Saturday Night will be assembled tomorrow afternoon.
If the computer gods come together, I'll present the papers regarding my sister and the gross negligence of North Carolina in protecting adults from Guardians that have turned their backs on them.
My sister will most likely die, because there was no sincere avenue to facilitate her needed Gamma Knife Treatment regardless the pleadings of her physicians at Wake Forest/Baptist Medical Center.
Of all the southern states, I've always considered North Carolina more progressive than the others, but, the truth of the matter is the state government does little to serve the people of the state so much as enforce political/government priorities. It is why there is such abject poverty in this state and why it remains as backwards as it is in regard to employment or any economic prosperity, in the face of 'those that have tried' such as John and Elizabeth Edwards.
Have a good evening and better morning.
Until tomorrow.
Good night.
Friday, March 30, 2007
The Cheney Observer
FOX News does the bidding for Tom DeLay's K Street Blues.
Kondracke called Dems "a hanging party," said Leahy response to Goodling "reminds you of McCarthyism"
Summary: On Special Report, Mort Kondracke called the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the firing of eight U.S. attorneys "a hanging party," explaining that he chose the characterization "because every time there's an inconsistency in somebody's testimony, however minute ... they're ready to pounce and accuse [the witness], basically, of perjury or violating the law or something like that." Kondracke also accused Sen. Patrick Leahy of "McCarthyism," for questioning the reasons behind Monica Goodling's decision to invoke her Fifth Amendment right and refuse to testify if called upon by Congress.
During the "All-Star Panel" segment on the March 28 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke called the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the firing of eight U.S. attorneys "a hanging party," explaining that he chose the characterization "because every time there's an inconsistency in somebody's testimony, however minute ... they're ready to pounce and accuse [the witness], basically, of perjury or violating the law or something like that." Additionally, Kondracke accused Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) of "McCarthyism," for questioning the reasons behind Justice Department White House liaison Monica Goodling's statement that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right and refuse to testify if called upon by Congress. Addressing Goodling's announcement, Leahy stated: "The American people are left to wonder what conduct is at the base of Ms. Goodling's concern that she may incriminate herself."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200703300010
Tom DeLay returns to Texas as author, hero
By JOE STINEBAKER Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
SUGAR LAND, Texas — Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay returned to his hometown Tuesday, a newly published author and a beloved conservative icon in this staunchly conservative Houston suburb.
More than 100 supporters applauded DeLay's arrival for a book signing in Sugar Land. They shook his hand and patted him on the back as he made his way to a stage. DeLay took questions from the group for about 20 minutes before waving the crowd over to a nearby table for autographs and photos at the bookstore.
DeLay, who resigned last year after 22 years in Congress, told the audience that his decision to leave Congress was "the right decision."
Since then, he said, he has been plotting the Democrats' downfall as an outsider "researching the opposition and researching the needs of the conservative movement."
Asked whether he had selected a presidential nominee to support, DeLay said he was waiting.
"It really grates on me that the national media have picked our front-runners in the Republican Party," he said. "I'm sitting back, and I'm giving them (the GOP candidates) an opportunity to show me their leadership. I'm looking for not just a conservative, but a conservative who can lead."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/4666787.html
’Criminalization’ common modus operandi in politics today, says DeLay Chad Groening
Le 28 mars 2007, par Aloys Evina,
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says in today’s political environment it is not enough to defeat a person politically. Now one’s political enemy must be forced to leave office disgraced, bankrupt and heading for jail.
DeLay recently published No Retreat, No Surrender : One American’s Fight (Sentinel HC, March 2007) — which, among other topics, discusses his decade-long battle against what the book describes as a « barrage of malicious and frivolous allegations of wrongdoing. » The former Texas congressman says he has pulled no punches in revealing the shocking truth about why he resigned from Congress last year.
DeLay says the Left could not beat him at the ballot box, so they used every dirty trick in their book to take him down. « The media has been complicit in making this all look bad, yet I haven’t been found guilty of anything, » he shares. « That’s what they’re doing now — they’re doing it to the president, they’re doing it to [Attorney General] Alberto Gonzales. The only way they know how to get power and hold on to [it] is to destroy people.
http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?article7967
Scooter Libby is no Bill Clinton
By Tom DeLay
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
SThe only thing the Scooter Libby and Bill Clinton perjury cases have in common is the charge. They were both accused of lying under oath. Perjury, of course, is a grievous crime. Republicans who try to minimize the seriousness of perjury now -- just like Democrats who tried to do so then -- are either partisan hacks or unforgivably blind to the legal chaos of an unenforceable oath.
If, in fact, Scooter Libby lied under oath, then he broke the law and needs to pay a price for it. But, as with all crimes, the punishment ought to be proportional to the transgression. As best as anyone can tell, given the Byzantine complexity and minute stakes of the case, Scooter Libby and Tim Russert have different recollections about a conversation they had about whether someone had told one of them that someone's wife had recommended him for a job before a whole other series of lies cropped up about the nature of that job. If it's even possible to obstruct justice in such a ridiculous scenario and Scooter Libby did so, then those who want to lock Libby up have a point in their favor.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/TomDeLay/2007/03/27/scooter_libby_is_no_bill_clinton
‘The Lord, the Lord, the Lord!’ Says Tom DeLay on 90.9 KCBI’s Jerry Johnson Live ShowFiled under:
— Ryan D Brinkhurst @ 2:33 pm
——=_Part_783832_5937025.1175193236450
‘The Lord, the Lord, the Lord!’ Says Tom DeLay on 90.9 KCBI’s Jerry Johnson Live Show
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay shares transparent thoughts on his life and his faith.
DALLAS, March 29 /PRNewswire/ — On Wednesday, March 28, Tom DeLay paid a visit to the “Jerry Johnson Live” show on 90.9 KCBI. In a forty minute interview, DeLay shared his opinions on a variety of topics including his new book No Retreat, No Surrender, the war in Iraq, the upcoming Presidential election, and what he called a “cleansing process” of the conservative movement. The discussion took a turn when DeLay shared openly about hard lessons he has learned and how his faith has given him the strength to persevere.
DeLay spoke about his early days in the political spotlight and how he nearly lost his marriage and his family. He was introduced to the teachings of Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Dobson’s messages were a wake up call for DeLay, and he gave his life to the Lord. He does not hesitate to give his faith full credit for his ability to rise above the criticism and attacks of the political arena.
http://www.eventsquarterly.com/blog/?p=1293
Sound bites from the KCBI interview of Tom DeLay
The former majority leader of the U.S. House was on the local Christian radio station's "Jerry Johnson Live!" program yesterday.
"The Hammer" hasn't lost his touch. Here are some quotes, as provided by the station:
On Democrats setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq:
“It is absolutely undermining everything that we’re trying to do in the war on terror….They’re sending a message to our troops…’go ahead and continue to put your lives on the line, but we’re gonna pull the rug right out from under you.’ It’s a message to the newly elected government of Iraq…’we’re gonna leave you on your own.’”
Regarding the Democratic controlled Congress:
“In four months, Nancy Pelosi and her thugs in the House of Representatives have thrown everything out the window, and they have focused on their own narrow, liberal, leftist agenda.”
http://religion.beloblog.com/archives/2007/03/sound_bites_from_the_kcbi_inte.html
DeLay doesn't get it
THE nine-month span since Tom DeLay's resignation from Congress hasn't improved either the former House minority leader's scorpion-like disposition or his understanding of why his fellow Republicans lost last year's elections.
There he was the other day, plugging his combative new memoir - No Retreat, No Surrender - while claiming that it wasn't his personal legal and ethical troubles that cast the GOP into the minority on Capitol Hill.
Talk about denial. Here's a long-time Texas politician who, as much as anyone in Washington, helped engender and institutionalize the culture of corruption the Republicans built over more than a decade in power. He's calling Bill Clinton "slimy"?
Take a poll and we believe most Americans would agree that Mr. DeLay referring to the former President as "slimy" is like being called ugly by a horned toad.
No, Tom DeLay still thinks the GOP was guilty only of poor public relations. Like many of his disgraced brethren, he's still peddling the fiction that the party lost control of Congress "because they did not communicate their message and their victories and enough strength to overcome short-term, media-fed issues that arose right before the election."
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/OPINION02/703290306/-1/RSS02
Bill O'Reilly chokes on "radical right"
Reported by Chrish - March 30, 2007
Bill O'Reilly, who never let's a day pass without complaining about the "far-left," still can't bring himself to utter the phrase "radical right." In fact, he denies that there is a vital far-right in this country:
"Far right's been marginalized in this country. The establishment press ignores them and there are few elected officials who fit that profile. So there's not much going on in far-rightville. If there were, we would tell you about it."
That's laughable, as he can't even read the words out loud from a poll question on his website:
In your opinion, who's more radical right ?
Ann Coulter
Rush Limbaugh
Pat Buchanan
Tom DeLay
Talking about the upcoming poll last Friday, O'Reilly said
"And then next week we're going to have 'who is the most (pause) right... who is the most...you can't be radical right, so, who's the furthest right, I think I'm gonna put, and we'll have four names there."
On Monday night's TV Factor 3/26 he asked "Who's the most 'right-wing'?" Tuesday 3/27 he phrased it "Who's the most conservative?" Wednesday night, 3/28, he said "dedicated right" and last night, 3/29 it was " furthest right." Tonight 3/30 O'Reilly was stuck on "Who is the furthest right?"
Denial, not just a river in Egypt.
Fair and balanced, just an empty slogan.
http://www.newshounds.us/2007/03/30/bill_oreilly_chokes_on_radical_right.php
Waxman_Wants_Rove_To_Answer_Some_Questions.html">Rove Cracks Himself Up Mocking Black People
http://wonkette.com/politics/karl-rove/karl-rove-cracks-himself-up-mocking-black-people-248149.php
MC Rove
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYZre8kEsuw
WAXMAN RAPPING AT KARL ROVE'S DOOR
Friday, March 30, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is looking to follow-up on his eye-opening hearing Wednesday with GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan. Waxman sent a letter on Thursday to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove asking Rove whether he played any role in putting together a Jan. 26 videoconference. During that event, a White House aide briefed political appointees at GSA on what they could do to help Republicans - and hurt Democrats - in 2008. House Democrats have suggested the meeting may have violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities at work. -Politico
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=37608
March 29, 2007
Waxman Wants Rove To Answer Some Questions
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is looking to follow-up on his eye-opening hearing Wednesday with GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan.
Waxman sent a letter on Thursday to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove asking Rove whether he played any role in putting together a Jan. 26 videoconference. During that event, a White House aide briefed political appointees at GSA on what they could do to help Republicans - and hurt Democrats - in 2008. House Democrats have suggested the meeting may have violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities at work. J. Scott Jennings, an aide to Rove who works in the White House Office of Political Affairs, conducted a PowerPoint presentation on the 2008 political outlook at that Jan. 26 meeting.
Doan was grilled mercilessly on Wednesday by Democrats on the panel over her comments at the gathering, which reportedly included her asking others in attendance what they could do "to help our candidates" in next year's election. Doan said she could not recall making that comment, although at least two GSA officials have told committee investigators under oath that she did.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0307/Waxman_Wants_Rove_To_Answer_Some_Questions.html
FDA testing reveals plastics chemical in recalled pet food
BY ANDREW BRIDGES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Government testing found a chemical used to make plastics in recalled pet food linked to the deaths of dogs and cats, officials said Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration said it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient. Cornell University scientists also have found the chemical, also used as a fertilizer, in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating the company's wet food.
Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food earlier this month after animals died of kidney failure after eating the Canadian company's products. It is not clear how many pets may have been poisoned by the apparently contaminated food, although anecdotal reports suggest hundreds if not thousands have died. The FDA alone has received more than 8,000 complaints.
The new finding comes a week after scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory identified a rat poison and cancer drug called aminopterin as the likely culprit. They've since detected melamine as well, though it's not clear how that chemical would have poisoned pets.
The recall involved nearly 100 brands of "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food made by Menu Foods. The recall covered products carrying names of major brand-name and private-label products sold throughout North America.
Saudi petrochemicals group eyes GE plastics
Saudi Basic , the largest public company in the Middle East, is lining up a bid for General Electric's plastics division in a deal that could be valued at up to $12bn (€9bn).
Sabic has appointed Citigroup to prepare an indicative offer ahead of the first round of the auction in mid-April. The move underlines the appetite of Gulf state investment funds for investments outside home markets.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17787809/
EU inquiry deadline into Carlyle/Riverstone buy of Dresser Group May 2
26/3/2007 11:05 London Time | story 0702
BRUSSELS (AFX) - The European Commission said the deadline for its inquiry into Carlyle/Riverstone Global Energy and Power Fund''s proposed acquisition of the Dresser Group is set for May 2.
Riverstone Holdings LLC and the Carlyle Group joined forces through the fund for control of Dresser.
The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
First Reserve Corp and Odyssey Investment Partners LLC currently control Dresser Group, which produces energy infrastructure and oilfield products and services.
nina.chestney@thomson.com
nc/slj
http://www.euro2day.gr/articlesfna/31348235/
Goodyear to sell engineered products unit to Carlyle entity
AKRON, Ohio: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has agreed to sell almost all of its Engineered Products business, which makes hoses and conveyor belts, to EPD Inc. for $1.475 billion (€1.11 billion), the tire maker said.
EPD is an entity sponsored by the New York-based private equity firm Carlyle Group.
As part of the deal, Goodyear has agreed to let EPD use the Goodyear brand in connection with the Engineered Products business.
The deal "reinforces our focus on our core consumer and commercial tire businesses," Robert J. Keegan, Goodyear chairman and chief executive officer, said Friday.
Engineered Products has 32 facilities in 12 countries and about 6,500 employees. Its products include hoses, conveyor belts, rubber track and molded products.
Last year the unit had sales of about $1.5 billion (€1.13 billion).
Goodyear shares fell 3 cents to $30.29 in trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, close to the upper end of its 52-week trading range of $9.75 to $30.61.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/24/business/NA-FIN-US-Goodyear-Engineered.php
Carlyle Group to Buy Goodyear Division for $1.5B
Private equity firm The Carlyle Group has agreed to acquire The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s Engineered Products Division for $1.475 billion in cash.
Goodyear Engineered Products manufactures hoses, conveyor belts and power transmission belts, as well as tank tracks for military and off-road vehicles. With approximately $1.5 billion in sales, the company serves more than 4,500 customers around the world in a variety of end markets. Following the transaction, the company’s headquarters will remain in Akron, OH , and current management, including President and CEO Timothy R. Toppen, will continue to lead the business.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is one of the world’s largest tire companies. The company manufactures tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals in more than 90 facilities in 28 countries around the world.
http://www.mdm.com/issues/1_1/breaking-news/3935-1.html
Standard Aero part of proposed Dubai purchase
By Rick Laney
of The Daily Times Staff
While last year's purchase of several U.S. ports by a Dubai-based company raised national security concerns, the planned purchase of two U.S. aviation companies by a company based in the emirate has hardly been noticed.
State-owned Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is negotiating with the Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C., to buy Landmark Aviation and Standard Aero Holdings for more than $1.5 billion.
Standard Aero, based in Canada, employs about 275 employees at its Maryville facility at 1029 Ross Drive. The company also operates 10 other locations in the United States and serves customers in 75 countries.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and other members of Congress were outraged in 2006 when the ports deal was approved.
Schumer, in a written statement, said, "This purchase is not as much of a security risk as Dubai Ports World.
"With proper security reviews, this deal is unlikely to have problems in Congress."
Dubai Aerospace, a company started last year, said it would buy and then sell Landmark's 33 business aircraft terminals, keeping only the company's aircraft maintenance operations.
http://www.thedailytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070327/NEWS/703270317
Firas Nasir Named Managing Director on New MENA Team
MENAFN Press - 27/03/2007
Dubai, UAE – Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced that Firas Nasir joined the new Middle East and North Africa (MENA) team as a Managing Director advising on investments in the Middle East, based in Dubai. Mr. Nasir was previously Executive Director at UBS Investment Bank.
Managing Director and Head of the MENA team Walid Musallam said, “Nasir brings world-class transactional knowledge and a global perspective to this new position. He has a track record of success, a keen understanding of deal sourcing and financing and a breadth of sector expertise. With his joining our senior management team is now in place.”
Mr. Nasir said, “I am thrilled to join such a high caliber global firm as The Carlyle Group. There is significant investment potential throughout the Middle East and I look forward to turning these possibilities into successes for our investors.”
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093147885
Ensus announces investment to fund UK bioethanol plant
Posted by Giles Clark, London
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
The Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings have agreed to acquire and invest in Ensus Limited and provide funding for development of the company’s first bioethanol plant in the UK.
The Ensus facility will have an annual production capacity of over 400 million litres of bioethanol and will be based at the Wilton International site in Teesside, an integrated petrochemical complex in the North East of England. Construction will start in Q2 2007, with full production expected to begin in early 2009.
The project is anticipated to lead to significant job creation, with up to 800 employed during the construction phase and approximately 100 employed once the plant is fully operational. The Ensus plant will use wheat as its feedstock, sourced from local markets. The incremental demand for agricultural crops from biofuels will provide significant stimulation to the rural economy and provide a new source of financial support for the farming community.
The Ensus team is supported by a group of partners, each a leader in its respective field, with whom the business has contractual relations: Shell has contracted to off-take all of the bioethanol produced; Glencore will provide all of the grain requirements; the manufacturing facility is being built by Simon Carves, with technology licensed from Katzen; Sembcorp are providing the utilities at Wilton; and Vopak are providing the specialised bioethanol storage and handling facilities.
http://www.biofuelreview.com/content/view/877/
AND
http://www.legalweek.com/Articles/1018906/Haliwells+boosts+green+credentials+with+250m+renewables.html
TA Associates buys into K2 William Hutchings
28 Mar 2007
TA Associates, the US private equity firm which last week bought UK asset manager Jupiter, has bought a minority stake in K2 Advisors, a $5.5bn (€5.1bn) US fund of hedge funds, in the latest combination between the two industries.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but K2 said it would invest $100m of the proceeds in its existing products. It would also foster new funds, it said. The firm's management will be unchanged and its approach will be untouched.
