CHINA FLOATS, AMERICA SINKS

YUAN KICKS DOLLAR BUTT BY REJECTING "FREE MARKET"
Friday Jul 22, 2005

by Greg Palast

In case you haven't the least idea what the heck it means for China to "float" its currency, let me put it in the language we economists use: China's float don't mean squat.
Yet our President, a guy whose marks in Economics 101 are too embarrassing to publish here, ran out to hail the fact that buying Chinese money will now cost more dollars.
The White House line to the media, swallowed whole, is that by making Chinese money (yuan) more expensive to buy with dollars, Americans will buy fewer computers and toys from China -- and US employment will rise.
This will happen when we find Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The Guardian profile: Karl Rove

Julian Borger
Friday July 22, 2005
The Guardian

When Karl Rove is in trouble - and he has been in a lot of it lately - George Bush has a simple way of showing his support. When he walks across the lawn out of the White House he has Rove walk with him, so the next day's photographs will show that familiar pink, bespectacled face at the presidential shoulder.

This is the currency in which President Bush repays loyalty, and no one is as loyal as Karl Rove. Before they met, George junior was just a genial fellow from a famous family with very good connections. Rove, the hard-nosed political geek who can reel off 20-year-old election results from obscure congressional districts, turned the callow pretender into a candidate, then a governor, then a president.

Court Rules State Not Liable To Pay For Legal Help For Poor

The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled that the state is not obligated to help counties pay for hiring lawyers for poor criminal defendants.

The court, in a 6-2 decision Thursday, sided with Circuit Judge Ann Lamar in a 2003 case out of Quitman County.

In her November 2003 decision, Lamar said she would not declare unconstitutional a state law requiring local governments to pay for indigent defense.

Quitman County sued the state in 1999 after it was forced to borrow several hundred thousand dollars in the early 1990s to defend two men convicted of killing members of a local family.

Attorneys argued that having the counties pay for their own indigent defense systems was a violation of the state's constitutional duty.

Lamar said Quitman County never proved their main points: that the county's two part-time public defenders were overburdened and gave their clients poor representation because of a bad system.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,16019385,00.html

Peter Wilson, London
23jul05

POLICE shot dead a suspected suicide bomber on the London Underground last night, just 24 hours after a bungled second-wave attack on the British capital's transport system.

The man was shot five times by police at almost point-blank range after he jumped on to an open carriage at Stockwell station in south London.

A witness said the man had a bomb strapped to his body.

"He had a bomb belt with wires coming out," Anthony Larkin told BBC.

Stockwell is one stop south of Oval station, one of three Underground stops that were, together with a double-decker bus, the scenes of apparent would-be suicide bombing attacks on Thursday.

Bloomberg reveals Rove, Libby gave false testimony

RAW STORY

Newsroom sources tell Raw Story the final version of this piece will differ from the version moved earlier this evening.

Bloomberg's Richard Keil will reveal tonight: "Two top White House aides have given accounts to the special prosecutor about how reporters told them the identity of a CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, according to persons familiar with the case." The story reflects one given written by Murray Waas for the American Prospect.

Colleague of outed agent seeks to 'set the record straight'

RAW STORY

Copy of my testimony to be presented on Friday, 22 July 2005 before a joint session of Congressional Democrats. / CORRECTING THE RECORD ON VALERIE PLAME / Larry C. Johnson

I submit this statement to the Congress in an effort to correct a malicious and disingenuous smear campaign that has been executed against a friend and former colleague, Valerie (Plame) Wilson. Neither Valerie, nor her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson has asked me to do anything on their behalf. I am speaking up because I was raised to stop bullies. In the case of Valerie Plame she is facing a gang of bullies that is being directed by the Republican National Committee.

Paul Krugman: China Unpegs Itself

Thursday's statement from the People's Bank of China, announcing that the yuan is no longer pegged to the dollar, was terse and uninformative - you might say inscrutable. There's a good chance that this is simply a piece of theater designed to buy a few months' respite from protectionist pressures in the U.S. Congress.

Nonetheless, it could be the start of a process that will turn the world economy upside down - or, more accurately, right side up. That is, the free ride China has been giving America, in which the world's richest economy has been getting cheap loans from a country that is dynamic but still quite poor, may be coming to an end.

