Millions of Spaniards protest, cry

MADRID — Millions of Spaniards poured into the streets yesterday, chanting "cowards" and "assassins" in a protest of the bombings that killed 199 persons. The Basque separatist group ETA denied the government's accusation that it staged the attacks.
Many of the estimated 2.3 million marchers in Madrid huddled against a steady rain in a bobbing mass of umbrellas that clogged the capital's squares and the area around the Atocha station, where two of the four trains blew up during Thursday morning's rush hour.
"It is not raining. Madrid is crying," said Jorge Mendez, a 20-year-old telecommunications student.
In a show of national unity, massive crowds also gathered in Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and even in Spain's Canary Islands off western Africa. Nationwide, more than 11 million marched, state TV said.
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who was joined by other European leaders as he led one march, pledged to hunt down the terrorists whose bombs sparked new fears about Europe's vulnerability to attack.

posted by Frodgie at 9:48 AM

 

Agreement Reached on Iran Nuke Resolution

VIENNA, Austria — The U.N. atomic agency reached agreement Saturday on how harshly to censure Iran for its spotty record of revealing suspect nuclear activities at a session overshadowed by Tehran's decision to put nuclear inspections on hold for six weeks.

Iran's decision to suspend inspections, announced Friday, heightened tensions at a board of governors' meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (search). Members have been debating for days how to censure Iran over its failure to declare all its nuclear secrets.

A group of 13 developing nations wanted to lighten the tone of the Iran resolution, while the United States and other Western nations that insist Tehran was interested in making nuclear arms had been pushing for harsher language.

The so-called nonaligned group dropped most of its objections but pushed through changed wording that effectively defers the threat of Security Council (search) action against Iran until the board meets again in June. Security Council action could lead to sanctions.

With agreement reached, the full session of the board meeting was to reconvene later Saturday to adopt the resolution, likely by consensus.

Iran's suspension of further U.N. inspections of its nuclear program for six weeks had been dismissed as unimportant by Iranian representatives.

But diplomats familiar with the work of the IAEA described it as a potentially insurmountable obstacle to the agency's efforts to deliver a judgment by June on the nature Tehran's past and present nuclear ambitions.


posted by Frodgie at 9:46 AM

 

Police find 9 bodies, mostly children's, in Fresno

FRESNO, California (CNN) -- Police found a pile of nine bodies -- mostly children -- in the Fresno, California, home of the man police believe is the father of the victims.

Fresno police were responding to a domestic disturbance call Friday afternoon when they found the bodies.

They said Marcus Wesson, 57, who lived at the house, was taken into police custody Friday afternoon after a short standoff.

Wesson is the chief suspect, according to police, but as of late Friday he had not been charged.

Ten empty wooden caskets stacked one on top of the other were found at the front of the house, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.

Police were still on the scene early Saturday. Dyer said his officers had interviewed neighbors and four women who they think are the mothers of some of the victims.

"We're in the preliminary phases," he said. "Some of the information that we have gleaned so far is that he was involved in relationships with four different women. I don't know if he considered those to be marriages or not, but they did mother his children."

The motive for the killings is unknown. Dyer said it might have been a ritual killing and Fresno Mayor Alan Autry said it appeared to be a domestic situation.


posted by Frodgie at 9:44 AM

 

Iraqi Police Suspected In Slaying of Americans

BAGHDAD, March 12 -- Four men suspected in the slaying of two Americans working for the occupation authority in Iraq appear to be active Iraqi police officers, U.S. officials said Friday.

The Americans, Fern L. Holland, 33, and Robert J. Zangas, 44, and Holland's Iraqi translator, Salwa Ourmashi, were shot dead around 6 p.m. Tuesday near Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. Shortly afterward, Polish troops apprehended six Iraqi men riding in the victims' car and discovered that four carried cards that identified them as police, officials said.

"Four of them had current and, we believe, valid Iraqi Police Service identifications," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a military spokesman, told reporters Friday. Kimmitt cautioned that it was too early to say definitively that the suspects were involved in the attack or that the attackers knew that their victims worked for the occupation authority.

