Various studies "have confirmed that elements of a school's interior design are important factors that contribute to the creation of a good learning environment. In addition to promoting student achievement, a beautiful school building serves as a school missionary to spread the educational gospel to the community.

"... Designing for aesthetics does not necessarily demand excessive financial outlay ... Even if it costs a little more initially, the positive results outweigh the additional expense because the caring environment that these aesthetic elements help create contributes to student achievement.

"... It is a pity that aesthetic designs in school planning are often mistaken for cosmetics and are the first to be cut in times of budget constraints."

War on terrorism: Supports the "reasonable use of profiling" (note: this term is never defined.) and "opposes any mechanism to appoint members of Congress if large numbers of vacancies occur"

Wages and the economy: "... the Minimum Wage Law should be repealed ... wages should be determined by the free market conditions ..."

Education: Lists "penmanship" among reading, mathematics and other "basic" subjects that public schools should emphasize, and supports "the termination of bilingual education programs ..." Wants to add a high school graduation requirement for students to engage in "an in-depth study of the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and Washington's Farewell Address all in their unedited form." (Note: If you're aware of any insidious person who has edited the Constitution, please let me know.)

Federal role in schooling: "We call for the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education ..."

Energy: Supports drilling and production in the Alaska National Wilderness area, as well as "offshore California, and the East Coast, while minimizing environmental impact." (Note: Interestingly, regions cited as ideal for increased exploration do not include Florida, whose governor -- the president's brother -- opposes federal leases for drilling off Florida's Gulf coast.)

Retirement security: "[S]upports an orderly transition" to private retirement accounts and "gradually phasing out the Social Security tax" -- in other words, phasing out Social Security.

Disability rights: "[S]upports (an) amendment of the Americans with Disabilities Act to exclude" many people from its legal safeguards, including people with learning disabilities, HIV, "behavioral disorders" or "mental stress." These exclusions would immediately deprive at least 7.5 million Americans of their legal rights under ADA.

Affirmative action: Opposes it, instead calling for "a single standard for college admission for all students based on merit and ability ..." and stating that they deplore "all forms of preferences" based on race, national origin, etc.

The environment: "[G]overnment ownership of land [is] the cornerstone of socialism ... We oppose the Endangered Species Act." Highway speed limits should be regulated only for purposes of safety and should not be "based on environmental standards of any kind."

International affairs: This organization "commends [the Bush administration] and the U.S. Armed Forces in their strategy and execution of the War in Iraq. "... we (should) immediately rescind our membership in ... the United Nations."

Religion: "affirms that the United States of America is a Christian nation ..."

Abortion: "We urge the reversal of Roe v. Wade" and support a law to hold abortion clinics to "the same health and safety ... regulations and inspections as other medical facilities and that subjects clinics to the same risks of malpractice."

Governmental functions: Urges that "all (Congressional) bills ... include citations to the constitutional provision that authorizes Congress to act on the matter," the bill's potential cost, and its "impact on the family." They also support laws that would "automatically terminate all (state and federal) agencies or programs if they are not re-enacted by the [appropriate legislative body] every ten years," as well as banning the use of taxpayer funds for purposes such as "high-speed rail" and "space exploration."

Homosexuality: "... the practice of sodomy tears at the fabric of society, (and) contributes to the breakdown of the family unit ... (and our group) opposes the legalization of sodomy ..." Also opposes "custody of children by homosexuals, homosexual partner benefits or retirement benefits."

Law enforcement: Supports the "elimination of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ..."

Electoral democracy: "[W]e support ... repeal of all Motor Voter laws," believe all voters should be required to re-register "every four years" and favor "repeal of the 'Help America Vote Act' (enacted by Congress in ’03).

The Census: "[O]pposes any attempt by the United States Census Bureau to obtain any information beyond the number of people residing in the dwelling at the time of the census ..."