The transaction will also allow it to widen its ownership among its employees.
http://www.financialnews-us.com/?page=ushome&contentid=2447465603
Trade Official: Barriers Remain in China
By AUDRA ANG Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
BEIJING — American businesses are having a hard time operating in China because of significant trade barriers that remain despite efforts by Beijing to keep World Trade Organization commitments, a U.S. trade official said Thursday.
Franklin Lavin, undersecretary of commerce for international trade, said that while China and the U.S. have an overall positive relationship and that Beijing has "by and large honored its WTO commitments," there are still "a cluster of issues" challenging commercial ties between the two mammoth economies.
"There are an enormous number of market-access barriers, impediments that make it more difficult for U.S. business operating in the market," Lavin told American entrepreneurs in Beijing.
U.S. officials have singled out China's failure to protect U.S. copyrights, government subsidies and regulations that favor domestic companies as ways that are limiting U.S. companies' competitiveness in China.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4671350.html
Carlyle Group takes share in steel-tube manufacturer
By Fu Chenghao 2007-3-31
UNITED States buyout firm Carlyle Group has acquired a 49 percent stake in China's Yangzhou Chengde Steel Tube Co for US$80 million, in its latest push to buy into the country's industrial sector.
Carlyle has received all regulatory approvals for the deal, which was completed on Thursday, the companies said in a joint statement released yesterday.
"Carlyle's wide reach in global industrial companies could bring us crucial resources and benefit our partners and clients in the future," said Zhang Huaide, Yangzhou Chengde's founder and chairman.
Carlyle has acquired John Maneely Co, the largest steel-pipe maker in North America.
Carlyle's brand can also help Yangzhou Chengde attract more senior management and broaden its businesses home and abroad, Zhang added.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200703/20070331/article_311001.htm
Neil Bush of Saudi Arabia
By Bill Berkowitz
Created Mar 29 2007 - 9:22am
During recent visit, President's brother describes the country as a 'kind of
tribal democracy'
In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri
Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the
capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years,
showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported
that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial
and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview
with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country
as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Neil Mallon Bush, the son of President George H. W. Bush and the brother of
President George W. Bush, attended the forum to renew old family friendships
and to drum up a little business for his educational software company. "The
Jeddah Economic Forum has been very productive," Bush told Arab News. "I
have been to this conference four times since 2002. I have seen it develop
from the very beginning. There was less participation in the past, now there
is more international participation."
These days, Neil Bush is the chairman and CEO of Ignite Learning, a company
devoted to developing technology-assisted curriculum. Ignite calls it COW:
"Curriculum on Wheels." In an interview with Arab News' Siraj Wahab, Bush
talked enthusiastically about his company's mission: "We are building a
model in the United States for developing curriculum that is engaging to
grade-school kids, and our model is to deploy this engaging content through
a device. So it is easy for any teacher to use our device through projectors
and speakers. The curriculum is loaded on the device. We use animation and
video and those kinds of things to light up learning in classrooms for kids.
It helps teachers connect with their kids. We are planning to develop an
Arabic version of that model."
http://bbs.whatpissesyouoff.com/showthread.php?t=204585
Cheney: Withdrawal From Iraq Would Validate al Qaeda’s Strategy
In a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership in Manalapan, Fla., Cheney said some people believe pulling out of Iraq before the country can fend for itself would strengthen the hand of the United States in the war on terror. “This myth is dangerous because it represents a complete validation of the al Qaeda strategy,” he said.
(PressZoom) - WASHINGTON, March 29, 2007 – An arbitrary U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would tell al Qaeda’s leaders they’ve been right all along and would embolden the terror organization to launch more audacious attacks against the United States, Vice President Richard B. Cheney said last night.
In a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership in Manalapan, Fla., Cheney said some people believe pulling out of Iraq before the country can fend for itself would strengthen the hand of the United States in the war on terror.
“This myth is dangerous because it represents a complete validation of the al Qaeda strategy,” he said. “The terrorists do not expect to be able to beat us in a stand-up fight. They never have, and they're not likely to try. The only way they can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon the mission -- and the terrorists do believe that they can force that outcome.
http://presszoom.com/story_127952.html
Cheney to Deliver BYU Commencement Speech - Officials OK Protest
BYU College Democrats Will Protest Cheney but Not the Invitation
Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to deliver the commencement speech at Brigham Young University on April 26. Despite public controversy about the invitation, BYU officials defend their decision but will also allow a protest by the College Democrats to take place on April 4th. The demonstration will take place on the quad next to the library on the BYU campus. Carri Jenkins, BYU spokesperson, says, "We recognize that members of our campus community are entitled to their opinions."
According to Diane Bailey, president of the College Democrats, "We're not protesting Cheney's invitation, we're protesting his policies. I hope it stirs political debate...we're not just a campus of conservative Republican students." Some students in the group would prefer Cheney not attend the graduation ceremonies at all, citing Cheney's support of torture in interrogation, his involvement in the Valerie Plame affair, and communicating uncertain information about Saddam Hussein's possession of nuclear weapons. Bailey would prefer to keep the protest soley for students and hopes their demonstration is not hijacked by extremists and political activists.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/196920/cheney_to_deliver_byu_commencement.html
Patrick seeks reversal of Romney’s stem cell research regulations
By Associated Press
Friday, March 30, 2007 - Updated: 01:15 PM EST
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick said Friday he will push to reverse stem cell research restrictions imposed by his predecessor, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
The changes last August prompted complaints from researchers who said they could be prohibited from using some embryonic stem cells. They also argued the restrictions undercut a 2005 law that had been approved by the Legislature over Romney’s veto.
Patrick told a meeting of the Life Sciences Collaborative on Friday that he would ask the Public Health Council, which approved the changes, to revisit the policy. In effect, Patrick will be able to reverse the policy, since he will gain control over the panel next week amid an overhaul linked to the state’s new health insurance law.
http://news.bostonherald.com/localPolitics/view.bg?articleid=191881
Romney lists his running-mate picks
by
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Thursday dropped some names of potential running mates in the 2008 race, but added such speculation is a bit premature.
Among those Romney mentioned for the second slot on the Republican ticket were three Southerners -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
"There's some wonderful people right here in this state, as you know, Gov. Sanford being one of them," the former Massachusetts governor said to a round of applause in Bluffton, S.C., after being asked about vice presidential picks by a member of a crowd of about 400 people gathered for his campaign stop in this early-voting state.
http://www.gay.com/news/election/article.html?2007/03/30/2
Romney: Iowa Christian Alliance Board Member Keith Hunter Joins Romney For President
3/30/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kevin Madden
March 30, 2007
Boston, MA – Governor Mitt Romney today announced that Keith Hunter, a board member with the Iowa Christian Alliance, has joined his Iowa campaign as a volunteer. Hunter will assist the campaign as it continues to build a strong grassroots organization in Iowa.
"I am pleased to welcome Keith Hunter to my Iowa campaign team," said Governor Romney. "Keith brings with him a wealth of campaign experience, and is an important leader in Iowa's conservative movement. He will help make sure we bring proven conservative principles back to our nation's capital."
With today's announcement, Keith Hunter said, "I am honored to join Governor Romney's campaign efforts here in Iowa. Governor Romney has a strong record of conservative leadership and is ready to bring innovation and transformation to our government. I look forward to working with grassroots activists to spread the Governor's record of action to every corner of Iowa."
http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=92388
Romney courts students with cash
David Brand
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: News
Though advisers to former Gov. Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign think they have found the ultimate incentive -- cold hard cash -- to attract college students to get involved in fundraising efforts, some say they hope students don't buy into the strategy.
College-aged volunteers for the Romney campaign stand to receive a 10-percent cut of any funds they raise over $1,000 as part of the Students for Mitt program, announced March 27.
"This is a grassroots program fueled by involvement of college students," said Romney campaign spokesman Alex Burgos.
Burgos said the Romney campaign is emulating strategies of other politicians, such as fellow presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Gov. Deval Patrick, who have used online social networks, including Facebook.com, MySpace.com and YouTube.com, to foster a grassroots interests among young people.
http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2007/03/30/News/Romney.Courts.Students.With.Cash-2815007.shtml
Romney names Jeb Bush as possible No. 2
From the Associated Press
March 30, 2007
BLUFFTON, S.C. — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Thursday dropped some names of potential running mates in the 2008 race, adding that such speculation was premature.
Among those Romney mentioned for the second slot on the Republican ticket were three Southerners: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
"There's some wonderful people right here in this state, as you know, Gov. Sanford being one of them," said Romney, formerly governor of Massachusetts, to a round of applause. He had been asked about vice presidential picks by a member of a crowd of about 400 people gathered for his campaign stop in this earlyvoting state.
"I have to be honest with you, I haven't given a lot of thought to that, so I don't want to put any names in that hat right now," Romney said.
But he did say Bush was "quite a guy."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney30mar30,1,6783859.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true
Scratch Mitt Romney off your list (Jeb Bush possible VP)
As previously discussed, the Mitt Romney campaign includes a few people linked to Jeb Bush. Now, Romney says his list of potential vice-presidential candidates includes Newt Gingrich, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford and SC Senator Jim DeMint, and... Jeb Bush.
Even as a trial balloon and as a meaningless shout-out to the person from whom he got a few staffers, that's a scary thought and one that should immediately disqualify him from any further consideration. We can't afford four or eight more years of Bush policies.
http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/006507.html
Condi's Free Ride
Mainstream US media outlets were alone in their willingness to swallow the preposterous narratives offered by Rice's State Department spinners on the significance of her latest diplomatic effort, says Tony Karon.
The Fantasy of American Diplomacy in the Middle East
They must serve up some pretty powerful Kool Aid in the press room down at Foggy Bottom, judging by U.S. media coverage of Condi Rice's latest "Look Busy" tour of the Middle East.
Secretary of State Rice's comings and goings have long been greeted with a jaded disdain by the Arab and Israeli media. As Gideon Levy wrote plaintively (and typically) in Israel's Haaretz last August,
"Rice has been here six times in the course of a year and a half, and what has come of it? Has anyone asked her about this? Does she ask herself? It is hard to understand how the secretary of state allows herself to be so humiliated. It is even harder to understand how the superpower she represents allows itself to act in such a hollow and useless way. The mystery of America remains unsolved: How is it that the United States is doing nothing to advance a solution to the most dangerous and lengthiest conflict in our world?"
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/opinion/?id=20198
U.S. judges slow to disclose travel
Staff and agencies
21 March, 2007
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A new requirement that federal judges promptly tell the public about their expense-paid trips has so far produced no disclosures, a judicial ethics watchdog group said Wednesday.
Then, within 30 days of the end of each trip, judges must file a report about it. Local court Web sites will have the information. Until this year, judges didn‘t have to report their expense-paid travel until their annual financial disclosures.
The lack of disclosures could be the result of a decision by the courts to exempt trips for which invitations were issued before Jan. 1. The policy does not mention any exemption, but Richard Carelli, a spokesman for the courts, said, "It is a matter of getting to the real-world implementation of the policy that was passed in September 2006."
Kendall also found the judicial branch is not posting on its Web site information provided by trip sponsors despite language adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States, a 27-judge body led by Chief Justice John Roberts.
http://www.localnewswatch.com/benton/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=79598
DRI - the Voice of the Defense Bar Supports Salary Increase for Federal Judges
Nation's Largest Organization of Civil Defense Attorneys Backs Chief
Justice John Roberts' Call for Competitive Federal Judicial Salaries
CHICAGO, March 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- DRI - the Voice of the
Defense Bar, the nation's largest organization of civil defense attorneys,
is urging lawmakers to implement a significant salary increase for federal
judges across the board.
"While salaries in private practices are on the rise, the same can not
be said for the judges serving in some of the most important courts in the
land," said Patrick Long, President of DRI. "The fact that a first year
associate at a law firm can make almost as much, and in some cases perhaps
more than a federal trial judge should be a wake up call that we need to
take an immediate and focused look at federal judicial salaries."
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts first identified the
problem of poor judiciary salaries in a year-end report on the federal
judiciary. In comparison to salaries of private practitioners who have the
qualifications to be federal judges, Chief Justice Roberts reported that
the pay disparity for federal judges is "so enormous as to almost lack
relevance."
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-15-2007/0004547202&EDATE=
Civil liberties going up in smoke
Marta Cook, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
It requires intellect and legal knowledge to navigate through the smoke and mirrors of Supreme Court decision-making. Last Monday, the Supreme Court heard a high school boy from Alaska defend his waving of a banner with the ever-so-cryptic message "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as the Olympic torch passed through Juneau five years ago. His principal promptly suspended him for ten days on the grounds that this sign was disruptive and promoted illegal behavior. Although the student admittedly had no point displaying the banner (he probably was not too clear-headed), the Supreme Court ought not let this case become a precedent to slowly but surely narrow the scope of the First Amendment.
Although the banner may not have been especially tasteful, the school board's position that it was offensive is rather weak. Kenneth Starr, the attorney representing the school board, argued that the 1969 ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District gave the precedent to allow high schools to restrict lewd or disruptive speech. In the present case, there are no reports that the banner caused mass chaos or neighborhood riots.
More than that, though, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" is nothing more than nonsensical, much less lewd. Regardless, it is not clear where and when Americans won the right not to be offended. Some people are understandably offended by racist remarks. Others, like myself, find the smell emanating from their brothers' cleats offensive. Clearly the "offensive" defense does not hold much water.
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=29801&pid=1568
Coming to Order
How the Supreme Court really works.
BY JOHN O. MCGINNIS
Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
President George H.W. Bush, she reveals, was planning to nominate Kenneth Starr, then solicitor general, but was talked out of it by Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, who threatened to resign if Mr. Bush did so. The decision to cast aside Mr. Starr for David Souter--a New Hampshire judge who had little sense of the national debates in which the court inevitably participates--ranks as one of the great blunders in the history of Supreme Court nominations. Others were no less painful. Dwight Eisenhower famously said of his presidency: "I made two mistakes and both of them are sitting on the Supreme Court." He was referring to Earl Warren and William Brennan. By contrast, George W. Bush may have reason, in future years, to say something famously about his two court triumphs.
Mr. Bush was determined not to repeat his father's mistake, as Ms. Greenburg shows. When Justice O'Connor announced her retirement, he vetted many nominees. He settled on John Roberts not only because he had a glittering résumé and sound views but because he would be a "good colleague" and not alienate his fellow justices. (Mr. Roberts would eventually replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died in September 2005.) After the debacle of the Harriet Miers nomination, quickly withdrawn, Mr. Bush chose Samuel Alito for essentially the same reasons: impeccable credentials and a measure of the collegiality that Mr. Bush saw in Mr. Roberts. Both men are now in a position to appeal to Justice Kennedy, the key swing vote on the court, and perhaps even to Justice Breyer.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009786
New Book Sounds Alarm on Conservative High Court
Tony Mauro
Legal Times
March 28, 2007
For most Supreme Court watchers, the jury is still out on how conservative the Roberts Court will be. Some of the still-pending blockbuster rulings -- "partial-birth" abortion and the use of race in public school class assignments, to name two -- will shed light on the question. But even then, the answer may not be certain, especially if they produce fractured or extremely narrow rulings.
First Amendment attorney and legal analyst Martin Garbus, however, is not waiting for any jury, metaphorical or otherwise, before he proclaims the Roberts Court guilty as charged for upending the Bill of Rights and turning the constitutional clock back, more or less, to the Paleozoic Era.
In his new book, "The Next 25 Years: The New Supreme Court and What It Means for Americans," Garbus lays out a case that the Court's new justices, John Roberts Jr. and Samuel Alito Jr. -- aided and abetted by the other conservatives, including Anthony Kennedy -- are hell-bent on doing irreparable damage to the doctrines we have grown accustomed to. "For at least the next 25 years, a conservative Supreme Court is determined to eradicate much of 20th-century law and establish an imperial presidency while dramatically disenfranchising the voters by cutting down the power of Congress," Garbus proclaims.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1174986234404
Guamanian Guacamole
With only two decisions issued today, the Supreme Court's molasses-like pace of resolving cases continues. As Bloomberg's Greg Stohr reports today (via How Appealing,) the Court is significantly behind its output of recent years. Hard issues like partial-birth abortion and the use of race in public school class assignments are probably bogging things down, and with the two relative newcomers -- John Roberts, Jr. and Samuel Alito, Jr. -- traditional alliances and the tricks for winning majorities are still undergoing a makeover. In his NPR quiz show appearance last weekend, Justice Stephen Breyer again deployed his oft-repeated mantra that "I’ve never heard a voice raised in anger" among justices in his 12 years at the Court.
Whether it is a cause or a corollary of the slow pace, Roberts' goal of unanimity -- even if it means deciding cases very narrowly -- seems in peril. Case in point: today's ruling in Limtiaco v. Camacho, which resolves the burning questions of when Guam Supreme Court rulings become final, and how Guam's public debt should be calculated. Even though the author Justice Clarence Thomas stressed that "our holding is limited to the unique procedural circumstances presented here," Thomas could not hold a unanimous Court. Here's the breakdown, from the text of the opinion:
THOMAS, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court with respect to Part II, and the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, III, and IV, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and SCALIA, KENNEDY, and BREYER, JJ., joined. SOUTER, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which STEVENS, GINSBURG, and ALITO, JJ., joined.
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2007/03/guamanian_guaca.html
Chief Justice Roberts, man of mystery
11:05 AM CST on Saturday, March 10, 2007
James Ragland jragland@dallasnews.com
He came. He spoke. He left.
And save for the 600 to 700 guests invited to hear him speak, few people were even aware that U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts was in Dallas.
He spoke Wednesday to a crowd made up mostly of University of Texas School of Law alums, and the media were not invited.
Some participants said they were told that no one was allowed to record the speech or take photographs of Justice Roberts.
