Daily Princetonian
Nominee led conference recommending privacy, gay rights
Chanakya Sethi
Princetonian Senior Writer
As a senior at Princeton, Samuel Alito '72, President Bush's nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, chaired a Wilson School undergraduate conference that authored a report calling for the bolstering of privacy rights, including the creation of a federal privacy ombudsman and the decriminalization of sodomy.
"At the present time ... we sense a great threat to privacy in modern America," Alito wrote in his "Report of the Chairman" on the "Conference on The Boundaries of Privacy in American Society."
"[W]e all believe that privacy is too often sacrificed to other values," said the 1971 report, which is located in the University's Mudd Manuscript Library. "[W]e all believe that the threat to privacy is steadily and rapidly mounting; we all believe that action must be taken on many fronts now to preserve privacy."
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/11/07/news/13676.shtml
Judging the Judge
On Oct. 31, President Bush nominated Woodrow Wilson School alumnus Samuel Alito, Jr. '72 to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. After a decade long stretch without a vacancy on the high court, Alito will be the third nominee to face public scrutiny in the past four months.
But with respect to this year's first two nominees, John Roberts and Harriet Miers, many of the questions posed by both Congress and the public were left troublingly unanswered. It is our hope that over the coming months, and especially during the congressional hearings that will ultimately decide the fate of his nomination, the nation will come to have a thorough understanding of Alito's judicial philosophy. His extensive judicial record, of course, is a good start and should guide the questions that senators pose to the nominee. In particular, we look forward to hearing the judge's comments on the following themes:
First, how should precedents be used as a guide to the high court when hearing new cases? Under what circumstances can and should a precedent be overturned? While some might focus their attention mainly on the Roe v. Wade precedent, we look forward to broader questioning that will illuminate more than just Alito's views on this one issue, but will help clarify how he is likely to view the proper role of the court for the coming decades.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/11/07/opinion/13668.shtml
A grand slam nomination
John M. Smith
Guest Columnist
For the Red Sox, the White Sox and now Princeton's heavy-hitters in the law, the curse has finally been broken. If the Senate confirms Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. '72 to the U.S. Supreme Court as expected, it will end a 35-year drought of Princetonians on the nation's highest court. As an alumnus, an American and his former clerk, I rejoice in the appointment of this mighty quiet Tiger from Trenton. Let me tell you why you can too.
The hearings will focus on Judge Alito's opinions (and demonstrate his brilliance), so allow me instead to share several personal insights into the Judge that give fair-minded Princetonians reason to welcome his nomination.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/11/07/opinion/13669.shtml
Football's 135th Anniversary
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/features/index.jsp?id=23
Football is not quite the same after 135 years
Rutgers claims college football's first win, but Princeton evens score
Thad Hartmann
Princetonian Sports Editor
"On Saturday November 6th, Princeton sent twenty-five picked men to play our twenty-five a match game of football."
So began the account of the first intercollegiate football game in the Rutgers Targum of November, 1869, and so began intercollegiate football as we know it.
Not really as we know it, actually. The game that Princeton played against Rutgers that day 135 years ago looked very little like today's game of football.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2004/09/15/sports/10704.shtml
Football atop Ivy League
Dominant fourth quarter lifts Tigers past Quakers
Karl Micka-Foos
Princetonian Staff Writer
Photo by Bill Allen '79 :: NJ Sport/Action
(Expand Photo)
Senior tight end Jon Dekker slips by the lunging tackle attempt of the last Penn defender en route to the end zone in the fourth quarter of the football team's 30-13 win over the Quakers on Saturday.
PHILADELPHIA — When one encounters a middleman, the automatic response is to think up a way to eliminate him. But in football's 30-13 victory over Penn on Saturday afternoon, junior linebacker Luke Steckel was one middleman whose play the Tigers could not have done without.
After the Quakers (5-3 overall, 3-2 Ivy League) scored on a Joe Sandberg rushing touchdown five minutes into the second quarter, it appeared as though Princeton (6-2, 4-1) would see the 14-0 lead it had built cut in half.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/11/07/sports/13660.shtml
Women's soccer wins three but falls short of Ivy title
Tyler Woulfe
Princetonian Senior Writer
Women's soccer did everything it needed to do over Fall Break, but its efforts just weren't enough. Playing the last three games of the regular season against league opponents, Princeton (8-6-2 overall, 5-2-0 Ivy League) ran the table but saw its luck ran out as Yale held on to first place, foiling the Tigers' late-season run at a repeat Ivy League title.
