Coming Out
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15445958/site/newsweek/
Race has been a subliminal factor in the elections. The Ford ad is an
important wake-up call.
Web-Exclusive Commentary
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 6:31 p.m. ET Oct. 27, 2006
Oct. 27, 2006 - The country-club Republicans who once defined the GOP
must be embarrassed by the latest slime to emerge in the battle for
Congress. The ad running against Democrat Harold Ford in Tennessee
features a young woman flirtatiously saying, "Harold, call me."
Republicans claim they're just trying to puncture Ford's
churchgoing image by reminding voters he attended a Playboy party at a
football game, as if the two locales are mutually exclusive.
What's for Dinner?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15419753/site/newsweek/
On the House Intelligence Committee, it's a heaping plate of
controversy.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Updated: 7:03 p.m. ET Oct. 25, 2006
Oct. 25, 2006 - While reportedly under investigation for her ties to an
influential pro-Israel lobbying organization, California Rep. Jane
Harman last month hosted a private dinner for the group that was
attended by two top Bush administration officials-Director of
National Intelligence John Negroponte and Secretary of Homeland
Security Michael Chertoff.
Holding back the tide
David Corn
October 27, 2006 07:03 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_corn/2006/10/post_549.html
Finally, George Bush has something to talk about that can help
Republican candidates: homosexuals and illegal immigrants. Until
recently, Bush was forced by circumstances (literally) beyond his
control to address public concerns about the war in Iraq, which seems
to be worsening by the day and dragging down the Republican party in
the run-up to congressional elections. But Bush received a lucky break
from the New Jersey supreme court. On Wednesday, it ruled that gay
couples are entitled to the same legal rights and financial benefits
granted to married heterosexual couples, and the court ordered the
state legislature to come up with a remedy for this imbalance. The
legislators essentially have two choices. They can pass legislation
permitting gay marriage, or they can enact a bill that provides gay
couples all the benefits and rights afforded married people.
Bush grabbed hold of this news the way a drowning man reaches for a
life preserver. The next day, he denounced the decision and said, "In
New Jersey, we had another activist court issue a ruling that raises
doubts about the institution of marriage. I believe that marriage is a
union between a man and a woman, and I believe it's a sacred
institution that is critical to the health of our society and the
wellbeing of families, and it must be defended." The New Jersey court,
of course, was not being all that activist, for it only said that under
the state constitution one set of couples could not be treated
differently than another. It did not impose a solution. The court left
that up to the legislators. And it's difficult to see how awarding
benefits and rights - such as tuition assistance and survivor's
benefits - to gay couples would harm the "wellbeing of families."
The definite article
Toby Manhire
October 27, 2006 06:32 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/toby_manhire/2006/10/the_definite_artic=
le.html
"One of the things I've used on the Google is to pull up maps."
Thus spoke George Bush in an interview with MSNBC this week. "The
Google." Titter. No doubt, even now, the president is joining many
thousands of his fellow internetsters reviewing the latest accident to
come out of his mouth on the YouTube.
Midterms: Fighting dirty
Ben Whitford
October 27, 2006 06:03 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ben_whitford/2006/10/midterms_talking_d=
irty.html
=B7 We'll get to the sex in a minute; first comes the violence. Iraq is
the big talking-point today, as pundits ponder the meaning of the
president's "stay the course" U-turn.
With the war troubling voters in traditionally secure Republican
constituencies - notably southern voters and evangelicals - Iraq seems
set to play a crucial role in the midterms. "If you were hoping gay
marriage, stem cells, or new Foley scandal revelations would bounce
Iraq out of the top issue spot this cycle, you're gonna be
disappointed," writes Hotline. "Perhaps court decisions granting
marriage rights to gays just don't carry the shock value they used to."
The pro-life death sentence
Francis Sedgemore
October 27, 2006 05:33 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/francis_sedgemore/2006/10/lord_preserve=
_us_from_deathwor.html
Abortion is back in the news, with a vengeance. The Central American
state of Nicaragua is about to pass into law a complete ban on
abortion, and will do so with the support of erstwhile marxist
revolutionaries such as front-running presidential candidate Daniel
Ortega. The Sandinista leader has apparently made peace with his God.
