C-SPAN Washington Journal Watch

Washington Journal Questions: Bush's Veteran's Day Speech

2005-11-12T04:30:00.000-08:00

WJW Headlines: US Troops may leave Iraq next year

2005-11-11T22:47:00.000-08:00

WJW HEADLINES

Xinhuanet: Chalabi: US troops may leave Iraq next year

FT: Dismay for US as elections benefit Islamists

AFP: US urges calm in Liberia after vote fraud allegations

AFP: US, Canada clinch open skies deal Reuters: Senate bill would let U.S. ban petroleum exports

AP: Green Party's Hatch to Take on Sen. Hatch

AP: Campaign Phone-Jamming Case to Go to Trial AP: NYPD to Test Explosive Detectors in Subway

Reuters: Bin Laden silent as Zarqawi steps up

Reuters: Italy prosecutors seek extradition of CIA agents

C-SPAN: ACLU, Patriot Act, French Riots, and the War In Iraq

2005-11-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

C-Span Washington Journal Schedule for November 12, 2005

7:45am Eastern - The Patriot Act with Nadine Strossen , American Civil Liberties Union

8:30am Eastern - Riots in France with Robert Leiken

9:15am Eastern - US Policy in Iraq with John Smathers , U.S. Army Reserve

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EXPAND FOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION

***** Nadine Strossen ********
of the American Civil Liberties Union working to reform the Patriot Act

Related Articles:

C-SPAN: Show Preview

The guest talks about the Patriot Act and its reauthorization by Congress. A House-Senate conference committee held their first meeting this week to reconcile differences between their two bills to reauthorize provisions in the 2001 antiterrorism law. If completed, the House may vote on the final version next week. The House version would make permanent 14 of the 16 expiring provisions with the other two, allowing roving wiretaps and allowing the FBI to seize business records, to be extended by 10 years to 2015. The Senate version would have those two provisions expire in four years in 2009. The American Civil Liberties Union opposes making the Patriot Act permanent and opposes its surveillance and search provisions. House bill (HR 3199) Senate bill: (S. 1389)

ACLU:Key Patriot Act Vote Rebukes White House

The ACLU noted that calls for reforms have come from a politically diverse chorus, including the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform and Gun Owners of America. Leading business organizations have also spoken out in favor of the Senate reforms to the secret record search powers expanded by the Patriot Act. Those groups include the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Association of Realtors, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Financial Services Roundtable and Business Civil Liberties, Inc

ACLU: Reports Show 30,000 Secret Records Demands

Opposing Views:

ACLJ:The Patriot Act: Wise Beyond its Years

Armed with these tools, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agents have pursued and captured operatives in the war on terrorism from Florida to New York, from Virginia to Oregon and points in between. Since Sept. 11, 2001, 368 individuals have been charged and 194 have been convicted.

Despite the documented successes in keeping Americans safe from terrorism, the Patriot Act rarely receives its due, and indeed is often portrayed in an outright false light.

Stop the ACLU: Patriot Act

It’s all good and fine to be concerned about civil liberties – especially in the context of emergency situations, which could be used as a pretext by those with evil on their minds to unnecessarily strip us of our freedoms. However, it is during emergency management in particular that sometimes, you just have to trust that legislators have written laws that, if judged constitutional by State and Federal Supreme Courts and enforced fairly, will contribute to the general welfare. We saw this with the Patriot Act, where not merely national security but our nation’s very existence is at stake in the face of the global war on terrorism. As regards natural disasters and possible deadly epidemics, similar considerations should apply.

***** Robert Leiken ********

Director of the Immigration and National Security Programs at The Nixon Center

C-SPAN: Show Preview

The guest talks about the cause of the riots in France and Germany. He believes “second generation” immigrants are the source of the riots because they have the most potential to be influenced by jihadists. On July 2005 in an article in Foreign Affairs titled “Europe’s Angry Muslims,” he predicted riots might happen.

Foreign Affairs: Europe's Angry Muslims

Indeed, the fissure between liberalism and multiculturalism is opening just as the continent undergoes its most momentous population shift since Asian tribes pushed westward in the first Christian millennium. Immigration obviously hits a national security nerve, but it also raises economic and demographic questions: how to cope with a demonstrably aging population; how to maintain social cohesion as Christianity declines and both secularism and Islam climb; whether the EU should exercise sovereignty over borders and citizenship; and what the accession of Turkey, with its 70 million Muslims, would mean for the EU. Moreover, European mujahideen do not threaten only the Old World; they also pose an immediate danger to the United States.

***** John Smathers ********

C-SPAN: Show Preview

The guest talks about U.S. policy toward Iraq and about life while serving in Iraq from a reservist soldier’s point of view. His “real” job is as a partner in a law firm.

Washington Post:A War Dog's Faithful Friend

Laurel lawyer John E. Smathers, a captain in the Army Reserve, returned from a year in Iraq with a broken arm, a wrecked knee and a chest full of medals.

During his tour, Smathers helped thwart a bank robbery and assisted in recovering stolen Iraqi artwork. He survived an ambush and a high-speed auto crash.

But when he got back in March 2004, he was determined to complete a final mission: to rescue Scout, a dog he and other soldiers had adopted, from the increasingly bloody streets of Baghdad and bring him to his Howard County home. Scout was resolute, loyal. So was Smathers.

Michelle Malkin Interview on C-SPAN Washington Journal

2005-11-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

My television broke down during the show. However, I am able to post a partial transcript of the Michelle Malkin Interview. If you have any comments on this show please leave your comments on this post. Thank you for visiting and honor Veterans with your actions today and every day.

PARTIAL SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Language of the book

“I didn't want to white wash just how vitriolic, hate filled and frankly, racist, sexist and bigoted the left can be.”

“One of the objectives of this book is to expose this myth that somehow liberals and the modern left have some sort of special moral claim on being the champion on civility and tolerance and understanding.”

“This book is quite different from the past two books I've done because I talk about my own personal experience.”

“One of the things i did was open up my mail bag and i've noticed in the last year and a half particularly throughout the campaign season last year that the tenor and tone and the ugliness of the feedback that I gotten from liberal readers and liberal critics on the internet has sunk considerably, so yeah, there's a chapter there called 'You were once a gook' and that comes from a typical subject header in the kind of emails I got over the last year and a half and it generates from there.”

....................................
EXPAND FOR THE REST OF THE PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT, SHOW SCHEDULE AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

“There is R rated stuff and I'm very uncomfortable in this kind of profanity, I don't use it myself, and I think it's quite telling that a lot of these folks that who pose as models of civility are anything but”

Language of some right wingers

“I don't argue that there aren't awful people on the other side, on my side, people go overboard all the time in their rhetoric, but I think there is something unique particularly that minority Republicans and minority Conservatives in particular get and I don't think liberals in public life can open their mailbag and show, for example, that they have ever been accused of being a race traitor, or an ethnic traitor, or a sell out and there are a lot of minority Republicans and Conservative people in elected office who are subjected to this on a daily basis”

“I have a whole section on the liberal attacks on Condoleeza Rice, for example, which are stunning in their hatred and viciousness. You got mainstream, so called respectable columnists and cartoonists, people like Garry Trudeau and Tedd Rall, and Jeffery Danziger, who are widely published across this country, who have caricatured her as a buck toothed parrot, to get away with deriding her to 'brown sugar' or a 'house nigga' and that's not something any prominent Conservative or Republican would ever ever get away with.”

Publishing 4 pages of negative comments in her book

“I think that one of the reaction of the lesson 'I already heard it' is that these are just exceptions, a few fringe loonies, this kind of racism and hatred is not typical, of the modern left, and I strongly disagree with that.”

“It wasn't just unanimous emailers emailing me this kind of stuff, these turned up on some of the most prominent liberal blogs on the internet, places like the Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum's blog, and a blog run by Duncan Black who works for Media Matters.”

“They did not censor it, they did not condemn it, and a lot of the left say 'oh you're just whining about bad emails that comes with the territory.'

Sure slings and arrows and tough language come with the territory, but I think this kind of misogynistic language and racism is particularly ironic and hypocritical coming from the left. And, you know, one of the points is that, you know, the main stream media caricature of us, conservatives and republicans, is we are the ones the purveyors of this kind of thing, hatred and divisiveness.”

“I think it's time that a lot of the left take a look in the mirror and confront that ugliness themselves. In the headlines Everyday, I mean, the book is already outdated, look at what happened in Maryland with the Lt. Governor, Michael Steele, where mainstream Democratic leaders are cowering and refuse to condemn things like doctoring Michael Steele's picture as a sambo or a minstrel, and people toss Oreo cookies at him supposedly making some point that he's black on the outside and white in the inside for embracing free market principles and Conservative social values. That's poisonous identity politics and that really has no place in the 21st century.”

Suprise over success of Al Franken's The Truth with Jokes

“No not at all, his book is everywhere, and he's got a huge platform and audience to schlock his book and places like the Late show with David Letterman, The Today Show, a lot of mainstream outlets that do not usually welcome conservative auth...

Moderator asks if they called to ask her to appear on their shows:

“No, not yet”

Putting a spotlight on herself

“Yes I am guilty of trying to sell a book.”

“Dick Cheney used profanity, and I have a blog that I have been running now since June of last year, and I was one of the first to come out and say I didn't find that language acceptable, and it was dismaying to me that he would curse like that, even though it was a private conversation and not for public consumption.”

“Just a reminder he had used the F-word in a spat with Senator Patrick Leahy and I don't think that Republicans and Conservatives should use that kind of language.”