Though the wins over Cornell, Columbia and Penn put Princeton's record above .500 for the first time this year and extended its winning streak to five games, without the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for winning the title, the Tigers' season may be over. Hope still remains in the form of an at-large bid, however.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/11/07/sports/13663.shtml
The San Francisco Chronicle
'Beach Blanket' blows away royal couple
Carolyne Zinko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, November 7, 2005
The Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, disproved any notion that regal Brits must be stuffy and wear impassive faces in public. They smiled, chortled and even laughed out loud during a special performance of the madcap "Beach Blanket Babylon" musical revue in San Francisco on Sunday night.
It would have been hard not to.
The show has a stranger-than-fiction cast -- including Mr. Peanut, Glinda the Good Witch, singing poodles and Snow White, who searches for love and meets pop culture figures along the way -- all in outlandish costumes with super-size hats. But the VIP visit called for even more surreal song-and-dance numbers, tailored to Charles and Camilla.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/07/MNGH0FK7641.DTL
Man Becomes First Killed in French Rioting
By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer
Monday, November 7, 2005
(11-07) 04:57 PST PARIS, France (AP) --
A man who was beaten by an attacker while trying to extinguish a trash can fire during riots north of Paris has died of his injuries, becoming the first fatality since the urban unrest started 11 days ago, a police official said Monday. Youths overnight injured three dozen officers and burned more than 1,400 vehicles.
Apparent copycat attacks spread to other European cities for the first time, with five cars torched outside Brussels' main train station, police in the Belgian capital said.
Australia, Austria and Britain became the latest countries to advise their citizens to exercise care in France, joining the United States and Russia in warning tourists to stay away from violence-hit areas.
Alain Rahmouni, a national police spokesman, said the man who was beaten died at a hospital from injuries sustained in the attack, but he had no
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/07/international/i045752S26.DTL
Governor accuses his foes of scare tactics
They butt heads on election -- opponents say it's unwanted
Mark Martin, Lynda Gledhill, Chronicle Staff Writers
Monday, November 7, 2005
Los Angeles -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the final televised forum before Tuesday's special election, charged Sunday that his opponents were desperately trying to frighten voters out of backing his four-initiative blueprint for change.
"They're trying to scare you and make me look like I want to be dictator of California,'' he said.
Joining Schwarzenegger for the pre-election showdown on KTTV-TV on Sunday night were Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Barbara Kerr, the head of the California Teachers Association. The special election called by Schwarzenegger, they argued, is an unwanted and unnecessary partisan face-off that is ripping the Capitol apart.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/07/MNGH0FK7581.DTL
11-year-old boy honored by Dalai Lama in S.F.
Ben Duskin's online game helps kids like him worldwide who are battling cancer
Patricia Yollin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, November 7, 2005
Last year, Ben Duskin created an Internet video game for children just like him -- kids with cancer. Since then, Ben's Game has received 443,000 hits and been translated into nine languages. It's hard to top that, but on Sunday he did: the 11-year-old boy was one of 48 people honored by the Dalai Lama in San Francisco.
The "Unsung Heroes of Compassion 2005" converged upon the Ritz-Carlton hotel from 22 countries -- as far as India, Ethiopia, Bhutan and South Africa, and as close as the city's Castro district, home of Eric Johnston, who designed the game with Ben.
Johnston, a 35-year-old software engineer at LucasArts, also was honored as an unsung hero.
"We don't see them or hear about them in the daily news, but they exemplify a humanism and heroism to which we must each aspire," said Dick Grace, founder of Grace Family Vineyards in the Napa Valley and board chair of Wisdom in Action, the St. Helena nonprofit that hosted the event.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/07/MNG5KFK79V1.DTL
Bush Declares: 'We Do Not Torture'
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
Monday, November 7, 2005
(11-07) 07:28 PST PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) --
President Bush vigorously defended U.S. interrogation practices in the war on terror Monday and lobbied against a congressional drive to outlaw torture.
