Bypassing Senate Democrats who have stalled his judicial nominations, President Bush will use a recess appointment to put Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at least temporarily, government sources said Friday.

The White House began informing senators Friday afternoon of Bush's intention, said one Senate source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Is Colin Powell melting down?

It's hard to come up with another explanation for his jaw-dropping behavior last week before the House International Relations Committee. There he sat, recounting for the umpety-umpth time why, back in February 2003, he believed the pessimistic estimates about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. "I went and lived at the CIA for about four days," he began, "to make sure that nothing was—"

Suddenly, he stopped and glared at a Democratic committee staffer who was smirking and shaking his head. "Are you shaking your head for something, young man back there?" Powell grumbled. "Are you part of the proceedings?"

Rep. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, objected, "Mr. Chairman, I've never heard a witness reprimand a staff person in the middle of a question."

Powell muttered back, "I seldom come to a meeting where I am talking to a congressman and I have people aligned behind you, giving editorial comment by head shakes."

Oh, my.

Here is a man who faced hardships in the Bronx as a kid, bullets in Vietnam as a soldier, and bureaucratic bullets through four administrations in Washington, a man who rose to the ranks of Army general, national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and secretary of state, a man who thought seriously about running for president—and he gets bent out of shape by some snarky House staffer?

Powell's outburst is a textbook sign of overwhelming stress. Maybe he was just having a bad day. Then again, he's also been having a bad three years.

Karen Weldon, an inexperienced 29-year-old lobbyist from suburban Philadelphia, seemed an unlikely choice for clients seeking global public relations services.

Yet her tiny firm was selected last year for a plum $240,000 contract to promote the good works of a wealthy Serbian family that had been linked to accused war criminal Slobodan Milosevic

Despite a lack of professional credentials, she had one notable asset — her father, U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), who is a leading voice in Washington on former Eastern Bloc affairs.

She got the contract after he championed the efforts of two family members, Dragomir and Bogoljub Karic, to win U.S. visas from the State Department, which so far has refused them entry.

Intelligence officials warned Weldon that the brothers were too close to Milosevic, who is accused of leading the "ethnic cleansing" in the former Yugoslav federation.

[edit]

Congressional ethics rules provide few barriers to the practice. They do not forbid members of Congress from helping companies or others who are paying their relatives

But Weldon has brought his daughter so deeply into his official activities that they sometimes appear to be working in tandem.

For example:

• After a Russian aerospace manufacturer hired Karen Weldon's firm for $20,000 a month plus 10% of any new business it generated, Rep. Weldon pitched the company's saucer-shaped drone to the U.S. Navy, which signed a letter of intent to invest in the technology. And Weldon, who chairs a subcommittee that oversees $60 billion in military acquisitions, has been working to get funding for the project, Navy officials say. A lawyer for Solutions said the firm did not collect the finder's fee and it was later removed from the contract. Federal law bars companies from paying commissions to lobbyists on government contracts.

• The congressman helped round up 30 congressional colleagues for a dinner at the Library of Congress to honor the chairman of a Russian natural gas company, Itera International Energy Corp., that had just agreed to pay his daughter's firm $500,000 a year to "create good public relations." Records show Solutions North America helped arrange the privately funded affair for the company, which has been trying to improve its image with U.S. officials after questions were raised about its acquisition of vast natural gas fields in post-Soviet Russia.

• Karen Weldon's firm paid for her father's chief of staff to take a "fact-finding" trip to Serbia, where he met with U.S. Embassy officials about the Karics' visa problems. The congressman approved the arrangement, travel records show. House ethics rules bar members or staff from taking official trips paid for by lobbyists or registered agents of foreign companies. The chief of staff, Michael J. Conallen Jr., said he reimbursed Solutions with his own money last week after The Times raised questions about the trip.

Conallen said the congressman's actions on behalf of Karen Weldon's clients posed no ethical concerns.

"I just don't think there's anything strange about it," he said. "If Curt wanted to he could snap his fingers and divert a lot of business to Karen, and that hasn't happened."

Acknowledging that Bush has received major financial support from corporations, [Mark] McKinnon [chief media adviser] said: "The issue is hypocrisy in saying you're going to take on the special interests, not who took the most special interest money. You don't hear the president in the Oval Office railing against the special interests. You do hear John Kerry railing against the special interests." The campaign has previewed this theme in an online video calling Kerry "unprincipled" and "brought to you by the special interests."

This
We're focused on the people's business. You sent us to Washington to work on behalf of the people, not special interests, not lobbyists, but the people. And that's what we're doing.

And This
I don't need a book this thick of bureaucratic rules written by special interests in Washington

And This
The House responded, but the Senate is more interested in special interests in Washington and not interested in the security of the American people.