It's all about which way the capital is flowing.

How To Defeat The Terrorists

Rami G. Khouri
July 22, 2005

Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.

In the last 7 weeks, I have had the opportunity to make working visits to seven different Arab countries and to engage in political and other discussions with local officials, academics, journalists and opposition activists. The experience has been instructive, and simultaneously heartening and depressing, but has suggested obvious opportunities and dangers in the dual quest to respond to the rights of Arab citizens and defeat the global terror plague.

Based on my visits and discussions in Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Morocco, along with meetings with colleagues from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Kuwait, I sense a common mood across the Arab world: the prevailing status quo is neither satisfying to the majority of citizens, nor sustainable for the rulers in its current state, but neither is it on the verge of revolutionary or violent change.

A Bid to Chill Thinking

Behind Joe Barton's Assault on Climate Scientists

By David Ignatius

Friday, July 22, 2005; Page A23

In today's partisan political climate, science has inevitably become a political football. But I can't remember anything quite as nasty -- or as politically skewed -- as Rep. Joe Barton's recent attack on scientists whose views on global warming he doesn't like.

Barton, an 11-term Republican from Texas, is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and one of the oil lobby's best friends on Capitol Hill. Late last month he fired off letters to professor Michael Mann of the University of Virginia and two other scientists demanding information about what he claimed were "methodological flaws and data errors" in their studies of global warming.

Renewed Patriot Act Gets Boost in House, Senate Panel

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 22, 2005; Page A12

Within hours of a second attack on the London transit system, lawmakers in the House and Senate pushed ahead yesterday with starkly different bills to extend the controversial USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law.

Votes by the House and a Senate committee set the stage for sharp debate on Capitol Hill over how far Congress should go in limiting the powers given the government by the law, which was passed six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but has since come under fire from civil liberties advocates and some elected officials.

In Americans, Lower Levels Of Chemicals

Lead, Secondhand Smoke Exposure Has Decreased

Associated Press
Friday, July 22, 2005; Page A03

ATLANTA, July 21 -- Americans have lower levels of lead, secondhand-smoke byproducts and other potentially dangerous substances in their bodies than they did a decade ago, according to the third government survey of exposure to environmental chemicals.

"These data help relieve worry and concern," Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday.

U.S. Missile Defense Being Expanded, General Says

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 22, 2005; Page A10

The United States is expanding its preliminary missile defense system to address potential threats from the Middle East and China, and from ship-borne missiles off America's coast, the chief of the Pentagon's program said yesterday.

The Pentagon is upgrading radars in Britain and surveying four European countries for a new site for U.S. "interceptor" missiles, to better monitor and defeat incoming strikes from the Middle East, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering III, director of the Missile Defense Agency.

Army Boosts Benefits for Recruits Taking High-Demand Jobs

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 22, 2005; Page A09

Active-duty Army recruits can reap an unprecedented benefit of more than $100,000 in bonuses, college funds and extra pay for accepting high-demand jobs in priority units, the Army announced yesterday.

Beginning July 13, the Army offered new incentive pay of as much as $14,400 -- or $400 a month for 36 months -- to soldiers who enlist for three or more years as infantrymen, mechanics, medics and a wide range of other career fields, according to U.S. Army Recruiting Command. The soldiers must also agree to join "priority units," which Army officials said means units that are reorganizing or preparing to deploy overseas.

8 Detainees Leave Guantanamo Bay Prison

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 4:25 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eight more detainees have been released or transferred to other countries from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, the Defense Department said.

The announcement Wednesday said one detainee was released to Sudan, two to Afghanistan, three to Saudi Arabia, one to Jordan and that one prisoner was transferred to the government Spain for further proceedings.

It said the departures bring to 242 the number who have been released or transferred from the facility in Cuba, leaving approximately 510 imprisoned there.

The announcement said the latest releases included three detainees found no longer to be enemy combatants by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal. One was released to Sudan, one to Saudi Arabia and one to Jordan.

Schwarzenegger More Unpopular Than Ever, Poll Finds

By REUTERS

Filed at 3:16 a.m. ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's approval rating dropped to a new low even before a controversy developed about his hefty side income from fitness magazines, according to a poll released on Thursday.