Moment of truth
John Hooper
October 27, 2006 04:20 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_hooper/2006/10/moment_of_truth_for=
_the_italia.html
Can the centre-left govern Italy? Ever? Though the participants may not
realise it fully, that is the question that will be hanging over a
meeting this weekend at a villa in Rome. Exasperated by the wrangling
of his ostensible allies, the prime minister, Romano Prodi, has called
some 50 of the leading figures in his centre-left coalition to a
"summit".
The problem is next year's budget. As so often happens with
partnerships, everything was going fine till money became an issue.
New roles for the African military
Calestous Juma
October 28, 2006 10:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/calestous_juma/2006/10/new_roles_for_th=
e_african_mili.html
In an apparent violation of a ceasefire agreement, Eritrea has sent
1,500 troops and 154 tanks into a temporary buffer zone on the border
with Ethiopia ostensibly to harvest crops.
The United Nations has called the incursion a major "breach of the
ceasefire" that could undermine the peace process between the two
countries. In response, Eritrea says the loss of the harvest will have
severe consequences for food security in the country.
Face to faith
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1933784,00.html
Secular Christianity can reconnect religion to our world, says Theo
Hobson
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
We are often told that we live in an age of resurgent religious
fundamentalism. This can hardly be disputed, but let's not forget the
other side of the coin. We live in an age of sharply declining
religious liberalism. I think this is the real crisis of our age.
Liberal Protestantism has been in disarray for decades. It's not
something that many theologians want to defend any more. It is
generally seen as sub-Christian, as a sell-out to secular humanism.
Instead, I suggest that our liberal Protestant heritage is in urgent
need of rediscovery. The tradition can help us overcome the simplistic,
sterile stand-off between "religious" and "secular" positions. For it
is the only one capable of affirming the truth of secularism.
The electoral end of piety
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1933767,00.html
In the US it is axiomatic that you vote for the person not the party.
But this year is different
Michael Kinsley
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
In a remarkable editorial on Wednesday, the New York Times endorsed
Diane Farrell for Congress from a district in Connecticut. Who is Diane
Farrell? I have no idea, and the Times didn't seem to have much of one.
After eight years as first selectman of Westport (a position similar to
that of a mayor), the paper noted somewhat desperately, "she has a
better understanding than most legislators of the impact of federal
mandates and tax policy on local government". By contrast her opponent,
Christopher Shays, has held the seat for almost 20 years and been
endorsed by the Times "in every race in which he has faced a serious
opponent" - until now.
Shays is a Republican, but not excessively so. He's moderate in policy
and in temperament. In fact he's just the kind of Republican the Times
ordinarily likes to dig up and endorse in order to prove that it's not
blindly Democratic. Yet the Times decided to "strongly endorse" Shays's
opponent entirely because she's a Democrat. Or rather because she is
not a Republican: "Mr Shays has been a good congressman, but not good
enough to overcome the fact that his re-election would help empower a
party that is long overdue for a shakeup."
All must play their roles
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1933769,00.html
Europe cannot pick and choose who it is willing to talk to in the quest
for peace in the Middle East
Azzam Tamimi
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
During his recent visit to the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief
Javier Solana met Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisroel Beitenu
party, which advocates the forced expulsion of the Palestinians from
their land. Solana told reporters after the meeting that he disagreed
with everything Lieberman said but that "we have to talk to everybody".
But this "everybody" clearly does not strictly mean everybody, because
it continues to exclude the elected Hamas-led government of the
Palestinian people. Although Solana disagreed with Lieberman, he
nevertheless met him without preconditions. He did not find it
necessary, for instance, to insist that Lieberman should first
recognise the right of the Palestinian people to exist in their
homeland or that he should abandon his racist anti-Arab position.
The inquest on Iraq cannot be left to the absolutists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1933757,00.html
We need to hang on to reality as we take the opportunity to recalibrate
foreign policy in the light of this pure failure
Martin Kettle
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
Hans Blix, whose judgment on these matters has stood the test of time
better than many, summed it all up in an interview with a Danish
newspaper this week. If the Americans stay in Iraq the country will not
be stabilised, the former UN weapons inspection chief said. If they
pull out, they risk leaving a civil war. All in all, Blix concluded,
"Iraq is a pure failure".