A reporter from this newspaper was turned away, leaving unsatiated whatever immediate public appetite there may have been for the justice's remarks.
Not that the public was starving for anything Justice Roberts had to say, mind you.
Truth is, most people don't know who he is – not by name, anyway – or any of his colleagues on the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court….
… Kirston Fortune, assistant dean of communications for UT's law school, said organizers took their cue from the chief justice's handlers.
"The difficulty was that we had some trouble accommodating the crowd we had. Do we have any regrets? No. It was a great event."
We'll have to take her word for that – at least for a while.
The good news, you see, is that organizers hired a Dallas videographer to record the speech at the Belo Mansion, home of the Dallas Bar Association, and they plan to post it on their law school's Web site "as soon as possible," probably next week, Ms. Fortune said.
The speech was part of the third annual Tex Lezar lecture series. Justice Roberts was a friend of the late Harold Joseph "Tex" Lezar, who worked in President Ronald Reagan's Justice Department and married Merrie Spaeth, who handled PR for Mr. Reagan and runs a Dallas-based consulting firm called Spaeth Communications.
Her influence helped bring the chief justice to Dallas, organizers and participants said.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/jragland/stories/DN-ragland_10met.ART0.North.Edition1.4477174.html
Hillary's Bitter Pill: Women Can't Stand Her
Carey Roberts
Hillary Clinton’s polling numbers are tumbling, but the real shocker is how poorly she is faring with the female electorate. According to the recent Rasmussen poll, 43% of women say they will not vote for Hillary. And the latest poll by John Zogby reported an almost identical number – 42% of women would not vote for Mrs. Clinton under any circumstances.
Hillary’s gender problem is underscored by the bootleg Apple Computer 1984 ad. [www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo] The person who hurls the hammer at Hillary’s Big Sister image is not some 40-something pony-tailed biker dude. No, it’s a young, athletic woman, exactly the demographic that Hillary hopes will put her over the top in November 2008.
Do a web search and you’ll find websites (such as www.allwomenagainsthillary.com) and chat rooms buzzing with women who are flabbergasted at the mere thought of Hillary as 44th president of the United States.
One writes, “I, as a woman, would love to see a woman president, but am willing to wait for the right one.” Some refer to her has Hillary the Horrible or simply “that cold “b*tch.” At one recent conference, a smiling co-ed offered me a Hillary Barf Bag.
Many Democrats can’t stomach the idea of Hillary as president, either. The Zogby poll found that among likely Democratic voters, a surprising 18% stated they “would never cast a vote in Clinton’s favor.”
http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/croberts_20070329.html
Wooing women voters
Hillary Clinton aims to bolster her standing as she inaugurates a campaign targeting salary parity, more
BY GLENN THRUSH
glenn.thrush@newsday.com
March 7, 2007
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton placed her left hand on a Bible and her right had in the air while a smirking Chief Justice John Roberts issued the oath of office.
The video pre-enactment of Clinton's 2008 inauguration - with actors in the leading roles - nearly stole the show yesterday at the annual meeting of EMILY's List, where the real Sen. Clinton unveiled a break-the-glass-ceiling campaign theme before 1,300 members of the powerful political action committee that backs abortion rights.
Today, Clinton targets another key group - New Yorkers - as she holds a closed-door meeting with the state's congressional delegation to woo uncommitted members to her cause.
"Women are a majority of the voters, a majority of students in college and we are a growing presence in the Congress. ... Together we can break that hardest and highest of glass ceilings," Clinton told a somewhat subdued crowd of 1,300 at EMILY's List.
To that end, former White House spokeswoman and Planned Parenthood official Ann Lewis is creating a voter outreach campaign targeting younger women, whose voting rates have lagged.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushill075120890mar07,0,6216977,print.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print
Scalia and Harvard Law Professor Trade Barbs in Court
Mark Sherman
The Associated Press
03-29-2007
Two outsized personalities clashed at the Supreme Court on Wednesday and one of them, Justice Antonin Scalia, was briefly silenced by a barbed comment that left other justices laughing.
Longtime Harvard law professor Arthur Miller, rarely at a loss for words himself, was arguing on behalf of shareholders who want to sue companies for fraud. Miller is a frequent television commentator, prolific writer and possibly the inspiration for an abrasive professor in a popular account of life at Harvard.
Scalia and Miller were contemporaries at Harvard Law School in the late 1950s. Miller graduated in 1958, two years ahead of Scalia.
Scalia clearly was on the side of the companies, chiming in from time to time to make Miller's difficult task a bit harder.
After one remark, Miller let loose: "Is that because you never met a plaintiff you really liked?"
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1175072636563&pos=ataglance
Roberts's Supreme Court Falls Behind in Pace of Issuing Rulings
By Greg Stohr
March 27 (Bloomberg) -- As U.S. Supreme Court cases go, Global Crossing v. Metrophones, an administrative-law tussle over pay-phone fees, hardly looms as a landmark. That's why lawyers in the dispute are so puzzled that almost six months after hearing arguments, the court hasn't ruled.
The case has become a symbol of John Roberts's second year as chief justice, one in which the court has fallen well behind its typical schedule. Six months into the 2006-07 term, the justices have issued only 19 signed opinions, 12 fewer than at this point a year ago.
``I don't remember the pace of opinions ever being this slow,'' said Roy Englert, a Washington lawyer who argued his first Supreme Court case in 1987 and represented Metrophones Telecommunications Inc. in the Oct. 10 pay-phone argument.
While the court may release more opinions today, the delays, coupled with an unusually large number of April arguments, mean the vast majority of rulings will come in the term's final three months. Still to be decided are potentially far-reaching cases on abortion, school integration, student free-speech rights and election spending.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aNUOrt6kXUP4&refer=us
Bechtel to Expand in Azerbaijan
Sharg 30/03/2007 20:09
Heydar Babayev, the Minister of the Economic Development of Azerbaijan accepted the representatives of Bechtel Corporation from America in Baku in March 29.
The Ministry of the Economic Development informs that the aim of the negotiations was to discuss perspectives of the cooperation.
Babayev underlined the leadership of the country for development tempos not only over the CIS (the Commonwealth of Independent States) but also all over the world and spoke about the policy of usage of oil and gas revenues, about the plans of unification of oil and gas pipelines, motor roads and railways of the country and the countries of the Central Asia.
“We might discuss the realization of the projects with Bechtel Corporation, particularly in the sphere of infrastructure, agriculture, petrochemistry and construction of power stations,” he added.
Charles Redman, the regional president of the corporation spoke about activity of the company and stated about its readiness to study carefully the propositions of the government on participation in the projects.
http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=35611
UF trustees sidestep Bush degree controversy
By Jack Stripling
Sun staff writer
March 30. 2007 3:25PM
University of Florida trustees had considered awarding former Gov. Jeb Bush an honorary degree despite Faculty Senate opposition, but the board's chair said Friday that he's ready to move forward and put the issue to rest.
"I hope we can almost pass this event with the kind of grace that we all have," Manny Fernandez, the board's chair, told fellow trustees at a Friday meeting.
"I think it's time to move on," he added.
The Faculty Senate voted 38-28 last week to deny Bush an honorary degree because some questioned Bush's record in higher education.
One faculty member who opposed giving Bush the degree cited his approval of three new medical schools during his tenure, which she said had diluted resources and hurt UF. Others said Bush had weakened the state's university governance structure.
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/LOCAL/70330019/-1/news
War Profiteering: How do Economic Sanctions affect Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.?
by Anthony Newkirk
Global Research, March 29, 2007
Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Sanctions-Buster!
Economic sanctions have been applied on Iran pursuant to a US sponsored United Nations Security Council resolution. Recent reports in the New York Times and the Washington Post focus on U.S. pressures on foreign companies and governments which are known to either support or have business ties with Iran. Curiously, these reports do not mention Halliburton Energy Services Inc, a company with direct links to the Vice President's Office, which has, despite the US sponsored sanctions, important investments in Iran's energy sector.1
Late last month, Halliburton’s public relations department announced that the oilfield services firm will sell its KBR unit that is mired in the Nigerian bribery scandal. Then on March 11 came truly bizarre news: Halliburton’s corporate headquarters will move from Houston to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Even with last year's furor over Dubai Ports World, the public response so far has been crashing silence. But I suppose that only makes sense as U.S.-UAE relations aren't newsworthy either (Lockheed Martin's sale of 80 F-16 fighters, on-going free trade talks, and the Navy’s contract with Dubai-owned Inchcape Shipping Services).2
Reducing corporate tax liability seems to be a motive for Halliburton management who want to relocate company headquarters to Dubai. Nor do the United States and the UAE have an extradition treaty, which Halliburton executives may find useful someday.3 But this is nothing next to the fact that Halliburton already has an institutional presence in Dubai and is violating U.S. embargoes against "rogue states" if not directly, then at least in spirit.
Incorporated in the Cayman Islands, Halliburton Products and Services Limited (HPSL) works out of an office in Dubai. Halliburton claims that HPSL is an "independent" foreign subsidiary that is not directly managed by U.S. citizens. Halliburton argues that it therefore does not have to pay taxes on HPSL's revenues. The argument continues that, not being managed by U.S. citizens, Halliburton’s foreign subsidiaries are not subject to U.S. legal restrictions. But the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control maintains that "U.S. persons may not approve, finance, facilitate or guarantee any transaction by a foreign person where that transaction by a foreign person would be prohibited if performed by a U.S. person or from the United States."4 No matter. Besides, perhaps I miss the point but how can HPSL be both a "subsidiary" and "independent" at the same time?
Ever since the start of the Bush administration, anyone who cared to know could learn that Halliburton was under Federal investigation for violating sanctions against Iran. It is also common knowledge – that is, among those who care to know – that some of the deeds in question may have begun when Vice-President Dick Cheney was Halliburton’s CEO in the 1990s nor has there been a criminal prosecution in relation to any of them.5
Illegal or not, HPSL’s work in Iran has been interesting. In January 2005, after an Iranian newspaper reported it, Halliburton admitted that HPSL won a sub-contract from Oriental Kish Oil, a private Iranian company, to develop a section of the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf. But supposedly fearing for national security, the new Ahmadinejad regime blocked HPSL’s participation in the project in September (a high-level Oriental Kish executive was also a key negotiator with the IAEA and western powers about Iran's civilian nuclear program).6
It was sometime during this period, sources claim, that Halliburton sold components for nuclear reactors to Iran via HPSL. If this is true and if the Iranian nuclear program does have a military component, the implications are unspeakable. Did representatives of Halliburton, or any of its corporate entities, consider risks to U.S. national security during phases of the South Pars negotiations? Does HPSL still keep an office in Tehran? These are not trivial questions for besides HPSL, at least five Halliburton foreign subsidiaries have sold products and services to customers in Iran (incidentally, this information is confirmed by a 2003 company report posted on the Halliburton website).7
What does America’s most famous former Halliburton employee think about his old company’s purported links with Iran? When he was CEO in 1998, Cheney put it this way: "I think we'd be better off if we…backed off those sanctions [and] didn't try to impose secondary boycotts on companies...trying to do business over there." Straight-shooting talk but are they the words of a rugged patriot?8 In some people’s minds, they may conjure up memories of unpunished treason by certain "U.S. persons" during World War II.
The comeback that Halliburton is not the only sanctions-buster is childish. On the other hand, "vigorous" enforcement of current embargo legislation caters to warmongers in our country. At issue is Halliburton's own behavior. But rather than expecting "apologies," we must make sanctions-busting and war-profiteering unprofitable. How? A boycott movement directed at business that deal with Halliburton is in order. Efforts by municipal and state authorities over the past few years to "clean up" employee pension funds are also positive steps. For their part, national law-makers must develop full-blown and consistent legislation that does not punish foreign populations but rather American sanctions-busters. Congress and President Bush should hold Halliburton liable for the actions of its foreign subsidiaries. Assuming that our elected leaders have the "political will" to do so.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NEW20070329&articleId=5227
Kyl-ing Us Softly, With His Song (And Dance): Hypocrisy In Gaming Legislation
...By Nelson Lardner
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is widely credited to have circulated within the United States Senate in recent days an unsigned letter, addressed to President Bush, regarding the working details to be finalized regarding last fall's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
Literally anonymous, said letter has gained wide circulation on gaming websites. The meat of the matter is contained in the second paragraph - vital reading, given that the finishing touches regarding the implementation of this legislation are to be installed this spring:
"Any progress made over the last several months may evaporate if immediate action is not taken to ensure strong and effective implementing regulations. The House Financial Services Report explained, 'The legislation contemplates a mechanism whereby banks and other financial service providers will be provided with the identity of specific Internet gambling bank accounts to which payments are to be prohibited.' In other words, the Federal government needs to provide banks with lists of unlawful Internet gambling businesses."
There is unintended hilarity, therein. Rep. Barney Frank (4th - MASS) is currently the Chairman of the House Financial Services committee, and holds the UIGEA in low regard, enacted as it was in the dead of night, attached to an unrelated must-pass Port Security bill by Sen. Bill Frist, a politician with dashed presidential delusions, regardless driven to kowtow to his Christian-right base.
Frist has since departed the Senate, as has one of the House sponsors of the bill, Iowa's Jim Leach (the former House Financial Services committee chairman), who was unceremoniously voted out of office after a thirty-year run. Get the picture? For forever, this legislation was a huge underdog to pass both U.S. legislative houses on its own, following any semblance of open debate. This makes the statement in the fourth paragraph of this now notorious letter, to wit: "We renew our request that you ensure that law enforcement and regulatory personnel commit the resources needed to identify illegal Internet gambling businesses and give the new law THE TEETH THAT CONGRESS INTENDED IT TO HAVE (emphasis ours)", ludicrous. Please. That statement failed to pass the veracity test, at the time - and it's even more out of touch now, given the current legislative paradigm. Elections do have consequences.
It was noted in the first paragraph of the letter under discussion that related companies (all based OUTSIDE the U. S.) traded on the London exchange lost over $7 BILLION in market capitalization in a single day following the bill's passage. One wonders just how many major stock market players - many of them no doubt significant GOP contributors - were amused by the passage of this legislation and the subsequent evisceration of share values of companies deeply-involved in the net-gaming business? Unless you had information, and were on the short side . . .
Sen. Kyl has been repeatedly quoted to the effect that "a professor once appropriately likened Internet gambling to cocaine use."
Come, now. From the bluenose, religious-right perspective, gambling's an unmitigated evil. But the UIGEA gives off more than a whiff of stateside protectionism, sheltering as it does certain sacred cows - many of them with a significant U.S. (and, prominently, Arizona) presence - while also looking ahead to the possible participation of major American corporate gaming presences in a legalized environment.
Let's see -- just what kind of legalized-gaming entertainment can you sink your wallet into around Arizona's highways? Quite a varied menu, actually.
Thoroughbred racing: Turf Paradise. Been there. Nice place, as racetracks go.
Greyhound racing: Phoenix Greyhound Park. Been there. Set in the midst of a handful of trailer parks. Cheap eats!
Indian casinos: Have peeked inside one of these, as well, and I'm far from the only one. Arizona's tribal-casino empire is sized third in the country, behind those serving the folks visiting California and Connecticut properties.
The Arizona Lottery: Chrono-moronic entertainment for rank suckers with no conception and/or regard for the gross percentages working against them. But, hey, you don't have to play, and the state lottery provides jobs for many -- and essentially-voluntary contributions to state coffers. Revenues have amounted to a fat nine figures over the years.
And we've yet to mention a pet Kyl cause, fantasy sports games, an internet favorite, and also exempted within the UIGEA's strictures. And if you don't think millions of folks don't dedicate serious time - and fee-money, plus any risk-money earmarked for league winners - to their fantasy-league teams, I have a nice bridge to sell you.
The pari-mutuel interests, those operating the Indian games of chance, the leagues which benefit from all that fantasy-league focus - all cough up the cake, in the form of significant campaign contributions.
Sen. Kyl would do a public service by being much more specific regarding just what's crack cocaine, and what isn't.
Overindulgence in any vice is not good. Controlled gaming can be wholly entertaining, while gently scratching an itch. It's past time for Rep. Frank and his like-minded colleagues to have their innings, while looking to minimize detrimental effects of a bad law, one passed under the cover of darkness. The time is now for congressional re-evaluation of the concept of broad legalization loosely based on the Nevada model . . . discussion untainted by contributor's checks and broadly-unpopular stances fuelled solely by political motivations most-crass.
The extensive 2003 research report, "Gambling and Problem Gambling In Arizona" (easily accessible online) contains the following gem, on page iv:
"Problem gamblers in Arizona in need of services are most likely to gamble regularly on the lottery and at a casino."
You want to talk about crack cocaine? Right in Arizona's backyard?
Let's. And while we're at it, keep the one about glass houses and stones in mind.
03-29-07
Nelson Lardner
MajorWager.com
lardner@majorwager.com
http://majorwager.com/index.cfm?page=27&show_column=466
continued ...
FOX News does the bidding for Tom DeLay's K Street Blues.
Kondracke called Dems "a hanging party," said Leahy response to Goodling "reminds you of McCarthyism"
Summary: On Special Report, Mort Kondracke called the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the firing of eight U.S. attorneys "a hanging party," explaining that he chose the characterization "because every time there's an inconsistency in somebody's testimony, however minute ... they're ready to pounce and accuse [the witness], basically, of perjury or violating the law or something like that." Kondracke also accused Sen. Patrick Leahy of "McCarthyism," for questioning the reasons behind Monica Goodling's decision to invoke her Fifth Amendment right and refuse to testify if called upon by Congress.
During the "All-Star Panel" segment on the March 28 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke called the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the firing of eight U.S. attorneys "a hanging party," explaining that he chose the characterization "because every time there's an inconsistency in somebody's testimony, however minute ... they're ready to pounce and accuse [the witness], basically, of perjury or violating the law or something like that." Additionally, Kondracke accused Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) of "McCarthyism," for questioning the reasons behind Justice Department White House liaison Monica Goodling's statement that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right and refuse to testify if called upon by Congress. Addressing Goodling's announcement, Leahy stated: "The American people are left to wonder what conduct is at the base of Ms. Goodling's concern that she may incriminate herself."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200703300010
Tom DeLay returns to Texas as author, hero
By JOE STINEBAKER Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
SUGAR LAND, Texas — Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay returned to his hometown Tuesday, a newly published author and a beloved conservative icon in this staunchly conservative Houston suburb.