The new evidence raised questions about the screening of Iraqi security forces, a key component of the U.S. strategy to give control of Iraq back to Iraqis. To speed the return home of U.S. troops in Iraq, military and security officials are attempting to establish five Iraqi security forces, including a national police force of 85,000 officers.

As of Friday, 2,827 had graduated from an eight-week training course for recruits without police experience; 12,422 who had been police officers under the government of Saddam Hussein had finished a three-week course.


posted by Frodgie at 9:39 AM

 

Kerry fails to back up foreign 'endorsements'

Sen. John Kerry refuses to provide any information to support his assertion earlier this week that he has met with foreign leaders who beseeched him to prevail over President Bush in November's election.
The Massachusetts Democrat has made no official foreign trips since the start of last year, according to Senate records and his own published schedules. And an extensive review of Mr. Kerry's travel schedule domestically revealed only one opportunity for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to meet with foreign leaders here.
On Monday, Mr. Kerry told reporters in Florida that he'd met with foreign leaders who privately endorsed him.
"I've met with foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly," he said. "But, boy, they look at you and say: 'You've got to win this. You've got to beat this guy. We need a new policy.' Things like that."
Aides and supporters of Mr. Kerry have said providing names of the leaders or their countries would injure those nations' ongoing relations with the current Bush administration.
"In terms of who he's talked to, we're not going to discuss that," spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said yesterday. "I know it would be helpful, but we're not going into that. His counsels are kept private."
Mr. Kerry has made other claims during the campaign and then refused to back them up, including statements that Mr. Bush delayed the deal with Libya to give up its weapons of mass destruction program for political reasons.

posted by Frodgie at 6:44 AM

 

Kerry: No Apologies for GOP Remarks

WASHINGTON — Sen. John Kerry (search) said he won't apologize for remarks he made that angered Republicans and the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

The Massachusetts senator and presumptive Democratic nominee got himself into hot water on Wednesday when, after a speech on tax cuts in Chicago, supporters urged him to take on President Bush.

Kerry responded, informally and off camera: "Let me tell you, we've just begun to fight. We're going to keep pounding. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen."

On Thursday, Kerry said he's not sorry for his comments.

"I have no intention whatsoever to apologize for my remarks," Kerry said Thursday in front of a group of Democratic senators he just met with. "I think the Republicans need to start talking about the real issues before the country."

Kerry said the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign plans to launch a series of attack ads Thursday night against the president's presumed general-election rival on three topics that have "nothing to do" with healthcare, jobs, education, cleaner air and water or making America safer.

"They can't talk about those things because George Bush doesn’t have a record to run on," Kerry said. "They have a record to run from."

One ad reportedly accuses Kerry of seeking to raise taxes by $900 billion and wanting to "delay defending America."


posted by Frodgie at 6:43 AM

 

California court halts same-sex marriages

(CNN) -- The California Supreme Court ordered a halt Thursday to same-sex marriages in San Francisco.

The court issued an interim stay directing officials to stop allowing same sex marriages, but it stopped short of invalidating the nearly 4,000 licenses that have already been issued.

The stay will remain in effect while several cases on the issue are pending before the court.

The seven-justice court also ordered San Francisco officials to prove why they believe they "have not exceeded their authority," even though no court has determined whether existing marriage laws are unconstitutional.

Soon after the ruling was announced, Mabel Teng, San Francisco's city assessor, said the city would stop issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

Couples turned away by officials at City Hall expressed anger and disappointment, Reuters reported.

The news service said those who signed their marriage licenses just before the decision described complex feelings of joy and sadness. (Full story)

"We're happy -- but we're very sorry and very upset for the people in line behind us," said Michael Duffey, an attorney who married his partner of 10 years, Larry Schodts.

