Articles of Interest 6-25-07
MORNING UPDATE:
TAXES…REFORM first! The Senate and House Republicans are pushing the Governor and Democrats to reform first before we just raise taxes…we are NOT under taxed.
Get ready for the Governor’s political rhetoric…schools, police & Tigers!?!
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/06/granholm-prepar.html
CAFE…Congress should set standard to match the average of their own driving. The hypocrisy of all the SUV and gas guzzling car drivers is amazing?!?
U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson in town Monday for a POWER event. More below.
THE REST OF THE STORY:
- Michigan is NOT under taxed. If you combine the personal and business taxes paid in Michigan, we are one of the higher taxed states in the country. This is a problem.
There is well over $1 BILLION we could save by making reforms, requiring competitive bidding, cutting certain programs and privatizing others. Why should WE the TAXPAYERS pay for inefficient government, special interest deals and Democrat’s constituency pay offs.
NO RUSH on 2008. Once the SBT replacement is done, lets take our time and study how state government can be reformed FIRST, before we allow the Governor and Democrats to jam any TAX HIKES through the legislature.
The fiscal year doesn’t start until October 1….we have time to do this right.
SLOW DOWN…Michigan can’t afford to just keep being TAXED into oblivion. The Democrats will NOT successfully tax Michigan out of our single state recession.
The Senate passed CAFE standards that will cost the auto industry BILLIONS and hurt Michigan workers and retirees. Now it goes to the House.
Remember…the House and Senate are controlled by the Democrats. And our Democrats have not done much to stop this bill. Levin could have filibustered this bill. Now we need to see what Dingell, Stupak and other Democrats can do with their friends.
The hypocrisy is inconceivable. The Democrats are trying to pander to the San Francisco liberal and environmental extremists who are trying to “punish” the auto industry.
They drive SUVs and other gas guzzling cars. Wouldn’t it be funny to check the average fuel mileage by cars driven by those who voted for CAFE. They should set the standards based on the average of the cars they drive…lead by example, not political rhetoric.
Do the Democrats want to outlaw boats next? Maybe dirt bikes and RVs? Snowmobiles? How much more can the Democrats do to beat up on middle America…that’s why we have “Reagan Democrats”.
- POWER Political Briefing with Senator Hutchinson…Please join Jane Abraham for a POWER Political Briefing with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson on Monday, June 25, 2007 at the Detroit Athletic Club.
Current POWER members receive complimentary invitations to the event. If you are not a member and would like to join POWER and attend the event, please contact Michelle Rudoni at 517-487-5413 or email her at michelle@migop.org. Membership is $1,000 annually and can be paid in one lump sum or in quarterly installments.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/062407/loc_20070624162.shtml
Bringing swagger to the Senate
Web-posted Jun 24, 2007
Bishop follows philosophy of lead, follow or get out of the way
By RANDAL YAKEY
Of The Oakland Press
Senate Majority Leader Michael Bishop, R-Rochester, has the pedigree to be governor and the looks to be on the cover of GQ magazine, though he's reluctant talk about it.
He admitted he is "frustrated" by the leadership -- and partisanship -- in Lansing and said it's time for the Legislature to make the tough choices before the state sinks into the financial abyss.
Upcoming tax vote raises tensions at state Capitol
6/24/2007, 7:40 p.m. EDT
By TIM MARTIN
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — If the state Legislature finally acts on a proposal to raise taxes in Michigan, it could be the most pressure-packed vote ever faced by some of the lawmakers now at the Capitol.
A few Republicans and Democrats in vulnerable seats could face recall efforts if they vote in favor of a tax increase. And lawmakers from both parties worry about the consequences in their districts no matter which way they vote on the yet-to-be-specified but widely anticipated tax proposal. It's expected to originate in the Democrat-controlled House.
The behind-the-scenes pressures have surfaced off and on over the last few weeks, with sharp accusations from both political parties raising the stakes for the votes that could start as early as this week.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/OPINION01/706250304/1069
Posted notes: Talk of a ticket tax and other increases
June 25, 2007
State government is zeroing in on our family time because it's one of the few things it doesn't tax yet. God forbid we work all week to save enough money to take our kids to the ballpark. If we don't stand up, they are just going to keep rolling over us.
