Paul Krugman: French Family Values

Americans tend to believe that we do everything better than anyone else. That belief makes it hard for us to learn from others. For example, I've found that many people refuse to believe that Europe has anything to teach us about health care policy. After all, they say, how can Europeans be good at health care when their economies are such failures?

Now, there's no reason a country can't have both an excellent health care system and a troubled economy (or vice versa). But are European economies really doing that badly?

The answer is no. Americans are doing a lot of strutting these days, but a head-to-head comparison between the economies of the United States and Europe - France, in particular - shows that the big difference is in priorities, not performance. We're talking about two highly productive societies that have made a different tradeoff between work and family time. And there's a lot to be said for the French choice.

Recount story a surprise to Bush

Governor says Roberts' role `news to me'

By John Kennedy
Tallahassee Bureau

July 28, 2005

TALLAHASSEE · Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that he was surprised by a report that U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts played an influential role in Florida's 2000 presidential recount, insisting that "my relationship with him lasted about 30 minutes."

The governor, whose brother, President Bush, won the White House after the high court stopped the Florida recount by a 5-4 vote, said he huddled briefly with Roberts during the 36-day legal standoff for a "very arcane discussion."

The governor made the remarks after Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, a former domestic policy adviser to George Bush's campaign, told reporters that he brought Roberts, then a Washington lawyer, to Tallahassee to take part in the frenzied legal battle that followed the Florida contest.

State rejects e-voting system

Counties scramble to replace Diebold machines
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

After possibly the most extensive testing ever on a voting system, California has rejected Diebold's flagship electronic voting machine because of printer jams and screen freezes, sending local elections officials scrambling for other means of voting.

"There was a failure rate of about 10 percent, and that's not good enough for the voters of California and not good enough for me," said Secretary of State Bruce McPherson.

Mother seeking support cursed at for questioning war

John Byrne

Marsha Walker’s son survived a suicide bomb in Iraq.

Her daughter spent a year in Kuwait last year, and her father is a former Marine reservist. She’s part of a military family; she and her sister went into criminal justice because their father dissuaded them from a military career. Marsha is a Blue Star mother, meaning a mother whose son is serving overseas.

What the Federalist Society Stands For

Group Is Haven for Conservative Thought

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 29, 2005; Page A21

After President Bush tapped John G. Roberts Jr. for the Supreme Court, the nominee was widely reported to be a member of the Federalist Society -- an assertion that White House officials vigorously disputed.

When it was later disclosed that Roberts was once listed as serving on the steering committee of the group's Washington chapter, Bush aides continued to insist that Roberts has no recollection of ever being a full-fledged member of the conservative legal group.

Oceans Have Fewer Kinds Of Fish

Overfishing Among Causes, Study Says

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 29, 2005; Page A03

The variety of species in the world's oceans has dropped by as much as 50 percent in the past 50 years, according to a paper published today in the journal Science.

A combination of overfishing, habitat destruction and climate change has narrowed the range of fish across the globe, wrote biologists Boris Worm and Ransom A. Myers of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia and three other scientists. In some areas, such as off northwest Australia where a wide variety of tuna and billfish used to thrive, diversity has declined precipitously.

Judge's Reagan-Era Work Criticized

Papers Show Roberts's Conservatism, Liberal Activists Say

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 29, 2005; Page A05

After sitting mostly silent for more than a week after the Supreme Court nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr., liberal activist groups and their allies in the Senate yesterday expressed growing concern about the conservative positions Roberts advocated while working as a young Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration.

Former CIA Officer Sues to Publish Book

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 28, 2005

Filed at 4:38 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA is squelching publication of a new book detailing events leading up to Osama bin Laden's escape from his Tora Bora mountain stronghold during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, says a former CIA officer who led much of the fighting.

In a story he says he resigned from the agency to tell, Gary Berntsen recounts the attacks he coordinated at the peak of the fighting in eastern Afghanistan in late 2001, including how U.S. commanders knew bin Laden was in the rugged mountains near the Pakistani border and the al-Qaida leader's much-discussed getaway.

An Advocate for the Right

By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM
Published: July 28, 2005

WASHINGTON, July 27 - The early 1980's were a heady time for conservatives in Washington.