The temporary stay will presumably stay in force until May or June, when oral arguments in the case will be presented.


posted by Frodgie at 6:42 AM

 

Iraqi police accused in killings

HILLA, Iraq — Security forces in this southern Iraqi city say criminals recruited into the city's police force were responsible for the killing of two American civilians this week, contradicting initial reports that the killers were impostors in police uniforms.
Meanwhile, two U.S. soldiers were killed and another was wounded by a bomb in Habbaniyah, about 45 miles west of Baghdad late yesterday, the military said.
Fern Holland, a 33-year-old human rights expert from Oklahoma, and another American were killed along with their Iraqi translator on Tuesday by men in Iraqi police uniforms, according to witnesses. It was the first time that American civilian employees of the Coalition Provisional Authority have been killed in Iraq.
Authority officials said Wednesday that the three were fatally shot at a phony checkpoint between Hilla and Karbala by men posing as policemen, although by yesterday, officials were backing away from that version of events.
"They were in police uniforms. We haven't established that it was the police," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the U.S. commander in Iraq, told reporters yesterday.

posted by Frodgie at 6:39 AM

 

Terror Blasts Kill at Least 198 in Spain

MADRID, Spain (AP) - A series of bombs hidden in backpacks exploded in quick succession Thursday, blowing apart four commuter trains and killing at least 198 people and wounding more than 1,400. Spain at first blamed Basque separatists but a shadowy group claimed responsibility in the name of al-Qaida for the worst terrorist attack in Spanish history.

Panicked rush-hour commuters trampled on each other, abandoning their bags and shoes, after the first three bombs went off in one train in the Atocha station in the heart of Madrid. Seven other bombings followed on other trains.

Train cars were turned into twisted wrecks and platforms were strewn with corpses. Cell phones rang unanswered on the bodies of the dead as frantic relatives tried to call them.

"March 11, 2004, now holds its place in the history of infamy," Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said.


posted by Frodgie at 6:38 AM

 

Kerry: GOP Is 'Crooked' Bunch

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (search) called Wednesday for deeper tax cuts for the middle class than proposed by President Bush and described his Republican critics as "the most crooked ... lying group I've ever seen." The chairman of Bush's re-election campaign called on Kerry to apologize "for this negative attack."

After urging labor leaders to support his campaign, Kerry met with one-time rival Howard Dean (search) to discuss an endorsement and what role the former Vermont governor might play in his campaign.

Hoping to win over Dean, the presumptive nominee's staff greeted the fallen rival with a round of applause as he walked into Kerry headquarters. The two men shook hands, embraced briefly and raised joined hands for the cameras.

After the 45-minute meeting, officials close to the talks said Dean will endorse Kerry, with only the timing in question. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the best time might be March 25 when the presidential candidates join former Presidents Clinton and Carter for a Democratic Party fund-raiser.

"I will work closely with John Kerry to make sure we beat George Bush (search) in November and turn our country around," Dean said in a statement that did not specifically mention an endorsement. "There is a lot we can do together to rebuild an America that belongs to all of us, and we'll be saying more about what our amazing grass-roots network can do to help with his goal." Dean has set March 18 to announce details of his grass-roots advocacy organization.

posted by Frodgie at 6:18 AM

 

Spain rail blasts: 131 dead

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- At least 131 people were killed and more than 400 injured in a series of explosions on Madrid's railway network at the height of morning rush hour, according to the the security minister for Madrid's regional government.

Spanish officials are blaming the Basque separatist group ETA for the coordinated attack, which comes ahead of Sunday's general election.

Three explosions hit separate trains along the southern part of Madrid's train network at Santa Eugenia, El Pozo and Atocha stations.

The most deadly blast happened on a train entering Madrid's main Atocha station, killing 29 people there, according to Interior Minister Angel Acebes. (Eyewitness reports)

Spain's conservative ruling Popular Party -- which has taken a hard-line stance against ETA -- is currently leading in the polls ahead of Sunday's elections.

So far, there has been no claim of responsibility.