More than 100 supporters applauded DeLay's arrival for a book signing in Sugar Land. They shook his hand and patted him on the back as he made his way to a stage. DeLay took questions from the group for about 20 minutes before waving the crowd over to a nearby table for autographs and photos at the bookstore.
DeLay, who resigned last year after 22 years in Congress, told the audience that his decision to leave Congress was "the right decision."
Since then, he said, he has been plotting the Democrats' downfall as an outsider "researching the opposition and researching the needs of the conservative movement."
Asked whether he had selected a presidential nominee to support, DeLay said he was waiting.
"It really grates on me that the national media have picked our front-runners in the Republican Party," he said. "I'm sitting back, and I'm giving them (the GOP candidates) an opportunity to show me their leadership. I'm looking for not just a conservative, but a conservative who can lead."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/4666787.html
’Criminalization’ common modus operandi in politics today, says DeLay Chad Groening
Le 28 mars 2007, par Aloys Evina,
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says in today’s political environment it is not enough to defeat a person politically. Now one’s political enemy must be forced to leave office disgraced, bankrupt and heading for jail.
DeLay recently published No Retreat, No Surrender : One American’s Fight (Sentinel HC, March 2007) — which, among other topics, discusses his decade-long battle against what the book describes as a « barrage of malicious and frivolous allegations of wrongdoing. » The former Texas congressman says he has pulled no punches in revealing the shocking truth about why he resigned from Congress last year.
DeLay says the Left could not beat him at the ballot box, so they used every dirty trick in their book to take him down. « The media has been complicit in making this all look bad, yet I haven’t been found guilty of anything, » he shares. « That’s what they’re doing now — they’re doing it to the president, they’re doing it to [Attorney General] Alberto Gonzales. The only way they know how to get power and hold on to [it] is to destroy people.
http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?article7967
Scooter Libby is no Bill Clinton
By Tom DeLay
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
SThe only thing the Scooter Libby and Bill Clinton perjury cases have in common is the charge. They were both accused of lying under oath. Perjury, of course, is a grievous crime. Republicans who try to minimize the seriousness of perjury now -- just like Democrats who tried to do so then -- are either partisan hacks or unforgivably blind to the legal chaos of an unenforceable oath.
If, in fact, Scooter Libby lied under oath, then he broke the law and needs to pay a price for it. But, as with all crimes, the punishment ought to be proportional to the transgression. As best as anyone can tell, given the Byzantine complexity and minute stakes of the case, Scooter Libby and Tim Russert have different recollections about a conversation they had about whether someone had told one of them that someone's wife had recommended him for a job before a whole other series of lies cropped up about the nature of that job. If it's even possible to obstruct justice in such a ridiculous scenario and Scooter Libby did so, then those who want to lock Libby up have a point in their favor.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/TomDeLay/2007/03/27/scooter_libby_is_no_bill_clinton
‘The Lord, the Lord, the Lord!’ Says Tom DeLay on 90.9 KCBI’s Jerry Johnson Live ShowFiled under:
— Ryan D Brinkhurst @ 2:33 pm
——=_Part_783832_5937025.1175193236450
‘The Lord, the Lord, the Lord!’ Says Tom DeLay on 90.9 KCBI’s Jerry Johnson Live Show
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay shares transparent thoughts on his life and his faith.
DALLAS, March 29 /PRNewswire/ — On Wednesday, March 28, Tom DeLay paid a visit to the “Jerry Johnson Live” show on 90.9 KCBI. In a forty minute interview, DeLay shared his opinions on a variety of topics including his new book No Retreat, No Surrender, the war in Iraq, the upcoming Presidential election, and what he called a “cleansing process” of the conservative movement. The discussion took a turn when DeLay shared openly about hard lessons he has learned and how his faith has given him the strength to persevere.
DeLay spoke about his early days in the political spotlight and how he nearly lost his marriage and his family. He was introduced to the teachings of Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Dobson’s messages were a wake up call for DeLay, and he gave his life to the Lord. He does not hesitate to give his faith full credit for his ability to rise above the criticism and attacks of the political arena.
http://www.eventsquarterly.com/blog/?p=1293
Sound bites from the KCBI interview of Tom DeLay
The former majority leader of the U.S. House was on the local Christian radio station's "Jerry Johnson Live!" program yesterday.
"The Hammer" hasn't lost his touch. Here are some quotes, as provided by the station:
On Democrats setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq:
“It is absolutely undermining everything that we’re trying to do in the war on terror….They’re sending a message to our troops…’go ahead and continue to put your lives on the line, but we’re gonna pull the rug right out from under you.’ It’s a message to the newly elected government of Iraq…’we’re gonna leave you on your own.’”
Regarding the Democratic controlled Congress:
“In four months, Nancy Pelosi and her thugs in the House of Representatives have thrown everything out the window, and they have focused on their own narrow, liberal, leftist agenda.”
http://religion.beloblog.com/archives/2007/03/sound_bites_from_the_kcbi_inte.html
DeLay doesn't get it
THE nine-month span since Tom DeLay's resignation from Congress hasn't improved either the former House minority leader's scorpion-like disposition or his understanding of why his fellow Republicans lost last year's elections.
There he was the other day, plugging his combative new memoir - No Retreat, No Surrender - while claiming that it wasn't his personal legal and ethical troubles that cast the GOP into the minority on Capitol Hill.
Talk about denial. Here's a long-time Texas politician who, as much as anyone in Washington, helped engender and institutionalize the culture of corruption the Republicans built over more than a decade in power. He's calling Bill Clinton "slimy"?
Take a poll and we believe most Americans would agree that Mr. DeLay referring to the former President as "slimy" is like being called ugly by a horned toad.
No, Tom DeLay still thinks the GOP was guilty only of poor public relations. Like many of his disgraced brethren, he's still peddling the fiction that the party lost control of Congress "because they did not communicate their message and their victories and enough strength to overcome short-term, media-fed issues that arose right before the election."
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/OPINION02/703290306/-1/RSS02
Bill O'Reilly chokes on "radical right"
Reported by Chrish - March 30, 2007
Bill O'Reilly, who never let's a day pass without complaining about the "far-left," still can't bring himself to utter the phrase "radical right." In fact, he denies that there is a vital far-right in this country:
"Far right's been marginalized in this country. The establishment press ignores them and there are few elected officials who fit that profile. So there's not much going on in far-rightville. If there were, we would tell you about it."
That's laughable, as he can't even read the words out loud from a poll question on his website:
In your opinion, who's more radical right ?
Ann Coulter
Rush Limbaugh
Pat Buchanan
Tom DeLay
Talking about the upcoming poll last Friday, O'Reilly said
"And then next week we're going to have 'who is the most (pause) right... who is the most...you can't be radical right, so, who's the furthest right, I think I'm gonna put, and we'll have four names there."
On Monday night's TV Factor 3/26 he asked "Who's the most 'right-wing'?" Tuesday 3/27 he phrased it "Who's the most conservative?" Wednesday night, 3/28, he said "dedicated right" and last night, 3/29 it was " furthest right." Tonight 3/30 O'Reilly was stuck on "Who is the furthest right?"
Denial, not just a river in Egypt.
Fair and balanced, just an empty slogan.
http://www.newshounds.us/2007/03/30/bill_oreilly_chokes_on_radical_right.php
Waxman_Wants_Rove_To_Answer_Some_Questions.html">Rove Cracks Himself Up Mocking Black People
http://wonkette.com/politics/karl-rove/karl-rove-cracks-himself-up-mocking-black-people-248149.php
MC Rove
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYZre8kEsuw
WAXMAN RAPPING AT KARL ROVE'S DOOR
Friday, March 30, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is looking to follow-up on his eye-opening hearing Wednesday with GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan. Waxman sent a letter on Thursday to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove asking Rove whether he played any role in putting together a Jan. 26 videoconference. During that event, a White House aide briefed political appointees at GSA on what they could do to help Republicans - and hurt Democrats - in 2008. House Democrats have suggested the meeting may have violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities at work. -Politico
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=37608
March 29, 2007
Waxman Wants Rove To Answer Some Questions
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is looking to follow-up on his eye-opening hearing Wednesday with GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan.
Waxman sent a letter on Thursday to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove asking Rove whether he played any role in putting together a Jan. 26 videoconference. During that event, a White House aide briefed political appointees at GSA on what they could do to help Republicans - and hurt Democrats - in 2008. House Democrats have suggested the meeting may have violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities at work. J. Scott Jennings, an aide to Rove who works in the White House Office of Political Affairs, conducted a PowerPoint presentation on the 2008 political outlook at that Jan. 26 meeting.
Doan was grilled mercilessly on Wednesday by Democrats on the panel over her comments at the gathering, which reportedly included her asking others in attendance what they could do "to help our candidates" in next year's election. Doan said she could not recall making that comment, although at least two GSA officials have told committee investigators under oath that she did.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0307/Waxman_Wants_Rove_To_Answer_Some_Questions.html
FDA testing reveals plastics chemical in recalled pet food
BY ANDREW BRIDGES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Government testing found a chemical used to make plastics in recalled pet food linked to the deaths of dogs and cats, officials said Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration said it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient. Cornell University scientists also have found the chemical, also used as a fertilizer, in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating the company's wet food.
Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food earlier this month after animals died of kidney failure after eating the Canadian company's products. It is not clear how many pets may have been poisoned by the apparently contaminated food, although anecdotal reports suggest hundreds if not thousands have died. The FDA alone has received more than 8,000 complaints.
The new finding comes a week after scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory identified a rat poison and cancer drug called aminopterin as the likely culprit. They've since detected melamine as well, though it's not clear how that chemical would have poisoned pets.
The recall involved nearly 100 brands of "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food made by Menu Foods. The recall covered products carrying names of major brand-name and private-label products sold throughout North America.
Saudi petrochemicals group eyes GE plastics
Saudi Basic , the largest public company in the Middle East, is lining up a bid for General Electric's plastics division in a deal that could be valued at up to $12bn (€9bn).
Sabic has appointed Citigroup to prepare an indicative offer ahead of the first round of the auction in mid-April. The move underlines the appetite of Gulf state investment funds for investments outside home markets.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17787809/
EU inquiry deadline into Carlyle/Riverstone buy of Dresser Group May 2
26/3/2007 11:05 London Time | story 0702
BRUSSELS (AFX) - The European Commission said the deadline for its inquiry into Carlyle/Riverstone Global Energy and Power Fund''s proposed acquisition of the Dresser Group is set for May 2.
Riverstone Holdings LLC and the Carlyle Group joined forces through the fund for control of Dresser.
The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
First Reserve Corp and Odyssey Investment Partners LLC currently control Dresser Group, which produces energy infrastructure and oilfield products and services.
nina.chestney@thomson.com
nc/slj
http://www.euro2day.gr/articlesfna/31348235/
Goodyear to sell engineered products unit to Carlyle entity
AKRON, Ohio: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has agreed to sell almost all of its Engineered Products business, which makes hoses and conveyor belts, to EPD Inc. for $1.475 billion (€1.11 billion), the tire maker said.
EPD is an entity sponsored by the New York-based private equity firm Carlyle Group.
As part of the deal, Goodyear has agreed to let EPD use the Goodyear brand in connection with the Engineered Products business.
The deal "reinforces our focus on our core consumer and commercial tire businesses," Robert J. Keegan, Goodyear chairman and chief executive officer, said Friday.
Engineered Products has 32 facilities in 12 countries and about 6,500 employees. Its products include hoses, conveyor belts, rubber track and molded products.
Last year the unit had sales of about $1.5 billion (€1.13 billion).
Goodyear shares fell 3 cents to $30.29 in trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, close to the upper end of its 52-week trading range of $9.75 to $30.61.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/24/business/NA-FIN-US-Goodyear-Engineered.php
Carlyle Group to Buy Goodyear Division for $1.5B
Private equity firm The Carlyle Group has agreed to acquire The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s Engineered Products Division for $1.475 billion in cash.
Goodyear Engineered Products manufactures hoses, conveyor belts and power transmission belts, as well as tank tracks for military and off-road vehicles. With approximately $1.5 billion in sales, the company serves more than 4,500 customers around the world in a variety of end markets. Following the transaction, the company’s headquarters will remain in Akron, OH , and current management, including President and CEO Timothy R. Toppen, will continue to lead the business.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is one of the world’s largest tire companies. The company manufactures tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals in more than 90 facilities in 28 countries around the world.
http://www.mdm.com/issues/1_1/breaking-news/3935-1.html
Standard Aero part of proposed Dubai purchase
By Rick Laney
of The Daily Times Staff
While last year's purchase of several U.S. ports by a Dubai-based company raised national security concerns, the planned purchase of two U.S. aviation companies by a company based in the emirate has hardly been noticed.
State-owned Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is negotiating with the Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C., to buy Landmark Aviation and Standard Aero Holdings for more than $1.5 billion.
Standard Aero, based in Canada, employs about 275 employees at its Maryville facility at 1029 Ross Drive. The company also operates 10 other locations in the United States and serves customers in 75 countries.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and other members of Congress were outraged in 2006 when the ports deal was approved.
Schumer, in a written statement, said, "This purchase is not as much of a security risk as Dubai Ports World.
"With proper security reviews, this deal is unlikely to have problems in Congress."
Dubai Aerospace, a company started last year, said it would buy and then sell Landmark's 33 business aircraft terminals, keeping only the company's aircraft maintenance operations.
http://www.thedailytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070327/NEWS/703270317
Firas Nasir Named Managing Director on New MENA Team
MENAFN Press - 27/03/2007
Dubai, UAE – Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced that Firas Nasir joined the new Middle East and North Africa (MENA) team as a Managing Director advising on investments in the Middle East, based in Dubai. Mr. Nasir was previously Executive Director at UBS Investment Bank.
Managing Director and Head of the MENA team Walid Musallam said, “Nasir brings world-class transactional knowledge and a global perspective to this new position. He has a track record of success, a keen understanding of deal sourcing and financing and a breadth of sector expertise. With his joining our senior management team is now in place.”
Mr. Nasir said, “I am thrilled to join such a high caliber global firm as The Carlyle Group. There is significant investment potential throughout the Middle East and I look forward to turning these possibilities into successes for our investors.”
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093147885
Ensus announces investment to fund UK bioethanol plant
Posted by Giles Clark, London
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
The Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings have agreed to acquire and invest in Ensus Limited and provide funding for development of the company’s first bioethanol plant in the UK.
The Ensus facility will have an annual production capacity of over 400 million litres of bioethanol and will be based at the Wilton International site in Teesside, an integrated petrochemical complex in the North East of England. Construction will start in Q2 2007, with full production expected to begin in early 2009.
The project is anticipated to lead to significant job creation, with up to 800 employed during the construction phase and approximately 100 employed once the plant is fully operational. The Ensus plant will use wheat as its feedstock, sourced from local markets. The incremental demand for agricultural crops from biofuels will provide significant stimulation to the rural economy and provide a new source of financial support for the farming community.
The Ensus team is supported by a group of partners, each a leader in its respective field, with whom the business has contractual relations: Shell has contracted to off-take all of the bioethanol produced; Glencore will provide all of the grain requirements; the manufacturing facility is being built by Simon Carves, with technology licensed from Katzen; Sembcorp are providing the utilities at Wilton; and Vopak are providing the specialised bioethanol storage and handling facilities.
http://www.biofuelreview.com/content/view/877/
AND
http://www.legalweek.com/Articles/1018906/Haliwells+boosts+green+credentials+with+250m+renewables.html
TA Associates buys into K2 William Hutchings
28 Mar 2007
TA Associates, the US private equity firm which last week bought UK asset manager Jupiter, has bought a minority stake in K2 Advisors, a $5.5bn (€5.1bn) US fund of hedge funds, in the latest combination between the two industries.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but K2 said it would invest $100m of the proceeds in its existing products. It would also foster new funds, it said. The firm's management will be unchanged and its approach will be untouched.
The transaction will also allow it to widen its ownership among its employees.
http://www.financialnews-us.com/?page=ushome&contentid=2447465603
Trade Official: Barriers Remain in China
By AUDRA ANG Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
BEIJING — American businesses are having a hard time operating in China because of significant trade barriers that remain despite efforts by Beijing to keep World Trade Organization commitments, a U.S. trade official said Thursday.
Franklin Lavin, undersecretary of commerce for international trade, said that while China and the U.S. have an overall positive relationship and that Beijing has "by and large honored its WTO commitments," there are still "a cluster of issues" challenging commercial ties between the two mammoth economies.
"There are an enormous number of market-access barriers, impediments that make it more difficult for U.S. business operating in the market," Lavin told American entrepreneurs in Beijing.
U.S. officials have singled out China's failure to protect U.S. copyrights, government subsidies and regulations that favor domestic companies as ways that are limiting U.S. companies' competitiveness in China.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4671350.html
Carlyle Group takes share in steel-tube manufacturer
By Fu Chenghao 2007-3-31
UNITED States buyout firm Carlyle Group has acquired a 49 percent stake in China's Yangzhou Chengde Steel Tube Co for US$80 million, in its latest push to buy into the country's industrial sector.
Carlyle has received all regulatory approvals for the deal, which was completed on Thursday, the companies said in a joint statement released yesterday.
"Carlyle's wide reach in global industrial companies could bring us crucial resources and benefit our partners and clients in the future," said Zhang Huaide, Yangzhou Chengde's founder and chairman.
Carlyle has acquired John Maneely Co, the largest steel-pipe maker in North America.