“I'm very uncomfortable that a lot of pop culture Conservatives embrace South Park, the cartoon, the famous one that has a lot of vulgarity and language. I think profanity is a crutch and i think it is a sign of intellectual weakness and this caller says it's not left or right, no it's not. But again there is this unique sanctimony on part of the left that somehow they conduct themselves better in public discourse, I'm simply debunking that huge myth.”

Anti-War Movement

“Support our troops even though they oppose the war and I have shown in case after case after case that in fact a lot of these so called peace activists have a clear and blatant anti-military bias and what happened to Jeff Due is absolutely reprehensible, he was on the Seattle Central Community College campus to recruit and he was basically hounded off the campus, along with another one of his colleagues, by this anti-war extremist group, and chanted down and shouted down and this is very typical that a lot of these anti-war folks are trying to impede the military recruitment effort.”

“What was particularly disturbing in that case was that the administration essentially supported what the kids were doing on the campus, and you see that a lot.”

View of the New York Times

“There is a very telling story that I have been reporting on the last couple of weeks on my website about the New York Times for distorting a lot of what our troops think about their service and why they're over in Iraq. There was a corporal, Jeffery B. Starr, who was killed by a sniper in the last year, and part of a large, huge almost 5000 word opus on the 2000 dead milestone, a reporter for the times James Dao included Corporal Starr's story and the family had shared a letter the corporal star's girlfriend.”

“He absolutely believed in the mission, in President Bush's mission, believed he was there to help free people, believed that his death would mean something and others had died for his freedom and this was his mark and that those were his precise words. 'Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.'”

“It's extraordinary to me that any reporter talking about troops and their views of the war would leave that crucial paragraph out. So I published it on my website”

Number of the family members talked to other members of the press, and were “offended, dismayed, and hurt by the Times' distortion of the story and the Times is sticking by what it did.”

“It just goes to show you that a lot of the errors that the press makes in their depiction of the war and the troops are not just simply sins of commission but sins of omission as well.”

Peter Stark and his “foul voice message” to Daniel Dow

“There was a transcript of that tape and I reproduced some of that.”

“I document everything in the book.”

“It is astounding to me that an elected official, a Democrat elected official, would be able to get away with that.”

“That's the dictionary of what is 'unhinged'”

“There was no apology no retraction for Daniel Dow”

“It's just jaw dropping to me that this elected official can leave a profane and four letter word message like that on one of his constituent's voice mail.”

Media Matters

“I mention them. Some of the things that they published.”

“In my introduction to my book I talk about the reaction, the swift and really brutal reaction, after I make some comments on Cindy Sheehan early this summer when she first burst on to the scene and there is a lot of inconsistencies and things left out her initial meeting with President Bush, the fact that it went rather well.”

“According to local contemporaneous reports at the time that there wasn't this amerous and wasn't this callousness in the part of President Bush which Cindy Sheehan now claims President Bush had towards her and the death of her son Casey Sheehan who died in Iraq.”

Malkin claims after having a “sane and sober discussion on Fox news” on the O'Reilly Factor.

She says she made very clear her sympathy over Sheehan's loss.

“There are a few things that I can imagine more painful than losing a child.”

“But a lot of the rhetoric that she has used which is just unacceptably over the top to me, accusing President Bush of killing her son and of our country and government being a terrorist operation.”

“Couldn't imagine her son would, for example with her aligning herself with Michael Moore, who likens the people who killed Casey to 'revolutionaries', American Revolutionaries and Minute Men.”

“This set off the unhinged left like you wouldn't believe.”

“Media Matters jumped all over my case and accused me of smearing Cindy Sheehan. When anybody who took a look at the transcript or a tape of that program knows that it was anything but.”

“I think that the problem with some of these outfits is that they see themselves as, you know, truth tellers and righters of wrong and they turn around and use the same kind of distortion tactics that they accuse their subject of.”

***** END OF PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT ****

C-SPAN Washington Journal Show Schedule for November 11, 2005

7am - Newspaper Articles, Open Phones

8am - Michelle Malkin

9am - William Raspberry

BACKGROUND INFOMATION

*************** MICHELLE MALKIN **************

Conservative Blogger, political commentator, and Author of "In Defense of Internment and "Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild."

Recent Articles

Townhall: The media and the unhinged Marine

Former Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey was the liberal media's dream come true: An anti-war Iraq veteran who came forward to publicly lambaste the Bush administration and accuse American troops of murdering innocent civilians.

Jimmy Massey was Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan and John Kerry all wrapped up into one tidy, soundbite-friendly package -- a poster boy for peace topped off by a military uniform and tattoos to boot. But like a lot of the agitators who pose as well-meaning, good-faith peace activists, Jimmy Massey was something else:

A complete fraud.

MichelleMalkin.com: ESPIONAGE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

A number of flippant liberals are e-mailing me now with calls for all Filipinos to be interned. Grow up. The safety of the president and the country was put at risk, and it may have been due in part to the blinders of political correctness and complacency. If it means now that the White House will be applying extra scrutiny to naturalized Americans of Filipino descent working at the top levels of government and in the military, well, yes, I support that. It's obviously overdue. And, as I argued in my last book, it's just one small step towards the kind of national security profiling we should have introduced aggressively after 9/11. But didn't.

Criticism:

HNN: An Open Letter to Malkin

Malkin is not a historian, and she states that she relied almost exclusively on research conducted or collected by others. Her book, which purports to defend the wartime treatment of Japanese Americans, did not go through peer review before publication. This work presents a version of history that is contradicted by several decades of scholarly research, including works by the official historian of the United States Army and an official U.S. government commission. In fact, the author's presentation of events is so distorted and historically inaccurate that, when challenged by reputable historians, she has herself conceded that her main thesis in incorrect.

*************** WILLIAM RASPBERRY ************

Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist for the Washington Post.

Recent Articles

Washington Post: More Talking, Please

And suddenly, I was the one wearing a grin. Here's why. Baby Steps (a local parent-training program largely of my own design and funding) has been stressing how important it is for parents to talk to their young children -- not "baby talk" and not "school talk" either, just chatter. It is our belief, based on some solid evidence, that parent-child chatter -- begun even before children learn to talk -- makes children more verbal, improves their reading readiness, stretches their vocabulary and generally makes them smarter.

Washington Post: A Treasure Waiting to Be Mined

It is arguable that managers don't know about the outside activities of most of their employees. Still, says Hewlett, that lack of knowledge redounds to the special disadvantage of minorities -- for two reasons.

"First, minority professionals tend to be more engaged with community and with outside roles and responsibilities than are white professionals," she said in an interview from her New York office.

"Second, though, what they are engaged with is different. White involvement might be with formal civic organizations -- United Way, symphony boards, the standard community roles." Blacks, she said, tend to be involved in church leadership, in leadership of fraternal organizations and in efforts to "give back" to the often-needy communities they come from.

Washington Journal Questions: Veteran's Day

2005-11-11T04:53:00.000-08:00

Opening Question: What Does Veteran's Day Mean To You?

Washtington Times: The veteran's soul

Military: The History of Veteran's Day

Military: On This Veteran's Day

USA Today: Bush, Cheney to salute veterans at observances

US Newswire: Veterans Lash Out at Loss of Voice on Capitol Hill

Mercury News: A Vanishing Legacy of Remembrance

Boston Globe: New veterans come marching home to welcome

Boston Globe: New veterans come marching home to welcome

The Virginian-Pilot: Veteran's Day observances in Hampton Roads

2005-11-11T00:18:00.000-08:00

WJW HEADLINES

AFP: Political recriminations fly as US trade deficit hits new high

AFP: US accuses Syria of stalling in UN probe of Hariri murder

AFP: IEA shaves growth of oil demand in 2005, 2006

Wash.Post:Rove Addresses Federalist Society NYT: Rice, in Iraq, Says Strategy Against Rebels Is Working

Bloomberg: N. Korea Nuclear Talks in Beijing End in Impasse Over Reactors

Reuters: Recruiting brightens for U.S. Army in fiscal 2006 LA Times: Medicare drug plan confuses seniors

AP: U.S. Can't Keep Illegal Meds Out

Wash.Post: Alito Defends His Actions In Two Appeals Court Cases

David Cole: Detainee, Prisoner Abuse, and the War Against Terror

2005-11-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

Written by Kristofer M., Washington Journal Watch, 11/10/05.
Taken from the interview broadcast on C-SPAN's Washington Journal

“What a terrorist wants more than anything else is to goad the country that it attacks into acting in ways that undermine that country's image and undermine it's strength in the world,” says David Cole, a professor at the Georgetown University Law School. “That's exactly what we've done. We've played into their hands”

During his interview on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Professor Cole argues against the United States' use of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

.................................
EXPAND FOR FULL INTERVIEW SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

“I don't think anyone expects Al-quaeda to abide to Geneva conventions,” Cole says, but he advises that the government “shouldn't stoop to their level.”

According to Cole, the “United States has signed on to” the Geneva Conventions with the principles stating that “every human being deserves to be treated humanely. The laws of war say no matter how heinous an individual is he deserves to be treated humanely.” Cole states these rights are “not limited to citizens.” He adds that the Geneva convention dictate that “torture is never permissible as a legal matter.”

“They may be the worst of the worst but they are human beings.”

Cole states the existence of rights including due process, and equal protections apply “to persons” are written into the foundations of this country. “The United States Constitution say no matter how heinous an individual acts he deserves to be treated humanely and we can do that, we've done that in the past, there's no reason we should for the first time in our history depart on a basic prohibition.”

