Articles of Interest 11-18-06
717 days until a new Republican majority!!!
Milton Friedman died this week along with the legendary coach Bo Schembechler. Bo inspired many of us as a motivator and leader of young men. The passion and commitment he had to the University and it’s football team truly was legendary. He’ll be greatly missed and long remembered.
Milton Friedman was a leader of “ideas”. He inspired many young economics students, me included, that ideas have consequences. That “freedom” works! I remember the first time I read “Free to Choose” and thought to myself, how could EVERYBODY not “get it”. The free market works, government intervention distorts and corrupts the free flow of goods, capital and ideas. These truths seemed so self evident!?!
Milton Friedman was a man of ideas. A leader in his own right, who shaped the debate about the role of government and the failure of governments to manipulate the marketplace. His writings were very influential and he had a profound effect on the world as we know it.
The Cato Institute published the following statement:
“Prominent free-market economist Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economic Science, passed away today at the age of 94. Friedman was widely regarded as the leader of the Chicago School of monetary economics, which stresses the importance of the quantity of money as an instrument of government policy and as a determinant of business cycles and inflation. In addition to his scientific work, Friedman also wrote extensively on public policy, always with primary emphasis on the preservation and extension of individual freedom. Friedman's ideas hugely influenced both the Reagan administration and the Thatcher government in the early 1980s, revolutionized establishment economic thinking across the globe, and have been employed extensively by emerging economies for decades.”
I also found this fitting tribute to truly a great man who helped shape my philosophy and change the course of history:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2006/11/a_tribute_to_mi.html
Steve Lombardo provides one of the best post election analysis I have seen to date. To see a copy of his commentary go to:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2006/11/post_election_a.html
Congressman Thad McCotter was elected to one of the top leadership posts in Congress. This is a great honor and I’m sure we’ll be hearing about how he helps set the agenda for the new Republican Congress as it fights back for majority status:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2006/11/mccotter_electe.html
Congratulations to Scott Greenlee who was elected the international President of the JC International. All our best to Scott and his exciting challenge ahead!!!
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2006/11/scott_greenlee_.html
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/METRO/611180341
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Livonia lawmaker to shape policies
GOP elects McCotter chairman of its House Policy Committee to focus on compromise.
Deb Price / The Detroit News
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Livonia, was elected Friday as chairman of the Republican House Policy Committee -- the fourth-highest Republican leadership post in the U.S. House.
"The role is more like a symphony conductor than like Mick Jagger," said amateur guitarist McCotter, who will work with fellow Republicans to come up with compromise policies on key issues, such as Iraq, health care and stopping the loss of manufacturing jobs.
McCotter beat U.S. Rep. Darryl Issa, R-Calif., in the Republican leadership elections Friday, getting 132 votes to Issa's 63.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701640.html
Court Battle Likely on Affirmative Action
Michigan Voters Approved Ban, but Opponents of the Measure Persist
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page A02
DETROIT -- In the wake of a decisive Nov. 7 vote to prohibit race- and gender-based preferences in employment, education and contracting, leaders in government and academia who fought to preserve affirmative action are now hurrying to assess the impact. Officials said the response is likely to start with a court challenge.
Business and civic leaders who opposed the anti-affirmative-action measure are gathered here on Friday to develop a strategy. The University of Michigan Board of Regents is also meeting, with announcements expected soon. At City Hall, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) is drafting an ordinance that would favor companies based in the city, which is more than 80 percent African American.
Civil rights groups ask to end warrantless surveillance program
11/17/2006, 10:37 p.m. ET
By SVEN GUSTAFSON
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Eight civil rights groups and other organizations filed a brief Friday urging a federal appeals court to reinstate a lower court ruling declaring the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program illegal.
The friend-of-the-court brief was filed in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, groups representing Arab-, Asian- and Latin-American citizens, and other organizations.
The 24-page filing argues that warrantless surveillance has historically infringed upon the free-speech rights of civil rights organizations and says there is a need for congressional and judicial checks and balances.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/POLITICS/611180420/1022
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Groups challenge surveillance
Brief says warrantless program infringes on First Amendment rights, wants it deemed illegal.