Only 34 percent of adult Californians approve of the job Schwarzenegger is doing as governor, compared with 51 percent who disapprove, according to a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The institute's poll mirrors sinking numbers in a Field Poll last month among registered voters which found approval dropped to 37 percent from 55 percent in February.

``Californians don't feel that the state is headed in the right direction,'' said Mark Baldassare, research director of the nonpartisan institute, adding that Schwarzenegger has had difficulty convincing Californians to support his proposals.

U.S. Will Offer Doctors Free Electronic Records System

By GINA KOLATA
Published: July 21, 2005

There is no one in medicine who does not consider it both crucial and long overdue to have electronic records in doctor's offices and hospitals.

With electronic files, patient records are not stuck on pieces of paper in endless files, but are on a screen at the touch of a key. The computers alert doctors to do medical tests and avert errors by warning when they write a prescription for the wrong drug or the wrong dose. Patients can often see their own files and even make their own appointments, online, from their homes.

NYT Editorial: Off Course in Iraq

Most of the Bush administration's justifications for invading Iraq have turned out to be wrong. But the one surviving argument for overthrowing Saddam Hussein has been an important one: it was a chance to bring freedom and equality to the citizens suffering under a brutal dictatorship. For those of us holding onto that hope, this week brought disheartening news on multiple fronts.

Most chilling of all are the prospects for Iraqi women. As things now stand, their rights are about to be set back by nearly 50 years because of new family law provisions inserted into a draft of the constitution at the behest of the ruling Shiite religious parties. These would make Koranic law, called Shariah, the supreme authority on marriage, divorce and inheritance issues. Even secular women from Shiite families would be stripped of their right to choose their own husbands, inherit property on the same basis as men and seek court protection if their husbands tire of them and decide to declare them divorced.

Attack on U.S. food supply 'easy,' senators warn

They can monitor protest web sites, but not secure the food supply.--Dictynna

By Sophie WalkerWed Jul 20, 5:43 PM ET

An attack on America's food supply using biological agents or disease is easy to do, would spread fast and have a devastating economic effect, a Senate committee heard on Wednesday, as it reviewed protection for U.S. agriculture.

"In the case of foot-and-mouth disease it takes little scientific training," Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record), a Kansas Republican and chairman of the Intelligence Committee, told the Agriculture Committee hearing.

"You put a handkerchief under a diseased animal in Afghanistan, put it in a zip-lock bag, put it in your suitcase, come to the United States and drop it in any one of our feed lots. And we're in a lot of trouble."

America's Big Malignant Tumor

Libs are salivating that Karl Rove might go down. But hasn't the worst cancer already spread?
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, July 20, 2005

It's almost too good to be true. It's almost like you can't hardly believe it and it feels like it must be a nasty trick, a scam, some sexy lithe European fashion model smiling all coy and flirty as she offers you her thong underwear only to yank it away just as you reach for it as she instantly turns back into a hairy incubus and dashes away, cackling. Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease ... yank.

And maybe, if you're like me, deep inside your cynical Bush-ravaged heart you already know it won't actually happen, because no way is the world aligned correctly right now and no way is there any true justice happening anywhere near the White House right now, and what's more, the man in question is perhaps the slipperiest and sweatiest and most powerful adviser of a major world leader since an invisible purple demon hissed sweet nothings into Mussolini's ear, and therefore if anyone could finagle his way into remaining Grand Overlord Puppetmaster for as long as he damn well pleases, it's Karl Rove.

Merck Didn't Study Vioxx Effect on Heart

By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business WriterWed Jul 20, 3:30 PM ET

Merck & Co. didn't do any significant studies on whether Vioxx could cause heart attacks or other serious cardiovascular problems before the popular painkiller went on the market in 1999, the company's top epidemiologist testified Wednesday.

Nancy Santanello, head of Merck's epidemiology department and the company's corporate face at the nation's first Vioxx-related lawsuit to go to trial, said nothing in Merck's database before the drug went on the market in 1999 indicated it could cause heart attacks.

"At that time we didn't think there was any risk," she said in her third day of questioning from plaintiff's lawyer Mark Lanier. She had yet to be questioned by the company's lawyers.