Carlyle's brand can also help Yangzhou Chengde attract more senior management and broaden its businesses home and abroad, Zhang added.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200703/20070331/article_311001.htm
Neil Bush of Saudi Arabia
By Bill Berkowitz
Created Mar 29 2007 - 9:22am
During recent visit, President's brother describes the country as a 'kind of
tribal democracy'
In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri
Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the
capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years,
showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported
that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial
and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview
with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country
as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Neil Mallon Bush, the son of President George H. W. Bush and the brother of
President George W. Bush, attended the forum to renew old family friendships
and to drum up a little business for his educational software company. "The
Jeddah Economic Forum has been very productive," Bush told Arab News. "I
have been to this conference four times since 2002. I have seen it develop
from the very beginning. There was less participation in the past, now there
is more international participation."
These days, Neil Bush is the chairman and CEO of Ignite Learning, a company
devoted to developing technology-assisted curriculum. Ignite calls it COW:
"Curriculum on Wheels." In an interview with Arab News' Siraj Wahab, Bush
talked enthusiastically about his company's mission: "We are building a
model in the United States for developing curriculum that is engaging to
grade-school kids, and our model is to deploy this engaging content through
a device. So it is easy for any teacher to use our device through projectors
and speakers. The curriculum is loaded on the device. We use animation and
video and those kinds of things to light up learning in classrooms for kids.
It helps teachers connect with their kids. We are planning to develop an
Arabic version of that model."
http://bbs.whatpissesyouoff.com/showthread.php?t=204585
Cheney: Withdrawal From Iraq Would Validate al Qaeda’s Strategy
In a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership in Manalapan, Fla., Cheney said some people believe pulling out of Iraq before the country can fend for itself would strengthen the hand of the United States in the war on terror. “This myth is dangerous because it represents a complete validation of the al Qaeda strategy,” he said.
(PressZoom) - WASHINGTON, March 29, 2007 – An arbitrary U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would tell al Qaeda’s leaders they’ve been right all along and would embolden the terror organization to launch more audacious attacks against the United States, Vice President Richard B. Cheney said last night.
In a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership in Manalapan, Fla., Cheney said some people believe pulling out of Iraq before the country can fend for itself would strengthen the hand of the United States in the war on terror.
“This myth is dangerous because it represents a complete validation of the al Qaeda strategy,” he said. “The terrorists do not expect to be able to beat us in a stand-up fight. They never have, and they're not likely to try. The only way they can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon the mission -- and the terrorists do believe that they can force that outcome.
http://presszoom.com/story_127952.html
Cheney to Deliver BYU Commencement Speech - Officials OK Protest
BYU College Democrats Will Protest Cheney but Not the Invitation
Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to deliver the commencement speech at Brigham Young University on April 26. Despite public controversy about the invitation, BYU officials defend their decision but will also allow a protest by the College Democrats to take place on April 4th. The demonstration will take place on the quad next to the library on the BYU campus. Carri Jenkins, BYU spokesperson, says, "We recognize that members of our campus community are entitled to their opinions."
According to Diane Bailey, president of the College Democrats, "We're not protesting Cheney's invitation, we're protesting his policies. I hope it stirs political debate...we're not just a campus of conservative Republican students." Some students in the group would prefer Cheney not attend the graduation ceremonies at all, citing Cheney's support of torture in interrogation, his involvement in the Valerie Plame affair, and communicating uncertain information about Saddam Hussein's possession of nuclear weapons. Bailey would prefer to keep the protest soley for students and hopes their demonstration is not hijacked by extremists and political activists.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/196920/cheney_to_deliver_byu_commencement.html
Patrick seeks reversal of Romney’s stem cell research regulations
By Associated Press
Friday, March 30, 2007 - Updated: 01:15 PM EST
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick said Friday he will push to reverse stem cell research restrictions imposed by his predecessor, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
The changes last August prompted complaints from researchers who said they could be prohibited from using some embryonic stem cells. They also argued the restrictions undercut a 2005 law that had been approved by the Legislature over Romney’s veto.
Patrick told a meeting of the Life Sciences Collaborative on Friday that he would ask the Public Health Council, which approved the changes, to revisit the policy. In effect, Patrick will be able to reverse the policy, since he will gain control over the panel next week amid an overhaul linked to the state’s new health insurance law.
http://news.bostonherald.com/localPolitics/view.bg?articleid=191881
Romney lists his running-mate picks
by
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Thursday dropped some names of potential running mates in the 2008 race, but added such speculation is a bit premature.
Among those Romney mentioned for the second slot on the Republican ticket were three Southerners -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
"There's some wonderful people right here in this state, as you know, Gov. Sanford being one of them," the former Massachusetts governor said to a round of applause in Bluffton, S.C., after being asked about vice presidential picks by a member of a crowd of about 400 people gathered for his campaign stop in this early-voting state.
http://www.gay.com/news/election/article.html?2007/03/30/2
Romney: Iowa Christian Alliance Board Member Keith Hunter Joins Romney For President
3/30/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kevin Madden
March 30, 2007
Boston, MA – Governor Mitt Romney today announced that Keith Hunter, a board member with the Iowa Christian Alliance, has joined his Iowa campaign as a volunteer. Hunter will assist the campaign as it continues to build a strong grassroots organization in Iowa.
"I am pleased to welcome Keith Hunter to my Iowa campaign team," said Governor Romney. "Keith brings with him a wealth of campaign experience, and is an important leader in Iowa's conservative movement. He will help make sure we bring proven conservative principles back to our nation's capital."
With today's announcement, Keith Hunter said, "I am honored to join Governor Romney's campaign efforts here in Iowa. Governor Romney has a strong record of conservative leadership and is ready to bring innovation and transformation to our government. I look forward to working with grassroots activists to spread the Governor's record of action to every corner of Iowa."
http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=92388
Romney courts students with cash
David Brand
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: News
Though advisers to former Gov. Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign think they have found the ultimate incentive -- cold hard cash -- to attract college students to get involved in fundraising efforts, some say they hope students don't buy into the strategy.
College-aged volunteers for the Romney campaign stand to receive a 10-percent cut of any funds they raise over $1,000 as part of the Students for Mitt program, announced March 27.
"This is a grassroots program fueled by involvement of college students," said Romney campaign spokesman Alex Burgos.
Burgos said the Romney campaign is emulating strategies of other politicians, such as fellow presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Gov. Deval Patrick, who have used online social networks, including Facebook.com, MySpace.com and YouTube.com, to foster a grassroots interests among young people.
http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2007/03/30/News/Romney.Courts.Students.With.Cash-2815007.shtml
Romney names Jeb Bush as possible No. 2
From the Associated Press
March 30, 2007
BLUFFTON, S.C. — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Thursday dropped some names of potential running mates in the 2008 race, adding that such speculation was premature.
Among those Romney mentioned for the second slot on the Republican ticket were three Southerners: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
"There's some wonderful people right here in this state, as you know, Gov. Sanford being one of them," said Romney, formerly governor of Massachusetts, to a round of applause. He had been asked about vice presidential picks by a member of a crowd of about 400 people gathered for his campaign stop in this earlyvoting state.
"I have to be honest with you, I haven't given a lot of thought to that, so I don't want to put any names in that hat right now," Romney said.
But he did say Bush was "quite a guy."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney30mar30,1,6783859.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true
Scratch Mitt Romney off your list (Jeb Bush possible VP)
As previously discussed, the Mitt Romney campaign includes a few people linked to Jeb Bush. Now, Romney says his list of potential vice-presidential candidates includes Newt Gingrich, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford and SC Senator Jim DeMint, and... Jeb Bush.
Even as a trial balloon and as a meaningless shout-out to the person from whom he got a few staffers, that's a scary thought and one that should immediately disqualify him from any further consideration. We can't afford four or eight more years of Bush policies.
http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/006507.html
Condi's Free Ride
Mainstream US media outlets were alone in their willingness to swallow the preposterous narratives offered by Rice's State Department spinners on the significance of her latest diplomatic effort, says Tony Karon.
The Fantasy of American Diplomacy in the Middle East
They must serve up some pretty powerful Kool Aid in the press room down at Foggy Bottom, judging by U.S. media coverage of Condi Rice's latest "Look Busy" tour of the Middle East.
Secretary of State Rice's comings and goings have long been greeted with a jaded disdain by the Arab and Israeli media. As Gideon Levy wrote plaintively (and typically) in Israel's Haaretz last August,
"Rice has been here six times in the course of a year and a half, and what has come of it? Has anyone asked her about this? Does she ask herself? It is hard to understand how the secretary of state allows herself to be so humiliated. It is even harder to understand how the superpower she represents allows itself to act in such a hollow and useless way. The mystery of America remains unsolved: How is it that the United States is doing nothing to advance a solution to the most dangerous and lengthiest conflict in our world?"
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/opinion/?id=20198
U.S. judges slow to disclose travel
Staff and agencies
21 March, 2007
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A new requirement that federal judges promptly tell the public about their expense-paid trips has so far produced no disclosures, a judicial ethics watchdog group said Wednesday.
Then, within 30 days of the end of each trip, judges must file a report about it. Local court Web sites will have the information. Until this year, judges didn‘t have to report their expense-paid travel until their annual financial disclosures.
The lack of disclosures could be the result of a decision by the courts to exempt trips for which invitations were issued before Jan. 1. The policy does not mention any exemption, but Richard Carelli, a spokesman for the courts, said, "It is a matter of getting to the real-world implementation of the policy that was passed in September 2006."
Kendall also found the judicial branch is not posting on its Web site information provided by trip sponsors despite language adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States, a 27-judge body led by Chief Justice John Roberts.
http://www.localnewswatch.com/benton/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=79598
DRI - the Voice of the Defense Bar Supports Salary Increase for Federal Judges
Nation's Largest Organization of Civil Defense Attorneys Backs Chief
Justice John Roberts' Call for Competitive Federal Judicial Salaries
CHICAGO, March 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- DRI - the Voice of the
Defense Bar, the nation's largest organization of civil defense attorneys,
is urging lawmakers to implement a significant salary increase for federal
judges across the board.
"While salaries in private practices are on the rise, the same can not
be said for the judges serving in some of the most important courts in the
land," said Patrick Long, President of DRI. "The fact that a first year
associate at a law firm can make almost as much, and in some cases perhaps
more than a federal trial judge should be a wake up call that we need to
take an immediate and focused look at federal judicial salaries."
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts first identified the
problem of poor judiciary salaries in a year-end report on the federal
judiciary. In comparison to salaries of private practitioners who have the
qualifications to be federal judges, Chief Justice Roberts reported that
the pay disparity for federal judges is "so enormous as to almost lack
relevance."
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-15-2007/0004547202&EDATE=
Civil liberties going up in smoke
Marta Cook, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
It requires intellect and legal knowledge to navigate through the smoke and mirrors of Supreme Court decision-making. Last Monday, the Supreme Court heard a high school boy from Alaska defend his waving of a banner with the ever-so-cryptic message "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as the Olympic torch passed through Juneau five years ago. His principal promptly suspended him for ten days on the grounds that this sign was disruptive and promoted illegal behavior. Although the student admittedly had no point displaying the banner (he probably was not too clear-headed), the Supreme Court ought not let this case become a precedent to slowly but surely narrow the scope of the First Amendment.
Although the banner may not have been especially tasteful, the school board's position that it was offensive is rather weak. Kenneth Starr, the attorney representing the school board, argued that the 1969 ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District gave the precedent to allow high schools to restrict lewd or disruptive speech. In the present case, there are no reports that the banner caused mass chaos or neighborhood riots.
More than that, though, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" is nothing more than nonsensical, much less lewd. Regardless, it is not clear where and when Americans won the right not to be offended. Some people are understandably offended by racist remarks. Others, like myself, find the smell emanating from their brothers' cleats offensive. Clearly the "offensive" defense does not hold much water.
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=29801&pid=1568
Coming to Order
How the Supreme Court really works.
BY JOHN O. MCGINNIS
Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
President George H.W. Bush, she reveals, was planning to nominate Kenneth Starr, then solicitor general, but was talked out of it by Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, who threatened to resign if Mr. Bush did so. The decision to cast aside Mr. Starr for David Souter--a New Hampshire judge who had little sense of the national debates in which the court inevitably participates--ranks as one of the great blunders in the history of Supreme Court nominations. Others were no less painful. Dwight Eisenhower famously said of his presidency: "I made two mistakes and both of them are sitting on the Supreme Court." He was referring to Earl Warren and William Brennan. By contrast, George W. Bush may have reason, in future years, to say something famously about his two court triumphs.
Mr. Bush was determined not to repeat his father's mistake, as Ms. Greenburg shows. When Justice O'Connor announced her retirement, he vetted many nominees. He settled on John Roberts not only because he had a glittering résumé and sound views but because he would be a "good colleague" and not alienate his fellow justices. (Mr. Roberts would eventually replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died in September 2005.) After the debacle of the Harriet Miers nomination, quickly withdrawn, Mr. Bush chose Samuel Alito for essentially the same reasons: impeccable credentials and a measure of the collegiality that Mr. Bush saw in Mr. Roberts. Both men are now in a position to appeal to Justice Kennedy, the key swing vote on the court, and perhaps even to Justice Breyer.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009786
New Book Sounds Alarm on Conservative High Court
Tony Mauro
Legal Times
March 28, 2007
For most Supreme Court watchers, the jury is still out on how conservative the Roberts Court will be. Some of the still-pending blockbuster rulings -- "partial-birth" abortion and the use of race in public school class assignments, to name two -- will shed light on the question. But even then, the answer may not be certain, especially if they produce fractured or extremely narrow rulings.
First Amendment attorney and legal analyst Martin Garbus, however, is not waiting for any jury, metaphorical or otherwise, before he proclaims the Roberts Court guilty as charged for upending the Bill of Rights and turning the constitutional clock back, more or less, to the Paleozoic Era.
In his new book, "The Next 25 Years: The New Supreme Court and What It Means for Americans," Garbus lays out a case that the Court's new justices, John Roberts Jr. and Samuel Alito Jr. -- aided and abetted by the other conservatives, including Anthony Kennedy -- are hell-bent on doing irreparable damage to the doctrines we have grown accustomed to. "For at least the next 25 years, a conservative Supreme Court is determined to eradicate much of 20th-century law and establish an imperial presidency while dramatically disenfranchising the voters by cutting down the power of Congress," Garbus proclaims.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1174986234404
Guamanian Guacamole
With only two decisions issued today, the Supreme Court's molasses-like pace of resolving cases continues. As Bloomberg's Greg Stohr reports today (via How Appealing,) the Court is significantly behind its output of recent years. Hard issues like partial-birth abortion and the use of race in public school class assignments are probably bogging things down, and with the two relative newcomers -- John Roberts, Jr. and Samuel Alito, Jr. -- traditional alliances and the tricks for winning majorities are still undergoing a makeover. In his NPR quiz show appearance last weekend, Justice Stephen Breyer again deployed his oft-repeated mantra that "I’ve never heard a voice raised in anger" among justices in his 12 years at the Court.
Whether it is a cause or a corollary of the slow pace, Roberts' goal of unanimity -- even if it means deciding cases very narrowly -- seems in peril. Case in point: today's ruling in Limtiaco v. Camacho, which resolves the burning questions of when Guam Supreme Court rulings become final, and how Guam's public debt should be calculated. Even though the author Justice Clarence Thomas stressed that "our holding is limited to the unique procedural circumstances presented here," Thomas could not hold a unanimous Court. Here's the breakdown, from the text of the opinion:
THOMAS, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court with respect to Part II, and the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, III, and IV, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and SCALIA, KENNEDY, and BREYER, JJ., joined. SOUTER, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which STEVENS, GINSBURG, and ALITO, JJ., joined.
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2007/03/guamanian_guaca.html
Chief Justice Roberts, man of mystery
11:05 AM CST on Saturday, March 10, 2007
James Ragland jragland@dallasnews.com
He came. He spoke. He left.
And save for the 600 to 700 guests invited to hear him speak, few people were even aware that U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts was in Dallas.
He spoke Wednesday to a crowd made up mostly of University of Texas School of Law alums, and the media were not invited.
Some participants said they were told that no one was allowed to record the speech or take photographs of Justice Roberts.
A reporter from this newspaper was turned away, leaving unsatiated whatever immediate public appetite there may have been for the justice's remarks.
Not that the public was starving for anything Justice Roberts had to say, mind you.
Truth is, most people don't know who he is – not by name, anyway – or any of his colleagues on the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court….
… Kirston Fortune, assistant dean of communications for UT's law school, said organizers took their cue from the chief justice's handlers.
"The difficulty was that we had some trouble accommodating the crowd we had. Do we have any regrets? No. It was a great event."
We'll have to take her word for that – at least for a while.
The good news, you see, is that organizers hired a Dallas videographer to record the speech at the Belo Mansion, home of the Dallas Bar Association, and they plan to post it on their law school's Web site "as soon as possible," probably next week, Ms. Fortune said.
The speech was part of the third annual Tex Lezar lecture series. Justice Roberts was a friend of the late Harold Joseph "Tex" Lezar, who worked in President Ronald Reagan's Justice Department and married Merrie Spaeth, who handled PR for Mr. Reagan and runs a Dallas-based consulting firm called Spaeth Communications.
Her influence helped bring the chief justice to Dallas, organizers and participants said.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/jragland/stories/DN-ragland_10met.ART0.North.Edition1.4477174.html
Hillary's Bitter Pill: Women Can't Stand Her
Carey Roberts
Hillary Clinton’s polling numbers are tumbling, but the real shocker is how poorly she is faring with the female electorate. According to the recent Rasmussen poll, 43% of women say they will not vote for Hillary. And the latest poll by John Zogby reported an almost identical number – 42% of women would not vote for Mrs. Clinton under any circumstances.
Hillary’s gender problem is underscored by the bootleg Apple Computer 1984 ad. [www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo] The person who hurls the hammer at Hillary’s Big Sister image is not some 40-something pony-tailed biker dude. No, it’s a young, athletic woman, exactly the demographic that Hillary hopes will put her over the top in November 2008.