The Associated Press
DETROIT -- Eight civil rights groups and other organizations filed a brief Friday urging a federal appeals court to reinstate a lower court ruling declaring the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program illegal.
The friend-of-the-court brief was filed in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; groups representing Arab-, Asian- and Latin-American citizens; and other organizations.
The 24-page filing argues that warrantless surveillance has historically infringed upon the free-speech rights of civil rights organizations and says there is a need for congressional and judicial checks and balances.
http://www.mlive.com/columns/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1163778566148170.xml&coll=2
Michigan keeps death penalty in state prisons Lack of medical care condemns some
Friday, November 17, 2006
It seems that, no matter who is governor, conditions in Michigan prisons continue to be dismally inhumane.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Enslen has to keep ordering the state to clean up its act. In 1980, when William Milliken was governor, state prisoners filed a federal lawsuit complaining of prison conditions that violated constitutional bans on cruel and unusual punishment. Enslen, whose court is in Kalamazoo, has overseen that case and monitored its consent decree since 1985.
During the Blanchard administration, it was clear many conditions in state prisons were not improving - and especially not for the mentally ill, whose numbers behind bars were growing. During John Engler's years as governor, when the state closed mental hospitals, many patients with mental illnesses eventually became prisoners with mental illnesses.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-33/1163771106197990.xml&coll=6
Dying ex-con: Prison's health care system failed
Friday, November 17, 2006
By Pat Shellenbarger
The Grand Rapids Press
LANSING -- Lloyd Martell knows he soon will be dead from the colon cancer that has spread to his lymph nodes and lungs.
What bothers him is he could have gotten treatment that may have saved his life if a prison doctor had told him the polyp removed from his colon in December 2004 was cancerous.
At 41, he still could look forward to a full life, still could watch his two sons, ages 6 and 7, grow up.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1163783848141940.xml&coll=6
Education boards: Let governor choose
Friday, November 17, 2006
Not many voters in Escanaba, Grand Rapids or Detroit last week knew much about the candidates for the State Board of Education or for any of the three university boards on the statewide ballot. Yet they were supposed to choose. It's a lousy system, one that defies common sense and ought to be changed.
In addition to the State Board of Education, the Wayne State University Board of Governors, the Michigan State University Board of Trustees and the University of Michigan Board of Regents are elected statewide.
For most voters, the choices are made with only thin knowledge, at best, of what the boards are about, what issues confront them and who the candidates are. Ordinarily, the races are at the bottom of long ballots. Often voters just skip them. More commonly, they pick according to party labels. Usually that means the results for the education boards imitate those at the top of the ballot. So this year, with a Democratic tide, all of the eight education board seats on the ballot went to Democrats. In other years, Republicans have benefited. This isn't to disparage those who win, but along the way Michigan has lost the services of some excellent board members who happened to be on the wrong side of the political flow.
http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1163848855295950.xml&coll=9
Campaign signs must come down
Saturday, November 18, 2006
THE SAGINAW NEWS
Election season is over, and in most cases, campaign signs lingering in yards are overdue for removal.
Each community has its own zoning rules regarding time limits for political placards.
In Saginaw, for example, the time limit expired seven days after the Nov. 7 election, said City Clerk Diane Herman. Saginaw homeowners who keep signs up can face a civil infraction and a $50 fine for the first offense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/us/politics/17thinktank.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
The Conservative Reach
Preaching the Gospel of Small Government
By JASON DEPARLE
Published: November 17, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Lawrence W. Reed is one of those people with so much passion for an unusual line of work that he invented a new occupation, and it has helped shape the conservative movement from here to the Himalayas.
Mr. Reed runs a conservative think tank school. Twice a year, ideological allies from across the globe travel to his program at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Mich., to study the tricks of the idea-peddling trade. Policy institutes have been central to a national organizing strategy that has long won the right a reputation for savvy, and state-level versions are growing in number and clout.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/OPINION03/611180335/1008/OPINION01
Saturday, November 18, 2006
George Will
Blunt Bloomberg spurns independent presidential run
O n Election Day, voters said something that might have moved a less sensible billionaire to succumb to the siren song of those urging him to spend, say, $500 million of his money on an independent presidential candidacy. But over lunch three days later, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who does not do coyness, dismissed the idea as a "pipe dream." Sometimes nothing so validates a politician's wisdom as his ability to circumscribe, or to recognize that circumstances circumscribe, his ambitions.