Ronald Reagan was president, and after years on the outside, some of the strongest voices in the conservative movement - men like Edwin Meese III, James G. Watt, William Bradford Reynolds and Theodore B. Olson - were in high positions in the government and were determined to reverse what they believed to be years of liberal policies in areas like civil rights, environmental protection, criminal law and immigration.

BBV Board Member Arrested ...

Posted on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 08:25 pm: Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)
VIEWING THE DIEBOLD VOTE-TALLYING SCREEN PROHIBITED
Update - Tabulation results appear odd for July 26 election

Jim March, a member of the Black Box Voting board of directors, was arrested Tuesday evening for trying to observe the Diebold central tabulator (vote tallying machine) as the votes were being counted in San Diego's mayoral election (July 26).

According to Jim Hamilton, an elections integrity advocate from San Diego, he and March visited the office of the registrar of elections earlier in the day. During this visit, March made two requests, which were refused by Mikel Haas, the San Diego Registrar of elections.

1) March asked that the central tabulator, the computer that tallies up the votes from all the precincts, be positioned so that citizens could observe it. According to Hamilton, this would have required simply moving a table a few feet.

2) March also asked for a copy of the ".gbf" files -- the vote tally files collected during the course of tabulation – to be provided for examination after the election.

During the tallying of the election, the Diebold computer was positioned too far away for citizens to read the screen. Citizens could not watch error messages, or even perceive significant anomalies or malfunctions.

Unable to see the screen, March went into the office where the tabulator was housed. Two deputies followed him and escorted him out.

Brazilian did not wear bulky jacket

Relatives say Met admits that, contrary to reports, electrician did not leap tube station barrier

Mark Honigsbaum
Thursday July 28, 2005
The Guardian

Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead in the head, was not wearing a heavy jacket that might have concealed a bomb, and did not jump the ticket barrier when challenged by armed plainclothes police, his cousin said yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the Metropolitan police, Vivien Figueiredo, 22, said that the first reports of how her 27-year-old cousin had come to be killed in mistake for a suicide bomber on Friday at Stockwell tube station were wrong.

"He used a travel card," she said. "He had no bulky jacket, he was wearing a jeans jacket. But even if he was wearing a bulky jacket that wouldn't be an excuse to kill him."

E.P.A. Holds Back Report on Car Fuel Efficiency

By DANNY HAKIM

DETROIT, July 27 - With Congress poised for a final vote on the energy bill, the Environmental Protection Agency made an 11th-hour decision Tuesday to delay the planned release of an annual report on fuel economy.

But a copy of the report, embargoed for publication Wednesday, was sent to The New York Times by a member of the E.P.A. communications staff just minutes before the decision was made to delay it until next week. The contents of the report show that loopholes in American fuel economy regulations have allowed automakers to produce cars and trucks that are significantly less fuel-efficient, on average, than they were in the late 1980's.

Releasing the report this week would have been inopportune for the Bush administration, its critics said, because it would have come on the eve of a final vote in Congress on energy legislation six years in the making. The bill, as it stands, largely ignores auto mileage regulations.

Karen Hughes refused to answer questions about Plame outing during confirmation hearing

John Byrne

Senior Bush adviser Karen Hughes, headed to confirmation in the full Senate for the State Department's top public relations post, provided a terse two sentence answer to questions submitted by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) about her role and knowledge about the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, RAW STORY has learned.

Kerry's line of questioning focused on whether Hughes knew Wilson was a covert operative, and whether she had ever spoken with Bush adviser Karl Rove about the agent.

Oil and Blood

By BOB HERBERT
Published: July 28, 2005

It is now generally understood that the U.S.-led war in Iraq has become a debacle. Nevertheless, Iraqis are supposed to have their constitution ratified and a permanent government elected by the end of the year. It's a logical escape hatch for George W. Bush. He could declare victory, as a senator once suggested to Lyndon Johnson in the early years of Vietnam, and bring the troops home as quickly as possible.

Caving On CAFTA

Paul Waldman
July 28, 2005

Paul Waldman is a senior fellow with Media Matters for America and a senior contributor to The Gadflyer.