The Bush administration has been pushing for the removal of a provision in the defense appropriations bill proposed by Senator John McCain calling for the limiting of treatment of detainees. The Bush administration stands by their policy of treatment of detainees giving the reason that it is necessary to fufil their “obligation to protect the American people.”

“Never before has officials of the United States government argued that we need cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment on people in order to win a war,” Cole responds to the White House position. “It's simply not necessary to win this war.”

According to Cole, the public has learned from FBI documents, leaked army interrogation logs, and human rights committees, that there have been incidents of burning cigarettes being placed into detainee's ear, forced enemas, shackling in cells where they defecate and urinate on themselves, and CIA interrogations resulting in death.

The perception by some Americans believing that this type of abuse is a result of a “few bad apples on a night shift, is an illusion,” Cole argues.

Mr. Cole believes that the administration purposely positioned themselves to allow these types of abuses.

“John Yoo is a law professor at Berkley, who was in the Justice Department in an office called the Office of Legal Counsel immediately after 9/11 for the Bush administration,” Cole says. According to him he was one of the “most influential people within the Justice Department in crafting the Bush's administration response to the attacks of 9/11.”

“He took the position now in the infamous torture memo, that while there is a prohibition on torture, it does not include a prohibition on inflicting physical pain,” Cole explains, “unless it is the kind that is associated with organ failure or death.”

“While there is a prohibition on torture, it doesn't prohibit threatening people with death it doesn't prohibit impose mental suffering on people as long as it is not prolonged and extended mental suffering,” Cole says.

Cole states that Yoo gave the President unrestrained powers in ordering the practice. He says Yoo “took the position that it is unconstitutional for Congress to restrict the President in using torture.”

“Under John Yoo's understanding of the Constitution, the McCain amendment itself is unconstitutional because it seeks to limit the President's use of torture and other coercive treatment in the way we pursue our war on terror.”

He also holds upper level military officials responsible for the treatment of detainees.

“What happened In Iraq happened very shortly after we sent over Jeffery Miller, who was the commander in charge of Guantanamo, to instruct the people in Iraq on how to get information,” Cole explains.

He suggests that Miller ordered prison officials to basically “loosen them up, set the conditions by abusing them by making feel dependent” and by setting the “conditions for interrogation.”

Cole also states that leaked documents are found to “muddy the water” and “make less clear” the practices of handling of detainees in order to allow coercive interrogations to take place.

Cole argues that this practice is unnecessary and self defeating.

“The military has expressly said they have no problem with abiding by the prohibition on cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”

“We can catch Al-qaeda people, we can detain Al-qaeda people, we can interrogate Al-qaeda people without violating the laws of war.”

Cole says that the Geneva Conventions restrict what can be done to prisoners but it “doesn't mean we can't lock them up.”

During the interview, Cole comments on the Vice President's, Dick Cheney, lobbying Congress to exempt CIA agents from the McCain provision.

“And why do they want that exemption? Because the CIA has these we learned about this last week 'black sites,' secret prison cells around the world in which we are disappearing people on the war on terror. Approximately 100 people have been disappeared according to the Washington Post story into these so called 'black sites' in where we don't allow any monitors to come in what so ever including the International Committee for the Red Cross.”

“The reports are that the CIA are making people doing is believe they are drowning in order to encourage them to talk. Holding their heads underwater until they can't breathe so we can encourage them to talk,” Cole says. “They're engaging in mock burials pretending to essentially threaten people with death,” he adds, “they are threatening to send people to countries that we know they will be tortured in order to get them to talk.”

During the interview David Cole shares his views on previous wars.

“We've fought World Wars and we have not engaged in official policy of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. This is a prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment is an international treaty that we signed and ratified in 1994 when the first President Bush was in office that is signed by virtually every country in the world that permits no exceptions including, expressly, in the state of war. And yet our administration has interpreted that treaty to allow it cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment on foreign nationals held abroad.”

Cole further argues that the practice is done “without any showing they in fact are a terrorist. Without any showing that they in fact have any information in some sort of emergency situation.”

Some of the viewers bring up an imagined situation where there is a ticking time bomb and the US is holding a detainee who is the key in locating it.

“It is a hypothetical,” Cole says. “In the real world I don't think it has ever arisen a situation that we know there's a ticking time bomb about to go off, (where) we know that the person we have before us has the information about it, (where) we know that if we employ torture on him he will in fact tell us that information and not some other inaccurate information.”

“In absent knowing all of that, I think the hypothetical falls apart,” Cole explains. “In the real world, what happens is if you loosen the strictures against torture,..lazy interrogators will employ those forms of interrogation ins situations that are far from the ticking time bomb.”

Cole says in “Abu-Ghraib, there was no ticking time bomb,” and adds, “there's no ticking time bomb in Guantanamo.”

Cole stresses that the Bush's administration policy of treatment of prisoners and detainee alters the world's image of the United States resulting in the increased threat to national security.

He describes the White House policy as “a remarkable position” that “brings us down a significant notch in terms of our image around the world as a leader of human rights.”

Cole believes the practice is “ultimately undermining our efforts on the war on terror because they undermine the legitimacy of the effort we are engaged in, they make it easier for the other side to gain recruits to their side.”

Looking back at the day after 9/11 he believed that the United States captured the “worlds sympathy“. He believes the response to the attacks “squandered” the world's feelings toward the wounded nation. According to Cole, before September 11, Osama bin Laden did not receive popular support. After 9/11, due to the treatment of the captured, the numbers in favor of the US plummeted, while bin Laden's numbers went up.

News of prisoner and detainee abuse became the “rallying cries for the other sides to gain adherence to their side,” Cole says. He suggests that this issue has become an argument for terrorists that the US doesn't treat it's enemies like human beings and they “deserve to be attacked.”

Due to our image, Cole says we are “living in a world where anti-Americanism has never been higher.” He states he sees this as the “greatest threat to US security.”

Cole states that there is hope in reversing this negative image held by the world.

One signal that the United States is stepping away from the practice of abuse is seen in the McCain legislation with the wide support from Congress.

He is supportive of John McCain's amendment to the defense appropriations bill, but feels “the administration has yet gotten the message.”

“President Bush and Vice President Cheney are really the out liers on this one,” Cole says. He adds that the administration is “going against the wishes of ninety Senators,” with only nine supporting the White House position.

Cole has concern with South Carolina's Republican Senator Lindsey Graham's added proposal addressing the rights of prisoners and detainees. Cole calls this addition “a very dangerous provision”.

“If you block them from going to court to challenge their treatment , how are you going to enforce the very amendment that he is cosponsored with John Mccain?” Cole asks.

The Georgetown University professor believes that by sharing his opinion he will raise “popular pressure” and “public criticism” against the policy of treatment.

“The right of us as Americans to come on shows like this and express our points of view is critical, indeed one of the critical checks on government abuse,” he says. “We have a political process because a number of people have raised our voices objecting to this kind of tactic as inhuman.”

“In a democracy, this is the only way we can go forward.”

********** If you have any thoughts about this article or the interviews of this show, please use this post to voice your comment. **********

SHOW SCHEDULE AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Washington Journal Schedule For November 10, 2005.

7am - Newspapers, Phones & Roll Call

7:45am - David Cole, Georgetown University Law School, Professor

8:30am - Supreme Court Watch: Eric Freedman, Hofstra University Law School, Prof. of Constitutional Law | Rompilla v. Beard

9:15am - John Yoo, UC Berkeley School of Law, Law Professor

****** David Cole ******

Professor of Georgetown University Law School

Related Links:

GU: Biography

Professor Cole has received numerous awards for his civil rights and civil liberties work, including from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of the Freedom of Expression, the American Bar Association’s Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section, the National Lawyers Guild, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Political Asylum and Immigrants’ Rights Project, the American Muslim Council, and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

Uruknet: Tomgram: David Cole on John Yoo and the Imperial Presidency

The proposition that judicial processes -- the very essence of the rule of law -- are to be dismissed as a strategy of the weak, akin to terrorism, suggests the continuing strength of Yoo's influence. When the rule of law is seen simply as a device used by terrorists, something has gone perilously wrong. Michael Ignatieff has written that "it is the very nature of a democracy that it not only does, but should, fight with one hand tied behind its back. It is also in the nature of democracy that it prevails against its enemies precisely because it does." Yoo persuaded the Bush administration to untie its hand and abandon the constraints of the rule of law. Perhaps that is why we are not prevailing.

The Nation: Intolerable Cruelty

Even if inhuman treatment might induce a suspect to talk in a specific case, such methods are difficult to control and in the long run ill-advised, as the migration of such abuses from Guantánamo to wider use in Iraq demonstrates. These tactics ultimately undermine our security, as they impair our legitimacy and create ideal recruiting tools for the enemy. It is simply immoral to claim that we can inflict on other countries' nationals cruel and inhuman treatment that would not be tolerated if it were imposed on our own citizens.

If we are to prevail in the war on terror, we must do so by distinguishing ourselves from our enemy. Terrorism is a moral evil because to achieve its ends it brutally disregards the value of human life. Torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are evil for the same reason. As John McCain said, this is not about who they are, "this is about who we are."

****** John Yoo ******

Law Professor of UC Berkeley School of Law

Wrote the Book: The Powers of War and Peace : The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11

Wrote Recent Article for USA Today: Terrorists are not POWs

To protect the United States against another 9/11-style attack, it makes little sense to deprive ourselves of important, and legal, means to detect and prevent terrorist attacks. Physical and mental abuse is clearly illegal. But should we also take off the table interrogation methods that fall short of torture - such as isolation, physical labor, or plea bargains - but go beyond mere questioning?