Bloomberg has demonstrated, in both the public and private sectors, what the electorate cried out for on Election Day: "Competence, please." His business acumen has given him a net worth of $5.3 billion, making him No. 44 on Forbes magazine's list of richest Americans. After five years as mayor -- which began after eight years of dramatic improvement of the city under Rudy Giuliani -- Bloomberg's successes include:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111700156.html
Boehner, Blunt Picked To Lead GOP in House
Conservative Activists Rejected in Vote
By Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page A01
House Republicans overwhelmingly elected Reps. John A. Boehner (Ohio) and Roy Blunt (Mo.) yesterday to lead their minority team, opting for experience over ideology as the GOP adjusts to a challenging new world on the outskirts of congressional power.
The results marked a setback for conservative activists who tried to wrest control of the party by arguing that it had lost its ideological moorings and that voters had signaled they wanted Republicans to renew the energetic, activist style that swept them to power in 1994. Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), an up-and-coming conservative leader who challenged Boehner for the minority leader's job, received 27 votes to Boehner's 168. Rep. John Shadegg (Ariz.), another conservative activist, vying against Blunt for minority whip, lost 137 to 57.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CONGRESS_LEADERS?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
GOP chooses Boehner as minority leader
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cast into the minority by an angry electorate, House Republicans chose Rep. John Boehner of Ohio on Friday to lead a return to power as quickly as possible. "We're going to earn our way back into the majority," he vowed.
To do that, he said, "we need to fight for a smaller, less costly and more accountable federal government."
Boehner defeated Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana for minority leader on a secret ballot vote of 168-27, a margin that demonstrated fellow lawmakers do not hold him responsible for the election losses the party suffered on Nov. 7. The Ohio Republican has been serving as majority leader, the second-in-command in the leadership, since February.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701641.html
Republicans Lost Ground With Latinos In Midterms
After Gains in 2004, GOP Stumbled on Immigration
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page A03
Two years ago, Latino voters gravitated in larger-than-ever numbers toward President Bush, the former governor of Texas, a Mexican border state, and his brother Jeb, the loquacious Florida governor who speaks fluent Spanish.
How times have changed.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=76560
Democratic Party Leaders Applaud Success of 50 State Strategy
11/17/2006 4:31:00 PM
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo., Nov. 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC) today applauded Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean for his commitment to the DNC's 50 State Strategy and celebrated its contribution to last week's historic election victories. The ASDC members adopted a resolution today during its fall meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo., that noted the tremendous success of all the Democratic candidates and state parties who won races up and down the ticket, all across the country. After last Tuesday's elections, Democrats took back the U.S. House and Senate, elected a majority of Democratic governors, and won 10 new Democratic majorities in state legislatures.
"This month's historic elections sent a clear message that if we stand up for our values, and show up and compete in every part of the country, Democrats can win everywhere," said ASDC President Mark Brewer of Michigan. "Today, the State Democratic Chairs and Vice Chairs applaud all the tremendous candidates, their campaigns, and state parties who worked so hard to ensure that Democrats were successful all across America up and down the ballot. Working together across the Democratic family we are a national party again."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/OPINION03/611180330/1008/OPINION01
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Roland S. Martin
Dem leader Pelosi stumbles out of gate
N ine days.
That's how long it took soon-to-be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to completely screw up the major momentum Democrats were riding following their big wins on Election Night.
By championing as her majority leader John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democratic congressman, over Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, only to have her party shove it right back in her face, Pelosi has been considerably weakened before she has even picked out the shades for her new office.