Earlier this week, potential 2008 presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Evan Bayh, Mark Warner and Tom Vilsack trooped to Ohio to join in the Democratic Leadership Council’s “National Conversation.” Back in Washington, the DLC joined a shrinking group on the left side of the aisle advocating for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. As the bill approached its vote in the House, even the “New Democrat Coalition” of centrist House Democrats came out against it.

The DLC has been doctrinaire on free trade from the organization’s inception, so it would have been a shock if it didn’t support CAFTA. And the further enhancements of corporate power over nations, states and localities written into the fine print don’t seem to bother the DLC much either, though even its advocates admit it won’t have much of an effect on the U.S. economy one way or another. But in the end, only 15 House Democrats heeded the DLC’s call to hand George W. Bush the first important legislative victory of his second term. Though 27 Republicans voted against it, CAFTA passed by a vote of 217-215.

Another Possible Case of Mad Cow

Associated Press
Thursday, July 28, 2005; Page A02

The government is investigating another possible case of mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department said yesterday.

Testing indicated the presence of the disease in a cow that died on the farm where it lived, said John Clifford, the department's chief veterinarian. The agency would not say where the farm was. The cow was at least 12 years old and died of complications during calving, Clifford said.

"It is important to note that this animal poses no threat to the human food supply, because it did not enter the human or animal food chains," Clifford said.

U.S. Muslim Scholars To Forbid Terrorism

By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 28, 2005; Page A11

An organization of top American Muslim religious scholars plans to issue a formal ruling today condemning terrorism and forbidding Muslims to cooperate with anyone involved in a terrorist act, according to officials of two leading Islamic organizations.

The one-page ruling, or fatwa, will be issued by the Fiqh Council of North America, an association of Islamic legal scholars that interprets Islamic law for the Muslim community. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group, said the ruling does not represent a new position on terrorism.

Subcontractor's Story Details Post-9/11 Chaos

New Company Had Little Oversight

By Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Scott Higham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 28, 2005; Page A01

Three years ago, Sunnye L. Sims lived in a two-bedroom apartment north of San Diego, paying $1,025 in monthly rent. Then she landed a dream job, with $5.4 million in pay for nine months of work.

Now she owns a $1.9 million stucco mansion with lofty ceilings on a hilltop, featuring sun-splashed palm trees and a circular driveway.

The Iraq mess

IN SPITE of expressions of determination by President Bush and members of his administration to stay the course, the flow of bad news out of Iraq indicates that it is a mess which will get worse before it gets better.

The fighting has transformed itself largely into civil war. The 170,000 Iraqi security forces, largely Shiite in composition, represent the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. They are opposed and targeted by the largely Sunni insurgents. The Kurds of the north mostly go their own way, except that their autonomy is encouraging Kurds in Turkey and Syria to bestir themselves against their host governments.

Mr. al-Jaafari's government is taking steps to improve its relations with the Shiite-dominated Iranian government. Minister of Defense Saadoun Duleimi visited Iran earlier this month and concluded a military cooperation pact that provides for Iranian training of Iraqi military forces.

This is a step that is painful to the Bush Administration, given its antagonism with the government in Tehran.

Rove's Backers Use 'CounterSpy Defense'

By Robert Parry
July 26, 2005

In defending White House political adviser Karl Rove, American conservatives have adopted an argument used by U.S. leftists three decades ago to rebut accusations that CounterSpy magazine's naming of CIA station chief Richard Welch in Greece contributed to his murder.

The argument – used then to defend CounterSpy and now to protect Rove for outing CIA officer Valerie Plame – was that the covers for the two CIA officers had previously been blown and that the CIA hadn’t done enough to maintain the secrecy.

U.S. To Announce 'Beyond Kyoto' Climate Pact

By REUTERS
Published: July 27, 2005

Filed at 10:45 a.m. ET

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The United States, the world's top polluter, is set to unveil a five-nation pact to combat global warming by developing energy technology to cut greenhouse gas emissions, officials said on Wednesday.

China and India, whose burgeoning economies comprise a third of humanity, as well as Australia and South Korea are part of the agreement to tackle climate change beyond the U.N.'s Kyoto protocol.

Say G-WOT?