And This
They'll be more concerned about special interests and less concerned about how to adequately protect America.

And This
They want us to be hamstrung by a thick book of bureaucratic rules, because they have been more interested in special interests. The special interest I've got in mind is the American people, and I call upon the Senate to get me a good bill so I can protect the homeland of the American people.

And This
And so the Senate, the United States Senate must not focus on narrow, special interests, but must focus on the security of the American people.

And This
But because of special interests in Washington, some senators are trying to take away this power. And I'm not going to let them. I refuse to stand for a lousy bill.

And This
My plan does not puncture the tax code with loopholes. It doesn't give special treatment to special interests.

And This
And the problem is, in the United States Senate, they're more interested in Washington's special interests than they are in the interests of protecting the American people

And This
The Senate must understand that the protection of our homeland is much more important than the narrow politics of special interests

And This
We can't let the special interests of Washington prevent us from doing what is necessary to protect the biggest interest we have, which is the American people.

And all of these.

"They can't possibly guarantee a large turnout of evangelical Christian voters if he does not do what is morally right and take leadership on this issue as he did on the war" in Iraq, said Concerned Women for America President Sandy Rios.
...
"The strength of this president is in his convictions, but our people do not admire his indecision and lack of leadership on an issue so basic as the sanctity of marriage," Mrs. Rios said.
...
"I'm not blaming the president, but religious conservatives have been doing politics for 25 years and, on every front, are worse off on things they care about," said Gary Bauer, president of American Values. "The gay rights movement is more powerful, the culture is more decadent, the life of not one baby has been saved, porn is in the living room, and you can't watch the Super Bowl without your hand on the off switch."
...
"It's not just economic conservatives upset by runaway federal spending that he's having trouble with. I think his biggest problem will be social conservatives who are not motivated to work for the ticket and to ensure their fellow Christians get to the polling booth," said Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute.
...
Also, Mr. Knight said, Mr. Bush "upped the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts, which has boldly promoted the homosexual agenda for schoolchildren. The White House message to social conservatives was: 'We don't share your values, folks. We would rather impress the art elite at cocktail parties.' "

"I would describe the mood among conservatives right now as frightened," said Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy group that supports Republican policies.
...
"For the first time," said a top staff member for a GOP senator, "some Republicans are facing the prospect that the president could lose."

After watching TV images of gay weddings in San Francisco, Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk said Friday that homosexual couples should be allowed to get married.

Since the Cambodian government chose in 1993 to be a "liberal democracy," it should allow "marriage between man and man ... or between woman and woman," the king said in a signed statement in French posted on his Web site.

My love for film dates back to the 30's when I was a student at the French Lycee of Saigon (South Vietnam).

In Saigon, there were beautiful movie theaters which projected excellent French films and American Hollywood films. I was captivated by the films starring Jean Gabin, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo…After completing my studies in Saigon, I wanted to become a film maker and even an actor, and at the same time a Professor of French, Latin and Greek in a high school in my country.

After becoming King of Cambodia in 1941, I had the means to produce films.

I love film making, just as the famous Winston Churchill loved painting.

But, as an admirer of Churchill, I always followed his noble example: my "hobby" never took up any of the time I was to devote to State affairs and to the service of my country and my people.

I respect gays and lesbians. It is not their fault that they are as they are, because it is the GOOD LORD who loves the diversity of tastes and colors, and of people, plants, and animals.

Government soldiers backed by helicopter gunships attacked a group of rebels in a remote village in northern Uganda, killing 36 insurgents, an army spokesman said Thursday.

The attack occurred Wednesday in Ngora, about 242 miles north of Kampala, after the army pursued a group of rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army who had raided a nearby camp for displaced people, said Lt. Chris Magezi.

Besides killing 36 rebels, the army also rescued 22 children who had been abducted, Magezi said.

Thus while there is tangible horror at the activities of the LRA, the lack of distinction between the ‘rebels’ and ‘abductees’ generates intense confusion. As one informant said, “A ‘rebel’ who is killed in battle may have only just been abducted one hour ago. If you are killed you are a rebel, if you are abandoned or escaped you are an abductee.”

Senator Thurmond: Do you know of any specific evidence relating to antimiscegenation laws that was presented to the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia which contradicted the historical evidence of the Commonwealth of Virginia that the Fourteenth Amendment was not intended to affect antimiscegenation laws, and if you don't know of such evidence, how do you justify the Court saying that the historical evidence was not conclusive?

Judge Marshall: I am not familiar with the case. I am only familiar with the opinion. I did not read the record in that case.