Do a web search and you’ll find websites (such as www.allwomenagainsthillary.com) and chat rooms buzzing with women who are flabbergasted at the mere thought of Hillary as 44th president of the United States.
One writes, “I, as a woman, would love to see a woman president, but am willing to wait for the right one.” Some refer to her has Hillary the Horrible or simply “that cold “b*tch.” At one recent conference, a smiling co-ed offered me a Hillary Barf Bag.
Many Democrats can’t stomach the idea of Hillary as president, either. The Zogby poll found that among likely Democratic voters, a surprising 18% stated they “would never cast a vote in Clinton’s favor.”
http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/croberts_20070329.html
Wooing women voters
Hillary Clinton aims to bolster her standing as she inaugurates a campaign targeting salary parity, more
BY GLENN THRUSH
glenn.thrush@newsday.com
March 7, 2007
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton placed her left hand on a Bible and her right had in the air while a smirking Chief Justice John Roberts issued the oath of office.
The video pre-enactment of Clinton's 2008 inauguration - with actors in the leading roles - nearly stole the show yesterday at the annual meeting of EMILY's List, where the real Sen. Clinton unveiled a break-the-glass-ceiling campaign theme before 1,300 members of the powerful political action committee that backs abortion rights.
Today, Clinton targets another key group - New Yorkers - as she holds a closed-door meeting with the state's congressional delegation to woo uncommitted members to her cause.
"Women are a majority of the voters, a majority of students in college and we are a growing presence in the Congress. ... Together we can break that hardest and highest of glass ceilings," Clinton told a somewhat subdued crowd of 1,300 at EMILY's List.
To that end, former White House spokeswoman and Planned Parenthood official Ann Lewis is creating a voter outreach campaign targeting younger women, whose voting rates have lagged.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushill075120890mar07,0,6216977,print.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print
Scalia and Harvard Law Professor Trade Barbs in Court
Mark Sherman
The Associated Press
03-29-2007
Two outsized personalities clashed at the Supreme Court on Wednesday and one of them, Justice Antonin Scalia, was briefly silenced by a barbed comment that left other justices laughing.
Longtime Harvard law professor Arthur Miller, rarely at a loss for words himself, was arguing on behalf of shareholders who want to sue companies for fraud. Miller is a frequent television commentator, prolific writer and possibly the inspiration for an abrasive professor in a popular account of life at Harvard.
Scalia and Miller were contemporaries at Harvard Law School in the late 1950s. Miller graduated in 1958, two years ahead of Scalia.
Scalia clearly was on the side of the companies, chiming in from time to time to make Miller's difficult task a bit harder.
After one remark, Miller let loose: "Is that because you never met a plaintiff you really liked?"
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1175072636563&pos=ataglance
Roberts's Supreme Court Falls Behind in Pace of Issuing Rulings
By Greg Stohr
March 27 (Bloomberg) -- As U.S. Supreme Court cases go, Global Crossing v. Metrophones, an administrative-law tussle over pay-phone fees, hardly looms as a landmark. That's why lawyers in the dispute are so puzzled that almost six months after hearing arguments, the court hasn't ruled.
The case has become a symbol of John Roberts's second year as chief justice, one in which the court has fallen well behind its typical schedule. Six months into the 2006-07 term, the justices have issued only 19 signed opinions, 12 fewer than at this point a year ago.
``I don't remember the pace of opinions ever being this slow,'' said Roy Englert, a Washington lawyer who argued his first Supreme Court case in 1987 and represented Metrophones Telecommunications Inc. in the Oct. 10 pay-phone argument.
While the court may release more opinions today, the delays, coupled with an unusually large number of April arguments, mean the vast majority of rulings will come in the term's final three months. Still to be decided are potentially far-reaching cases on abortion, school integration, student free-speech rights and election spending.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aNUOrt6kXUP4&refer=us
Bechtel to Expand in Azerbaijan
Sharg 30/03/2007 20:09
Heydar Babayev, the Minister of the Economic Development of Azerbaijan accepted the representatives of Bechtel Corporation from America in Baku in March 29.
The Ministry of the Economic Development informs that the aim of the negotiations was to discuss perspectives of the cooperation.
Babayev underlined the leadership of the country for development tempos not only over the CIS (the Commonwealth of Independent States) but also all over the world and spoke about the policy of usage of oil and gas revenues, about the plans of unification of oil and gas pipelines, motor roads and railways of the country and the countries of the Central Asia.
“We might discuss the realization of the projects with Bechtel Corporation, particularly in the sphere of infrastructure, agriculture, petrochemistry and construction of power stations,” he added.
Charles Redman, the regional president of the corporation spoke about activity of the company and stated about its readiness to study carefully the propositions of the government on participation in the projects.
http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=35611
UF trustees sidestep Bush degree controversy
By Jack Stripling
Sun staff writer
March 30. 2007 3:25PM
University of Florida trustees had considered awarding former Gov. Jeb Bush an honorary degree despite Faculty Senate opposition, but the board's chair said Friday that he's ready to move forward and put the issue to rest.
"I hope we can almost pass this event with the kind of grace that we all have," Manny Fernandez, the board's chair, told fellow trustees at a Friday meeting.
"I think it's time to move on," he added.
The Faculty Senate voted 38-28 last week to deny Bush an honorary degree because some questioned Bush's record in higher education.
One faculty member who opposed giving Bush the degree cited his approval of three new medical schools during his tenure, which she said had diluted resources and hurt UF. Others said Bush had weakened the state's university governance structure.
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/LOCAL/70330019/-1/news
War Profiteering: How do Economic Sanctions affect Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.?
by Anthony Newkirk
Global Research, March 29, 2007
Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Sanctions-Buster!
Economic sanctions have been applied on Iran pursuant to a US sponsored United Nations Security Council resolution. Recent reports in the New York Times and the Washington Post focus on U.S. pressures on foreign companies and governments which are known to either support or have business ties with Iran. Curiously, these reports do not mention Halliburton Energy Services Inc, a company with direct links to the Vice President's Office, which has, despite the US sponsored sanctions, important investments in Iran's energy sector.1
Late last month, Halliburton’s public relations department announced that the oilfield services firm will sell its KBR unit that is mired in the Nigerian bribery scandal. Then on March 11 came truly bizarre news: Halliburton’s corporate headquarters will move from Houston to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Even with last year's furor over Dubai Ports World, the public response so far has been crashing silence. But I suppose that only makes sense as U.S.-UAE relations aren't newsworthy either (Lockheed Martin's sale of 80 F-16 fighters, on-going free trade talks, and the Navy’s contract with Dubai-owned Inchcape Shipping Services).2
Reducing corporate tax liability seems to be a motive for Halliburton management who want to relocate company headquarters to Dubai. Nor do the United States and the UAE have an extradition treaty, which Halliburton executives may find useful someday.3 But this is nothing next to the fact that Halliburton already has an institutional presence in Dubai and is violating U.S. embargoes against "rogue states" if not directly, then at least in spirit.
Incorporated in the Cayman Islands, Halliburton Products and Services Limited (HPSL) works out of an office in Dubai. Halliburton claims that HPSL is an "independent" foreign subsidiary that is not directly managed by U.S. citizens. Halliburton argues that it therefore does not have to pay taxes on HPSL's revenues. The argument continues that, not being managed by U.S. citizens, Halliburton’s foreign subsidiaries are not subject to U.S. legal restrictions. But the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control maintains that "U.S. persons may not approve, finance, facilitate or guarantee any transaction by a foreign person where that transaction by a foreign person would be prohibited if performed by a U.S. person or from the United States."4 No matter. Besides, perhaps I miss the point but how can HPSL be both a "subsidiary" and "independent" at the same time?
Ever since the start of the Bush administration, anyone who cared to know could learn that Halliburton was under Federal investigation for violating sanctions against Iran. It is also common knowledge – that is, among those who care to know – that some of the deeds in question may have begun when Vice-President Dick Cheney was Halliburton’s CEO in the 1990s nor has there been a criminal prosecution in relation to any of them.5
Illegal or not, HPSL’s work in Iran has been interesting. In January 2005, after an Iranian newspaper reported it, Halliburton admitted that HPSL won a sub-contract from Oriental Kish Oil, a private Iranian company, to develop a section of the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf. But supposedly fearing for national security, the new Ahmadinejad regime blocked HPSL’s participation in the project in September (a high-level Oriental Kish executive was also a key negotiator with the IAEA and western powers about Iran's civilian nuclear program).6
It was sometime during this period, sources claim, that Halliburton sold components for nuclear reactors to Iran via HPSL. If this is true and if the Iranian nuclear program does have a military component, the implications are unspeakable. Did representatives of Halliburton, or any of its corporate entities, consider risks to U.S. national security during phases of the South Pars negotiations? Does HPSL still keep an office in Tehran? These are not trivial questions for besides HPSL, at least five Halliburton foreign subsidiaries have sold products and services to customers in Iran (incidentally, this information is confirmed by a 2003 company report posted on the Halliburton website).7
What does America’s most famous former Halliburton employee think about his old company’s purported links with Iran? When he was CEO in 1998, Cheney put it this way: "I think we'd be better off if we…backed off those sanctions [and] didn't try to impose secondary boycotts on companies...trying to do business over there." Straight-shooting talk but are they the words of a rugged patriot?8 In some people’s minds, they may conjure up memories of unpunished treason by certain "U.S. persons" during World War II.
The comeback that Halliburton is not the only sanctions-buster is childish. On the other hand, "vigorous" enforcement of current embargo legislation caters to warmongers in our country. At issue is Halliburton's own behavior. But rather than expecting "apologies," we must make sanctions-busting and war-profiteering unprofitable. How? A boycott movement directed at business that deal with Halliburton is in order. Efforts by municipal and state authorities over the past few years to "clean up" employee pension funds are also positive steps. For their part, national law-makers must develop full-blown and consistent legislation that does not punish foreign populations but rather American sanctions-busters. Congress and President Bush should hold Halliburton liable for the actions of its foreign subsidiaries. Assuming that our elected leaders have the "political will" to do so.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NEW20070329&articleId=5227
Kyl-ing Us Softly, With His Song (And Dance): Hypocrisy In Gaming Legislation
...By Nelson Lardner
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is widely credited to have circulated within the United States Senate in recent days an unsigned letter, addressed to President Bush, regarding the working details to be finalized regarding last fall's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
Literally anonymous, said letter has gained wide circulation on gaming websites. The meat of the matter is contained in the second paragraph - vital reading, given that the finishing touches regarding the implementation of this legislation are to be installed this spring:
"Any progress made over the last several months may evaporate if immediate action is not taken to ensure strong and effective implementing regulations. The House Financial Services Report explained, 'The legislation contemplates a mechanism whereby banks and other financial service providers will be provided with the identity of specific Internet gambling bank accounts to which payments are to be prohibited.' In other words, the Federal government needs to provide banks with lists of unlawful Internet gambling businesses."
There is unintended hilarity, therein. Rep. Barney Frank (4th - MASS) is currently the Chairman of the House Financial Services committee, and holds the UIGEA in low regard, enacted as it was in the dead of night, attached to an unrelated must-pass Port Security bill by Sen. Bill Frist, a politician with dashed presidential delusions, regardless driven to kowtow to his Christian-right base.
Frist has since departed the Senate, as has one of the House sponsors of the bill, Iowa's Jim Leach (the former House Financial Services committee chairman), who was unceremoniously voted out of office after a thirty-year run. Get the picture? For forever, this legislation was a huge underdog to pass both U.S. legislative houses on its own, following any semblance of open debate. This makes the statement in the fourth paragraph of this now notorious letter, to wit: "We renew our request that you ensure that law enforcement and regulatory personnel commit the resources needed to identify illegal Internet gambling businesses and give the new law THE TEETH THAT CONGRESS INTENDED IT TO HAVE (emphasis ours)", ludicrous. Please. That statement failed to pass the veracity test, at the time - and it's even more out of touch now, given the current legislative paradigm. Elections do have consequences.
It was noted in the first paragraph of the letter under discussion that related companies (all based OUTSIDE the U. S.) traded on the London exchange lost over $7 BILLION in market capitalization in a single day following the bill's passage. One wonders just how many major stock market players - many of them no doubt significant GOP contributors - were amused by the passage of this legislation and the subsequent evisceration of share values of companies deeply-involved in the net-gaming business? Unless you had information, and were on the short side . . .
Sen. Kyl has been repeatedly quoted to the effect that "a professor once appropriately likened Internet gambling to cocaine use."
Come, now. From the bluenose, religious-right perspective, gambling's an unmitigated evil. But the UIGEA gives off more than a whiff of stateside protectionism, sheltering as it does certain sacred cows - many of them with a significant U.S. (and, prominently, Arizona) presence - while also looking ahead to the possible participation of major American corporate gaming presences in a legalized environment.
Let's see -- just what kind of legalized-gaming entertainment can you sink your wallet into around Arizona's highways? Quite a varied menu, actually.
Thoroughbred racing: Turf Paradise. Been there. Nice place, as racetracks go.
Greyhound racing: Phoenix Greyhound Park. Been there. Set in the midst of a handful of trailer parks. Cheap eats!
Indian casinos: Have peeked inside one of these, as well, and I'm far from the only one. Arizona's tribal-casino empire is sized third in the country, behind those serving the folks visiting California and Connecticut properties.
The Arizona Lottery: Chrono-moronic entertainment for rank suckers with no conception and/or regard for the gross percentages working against them. But, hey, you don't have to play, and the state lottery provides jobs for many -- and essentially-voluntary contributions to state coffers. Revenues have amounted to a fat nine figures over the years.
And we've yet to mention a pet Kyl cause, fantasy sports games, an internet favorite, and also exempted within the UIGEA's strictures. And if you don't think millions of folks don't dedicate serious time - and fee-money, plus any risk-money earmarked for league winners - to their fantasy-league teams, I have a nice bridge to sell you.
The pari-mutuel interests, those operating the Indian games of chance, the leagues which benefit from all that fantasy-league focus - all cough up the cake, in the form of significant campaign contributions.
Sen. Kyl would do a public service by being much more specific regarding just what's crack cocaine, and what isn't.
Overindulgence in any vice is not good. Controlled gaming can be wholly entertaining, while gently scratching an itch. It's past time for Rep. Frank and his like-minded colleagues to have their innings, while looking to minimize detrimental effects of a bad law, one passed under the cover of darkness. The time is now for congressional re-evaluation of the concept of broad legalization loosely based on the Nevada model . . . discussion untainted by contributor's checks and broadly-unpopular stances fuelled solely by political motivations most-crass.
The extensive 2003 research report, "Gambling and Problem Gambling In Arizona" (easily accessible online) contains the following gem, on page iv:
"Problem gamblers in Arizona in need of services are most likely to gamble regularly on the lottery and at a casino."
You want to talk about crack cocaine? Right in Arizona's backyard?
Let's. And while we're at it, keep the one about glass houses and stones in mind.
03-29-07
Nelson Lardner
MajorWager.com
lardner@majorwager.com
http://majorwager.com/index.cfm?page=27&show_column=466
continued ...
It's a matter of trust
Halliburton of Dubai.
The satellite at the top of the building, with no doubt, helipad or not, shares a direct satellite link with Cheney's Map Room. As a matter of fact the entire building is probably a satellite link. Like that better?
Dubai has some of the nastiest supporters of terrorists in the world and we, as Americans, have to put up with this?
News reports indicate that the UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Libya, yet the House and Senate have failed to publicly question Bush officials regarding their rationale for permitting foreign governments with terrorist links to operate major U.S. ports and buildings.
So serious is the oil-rich Arab emirate’s questionable past, that a February 10, 1999 National Security Council (NSC) email written by former U.S. counter terrorism chief Richard A. Clarke indicated that the NSC was investigating whether high-level UAE officials were in Afghanistan before September 11.
A CIA memo, “Recent High Level UAE Visits to Afghanistan,” confirmed that UAE officials were indeed in Afghanistan at a desert camp; moreover, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff General Hugh Shelton said in a February 5, 2004 interview that his UAE counterpart told him that he had been “hunting at a desert camp in Afghanistan.”
I don't think so !
Halliburton is running from American justice but they can't run away from 'the truth.' Cut the link of exploitive industry from the American treasury. Contracts go to burgeoning American industry that believe in American labor without discrimination of unions. No more no bid contracts and no more companies with one foot in international turmoil and one foot in the USA winning DID contracts.
We want a new and honest America and not more of the same corruption. The Democrats and their candidates need to get busy !
Morning Papers - continued ...
The Washington Post facilitates greed.
Nowhere in The Washington Post over the past several weeks did they mention issues with heroine addiction of soldiers in Afghanistan, yet according to an officer returning to the status of private citizen, the addiction issue is rampant. It is covert because those caught taking heroine and returning to the states with heroine and selling it in their communities are in military prisons. According to this former officer, children have been taken from the home of soldier-addicts to be placed in foster care in large numbers.
The Washington Post speaks ONLY to issues of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as if the addiction issue never could exist.
Additionally, the privatization of Walter Reed is an outrage and completely narrows the access of veterans and active military to care within the military structure. Closing Walter Reed would further limit beds available to soldiers and create even longer waiting lists for care including the very high suicide rate that exists within the ranks.
This is another Halliburton conspiracy by Cheney of the American people. The ever expanding military budget that is finding it's way into Halliburton as it seeks to end it's illegal involvement with KBR in Iraq. When are these people going to be indicted on criminal charges that lead this country astray? When?
If there is any one newsprint in the USA that leads the nation in Pro-Cheney propaganda it's this rag ! If one can break down the confidence in the American people of it's government to give good care of it's military then privatization doors will swing open rather than fixing a system that is SPECIALIZED to handling the needs of the military and it's veterans.
The Washington Post
Walter Reed Deal Hindered by Disputes
By DONNA BORAK
The Associated Press
Sunday, March 18, 2007; 11:15 PM
WASHINGTON -- An Army contract to privatize maintenance at Walter Reed Medical Center was delayed more than three years amid bureaucratic bickering and legal squabbles that led to staff shortages and a hospital in disarray just as the number of severely wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan was rising rapidly.