Say G-WOT?
Terror attacks, Taliban resurgence, suicide bombs—obviously, it's time to change the slogan.
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Tuesday, July 26, 2005, at 12:32 PM PT

One question comes to mind while reading the New York Times' report today that the Bush administration has decided to change the name of its counterterrorist campaign from "the global war on terrorism" to "the global struggle against violent extremism": Are these guys really this clueless?

Gonzales Says Roe Can't Bind Current Court

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 27, 2005

WASHINGTON, July 26 (AP) - A right to abortion is settled law for lower courts, but the Supreme Court "is not obliged to follow" it, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said Tuesday as the Senate prepared to consider the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts to be associate justice.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Mr. Gonzales said a justice did not have to abide by a previous Supreme Court ruling - in this case Roe v. Wade - "if you believe it's wrong." The comment suggested that the attorney general believed Judge Roberts would not be bound by a statement he made in 2003 that a right to abortion was now settled. Judge Roberts made the statement at a hearing on his confirmation to his current seat on a federal appeals court in Washingto

A Nuclear Swindle

Wenonah Hauter
July 27, 2005

Wenonah Hauter is director of the energy program for Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest organization with 150,000 members.

In one of the biggest taxpayer bailouts in recent years, the energy bill about to pass out of Congress stands on the cusp of providing the nuclear industry and the oil industry, among others, with the sweetest deal that energy executives have seen in the last 50 years. Passage of this costly and flawed bill will prove to the American public that Congress cares more about rewarding business interests than protecting consumers—who will predictably suffer from higher energy bills and corporate abuse enabled by this legislation.

Despite cries for reduced foreign oil dependence, lower gas prices, strong global warming provisions and a general need to conserve energy, this bill instead reaches out to reward two industries that don’t deserve the gifts they’re being bestowed: the nuclear and oil industries. These industries serve as an example of how our energy future is being dictated by corporate interests, not common-sense policies that will ensure a healthier environment for generations to come. Like ‘Banana Republic’ officials on the take, Congress has accepted $90 million from these industries since 2001 in exchange for providing them with billions of dollars in subsidies and regulatory rollbacks.

Crowd Rushes Gate at U.S. Base In Afghanistan

Associated Press
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page A14

BAGRAM, Afghanistan, July 26 -- More than 1,000 stone-throwing Afghans tried to break down an outer gate at the main U.S. base here Tuesday while demanding the release of eight detained villagers. Afghan troops fired warning shots and used clubs to beat back the mob, and U.S. troops fired into the air.

It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties in the melee. Protesters chanted "Die America!" Black smoke billowed from burning tires.

Panel: Bush Was Unready for Postwar Iraq

By BARRY SCHWEID
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; 9:29 AM

WASHINGTON -- An independent panel headed by two former U.S. national security advisers said Wednesday that chaos in Iraq was due in part to inadequate postwar planning.

Planning for reconstruction should match the serious planning that goes into making war, said the panel headed by Samuel Berger and Brent Scowcroft. Berger was national security adviser to Democratic President Clinton. Scowcroft held the same post under Republican Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush but has been critical of the current president's Iraq and Mideast policies.

Clinton Angers Left With Call for Unity

Senator Accused of Siding With Centrists

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page A03

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's call for an ideological cease-fire in the Democratic Party drew an angry reaction yesterday from liberal bloggers and others on the left, who accused her of siding with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) in a long-running dispute over the future of the party.

Long a revered figure by many in the party's liberal wing, Clinton (D-N.Y.) unexpectedly found herself under attack after calling Monday for a cease-fire among the party's quarreling factions and for agreeing to assume the leadership of a DLC-sponsored initiative aimed at developing a more positive policy agenda for the party.

Hill a Steppingstone to K Street for Some

More Ex-Lawmakers Who Join Private Sector Are Becoming Lobbyists, Study Says

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page A19

Election to Congress used to be an end in itself. Now, for nearly half of federal lawmakers, it is a steppingstone to a second career: lobbying.

A new study has found that 43 percent of the 198 House and Senate members who left government to join private life since 1998 have registered to lobby. Of the 36 senators who left during that period, half have joined the lobbying ranks.