Presidential authority: "[D]emands the elimination of presidential authority to issue executive orders ... and other administrative mandates that do not have Congressional approval."

Campaign finance: Urges "the immediate repeal of the McCain-Feingold Act ..."

Taxes: Calls for the repeal of a state business tax, "is in favor of abolishing (state) property taxes," and "supports a reduction of the state sales tax rate ..."

The New York Times:
"Perhaps most worrisome, average wages for production workers -- about 80 percent of the workforce -- grew more slowly in June than they had at any previous point this year and have increased considerably less than inflation has over the last year."

Economic Policy Institute:
"... although the economy has created over a million new jobs in the last four months, it still has not delivered the punch needed to lower the unemployment rate. In fact, today's unemployment rate of 5.6 percent is as high as in November 2001, when the recovery began. Moreover, under-employment, such as involuntary part-time work and discouraged workers, is more prevalent."

U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.):
"Weak job growth reflects a tale of two economies here in America. Corporate profits are up; the GDP is up; but for middle class Americans there is an economic squeeze."

White House fact sheet:
"The economy has posted steady job gains for each of the last ten months -- creating more than 1.5 million jobs since August. ... At 5.6%, the unemployment rate is below the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s."

Ian C. Shepherdson, chief economist for High Frequency Economics:
"This looks bad, but there are no grounds for thinking it marks a reversal of the improving trend in the labor market."

Tim Kane, research fellow at the Heritage Foundation:
"Since January 2001, American incomes have risen by 7.5 percent, wages have risen by 2.4 percent, and the government projects 21 million good job opportunities over the 2002-2012 decade. The charge that low-quality service jobs -- often dubbed "McJobs" -- are proliferating is inaccurate."

A Los Angeles appeal court took the unprecedented step Wednesday of ruling that a non-birth mother in a same-sex relationship could claim co-parent status if viewed as a "presumed father" under the state's Uniform Parentage Act.

The Rwandan government should reject a parliamentary request to dissolve one of the country’s leading human rights groups unfairly accused by a parliamentary commission of harboring genocidal ideas, Human Rights Watch said today.

After three days of debate, the Rwandan parliament on Wednesday asked the government to dissolve the League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Ligue Rwandaise pour la promotion et la défense des droits de l'homme, or Liprodhor) and four other civil society organizations because they allegedly supported genocidal ideas. The action was recommended by a parliamentary commission that also called for the arrest of leaders of the organizations.

[edit]

During the parliamentary debate, the commission made sweeping and unproven accusations against Liprodhor and the other organizations, including a rural association for improving agricultural output and an association of widows whose husbands were killed during the 1997-99 uprising in northern Rwanda.

The commission interpreted "genocidal ideas," prohibited by law in Rwanda, so broadly as to include even dissent from government plans for consolidating land holdings.

Interviewed after a groundbreaking ceremony for a new building, [Sen. Pat] Roberts [chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee] said the report generally concludes that intelligence agencies worldwide engineered an "assumption train" that led them to conclude that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

Roberts said various Iraqi officials thought other Iraqi officials controlled weapons of mass destruction, and that there was evidence that Iraq was poised to become the "Grand Central Station" of a trade in such weapons.

[edit]

He said the committee found that intelligence agencies did not rely enough on "human intelligence" gathering after 1998. And after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, he said, intelligence agencies were more likely to base conclusions on incomplete information because they were worried about further attack.

[edit]

Roberts said the panel will make its conclusions public, but he didn't know how much supporting information will be included because of ongoing discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency about how much material must remain classified.

For weeks, the committee and the CIA had been in conflict about how much of the material in the reports must remain classified. Robert said initially the CIA removed more than half of the information in the 410-page report.

Roberts said the changes "eviscerated" the report, but he still hopes to see at least 80% of it made public.

But several Democratic senators, including Kennedy and Leahy, the top panel Democrat, are likely to submit written questions to Bybee before they offer him their vote.