The Popular Party announced it was suspending its campaign rallies scheduled for later in the day and Friday.


posted by Frodgie at 6:15 AM

 

Industries back illegals plan

Important American industries including top Republican campaign contributors see President Bush's proposal to create a foreign guest-worker program as the best way to address labor shortages in their fields.
Employers from farm and construction work to restaurateurs and Main Street stores say the current system that allows millions of illegal workers to enter the country and work under the table for subminimum wages is not serving businesses or workers well.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents 3 million small businesses across the country, supports the plan as a simple acknowledgment of reality: Despite strict rules against hiring illegal workers, the practice is widespread and growing.

posted by Frodgie at 6:12 AM

 

The jobs crisis and the GOP

President Bush and his advisers are puzzled and worried.

Economic liftoff took place right on schedule in July when the tax cuts took effect. In the last six months of 2003, the economy blazed along on a growth path of 6 percent. But where are the jobs?

Last week's jobs report, with hundreds of thousands giving up the search for work, and manufacturing jobs disappearing for the 43rd straight month, jolted the White House. What is going on?

They're calling it a jobless recovery. Wrong. Millions of jobs are being created. They're just not being created here in the United States.

The reasons can be traced to these four acronyms: NAFTA, GATT, WTO, PNTR. These are the trade treaties and global institutions that have permitted the historic substitution of foreign labor for American labor, to the enrichment of the transnational companies that look upon the Congress as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Numbers do not lie. In 2003, America exported $1 trillion in goods and services. Almost 10 percent of GDP. Excellent. By the Clinton-Bush I rule – $1 billion in exports creates 20,000 jobs – that $1 trillion worth of exports created 20 million jobs. Exports are good for America.


posted by Frodgie at 6:10 AM

 

Another high court justice faces questions on ethics

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has lent her name and presence to a lecture series co-sponsored by the liberal NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, an advocacy group that often argues before the court in support of women's rights that the justice embraces.

In January, Ginsburg gave opening remarks for the fourth installment in the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Distinguished Lecture Series on Women and the Law.

Two weeks earlier, she had voted in a medical screening case and taken the side promoted by the legal defense fund in its friend-of-the-court brief.

The liberal Ginsburg's involvement with the legal activist group, and recent outside activities by a conservative colleague, Justice Antonin Scalia, have touched off a debate over what kinds of extra-judicial appearances and contacts are appropriate for Supreme Court justices.

The code of conduct for the federal courts does not set clear rules for judges' involvement with advocacy groups. But it warns jurists to steer clear of outside legal activities that would "cast reasonable doubt on the capacity to decide impartially any issue that may come before" them.

Federal law says a judge or justice "shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned."


posted by Frodgie at 6:08 AM

 

Kerry sweeps 4 Southern states

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts easily swept four Southern primaries Tuesday, putting the presumptive Democratic nominee tantalizingly close to the number of delegates he needs to clinch his party's presidential nomination.

Kerry -- whose last major rival, Sen. John Edwards, dropped out last week -- won the Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas contests. (Primary results)

On the other side of the ballot, President Bush's victories in those four states gave him enough delegates to officially win the Republican nomination for a second term.

"Republicans are excited about the campaign ahead and know how serious and important this election is," said Terry Holt, a Bush campaign spokesman. "We're gratified by the support we're receiving and look forward to a debate on the biggest issues facing this country -- fixing the economy and winning the war on terror."


posted by Frodgie at 7:10 AM

 

Obesity narrows gap on smoking

CHICAGO — Inactive Americans are eating themselves to death at an alarming rate, their unhealthy habits fast approaching tobacco as the top underlying preventable cause of death, a government study found.
In 2000, poor diet including obesity and physical inactivity caused 400,000 U.S. deaths more than 16 percent of all deaths and the No. 2 killer. That compares with 435,000 for tobacco, or 18 percent, as the top underlying killer.
The gap between the two is substantially narrower than in 1990, when poor diet and inactivity caused 300,000 deaths, 14 percent, compared with 400,000 for tobacco, or 19 percent, says a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This is tragic," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, CDC's director and an author of the study. "Our worst fears were confirmed."
"It's going to overtake tobacco" if the trend continues, Dr. Gerberding said. "At CDC, we're going to do everything we can to prevent it," she said. "Obesity has got to be job No. 1 for us in terms of chronic diseases."

posted by Frodgie at 7:10 AM

 

N.J. AG Tells City to Halt Gay Marriages

ASBURY PARK, N.J. — New Jersey's (search) attorney general told city officials to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples and quit performing marriage ceremonies or face criminal charges.