Republicans See Opportunity in Labor Rift

Jesse Jackson Appeals for Unity as Democrats Worry About Election Consequences

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page A02

CHICAGO, July 26 -- The political consequences of the split within the AFL-CIO began to reverberate nationwide Tuesday, with Democrats fretting that it will dilute the importance of labor endorsements while Republicans looked for opportunities to make inroads.

Civil rights leader and two-time Democratic presidential candidate Jesse L. Jackson pleaded with the warring forces to end their fight. "We must turn to each other, not on each other," Jackson told 800 delegates to the AFL-CIO convention here. He warned against leaving "so much blood on the field that you cannot compete" against "anti-civil-rights, anti-labor-rights Republicans."

House Republicans Predict CAFTA's Passage Tonight

By JIM ABRAMS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; 11:10 AM

WASHINGTON -- In a rare piece of lobbying on Capitol Hill, President Bush appealed personally to fellow Republicans Wednesday to close ranks behind a free trade agreement with Central America that faces a very close floor vote.

The House was beginning debate on the Central American Free Trade Agreement later in the day, with a vote coming as early as Wednesday night. With Democrats strongly against it, passage depends on keeping Republican defections to a minimum.

Documents Show Roberts Influence In Reagan Era

By R. Jeffrey Smith, Jo Becker and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page A01

Newly released documents show that John G. Roberts Jr. was a significant backstage player in the legal policy debates of the early Reagan administration, confidently debating older Justice Department officials and supplying them with arguments and information that they used to wage a bureaucratic struggle for the president's agenda.

U.S., Iraqi Officials Discuss Steps to Speed Troop Withdrawals

Statements Suggest Heightened Immediacy for Move

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; 10:48 AM

BAGHDAD, July 27 -- Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld met with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari and the top U.S. commander in Iraq Wednesday and discussed specific steps to speed preparations for the withdrawal of some of the 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq beginning as early as next spring.

An Art Class's Lesson in Politics

By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: July 25, 2005

Correction Appended

When Adama Bah's schoolmates decided to make a public artwork project about her case last spring, she and another 16-year-old girl were being held by the federal government after it had identified them, without explanation, as potential suicide bombers.

Oil companies rake in record profits in spite of falling production

RAW STORY

In spite of falling production, The Wall Street Journal predicts tomorrow that oil companies will report record earnings for 2005. Lower production and costly drilling operations have been more than offset by an enormous rise in crude prices, leaving the industry's top 70 producers with a 26% net increase in earnings this year.

The report by Bhushan Bahree (with contributions by Russel Gold and Jeffrey Ball,) also claims that 2006 will likely see a plunge in profits. Though the industry is currently sitting on huge cash reserves, experts are predicting dips in oil profits for 2006, based on rising costs and an anticipation of lower prices per barrel.

2,000 vets call for release of more Abu Ghraib photos

RAW STORY

Veterans for Common Sense (VCS), a nonpartisan veterans' organization with 12,000 members, called for a commission to investigate torture allegations today, in response to the Pentagon refusal to release photos and videos from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, the group said in a release Monday. Details follow.

Private: Abu Ghraib guards competed to see how many Iraqi detainees they could get to urinate on themselves

Witness: Dogs Bit Abu Ghraib Detainees

By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago

Two Iraqis at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison were bitten by dogs as they were being handled by sergeants who were competing to see who could scare more detainees, a witness testified Tuesday.

Pvt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II — himself convicted of abusing inmates at the military prison — testified by phone in the Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, for Sgts. Santos A. Cardona and Michael J. Smith.

The Army had announced the hearing on Monday.

Ex- Bush aide turns critic on Iraq

RAW STORY

The Wall Street Journal's first page Tuesday offers a detailed piece enumerating the concerns of a former Bush Administration aide and continued loyalist who has criticized the President's handling of Iraq reconstruction. The article tells of Stuart Bowen, "a Texas lawyer who parlayed a job on George W. Bush's first gubernatorial campaign into senior posts in Austin and Washington. He began the Iraq war lobbying for an American contractor seeking tens of millions of dollars in reconstruction work." Bowen was so seen as a part of the Bush machine that he was singled out by name in a report by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who worried about the politicization of Iraq inspectors general -- the job to which Bowen was appointed. Bowen also worked on the 2000 Florida recount team and served as associate counsel under Alberto Gonzales. The piece is worth reading in its entirety but is paid-restricted; RAW STORY has excerpted a few graphs below.