Leahy said today he was concerned that Bybee in his current job as an assistant attorney general and constitutional law adviser in the Department of Justice, was part of a troubling "culture of secrecy that has enveloped the Justice Department over the last two years."

Leahy said he was interested in Bybee's position on issues that trouble civil rights activists, including the Justice Department's stance that terrorist suspects be tried in military tribunals; the department's use of local police to make arrests for civil violations of immigration laws; the department not detaining al Qaida suspects under rules of the Geneva Convention; and "who knows how many other controversial policies."

In scrutinizing his nomination to a powerful appeals court judgeship, Democratic senators pressed Jay S. Bybee to provide any memos that he wrote as a top Justice Department official that helped shape administration policies on the war on terrorism.

Bybee refused, invoking attorney-client privilege, and was able to keep legal memos private through his confirmation proceedings.

The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epoch, in the History of America. . . . It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Why Don't Senators DeWine and Voinovich Believe
Every Child Needs a Mother and a Father?

"Unless the (U.S.) Senate passes the Federal Marriage Amendment, homosexual marriage could be coming to Ohio -- and sooner than you think. Here's the bottom line: homosexual marriage intentionally creates fatherless families or motherless families. Think about it."

MS. NORRIS: The U.S., however, is very careful not to use the word, "genocide." Why is the Administration reluctant to call this genocide?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, why would we call it a genocide when the genocide definition has to meet certain legal tests? It is a legal determination. And based on what we have seen, there were some indicators but there was certainly no full accounting of all indicators that lead to a legal definition of genocide, in accordance with the terms of the genocidal treaties. That's the advice of my lawyers.

But what's the point of arguing about whether all indicators have been met or not when we see the people, we know they are in need, we're trying to take care of that need, and we're doing it in the places I visited today, and the UN is stretching to meet all other places where there is a need? To spend a great deal of time arguing about the definition of what the situation is isn't as important as identifying where the people are who are in need, getting the supplies they need to them, getting them hope in the form of supplies, but hope in the form of security and hope in the form that they'll be able to return to their villages in due course.

MS. NORRIS: For some, the reluctance to label this a homicide hearkens back to Rwanda. And for some, the reluctance to label this a genocide hearkens back to Rwanda.

SECRETARY POWELL: It isn't a reluctance. It isn't a reluctance that, based on the evidence that is available, it doesn't meet the tests of the definition of genocide. It isn't reluctance. I can assure you that if all of the indicators lined up and said this meets what the treaty test of genocide is, I would have no reluctance to call it that. And the fact that we have called it -- have not called it that is not based on reluctance. This is not Rwanda ten years ago; it is Sudan now.

There are some 75 camps under international supervision now. Thirty more will be under international supervision and support in the next month or so. Secretary-General Annan will be meeting with the government tomorrow to see if he can extend the reach of the UN humanitarian departments further out into the countryside to try to reach all people who are in need.

There are people who are desperately in need, and the government has made some commitments today that we will see if they follow up on. Words alone are not enough. We want to see them follow up on these commitments to break the back of the Jingaweit and to provide full humanitarian support to these people in need and, as I said, monitor what's going on with the AU military monitors and then get on a process of political reconciliation.

MS. NORRIS: I don't want to belabor this, but in diplomacy words do count, and as your -- as State Department counsel looks at this issue and determines whether this -- whether this should be labeled a genocide, does that carry a different weight and responsibility for the State Department and the U.S. if they make that determination?

SECRETARY POWELL: The State Department has to weigh all of these matters carefully and what we try to do is to use labels with precision. There are some who, based on what they have heard about the situation in Darfur and their concern about the needs of these people, want to immediately call it a genocide, whether it fits the definition of a genocide or not. I'm more interested in taking care of the people.

Now, if it was a genocide and it met all the tests and we declared it that, we would certainly increase international pressure. But whether we would be doing more than we are now doing is a question that I can't answer. It doesn't open any real new authorities to me or give me any additional powers or responsibilities that I'm not now executing.