"There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again," Bush said. "So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law."
He declared, "We do not torture."
Over White House opposition, the Senate has passed legislation banning torture. With Vice President Dick Cheney as the point man, the administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA. It was recently disclosed that the spy agency maintains a network of prisons in eastern Europe and Asia, where it holds terrorist suspects.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/07/national/w070802S23.DTL
This comment has nothing in particular to do with this newsprint. It is just generally how I feel about the war. The Iraqi Opposition is invested. They continue to be. I think there needs to be a lot of reassessment. Another Ethnic Cleansing Episode in Iraq. Is there any wonder why they are finding munitions? No ! The USA military is in a vicious cycle of killing and being killed. Who is the real enemy?
U.S. Launches Major Offensive in Iraq
By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, November 5, 2005
(11-05) 07:02 PST BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --
American and Iraqi forces launched a major offensive Saturday near the porous Syrian border aimed at destroying al-Qaida in Iraq's ability to smuggle foreign fighters, money and equipment through the region.
The U.S. military also announced that two soldiers were killed by insurgents in other areas of Iraq on Friday.
The offensive in the town of Husaybah of about 2,500 U.S. forces and 1,000 Iraqis — including local forces acting as scouts — will remove insurgents from the western province of Anbar ahead of Iraq's parliamentary election on Dec. 15, the U.S. military said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/04/international/i223816S77.DTL&hw=soldier&sn=005&sc=620
Missing Soldier's Family Gets Update
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, November 5, 2005
(11-05) 05:08 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --
Carolyn and Keith Maupin walked into the Pentagon Friday hoping for any new bits of information about their son, who was captured by insurgents near Baghdad more than 18 months ago.
They left after more than two hours, saying defense officials assured them the military is continuing to search for Army Reserve Sgt. Keith "Matt" Maupin. But they got no definitive answer to the question that haunts them most: Is he still alive?
"Even though you see a smile, your heart still aches," Carolyn Maupin told a reporter after the meeting, as she and her husband visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, both wearing pins bearing a photo of their son.
Surrounded by journalists and escorted by two Army officials, Keith Maupin — wearing a POW-MIA hat — said he believes "they'll find something soon. They'll find him." He said he and his wife went to the somber Vietnam Wall because, "There are 50,000 names on that wall, and I just wanted to say thanks."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/04/national/w154307S93.DTL&hw=soldier&sn=001&sc=1000
Travel in Iraq, Still Risky, Does Improve
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, November 5, 2005
(11-05) 00:44 PST ANBAR DESERT, Iraq (AP) --
The four-lane highway from Baghdad to Iraq's borders with Syria and Jordan is among the most dangerous in the country, so the unexpected improvements along the road were hard to believe at first.
New restaurants and gas stations have opened, and some are busy with Iraqi customers making the grueling five-hour drive from Baghdad to the borders.
Some of the gas pumps and eateries remain open after dark, even though few people risk driving the highway at night.
During a recent roundtrip drive from Baghdad to Damascus, the road also appeared to be guarded by more U.S. military patrols than ever before, each one made up of several Humvees and armored vehicles.
But the risks remain clear on a highway that passes through the empty desert in Iraq's most dangerous province, skirting militant "hot spots" such as Ramadi. When this reporter stopped at a gas station at dusk to get fuel, an employee refused.
"There is little gas left. We are saving it for mujahadeen," he said, referring to the insurgents. "You better leave now."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/05/international/i004441S81.DTL&hw=soldier&sn=006&sc=561
U.S. owes Iraq $208 million, auditor says
Gouging, shoddy work by Halliburton blamed
James Glanz, Edward Wong, New York Times
Saturday, November 5, 2005
An auditing board sponsored by the United Nations recommended Friday that the United States repay as much as $208 million to the Iraqi government for contracting work in 2003 and 2004 assigned to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Halliburton Co. subsidiary.
The work was paid for with Iraqi oil proceeds, but the board says it was either carried out at inflated prices or done poorly. The board did not give examples of poor work.
Some of the work involved postwar fuel imports carried out by KBR that previous audits have criticized as grossly overpriced. But this is the first time that an international auditing group has suggested that the United States repay some of that money to Iraq.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/05/MNGU5FJN341.DTL
LETHAL BEAUTY
SAVING A LIFE: The common assumption that suicide can't be prevented is wrong.