National policy-making is shaped for a generation by traumatic
international events. That's why, in our own case, the defiance of 1940
still casts lingering rays on the grandchildren of those who stood
alone against Hitler. It's why the fateful delusions and humiliations
of the Suez adventure still matter too, half a century on. And it is
why, while acknowledging the possibility of the more benign longer view
that Timothy Garton Ash properly outlined here on Thursday, the pure
failure of Iraq will cast a long shadow over future British foreign
policy too.
Suspect nation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1933771,00.html
The national DNA database is a detective's dream - and Tony Blair said
this week he wants every Briton to be on it. But does it also infringe
our civil liberties? By Stuart Jeffries
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
One evening in 1988, a man broke into a house in Canterbury. He awoke
an 11-year-old girl in her bed and raped her, threatening her with a
knife if she screamed. He then indecently assaulted her nine-year-old
sister. Earlier, their mother had left home to work a night shift for
the first time. After the attacks, the girls ran in tears to their
mother's workplace.
For 13 years the case remained unsolved. Then in March 2001, John Wood,
a 59-year-old man with previous convictions for sex offences, was
arrested for shoplifting in Derby. Detectives took his mouth swab and
checked it against the national DNA database of more than 5,000
unsolved crimes. They found it matched semen on sheets preserved after
the attacks on the two sisters. In June that year Wood pleaded guilty
and was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. After his conviction, the
mother said: "I don't know how we've coped as a family and how we got
through it, but we felt he would never be caught."
Republicans facing 'electoral hurricane' in face of centrist Democrat
push
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1933861,00.html
Democrats on course to retake House of Representatives but euphoric
mood tempered by fears of last-ditch media blitz
Julian Borger in Knoxville
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
He repeatedly boasted at a Tennessee campaign stop this week that he
was pro-life, pro-gun, and against gay marriage. He attacked the
Democratic party for being weak on defence and family values and he
even had a go at President Bush for being soft on immigration.
It sounds like another day in southern politics - except that in this
case, the candidate was a Democrat. Harold Ford Jr is one of a new
breed looking for votes in places his party does not usually win and
talking the language of the US heartland more fluently than any
high-profile Democrat since Bill Clinton.
Cinemas shun film of Bush shooting
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1933882,00.html
Ed Pilkington in New York
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
Death of a President, the film that depicts the future assassination of
George Bush as a comment on the civil liberties excesses of the current
Republican administration, opened in fewer than 120 cinemas across
America yesterday, with thousands of outlets refusing to show it.
The largest owner of cinemas in the country, Regal Entertainment Group,
has blocked the film from its 6,300 screens, as has the second-largest
chain, Century Theatres. Two major broadcasters, CNN and National
Public Radio, have refused advertisements for the film.
Cheney condemned for backing water torture
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1933863,00.html
=B7 Human rights groups hit out at US vice-president
=B7 Comments reignite row over detainee treatment
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
Only weeks after the United States military banned "waterboarding" -
the simulated drowning of terrorist suspects under interrogation - the
vice-president, ***** Cheney, has reignited America's debate on torture
by endorsing the practice.
Mr Cheney's support for a technique disavowed by Congress and the
Pentagon was immediately criticised by human rights organisations,
putting the spotlight on a vice-president who has tried to maintain a
low profile during the mid-term election campaign.
In an interview with a conservative radio host in North Dakota, Mr
Cheney was asked whether he was in favour of a "dunk in the water" for
terrorist detainees. He replied that he was, saying: "Well, it's a
no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticised as being the
'vice-president for torture'."
War of words
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1933179,00.html
Christopher Hitchens - like Tom Paine, the subject of his new book -
has made enemies by supporting American internationalism, but he will
not rest until he wins them over
Oliver Burkeman
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
In 2001, a few months before he went mad, or sold out, or finally
succumbed to the effects of alcohol, or whichever of his former allies'
theories you wish to insert here, Christopher Hitchens published a slim
work entitled Letters to a Young Contrarian. In it, he often gives the
impression of feeling patronised for his dissenting opinions -
smilingly indulged, as if he were just a rebellious teenager. Reviews
of his books, he writes with annoyance, always feature an early
paragraph that says "Hitchens, whose previous targets have even
included Mother Teresa and Princess Diana ..." It's the same
condescension he feels each morning when he picks up the New York
Times, with its front-page slogan, All The News That's Fit To Print. "I
check to make sure it still irritates me," he writes. "If I can still
exclaim, under my breath, why do they insult me and what do they take
me for and what the hell is it supposed to mean unless it's as
obviously complacent and conceited and censorious as it seems to be,
then at least I know that I still have a pulse."