Not only that, it wasn't even close. For all of Pelosi's hardball tactics, Murtha only mustered 86 votes compared with the 149 cast for Hoyer by secret ballot.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/OPINION03/611180329/1008/OPINION01
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Michelle Malkin
How Pelosi cleans the House
R emember how Nancy Pelosi exploited the female card before the midterm elections? "Maybe it will take a woman to clean up the House and a new speaker to restore civility," she bragged.
Women, she implied, do a better job than men because we presumably know how to get down on our hands and knees and scrub the mold and mildew out of every corner and crevice of our own domiciles.
But from the way she's acting, Nancy Pelosi doesn't know spic from span. She's conducting Beltway business as usual, just like the good old boys she demonized throughout the campaign. (Madame Pelosi just happens to do it in an Armani aqua blue- gray pantsuit that gets thumbs-up from obsequious Washington fashion writers.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701605.html
Rep. Moran's Mouth
Who asked him to be Jack Murtha's muscle?
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page A20
THE FIGHT over the post of House majority leader this week brought out the worst in a lot of people. Members were threatened, tacitly if not explicitly, with bad committee assignments and other punishments if they didn't back Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), the choice of Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). But at least most of those involved were canny enough to do their bullying behind closed doors. Not Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.). The fight brought out the Northern Virginian's not-so-inner thug.
"We are entering an era where when the speaker instructs you what to do, you do it," Mr. Moran told The Hill newspaper before the vote. Gee, that sounds like a new breeze blowing. Those who failed to comply with Ms. Pelosi's wishes, Mr. Moran added, would suffer the consequences. "Some of the freshmen who came in with some naivete are understanding the meaning" of Ms. Pelosi's endorsement, he said. If they don't, "they'll screw themselves for the rest of their lives."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ENVIRONMENT_INHOFE?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Inhofe's environmental role challenged
WASHINGTON (AP) -- After losing the chairmanship of the Senate committee that oversees environmental issues, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., might also lose standing as the panel's senior Republican member.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said Friday he'll ask fellow GOP senators to elect him as the top GOP member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. With Democrats taking over control of the Senate and House, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., will become the committee's chairwoman in January.
"As the senior Republican on the Senate EPW committee, I intend to submit my name for election as the ranking minority member of that panel," Warner said. He has been serving as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and intends to remain on that panel as the second-ranking Republican member.
22 states say EPA too soft on mercury
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Air quality regulators in at least 22 states have concluded that the Bush administration's approach to cutting mercury pollution from coal-burning power plants is too weak and are pursuing tougher measures of their own.
Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that accumulates in fish and poses the greatest risk of nerve and brain damage to pregnant women, women of childbearing age and young children. Emissions of mercury total about 48 tons a year, most of it in the form of air pollution that winds up in waterways.
The trend of states bucking the Bush administration became apparent Friday, the deadline for states to submit their plans for reducing toxic mercury emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency. States' responses were tallied by the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701770.html
Party Shift May Make Warming a Hill Priority
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page A06
Dramatic changes in congressional oversight of environmental issues may pump new life into efforts to fight global warming, activist groups and lawmakers said yesterday.
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) announced his intention to become the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, now headed by Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who has said that global warming is a hoax. Warner has called for action against climate change, and his ascension to a leadership post would accelerate significant changes already underway.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/204/story_20419_1.html
Philanthropy Expert: Conservatives Are More Generous
By Frank Brieaddy
Religion News Service
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is about to become the darling of the religious right in America -- and it's making him nervous.
The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in the liberal arts, Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income.
In the book, he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives -- from church attendance and two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services -- make conservatives more generous than liberals.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GATES_CONGRESS?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Gates getting bipartisan support on Hill
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Robert Gates, picked by President Bush to take over at the Pentagon, received initial endorsements from Republican and Democratic Senate leaders Friday after meeting with them on Capitol Hill.
Gates' private one-on-one discussions with top lawmakers were in anticipation of a Dec. 5 confirmation hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Bush administration and top GOP senators hope to approve the nomination next month, while the Senate is still in Republican hands.
Senate approval of Gates would be an early test of a promise by some lawmakers to work together after the elections and reach bipartisan consensus on the war in Iraq.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SKELTON_PROFILE?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Skelton to prioritize Pentagon oversight
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A student of military history, Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton recently pulled out his latest reading, a 1926 tome about the disastrous allied campaign at Gallipoli during World War I. The title: "The Perils of Amateur Strategy."