American commanders will launch high-profile military attacks in Iraq even if they go directly against the wishes of the new Iraqi Government.

All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state . . . .

Canadian judge Louise Arbour on Thursday took up her new post as the world body's top human rights official.

Ms. Arbour, 57, stepped down as a Supreme Court justice in Canada to become the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

[edit]

Ms. Arbour gained international prominence as the chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunals trying the alleged main perpetrators of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the massive human rights crimes in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s.

During her three years as prosecutor from October 1996 until September 1999, she issued indictments for crimes against humanity against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic — who is currently on trial — and other leading Serb and Yugoslav officials.

Excuse me, but what gives me the right to know the nasty details about somebody else's failed marriage?
...
Swearing on the Senate floor is OK. Lying about taxes is just politics. Starting a war based on inaccurate information is a thoroughly excusable mistake. But taking your wife to a sex club as your marriage is falling apart is grounds for immediate political execution. It's a question of morals, after all. And why stop there? I don't like pornographic videos, either. Does that give me a right to know what candidates rent from Blockbuster or order on pay-per-view?
...
The purpose of sealing records is not simply to keep them out of the peering view of you and me and the Chicago Tribune. It is also, in this case, to protect the child who is at the center of the proceedings.
...
But what did the public really learn? That faced with a failing marriage, Ryan's sexual taste ran to the perverse; that he unsuccessfully propositioned his own wife; that you wouldn't want to be married to him?

Does it really say anything about his ability to serve in the United States Senate or just about our thirst for delicious gossip?
...
But Jack Ryan is a big boy.

His son isn't.

I wouldn't have wanted to be that boy, going to camp last week and facing the other kids.

He wasn't running for anything. He already has to deal with parents who couldn't get along. Now, he has to deal with everyone knowing. Where are his rights?

The United States raised a reward offer for the capture of [Abu Musab] al-Zarqawi, its top guerrilla target in Iraq, to $25 million from $10 million, the State Department said on Wednesday.

NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.

[edit]

Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.

[I]mpose new travel restrictions and arms embargoes on the government-supported militia in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The proposed resolution also would endorse the African Union- led monitoring mission in Sudan, urge international economic assistance and offer UN human rights monitors to the region, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

[I]s considered to be among the best in the Darfur region, with functioning relief organizations and few signs of hunger.

The Republican National Committee recently announced the line-up of speakers for its 2004 national convention, to be held in New York City. Given the location, it comes as no surprise that "moderate" Republicans Gov. George Pataki (NY) and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani are among those giving keynote addresses. However, a look at the full list of speakers shows that the convention is lacking in speeches by prominent Republicans who can adequately address the social issues our nation is facing - from protecting marriage to defending the sanctity of life.

In fact, many of the people who will have prominent roles at the convention have publicly contradicted the Bush Administration's policies on these very issues; not just Pataki and Giuliani, but also Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Understandably, the Bush campaign would like to portray the Republican Party as a "big tent" while the national spotlight is on, but surely there is some room in that tent for social conservatives. The Bush team admits it had trouble fully mobilizing Christian voters in 2000. Leaving real conservatives off the convention stage won't do much to correct that problem in 2004.

NewsMax Catapults 'Big Fat Stupid White Man' to Amazon's Top

Though it's been ignored by the big media and was only released yesterday, the new book "Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Stupid White Man" by David Hardy and Jason Clarke has already skyrocketed to the top of the Amazon.com best sellers list.

Before NewsMax began featuring the blockbuster Moore expose' last weekend, sales were slow, with the Amazon ranking hovering around the 2 million mark. But by Wednesday, "MMIABFSWM" had jumped to number eight on the Amazon list.