Spc. Ronald D. Allen Jr. - Died of injuries sustained in a vehicle accident that occurred while he was conducting convoy operations near Balad, Iraq on August 25, 2003

Sgt. Glenn R. Allison - Died during physical training in Baghdad, Iraq, on December 18, 2003

Lance Cpl. Brian E. Anderson - Killed in a vehicle accident west of Nasiriya, Iraq, on April 2, 2003

Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Todd Arnold - Killed during a firing range accident April 22, 2003 near Kut, Iraq

Pfc. Chad E. Bales - Killed on April 3 in a non-hostile vehicle accident during convoy operations east of Ash Shahin, Iraq

Spc. Todd M. Bates - Bates was on a patrol on the Tigris River south of Baghdad, Iraq, on December 10, 2003, when his squad leader fell overboard. Bates dived into the water and did not surface. He was listed as missing until his body was recovered on December 23, 2003.

Pfc. Wilfred D. Bellard - Killed when his vehicle fell into a ravine in Iraq on April 4, 2003

Chief Warrant Officer Michael T. Blaise - Killed when his OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter crashed while returning from a combat mission near Mosul in northern Iraq on January 23, 2004

Spc. Joseph M. Blickenstaff - Killed when an embankment collapsed, causing his Stryker infantry carrier vehicle to roll over into a canal in Ad Duluiyah, Iraq, on December 8, 2003

Staff Sgt. Kenneth R. Bradley - Died on May 28, 2003, in Baqubah, Iraq in a non-combat incident that is under investigation

Leaving God out of the equation, it is irrefutable that Nature had a well-ordered design. Male + female = offspring. It is a certainty that male/male and female/female unions don't meet Nature's standard. They may occur 'naturally' in that one does not consciously elect to Be Gay, but such unions fall short of any design that matches Nature's intentions.

If the state goes out of its way to make marriage attractive, it is because marriage is so difficult and, in many ways, unnatural. It is far more natural for humans, animals that we are, to enjoy gratification whenever and wherever than it is to settle for decades into a system of monogamy."

To extend marriage rights to gays [because some of them have children] presupposes that raising children in homosexual households is just as good as raising children in heterosexual homes with two parents.

Making homosexual unions equal to heterosexual unions -- the superior natural order of which cannot be disputed -- is not just a small step for equality. It is a gargantuan leap ...

If you’ve ever driven south on Highway 101 into San Francisco, you never forget it. As you round the last curve, the view takes your breath away. The awesome Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay on your left, the blue Pacific on your right and the city with all of its white buildings come into view. And you hear Tony and start singing.

But then the depravity that’s tolerated and, in many instances, sanctioned by government officials brings to mind “whited sepulchers full of dead men’s bones.” The idyllic scene is shattered by the reality of a city with a corrupt heart.

... The speed and extremity of Dean's reversal of fortune is attributable chiefly to self-inflicted wounds. At the peak of his popularity, in December and early January, Dean made a series of missteps and intemperate or impolitic statements that required retraction or clarification and repelled voters seeking the sort of plain-spoken, steady, and reliable man he professed to be. The relentless press scrutiny that comes with front-runner status also proved withering.

... Ultimately, it was not the tone so much as the substance of Dean's message that turned off his erstwhile supporters .... Dean's desire to reinstate all the taxes Bush has cut, including those on the middle class, might make sense, but as a campaign plank it is probably suicidal. .... Dean's vaunted antiwar message also failed to mobilize voters. Though he harangued Kerry, Edwards, and Gephardt for supporting the congressional resolution in October, 2002, that authorized Bush to go to war against Saddam Hussein, his claim that they "voted for the war" was effectively neutralized by their powerful critiques of the Administration's unilateral invasion of Iraq.

Dean likes to call his grass-roots support base a movement to change American politics, and he clearly considers it to be something bigger and grander than a mere Presidential campaign .... I saw him address a gathering sponsored by Women for Dean where, instead of concluding his remarks as he normally does, by saying, "We want our country back," he said, "The most important thing is the human soul and we want that back." .... (Dean) presented himself on the stump in distinctly messianic tones.

If the movie and the Gospels on which it's based are anti-Semitic, then why are those Christians most faithful to the New Testament among the strongest supporters of Israel?

Most evangelical Christians are fervent defenders of the Jewish state. A decade ago, the term Christian Zionist was an oxymoron. Today, Christian Zionists outnumber their Jewish counterparts.

"Israel is not just necessary to the return of Christ, it is essential to it." So says Reverend A.R. Bernard, pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in New York City.