"This administration seems to be writing its sequel," Skelton says, shaking his head.
Poised to become the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in January, the Missouri Democrat plans to devote top priority to tougher oversight of the Pentagon and the Bush administration's Iraq strategy.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CIA_DOCUMENTS?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Democrats demand CIA detainee documents
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Senate Democrat who will chair its Judiciary Committee next year asked the Justice Department to release newly acknowledged documents setting U.S. policy on how suspects in the war on terrorism are detained and interrogated.
"The American people deserve to have detailed and accurate information about the role of the Bush administration in developing the interrogation policies and practices that have engendered such deep criticism and concern at home and around the world," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Leahy demanded two documents whose existence the CIA recently acknowledged in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701792.html
Leahy Seeks Documents on Detention
Associated Press
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page A07
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who will chair the Senate Judiciary Committee next year, asked the Justice Department to release two newly acknowledged documents, which set U.S. policy on how terrorism suspects are detained and interrogated.
The CIA recently acknowledged the existence of the documents in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-1/116379813915050.xml&coll=8
Accomplish the Iraq mission, one way or another
Friday, November 17, 2006
The real end game has begun for America's Iraq adventure. Its first moves were set in motion the week after a decisive election that left the Democrats in charge of Congress and a weakened President George W. Bush as commander-in-chief.
It was also a week that saw the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accepted by Bush, an event he reassured true believers only days before wouldn't happen until the end of his term in 2009.
None of this is surprising, given both the deterioration of the situation in Iraq and the voters' clarion call for a change in the course of the war strategy. A majority of Americans now want the war to end and U.S. troops to come home.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
U.S.-Iraqi forces raid Shiite stronghold
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a Shiite stronghold in Baghdad on Saturday, looking for dozens of men abducted from an Iraqi government office. Coalition forces searched for four American security contractors missing in an attack on their convoy in southern Iraq.
Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. helicopters swept through the Sadr City section of the capital motivated by intelligence indicating an armed group was holding the Iraqi hostages, the U.S. military said.
The statement did not say whether any hostages were found. No casualties were reported among coalition forces, but Iraqi police said three Iraqi civilians were wounded.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111700261.html
Abduction of Americans Reflects Fraying Security in Iraqi South
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page A01
BAGHDAD, Nov. 17 -- It was a routine trip, along the same stretch of highway the contractors of Crescent Security Group drove nearly every day. As their convoy neared the Iraqi police checkpoint outside the border town of Safwan on Thursday afternoon, everything seemed normal, according to accounts later provided to company officials by men who participated in the convoy.
They were escorting 43 empty tractor-trailers from Kuwait to Tallil Air Base, near the southern city of Nasiriyah. The convoy was protected by five Crescent gun trucks -- black Chevrolet Avalanches mounted with belt-fed machine guns. The convoy reached the checkpoint and stopped.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Army unit to serve third tour in Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which helped lead the charge to Baghdad at the outset of the war, will return next year and become the first Army division to serve three tours in Iraq.
More than 3 1/2 years into the war, the Army and Marine Corps are straining to keep a steady flow of combat and support forces to Iraq while giving the troops sufficient time between deployments for rest and retraining.
Both services are far short of their goal of providing two years between deployments; the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry, for example, will have spent barely more than 12 months at home when it returns next year. The same is true for the division's 1st Brigade, which officials have said is scheduled to deploy again in January.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111700224.html
Bush, in Vietnam, Says Change Takes Time
On Visit for Economic Summit, President Cites a Lesson for Iraq: 'We'll Succeed Unless We Quit'
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page A14
HANOI, Nov. 17 -- President Bush arrived Friday in Vietnam on a mission to strengthen business ties with the rapidly changing country and ease the bitter memories of the war the United States waged here decades ago.