• Granholm is bound and determined to tax the citizens of this state until they bleed, and then she'll tax our blood.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/OPINION01/706250305/1069
Put parolees on right track
June 25, 2007
One way to lower crime rates, and the cost of Michigan's $2-billion prison system, is to keep more people who were in prison from going back. After decades of doing little or nothing about the problem, the Department of Corrections is trying to reduce recidivism with the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative, an overdue program to help parolees succeed.
MDOC wants to increase funding for the program from $12 million to $20 million in 2008. It's a wise investment that already has paid dividends. Legislators, looking for ways to control the state's costly prison system, ought to approve the request.
http://www.lenconnect.com/articles/2007/06/24/news/news07.txt
Term limits and the phony ‘trust’ claim
At issue: The argument that lawmakers need longer terms to build mutual trust.
— Our view: If lawmakers truly wanted to build trust, they would stop bashing each other with partisan rhetoric.
One of the main reasons given by Lansing bureaucrats who want to repeal lawmaker term limits is that they claim they need more time to build trust with each other.
A speech Thursday in Adrian by Speaker of the House Andy Dillon, however, exposed a more likely reason Republicans and Democrats don’t trust one another — they keep slinging mud at each other.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/OPINION01/706250318/1008
Monday, June 25, 2007
Put teacher union leaders back in class
Students get hurt when schools pay instructors not to teach
While public school educators and elected officials complain that schools have been "cut to the bone" with layoffs and other moves, some actually pay teachers not to teach. Taxpayers should demand that this stop.
The practice is not widespread, but some districts actually force taxpayers to subsidize presidents of teacher union locals so they can focus exclusively on their union duties. Rochester Community Schools pays more than $105,000 in salary and benefits for its teacher union president to stay out of the classroom. Livonia's local president spends half of her time overseeing a teacher mentoring program and the other half doing union business. The district pays her full salary.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1182680155200030.xml&coll=4
Don't close MSU's Tourism Center until replacement is ready
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The go-to guys for information and advocacy on Michigan tourism are leaving.
It's an ominous development for an industry that is seen as one of the hopes for the future of the Great Lakes State's economy.
On Aug. 1, Michigan State University will close its Travel, Tourism and Recreation Resource Center and say good-bye to the retiring Don Holecek, its director since it began in 1985.
MSU officials say budget constraints are one of the reasons the center will close.
The other is the university wants to spend several years redesigning a new resource center, with a new, modern approach that serves students and industry even better.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/OPINION01/706250323/1008
Monday, June 25, 2007
Editorial Rebuttal
Eliminate the need for smoke-free Web site
The June 19 editorial "Go slow on statewide smoking ban proposals" mentions our Web site listings of 4,350 smoke-free restaurants as one of the reasons that state laws calling for smoke-free restaurants, bars and workplaces are not necessary. The Web site, www.smokefreemichigan.org, is the ONLY protection the dining public now has at this time to avoid the known cancerous hazards of second hand smoke as described by the U.S. surgeon general in 2006.
The smoke-free dining list was never meant to substitute for sound public health laws, which have been passed by more than 29 states. Sixty-one percent of the U.S. population now live in states that protect their citizens from secondhand smoke, including our neighbors -- Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and the province of Ontario. Surely if the legislators of Tennessee can pass these laws, certainly we ought to do the same in Michigan.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/OPINION01/706250315/1008
Monday, June 25, 2007
Michigan needs earlier primary
Auto ills won't be taken seriously unless state moves up with S.C.
U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg
Michigan is under siege. Elected officials ranging from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Sen. Dianne Feinstein to President George W. Bush all want to increase fuel economy standards to levels that would impose dramatic costs on the Big Three automakers, forcing them to cut more jobs and shutter more plants in Michigan.
The Bush administration's proposal would cost Detroit's automakers at least $85 billion and drive up the new cost of a vehicle for motorists by $6,000. The Pelosi/Feinstein mandates would be even more costly to Michigan's economy and consumers.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/POLITICS/706250352/1022
Monday, June 25, 2007
Bloomberg could woo Mich. voters
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Michigan voters may get another chance to exercise their well-established fondness for rebels against the Democratic and Republican establishment if New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg mounts an independent presidential bid.