Cited in recent articles:
Executive Intelligence Review: Cheney's Addington Was Chief Author of U.S. Torture, War Crimes Policy

It is clear beyond any reasonable doubt, as we have shown in our coverage over the past few years, that Cheney, Addington, and the others, such as the Justice Department's John Yoo, knew that what they were advocating constituted war crimes under U.S. and international law.

Associated Press: Judge active in legal society

Judge Alito's Federalist Society membership is seen as "an important signal to conservatives in the legal community," said John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who worked in the U.S. Justice Department from 2001 through 2003. "It shows an interest in thinking deeply about the role of the courts in society and the proper interpretation of the Constitution based on its text and history," said Mr. Yoo, himself a member of the Federalist Society since his college days.

The New Yorker: A DEADLY INTERROGATION Can the C.I.A. legally kill a prisoner?

These two memos sanction such extreme measures that, even if the agency wanted to discipline or prosecute agents who stray beyond its own comfort level, the legal tools to do so may no longer exist. Like the torture memo, these documents are believed to have been signed by Jay Bybee, the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel, but written by a Justice Department lawyer, John Yoo, who is now a professor of law at Berkeley.

C-Span Washington Journal Questions: Oil Company Executives

2005-11-10T04:20:00.000-08:00

What do you think about the Oil Companies' executives appearance at Congress?

AP: Oil Company Execs Defend Profits to Senate

Seattle Times: Cantwell loses round on gas-price hearing

Mercury News: Oil executives discuss record profits before Senate panels

Wash.Post: Oil and Grilling Don't Mix

Wash.Post: Oil executives defend profits, high gas costs

The Nation: Oil Tycoons Grilled on Windfall Profits

WJW Headlines for Nov. 10, 2005

2005-11-09T22:28:00.000-08:00

WJW HEADLINES

AFP: Rumsfeld can authorize exceptions to new "humane" interrogation directive

The Hill: Bungling meant leak letter leaked

Al-Jazeera: Syria seeks talks with UN investigator

Rueters: Pentagon probes treatment of 'Able Danger' officer
AFP: Veggie bird flu rally has rival activists playing chicken

AFP: US rejects North Korea's disarmament idea

Wash.Post: Intelligence Probe Takes Shape
Wash. Times: Only half see press as fair to Bush

Reuters: Bush meets Dalai Lama, ignoring China's objections

AP: Feds Indict 2 in Missile-Smuggling Scheme

George Radanovich: ANWR, Energy Requirements, and the Budget

2005-11-09T07:34:00.000-08:00

Written By Kristofer M., Washington Journal Watch, 11/09/07
Taken from C-SPAN Washington Journal's interview with George Radanovich

In a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, 41 representatives signed on a message urging the Republican leader to keep the provision allowing oil drilling in two thousand of the nineteen million acres found in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.

Republican Representative from California George Radanovich, a member of the Resource and Energy and Commerce committees, joins the C-SPAN's Washington Journal to speak about the proposed addition to the Energy Budget Bill.

“People know we are far too reliant on foreign sources for energy,” Radanovich says. “ANWR is a very logical place to get energy.” He asks, “If not ANWR, then where?”

According to Radanovich, the United States consumes about 25% of the world's energy output, yet only consists of about 4% of the total population.

He state his belief that the American people have an “unwillingness” to use their own resources as a part of the energy mix.

.......................
EXPAND FOR SHOW PREVIEW AND BACKGROUND INFO

With the increase of demand and reduction of supply, Radanovich believes that ANWR is part of the solution for meeting the US energy needs.

“Nothing that we can do right now is going to boost our energy supply right now. We got to begin thinking about the future.”

“Our population is growing. We're facing much more and more scarcer reserves,” he says. “I think real solutions is increasing our own production capacity in the United States.”

Radanovich addresses those who do not want to drill in ANWR, saying, “those that object to ANWR will in 9 times out of 10 will object to any proposal to use any American resource for energy production.”

Radanovich states that 85 percent of energy use is petroleum based. He continues by saying that the American people currently need an energy source that is “reliable and affordable.”

Some Congressmen are calling for a windfall tax imposed on oil companies receiving record profits. Radanovich shows some reluctance to this proposal, saying there is no need for a “knee jerk reaction” to the incidents of Katrina and Rita. He also suggests that a windfall tax might harm oil companies' ability to research alternative fuels and efficiency.

“We are going to be dependent on oil reserves for at least the next 50 years, until we make that jump to alternative energy sources.”

The plan supported by Radanovich also addresses off-shore drilling which may provide some relief for electricity demands in addition to another source of income.

“In the reconciliation package, part of that is a plan that allows ..states the right whether or not to go to off-shore oil reserves,” Radanovich explains. “What I think is really important about this is that it gives the state the right, but also it sets up the state to receive some revenue benefits, royalty benefits from the development from those resources.”

According to Radanovich, this plan gives the state the right to build energy harvesting platforms 125 miles away from the shore. He says that seven miles off the coast will be outside the sight line of the shore. He adds that part of the reserves sought are natural gas reserves.

Radanovich says that the US is dependent on natural gas for energy production of electricity. He describes the process as a “very efficient and clean” way to obtain energy.

He believes that by not providing the state rights to off-shore drilling, “we're setting our self up for another energy crisis if we don't deal with the supply of natural gas.”

During his interview, Radanovich also shares his views on alternative sources of energy including solar and wind.

According to the Republican California Representative, his supported bill will “provide incentives for the expansion for the use of solar and wind to generate electricity.”

However, Radanovich is not very optimistic on the potential of these alternative energy sources. “Wind and solar are important, but (they) are not going to make our energy needs,” he says.

Radanovich claims in order to achieve the amount of energy received from ANWR, about four hundred and forty-five thousand acres of land are needed to be built, with each receiving 365 days of sun.

He also states that three million and seven hundred thousand acres of wind farms are required to equal the amount of energy produced by ANWR.

“You decide what is better environmentally,” Radanovich instructs.

He concludes with the proposal to use only wind and solar by saying to “rely solely on that for our energy needs is foolish.”

“I think that is kind of short sighted,” Radanovich adds, “I don't think that it serves our security interest very well. I don't think it serves our economy very well.”

“Technology is really the answer that gets us into more alternate fuels and new non-petroleum energy supplies. The more research we put into that, the closer it becomes on the horizon. I think we should not neglect the research that's necessary to get us there, but those are part of the incentives in the energy bill was to get some of these going. In the meantime, Americans in the free market want the kind of cars they buy right now.”

In addition to meeting some of the energy needs, Radanovich suggests that the plan he supports will reduce budget costs.

“Republicans heard loud and clear that Congress is spending too much money,” he says, later adding that his party “got away from the message that less government is better.”

During the interview, he states that the supported plan will save 3.7 billion dollars of taxpayer money.

“This package, aside from the energy savings that we get from beginning to use our own resources, is a long time coming from Congress and I welcome it.”

“I'm proud of the fact that a reform bill like this is coming up, with cost savings and beginning to look at reducing the deficit, is finally coming to the house floor."

The vote to include the proposed provisions including oil drilling in Alaska will probably reach the floor of the House later this week.

“ANWR exists in the Senate version, and it is proposed in the House on Thursday,” Radanovich says. There will be a “conference on both measures and then re-vote when that does happens.”

Radanovich recognizes that it is an uphill battle to include these provisions. “They got a tough job,” he says. “This is the type of tug and pull the leadership has to overcome to get a bill that passes.”

During the interview, Radanovich is asked if ANWR supporters will resort to other means in pushing this project through.

“There are those of us that are convinced that ANWR makes sense, we won't sneak anything through, everything done in Congress is subject to a vote,” he responds.

When asked if he will vote against the bill if the ANWR provision is removed, Radanovich says, “I'm thinking about it, but I haven't made my mind yet.”

************* IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS ABOUT THIS INTERVIEW OR ARTICLE PLEASE POST A COMMENT ************

C-SPAN Washington Journal Schedule for November 9, 2005.

7am - Question, Newspapers & Phones

7:30am - Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA)

8am - Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA)

8:30am - Supreme Court Watch: Bart Jansen, Portland Press Herald

9am - Barbara Edwards, Ohio Medicaid, Dir.

9:30am - Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, U.S. Army Commanding Gen., Recruiting/Training

******BACKGROUND INFO******

****** GEORGE RADANOVICH ********

Republican Representative from California

Supports the attachment of ANWR Drilling to the Budget Spending

Related Article, Bloomberg: Some House Republicans Want Alaska Drilling out of Budget Plan

Opposition among some Republicans to opening the refuge to oil exploration threatens to imperil passage of the comprehensive budget measure, which seeks to reduce government spending by $53.9 billion over five years. The proposal, intended to help reduce the federal deficit, includes cuts to benefit programs such as Medicaid and food stamps and also revenue-raising measures. Selling leases to oil companies to drill in the refuge would bring in about $2.5 billion.

****** JOE BACA ****************

Democrat Representative from California

Related Article, Southwest Farm Press: Pombo introduces revised Endangered Species Act

Pombo’s bill, the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005, promises to fix the current law by focusing on species recovery, providing incentives, increasing openness and accountability, strengthening scientific standards, creating bigger roles for state and local governments, protecting private property owners and eliminating dysfunctional critical habitat designations.

Besides Cardoza, Walden and Radanovich, other cosponsors of the new legislation include Reps. Marion Berry and Mike Ross of Arkansas, Joe Baca and Jim Costa of California, Henry Brown of South Carolina and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.

****** BARBARA EDWARDS *********

Related Articles:
The Plain Dealer: Ohio Medicaid boss quitting to join research firm

Edwards, 51, presides over an agency whose annual spending - about $12 billion - consumes one-quarter of the state budget while providing health care coverage to 2 million poor Ohioans.