Attorney General Peter C. Harvey (search) also warned state officials that those marriage licenses are invalid.

Letters were sent Tuesday to Asbury Park's (search) city clerk, mayor and deputy mayor. The notices come one day after the deputy mayor performed the state's first gay marriage.

Harvey told Deputy Mayor James Bruno (search) that he was wrong to perform the ceremony for two gay men.

"We urge you to carry out your official duties in a manner consistent with the well-established court decisions and advice set forth in the accompanying letter to avoid the initiation of legal action by our office," Harvey wrote.


posted by Frodgie at 7:06 AM

 

C.I.A. Chief Says He's Corrected Cheney Privately

WASHINGTON, March 9 — George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that he had privately intervened on several occasions to correct what he regarded as public misstatements on intelligence by Vice President Dick Cheney and others, and that he would do so again.

"When I believed that someone was misconstruing intelligence, I said something about it," he said.

Mr. Tenet identified three instances in which he had already corrected public statements by President Bush or Mr. Cheney or would do so, but he left the impression that there had been more.

His comments, in testimony before the Armed Services Committee, came under sharp questioning from some Democrats on the panel, who have criticized him and the White House over prewar intelligence on Iraq. He insisted that he had honored his obligation to play a neutral role as the top intelligence adviser.

In response to a question, he said he did not think the administration had misrepresented facts to justify going to war.

Mr. Tenet said he planned to call Mr. Cheney's attention to a recent misstatement, in a Jan. 9 interview, when the vice president recommended as "your best source of information" on links between Iraq and Al Qaeda the contents of a disputed memorandum by a senior Pentagon official, Douglas J. Feith.


posted by Frodgie at 7:03 AM

 

'Historic Moment' Dawns on Iraq

Bush prepares Iraqis for Freedom

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's Governing Council signed a landmark interim constitution on Monday, creating a 13-article bill of rights, setting up an outline for the parliament and presidency and enshrining Islam as one of the bases of law.

Nine days after the deadline set in the U.S. timetable, council members unanimously approved the charter with a show of hands.

Council President Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum (search) called the signing a "historic moment, decisive in the history of Iraq."

"There is no doubt that this document will strengthen Iraqi unity in a way never seen before," said Massoud Barzani, a Kurdish leader on the council. "This is the first time that we Kurds feel that we are citizens of Iraq."

The interim constitution is a key step in U.S. plans to hand over power to Iraqis by July 1.

Before an audience of prominent Iraqi and American civilian and military officials, including the top administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer (search), the 25 council members signed with commemorative pens the document on an antique desk once owned by King Faisal I, Iraq's first monarch.

The signing was delayed after a political impasse sparked by objections from the country's most powerful cleric, and there were signs that those problems might resurface.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani (search), who earlier led objections to the document, issued a religious decree just hours after the signing that said he still objected to the charter.

He maintained that the constitution would be illegitimate until approved by an elected body.

"Any law prepared for the transitional period will not gain legitimacy except after it is endorsed by an elected national assembly," al-Sistani said in the fatwa released on his Web site.

Council member Ibrahim al-Jaafari read a statement signed by 12 of the 13 Shiite council members that said they agreed to sign the interim constitution without demanding changes in order to safeguard national unity. Last week, bombers carried out deadly attacks on Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad and Karbala.


posted by Frodgie at 6:31 AM

 

Civil Rights Group Seeks Kerry Apology

WASHINGTON - The head of a civil rights and legal services advocacy group wants Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) to apologize for saying he wouldn't be upset if he could be known as the second black president.

"John Kerry is not a black man — he is a privileged white man who has no idea what it is in this country to be a poor white in this country, let alone a black man," said Paula Diane Harris, founder of the Andrew Young National Center for Social Change.

Last week, Kerry told the American Urban Radio Network: "President Clinton (news - web sites) was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second."