Apocalypse soon
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1933171,00.html
Michael Burleigh's history of religion in politics, Sacred Causes, is
compelling but deeply flawed, says John Gray
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
Sacred Causes: Religion and Politics from the European Dictators to Al
Qaeda
by Michael Burleigh
576pp, Harper Press, =A325
In his address to the UN General Assembly in September last year the
Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, welcomed the return of religion
as a factor in world affairs. The era of agnosticism was passing, he
declared, and a new age was on the horizon: "Humanity is once again
joined in celebrating monotheism. Faith will prove to be the solution
of many of today's problems." As in his speech to the UN a few weeks
ago, Ahmadinejad was mainly interested in defending his nuclear
programme, which he insisted has no military purpose - a claim it would
be unwise to take seriously. His remarks on the resurgence of religion
are more interesting, and point to a development that has taken liberal
opinion by surprise. For generations, progressive thinkers looked
forward to a secular future. Convinced that religious belief is a
by-product of ignorance, they assumed that as science advanced faith
would become a harmless private eccentricity or disappear altogether.
The actual course of events has been different. Scientific knowledge is
growing faster than at any time in history. But fundamentalism is on
the march throughout much of the world, while the mass political
movements of the 20th century have crumbled. Aside from a few
evangelical atheists, no one imagines religion is going to fade away.
The secular era lies in the past.
God and the right
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1933172,00.html
Stephen Bates looks at five books that chart America's very own
fundamentalist insurgency
Saturday October 28, 2006
The Guardian
Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg
224pp, Norton, =A314.99
American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil and
Borrowed Money in the 21st Century by Kevin Phillips 462pp, Viking,
=A315.99
Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and
Threatens America by Randall Balmer. 256pp, Basic Books, =A314.99
God Won't Save America: Psychosis of a Nation by George Walden 304pp,
Gibson Square, =A316.99
A Jew Among the Evangelicals: A Guide for the Perplexed by Mark Pinsky
155pp, Westminster John Knox Press, =A39.99
Robert Fisk: Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1935945.ece
Alarm over radioactive legacy left by attack on Lebanon
Published: 28 October 2006
Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon in southern Lebanon
this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more than 1,300 Lebanese
lives, most of them civilians?
We know that the Israelis used American "bunker-buster" bombs on
Hizbollah's Beirut headquarters. We know that they drenched southern
Lebanon with cluster bombs in the last 72 hours of the war, leaving
tens of thousands of bomblets which are still killing Lebanese
civilians every week. And we now know - after it first categorically
denied using such munitions - that the Israeli army also used
phosphorous bombs, weapons which are supposed to be restricted under
the third protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which neither Israel nor
the United States have signed.
Bush seizes on gay marriage
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1935933.ece
By David Usborne in New York
Published: 28 October 2006
President George Bush is seizing on a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling
this week offering full marriage rights to gays and lesbians in hopes
of galvanising the dispirited conservative base of the Republican Party
just 10 days from crucial mid-term congressional elections in the
United States.
Ripple effects of the ruling, delivered on Wednesday, were being felt
in election battlegrounds all across the country yesterday with several
independent analysts predicting that it may have given an unexpected
boost to many struggling Republican candidates and change the outcome
of several key races.
Cheney under attack for backing 'drowning' torture
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1935934.ece
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 28 October 2006
The US Vice-President, ***** Cheney, was at the centre of new
controversy yesterday after remarks in a radio interview in which he
appeared to support "water-boarding" - a torture technique banned by
the Pentagon and under international law.
Speaking with a talk show host at Tuesday's "open day" on the White
House lawn, Mr Cheney - long an advocate of unfettered interrogation
techniques by the CIA - agreed that "a dunk in water" for terrorist
suspects was a "no-brainer" if it could save lives.
.
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