Heidi Benson, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, November 5, 2005
The last in a seven-part series on the Golden Gate Bridge barrier debate.
When a dazzled John C. Fremont sailed through the strait of San Francisco in 1846, he was struck by its resemblance to the glorious harbor of Constantinople, the Golden Horn. Fremont was captain of the U.S. Army's topographical engineers and charged with naming the strait. He called it the Golden Gate.
The Golden Gate Bridge straddled the mile-wide strait in 1937, and instantly became a symbol of humanity's ability to build in harmony with nature. But the bridge soon gained another meaning, something darker. It became a suicide magnet.
Today, mental health experts refer to it as "a loaded gun in the middle of the city," and a debate over whether to build a suicide barrier has raged for decades. But the issues raised cannot be fully understood or argued without contemplating the phenomenon of suicide itself.
The death of a loved one by suicide may be the most difficult to mourn. The loss is complicated by emotions that may include anger, incomprehension and regret. In 2002, 32,000 people in the United States took their own lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Worldwide, the 1 million suicide toll in 2001 exceeded the number of deaths from homicide and war, the World Health Organization reports. In the wake of a single suicide, families are shattered, communities shaken.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/05/MNG9UFIV9O1.DTL
Humanity over vanity
Monday, November 7, 2005
BUILDING A SUICIDE barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge won't ever be an easy sell. Too many people have contrary opinions about the cost, appearance and effectiveness, or even if there's a social duty to curb such deaths.
But it is time to settle the debate on humane and defensible grounds. The bridge is a dangerous lure for troubled people. If they can be prevented from leaping to their deaths, many will find the help that deters another try. Their lives can be saved, and the damage to families and friends can be avoided.
This isn't simple belief, as underscored in "Lethal Beauty,'' The Chronicle's just-completed series of stories. It's the testimony of a majority of would-be suicides, survivors and health professionals. After considering such personal experiences and medical histories, it is plain that a barrier can save lives. It's time to end decades of delay and build a barrier.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/11/07/EDGQIF5H4A1.DTL
U.S. toll in Iraq
Saturday, November 5, 2005
As of Friday, at least 2,042 members of the U.S. military had died in Iraq since March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The latest identifications reported by the military:
-- Army 2nd Lt. Mark J. Procopio, 28, Stowe, Vt.
-- Army Staff Sgt. Kyle B. Wehrly, 28, Galesburg, Ill.
-- Army Spc. Joshua J. Munger, 22, Maysville, Mo.
-- Army Spc. Benjamin A. Smith, 21, Hudson, Wis.
-- Army Pfc. Tyler R. Mackenzie, 20, Evans, Colo.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/05/MNGU5FJC621.DTL
Messy or not, divorce is hard on kids, survey finds
Tamar Lewin, New York Times
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Even in a so-called good divorce, in which parents amicably minimize their conflicts, children inhabit a more difficult emotional landscape than those who grow up with married parents, according to a new survey of 1,500 adults ages 18-35.
"All the happy talk about divorce is designed to reassure parents," said Elizabeth Marquardt, author of the study, which is described in her new book, "Between Two Worlds." "But it's not the truth for children. Even a good divorce restructures children's childhoods and leaves them traveling between two distinct worlds. It becomes their job, not their parents', to make sense of those two worlds."
Marquardt is an affiliate scholar with the Institute for American Values, a nonpartisan advocacy group that strongly emphasizes marriage. She is, she says, the first child of divorce to publish a broad study on how divorce affects children.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/05/MNGU5FJMTL1.DTL
Family fights an HMO for 4-year-old's life
C.W. Nevius
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Somewhere in a corporate office at Health Net Inc. is someone who needs to meet Jack Zembsch. Jack is 4, he loves SpongeBob SquarePants, and he is going to die.
One doctor in the country just might be able to save Jack, but the nation's largest HMO won't let Jack see him because the doctor is not within its network.
Jack, who lives in Moraga with his parents, Mark and Kim Zembsch, has an extremely rare form of dwarfism called metatropic dysplasia, or MD. It leaves his bones extremely soft, and before long, they'll simply stop growing even as his body continues to get bigger. Eventually, his lungs will be so constricted by his ribs that breathing will become a chore, and an infection could kill him.