Kerry's spokesman Chad Clanton said: "This was intended as a light-natured remark about President Clinton's strong legacy with African Americans It is a legacy that John Kerry would like to build upon if elected president. John Kerry has a record of fighting for civil rights and as president he will continue this fight."

Harris also criticized civil rights leaders who "sit back and ignore these types of comments, a practice that further insults African Americans."

"It seems that all these leaders care about is their personal agendas in how a 'John Kerry' will keep up their personal causes," she said.


posted by Frodgie at 6:28 AM

 

Bush chides Kerry on intelligence cuts

DALLAS — President Bush yesterday accused John Kerry of wanting to weaken the nation's security by repeatedly advocating "deeply irresponsible" cuts to the CIA during his 20 years in the Senate.
"One very important part of this war is intelligence-gathering, as Senator Kerry noted," Mr. Bush told a room full of campaign contributors.
"Yet in 1995, two years after the [1993] attack on the World Trade Center, my opponent introduced a bill to cut the overall intelligence budget by $1½ billion. His bill was so deeply irresponsible that he didn't have a single co-sponsor in the United States Senate," he said.
Mr. Bush used the national security issue, and many others, to paint Mr. Kerry as a man with ever-changing positions who can't be trusted with the presidency in dangerous times.
"Once again, Mr. Kerry is trying to have it both ways," he said. "He's for good intelligence, yet was willing to gut the intelligence services, and that is no way to lead the nation in a time of war."
The Kerry campaign says that the bill offered by the junior senator from Massachusetts was about opposing "business as usual in our intelligence community" and that Mr. Kerry has supported $200 billion in intelligence funding over the past seven years — a 50 percent increase since 1996.

posted by Frodgie at 6:27 AM

 

Gay Couple Married in Asbury Park, N.J.

ASBURY PARK, N.J. — A gay couple were married in City Hall on Monday after being issued a license by city officials who say New Jersey law does not explicitly ban such unions.

In a short 3:30 p.m. ceremony attended by about 10 people, Louis Navarrete and Ric Best, both of Asbury Park (search), tied the knot in City Council chambers.

The two had paid $28 for a marriage license on Friday and waited the requisite 72 hours, according to Laura Jewell, a spokeswoman for City Clerk Dawn Tomek.

Monday's wedding was the first gay marriage ceremony performed in New Jersey. Six other applications for same-sex weddings (search) are pending, city officials said.

"As a show of support to the city's gay community and the gay community nationwide, the City of Asbury Park has determined that it will commence the issuance of licenses to same-sex couples and the solemnization of marriage between same-sex couples, immediately, as a matter of fundamental civil and Constitutional rights," Tomek said in a written statement.


posted by Frodgie at 6:27 AM

 

Kerry leads Bush in new poll

(CNN) -- Presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry leads President Bush in the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, although the race appears to be fluid and remains close.

The poll, released Monday, found that among likely voters, Kerry was the choice of 52 percent and Bush 44 percent in a two-way matchup, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

In a three-way race with Independent candidate Ralph Nader, Kerry had 50 percent, Bush 44 percent and Nader 2 percent.

Among registered voters, Kerry's lead over Bush narrowed from 8 percentage points to 5 points in a two-way race and from 6 points to 2 points in a three-way race.

That is because Democratic voters are indicating they are more likely to vote than the overall electorate -- something that has rarely happened in past elections and may be fueled by the interest in the recent Democratic primaries.

The president's job approval rating in the poll was 49 percent, with 48 percent saying they disapproved of his performance.

That is a slight dip from February, when Bush's approval numbers were in the low 50s. The 50 percent threshold is considered important for an incumbent seeking re-election.


posted by Frodgie at 6:25 AM

 

US presidential race takes nasty tone

Democratic Senator John Kerry chalks up a hefty lead over President George W. Bush in the latest polls, as the race for the White House heated up.

Bush accused Kerry on Monday of pushing "deeply irresponsible" cuts in intelligence and was in turn assailed by the Democratic challenger for making "bad rush decisions" that kill people.