Political analysts say Bloomberg, who sparked speculation by changing his voter registration from Republican to independent, would be a threat to the major parties in swing states such as Michigan. And supporters of the idea of a centrist third-party challenge say Michigan is one of the states Bloomberg or another independent would have to target to have any hope of success.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/OPINION01/706250321/1008
Monday, June 25, 2007
EMU's embattled Fallon should resign
Eastern Michigan University President John Fallon has overseen the bungled response to a student's death, mishandled a damaging strike and failed to turn around declining student enrollment. His continued association damages his university's already sagging reputation. He should resign.
Fallon says he's sorry and wants to move on. He should reconsider. The university has not been well served by his tenure.
Fallon's problem-plagued presidency was punctuated last week when he apologized for the university's neglect to fully notify the EMU community of a student's apparent murder in a dorm room.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/us/politics/25rudy.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Giuliani Faces Potential Fall From Catholic Grace
Published: June 25, 2007
At first glance, Rudolph W. Giuliani should be an appealing presidential candidate for observant Roman Catholics. The grandchild of Italian immigrants, Mr. Giuliani went to Catholic schools, considered joining the priesthood, and as mayor of New York battled a museum that exhibited a painting of the Virgin Mary adorned in elephant dung.
But church leaders say they are frustrated by prominent Catholic politicians like Mr. Giuliani who argue that while they are personally opposed to abortion, they do not want to impose their beliefs on others.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/25/romney/
Mitt Romney's biggest brand
The Republican contender sells himself as the ultimate presidential product. But will America embrace a bona fide corporate candidate?
By Michael Scherer
June 25, 2007 | MUSCATINE, Iowa -- Corporate wizard Willard Mitt Romney has entered the next phase of his presidential initial public offering: Appearing in shirt-sleeves.
As he comes out before a town hall crowd of about 200 in early June, his suit jacket is missing, his pleated pants ride high and his starched white cuffs are turned twice on each wrist -- not rolled to the elbow like those of a working man or George W. Bush, but just a few inches up the arms, far enough to show that he is not wearing a Rolex. He has been campaigning all weekend in Iowa, eight public events in three days, and his local spokesman says that the jacket started coming off on Saturday, which coincidentally was the same day that the New York Times ran a front-page story with the headline "Romney Struggles to Connect on Stump."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401632.html
Romney Gains Credibility In Early Primary States
Push in Iowa, N.H. Puts Him in Top Tier
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 25, 2007; Page A01
BOSTON -- When former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney began airing television ads in a handful of states last winter, his opponents paid little notice. Early advertising in presidential campaigns -- particularly commercials broadcast almost 11 months before the first contests -- seemed a classic waste of resources.
Four months and more than $4 million later, Romney's ads are still running, and the GOP presidential candidate is reaping the dividends. Although he remains well behind former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona in most national polls, his standing in the states that will kick off the nominating process has risen dramatically.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/06/25/flip_flopping_charges_outside_romney_event/
Flip-flopping charges outside Romney event
The Republican charge that he flip-flopped too much may have helped derail the candidacy of John Kerry. But now Massachusetts Democrats have embraced the metaphor to wage war on one of their favorite political nemeses: Mitt Romney.
About two-dozen Democratic activists passed out yellow-, blue-, and green-dotted variants of the summer shoes yesterday evening outside Fenway Park, where Romney supporters were holding a barbecue .
As a fleet of Peter Pan buses shuttled the guests to Fenway's gates, the Democratic activists circulated foot-shaped leaflets imprinted with the former governor's words on issues ranging from gun control to immigration. Critics have accused Romney of changing his positions to appeal to red state conservatives.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110010254
Questions of Faith
Does it matter that Mitt Romney is a Mormon? To some extent--but it shouldn't.
Monday, June 25, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
Since 1960, when John F. Kennedy settled the issue of whether a Catholic could be president, there's been general public agreement a candidate's religion shouldn't matter.
But now that proposition is being tested. Republican candidate Mitt Romney is a Mormon, just as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and 14 other members of Congress are. But to some people a Mormon running for president is an issue. Al Sharpton made a rare apology after suggesting Mormons don't believe in God. Just this past Friday, John McCain's campaign had to apologize because one of its Iowa county chairmen, in an April meeting of party activists, suggested that the Mormon church supports the terror group Hamas and likened its treatment of women to that of the Taliban.