His sentiments are shared by millions of Christians around the world, who steadfastly believe that a Jewish state is necessary for the Second Coming of Jesus. Their fervent support for Israel is buoyed by Old Testament passages that anoint Israel to the Jewish people, refer to the Jews as God's "chosen people" and promise that God will bless those who bless the Jewish people (Genesis 12:3).

[edit]

Both Luke and Matthew prophesize that the Jews will gather again in Israel prior to the advent of Christ's Second Coming.

Get it? Israel is a major player in the big judgment. Hence the support among the evangelicals.

While the restoration of Israel seemed inconceivable for much of Western history, it became a reality in our generation. In 1948, Israel was re-established as a nation. In 1967, the Holy Land was restored when Israel regained Jerusalem.

Thus continues the restoration, hauled along, in part, by the evangelical's unwavering faith in God's duty to fulfill His words.

Richard Perle, a chief proponent of last year's U.S. invasion of Iraq, yesterday called for the chiefs of the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency to step down because of their faulty conclusions that Saddam Hussein possessed mass-killing weapons.

[edit]

"I think, of course, heads should roll," he said. "When you discover that you have an organization that doesn't get it right time after time, you change the organization, including the people.

"I'd start with the head head," Perle said when asked which heads should roll at the CIA.

In its fall 2002 campaign to win congressional support for a war against Iraq, President Bush and his top advisers ignored many of the caveats and qualifiers included in the classified report on Saddam Hussein's weapons that CIA Director George J. Tenet defended Thursday.

[edit]

The administration's prewar comments -- and the more cautious, qualified phrasings of intelligence analysts -- are at the heart of the debate over whether the faulty prewar claims resulted from bad intelligence or exaggeration by top White House officials -- or both.

Laura Bush says gay marriages are "a very, very shocking issue" for some people, a subject that should be debated by Americans rather than settled by a Massachusetts court or the mayor of San Francisco.

Asked how she feels about the issue personally, Mrs. Bush replies: "Let's just leave it at that."

we find fatal fault in Plattsmouth’s characterization of the monument as merely an acknowledgment of God. The monument does much more than acknowledge God; it is an instruction from the Judeo-Christian God on how He requires His followers to live. To say a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments and various religious and patriotic symbols is nothing more than an “acknowledgment of God” diminishes their sanctity to believers and belies the words themselves.

The reasonable viewer would perceive this monument as an attempt by Plattsmouth to steer its citizens in the direction of mainstream Judeo-Christian religion.

Then in the summer we would go away to camp for two weeks. It felt more like three. I wondered if I'd ever see my parakeet again. We slept on cots and ate in the International House of Pancakes. I learned the first night that IHOP's not the place to order fish. When the two weeks were up, I came home a changed man. I would often burst into tears for no apparent reason and suffered recurring nightmares about drowning in blueberry syrup. If I hadn't been so strapped for cash, I would've sought the aid of a psychiatrist.

What will be Dr. Dean's lasting contribution to party or country? Unlike LaFollette or even Senator John McCain, whose own unsuccessful presidential bid in 2000 led directly to the reform of the campaign finance system, Dr. Dean can hardly claim to have laid the rails for some powerful engine of change. His campaign, as he never tired of reminding us, was about "taking the country back," which seemed another way of saying it was basically about winning.

[edit]

In the end, the tragedy of Howard Dean's impressive grass-roots campaign is that he will be remembered not for any lasting reform agenda, but for the missed opportunity to create one.

... most (of Bush's fellow guardsmen) were at a loss to explain gaps in Bush's pay record while in Alabama, where he transferred to a non-flying unit for about six months in 1972 to work on the political campaign of a family friend. One offered that Guardsmen who performed "equivalent duty" outside their primary base typically weren't paid for those drills, but still earned points or credits toward retirement.

The 147th (Fighter Interceptor Group that George W. was in) has been dubbed the "champagne unit" by critics because many sons of powerful Texans got assigned there during the Vietnam War .... While there's no direct evidence Bush's father pulled strings to get him in the unit, a Bush family friend -- the late oilman Sidney Adger -- allegedly asked the Texas lieutenant governor in 1968 to put in a good word with the Texas Air Guard commander for the younger Bush. And Bush's flight instructor, Col. Maurice Udell, recently admitted Bush was given a special look because his father was a fighter pilot in World War II.

... Liles, who operates a hotel near NASA, says his father, who owned a fishing camp on Lake Houston, did pull some strings to get him in the (National Guard) unit.

"I just barely got in that unit. I was really lucky because I was just about to be drafted," he said. "My daddy knew this guy, and the guy went down there and got me in."

And there appears to have been a double standard applied to Bush.