Documents from the investigative and auditing arm of Congress map a trail of bid, rebid, protests and appeals between 2003, when Walter Reed was first selected for outsourcing, and 2006, when a five-year, $120 million contract was finally awarded.
The disputes involved hospital management, the Pentagon, Congress and IAP Worldwide Services Inc., a company with powerful political connections and the only private bidder to handle maintenance, security, public works and management of military personnel.
While medical care was not directly affected, needed repairs went undone as the non-medical staff shrank from almost 300 to less than 50 in the last year and hospital officials were unable to find enough skilled replacements.
An investigative series by The Washington Post last month sparked a furor on Capitol Hill after it detailed subpar conditions at the 98-year-old hospital in northwest Washington and substandard services for patients. Three top-ranking military officials, including the secretary of the Army, were ousted in part for what critics said was the Pentagon's mismanaged effort to reduce costs and improve efficiency at the Army's premier military hospital while the nation was at war.
IAP is owned by a New York hedge fund whose board is chaired by former Treasury Secretary John Snow, and it is led by former executives of Kellogg, Brown and Root, the subsidiary spun off by Texas-based Halliburton Inc., the oil services firm once run by Vice President Dick Cheney.
IAP finally got the job in November 2006, but further delays caused by the Army and Congress delayed work until Feb. 4, two weeks before the Post series and two years after the number of patients at the hospital hit a record 900.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/18/AR2007031800667.html
McCain Vows Better Care for Veterans
By HOLLY RAMER
The Associated Press
Monday, March 19, 2007; 10:03 PM
NASHUA, N.H. -- Republican presidential hopeful John McCain praised a new apartment building for homeless veterans as a welcome contrast to the shoddy conditions recently revealed at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington.
"This comes at a very important time. This Walter Reed scandal is one which has saddened all of us _ saddened, frustrated and angered all of us, because those of us in positions of authority should never have let it happen," he said Monday.
"What we're seeing today is the other of side of that. What we're seeing today is what Americans who are dedicated and want to help can do for the men and women who have served our country," he said.
McCain, a Vietnam war veteran who endured years of torture as a prisoner of war, spoke at the dedication of Buckingham Place, a 20-unit apartment building that will open next month. Though the city already has a similar facility for single, male veterans, the new building is believed to be one of the first transitional housing facilities in the country for both male and female veterans and their families.
Residents will be allowed to stay for up to two years while they receive job training and any needed mental health and substance abuse services. More than 200 veterans already have applied for spots, said Peter Kelleher, president of Harbor Homes, which developed the project.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031900755.html
U.S. Military Spending Bill at a Glance
By The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 22, 2007; 6:19 PM
-- The House on Thursday debated a $124 billion bill that would:
_Give about $96 billion to the Defense Department, mostly to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
_Require the president to begin pulling an unspecified number of combat troops out
next spring, completing the redeployment on Aug. 31, 2008.
_Add $1 billion to protect against pandemic flu.
_Add $1.7 billion for defense health programs, including efforts to treat brain injuries and post-traumatic stress syndrome.
_Prevent any money from being used to close Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
_Include legislation passed by the House this year that would increase the minimum wage and cut some related small business taxes.
_Add nearly $4 billion for agricultural assistance.
___Also Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $122 billion bill that would:
_Give about $96 billion to the Defense Department, mostly to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
_Require the president to begin pulling an unspecified number of combat troops out within four months of the bill's enactment, with the nonbinding goal of completing the redeployment on March 31, 2008.
_Add $161 million to protect against pandemic flu.
_Add $1.3 billion for defense health programs, including efforts to treat brain injuries and post-traumatic stress syndrome.
_Provide $6.7 billion for hurricane victims.
_Add more than $4 billion for agricultural assistance.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR2007032201531_pf.html
Substandard Conditions at VA Centers Noted
90% of More than 1,000 Problems Reported Are Routine, Officials Say
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A12
A review by the Department of Veterans Affairs of 1,400 hospitals and other veterans care facilities released yesterday has turned up more than 1,000 reports of substandard conditions -- from leaky roofs and peeling paint to bug and bat infestations -- as well as a smaller number of potential threats to patient safety, such as suicide risks in psychiatric wards.
The investigation, ordered March 7 by VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, found problems such as rugs loaded with bacteria from patient "accidents," ceiling and floor tiles with asbestos that needs to be removed, as well as exposed pipes and other fixtures from which mental patients could hang themselves.
"We are committed to being upfront in identifying issues, and we are managing to correct them," said Louise Van Diepen, chief of staff of VA's Veterans Health Administration. "I am pleased that we are managing it aggressively, and most represented wear-and-tear issues, as opposed to the Walter Reed situation," Van Diepen said, referring to the squalid conditions at an outpatient-care building at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which prompted the VA review.
VA officials said that with such a large network of facilities -- encompassing nearly 150 million square feet of space and serving 1 million patients each week -- it was not surprising to find maintenance concerns. They concluded that 90 percent of the issues were routine, while 10 percent involved more serious problems, and that the department's $519 million maintenance budget this year should address the "shortcomings."
Plans for fixing the facilities were outlined, with some taking days or weeks and others requiring years of extensive renovation of buildings dating to the 1920s. In some facilities, the needed repairs were widespread. For example, at a facility in Little Rock, 30 percent of the patient areas' walls and halls need to be repaired, patched and painted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032102583_pf.html
Worries grow over mental health of U.S. soldiers
By Jeremy Pelofsky
Reuters
Wednesday, March 28, 2007; 1:50 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retired U.S. Navy medic Charlie Anderson twice thought about committing suicide: once when he feared he would be sent back to Iraq in 2004 and again last year when a friend and fellow veteran killed himself.
"I can't say that I can't go because we don't do that, I also can't go because I'm putting people in danger if I do," he said of his first brush with suicidal thoughts, which came while he was awaiting his second deployment.
In the end, Anderson was not deployed but it sparked a two-year effort to get help for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), one of thousands of soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan facing a battle to re-enter everyday life.
While much of the attention has been on physical wounds like traumatic brain injuries, as well as squalid living conditions for recovering soldiers, doctors, families and lawmakers are expressing growing concerns that veterans are not be getting the right mental health help.
Those worries come as President George W. Bush has ordered almost 30,000 more troops to Iraq. Already 1.5 million soldiers have been deployed in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, with one-third serving at least two combat tours, which increases the chances of PTSD.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800377_pf.html
The Miami Herald
Hicks pleads guilty, will get maximum 7 years
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Australian David Hicks, who as a 25-year-old trained and served with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty here to supporting terrorism in exchange for serving no more than seven years jailed in his homeland.
In return, Hicks, now 31, will be allowed to leave Guantánamo within 60 days of sentencing, concluding the first U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War II. That means he'll be gone in June.
Under a complex plea agreement, he agreed to a one-year media gag, to forever waive any profit from telling his story, to renounce any claims of mistreatment or unlawful detention -- and to voluntarily submit to U.S. interrogation and to testify at future U.S. trials or international tribunals.
http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/58257.html
Gables Hospital nurses vote to join union
Nurses and other employees at Coral Gables Hospital, a Tenet facility, have voted to join the SEIU Florida Healthcare Union, the union announced Friday.
The results of the vote were revealed to the 316 employees on Thursday. The hospital becomes the ninth group of hospital workers in 15 months to unite in SEIU-FHU.
Employees at two other Tenet hospitals in South Florida, St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach and North Shore Medical Center in Miami, are also members of SEIU-FHU.
SEIU-FHU now represents more than 16,000 hospital and long-term care employees. In the past 15 months, the union says nearly 5,000 workers have joined the Florida union.
Brazilian: Castro's biofuel views are `outdated'
By VIVIAN SEQUERA
Associated Press
BRASILIA, Brazil -- Cuban President Fidel Castro's criticism of biofuels are respectable but outdated because the whole world is heading in the direction of ethanol, Brazil's foreign minister said Thursday.
Celso Amorim said that while he had not read Castro's attack on U.S. biofuel policy in a Cuban newspaper, he felt it represented a respectable, if behind-the-times opinion.
''President Fidel Castro is a person who is a respectable and historically important figure,'' Amorim said.
''He has some ideas that are outdated,'' the minister added, saying that he had accompanied a Brazilian delegation to Havana 20 years ago ''and at that time Castro was already saying alcohol would never work because sugar was a noble product.'' Ethanol is a form of alcohol.
Brazil produces ethanol from sugar cane, while ethanol in the United States is made from corn.
In a front-page editorial Thursday in the Communist Party daily, Castro described the U.S. policy of encouraging the use of biofuels as ``the sinister idea of converting food into fuel.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/58253.html
I-95 south alert: Trains in new lane
Tri-Rail and Amtrak trains will run alongside traffic on Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale when a new 55-foot-high bridge opens Monday.
Drivers heading south on Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale are in for a surprise come rush hour Monday.
For the first time, Tri-Rail trains will run parallel to traffic, at the same level as the expressway, thanks to a new, 55-foot-high fixed bridge.
The $78 million bridge, which has taken about three years to build, will give Tri-Rail and Amtrak a permanent, uninterrupted passage over the New River in Fort Lauderdale.
Currently, the passenger trains must share a drawbridge used by boats, which have priority when it comes to opening and lowering the bridge, said Bonnie Arnold, a Tri-Rail spokeswoman.
http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/57633.html
NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITYNSU students learn about the slaughter in Darfur
College students learned about the atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, where hundreds of thousands have been murdered.
http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/57630.html
HEALTHCARE
Medical equipment firms fuel fraud
Federal investigators took a hard look at medical equipment companies, a primary source of healthcare fraud, and found that almost half don't meet government standards.
Almost half of the medical equipment companies in South Florida do not meet the federal government's minimum standards for operation, a report being released today concludes.
Such companies have long been notorious as sources of Medicare fraud, which the FBI estimates amounts to $1 billion a year in South Florida alone. Deciding to crack down, federal agents in late 2006 made unannounced visits to 1,581 suppliers in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
They found that 31 percent -- 491 suppliers -- did not maintain physical facilities or were not open and staffed when agents visited. Another 14 percent did not meet other required standards.
http://www.miamiherald.com/103/story/57651.html
Florida Senate backs new voting machines
The Florida Senate has signaled its support to buy new opti-scan voting machines across the state for $35 million. The House, meanwhile, has kept silent on the plan.
BY MARC CAPUTO
TALLAHASSEE --
Nearly a month after the state Legislature gave a whoop-filled standing ovation to Gov. Charlie Crist's call for paper-trail voting machines, the state Senate has decided to make good on the idea to spend about $35 million for it all.
Under the plan, the state would pay to replace ATM-style touch-screen voting machines with paper ballot-reading optical-scan machines in every precinct. The biggest winners: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, the largest of the 15 counties with touch-screens, whose accuracy has been doubted by many in numerous elections across the state.
''A lot of people don't think their votes count. Millions of people in the state of Florida doubt whether or not their vote was recorded or not. And we need to do something about it,'' Sen. Alex Villalobos, a Miami Republican and co-sponsor of the bill, said Thursday. He said the state should pay for the machines, even though it's a tight budget year.
But over in the state House, the governor's plan is being met with silence now that the applause from his State of the State speech in the chamber is long gone.
http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/57673.html
Unending plight, unhelpful U.S. policy
OUR OPINION: IMPROVE BORDER SECURITY, TREATMENT OF HAITIANS
The sight of a decrepit boat burdened with more than 100 debilitated Haitians raised two disturbing questions: How could such a vessel sail past the U.S. Coast Guard? Why are Haitians still risking such dangerous voyages? Both answers are disturbing.
The Hallandale Beach landing on Wednesday is the latest incident to indicate that Coast Guard operations have been hampered. Three weeks earlier, 40 Cubans landed at two locations -- Miami Beach and Haulover Beach -- in the middle of a massive drill by federal and local agents designed to block an exodus from Cuba or Haiti.
Expansive shores
The Government Accountability Office and Congress members have complained that U.S. border protection has been diluted as other missions have taken priority. At least two Coast Guard vessels from Key West have been sent to Iraq. Another eight cutters were taken out of commission for repairs as a result of a troubled modernizing project. The Coast Guard insists its mission hasn't been compromised. But Bruce Bagley, a University of Miami professor and longtime Coast Guard monitor, has noted ``significant flows of both drugs and human beings back into South Florida.''
In truth, we could spend the U.S. Treasury and still not have a hermetically sealed border. U.S. shores and land borders are simply too expansive. But the Coast Guard and other enforcement agencies should do better in South Florida.
http://www.miamiherald.com/454/story/57705.html
The Okalahoman
Five injured in Thursday's tornado
Tornado leaves five injured
Five people, including at least one child, were injured in Thursday's tornado in the Oklahoma City metro area, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
The injured include:
•A 7-year-old girl who was treated for cuts and lacerations at Mercy Hospital and later released. She suffered injuries in the 9800 block of W Memorial Road.
•Two people who were hurt when their vehicles were blown off the Kilpatrick Turnpike.
•Jeffrey Nix, 44, and Bridget Nix, 40, both of Memphis, Tenn., who were thrown from a travel trailer in the 10050 block of W Wilshire. Jeffrey Nix is in serious condition at an Oklahoma City hospital, and his wife is in fair condition.
More severe weather approaching
Rain and possible severe weather are expected across the state again today.
A large storm moving in from the west is expected to produce heavy rain in southwestern Oklahoma and into central parts of the state by midafternoon, National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Curl said.
"There will be a chance for severe weather again today,” Curl said. "There's going to be a lot of precipitation. It will be a widespread precipitation event.”
Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management, said isolated tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds are possible today.
"Additionally,” she said, "all of central and eastern Oklahoma remains under a flood watch. The threat of heavy rain may cause flash flooding in central and eastern areas of the state.”
http://www.newsok.com/article/3033901/
Nature of tornado delayed warning
By Robert Medley
Staff Writer
Warning sirens first sounded about eight minutes after a tornado touched down Thursday in far west Oklahoma City, weather experts confirmed Friday.
Mike Foster, the head meteorologist for the National Weather Service forecast office in Norman, said the tornado touched down at Sara Road and NW 39 about 4:05 p.m. A weather advisory was issued by the Norman office at 4:07 p.m., and a warning followed at 4:12 p.m. Sirens in Oklahoma City sounded at 4:13 p.m.
Foster said the funnel formed quickly and gained strength before radar could detect a tornado was inside heavy rain.
"The current technology we have is very good technology, but there are some things it cannot do,” Foster said. "Some of these characteristics of the tornado are very hard to detect, but we had every station monitored (Thursday) and we were in the game. It is not like someone didn't do something.”
Oklahoma City officials said they did everything possible to warn people in the twister's path.
Ronnie Warren, Oklahoma City's emergency management director, said the city sounded 11 sirens in the area of the tornado.
"We warned people,” Warren said Friday, "but we only activate the outdoor warning system based on National Weather Service tornado warnings.”
Still, Oklahoma City residents who watched the winds knock down walls, topple fences, and tear away roofs complained the warnings weren't fast enough.
Debra Vaughan, who lives near NW 122 and Morgan Road, said she never heard a storm siren before the tornado carried away her backyard playground equipment and sent her and three children running for cover.
Terry Heim, who was working near where the tornado struck, said his ears popped as high winds slammed a workshop door shut just after 4 p.m.
"When the tornado hit there were no sirens, no warnings at all,” Heim said.
Foster said the Thursday tornado was not the classic "Great Plains” super cell that can be seen in radar and on the ground by spotters.
The circulation could not be confirmed until 4:21 p.m., when the weather center learned by telephone that a tornado had been on the ground, Foster said.
"We were doing the very best we could,” he said. "Some things are really problematic for us.”
http://www.newsok.com/article/3033973
Officials assessing storm data
By Julie Bisbee
Staff Writer
Officials at the National Weather Service still are assessing tornado damage from yesterday's storm. A tornado warning was issued at 4:12 p.m. lasting until 4:45 p.m. in Oklahoma and Canadian counties, said John Pike, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Norman.
According to preliminary reports, a spotter reported that a tornado touched down four miles southeast of Piedmont at 4:20 p.m. At 4:30 p.m. the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported a tornado touched down three miles northeast of Yukon. Officials with the National Weather Service are still reviewing data and damage from Thursday's tornado and are expected to have a report later today.
The National Weather Service issues warnings and municipal or county emergency management services sound the sirens. Some residents have said tornadoes touched down before sirens were sounded.
The storm system that spawned Thursday's tornado was fast moving and had small features, said Gary England, chief meteorologist for KWTV NEWS 9.
"We expected severe weather. No one expected big tornadoes,” England said. "We knew that was possibility.”
Poor visibility and cloud cover kept storm spotters on the ground from getting a good view of cloud formations. Thursday's tornado also had small subtle features that made it difficult to spot on radar, England said.
"We watch this thing come out of Grady and Caddo County, then all the sudden, bam, the winds turned back and started spinning and finally set down,” England said. "When you've got big tornadoes, we know where they are, where they're going and when they're going to get there. With small ones like we had yesterday it's like having a 2-year-old around the house.”
http://www.newsok.com/article/3033806
Clean up video
http://www.newsok.com/video/117685
continued ...
Nowhere in The Washington Post over the past several weeks did they mention issues with heroine addiction of soldiers in Afghanistan, yet according to an officer returning to the status of private citizen, the addiction issue is rampant. It is covert because those caught taking heroine and returning to the states with heroine and selling it in their communities are in military prisons. According to this former officer, children have been taken from the home of soldier-addicts to be placed in foster care in large numbers.
The Washington Post speaks ONLY to issues of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as if the addiction issue never could exist.
Additionally, the privatization of Walter Reed is an outrage and completely narrows the access of veterans and active military to care within the military structure. Closing Walter Reed would further limit beds available to soldiers and create even longer waiting lists for care including the very high suicide rate that exists within the ranks.