GOP tries to dissuade Harris

Is she the right's version of Hillary Clinton--too divisive to win?--Dictynna

By Donald Lambro
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
July 21, 2005

White House political strategist Karl Rove and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have been trying to talk Florida Rep. Katherine Harris out of running for the Senate next year, but have been unsuccessful thus far.
Mrs. Harris has had several private meetings with Mr. Rove and with NRSC officials, including Chairman Sen. Elizabeth Dole, North Carolina Republican, who have urged her to forgo the Republican Party's high-priority Senate race. Instead, they want her to run for a third House term, pointing to internal polling data that shows she cannot beat freshman Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2006.

Families who fought for 9/11 commission declare it a failure

RAW STORY

Several widows whose husbands were killed on 9/11 have excoriated the report issued by the 9/11 Commission on the first anniversary of the commission's report, and have joined with other activists to call for a more thorough investigation.

They plan a press conference in the National Press Club Friday afternoon, particularly aimed at independent media and the foreign press corps.

The following release was issued to RAW STORY Thursday.

Confirmation Path May Run Through Florida

Paying off a political debt?--Dictynna

Roberts' low-profile role as an advisor to Republicans during the 2000 presidential recount fight is likely to be closely scrutinized.
By Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writer

July 21, 2005

WASHINGTON — As the 2000 presidential recount battle raged in Florida, a Washington lawyer named John G. Roberts Jr. traveled to Tallahassee, the state capital, to dispense legal advice.

He operated in the shadows at least some of those 37 days, never signing a legal brief and rarely making an appearance at the makeshift headquarters for George W. Bush's legal team.

But now Roberts has been selected for the very Supreme Court that put Bush into office by settling the recount, chosen by the president to replace the swing vote in that 5-4 decision. And his work in Florida during that time is coming into focus, giving critics some ammunition to paint a respected jurist with an apparently unblemished legal career as an ideological partisan.

It's Not Who We Are, It's What We Do

What can terrorists teach us?
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Wednesday, July 20, 2005, at 3:49 PM PT

Three new studies, by very different authors taking very different tacks, reach much the same conclusion about modern terrorism: that its practitioners, especially its foot soldiers, are motivated not so much by Islamic fantasies of the caliphate's restoration and the snuffing of freedom, but rather by resistance to foreign occupation of Arab lands.

Nothing about this conclusion makes terrorist acts more justified, or less abhorrent, or a slighter assault on the bonds of civilization. Understanding is not the same as excusing. Still, understanding can be a useful tool for devising a cogent response and an effective policy.

Supreme Consequences

Wendy Chavkin, M.D.
July 21, 2005

Dr. Wendy Chavkin is the chair of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. She and other doctors who provided or facilitated abortions before Roe v. Wade share their experiences on a new website, www.voicesofchoice.org.

As much as the nomination of a new U.S. Supreme Court Justice is about individual rights and freedoms, it’s also about public health. Doctors across the country know that—but few know it as personally and profoundly as the physicians who provided or helped women gain access to abortions before Roe v. Wade .

Fourteen pre-Roe physicians issued a public statement recently, saying they fear the country will repeat “a dark chapter of its history” if Sandra Day O’Connor’s replacement opposes legal abortion—as Judge John Roberts apparently does. I am one of those 14 doctors.

Democrats Say Nominee Will Be Hard to Defeat

By Peter Baker and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 21, 2005; Page A01

The White House and its allies opened their campaign to confirm Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court with a mix of soft-sell persuasion and hard-pitch pressure yesterday as Senate Democrats plotted strategy for responding to a nomination they conceded could be hard to defeat.

China Severs Its Currency's Link to Dollar

By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 21, 2005; 9:27 AM

SHANGHAI, July 21 -- China on Thursday said it would allow the value of its currency, the yuan, to increase slightly on foreign exchange markets, while also abandoning its decade-old fixed exchange rate to the U.S. dollar in favor of a rate pegged to a broader basket of world currencies.

The evening announcement on Chinese state television accompanied a statement from the country's central bank, delivering the first concrete progress toward allowing the yuan, also known as the renminbi, to float freely with the whims of world markets -- something China's leaders have long said they plan to do eventually, without offering a timetable.

Plame's Identity Marked As Secret

Memo Central to Probe Of Leak Was Written By State Dept. Analyst

By Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 21, 2005; Page A01

A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.