"History has a long march to it," Bush said when asked how he felt about being hosted by a former U.S. enemy. "Societies change, and relationships can constantly be altered to the good."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701638.html
Cheney Rejects Idea Of Iraq Withdrawal
He Also Decries 'Judicial Overreaching'
By Michael Abramowitz and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page A04
In his first public statements since the midterm elections, Vice President Cheney yesterday rejected calls for a military withdrawal from Iraq, telling a group of conservative lawyers that retreat would disappoint America's allies and embolden terrorists.
"To get out before the job is done would convince the terrorists once again that free nations will change our policies, forsake our friends and abandon our interests whenever we are confronted with violence and blackmail," Cheney told members of the Federalist Society, gathered in Washington for their national convention.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/18/AR2006111800383.html
Rice: Iraqis Must Face Up to Differences
By ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press
Saturday, November 18, 2006; 5:57 AM
HANOI, Vietnam -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday the people of Iraq must face up to their differences and realize that they have no future except together.
The top U.S. diplomat, speaking to a gathering of world business leaders at an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam, said she was not downplaying the challenges Iraq faces. She reiterated Washington's determination to support the "small seeds" of Iraqi democracy, but she said that success depends on the government and people of Iraq themselves.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/OPINION03/611180328/1008/OPINION01
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Charles Krauthammer
Don't blame the U.S. if Iraqis fail
"A republic, if you can keep it."
-- Benjamin Franklin, upon leaving the Constitutional Convention, in answer to "What have we got?"
W e have given the Iraqis a republic and they do not appear able to keep it.
Americans flatter themselves that they are the root of all planetary evil. Nukes in North Korea? Poverty in Bolivia? Sectarian violence in Iraq? Breasts are beaten and fingers pointed as we try to somehow locate the root cause in America.
Our discourse on Iraq has followed the same pattern. Where did we go wrong? Too few troops? Too arrogant an occupation? Or too soft? Take your pick.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_IRAN_SYRIA_QA?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Can Iran and Syria help stabilize Iraq?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Trying to avoid the collapse of an increasingly violent Iraq, the Bush administration is under growing pressure to ask adversaries Iran and Syria for help.
Negotiating with the pair would entail a major policy shift by President Bush, whose reluctance to talk to them - and U.S. enemies in general - has come under increasing criticism.
A bipartisan U.S. panel looking for a way out of Iraq is considering recommending increased engagement with Iran and Syria as part of a broader effort to get more international involvement in the conflict and allow a U.S. withdrawal. Here is some of the debate over the idea.
Q. How can Iran and Syria help in Iraq?
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAN_NUCLEAR?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Bush may limit scope of Iran sanctions
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is offering to narrow the scope of proposed U.N. sanctions designed to force Iran to cease enrichment of uranium, a State Department official said Friday.
A Security Council resolution should aim at denying technology to Iran for its nuclear industry and its enrichment programs but not crimp Iran's oil and gas production, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said.
Work on a resolution has been bogged down for three weeks by disputes pitting Russia and China against the United States and Europeans. That proposal is aimed at Tehran's nuclear and missile efforts but does not specifically omit its oil and gas industries, which are major parts of Iran's economy.
U.S. pleased with APEC's N. Korea stance
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- President Bush, trying to fortify global pressure on North Korea, on Saturday backed Pacific Rim leaders in demanding that the communist regime abandon its nuclear weapons program.
In Hanoi for the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, Bush worked to preserve U.S. solidarity with five nations getting ready to restart nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang.
The White House endorsed a statement all 21 Pacific Rim members will issue to express their worries about North Korea's first nuclear test on Oct. 9 and its missile launches in July. "I think we're pleased with that statement and I think it will be a good contribution to the diplomacy," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701602.html
Congo's Hope
Another chance for elections to stabilize a failed state
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page A20
IRAQ'S NATIONAL election at the beginning of this year is now regarded by some as yet another of the Bush administration's missteps. Though it attracted millions of voters and was judged to be largely fair, it failed to stabilize the country and may have accentuated the sectarian divisions fueling intractable bloodshed. We don't agree that elections are the wrong way to rebuild a failed state, but if the critics are right, the next country to watch is the Democratic Republic of Congo, which covers a territory the size of Western Europe in the center of Africa and has a population of 62 million.