The bitter exchange came as new polls showed Kerry, the veteran senator from Massachusetts, opening a significant lead over Bush in the early going of an intensely personal campaign for the November 2 election.

At a fundraiser in his homestate of Texas, Bush dismissed Kerry as weak and irresolute in defending the country and branded the Vietnam war hero a wafffler who follows the prevailing political winds on crucial issues.

"My opponent clearly has strong beliefs -- they just don't last very long," the Republican president told a rowdy crowd of supporters at a Dallas luncheon that netted some 1.5 million dollars for his reelection campaign.

Bush cited a 1995 bill Kerry proposed that would have cut intelligence funding by 1.5 billion dollars over five years. "His bill was so deeply irresponsible that he didn't have a single co-sponsor," the president said.

"Once again, Senator Kerry is trying to have it both ways. He's for good intelligence, yet he was willing to gut the intelligence services. And that is no way to lead a nation in a time of war," said Bush.


posted by Frodgie at 6:15 AM

 

Bush Wins Points With the Abstinence-Minded

WASHINGTON — Safe-sex educators are rankled by President Bush's proposal to increase abstinence instruction funding next year, but proponents of the just-say-no approach argue teens will get a fighting chance against unwed pregnancy, sexually-transmitted diseases and for healthy future relationships.

"(Abstinence education) tells teens they have a choice," said Jennifer Marshall, family issues director for the Heritage Foundation (search). "And it will lead to better outcomes, economically and emotionally. The more they delay sex the better they will be for the rest of their lives."

Proponents of comprehensive sex education say telling teens to wait on intercourse is fine, but they also need straight talk about how to protect themselves from disease and unwanted pregnancy when they don't decide to wait. Safe-sex educators contend that abstinence-only programs drag schools and community outreach programs back to the dark ages by covering up frank sex talk with an unrealistic drumbeat about "waiting for marriage."

"It's not what the public wants," said Michael McGee of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (search), which has received millions in federal money over the years for family planning services that include community-based programs for teens.

"Not one of these (abstinence) programs have been proven effective," he said.


posted by Frodgie at 6:14 AM

 

The aggressors in the culture wars

"It became an emblematic moment. Patrick Buchanan standing before the Republican National Convention in August 1992, bluntly declaring that there was a 'religious war' and a 'cultural war' under way for the soul of the country. And that 'Clinton and Clinton are on the other side' with an agenda of 'radical feminism,' 'abortion on demand' and 'homosexual rights.'"

So wrote Robin Toner in the lead of her Sunday New York Times article titled, "To the Barricades: The Culture Wars, Part II."

A mild dissent. This writer did not declare a culture war in Houston. I defined that struggle for the soul of America only after Democrats nominated a candidate who was the paragon of the New Morality and social radicalism of the 1960s. Let the reader decide whether eight years of Bill Clinton validated my depiction.

As Toner writes, the culture wars have been reignited. And there is no doubt who initiated this round of hostilities.

posted by Frodgie at 6:12 AM

 

New cardiac stents hold hearty promise

NEW ORLEANS — Tiny clogged arteries in the heart that long have bedeviled cardiologists' attempts at repair now can be kept flowing smoothly with new drug-coated stents that already have revolutionized treatment of larger vessels.
Research released yesterday suggests these tiny wire coils should solve one of the major problems of treating people with chest pain caused by buildups in the arteries that feed their hearts.
While fat arteries are relatively easy to fix, about two-thirds of patients undergoing angioplasty suffer from blockages in skinny ones — under 2 millimeters in diameter. Typically, doctors squeeze these arteries open with a balloon and install a stent, but about half the time, the arteries clog shut again.
During the past year, many doctors have switched to a new kind of stent — Johnson & Johnson's Cypher — that exudes a drug that prevents the artery from filling in. Results from early studies suggested they may work for small arteries as well as big, but a team from Italy was the first to test the idea directly.

posted by Frodgie at 6:10 AM

 

OFFICIAL 'KERRY FOR PRESIDENT' WEBSITE RIDDLED WITH OBSCENITIES

Sen. John Kerry's official election website is riddled with obscenities, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal.