The Air Force required (fellow guardsman Dean) Roome, for one, to get a waiver for a $25 speeding ticket when he enlisted. But Bush, who like Roome drove a sports car, had two speeding tickets, two collisions and two misdemeanors on his record when he enlisted, and yet he was not required to get any waiver at all.

"I might have had more speeding tickets," Roome offered, sheepishly.

"I was the guy who did the safety walk around, put [Bush] up the ladder, made sure he was strapped in," Liles said in an exclusive WorldNetDaily interview. "And I'd always make sure he'd pull his ejection pin, because he'd forget that sometimes. You have to pull the pin out so you can eject. I'd say, 'Lieutenant, show me your pin.' I remember it very clearly."

"I have watched carefully what's happening in San Francisco, where licenses were being issued, even though the law states otherwise," Bush said. "I have consistently stated that I'll support law to protect marriage between a man and a woman. Obviously these events are influencing my decision."

He didn't answer directly when asked whether he is any closer to endorsing a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages, as conservative groups say the White House has assured them Bush will do.

"I strongly believe marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman," Bush said during an Oval Office session with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. "I am troubled by activist judges who are defining marriage."

"People need to be involved in this decision," Bush said. "Marriage ought to be defined by the people not by the courts. And I'm watching it carefully."

Just in case anybody was still wondering whether anything in the original Drudge item about John Kerry was accurate, I can confirm that Wesley Clark did not say what Drudge says he said at that off-the-record conversation with reporters in Nashville one week ago.

I was there when Clark spoke, and just to make sure I didn't miss anything, I've also checked with other reporters who were there. Since it was off the record (sort of), I can't get into what Clark actually said (let's just say it was not his finest moment on the campaign trail), but I can report that the quote Drudge attributes to him--"Kerry will implode over an intern issue"--is not accurate. He never said that.

Three top Senate conservatives have told GOP conservative groups to lay off Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who helped trigger a controversial investigation into leaked Democratic Judiciary Committee documents.

Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), both members of the Judiciary panel, personally delivered that message to a group of nearly 20 conservative leaders last week. Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) also briefly attended the meeting on Capitol Hill.

The 90-minute session grew heated at times, as the visiting conservative leaders repeatedly interrupted the senators and questioned their handling of the memo controversy.

But the senators, who received last week a closed-door briefing on the investigation from Senate Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle, warned conservatives they might come to regret their position when the results of the probe are fully known. Pickle is expected to finish his investigation by March 5.

The senators also asked them to suspend their strong statements in favor of Manuel Miranda, the GOP leadership aide who has admitted to reading the leaked files.

After some voters complained that they were intimidated by gay marriage activists outside polling precincts yesterday, the Fayette Board of Elections enforced a controversial ban.

Kentucky's ban on electioneering within 500 feet of the polls was recently found illegal by a U.S. Court of Appeals; state officials recommended that it not be enforced while it is on appeal. But Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins said he was forced to uphold the ban because the activists were compromising the election.

One Lexington minister, Shannon Back, said he was so disappointed by people in the church parking lot promoting gay marriage that he wanted to shut down the precinct at his Broadway Baptist Church.

"We do not support same-sex marriage. We didn't want it promoted as if we supported it," Back said.

Blevins said he received at least 30 complaints from people, including two ministers, who objected to representatives of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, a gay activist group, approaching voters as they left the polls.

[snip]

Back, the Lexington minister, said that, if the 500-foot ban is lifted, then he won't offer his church as a polling place again.

Before the Board of Elections enforced the ban at 11:30 a.m., Back had called Lexington police and asked them to remove the activists from the church property.

At that point, Blevins' staff told police that the group members had a right to stay as long as they were respectful.

Blevins said he asked the Board of Elections to enforce the ban only after receiving several complaints.

In the church parking lot yesterday, voter Shane Pinson, 40, said he supported the minister's position that the church was not a place to lobby voters on the gay marriage issue.

"I'm religious," said Pinson, a Kentucky Utilities employee. "I believe in a man and a woman being married."

WOODRUFF: I want to cite the one economic analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston. He said, these are his words, quote, "very disappointing; we're not getting the jobs to replace the stimulus in the economy which will fade once the first quarter ends." Another economist said, "It's the weakest job-creation rate relative to economic growth on record."

CHAO: Well, the stock market is, after all, the final arbiter. And the stock market was very strong this morning in reaction to the news that we have just received....

WOODRUFF: But, again, you get these comments, like from Morgan Stanley, market economists saying the level of job creation certainly disappointing for, what he said, the 26th month of the alleged economic recovery.

CHAO: Well, as I mentioned, the stock market reacted, and the stock market was very positive.....