Release: Cheney leaked classified information, too, group says

RAW STORY

FIXED: READ THE CHENEY TRANSCRIPT.

The following was released by the progressive Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Tuesday morning. The group drafted the complaint against Tom DeLay, filed by former Congressman Chris Bell, for which DeLay was admonished last year.
#

Washington, DC, — Long before the Karl Rove scandal grew into today’s political maelstrom, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a letter to President Bush on January 28, 2004 asking that he call upon the White House Counsel to investigate Vice President Cheney's confirmation of leaked classified information in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News on January 9, 2004. As of today, no such investigation has taken place.

An Unlikely Story

Karl Rove's alibi would be easier to believe if he hadn't hidden it from FBI investigators in 2003.

By Murray Waas
Web Exclusive: 07.19.05

Print Friendly | Email Article

White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove did not disclose that he had ever discussed CIA officer Valerie Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper during Rove’s first interview with the FBI, according to legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The omission by Rove created doubt for federal investigators, almost from the inception of their criminal probe into who leaked Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak, as to whether Rove was withholding crucial information from them, and perhaps even misleading or lying to them, the sources said.

Uncle Sam wants you – even if you’re 42 years old

By Rick Maze
Times staff writer

The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service.

Under current law, the maximum age to enlist in the active components is 35, while people up to age 39 may enlist in the reserves. By practice, the accepted age for recruits is 27 for the Air Force, 28 for the Marine Corps and 34 for the Navy and Army, although the Army Reserve and Navy Reserve sometimes take people up to age 39 in some specialties.

Courting Influence on John Roberts

See information at the link.

Who Suffers From Inflation?

t's not you. It's rich people.
By Daniel Gross
Posted Tuesday, July 19, 2005, at 2:30 PM PT

Here is what happens when number crunchers stop believing in numbers and start worrying about themselves. The inflation numbers look good. The Consumer Price Index rose just 0.1 percent in May and just 2.5 percent during the year before. The Federal Reserve believes it has tamed inflation with a series of measured interest-rate increases.

But many professional analysts refuse to believe. As a group, economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal forecast that inflation will pick up pace in coming months. In June, for example, Brian Wesbury of Griffin, Kubik, Stephens & Thompson projected inflation would "rise to the 3.5 percent to 4.0 percent range during the next 17 months."

Last week, John Roberts wrote Bush a blank check.

Thank You, Mr. President
Last week, John Roberts wrote Bush a blank check.
By Emily Bazelon
Posted Tuesday, July 19, 2005, at 10:00 PM PT

Since Sandra Day O'Connor resigned almost three weeks ago, John Roberts has been the Washington, D.C., establishment choice to take her seat on the Supreme Court—among some Democrats as well as Republicans. As a deputy solicitor general for George H.W. Bush, Roberts wrote a brief arguing that doctors in clinics receiving federal funds shouldn't be able to talk to their patients about abortion (the Supreme Court agreed) and in passing called for the reversal of Roe v. Wade. But some liberals are quick to argue that on the Supreme Court, Roberts would be open to rethinking such right-wing positions. They take comfort in his reputation for being likable and fair-minded.

Iraqi Constitution May Curb Women's Rights

By EDWARD WONG
Published: July 20, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 19 - A working draft of Iraq's new constitution would cede a strong role to Islamic law and could sharply curb women's rights, particularly in personal matters like divorce and family inheritance.

The document's writers are also debating whether to drop or phase out a measure enshrined in the interim constitution, co-written last year by the Americans, requiring that women make up at least a quarter of the parliament.

Workers Of The Real World

Jonathan Tasini
July 20, 2005

Jonathan Tasini is president of the Economic Future Group and writes his "Working In America" columns for TomPaine.com on an occasional basis.

For the past 20 years, we’ve been barraged by a relentless mantra: Education is the magic bullet to survive in the global economy. Virtually every politician, armed with rhetoric from academics, tells American workers that, essentially, they are too dumb to make it in the “New Economy.” Save yourself, they exhort—go back to school. Prepare yourself—get an advanced degree. But this is utter nonsense.