Jack Ryan watched his young career as a Senate candidate go up in smoke because the Chicago Tribune sued to bust the seal on his divorce papers from his wife, "Star Trek" actress Jeri Lynn Ryan. In the papers, Mrs. Ryan asserted that her husband pressured her to have sex with him in public in swinging sex clubs. Republicans wanted him gone.

Democrats not only stood for [Clinton's] ridiculous perjuries. They cheered him as his job approval ratings soared.

I met a former brigadier general in the Iraqi Army, Abu Muhammad, [in Falluja]. We sat in the guest hall of his grand house, watching the news on television ... Abu Muhammad had lost his job when Paul Bremer dissolved the army. When the war ended, he said, "we expected things to improve, but everything became worse: electricity, water, sewage."

Speakers in the mosques began to talk openly about jihad. "This attracted foreign Arabs who felt constrained by their own regimes," Abu Muhammad said, "and of course there were neighboring countries that supported them. Nobody in Falluja opposed the resistance, and many different resistance groups came in. Weapons were very available. The Baath Party had distributed weapons, and after the fall of Saddam's government soldiers and security personnel took their weapons home. People here grow up with weapons. They are part of our personality."

When the siege of Falluja started, in early April, Abu Muhammad said, "people here were monitoring American movements and had the upper hand. They had military experience, and they prepared themselves for the fight."

Highway 10, the road that connects Baghdad to Jordan and the western part of the country, runs through Falluja, and it was virtually shut down. Fighters set up roadblocks and searched cars for foreigners, military convoys were attacked, and trucks were hijacked and robbed.

Abu Muhammad said that Al Jazeera's coverage of the siege incited sympathy for the resistance. He compared the Al Jazeera correspondent to a sports commentator: "He encouraged people to support one team against the other ..."

Abu Muhammad was not optimistic about the future of Falluja. "It's like Afghanistan, where gangs rule, and Mafias and Taliban," he said. "If they decide somebody is a spy, they will kill him. There is no legal procedure. Imams who left during the fighting were prevented from returning to their mosques." He feared that differences between mujahideen groups would lead to further violence.

Detroit Public Schools must cut nearly $250 million from next year's budget -- more than 2 1/2 times what was predicted -- triggering hundreds of layoffs that could cut teacher staffing to the bone. On top of that, the district's savings are almost gone.

... Now those dealing with job cuts want to know why officials waited until March to cut costs -- and why they didn't know the magnitude of the problem sooner. "I don't have any explanation of how all of a sudden we got to this point," said Detroit Federation of Teachers President Janna Garrison. "I'm at a loss for words."

Detroit's $1.5-billion budget for next year assumes the Legislature won't cut per-pupil funding or money for at-risk students. However, the state's budget won't be finalized until September, and lawmakers are struggling with their own money crisis.

US motives for engaging in the Darfur crisis may not be entirely altruistic, observers say, but the Bush team's passion about Sudan also helps ensure that serious relief may actually arrive for Darfur's at-risk masses.

But a senior U.S. official said that in Powell's initial talks the Sudanese did not realize the gravity of the crisis.

"They are in a state of denial. They are in a state of avoidance. They are trying to obfuscate and avoid any consequences," said the official, who asked not to be named.

"They grabbed my donkey and my straw and said, 'Black girl, you are too dark. You are like a dog. We want to make a light baby,' " said Sawela Suliman, 22, showing slashes from where a whip had struck her thighs as her father held up a police and health report with details of the attack.

Africa Action announced that 20,000 people in the US and internationally have signed a petition, launched just two weeks ago, urging Secretary Powell to declare that a genocide is taking place in Darfur and to push for an immediate US-led intervention to stop the killing. The petition will be presented to Powell upon his return to the US.

US prosecutors said that he was being returned to the controversial Abu Ghraib prison because under the Geneva Conventions they were not bound by Iraqi law.

Many Iraqis see the Central Criminal Court as a creature of the occupation which must be abolished now the US has handed sovereignty back to Iraqis.