She and other state Medicaid directors have struggled to absorb program cuts even as Medicaid rolls soar because of reduced health care coverage by employers, a shifting of poor elderly and disabled citizens from Medicare to Medicaid, and the willingness of many affluent Americans to transfer their assets to relatives to obtain Medicaid coverage.

Chillicothe Gazette: Medicare head: Ohio to lose money

Ohio will pay less than it thought, but still end up losing money on the new Medicare prescription drug benefit for the aged poor, a state welfare official said Wednesday.

The new Medicare plan reverses the traditional system of states buying medications for low-income residents and getting rebates from the federal government. Now the federal government provides the drugs but charges the states.
Ohio will pay about $35 million more than it would have buying drugs itself in the 12 months starting in July 2006, the first full state budget year under the new plan, said Barbara Edwards, state Medicaid director. In March, Edwards had estimated the loss at $55 million.

********** IF YOU HAVE ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO ADD PLEASE POST A COMMENT **********

WJ Caller Questions: Elections 2005

2005-11-09T04:34:00.000-08:00

Opening Question: What is your reaction to the governor and initiative elections last night?

NY Times: Democrats Are Locked Out of City Hall for 4 Straight Terms

NY Times: Defeats for G.O.P. Come at a Sensitive Time

AP: Mayor Kilpatrick stages come-from-behind victory in re-election

Wash.Post: Remarks by Kaine and Kilgore

NY Daily News:Corzine wins in Jersey

AFX: California voters reject Schwarzenegger measures in key referendum

Seattle PI: State's voters deliver an as-you-were verdict

2005-11-08T22:49:00.000-08:00

WJW HEADLINES

CNN: CIA asks Justice Dept. to review prisons report

NYT: UN renews mandate for U.S.-led Iraq force

Wash.Post: Inside and Outside Syria, a Debate to Decide the Future

AP: Kan. School Board OKs Evolution Approach

AFP: UN General Assembly condemns US embargo on Cuba USA Today: Secret military spending gets little oversight

AP: North Korea nuke talks open in Beijing

Reuters: Under fire from Democrats, Cheney pushes back

AP: Second Lawyer in Saddam Trial Gunned Down NYT: Intelligence Center Is Created for Unclassified Information

AFP: Bush looks forward to meeting Dalai Lama amid concerns over Tibet

Aljazeera: U.S. used chemical weapons in Fallujah- Documentary

Reuters: Base closures becomes law

C-Span Washington Journal: Lawrence Korb, Iraq War, Torture, and Withdrawal

2005-11-08T09:40:00.000-08:00

The Mishandling of the Iraq War
with Lawrence Korb
Written By Kristofer M., Washington Journal Watch, 11/08/05

“It's not that I have changed, it's the Republican party that has changed,” Lawrence Korb says. “The Republican party that I was attracted to used to believe in balanced budgets, being very careful about getting involved in foreign conflicts, and recognizing the limits of American power.”

“I don't recognize this Republican party right now in terms of escalating budget deficits” he says, adding that they are engaging “in a war without the support of the American people.”

“The men and women who fought in this war deserve the nation's undying gratitude,” Korb says, but continues that in Iraq “our presence there is undermining our security”

“The long term security of the United States is what is at stake here.”

“If you continue on this present course we are going to basically have an Army that won't be able to defend us.”

Lawrence Korb was the served as Assistant Secretary of Defense responsible for manpower, installations and base logistics from 1981 to 1985 under President Reagan. He also received the Department of Defense’s medal for Distinguished Public Service. In addition to working in the Pentagon, Korb served in the Navy, ending his career with the rank of Captain. He also worked for the George H. W. Bush in his campaign for President.

Korb joins C-SPAN's Washington Journal to discuss his views on the foreign policy of the United States.

............................

EXPAND FOR FULL INTERVIEW SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND INFO

During the interview, he discloses that he did not support the current President during his election bid in 2000. “I did not think he was qualified to be President to be perfectly, perfectly honest,” Korb says. “Based upon seeing the statements he made during the campaign, seeing the way he handled a lot of issues, I was really worried about his ability to handle foreign policy.” He continues, “I didn't think he had the breadth and experience to deal with the challenges in office, and that concerned me.”

One of the decisions that President Bush made after his win in 2000 was to install the former head of the Rand Corporation, Donald Rumsfeld, into the position of Secretary of Defense.

During the interview Korb distinguishes the Secretary of State under Reagan, Caspar Willard Weinberger, to Rumsfeld. He says that during the first eight months Rumsfeld was in the White House, he treated the transition like a “hostile takeover.” During this time, Korb describes Rumsfeld's actions as bringing in outside groups and disrupting what he calls at the time was the “finest military in the world.”

Compared to Rumsfeld, he characterizes Weinberger as a Secretary who paid much more attention to the the advice of the military. Korb says that Weinberger had the attitude by asking the military, 'How can I help you do your job?', while Rumsfeld directed by saying, 'I'm going to tell you how to do your job.'

Korb believes that the actions of President Bush and his appointed staff has led the United States to the current situation with Iraq.

“I did not think we needed to go to war. I thought Saddam was contained. I was impressed by the arguments of people like General Zinni, who was the head of the Central Command up until 2000, that Saddam was contained. I was also concerned by going to Iraq when we did we took forces out of Afghanistan before having finished the job, and I thought that should have been priority number one.”

Speaking about the intelligence that led to the war Korb says, “the message came down from the top where they wanted to go." When presented with an opportunity to bring up information contradicting senior officials, he says, “people did not want to bring bad news.”

“I know from in my service and in the Pentagon, when people down below get an inkling which direction you want to go, it takes a very courageous person to say 'wait a second you're going in the wrong direction,'” he says. “You also had what you call group think.”

Korb also speaks about how dissenting opinion is treated, giving the example of General Shinseki. During the interview, Korb describes Shinseki, who was at the time the Army's Chief of Staff, as an expert of war who lost his foot in Vietnam.

Shinseki conflicted with the Department of Defense arguing that the number of troop levels should be higher when Iraq was first invaded. Korb says that the Deputy Defense Secretary at the time, Paul Wolfowitz, a civilian with no past military experience, dismissed Shinseki's advice. Korb states that Wolfowitz suggested that Shinseki 'does not know what he is talking about,' in respect to running a war.

Shinseki's views is reflected by Korb's belief in the need of a high number of troops when the US first went into Iraq. He believed that around three hundred to four hundred thousand were needed to prevent the “insurgency to take on a life of it's own.” Having more troops brought in “would have been able to begin rebuilding the country, prevent criminals in the beginning,” Korb explains.

Korb states when it comes to the military, “you got to listen to the professionals. You got to listen to people who know what war is like.”

The planning and debate of how and if the United States should go in to Iraq is in the past, and the United States finds itself still in the country after the invasion on March 20, 2003.

“There has been progress in training some of the Iraqi forces, but the problem is not what the media is presenting, the problem is what the administration has been telling us about how much progress we were making and every time we had a significant milestone whether it was the capture of Saddam Hussein, or the election, that things were going to get better and even General Kasey who was general Patreus' boss when he was over there said 'at best we're holding our own'.”

With 150,000 American troops in Iraq and another 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, Korb says, “you're going to break the all volunteer army, because you're going to begin to be sending people to go back for a third or fourth time and we know that really has an impact on retention.”

“Our army has already has some recruiting problems. If you look at the active army, the guard and reserve, they have missed their totals this year by close to 25,000 people.”

During the interview, Korb discusses the military's attempt to remedy the lack of recruits.

He comments about the drop in standards in accepting enlistees saying “that they have to be careful. We went through that in the late 70's, and when I came into government in the early 80's, in order to meet the quotas we dropped the standards and what happens is you begin to have discipline problems. People don't make it through their initial term of enlistment. You bring in recruits that shouldn't be there. This discourages, in the end, lose some commissioned officers and they begin to leave.”

“So even with dropping the standards, really increasing the bonuses and the age limit, we still miss our recruiting target. So i think something is going to have to be done.”

Another reason for the low recruit level is the public opinion with some polls showing the majority of people do not support our involvement in Iraq and want us to begin withdrawing. “In our Democracy, you can not fight a prolonged war without popular support,” Korb says.

Korb describes our current situation in Iraq as conflict which falls in Al-qaeda's plan to have our military “drawn in and bleed us slowly.” He comments on the President's statements saying that Iraq is the front on the War on Terror is true only because “he went in there.”

“Our presence is part of the problem. It is fueling some of the insurgency. It's drawing in some foreign fighters.”

Another aspect that enrages and fuels the insurgency is our treatment of detainees, Korb suggests.

Korb suggests that this issue is a main topic saying, “particularly in the Muslim world, they bring up Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo rather than the horrible event of 9/11.”

“I think very definitely there should be limits on what interrogators can do”

"When you engage the enemy, one of the things we have going for us is who we are, and what we stand for.”

“Once we reduce ourselves to the level of some of our adversaries, in many ways we've lost the battle."

“When you're in this service i mean the first thing you learn is the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and what your rights are if you were captured as a prisoner what you should expect. Now we don't always have that with some of our adversaries, but you know what you expect and you know what you should do with people you capture.”

“After September 11, you have some memos coming out of the White House and the Secretary of Defense Office that seems to say this is a different kind of war the normal limits of Geneva Conventions did not apply.”

Korb recalls the Vietnam War and the abuses done to American troops and the policy not to respond in kind. He comments on the position taken by the Secretary of Defense at that time, Melvin Laird, saying that torture “will be self defeating for us in the long term.”