That is, if his spine doesn't simply snap from something as simple as a fall.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/05/MNG41FJMLM1.DTL
It's natural, healthy -- and it's law
Chip Johnson
Monday, November 7, 2005
How would you feel if your child's lunch or dinner was prepared in a bathroom?
That's exactly how some working new mothers feel when they are directed to the nearest bathroom whenever they have to pump milk from their breasts to prepare their newborn's next meal.
Over the years, breast-feeding has gained such popularity that lawmakers are increasingly recognizing a mother's right -- in essence her need -- to express milk wherever and whenever she needs to do it.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/07/BAGO5FJUVO1.DTL
International Herald Tribune
Rioters shoot at French police
PARIS Nearly a dozen riot police were injured by gunfire overnight in one of the most widespread nights of unrest in France in 40 years, with the police reporting more than 1,408 vehicles burned in 274 towns across the country.
Sunday marked the 11th night of confrontation between the police and youths from the housing projects that lie on the periphery of French cities. The unrest was sparked by the fatal electrocution two weeks ago of two youths who hid in an electricity substation to avoid an identity inspection by the police.
President Jacques Chirac called an emergency meeting of top security officials on Sunday night and promised increased police pressure to confront the violence.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/07/news/france.php
UN scandal forces out India's top diplomat
NEW DELHI India's foreign minister, Natwar Singh, was forced to step down from his post Monday amid allegations that he and the governing Congress Party had illegally benefited from the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.
Singh's position was deemed untenable after the government began two separate investigations into the alleged deals.
Singh described the allegations, contained in the final report by the committee led by the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, as "farcical" and refused to resign, saying, "I do a good job. I have had tremendous support." Late Monday, however, after a long meeting with the prime minister, Congress party officials announced that he had been demoted.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/07/news/india.php
Fighting enters 3rd day in Iraqi border town
BAGHDAD U.S. and Iraqi troops battled insurgents house-to-house on Monday, the third day of an assault against Qaeda-led insurgents in a town near the Syrian border, and the U.S. command reported the first American death in the operation.
In Baghdad, a leading Sunni Arab politician, Adnan al-Dulaimi, called Monday for a halt to U.S. and Iraqi military operations against cities in order to encourage disaffected Sunnis to join the political process and vote in national elections next month.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/07/news/iraq.php
Unrest reaches Paris; 186 arrested nationwide
PARIS Spreading urban unrest — with arson attacks on vehicles, nursery schools and other targets in France from the Mediterranean to the German border — for the first time reached central Paris, where police said Sunday that 28 cars were burned overnight.
Police made 186 arrests nationwide as the violence, in its 10th night, moved from poor suburbs into the capital — France's seat of power — and reached new intensity across the country.
The number of cars torched overnight — 918 across France — was the highest yet since the unrest began Oct 27. Of the cars burned, 545 were outside of the wider Paris region, the Interior Ministry said. The night before, 900 vehicles were burned throughout the country.
The count of overnight arson attacks
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/06/europe/web.1106paris.php
3 paths to blended Europe - all flawed
PARIS The images of wild gangs of young men silhouetted against the flames of burning cars came as an unwelcome reminder for France of its growing underclass just weeks after the French watched, in horrified fascination, the anarchy of New Orleans as Americans looted stores and defied the police after hurricane Katrina.
So far, while the damage to French property has been extensive - hundreds of cars and buses burned and dozens of businesses destroyed - and the violence has spread to troubled neighborhoods in many towns, there is no evidence that the unrest is coalescing into a broader political movement. Most of the rioters appear to be teenage boys bent more on making the news than on making a coherent political statement.
"It's a game of cowboys and Indians," said Olivier Roy, a French scholar of European Islam, adding that attacking the police and setting cars on fire "have become a local sport, a rite of passage."
But the fear is that a structural underclass is emerging - not only in France, but elsewhere in Europe as well - that could bring with it crime and religious fanaticism.