Congress plans to scrutinize Plame-related issues

By David MorganMon Jul 25, 4:38 PM ET

Congress will conduct a series of hearings on national security and espionage issues raised by the CIA-leak controversy surrounding senior Bush adviser Karl Rove, officials said on Monday.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence plans hearings on potential national security threats posed by leaks, including leaks to the media, and will aim to toughen legislation barring the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.

"It's time there's a comprehensive law that will make it easier for the government to prosecute wrongdoers and increase the penalties that hopefully will act as a deterrent," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the panel's Republican chairman.

Witness: Dogs Bit Abu Ghraib Detainees

By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago

Two Iraqis at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison were bitten by dogs as they were being handled by sergeants who were competing to see who could scare more detainees, a witness testified Tuesday.

Pvt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II — himself convicted of abusing inmates at the military prison — testified by phone in the Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, for Sgts. Santos A. Cardona and Michael J. Smith.

The Army had announced the hearing on Monday.

A dog handled by Cardona bit a detainee on both thighs, severely enough to require stitches, Frederick said. A dog handled by Smith bit an inmate on one of his wrists, but not hard enough to the break the skin, he said.

Frederick also said he heard both defendants say they were competing, using their dogs, to see how many detainees they could frighten into urinating on themselves.

He is serving an eight-year sentence at a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., after pleading guilty to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault and committing an indecent act.

Defending The Neocon War

John Brown
July 26, 2005

John Brown, a former Foreign Service officer who resigned from the State Department over the war in Iraq, compiles a daily “Public Diplomacy Press Review” available free by requesting it here.

“[W]e are only in the very early stages of what promises to be a very long war, and Iraq is only the second front to have been opened in that war ...”

—Norman Podhoretz, Commentary , September 2004

In recent weeks, commentators from both sides of the political fence have tried to make sense of the recent London bombings. The neocons and their fellow travelers are among these. But they have another, more immediate concern. They’re eager to decouple the tragedy in England from the U.S./British occupation of Iraq. That’s because they seek to prevent further erosion of popular support for the Iraq war, which could mean the end of their imperial ambitions in the Middle East.

Once Health Regulators, Now Partners

Private Groups Limit Patient Access to Medical Files, Rarely Punish Doctors

By Gilbert M. Gaul
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; Page A01

Last of three parts

For four years the federal government was David Shipp's steadfast opponent, refusing to answer the former textbook salesman's questions and rolling out its attorneys to block his attempts to obtain information.

Shipp wasn't seeking classified secrets. He was simply trying to find out why his wife of 49 years had died.

In December 1999, Shipp filed a complaint with Medicare suggesting that doctors had misdiagnosed his wife's colon cancer. The complaint landed with Health Care Excel, a private group under contract with Medicare to ensure that patients receive quality treatment.

Instead of helping the Louisville man, the nonprofit stonewalled him. Even if it confirmed his complaint, the group told Shipp, under Medicare's rules it could not reveal the results of its review.

A stunned Shipp headed to federal court, where in August 2003 he won the right to an answer. But even then Medicare and its contractor remained stingy with details. In a brief form letter, they acknowledged that Doris Ann Shipp had received substandard care, but they would not say what actions, if any, had been taken against the doctors.

House Democrats To Offer Proposal for Retirement Savings

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; Page A08

House Democrats intend to propose a retirement-savings plan today that will be their first leadership-backed alternative to Republican plans for a broad retirement-security package, which includes changes to Social Security.

The Democratic plan, called AmeriSave, would increase incentives for middle-class workers to participate in 401(k) retirement accounts and individual retirement accounts. It would also create tax credits for small businesses that set up retirement accounts for their employees.

Bill Wouldn't Wean U.S. Off Oil Imports, Analysts Say

By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; Page A01

Despite repeated calls by President Bush and members of Congress to decrease U.S. dependence on oil imports, a major energy bill that appears headed for passage this week would not significantly reduce the country's need for foreign oil, according to analysts and interest groups.