Baldo's team isolated a variety of photosynthetic proteins from spinach and sandwiched them between two layers of conducting material. When light was shone on to the tiny cell, an electrical current was generated.

The finding came from tests on a group of 55 adults between the ages of 21 and 35 who were given extracts of Opuntia ficus indica, a type of prickly pear cactus, before being fed dinner and told to get drunk.

We have done a great thing. Now it's up to the Iraqis to make the most of the gift of freedom we gave them.

Preventive War is a concept that's here to stay. Because Iraq didn't turn into Iowa overnight, we've heard no end of claims that preventive war has been eternally discredited. Nonsense. Saddam's gone. We've taken the War on Terror to our enemies. There's a chance of an actual Arab democracy emerging. Our losses have been remarkably low, considering what we achieved. And, yep, the Europeans are back in line — despite warnings that we'd burned our bridges forever. In the post-9/11 strategic environment, club rules no longer apply. At the hint of a threat, America needs to strike first. And we will.

Kill terrorists, rather than taking them prisoner. Legally, we must accept the surrender of even the bloodiest monster. So our military must do everything it legitimately can to kill terrorists before they can wave a white rag. Targeting must be more lethal and less cautious. There's nothing humane about mercy for mass murderers. And they're rarely of much intelligence value. By seeking prisoners we acquire large detainee populations that play into the hands of America's critics. Kill terrorists, and you get a few self-righteous complaints. Spare them, and you get Abu Ghraib.

It is imperative that the mistakes that were made a decade ago in Rwanda not be repeated in Darfur. The killing must be stopped and humanitarian needs addressed quickly, while there is still an opportunity to save many lives. We must not look back in a few months and wish that we had summoned the will earlier to do what we knew had to be done to address this crisis.

The overriding failure in the response of the United Nations before and during the genocide in Rwanda can be summarized as a lack of resources and a lack of will to take on the commitment which would have been necessary to prevent or to stop the genocide.

[edit]

The lack of will to act in response to the crisis in Rwanda becomes all the more deplorable in the light of the reluctance by key members of the International Community to acknowledge that the mass murder being pursued in front of global media was a genocide.

[edit]

The delay in identifying the events in Rwanda as a genocide was a failure by the Security Council. The reluctance by some States to use the term genocide was motivated by a lack of will to act, which is deplorable. If there is ever to be effective international action against genocide, States must be prepared to identify situations as such, and to assume the responsibility to act that accompanies that definition. The Inquiry hopes that the stronger recognition given today to the need to ensure human security and to guarantee the safety of individual human beings from human rights violations, will also mean that States will not shy away from identifying events as genocide, and responding to them with action.

It is important to add the following: the imperative for international action is not limited to cases of genocide. The United Nations and its member states must also be prepared to mobilise political will to act in the face of gross violations of human rights which have not reached the ultimate level of a genocide. Particular emphasis must be placed on the need for preventive action: the will to act needs to be mobilised before a situation escalates to a genocide.

[edit]

It has been stated repeatedly during the course of the interviews conducted by the Inquiry that the fact that Rwanda was not of strategic interest to third countries and that the international community exercised double standards when faced with the risk of a catastrophe there compared to action taken elsewhere.

On Thursday, ("Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael) Moore was the recipient of an open letter from independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who seems stung that his former friend and supporter has parted ways with him and gone to the Democrats.

Miffed that he was not invited to the Washington premiere of "Fahrenheit 9/11," Nader, whose 6-foot-4 frame is a lean 190 pounds, said Moore's former Naderite friends are "trim and take care of themselves. Girth they avoid. The more you let them see you, the less they will see of you."

"We are more saddened than angered by this," a Moore associate said, noting the particular pathos in Nader's missing invitation to the movie premiere. "It is just sad."

"I've been at him (Moore) for years, saying 'you've got to lose weight,'" Nader said in [a] phone interview. "Now, he's doubled (his weight). Private exhortations aren't working. It's extremely serious. He's over 300 pounds. He's like a giant beach ball."