Dixie Grugin, 77, a retired teacher in Frankfort, said, "I'd never thought I'd vote for a Chandler," but did so yesterday because she didn't like anything about Kerr's campaign.

"She's too much `me and Bush.' I don't like him. I think he's a pipsqueak."

It was a campaign manager's dream visual: A president weeks away from an election stands on the bridge of a nuclear submarine out at sea, watching the test launch of two intercontinental missiles capable of destroying an enemy city.

President Vladimir Putin took his position aboard the Arkhangelsk on Tuesday afternoon, television cameras dutifully recording the moment. And he waited. And waited and waited.

Finally after 25 minutes, naval officers announced what had become painfully obvious, that the launch had not taken place, and they shuffled the guests and journalists below deck , according to Russian reporters on the scene. Putin disappeared without a word. Russian news organizations promptly reported that a malfunction had scuttled the launch.

Then, a few hours later, the navy's top admiral denied that any launch had been planned. A "virtual launch" had been intended from the start, he explained, and it had been a success.

A newly arrived Republican appointee has pulled references to sexual orientation discrimination off an agency Internet site where government employees can learn about their rights in the workplace.

The Web pages at the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency whose mission is to protect whistleblowers and other federal employees from retribution, has removed references to sexual orientation from a discrimination complaint form, training slides, a brochure titled "Your Rights as a Federal Employee" and other documents.

Scott J. Bloch, the agency head, said he ordered the material removed because of uncertainty over whether a provision of civil service law applies to federal workers who claim unfair treatment because they are gay, bisexual or heterosexual.

[edit]

At issue is the meaning of a few lines of a civil service law that bans discrimination against employees and job applicants "on the basis of conduct which does not adversely affect the performance of the employee or applicant."

[edit]

The provision usually has been interpreted to mean that a worker's off-duty behavior cannot be used as a justification for dismissal, demotion or discipline unless it hampers job performance or interferes with the work of others.

That has been the stance at the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the government's workplace policies, for at least two decades.

"It is wrong to discriminate against any federal employee, or any employee, based on discrimination."

Republican strategists acknowledged they had been hoping for an early conclusion so President Bush's team could start hammering the eventual nominee or for a brutal primary season in which the Democratic candidate would emerge bloodied and weakened.

"The ideal for us is to have Democrats become embittered and have it become a nasty, divisive primary," said Sacramento-based Republican strategist Sal Russo. "That ends up causing some segments of the party not to want to help the nominee. That doesn't sound like that's happening here."

As a candidate, the conventional wisdom is that you want the primary race over as quickly as possible so you can prepare for the general election. But many strategists believe that analysis is wrong, especially in an age in which campaigns are waged less in coffee shops than on cable television.

"No one is interested in covering a race that is over," Russo said. "If I were Kerry, I'd want to have someone else who was running, but someone I could beat consistently. You get the press coverage, you have a reason to solicit people for money, you have a reason to solicit people to volunteer. If it's a fait accompli, everyone will say, 'Let's wait for the convention.' "

Many Democrats agree, especially in states where voters have yet to cast ballots.

"Edwards will continue, and I think that's a healthy thing," California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres said. "... It will give Kerry an opportunity to hone his skills for the general election."

A judge dropped charges Tuesday against seven women who had abortions deemed illegal in Portugal where the laws are among the strictist in Europe.

Ten "accomplices" including their husbands, boyfriends, and the doctor who performed the abortions in 1997, also were cleared.

[snip]

Women can be jailed for up to three years for having an illegal abortion.

A nurse who performed more than 100 illegal abortions in a makeshift abortion clinic in a back room of her house was sentenced in 2002 to eight-and-a-half years in jail.

[snip]

Government statistics show that about 11,000 women are treated each year at hospitals following botched illegal abortions.

[snip]

Portugal's teenage pregnancy rate is about 20 per 1,000, among the highest in the European Union.

Consumer confidence plunged this week, matching its steepest drop on record in more than 18 years of weekly polls by ABCNEWS and Money magazine.

The ABC/Money Consumer Comfort Index, based on ratings of current economic conditions, lost seven points — a single-week fall that’s been matched just twice before, in January 2001 and February 1990. In each of those cases, recessions followed.

[snip]

The disappointing labor market is a likely irritant: The economy has lost jobs for three consecutive years (a first since the Labor Department started keeping track in 1939), and fewer jobs were added last month than economists expected — not enough even to keep pace with population growth.

[snip]

Just 36 percent now say the economy is in good shape, down eight points in the last four weeks (five this week alone). Thirty-nine percent call it a good time to buy things, down four points in the last month . . . .