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/16257
Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research
Democrats Ahead of 2008 GOP Contenders in U.S.
June 25, 2007
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton leads four prospective Republican presidential nominees in the United States, according to a poll by Princeton Survey Research Associates released by Newsweek. 51 per cent of respondents would back the New York senator in 2008, while 44 per cent would vote for Republican former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Rodham Clinton also holds a five-point advantage over Arizona senator John McCain, a 15-point lead over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and an 11-point edge over actor and former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson.
In other contests, Illinois senator Barack Obama leads Giuliani by five points, McCain by 10 points, Romney by 16 points, and Thompson by 14 points. Former North Carolina senator John Edwards also holds the upper hand when paired against the four GOP contenders.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1131AP_Obama_Texas.html?source=mypi
Obama says Gitmo facility should close
By ELIZABETH WHITE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SAN ANTONIO -- Barack Obama told a Texas crowd on Sunday that he wants the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainee facility closed - a step the Bush administration is considering.
The Democratic presidential hopeful pledged to work side-by-side with the rest of the world on issues like nuclear proliferation, poverty, economic development in Latin America and the violence in Darfur.
"While we're at it," he said, "we're going to close Guantanamo. And we're going to restore habeas corpus. ... We're going to lead by example - by not just word but by deed. That's our vision for the future."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062301424.html
Coal Fuels A Debate Over Obama
Democrat Stuck Between Industry and Environment
By Alec MacGillis and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, June 24, 2007; Page A01
BENTON, Ill. -- In 2004, as a state legislator running for the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama came to this small town 300 miles from Chicago to pledge support for southern Illinois' struggling coal country.
More than just an obligatory visit to the more conservative and rural part of the state, it was a chance for Obama to affirm his reputation as the rare politician who could see both sides of an issue and form alliances across traditional divides.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401460.html
Edwards's Wife Says She Backs Gay Marriage
Associated Press
Monday, June 25, 2007; Page A13
SAN FRANCISCO, June 24 -- Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, kicked off San Francisco's annual gay pride parade Sunday by splitting with her husband over support for legalized same-sex marriage.
"I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me," Edwards said at a news conference before the parade. "I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."
http://www.nysun.com/article/57213
Possible Bloomberg 2008 Bid Stirs National Debate
By RUSSELL BERMAN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 25, 2007
WASHINGTON — Mayor Bloomberg's presidential flirtation — a topic once largely consigned to the pages of the New York City press — has gone national, igniting a debate over whether he will jump into the race and what impact his candidacy would have on the election.
A spokesman for Unity08, an online group pushing to draft a bipartisan presidential ticket, said Mr. Bloomberg was the type of candidate the organization was looking for. "It's not for me or anybody else to anoint a candidate, but certainly Bloomberg is a very likely one," the spokesman, "Law & Order" star Sam Waterston, said yesterday on CBS News's "Face the Nation."
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/522/religious-republicans-hanging-tough-with-bush
Religious Republicans: Hanging Tough with Bush
GOP Presidential Candidates May Still Need Strong Backing from Church-Going Conservatives
The role of religious voters in the Republican Party has been highlighted by the sharp criticism of the Republican presidential front-runners -- Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney -- by conservative religious leaders.
Are religious Republicans abandoning President Bush and perhaps the GOP as well? The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted May 30-June 3, suggests that this conclusion is unlikely to be true.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401524.html
Immigration Bill: One More Shot
Monday, June 25, 2007; Page A02
An immigration overhaul -- the chief domestic initiative of President Bush's second term -- will take center stage a final time this year as the Senate returns to a bipartisan bill that stalled a few weeks ago. Bush is expected to discuss the bill on Tuesday.
After five months of negotiations, backers of the bill are confident they can get the 60 votes necessary to end debate and move toward a final vote. But passage is far from guaranteed.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CONGRESS_IMMIGRATION?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Jun 25, 3:31 AM EDT
Senators push for support on immigration
By JIM ABRAMS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senators pushing a new immigration policy appealed Sunday to wavering supporters ahead of renewed debate on securing the borders and dealing with 12 million undocumented immigrants.