Korb disputes the reasoning of obtaining crucial information immediately by saying, “if you stop back and say is this going to help or hurt us.” He continues, “by in large, when you torture people they are going to tell you what everything they think you want to hear so you're not going to get good information and in the process you ruin your reputation.”

Korb calls for the administration to find the policy makers of the treatment of detainees and hold them accountable.

He calls for an investigation to find if the soldiers were “following orders” or doing “what the higher ups wanted.” Korb says, “all we've had is low ranking people and that really shouldn't be. Part of the reason we have problems around the world is people are saying 'Why aren't some of the higher ups being punished?' And I think until we do that we are going to lose this battle of ideas that we are trying to win in the Muslim world.”

John Mccain, who himself was a prisoner that was especially abused during the Vietnam War after his capture due to his father being an admiral, is also calling for legislative actions against prisoner abuse. The administration, however, is not very enthusiastic with his plan. “Why the President and Vice president just don't get on with this, I think, is beyond me,” Korb says.

This issue is part of the problems needed to be resolved in order to end the conflict in Iraq. Korb does not want the US to leave Iraq with Al-qaeda having a foothold in the region. “No one wants an Iraq that becomes a haven for terrorists,” he says.

The upcoming election brings some hope to Korb. “Basically what you tell the Iraqis after the election is, 'okay, you have a permanent government that will be there for four years and say that in the end of two years we will be out.'” He says that this will send a signal to some of the insurgents are “fighting because we're there.”

He believes that the upcoming troop rotation will bring the military presence down to 60 thousand by the end of next year. “We need to give the Iraqis the incentive basically to get their act together,” he says. Korb states that by the end of 2007, the US will only have residual forces in Kuwait, just in case of future conflicts.

According to Korb, ending the War in Iraq will relieve our military strain, get back to our original goal in Afghanistan, and free up troops to secure the homeland.

*****IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS ON THIS INTERVIEW OR ARTICLE PLEASE POST A MESSAGE****

Schedule for Tuesday, November 8, 2005

7am - Newspapers, Phones & Roll Call

7:30am - Lawrence Korb, Center for American Progress, Senior Fellow

8am - Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) | GOP Deficit Plan

8:30am - Supreme Court Watch: Peter Rutledge, Catholic University Law School, Asst.
Prof. of Law | Doe v. Groody

****** Lawrence Korb **********

Senior Fellow for the Center for American Progress

Cited In recent Articles:

Dissident Voice: Economics Trumps Law in the Neoliberal Gulag

The author, Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense, pooh-poohs the notion that the move to Eastern Europe has anything to do with costs since up-grading crumbling Soviet-era bases and transportation networks would easily outweigh cheaper living costs. Besides, these nouveau capitalists are so poor they can’t pay for their own protection like the elitist socialist Huns. So Korb believes the obsession with the New Europe can only be a punishment for Old Europe not getting with the imperial program in Iraq. Yet another case of the Bushies cutting off their own nose to spite their face, says he.

Contra Costa Times: It's time to stop blaming and set about to clean up the mess

Many of the weapons involved, like the F/A-22 fighter jet and the Virginia Class submarine, were designed to fight the defunct Soviet Union. All of this is according to Lawrence Korb, whose credentials are endless -- senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information, former vice president of Raytheon, etc. The $26 billion does not include the old Star Wars program, now called missile defense, which could be cut back to basic research for a savings of $7 billion. I'm trying to give you some sense of scale here. According to Korb's research, we could take $60 billion out of the defense budget, 15 percent of the total, without remotely affecting military readiness.

****** Marsha Blackburn *******

Republican Representative from Tennessee

Supportive of the GOP Deficit Reduction Act with the principles:
Reforming Government
Reducing the Deficit
Renewing our commitment to hardworking American taxpayers

Urged in a letter to the President to Reduce the Deficit

Due to current fiscal considerations, Congress is faced with having to increase the federal deficit through debt financing in order to provide recovery assistance to the residents and businesses of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. We find this fiscal situation troublesome and urge your administration to follow the examples of previous administrations facing fiscal difficulties in time of emergencies and exercise spending restraint through offsetting, spending reductions in non-defense, non-homeland security budget items.

Mentioned in The Hill: The votes are not there for spending cuts

Republican leaders are still hoping to swing a few Democratic votes.

Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) will hold a press conference with Reps. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) today to pressure centrist Democrats, particularly Blue Dogs who have supported cuts before.

Cited in San Francisco Chronicle:

many conservatives continue to push for deeper cuts in government spending. The Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 100 House conservatives, has been pressuring party leaders to eliminate 100 federal programs and make across-the-board cuts in the federal budget.

"We've got programs out there that do nothing but waste money," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a member of the committee. "Any time we even try to restrain spending, look at the rhetoric we hear."

Washington Times: Bush urged to join push for spending cuts

Centrist Republicans in particular have problems with the measure's cuts, especially in light of the fact that Republican leaders still insist on extending tax cuts this year -- a political point Democrats are hammering home.
Democrats say the savings measure would cruelly cut programs for the poor, while doing nothing to reduce the deficit, because "savings" would be eaten up by the hefty tax-cut package Republicans want to approve later this year. "Could this Congress possibly be more out of step?" asked Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat.
Republicans say that tax cuts have helped the economy and that this year's effort will simply prevent a harmful tax increase. They say the savings bill won't cripple any programs and will simply trim some fat.
But some Republican members said the savings bill is hardly ready for floor action. One member, on the condition of anonymity, said he'd be "shocked" if it came to the House floor next week.

****** Supreme Court Watch *****

Alito dissents with his decision in the Doe vs Groody case

Portland Press Herald: Alito's dissents key for debate

The 2004 drug case called John Doe v. Groody involved the search of a suspected methamphetamine dealer's house in Pennsylvania.

The warrant named only the man, who goes by the name John Doe in the appeals decision. But police also searched his wife, Jane Doe, and 10-year-old daughter, Mary Doe.

A female traffic officer escorted the females to a second-floor bathroom, where they were ordered to lift their shirts, drop their pants and turn around. No contraband was found.

In supporting the search, Alito wrote that police acted in a common sense and realistic manner in searching everyone in the house. Alito argued that the police deserved protection from a lawsuit stemming from the search.

"I share the majority's visceral dislike of the intrusive search of John Doe's young daughter, but it is a sad fact that drug dealers sometimes use children to carry out their business and to avoid prosecution," Alito wrote. "I know of no legal principle that bars an officer from searching a child (in a proper manner) if a warrant has been issued and the warrant is not illegal on its face."

But the 2-1 decision in the case agreed with the District Court to allow the lawsuit against four officers involved. Judge Michael Chertoff, who has since become secretary of homeland security, wrote the opinion that said the intrusive search went significantly beyond what the magistrate granted.

For example, police are allowed to frisk suspects for weapons - for safety. But the females were not considered violent threats.

Chertoff wrote that the warrant wasn't ambiguous or contradictory. If dealers routinely hide drugs with relatives, the affidavit from police seeking the warrant didn't describe that. Chertoff wrote that he searched in vain for any justification to search the females.

"None appears," Chertoff wrote. "A search warrant for a premises does not constitute a license to search everyone inside. The record does not disclose any independent basis to suspect Jane Doe - let alone 10-year-old Mary Doe - of drug activity."

LA Weekly: A few reasons to push the filibuster button

Alito doesn’t have much use for the Bill of Rights’ Fourth Amendment, guaranteeing freedom from unwarranted searches and seizures and fair trials. For example, he argued that police had a right to strip-search a 10-year-old girl (and her mother) while carrying out a search warrant that only authorized the search of a man and his home (Doe v. Groody, 2004). Did I hear someone say “Gestapo tactics”?

Powerline: How About That "Strip Search" Decision?

Every indication is that the officers in this case met the highest professional standards. What did they get for their pains? They got sued. Judge Alito's opinion in Groody is well-reasoned and highly persuasive. There is no reason why leftists should be allowed to use it to cast doubt on Alito's qualifications. On the contrary, it is a good illustration of why we need jurists like Judge Alito on the Supreme Court.

C-Span Washington Journal Questions: How Far are We Willing To Go?

2005-11-08T04:28:00.000-08:00

Opening Question: Should there be limits on what interrogators can be able to do in the War Against Terror?

2005-11-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

WJW HEADLINES

AFP: US forces to be pared down as Iraqi forces take over - Rumsfeld

AFP: Voter apathy Bloomberg's only fear in New York mayoral race

The Hindu: Iran calls for resumption of talks

The Hill: Specter, others push for courtroom cameras CNN: Schwarzenegger, rivals make last pitch

AP: Feds: Wal-Mart Execs Knew Workers Illegal

AP: Supreme Court to Hear Tribunals Challenge Reuters: Five-month Florida Jihad trial nears end

Wash.Post: Iran Protests U.S. Aerial Drones

AP: Church: Anti-war sermon imperils tax status

C-Span Washington Journal Questions:

2005-11-07T04:09:00.000-08:00

Could riots similar to the ones occuring in France happen here in the United States?