[snip]

Today 37 percent say they economy’s getting worse — up 10 points since last month to the most since September. Fewer, 29 percent, think it’s getting better; 32 percent, holding steady.

TREND — After a summer slump, confidence improved to -13 in November, -9 in December and -3 in mid-January, before slipping a bit, then falling this week. The current rating is four points below its all-time average, -9, and far below its record high, +38 in January 2000. Still, it remains much better than its record low, -50 in February 1992.

GROUPS — As usual, confidence is higher among better-off Americans. The index is +22 among higher-income people while -58 among those with the lowest incomes, -2 among college graduates while -43 among high-school dropouts and -6 among whites but -42 among blacks. It’s also -1 among men, while -22 among women.

Huge partisan differences persist in this political year: The index is +39 among Republicans, -23 among independents and -39 among Democrats. But the drop from last week is about the same in each of those groups.

We saw higher than normal voter turnout. That generally favors Democrats in this heavily-Democrat registered district. That was borne out this election day.

Earlier today, there was more than just voting going on at certain polling places in Lexington.

In fact, the actions of a few people prompted the board of elections to make some quick changes to the election process.

Volunteers from the Kentucky Fairness Alliance were at eleven voting precincts asking voters questions about same-sex marriages.

Many voters were upset and called and complained to the county clerk about being approached.

Pastors of local churches being used as voting stations threatened to shut down the polls.

Fayette County clerk Don Blevins, "We were put in a position of having to take an action to preserve the voting process, to protect voters. They have the right to go the polls unimpeded, unintimidated."

The Fayette County board of elections made a unanimous decision to reinforce a 500 foot electioneering ban for the rest of the day, which a federal court struck down just months before, but is currently under appeal.

The Kentucky Fairness Alliance volunteers were upset by the decision, but did relocate.

seeks to advance equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people through leadership development, public education, and by encouraging participation in the democratic process.

The Diet [Japan's parliament] will probably not be able to work on a planned bill to allow married couples to have different surnames during its current session, Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa said Tuesday, citing the tight legislative schedule.

[snip]

Nozawa also expressed his personal opposition to the dual-surname system, saying he believes "a married couple should share the same surname." He added that the issues involved need to be thoroughly discussed and a public consensus needs to be reached.

Scene: In the caves of Tora Bora, Osama Bin Laden, Mullah Omar and their aides are watching TV. The cave is illuminated by the light from the screen.

Cut to clip from Wisconsin Democratic debate:

Questioner: Senator Kerry, President Bush … described himself as a war president. He said he's got war on his mind as he considers these policies and decisions he has to make. If you were elected, would you see yourself as a war president?

KERRY: I'd see myself first of all as a jobs president, as a health care president, as an education president and also an environmental president. ….So I would see myself as a very different kind of global leader than George Bush.

Cut to Omar and Bin Laden high-fiving each other and wearing John Kerry for President T-shirts.

Fade to black.

Graphic: Re-Elect George W. Bush. The leadership America needs now.

Dear Mary,

This must be a very difficult time for you. Obviously, I don't know you, and won't pretend to understand how you might feel.

I live in Canada, where gay marriage is legal. It has been both disheartening and very interesting to see the uproar about the issue in your country.

I've read a lot about your father, and will tell you I don't care for his politics. But having said that, I hope you have (or will find) some peace as all of this works itself out.

You have my best wishes for the future.

Ian in Ottawa, Canada

Friends of liberty, raise hell! To the barricades, or at least to the post office and the emails. A British citizen named Katharine Gun faces two years in prison for revealing that the U.S. National Security Agency tried -- and succeeded -- in getting the Brits to help us with illegal spying operations at the United Nations.

[edit]

Gun may be sentenced to prison for doing precisely what we all hope every government employee will try to do: prevent the government from committing an illegal and immoral act. Some dare call it patriotism.

Gun, 29, worked for Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) as a translator. I spoke to her father while in London recently -- Gun herself is not allowed to speak to anyone about this, and he could not say much. Gun was raised partly in the Far East and speaks fluent Chinese. During the lead-up to the Iraqi invasion, she came across an email from Frank Koza of NSA proposing an intelligence "surge" to gather "the whole gamut of information that could give U.S. policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to U.S. goals or to head off surprises." Under the Vienna conventions on diplomatic relations, espionage at the United Nations is strictly forbidden.

[edit]

As a rule, it is not a good idea to set things up so that people get punished for telling the truth -- or even re-elected for telling lies. I realize Americans are in no position to lecture other countries on freedom these days, given the Patriot Act and attendant damage to the Fourth Amendment, but given Gun's dicey situation, it's worth dropping a line to the British Embassy at 3100 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D.C. 20008 or via a group in the United States supporting Gun, the Institute for Public Accuracy at solidarity@accuracy.org. Gun probably is guilty under the misbegotten Official Secrets Act (the email she leaked was marked "Top Secret"), but one wonderful thing about the system of justice we inherited largely from the Brits is that a jury doesn't have to follow the law -- a jury can do what it thinks is right.