The French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, warned Thursday that France risked losing the integration battle in its immigrant neighborhoods to radical religious-based movements - shorthand for Islamic extremism.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/04/news/paris.php
'We're French,' but not 'real' French
LA COURNEUVE, France Walid was born in France and went to a French high school. He will show you his French driving license and even his French identity card. But ask him what his identity is and he will say "93."
"Nine Three" - the two first two digits of the postal code spanning the roughest suburbs on Paris's northeastern fringe - stands for unemployment and endless rows of housing projects. It stands for chronically high crime rates, teenage gang wars and a large immigrant community.
Since Oct. 27, when the accidental death of two teenagers set off nightly riots across the region, "93" also stands for angry youths burning hundreds of cars, setting fire to shops and attacking the police with anything from rocks to real bullets.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/04/business/france.php
Absolute authority in Bosnia coming to end?
SARAJEVO Paddy Ashdown sipped his tea, stretched his arm over the back of his chair and looked out of his office window at Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, a country over which he has held almost absolute authority for three and a half years.
As the high representative in Bosnia, he has the authority to fire public officials and impose laws, powers invested in his office by the international community to uphold the peace between the three main ethnic groups in Bosnia since the war, which lasted from 1992 to 1995.
But of all the figures to have been appointed this post - he is the fourth - Ashdown has been the subject of the most discussion, using his powers more extensively than any of his predecessors in an attempt to make Bosnia a more united country. He is likely also to be the last to exercise such wide-ranging authority; the powers of any successor, expected to be appointed early next year, will almost certainly be curtailed. He is widely credited with being the most effective official to have occupied his post. Yet there is a growing consensus that both Ashdown's office, and perhaps even his forceful character, may be doing as much harm as good by holding back the development of democracy here.
It is not a view he agrees with. He acknowledged in a recent interview that his authoritative position "would appear at first sight to be outrageous, undemocratic and inconsistent with the modern democratic age." But he quickly added, "Not really."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/04/news/profile.php
EU accepts denials of 2 members on CIA prisons
A European Union spokesman said Friday that the EU had accepted Poland's and Romania's denials that the United States was operating secret terrorist prisons.
"So far we have no reason to complain nor to suspect any unfair or inappropriate policy," said Friso Roscam Abbing, the EU spokesman for justice, freedom and security. The statements issued by the Polish and Romanian governments were "crystal clear," he said.
He said that other East European countries should release similar statements to clear the air, and added: "We can't obviously let's say run with every allegation, every story, and just in a panicky way start interrogating and grilling member states." So far, Hungary and the Czech Republic, as well as Romania and Poland, have issued denials.
Although Polish officials also categorically denied the existence of any detention, Romanian officials were more circumspect. Government officials declined to give direct answers to questions like whether Romania had ever cooperated with the United States over receiving detainees or had ever been asked to cooperate and whether the officials could explain the alleged CIA flight records.
Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based human rights group, said Thursday that Romania, scheduled to join the EU in 2007, and Poland, which joined last year, were sites for secret prisons on behalf of the CIA. The allegations followed reports in The Washington Post about the possible existence of secret detention facilities, but the Post report did not name the host countries
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/04/news/cia.php
The world needs a prefab constitution
WASHINGTON Governments and relief agencies working feverishly in areas stricken by recent natural disasters aren't trying to win architectural awards with innovative new designs for permanent housing. They are trying to provide emergency shelter for the homeless. In the same way, officials trying to rebuild nations ripped apart by war can't be expected to come up with groundbreaking new constitutions that will last for the ages. With the bullets still flying, nation-builders must create governmental structures as quickly as possible to run their countries.
Just as providers of housing can rely on standard-design tents, trailers and prefabricated shelters, nation-builders need a new tool at their disposal - the prefabricated constitution.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/07/opinion/edbernard.php
Washington Post
I have seen this strategy by Cheney before. Energy Committee, Supreme Court, opted for VP power and sent back to lower courts. Difference this time is Cheney's power is opposed to the Legislature which is the will of the people whereby his office is managerial. I have a feeling the Legislature wins out here. If the people feel their Executive Branch is not reflecting the polices of the nation while breaking International Law besides and placing the nation in harms way if their elected leaders are removed to prison and/or proceedings. Cheney is just outrageous and power hungry. He is chronically trying to vindicate WaterGate with touting Executive Privilege.