The United States imports 58 percent of the oil it consumes. Federal officials project that by 2025, the country will have to import 68 percent of its oil to meet demand. At best, analysts say, the energy legislation would slightly slow that rate of growth of dependence.

White House to Release Early Roberts Papers

By Peter Baker and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; Page A02

The White House will make public the bulk of documents related to Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr.'s service as a lawyer in Ronald Reagan's administration but will withhold papers generated during his time as deputy solicitor general under President George H.W. Bush to preserve privileged internal deliberations, officials said last night.

White House Opposes Release of Roberts Memos

By REUTERS

Filed at 2:24 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration does not want to release confidential memos that U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts wrote when he worked for two Republican presidents, a White House adviser said on Sunday.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson, named by President Bush to steer Roberts' confirmation through the Senate, disputed calls by some Democrats to turn over all the documents from Roberts' tenure at the White House and Justice Department.

``The administration's been pretty consistent on that, in fact, I think very consistent, in thatwill not be forthcoming,'' Thompson said during an interview on NBC's ``Meet the Press.''

``Conversations he has with his priest, conversations he has with his doctor or his wife or his client are matters that are off limits, basically,'' said Thompson, a Republican who represented Tennessee in the Senate.

Blacks Pin Hope on DNA to Fill Slavery's Gaps in Family Trees

By AMY HARMON

All her life, Rachel Fair has been teased by other black Americans about her light skin. "High yellow," they call her, a needling reference to the legacy of a slave owner who, she says, "went down to that cabin and had what he wanted."

So it was especially satisfying for Ms. Fair, 64, when a recent DNA test suggested that her mother's African ancestry traced nearly to the root of the human family tree, which originated there 150,000 years ago.

"More white is showing in the color, but underneath, I'm deepest Africa," said Ms. Fair, a retired parks supervisor in Cincinnati. "I tell my friends they're kind of Johnny-come-latelies on the DNA scale, so back up, back up."

Paul Krugman: Toyota, Moving Northward

Modern American politics is dominated by the doctrine that government is the problem, not the solution. In practice, this doctrine translates into policies that make low taxes on the rich the highest priority, even if lack of revenue undermines basic public services. You don't have to be a liberal to realize that this is wrong-headed. Corporate leaders understand quite well that good public services are also good for business. But the political environment is so polarized these days that top executives are often afraid to speak up against conservative dogma.

Instead, they vote with their feet. Which brings us to the story of Toyota's choice.

There has been fierce competition among states hoping to attract a new Toyota assembly plant. Several Southern states reportedly offered financial incentives worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

But last month Toyota decided to put the new plant, which will produce RAV4 mini-S.U.V.'s, in Ontario. Explaining why it passed up financial incentives to choose a U.S. location, the company cited the quality of Ontario's work force.

'Divided by God': One Nation, Under Whomever

By FRANKLIN FOER
Published: July 24, 2005

WHEN American officials needed a scholar to help draft a constitution for newly liberated Iraq, they turned to a young yeshiva-trained New York University law professor named Noah Feldman. This wasn't as odd as it sounds. An Arabic speaker, Feldman had just published a book, ''After Jihad,'' which argued that democracy and Islam were compatible. For months in Iraq, Feldman attempted to translate this theory into practice, trying to calm nervous ayatollahs, undermine aspiring theocrats and defuse a millennium-long sectarian blood feud.

Prospects for Energy Bill Improve

By H. JOSEF HEBERT
The Associated Press
Monday, July 25, 2005; 2:58 AM

WASHINGTON -- House and Senate negotiators removed a major obstacle that had deadlocked energy legislation for more than two years, but even supporters say the measure will not provide short-term relief from high gasoline prices.

Lawmakers hoped a compromise bill might be completed in a day although disputes remained over the size of an energy tax package.

The conferees on Sunday abandoned a bid to give makers of the gasoline additive MTBE liability protection against environmental lawsuits. That decision defused the issue that had caused the collapse of a sweeping energy bill two years ago in the Senate.