Manuel Miranda, a former Senate staffer in the middle of the investigation into how Democratic computer memos got into Republican hands, says Republicans who back the inquiry are "surprisingly defeatist."

Mr. Miranda, who resigned last week, was unapologetic yesterday about reading Democratic strategy documents found on a shared Judiciary Committee computer.

"They had an obligation to protect their documents," said Mr. Miranda, who worked at getting President Bush's judicial nominations through the Senate for Judiciary Chairman Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican, and Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican. "I had an obligation to learn everything possible I could learn to defend my clients."

"Urged on by the French defense industry, Chirac contends that China today is different from 10 or 15 years ago. ...The problem is that in fundamental ways relating to human rights and political repression, China today is not much different than it was a decade ago .... To illustrate this point, let's take an example: China's unwillingness to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons.

China has never allowed the ICRC (which is an excellent example of the international community) to visit its prisons. One stumbling block has been that the Red Cross insists on the right to interview prisoners privately and with its own interpreters.

Over a decade ago, on the eve of President Bill Clinton's first meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Foreign Minister Qian Qichen said at a news conference that China was prepared to let the ICRC into Chinese jails ... But nothing happened. At first there were suggestions that China might give the Red Cross access to its prisons only after the Clinton administration dropped its attempt to impose human rights conditions on China's trade benefits. Clinton did that, but China didn't act on the ICRC.

... The significance of ICRC access to prisons was explained by one International Red Cross official in this way: "At a minimum, our visits give the prisoner the solace of an hour's conversation with a reasonable human being in his own language. In the most extreme cases, a visit can prevent the prisoner from disappearance and death."

Those eloquent words happen to have been spoken with a particular case in mind -- the U.S. detention camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Last year, the ICRC said publicly that the U.S. policies at Guantanamo were unacceptable, and its criticisms, many of them legitimate, were widely reported in Europe.

But please note that at least the United States permitted the ICRC to visit Guantanamo. That's more than China has done for its entire prison system. And yet the Europeans who are so forthright in condemning American policies at Guantanamo seem to be silent about a Chinese regime whose jails are still considered entirely off-limits to the ICRC. That is a classic double standard."

A federal prosecutor in a major terrorism case in Detroit has taken the rare step of suing Attorney General John Ashcroft, alleging the Justice Department interfered with the case, compromised a confidential informant and exaggerated results in the war on terrorism.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino of Detroit accused the Justice Department of "gross mismanagement" of the war on terrorism in a whistleblower lawsuit filed late Friday in federal court in Washington.

More than three decades ago, Congress passed the original version of what is now the alternative minimum tax to make sure that people with big incomes - more than $1 million a year in today's dollars - could not escape income taxes. Measured against that goal, the law has failed. Even when incomes are adjusted for inflation, the number of high-income Americans who paid no income taxes anywhere in the world has almost doubled, to 300 in 2000 from 155 in 1966.

Congress, meanwhile, has let the alternative minimum tax morph into something that strikes increasingly at the middle and upper middle class. More than 42 million taxpayers, about two-thirds of those making more than $30,000 a year, will lose some or all of their Bush tax cuts to the minimum tax by 2013, according to calculations by two tax economists, Leonard E. Burman of the Urban Institute and William G. Gale of the Brookings Institution.

Since 1987, the tax has stripped people of their exemptions for themselves, their spouses and their children, along with their deductions for state income taxes and local property taxes. It can even force people with huge medical bills to pay higher taxes.

[edit]

The problem with repealing this complex and little-understood tax is that the first round of Bush tax cuts had the effect of increasing the alternative minimum tax paid by those making $30,000 to $500,000 a year. Over the first decade after the cuts, the alternative minimum tax was projected to raise more than a half-trillion dollars, which would be used to finance a reduction in the top tax rate to 35 percent from 39.6 percent.

Vice President Dick Cheney made a Presidents Day stop in New Mexico on Monday to raise more than $200,000 for the Republican presidential campaign and hammer home some of that administration's key positions.

[edit]

The Republican faithful who attended Cheney's 15-minute speech plunked down $1,000 for their lunch— and another $1,000 if they wanted a portrait of themselves with the vice president.

Cheney and his wife, Lynne, did not hang around for lunch with the crowd, and agents were dismantling bulletproof portions of the speaking platform before the dishes hit the tables.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.