A fragile compromise was pulled from the Senate in early June, then resurrected after bipartisan negotiations with the White House. The bill awaits a crucial test vote this week. With several senators distancing themselves from the proposal, the outcome was too close to call.
"We'll see if between the two parties we have 60 votes" needed to keep the bill moving toward a final vote, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
The measure would tighten borders, require workplace verification and create a guest worker program. It also would lay out a way by which the estimated 12 million people illegally in the U.S. could gain legal status and work toward citizenship.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401662.html
Illegal Immigrants Targeted By States
Impasse on Hill Spurs New Laws
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 25, 2007; Page A01
Frustrated with Congress's inability to pass an immigration overhaul bill, state legislatures are considering or enacting a record number of strongly worded proposals targeting illegal immigrants.
By the time most legislatures adjourned in May, at least 1,100 immigration bills had been submitted by lawmakers, more than double last year's record total, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This year's total is expected to grow as the issue continues to dominate debate in statehouses still in session.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401331.html
Some Positive Energy
Now start talking about a carbon tax.
Monday, June 25, 2007; Page A18
IF THE Senate energy bill were a movie it would be called "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." That's because the massive legislation, which passed 65 to 27 late Thursday, is a mix of historic action, missed opportunities and outright cowardice.
The Good: Corporate average fuel economy standards -- CAFE -- would be raised to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 for all cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles . Junking the provision to raise CAFE after that by 4 percent annually until 2030 was a good compromise that beat back a challenge led by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) to weaken the CAFE standards in the underlying bill. Kudos to Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who jumped off the fence to endorse tougher standards. This would be the first significant increase in CAFE since 1975. Also positive: approval of a test of whether carbon capture and sequestration is commercially viable and the failure of the attempt to pump public money into a coal-to-liquid boondoggle.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401367.html
In Second Term, Roberts Court Defines Itself
Many 5 to 4 Decisions Reflect Narrowly Split Court That Leans Conservative
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 25, 2007; Page A03
In the final days of the Supreme Court's term, the stage is set for the divisions that narrowly but decisively split the justices on social issues to be on full display.
The court has already decided more cases on 5 to 4 votes this term than in all of last term -- some of them favoring the court's liberal wing, more won by the conservatives. This week, the opportunity is there for the court reconstituted under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to make a bold statement.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201704.html
Speech Police, Riding High In Oakland
Sunday, June 24, 2007; Page B07
Marriage is the foundation of the natural family and sustains family values. That sentence is inflammatory, perhaps even a hate crime.
At least it is in Oakland, Calif. That city's government says those words, italicized here, constitute something akin to hate speech and can be proscribed from the government's open e-mail system and employee bulletin board.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/OPINION03/706250317/1008/OPINION01
Monday, June 25, 2007
Deb Price
Gay marriage digs roots, gains momentum
An elderly Massachusetts woman felt her opposition to gay marriage melt away after "this lovely couple" moved in next door with their children.
Her change of heart, recounted by the Boston Globe, happened because she came to see the gay men -- among the nearly 10,000 gay couples who've wed in her state since 2004 -- as the neighbors eager to lend a hand.
"If they can't be married in Massachusetts, they're going to leave -- and then who would help me with my lawn?" she asked, urging her state lawmaker to also change and protect gay couples' right to marry by blocking a referendum designed to abolish that right. That lawmaker did change.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans
Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream
The first-ever, nationwide, random sample survey of Muslim Americans finds them to be largely assimilated, happy with their lives, and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world.
The Pew Research Center conducted more than 55,000 interviews to obtain a national sample of 1,050 Muslims living in the United States. Interviews were conducted in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu. The resulting study, which draws on Pew's survey research among Muslims around the world, finds that Muslim Americans are a highly diverse population, one largely composed of immigrants. Nonetheless, they are decidedly American in their outlook, values and attitudes. This belief is reflected in Muslim American income and education levels, which generally mirror those of the public.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHENEY_SECRECY?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Cheney stance on information challenged
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic senators on Sunday chided Vice President Dick Cheney for declaring his office exempt from sections of a presidential order involving matters of national security. Republicans, more cautiously, said the matter deserves review.
At issue is a requirement that executive branch offices provide data on how much material they classify and declassify. That information is to be provided to the Information Security Oversight Office at The National Archives.