Let’s talk about the real world. Today’s global economy is about one thing: labor costs. If a company can move to China to employ workers making 35 cents an hour—whoosh, they are gone from America. High-tech jobs have been moving offshore for years, first to places like Ireland, and now to India. The world is awash in highly skilled, highly educated and cheap workers.

Oy. It's Roberts.

E.J. Graff
July 20, 2005

E.J. Graff, a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center, has most recently collaborated on Evelyn Murphy's book Getting Even: Why Women Still Don't Get Paid Like Men - And What To Do About It, forthcoming in October.

Okay, so to replace Sandra Day O'Connor we've got a blue-eyed straight white guy, John G. Roberts. He's a 50-year-old Washington insider and member of the Federalist Society, clerked for Rehnquist, worked in the Reagan and H.W. Bush Departments of Justice, and has argued against Roe and against environmental regulations. And he has a slim enough paper trail that, unless he's got a corpse in his basement or a kinky ex-girlfriend hiding somewhere, he'll probably get in.

Oy. It's Roberts.

E.J. Graff
July 20, 2005

E.J. Graff, a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center, has most recently collaborated on Evelyn Murphy's book Getting Even: Why Women Still Don't Get Paid Like Men - And What To Do About It, forthcoming in October.

Okay, so to replace Sandra Day O'Connor we've got a blue-eyed straight white guy, John G. Roberts. He's a 50-year-old Washington insider and member of the Federalist Society, clerked for Rehnquist, worked in the Reagan and H.W. Bush Departments of Justice, and has argued against Roe and against environmental regulations. And he has a slim enough paper trail that, unless he's got a corpse in his basement or a kinky ex-girlfriend hiding somewhere, he'll probably get in.

Bill Would Give NIH Director Broad Power Over Spending

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 20, 2005; Page A21

The director of the National Institutes of Health would have unprecedented authority to decide federal spending priorities for biomedical research and would gain new powers to kill or consolidate the agency's 27 institutes and centers under draft legislation released by a House committee yesterday.

The proposed changes, drafted by the Energy and Commerce Committee in consultation with NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni and others, are part of an effort in Congress to reauthorize the $28 billion agency for the first time since 1993.

U.S. a Battlefield, Solicitor General Tells Judges

Case of Man Held 3 Years Without Trial Focuses Attention on Administration's Anti-Terror Policies

By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 20, 2005; Page A09

RICHMOND, July 19 -- A top government attorney declared Tuesday that, in the war on terror, the United States is a battlefield, and therefore President Bush has the authority to detain enemy combatants indefinitely in this country.

Solicitor General Paul D. Clement's comments came as a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is considering whether to overturn a lower court ruling that Jose Padilla should be charged with a crime or released. In 2002, Padilla, a former Chicago gang member and Muslim convert, was taken into custody by the military and has been held without trial since.

Justice Dept. Opposes Shield for Reporters

Bill on Sources Called 'Bad Public Policy'

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 20, 2005; Page A03

The Justice Department is opposing a bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill to protect journalists from having to reveal confidential sources, calling the legislation "bad public policy" that would impair the administration's ability "to effectively enforce the law and fight terrorism."

In testimony prepared for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this morning, Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey Jr. says "imposing inflexible, mandatory standards" would hurt the department on prosecutions involving public health, safety and national security.

Greenspan Signals Further Rate Increases

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 20, 2005; 11:08 AM

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Wednesday the economy should enjoy sustained growth with low inflation in coming months, a strong condition that will require continuing incremental increases in interest rates.

Greenspan delivered an upbeat assessment of the economy's prospects in an appearance before Congress, saying the country weathered a brief slowdown in the spring when inflation appeared to be on the rise.

A Move To the Right, An Eye to Confirmation

By Dan Balz and Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 20, 2005; Page A01

President Bush moved boldly to shift the Supreme Court to the right last night by selecting federal appellate judge John G. Roberts Jr. to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But in choosing a jurist with establishment credentials and bipartisan allies, Bush also picked a nominee he believes can win confirmation with some Democratic votes.

Bomb Damage to Iraqi Boy's Eyes Is Worse Than Expected

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: July 19, 2005

Ayad al-Sirowiy, the 13-year-old Iraqi boy who came to America last week with a burned face and big hopes, hit a major setback yesterday.