Bush Administration Files 11th Hour Papers Blocking the Release of Darby CD Photos and Video Of Abu Ghraib Torture

Synopsis

On July 22, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) denounced the latest efforts of the Bush Administration to block the release of the Darby photos and videos depicting torture at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison facility. On June 2, 2004, CCR, along with the ACLU, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense, and Veterans for Peace filed papers with the U.S. District Court, charging the Department of Defense and other government agencies with illegally withholding records concerning the abuse of detainees in American military custody. Since then, the organizations have been repeatedly rebuffed in their efforts to investigate what happened at the prison.

LA Times Moves Perjury With Rove To Front Page

RAW STORY

WASHINGTON -- The special prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation has shifted his focus from whether White House officials violated a law against exposing undercover agents to determining whether evidence exists to bring perjury or obstruction of justice charges, according to people briefed in recent days on the inquiry's status, the Los Angeles Times reports Saturday, RAW STORY has learned.

GM crops created superweed, say scientists

Modified rape crosses with wild plant to create tough pesticide-resistant strain

Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Monday July 25, 2005
The Guardian

Modified genes from crops in a GM crop trial have transferred into local wild plants, creating a form of herbicide-resistant "superweed", the Guardian can reveal.

The cross-fertilisation between GM oilseed rape, a brassica, and a distantly related plant, charlock, had been discounted as virtually impossible by scientists with the environment department. It was found during a follow up to the government's three-year trials of GM crops which ended two years ago.

A Way Out Of Iraq?

Robert Dreyfuss
July 25, 2005
Robert Dreyfuss is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va., who specializes in politics and national security issues. He is a contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones, a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone. His book, Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, will be published by Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books in the fall.

Unnoticed by the mainstream media, the man who might hold the key to a political solution of the war in Iraq appeared last week in Washington, D.C., where he met quietly with U.S. government officials and experts on Iraq and made a brilliant presentation at the Middle East Institute. Those looking for an exit strategy for Iraq (see my two-part series for TomPaine.com, The Vietnam Solution and An Iraqi Peace Process ) take note.

Frank Rich: Eight Days in July

PRESIDENT BUSH'S new Supreme Court nominee was a historic first after all: the first to be announced on TV dead center in prime time, smack in the cross hairs of "I Want to Be a Hilton." It was also one of the hastiest court announcements in memory, abruptly sprung a week ahead of the White House's original timetable. The agenda of this rushed showmanship - to change the subject in Washington - could not have been more naked. But the president would have had to nominate Bill Clinton to change this subject.

When a conspiracy is unraveling, and it's every liar and his lawyer for themselves, the story takes on a momentum of its own. When the conspiracy is, at its heart, about the White House's twisting of the intelligence used to sell the American people a war - and its desperate efforts to cover up that flimflam once the W.M.D. cupboard proved bare and the war went south - the story will not end until the war really is in its "last throes."

Bush Aide Learned Early of Leaks Probe

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 25, 2005; Page A02

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday that he spoke with White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. immediately after learning that the Justice Department had launched a criminal investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity. But Gonzales, who was White House counsel at the time, waited 12 hours before officially notifying the rest of the staff of the inquiry.

Accreditors Blamed for Overlooking Problems

Conflict of Interest Cited Between Health Facilities, Group That Assesses Conditions

By Gilbert M. Gaul
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 25, 2005; Page A01

Second of three parts

The creators of Medicare faced a problem. They were about to hand out millions -- eventually billions -- of dollars each year in tax money for hospitals to care for the nation's elderly. But how to make sure those hospitals were qualified?

Government bureaucrats had no experience overseeing the quality of health care, so in 1965 lawmakers turned instead to a private group -- a little-known organization that already was in the business of evaluating hospitals.

Roberts Listed in Federalist Society '97-98 Directory

Court Nominee Said He Has No Memory of Membership

By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 25, 2005; Page A01

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. has repeatedly said that he has no memory of belonging to the Federalist Society, but his name appears in the influential, conservative legal organization's 1997-1998 leadership directory.

Having served only two years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after a long career as a government and private-sector lawyer, Roberts has not amassed much of a public paper record that would show his judicial philosophy. Working with the Federalist Society would provide some clue of his sympathies. The organization keeps its membership rolls secret, but many key policymakers in the Bush administration are acknowledged current or former members.