The White House contends that Cheney is complying properly. They say the presidential order was not intended to treat the vice president's office as an executive branch "agency," and therefore Cheney's office is exempt from the reporting requirement.
"The vice president is saying he's above the law, and the fact of the matter is, legal scholars are going to say this is preposterous," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/pushing_the_envelope_on_presi/index.html
Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power
By Barton Gellman and Jo Becker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 25, 2007
Shortly after the first accused terrorists reached the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2002, a delegation from CIA headquarters arrived in the Situation Room. The agency presented a delicate problem to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, a man with next to no experience on the subject. Vice President Cheney's lawyer, who had a great deal of experience, sat nearby. The meeting marked "the first time that the issue of interrogations comes up" among top-ranking White House officials, recalled John C. Yoo, who represented the Justice Department. "The CIA guys said, 'We're going to have some real difficulties getting actionable intelligence from detainees'" if interrogators confined themselves to humane techniques allowed by the Geneva Conventions.
From that moment, well before previous accounts have suggested, Cheney turned his attention to the practical business of crushing a captive's will to resist. The vice president's office played a central role in shattering limits on coercion in U.S. custody, commissioning and defending legal opinions that the Bush administration has since portrayed as the initiatives, months later, of lower-ranking officials.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401379.html
Taking Exception
Reality Check for the Antiwar Crowd
By Pete Hegseth
Monday, June 25, 2007; Page A19
As an Iraq war veteran who participated in combat operations and political reconciliation efforts, I take issue with some of the arguments repeatedly being made on Capitol Hill. Most recently I was bothered by statements from Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who cited three common antiwar arguments in his June 21 op-ed, " Lincoln's Example for Iraq," all of which run counter to realities on the ground in Iraq.
· A deadline for withdrawal is an incentive for Iraqi political compromise. Levin thinks we ought to pressure Iraq's government with a warning tantamount to saying: "You better fix the situation before we leave and your country descends into chaos." He should consider the more likely result: an American exit date crushing any incentive for Iraqi leaders to cooperate and instead prompting rival factions to position themselves to capitalize on the looming power void.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010256
Winds of War
Iran is making a mistake that may lead the Middle East into a broader conflict.
BY JOSHUA MURAVCHIK
Monday, June 25, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
Several conflicts of various intensities are raging in the Middle East. But a bigger war, involving more states--Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, the Palestinian Authority and perhaps the United States and others--is growing more likely every day, beckoned by the sense that America and Israel are in retreat and that radical Islam is ascending.
Consider the pell-mell events of recent weeks. Iran imprisons four Americans on absurd charges only weeks after seizing 15 British sailors on the high seas. Iran's Revolutionary Guard is caught delivering weapons to the Taliban and explosives to Iraqi terrorists. A car bomb in Lebanon is used to assassinate parliament member Walid Eido, killing nine others and wounding 11 more.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062400398.html
Israelis, Arabs Meeting to Shore Up Abbas
Portion of Tax Revenue Unfrozen to Aid Fatah
By Ellen Knickmeyer and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, June 25, 2007; Page A14
CAIRO, June 24 -- Israel and its Arab neighbors readied for a summit Monday to explore restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in an attempt to shore up the emergency government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert headed to the meeting at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with a message that his government would support Abbas, whose administration now appears limited to the West Bank. The Palestinian leader swore in a new cabinet on June 17 after fighting in the Gaza Strip in which the rival Hamas movement overwhelmed security forces loyal to Abbas's Fatah party and effectively severed political links between the two Palestinian territories.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_BANK?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Jun 25, 3:44 AM EDT
World Bank board to name next president
By JEANNINE AVERSA
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Robert Zoellick, President Bush's former trade chief and No. 2 diplomat, appeared certain to win approval as the World Bank's next president.
The World Bank's 24-member board scheduled a closed-door meeting Monday to take up Zoellick's nomination, which was put forward by Bush. No other countries nominated candidates.
Zoellick would succeed Paul Wolfowitz, who will step down on June 30, ending a stormy two-year tenure at the poverty-fighting institution.
Wolfowitz courted controversy from the start because of his role in the Iraq war when he was deputy defense secretary. However, it was his role in arranging a hefty pay raise for Shaha Riza, his girlfriend and bank employee, that forced his upcoming departure.