While being examined for a possible cornea transplant, Ayad learned not only that his right eye, which was visibly injured by an American cluster bomb, was damaged beyond repair, but also that his left eye had tiny bomb fragments in it and might require emergency surgery to save his sight.

For Some, the Tax Cut on Investment Income Is Not as Sweet as Advertised

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
Published: July 19, 2005

Millions of investors who bought dividend-paying stocks after President Bush persuaded Congress to lower the taxes on investments to 15 percent are paying a lot more, in some cases almost 50 percent more, two new analyses show.

The cause is the alternative minimum tax, a parallel income tax that was originally aimed at the richest taxpayers but is affecting an increasing number of Americans and denying them at least part of the Bush administration's tax cuts.

With New Data, a Debate on Low-Level Radiation

By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: July 19, 2005

WASHINGTON, July 18 - A report on the health effects of small doses of radiation has renewed a debate on the way exposure is regulated and how the public should regard such doses.

The report, issued by the National Academy of Sciences, incorporates nearly 15 years of new data on atomic bomb survivors in Japan.

It makes only small changes in estimates of the number of fatal cancers that can be expected from a given radiation dose, but it reinforces the idea, opposed by some experts, that even tiny doses may add slightly to risk. The report also gives more detail on cancer cases, concluding that women are more likely than men to contract the disease, given equal doses.

Seymour Hersh: GET OUT THE VOTE

Did Washington try to manipulate Iraq’s election?
Issue of 2005-07-25
Posted 2005-07-18

The January 30th election in Iraq was publicly perceived as a political triumph for George W. Bush and a vindication of his decision to overturn the regime of Saddam Hussein. More than eight million Iraqis defied the threats of the insurgency and came out to vote for provincial councils and a national assembly. Many of them spent hours waiting patiently in line, knowing that they were risking their lives. Images of smiling Iraqis waving purple index fingers, signifying that they had voted, were transmitted around the world. Even some of the President’s harshest critics acknowledged that he might have been right: democracy, as he defined it, could take hold in the Middle East. The fact that very few Sunnis, who were dominant under Saddam Hussein, chose to vote was seen within the Administration as a temporary setback. The sense of victory faded, however, amid a continued political stalemate, increased violence, and a hardening of religious divides. After three months of bitter sectarian infighting, a government was finally formed. It is struggling to fulfill its primary task: to draft a new constitution by mid-August.

Smithsonian Finds Scopes Trial Photos

By CARL HARTMAN, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial, a trove of about 60 unpublished photos from the landmark case has been found in Smithsonian Institution archives, including a shot of Clarence Darrow's courtroom sparring with William Jennings Bryan.

Cheney leaked classified information, too, group says

RAW STORY

The following was released by the progressive Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington Tuesday morning. The group drafted the complaint against Tom DeLay, filed by former Congressman Chris Bell, for which DeLay was admonished last year.
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Washington, DC, — Long before the Karl Rove scandal grew into today’s political maelstrom, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a letter to President Bush on January 28, 2004 asking that he call upon the White House Counsel to investigate Vice President Cheney's confirmation of leaked classified information in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News on January 9, 2004. As of today, no such investigation has taken place.

Abortion: Just the Data

With High-Court Debate Brewing, New Report Shows Procedure's Numbers Down

By Naseem Sowti
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 19, 2005; Page HE01

A new analysis of the most recent abortion data shows that the number of U.S. women having the procedure is continuing its decade-long drop and stands at its lowest level since 1976.

In the year 2002, about 1.29 million women in the U.S. had abortions. In 1990, that number was 1.61 million.

EJ DIONNE: In Defense Of Success

Government Really Can Lessen Poverty

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005; Page A21

The problem with liberals, conservatives often say, is that they are too committed to old programs. This is an odd criticism coming from conservatives who regularly hail the low-tax, small-government policies of Calvin Coolidge as a model for good government. If wanting to bring back the 1920s isn't backward-looking, what is?

Five From the 5th Circuit Mentioned for High Court

Southern Appeals Bench Known for Conservatism

By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 19, 2005; Page A08

It wasn't all that long ago that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit was on the cutting edge of the civil rights movement, a liberal pocket of scholars aggressively enforcing the Supreme Court's demand for speedy desegregation in the Deep South.