Notable Articles:

USA Today: Chirac vows crackdown as unrest, discontent spreads

FT: Chirac pledges action as riots sweep France

NY POST: How France Built The Hate

2005-11-06T23:19:00.000-08:00

WJW HEADLINES

Wa.Post: Cheney Fights for Detainee Policy

Reuters: US official heads to Sudan on Darfur peace mission

AP: Hagel: Torture Exemption Would Be Mistake

AP: Bush Backing Still Sought in Close Races AFP: US vastly increases surveillance of foreigners under Patriot Act

AP: Iran Tries Charm to Counter Israel Remarks

Reuters: Israel says back aboard US warplane project PDO: Moussa to visit Syria amid international pressure on Damascus

AFP: US under pressure to break Korean nuclear stalemate

AP: Doctors Say ERs Not Ready for a Disaster

C-Span Washington Journal:

2005-11-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

Show Schedule for November 11, 2005: The Voting Rights Act

7:45am Eastern - Brian DeBose, National Political Reporter, The Washington Times

7:45am Eastern - Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), Chairman, Judiciary Constitution Subcmte.

8:30am Eastern - Supreme Court Watch

9am Eastern - Andrew Young, Fmr. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. (1977-1979)

9:30am Eastern - Roger Clegg, V.P. & General Counsel, Center for Equal Opportunity

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EXPAND FOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION

******** Brian DeBose ********

National Political Reporter for the The Washington Times

Wrote Recent Article on The Voting Rights Act: Congress likely to renew vote act

Congress appears poised to reauthorize the 1965 Voting Rights Act, in some form or another, for an additional 25 years, said the chairman of a House subcommittee holding hearings on the legislation's renewal.

******** Steve Chabot ********

Chairman of the Judiciary Constitution Subcommitee.

Cited in Recent Articles:
Cincinnati Post: Voting rights revisited

The Voting Rights Act has had a tremendous impact in this country on ensuring that every American has not only the right but the opportunity and the ability to vote,"Chabot said. "It's not perfect. But it's much improved over where we were back in the '60s. I think most people realize that.

Cincinnati Post: Schmidt blasts prank call

Chabot said Parks' death was an important reminder of why the law was enacted. Speakers at her funeral pointed out that she had twice been denied the right to vote in Alabama because she failed to pass literacy tests that were required of black voters at the time. White voters didn't have to take the tests.

******** Andrew Young ********

Along with Barbara Jordan of Houston, became the first African Americans elected to Congress from the South since Reconstruction.

Former UN Ambassador during the Carter Administration (1977-1979)

1981 Presidential Medal of Freedom winner

Co-founding Principal and Chairman of GoodWorks International having the goal to foster long-term economic development in Africa and the Caribbean by creating successful business partnerships between private sector corporations and decision-makers in those emerging markets.

GWI: Biography

Chairman of non-partisan, non-profitThe Drum Major Institute for Public Policy for social and economic fairness.

******** Roger Clegg ********

Vice President and General Counsel for Center for Equal Opportunity

Affirmative Action: CEO supports colorblind public policies and seeks to block the expansion of racial preferences and to prevent their use in employment, education, and voting.

Contributing Editor for NRO (Bio): Identity Issues Where’s the line on race in politics?

But a line is crossed when a president urges a group — and particularly a racial or ethnic or religious group — to support him because of their interests as members of that group. And I also think there are differences in degree that matter. Some amount of groveling and pandering has to be accepted, but at some point it is no longer just politics, but identity politics. Taken as a whole, we expect our politicians to appeal to us as Americans, not as members of this or that group. Finally, racial appeals are inherently dangerous and potentially divisive in a way that appealing to farmers as farmers is not. Consider: If it is permissible to appeal to blacks as blacks, then why not whites as whites; and if to Jews and Jews, then why not to Christians as Christians?

Featured in The Heights: Civil rights pioneer headlines symposium

Featured In Boston College Chronicle: Oct. 29 Symposium to Assess Impact of Voting Rights Act

2005-11-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

WJW HEADLINES

AP: U.S. Launches Major Offensive in Iraq

Reuters: Measure ties US negotiator's hands on drug imports

NY TIMES: Annan, Citing Talk on Israel, Drops Iran Trip

Associated Press: Judge Upholds Oregon Gay Marriage Ban Sun Herald: Evolution trial ends, with judge's decision expected by January

IM: Iran supports Syria against foreign pressure

Reuters: Republican subpoenaed in lobbyist Abramoff case Houston Chronicle: DeLay trial pick will stand, says chief justice

Guardian: Iraq war has exposed us to terror at home, says Meyer

Associated Press: Alito's support weak among key groups

C-Span Washington Journal: The Good and Bad News from the Iraqi Reconstruction

2005-11-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

Written By Kristofer M., Washington Journal Watch, 11/04/05

Months after the fall of Baghdad, on November 2003, Congress passed legislation that funded the ongoing war by appropriating 8.4 billion dollars. In this emergency spending bill, a provision was included that created the office of the Coalition Provisional Authority Inspector General.

The mission of CPA-IG was to oversee handling and treatment of appropriated funds and to provide for the independent and objective audits and investigations of the programs and operations relating to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

As the conflict in Iraq continued, under the guidance of Congress, on October 2004, the organization was re-authorized and renamed the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Stuart Bowen, the head of the SIGIR, joined C-Span in studio for an interview to discuss the reconstruction progress.

...........

CLICK FOR FULL INTERVIEW SUMMARY WITH STUART BOWEN AND HIS BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Bowen was appointed to his position by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with the concurrence of the Secretary of State at the time, Colin Powell. He was in charge of the original CPA-IG. He says his first duty was “to provide advice and oversight to the CPA to Ambassador Bremer, and since our re-authorization our focus has been on how taxpayers dollars are being spent to reconstruct Iraq.”

Bowen states that he was given power and authority under the Inspector General Act to obtain information and subpoena in order to find well spent and misappropriated funds. Responding to a question of how much work has been done by his organization, he says that the “audits and investigations speak for themselves.”

In addition to audits, Bowen says that another task givin to his organization was to “coordinate and deconflict all oversight in Iraq.” The goal of this was to insure that managers avoid “auditor's fatigue” and to provide an “comprehensive coverage” when investigating the use of United States funds.

The SIGIR reports to Congress every quarter attaching a large number of additional documents relating to a “whole wide spectrum of issues.” Bowen states that his organization is “honest and thorough” showing both the “good news and bad news.” According to the moderator of the interview, at this point there are 35 ongoing audits being conducted by the SIGIR.

Bowen states that he will be going on his 10th trip tonight back to Iraq. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction consisting of 85 members in Crystal City, Virginia and 45 in Baghdad is funded with 75 million dollars given by Congress.

During the interview, the President's trend of appointing loyalists came in question. “I met the President in July of 1994,” Bowen said, “I began working for him in 1994, served on his legal staff in Texas until 2000 and became Associate Counsel to the President in 2001.” He continues saying that he later became, “Deputy Staff Secretary to Harriet Miers until March of 2003 when I left and eventually came to this job.” He says that this issue was raised when he was first nominated, before the Katrina Hurricane. Bowen asks his critics to view his body of work, assuring the C-Span audience he “won't pull any punches” in his reports.

Since the beginning of the War, the amount of appropriations approved for reconstruction accumulate to amount of around 30 billion dollars.

There has been “extraordinary progress this year in the reconstruction program,” Bowen says. “Our report shows that over 1800 projects are finished.” He mentions that there have been completion of 762 schools in addition to construction of roads, bridges, a police station, and a number electrical stations. Along with the building of health facilities, the US appropriations also provides some medical supplies used by Iraqi citizens. Speaking about the quality of the structures, Bowen says, “overall, I would say that the workmanship that we found has generally been good.”

In terms of “brick and mortar,” Bowen says out of the 30 billion designated for Iraq that “ultimately about 10 billion will go to literal reconstruction.”

This amount, however, will not accomplish the entire effort. Bowen cites one estimate of the total cost by saying that the “World Bank said that it will take 55 billion to get Iraq's infrastructure up and running by modern standards.”

He explains that with the 10 billion given by US taxpayers, about four-fifths of the total project cost, will be funded by the emerging government of Iraq. The Congressional appropriations succeeds in the effort, Bowen says, by “giving them a substantial and effective start” using “seed money.”

The execution of the reconstruction plan has not been perfect. Comparing the intended projects versus the actual completed, Bowen says “there's gonna be a shortfall.”

There has also been difficulties with some of the completed projects. “We found some problems with the water projects we visited,” Bowen says, “there were some minor problems in some of the facilities, but i think the good news from the 12 inspections, that we have in this latest report, is that the taxpayers investment is paying off in some good projects in Iraq.”

Another concern is whether or not the water treatment and electrical facilities will “survive and endure” over time. “Sustainment is a huge issue right now in respect to Iraq reconstruction. I'm very concerned about it.”

A report shows that the current supply of electricity is not significantly higher in Iraq than last year. Oil production has also been faltering, with a report showing the level is 2.5 million barrels below the daily expected.

Compounding the problem, Iraq loses about two billion a year due to gasoline smuggling.

The slowdown in production may be in part due to sabotage. “The insurgency continues to attack the oil export pipeline,” Bowen says. “Particularly the northern pipeline,” he continues, “they have attacked it over 50 times since we been there, and every attack disrupts exports, and thus impedes the flow of revenue.”

According to Bowen, of the 30 billion appropriated by Congress, a third of the total is spent on security. “Iraqi oil production is lower than it will be, once the insurgency is fully suppressed,” Bowen explains. “We needed to divert money from infrastructure, traditional infrastructure to security to achieve that goal sooner than later.”

Getting the “Iraqi forces trained, established, and operational,” is the goal of the security spending. “Protection for reconstruction work,” is necessary according to Bowen.

During the interview, Bowen shares a story in which a rocket hit the building he was working in. “The threat of danger is ubiquitous,” he says. However he localizes the bulk of the threat, stating, “the insurgency is concentrated in four provinces called the Sunni Triangle.”