Cheney Fights for Detainee Policy
As Pressure Mounts to Limit Handling Of Terror Suspects, He Holds Hard Line
By Dana Priest and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, November 7, 2005; Page A01
Over the past year, Vice President Cheney has waged an intense and largely unpublicized campaign to stop Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department from imposing more restrictive rules on the handling of terrorist suspects, according to defense, state, intelligence and congressional officials.
Last winter, when Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, began pushing to have the full committee briefed on the CIA's interrogation practices, Cheney called him to the White House to urge that he drop the matter, said three U.S. officials.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/06/AR2005110601281.html
Supreme Court to Hear Tribunals Challenge
By GINA HOLLAND
The Associated Press
Monday, November 7, 2005; 11:09 AM
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider a challenge to the Bush administration's military tribunals for foreign terror suspects, a major test of the government's wartime powers.
Justices will decide whether Osama bin Laden's former driver can be tried for war crimes before military officers in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Salim Ahmed Hamdan is seen in this undated file photo. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday Nov. 7, 2005 to consider a challenge to the Bush administration's military tribunals for foreign terror suspects, a major test of the government's wartime powers and a case presenting the first conflict for new Chief Justice John Roberts. Justices will decide whether Hamdan can be tried for war crimes before military officers in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hamdan's case brought a new issue to the court, the rights of foreigners who have been charged and face a military trial. Lawyers for Hamdan were expected to ask Roberts to participate in the case, to avoid a 4-4 tie. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Prof. Neal Katyal, HO, File) (AP)
Chief Justice John Roberts, as an appeals court judge, joined a summer ruling against Salim Ahmed Hamdan. He did not participate in Monday's action, which put him in the difficult situation of sitting in judgment of one of his own rulings.
The court's intervention piles
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/07/AR2005110700562.html
For Many in Iraq, Death Is Quick and Capricious
Platoon Sergeant's Fate Turned on Factors He Could Not Calculate
By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, November 7, 2005; Page A01
KIRKUK, Iraq -- His men called him "Big Daddy," and, for many of them, Sgt. 1st Class Robbie D. McNary was larger than life.
He stood more than six feet tall and weighed 240 pounds, with a thunderous laugh that filled up a room. His 22-year-old Humvee driver, Spec. Trent White, said McNary possessed "bear paws for hands" and "a heart the size of the world."
Sgt. 1st Class Robbie D. McNary, 42, was killed March 31 in the violent Iraqi city of Hawija
Graphic
Death in Iraq
A total of 2,035 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq since March 2003. Their deaths came in many different ways, sometimes involving just bad luck or human frailty.
U.S. Deaths in Iraq
Map: U.S. Death Toll Reaches 2,000 A look at the fallen troops' home towns, ages, service categories and other particulars, as announced by the Defense Department.
White was one of the young National Guardsmen whom McNary, a gruff 42-year-old former Marine, often referred to as "my kids."
On March 31, in the small, violent city of Hawija near Kirkuk, White threw his Humvee into reverse, gunned it to knock down a garage door and, instead, crushed McNary, his platoon sergeant, between the five-ton vehicle and a warehouse their platoon was about to raid. Within minutes, as White sat frozen in the driver's seat, McNary had bled to death on a dirt road.
The growing number of U.S. military deaths, which reached 2,000 last month and has since risen to 2,035, underscores a grim reality: There are countless ways to die in Iraq.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/06/AR2005110600997.html
Since Bush seem to think there is no wall between Church and State this is a valid objection. Certainly a question that needs to be addressed by the Senate Committee.
Court Could Tip to Catholic Majority
Some Say Slant Is Dangerous; Others See Historic Victory
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 7, 2005; Page A03
If Samuel A. Alito Jr. is confirmed to the Supreme Court, a majority of its nine justices for the first time will be Roman Catholics -- a fact that, depending on whom you ask, marks the acceptance of a once-persecuted minority, reflects the importance of conservative Catholics to the Republican Party or means practically nothing.
Four Catholics currently serve on the court: Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and the new chief justice, John G. Roberts Jr. From the moment that President Bush announced Alito's nomination, there has been an undercurrent of debate about the prospect of a five-member Catholic majority.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/06/AR2005110601134.html
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