But things have changed mightily in 20 years. Today, the New Orleans-based appellate court is considered among the most conservative in the land -- but it is still at the center of politics and history.

U.S., India May Share Nuclear Technology

Bush Move to Reverse Policy on Civilian Aid Needs Hill Approval

By Dana Milbank and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 19, 2005; Page A01

President Bush agreed yesterday to share civilian nuclear technology with India, reversing decades of U.S. policies designed to discourage countries from developing nuclear weapons.

The agreement between Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which must win the approval of Congress, would create a major exception to the U.S. prohibition of nuclear assistance to any country that doesn't accept international monitoring of all of its nuclear facilities. India has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires such oversight, and conducted its first nuclear detonation in 1974.

General Commanded Troops in Vietnam

By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 19, 2005; Page A01

William C. Westmoreland, 91, the controversial four-star general who confidently predicted victory, leading the American military buildup in Vietnam until the 1968 Tet Offensive shattered public confidence, died July 18 at a retirement home in Charleston, S.C., his son said. The cause of death was not immediately available.

Having Computer Problems

I'm having computer problems, so posting will be sporadic at best.--Dictynna

Frank Rich: Follow the Uranium

Published: July 17, 2005

"I am saying that if anyone was involved in that type of activity which I referred to, they would not be working here."
- Ron Ziegler, press secretary to Richard Nixon, defending the presidential aide Dwight Chapin on Oct. 18, 1972. Chapin was convicted in April 1974 of perjury in connection with his relationship to the political saboteur Donald Segretti.

"Any individual who works here at the White House has the confidence of the president. They wouldn't be working here at the White House if they didn't have the president's confidence."
- Scott McClellan, press secretary to George W. Bush, defending Karl Rove on Tuesday.

WELL, of course, Karl Rove did it. He may not have violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, with its high threshold of criminality for outing a covert agent, but there's no doubt he trashed Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame. We know this not only because of Matt Cooper's e-mail, but also because of Mr. Rove's own history. Trashing is in his nature, and bad things happen, usually through under-the-radar whispers, to decent people (and their wives) who get in his way. In the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain's wife, Cindy, was rumored to be a drug addict (and Senator McCain was rumored to be mentally unstable). In the 1994 Texas governor's race, Ann Richards found herself rumored to be a lesbian. The implication that Mr. Wilson was a John Kerry-ish girlie man beholden to his wife for his meal ticket is of a thematic piece with previous mud splattered on Rove political adversaries. The difference is that this time Mr. Rove got caught.

Michael Kinsley: Where Even Newt Gingrich Thrives

By Michael KinsleySunday, July 17, 2005; Page B07

In Washington, old politicians don't even fade away.

Ten years ago, when he was speaker of the House and riding high, Newt Gingrich wrote a book called "To Renew America," in which he predicted that in "just a decade or so," people would have a "diagnostic chair" in their homes that would save them the trouble of going to the doctor.
That doesn't seem to have happened. But then, even professional pundits can sometimes be wrong in predicting the future. For example, I thought that when he slunk out of Congress in 1998, we had heard the last of Newt Gingrich. And he did lie low for a while. But now he's back, big-time. Just Google him up. He's the man to go to for a quote about anything relating to the Republican Party or the universe generally. He is hitting the talk shows a lot and graduating from the role of guest interviewee to that of a full-fledged know-it-all sitting at the big round table with chairs that tilt back.

State Dept. Memo Gets Scrutiny in Leak Inquiry on C.I.A. Officer

By RICHARD STEVENSON

This article was reported by Douglas Jehl, David Johnston and Richard W. Stevenson and was written by Mr. Stevenson.

WASHINGTON, July 15 - Prosecutors in the C.I.A. leak case have shown intense interest in a 2003 State Department memorandum that explained how a former diplomat came to be dispatched on an intelligence-gathering mission and the role of his wife, a C.I.A. officer, in the trip, people who have been officially briefed on the case said.

Investigators in the case have been trying to learn whether officials at the White House and elsewhere in the administration learned of the C.I.A. officer's identity from the memorandum. They are seeking to determine if any officials then passed the name along to journalists and if officials were truthful in testifying about whether they had read the memo, the people who have been briefed said, asking not to be named because the special prosecutor heading the investigation had requested that no one discuss the case.