial concluded not by urging the start of a withdrawal but warning that voters might prefer something even quicker: “With congressional elections looming, the Bush administration would be wise not to leave the impression with voters — or candidates — that the alternatives in Iraq are limited to a precipitous withdrawal or an open-ended role for the United States as the nursemaid of Iraqi democracy, prosperity and security. Given that false choice, voters might prefer to get out now.” The newspaper added that Bush last week “seemed more interested in urging Americans to be patient than in exhorting Iraqi politicians to get their act together.” American newspapers, on the other hand, have done both, but the result has been the same: dozens of Americans expiring every month while more than 135,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, with no promise of a reduction. Greg Mitchell (Opinion) (gmitchell@editorandpublisher) is editor of E&P. © 2006 VNU eMedia Inc. All rights reserved. |
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