This is another Halliburton conspiracy by Cheney of the American people. The ever expanding military budget that is finding it's way into Halliburton as it seeks to end it's illegal involvement with KBR in Iraq. When are these people going to be indicted on criminal charges that lead this country astray? When?
If there is any one newsprint in the USA that leads the nation in Pro-Cheney propaganda it's this rag ! If one can break down the confidence in the American people of it's government to give good care of it's military then privatization doors will swing open rather than fixing a system that is SPECIALIZED to handling the needs of the military and it's veterans.
The Washington Post
Walter Reed Deal Hindered by Disputes
By DONNA BORAK
The Associated Press
Sunday, March 18, 2007; 11:15 PM
WASHINGTON -- An Army contract to privatize maintenance at Walter Reed Medical Center was delayed more than three years amid bureaucratic bickering and legal squabbles that led to staff shortages and a hospital in disarray just as the number of severely wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan was rising rapidly.
Documents from the investigative and auditing arm of Congress map a trail of bid, rebid, protests and appeals between 2003, when Walter Reed was first selected for outsourcing, and 2006, when a five-year, $120 million contract was finally awarded.
The disputes involved hospital management, the Pentagon, Congress and IAP Worldwide Services Inc., a company with powerful political connections and the only private bidder to handle maintenance, security, public works and management of military personnel.
While medical care was not directly affected, needed repairs went undone as the non-medical staff shrank from almost 300 to less than 50 in the last year and hospital officials were unable to find enough skilled replacements.
An investigative series by The Washington Post last month sparked a furor on Capitol Hill after it detailed subpar conditions at the 98-year-old hospital in northwest Washington and substandard services for patients. Three top-ranking military officials, including the secretary of the Army, were ousted in part for what critics said was the Pentagon's mismanaged effort to reduce costs and improve efficiency at the Army's premier military hospital while the nation was at war.
IAP is owned by a New York hedge fund whose board is chaired by former Treasury Secretary John Snow, and it is led by former executives of Kellogg, Brown and Root, the subsidiary spun off by Texas-based Halliburton Inc., the oil services firm once run by Vice President Dick Cheney.
IAP finally got the job in November 2006, but further delays caused by the Army and Congress delayed work until Feb. 4, two weeks before the Post series and two years after the number of patients at the hospital hit a record 900.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/18/AR2007031800667.html
McCain Vows Better Care for Veterans
By HOLLY RAMER
The Associated Press
Monday, March 19, 2007; 10:03 PM
NASHUA, N.H. -- Republican presidential hopeful John McCain praised a new apartment building for homeless veterans as a welcome contrast to the shoddy conditions recently revealed at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington.
"This comes at a very important time. This Walter Reed scandal is one which has saddened all of us _ saddened, frustrated and angered all of us, because those of us in positions of authority should never have let it happen," he said Monday.
"What we're seeing today is the other of side of that. What we're seeing today is what Americans who are dedicated and want to help can do for the men and women who have served our country," he said.
McCain, a Vietnam war veteran who endured years of torture as a prisoner of war, spoke at the dedication of Buckingham Place, a 20-unit apartment building that will open next month. Though the city already has a similar facility for single, male veterans, the new building is believed to be one of the first transitional housing facilities in the country for both male and female veterans and their families.
Residents will be allowed to stay for up to two years while they receive job training and any needed mental health and substance abuse services. More than 200 veterans already have applied for spots, said Peter Kelleher, president of Harbor Homes, which developed the project.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031900755.html
U.S. Military Spending Bill at a Glance
By The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 22, 2007; 6:19 PM
-- The House on Thursday debated a $124 billion bill that would:
_Give about $96 billion to the Defense Department, mostly to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
_Require the president to begin pulling an unspecified number of combat troops out
next spring, completing the redeployment on Aug. 31, 2008.
_Add $1 billion to protect against pandemic flu.
_Add $1.7 billion for defense health programs, including efforts to treat brain injuries and post-traumatic stress syndrome.
_Prevent any money from being used to close Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
_Include legislation passed by the House this year that would increase the minimum wage and cut some related small business taxes.
_Add nearly $4 billion for agricultural assistance.
___Also Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $122 billion bill that would:
_Give about $96 billion to the Defense Department, mostly to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
_Require the president to begin pulling an unspecified number of combat troops out within four months of the bill's enactment, with the nonbinding goal of completing the redeployment on March 31, 2008.
_Add $161 million to protect against pandemic flu.
_Add $1.3 billion for defense health programs, including efforts to treat brain injuries and post-traumatic stress syndrome.
_Provide $6.7 billion for hurricane victims.
_Add more than $4 billion for agricultural assistance.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR2007032201531_pf.html
Substandard Conditions at VA Centers Noted
90% of More than 1,000 Problems Reported Are Routine, Officials Say
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A12
A review by the Department of Veterans Affairs of 1,400 hospitals and other veterans care facilities released yesterday has turned up more than 1,000 reports of substandard conditions -- from leaky roofs and peeling paint to bug and bat infestations -- as well as a smaller number of potential threats to patient safety, such as suicide risks in psychiatric wards.
The investigation, ordered March 7 by VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, found problems such as rugs loaded with bacteria from patient "accidents," ceiling and floor tiles with asbestos that needs to be removed, as well as exposed pipes and other fixtures from which mental patients could hang themselves.
"We are committed to being upfront in identifying issues, and we are managing to correct them," said Louise Van Diepen, chief of staff of VA's Veterans Health Administration. "I am pleased that we are managing it aggressively, and most represented wear-and-tear issues, as opposed to the Walter Reed situation," Van Diepen said, referring to the squalid conditions at an outpatient-care building at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which prompted the VA review.
VA officials said that with such a large network of facilities -- encompassing nearly 150 million square feet of space and serving 1 million patients each week -- it was not surprising to find maintenance concerns. They concluded that 90 percent of the issues were routine, while 10 percent involved more serious problems, and that the department's $519 million maintenance budget this year should address the "shortcomings."
Plans for fixing the facilities were outlined, with some taking days or weeks and others requiring years of extensive renovation of buildings dating to the 1920s. In some facilities, the needed repairs were widespread. For example, at a facility in Little Rock, 30 percent of the patient areas' walls and halls need to be repaired, patched and painted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032102583_pf.html
Worries grow over mental health of U.S. soldiers
By Jeremy Pelofsky
Reuters
Wednesday, March 28, 2007; 1:50 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retired U.S. Navy medic Charlie Anderson twice thought about committing suicide: once when he feared he would be sent back to Iraq in 2004 and again last year when a friend and fellow veteran killed himself.
"I can't say that I can't go because we don't do that, I also can't go because I'm putting people in danger if I do," he said of his first brush with suicidal thoughts, which came while he was awaiting his second deployment.
In the end, Anderson was not deployed but it sparked a two-year effort to get help for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), one of thousands of soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan facing a battle to re-enter everyday life.
While much of the attention has been on physical wounds like traumatic brain injuries, as well as squalid living conditions for recovering soldiers, doctors, families and lawmakers are expressing growing concerns that veterans are not be getting the right mental health help.
Those worries come as President George W. Bush has ordered almost 30,000 more troops to Iraq. Already 1.5 million soldiers have been deployed in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, with one-third serving at least two combat tours, which increases the chances of PTSD.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800377_pf.html
The Miami Herald
Hicks pleads guilty, will get maximum 7 years
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Australian David Hicks, who as a 25-year-old trained and served with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty here to supporting terrorism in exchange for serving no more than seven years jailed in his homeland.
In return, Hicks, now 31, will be allowed to leave Guantánamo within 60 days of sentencing, concluding the first U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War II. That means he'll be gone in June.
Under a complex plea agreement, he agreed to a one-year media gag, to forever waive any profit from telling his story, to renounce any claims of mistreatment or unlawful detention -- and to voluntarily submit to U.S. interrogation and to testify at future U.S. trials or international tribunals.
http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/58257.html
Gables Hospital nurses vote to join union
Nurses and other employees at Coral Gables Hospital, a Tenet facility, have voted to join the SEIU Florida Healthcare Union, the union announced Friday.
The results of the vote were revealed to the 316 employees on Thursday. The hospital becomes the ninth group of hospital workers in 15 months to unite in SEIU-FHU.
Employees at two other Tenet hospitals in South Florida, St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach and North Shore Medical Center in Miami, are also members of SEIU-FHU.
SEIU-FHU now represents more than 16,000 hospital and long-term care employees. In the past 15 months, the union says nearly 5,000 workers have joined the Florida union.
Brazilian: Castro's biofuel views are `outdated'
By VIVIAN SEQUERA
Associated Press
BRASILIA, Brazil -- Cuban President Fidel Castro's criticism of biofuels are respectable but outdated because the whole world is heading in the direction of ethanol, Brazil's foreign minister said Thursday.
Celso Amorim said that while he had not read Castro's attack on U.S. biofuel policy in a Cuban newspaper, he felt it represented a respectable, if behind-the-times opinion.
''President Fidel Castro is a person who is a respectable and historically important figure,'' Amorim said.
''He has some ideas that are outdated,'' the minister added, saying that he had accompanied a Brazilian delegation to Havana 20 years ago ''and at that time Castro was already saying alcohol would never work because sugar was a noble product.'' Ethanol is a form of alcohol.
Brazil produces ethanol from sugar cane, while ethanol in the United States is made from corn.
In a front-page editorial Thursday in the Communist Party daily, Castro described the U.S. policy of encouraging the use of biofuels as ``the sinister idea of converting food into fuel.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/58253.html
I-95 south alert: Trains in new lane
Tri-Rail and Amtrak trains will run alongside traffic on Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale when a new 55-foot-high bridge opens Monday.
Drivers heading south on Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale are in for a surprise come rush hour Monday.
For the first time, Tri-Rail trains will run parallel to traffic, at the same level as the expressway, thanks to a new, 55-foot-high fixed bridge.
The $78 million bridge, which has taken about three years to build, will give Tri-Rail and Amtrak a permanent, uninterrupted passage over the New River in Fort Lauderdale.
Currently, the passenger trains must share a drawbridge used by boats, which have priority when it comes to opening and lowering the bridge, said Bonnie Arnold, a Tri-Rail spokeswoman.
http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/57633.html
NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITYNSU students learn about the slaughter in Darfur
College students learned about the atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, where hundreds of thousands have been murdered.
http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/57630.html
HEALTHCARE
Medical equipment firms fuel fraud
Federal investigators took a hard look at medical equipment companies, a primary source of healthcare fraud, and found that almost half don't meet government standards.
Almost half of the medical equipment companies in South Florida do not meet the federal government's minimum standards for operation, a report being released today concludes.
Such companies have long been notorious as sources of Medicare fraud, which the FBI estimates amounts to $1 billion a year in South Florida alone. Deciding to crack down, federal agents in late 2006 made unannounced visits to 1,581 suppliers in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
They found that 31 percent -- 491 suppliers -- did not maintain physical facilities or were not open and staffed when agents visited. Another 14 percent did not meet other required standards.
http://www.miamiherald.com/103/story/57651.html
Florida Senate backs new voting machines
The Florida Senate has signaled its support to buy new opti-scan voting machines across the state for $35 million. The House, meanwhile, has kept silent on the plan.
BY MARC CAPUTO
TALLAHASSEE --
Nearly a month after the state Legislature gave a whoop-filled standing ovation to Gov. Charlie Crist's call for paper-trail voting machines, the state Senate has decided to make good on the idea to spend about $35 million for it all.
Under the plan, the state would pay to replace ATM-style touch-screen voting machines with paper ballot-reading optical-scan machines in every precinct. The biggest winners: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, the largest of the 15 counties with touch-screens, whose accuracy has been doubted by many in numerous elections across the state.
''A lot of people don't think their votes count. Millions of people in the state of Florida doubt whether or not their vote was recorded or not. And we need to do something about it,'' Sen. Alex Villalobos, a Miami Republican and co-sponsor of the bill, said Thursday. He said the state should pay for the machines, even though it's a tight budget year.
But over in the state House, the governor's plan is being met with silence now that the applause from his State of the State speech in the chamber is long gone.
http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/57673.html
Unending plight, unhelpful U.S. policy
OUR OPINION: IMPROVE BORDER SECURITY, TREATMENT OF HAITIANS
The sight of a decrepit boat burdened with more than 100 debilitated Haitians raised two disturbing questions: How could such a vessel sail past the U.S. Coast Guard? Why are Haitians still risking such dangerous voyages? Both answers are disturbing.
The Hallandale Beach landing on Wednesday is the latest incident to indicate that Coast Guard operations have been hampered. Three weeks earlier, 40 Cubans landed at two locations -- Miami Beach and Haulover Beach -- in the middle of a massive drill by federal and local agents designed to block an exodus from Cuba or Haiti.
Expansive shores
The Government Accountability Office and Congress members have complained that U.S. border protection has been diluted as other missions have taken priority. At least two Coast Guard vessels from Key West have been sent to Iraq. Another eight cutters were taken out of commission for repairs as a result of a troubled modernizing project. The Coast Guard insists its mission hasn't been compromised. But Bruce Bagley, a University of Miami professor and longtime Coast Guard monitor, has noted ``significant flows of both drugs and human beings back into South Florida.''
In truth, we could spend the U.S. Treasury and still not have a hermetically sealed border. U.S. shores and land borders are simply too expansive. But the Coast Guard and other enforcement agencies should do better in South Florida.
http://www.miamiherald.com/454/story/57705.html
The Okalahoman
Five injured in Thursday's tornado
Tornado leaves five injured
Five people, including at least one child, were injured in Thursday's tornado in the Oklahoma City metro area, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
The injured include:
•A 7-year-old girl who was treated for cuts and lacerations at Mercy Hospital and later released. She suffered injuries in the 9800 block of W Memorial Road.
•Two people who were hurt when their vehicles were blown off the Kilpatrick Turnpike.
•Jeffrey Nix, 44, and Bridget Nix, 40, both of Memphis, Tenn., who were thrown from a travel trailer in the 10050 block of W Wilshire. Jeffrey Nix is in serious condition at an Oklahoma City hospital, and his wife is in fair condition.
More severe weather approaching
Rain and possible severe weather are expected across the state again today.
A large storm moving in from the west is expected to produce heavy rain in southwestern Oklahoma and into central parts of the state by midafternoon, National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Curl said.
"There will be a chance for severe weather again today,” Curl said. "There's going to be a lot of precipitation. It will be a widespread precipitation event.”
Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management, said isolated tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds are possible today.
"Additionally,” she said, "all of central and eastern Oklahoma remains under a flood watch. The threat of heavy rain may cause flash flooding in central and eastern areas of the state.”
http://www.newsok.com/article/3033901/
Nature of tornado delayed warning
By Robert Medley
Staff Writer
Warning sirens first sounded about eight minutes after a tornado touched down Thursday in far west Oklahoma City, weather experts confirmed Friday.
Mike Foster, the head meteorologist for the National Weather Service forecast office in Norman, said the tornado touched down at Sara Road and NW 39 about 4:05 p.m. A weather advisory was issued by the Norman office at 4:07 p.m., and a warning followed at 4:12 p.m. Sirens in Oklahoma City sounded at 4:13 p.m.
Foster said the funnel formed quickly and gained strength before radar could detect a tornado was inside heavy rain.
"The current technology we have is very good technology, but there are some things it cannot do,” Foster said. "Some of these characteristics of the tornado are very hard to detect, but we had every station monitored (Thursday) and we were in the game. It is not like someone didn't do something.”
Oklahoma City officials said they did everything possible to warn people in the twister's path.
Ronnie Warren, Oklahoma City's emergency management director, said the city sounded 11 sirens in the area of the tornado.
"We warned people,” Warren said Friday, "but we only activate the outdoor warning system based on National Weather Service tornado warnings.”
Still, Oklahoma City residents who watched the winds knock down walls, topple fences, and tear away roofs complained the warnings weren't fast enough.
Debra Vaughan, who lives near NW 122 and Morgan Road, said she never heard a storm siren before the tornado carried away her backyard playground equipment and sent her and three children running for cover.
Terry Heim, who was working near where the tornado struck, said his ears popped as high winds slammed a workshop door shut just after 4 p.m.
"When the tornado hit there were no sirens, no warnings at all,” Heim said.
Foster said the Thursday tornado was not the classic "Great Plains” super cell that can be seen in radar and on the ground by spotters.
The circulation could not be confirmed until 4:21 p.m., when the weather center learned by telephone that a tornado had been on the ground, Foster said.
"We were doing the very best we could,” he said. "Some things are really problematic for us.”
http://www.newsok.com/article/3033973
Officials assessing storm data
By Julie Bisbee
Staff Writer
Officials at the National Weather Service still are assessing tornado damage from yesterday's storm. A tornado warning was issued at 4:12 p.m. lasting until 4:45 p.m. in Oklahoma and Canadian counties, said John Pike, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Norman.
According to preliminary reports, a spotter reported that a tornado touched down four miles southeast of Piedmont at 4:20 p.m. At 4:30 p.m. the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported a tornado touched down three miles northeast of Yukon. Officials with the National Weather Service are still reviewing data and damage from Thursday's tornado and are expected to have a report later today.
The National Weather Service issues warnings and municipal or county emergency management services sound the sirens. Some residents have said tornadoes touched down before sirens were sounded.
The storm system that spawned Thursday's tornado was fast moving and had small features, said Gary England, chief meteorologist for KWTV NEWS 9.
"We expected severe weather. No one expected big tornadoes,” England said. "We knew that was possibility.”
Poor visibility and cloud cover kept storm spotters on the ground from getting a good view of cloud formations. Thursday's tornado also had small subtle features that made it difficult to spot on radar, England said.
"We watch this thing come out of Grady and Caddo County, then all the sudden, bam, the winds turned back and started spinning and finally set down,” England said. "When you've got big tornadoes, we know where they are, where they're going and when they're going to get there. With small ones like we had yesterday it's like having a 2-year-old around the house.”
http://www.newsok.com/article/3033806
Clean up video
http://www.newsok.com/video/117685
continued ...
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