The Democrat nominee-in-waiting recently said radio stations are within their right to pull Howard Stern off the air if they object to the shock jock's racy show.

But an investigation reveals Kerry's own website is filled expletives, setting the standard for a new wave of 21st Century campaigning!

MORE

A sampling of web pages featured on Kerry's official site reveal:

"Bush f**ked up Afghanistan... Did I expect George Bush to f**k it up as badly as he did... cutting all your f**king legs off at the knees... Where the f**k is he?... scare the living s**t out of me... He has a pig-in-s**t grin on his face, he wanted to get into the s**t... doesn't play s**t in my book..."

In fact, typing in the terms "F**k" or "S**t" in the search box of the official Kerry For President site directly links the reader to the action!

A campaign source tells the DRUDGE REPORT that "John Kerry For President" online simply contains published material, and the senator was simply unaware on Sunday that the expletives were being carried on his own Internet server. [A search on the official Bush/Cheney re-election revealed no such curse words.]

"I think you'll see the offensive words removed," the top campaign source said.

Unlike over the air broadcast, there are no known foul language rules for official campaign websites.


posted by Frodgie at 6:07 AM

 

U.S. Team Building Case Against Saddam

WASHINGTON — A team of 50 Justice Department prosecutors, investigators and support staff is going to Iraq beginning this weekend to assemble war crimes cases against former President Saddam Hussein (search) and others in his former regime, a senior official said Saturday.

The goal of the effort is to sift through thousands of pages of evidence and provide a roadmap for Iraqis to use when they eventually bring Saddam and others in his administration before war crimes tribunals. U.S. officials want the world to view the trials as an Iraqi process, not one run by Americans or other foreigners.

The U.S. team includes main Justice lawyers, FBI agents, U.S. Marshals Service (search) members and others involved in the federal criminal justice system, said a senior Justice Department official.

"It's one piece of the international effort to assist the Iraqis in putting together these proceedings," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They are learning how to put together a legitimate legal system."

The Iraqi Governing Council (search) has already set up tribunals consisting of three panels of five judges each, with nine other judges to serve on an appeals panel. The timetable for a trial of Saddam, who was captured by U.S. forces on Dec. 14, is not yet clear, nor are the charges that might be brought.

The Justice Department team will be assigned to a new Regime Crimes Adviser's Office run by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which is headed by U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer. The office will also include legal officials from other countries, including Great Britain, Spain and Poland, the Justice official said.


posted by Frodgie at 9:39 AM

 

Kerry slams Bush on Iraq; campaigns in Texas

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry slammed President Bush on his treatment of the U.S. military in Iraq Saturday, citing an admission by a senior military official that U.S. troops went into the war unprepared.

The Massachusetts senator, in the Democrats' weekly radio address, referred to an admission this week by acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee that U.S. troops were not prepared when the president sent them in to topple Saddam Hussein.

"Republican and Democratic leaders were right to join together to say to the Bush administration that this is just unacceptable," Kerry said. (Full story)

"If I am president, I will be prepared to use military force to protect our security, our people, and our vital interests. But I will never send our troops into harm's way without enough firepower and support."


posted by Frodgie at 9:35 AM

 

Boy Scouts fight back

The northwest corner of Balboa Park in downtown San Diego is an oasis of pine trees, a pool, a tiny amphitheater, an archery range, a rifle range, an activity center for knot-tying plus several campsites.
Ordinarily, the 15.6 acres that has been leased to the Boy Scouts of America since 1957 is a restful spot and an easy commute for residents who want a quick escape to parkland within city limits. The Boy Scouts have invested at least $5 million in the park, which is open to the public.
All this is now up for grabs because of a lawsuit seeking to remove the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) from their land. It is one of many battles nationwide affecting an organization serving 1 million boys ages 11 to 17 that in 2000 won a Supreme Court decision in Boy Scouts of America vs. Dale, allowing the BSA to ban homosexuals from scoutmaster positions.
posted by Frodgie at 9:33 AM