He's a mean partisan guy. He's one of the most partisan guys I know....He's very mean. He's vicious, in fact.

QUESTION # 17: Would you favor or oppose invading Iraq with U.S. ground troops in an attempt to remove Saddam Hussein from power?

Favor ................. 53%
Oppose ............... 40%
No opinion ............ 7%

QUESTION #19: If President Bush decided to invade Iraq with U.S. ground troops in an attempt to remove Saddam Hussein from power, which of the following would best describe your reaction -- you would support the president's decision because you think the U.S. should invade Iraq; you would support the president's decision even though you do not think the U.S. should invade Iraq; (or) you would not support the president's decision because you do not think the U.S. should invade Iraq?

Support decision, ....... 47%
and think U.S.
should invade

Support decision, ....... 27%
even though don’t
favor an invasion

Oppose decision, ........ 22%
and don’t think
U.S. should invade

No opinion .................. 4%

QUESTION #18: Do you think the United States has done all it can do to solve the crisis with Iraq diplomatically, or not?

Yes, it has ............ 46%
No, it has not ........ 49%
No opinion .............. 5%

QUESTION #24: Which comes closer to your own opinion -- the U.S. should not attack another country unless that country has attacked the U.S. first, (or) the U.S. should be able to attack any country it thinks might attack the U.S.?

U.S. should not attack ........... 51%
unless we’re attacked first

U.S. should be able to ........... 40%
attack if it thinks that
country "might attack" us

No opinion .............................. 9%

There's also a line that came out, that they both mentioned that you said to them, "You need to make more noise." Do you remember saying that?

Oh, I think so, yes, certainly.

What did you mean by that?

I meant they should be out there trying to create more noise about this situation, which would help us, inside, who had any concern about this issue.

What does that mean to the layman who's never sat in your position? What [does] "noise" means?

Noise means television interviews. Noise means newspaper articles. Noise can even mean peaceful demonstrations, etc. …

I think there are a number of different arguments as to why we need to move beyond narrow calculations of national interest in dealing with these problems. One of them is simply human. It comes as a revelation to my students that government officials are actually human beings rather than interest-calculating machines. But if you are a human being -- I'm not talking about moral obligation there, because that's presumptuous. But if you are a human being and you are blinding yourself to the fact that hundreds of thousands, millions of people are dying around the world, then you are blinding yourself to an important reality.

With thousands of Republicans set to invade the city this summer, high-priced escorts and strippers are preparing for one grand old party. Agencies are flying in extra call girls from around the globe to meet the expected demand during the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 gathering at Madison Square Garden.
...
Charging from $300 to upwards of $1,000 for an hour of companionship and a
whole lot more, escorts said they can always count on conventioneers for big
business.
...
That's the hope among escort services expecting a windfall from randy
Republicans.
...
At the 1996 Republican convention in San Diego, an escort service in search
of delegate dollars changed its name to GOP: Good Old-Fashioned Pleasure.
...
[Strip] Clubs have started booking private parties for delegates anxious to ogle
topless beauties after a day of watching fully clothed politicians boast
about family values.

The Bush White House has selected Sen. John McCain, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to give prime time addresses when Republicans gather for their convention this August, in a move designed to spotlight President Bush's centrist appeal.

"The interesting thing is that when it comes to the tax code of the United States, Americans are very egalitarian. Middle-income taxpayers support repeal of the death tax, for example, even though they know it would never help them."

Johnston touches on the difficulty of explaining taxes to the masses. In his chapter on the estate tax, he does note that even though the tax applies only to the extremely rich, a majority of Americans supported its repeal, many under the false assumption that they'd have to pay it when they died.

Humanitarian aid agencies, analysts and U.S. officials all agree that no matter what the international community does to try to prevent the catastrophe unfolding in Darfur, western Sudan, it's too late: Huge numbers of people will die there in coming months.