The insurgency is an “obstacle to achieving our collective goal of a free and prosperous Iraq,” Bowen says. “The efforts to train up the Iraqi troops are moving at pace, and I am hopeful that eventually they will pacify the country.”

Tens of thousands of Iraqis are working alongside US troops, Bowen says. He predicts that they will eventually become independent, saying “I expect that day is coming soon.”

The contracting of private security companies has raised some controversy. The interview between Bowen and the moderator develops into a discussion about the US company, Triple Canopy, consisting of ex-Delta Force members, taking over the security contract. One of the issues brought up is that the company recruits employees from Peru and Chile, who may have difficulty communicating to Americans.

Bowen suggests that this may not be a problem, recalling while working in Iraq, the former security company's employees said little in English beyond greetings. Bowen suggests that Triple Canopy's decision to employ non-American security forces, may be driven by economics. However, he expresses his confidence that the new security details “will be sufficient.”

Bowen suggests that there may be some unethical or illegal activities saying that the Triple Canopy issue “may be something we will be looking at.” He admits that there is a “virtual small private army,” consisting of 20 to 30 thousand contractors with no nationally established standard of accounting for hiring. He stresses that anti-corruption is something the SIGIR emphasized since the start.

There are other cases of mishandling of US funds in the reconstruction effort. “We are very much engaged in investigating allegations of fraud and bribery and corruption within the iraq reconstruction program,” Bowen says. “We have 54 cases ongoing.”

“We started a task force called the Special Investigative Task Force for Iraq Reconstruction Spitfire that includes our investigators, Immigrations, Customs Enforcement, Department of State, Attorney General, Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and we are making substantial progress on a number of serious cases on these issues.”

“They are at a very sensitive stage, I am not at liberty to go into detail as to their substance,” Bowen says.

The issue of private contracts in general was discussed, with the American people's concern seeing the emergence of the no-bid type found in the aftermath of Katrina.

“Sole source contracting was an issue early on in the iraq experience but it is rarely used now.”

In addition to sole sourcing, there were additional problems with private companies. “The very large contracts that were issued in 2004, the Spring of 2004 were cost plus,” Bowen says. “By that I mean that there were 500 million dollar ceilings for electricity, oil, water projects out to eight design build [consortiums],” he continues.

“I had some concerns about how those been used, specifically how invoices have been reviewed in connection with cost plus, because a cost plus contract does not specify cost ahead of time but it requires an eventual definitizations so there is a substantial amount of expenditures to go on before you know how much the project will actually cost.”

Of the 30 billion appropriated, “80 percent has been obligated,” Bowen explains, “which means put under contract by now. At the current expenditure rate it will probably be two to three years before it is nearly all expended. ”

Bowen mentions that some employees from the multi-year contract winning company, Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown, and Root, have been convicted in a case of waste, fraud, and abuse. He states that two employees pleaded guilty to kickback schemes.

Other companies have also been found with “serious problems” of handling US funds. Bowen states that these issues brought up to the management of the companies were immediately addressed. He states that the reaction of expedient corrections were “typical” of the violating companies.

Speaking about the use of indictments to address problems of corruption, Bowen says, “there will be more to come.” There are none currently filed, however, he states that cases for abuse by companies are “ripening.”

The reconstruction effort faces another debate on the floor of the House for next year's appropriation. According to Bowen, there is a provision in the current Foreign Appropriation Bill that extends the life of his organization, in which will expire next summer.

Bowen is optimistic that the reconstruction will end in success. “We are moving into the mode of transition,” Bowen says. There will be an upcoming election in December that will determine the permanent government. In the time until then, Bowen is leading in preparing transition programs for the forming government. At that time, the local councils will be able to make the decisions on what will be built, according to Bowen. He hopes that the work done in part by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction will result in the country having a “strong anti-corruption foundation.”

The head of Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction,Stuart Bowen particpated in the authoring the QuarterlyReport presented to Congress.

Cited In Recent Articles:

Washington Times: Nation building in Iraq lagging

A recent report by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq said relatively few agencies responded positively to the call for volunteer detailees and that "interagency coordination of human resource management was generally weak.

UPI: UPI Energy Watch

Increasing costs of security and materials, particularly materials in the oil sector, are seriously affecting U.S. Iraqi reconstruction projects. The special inspector general, a government watchdog, sent a report to Congress last weekend for Iraq reconstruction, noting revisions in the timing for execution of several key projects. "When the U.S.-led portion of Iraq's reconstruction concludes, many planned projects will remain on the drawing board for execution by other funding sources," Stuart Bowen said in his report, attributing the gap in reconstruction to factors such as the dramatic increase in spending for security, the cost of materials in the oil sector and other project delays.

Stars and Stripes: Report: Corruption, yet progress, in Iraq reconstruction projects

The $30 billion American reconstruction effort in Iraq has been plagued by violence, corruption and mismanagement, though important progress has been made in restoring basic services and tracking project funds, a government auditor has found.

ALJAZEERA: US shifts from dollar to dinar in Iraq

Iraqis continue to be paid mostly in dollars for goods and services provided to US-led forces, but for the first time, "a dinar check (cheque) payment has been issued to local vendors and contractors within the Baghdad area".

C-Span Washington Journal Questions: Samuel Alito

2005-11-04T04:49:00.000-08:00

Opening Question: Do you think Samuel Alito should be questioned about his faith?

CS Monitor: Should senators ask Alito about the role of his faith?

Indeed, Article VI of the Constitution bars any religious test for prospective government officials.But now, President Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to a seat on the US Supreme Court is raising a sensitive question: To what extent should a nominee's religious faith be a legitimate area of inquiry during Senate confirmation hearings?

The issue arises as Judge Alito stands at the threshold of making Supreme Court history. Should he win confirmation, he will become the fifth Roman Catholic among the roster of nine justices, marking the first time a majority on the high court would be Catholic.

Second Question: What percentages do you think Louisiana and the Federal Government should pay for the Katrina disaster bill? Why do you think this?

USA Today: Louisiana can't pay Katrina, Rita bills

Staffers for the governor "about fell over" Wednesday night when they received the Federal Emergency Management Agency's estimate of the state's costs for hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said Mark Merritt, a consultant working for Blanco.

FEMA projects that it will spend a total of $41.4 billion in Louisiana, about $9,000 per resident. Federal law requires state and local governments to pay a portion of disaster relief costs. That share can be as much as 25%. The $3.7 billion estimate is roughly 9% of FEMA's projected costs in Louisiana.

The $3.7 billion represents just under half of the $8 billion the state spends per year and comes as the extensive flooding around New Orleans has severely undercut tax revenue. The state is in the midst of heavy cost-cutting to whittle down a projected $1 billion shortfall.

Congress would have to enact legislation to forgive Louisiana's debt, FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said. President Bush has waived certain state and local costs, such as debris removal, but he is bound by law to collect the $3.7 billion from Louisiana, she said.

EXPAND FOR ADDITIONAL ARTICLES
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ALITO AND FAITH

NY Times: Ideology Serves as a Wild Card on Court Pick

...Mr. Leahy says unapologetically that the stellar résumé is not enough. He says he plans to assess Judge Alito on ideological grounds.

"This is not over competence," Mr. Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said. "He certainly is competent. This is the whole issue of ideology, and if the ideology is one that you go in with a predetermined agenda, then I don't care if they are a Democrat or a Republican. They don't belong on the Supreme Court."

BeliefNet: Judges' Faith Does Matter

Accordingly, where a Catholic judge believes his participation in a particular case would constitute formal cooperation with evil, the judge should recuse himself--as often happens. The possibility that a judge (or justice) might have to recuse himself in occasional cases, however, does not strike me as a legitimate reason to deny the judge a seat on the bench.

NJ.com: Abortion issue should be personal, pastoral, not political

Now comes abortion to the political forefront. With the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, apparently tailored to suit cultural conservatives, the battle is joined again.

Now, more than ever, we need to recognize that there is no single Christian perspective on abortion, no single ideology that passes scriptural muster, no one correct way for people of faith to think about this issue.

KATRINA BILL

Wash.Times: Black caucus pushes Katrina recovery bill

Mr. Watt said the CBC used Mr. Bush's benchmark of $200 billion for relief and recovery efforts to construct their funding formula, and said the caucus will request a meeting with him to discuss what aspects of the bill he can put forward through executive order.
Already this week, Mr. Bush agreed to rescind an earlier order exempting developers from Davis-Bacon requirements that mandate federal contractors to pay workers based on prevailing wage standards.
The bill calls for a fund for hurricane survivors similar to the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
Those out of work would get an extra $100 in unemployment assistance or a benefit 25 percent higher than the average for an additional six months, and qualified families would receive 100 percent federal payments of temporary assistance.
CBC members said among the most vital needs are housing and developing a strategy to help evacuees return home and reunite with their families.

Wash. DS: Hey Big Spenders

hoping that a majority of the Louisiana evacuees will return, Senators Mary Landrieu and David Vitter have proposed federal relief in the form of over $200 billion--in addition to the $62 billion in FEMA funds already earmarked for the Gulf coast. Their proposal was not especially thrifty: It includes such expenditures as $4 million to aid the South Regional Climate Center in hurricane forecasting (as if no one had known Katrina was coming) and $25 million to complete (not rebuild) a sugarcane research laboratory. Though the senators' pie-in-the-sky plans have already been abandoned as unrealistic by the rest of the state's congressional delegation, don't think this means fiscal sanity is the order of the day in the federal aid packages to the Gulf coast--especially given the Bush administration's confusion regarding disaster aid.

2005-11-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

WJW HEADLINES

Associated Press: Democratic Congressmen Ask Cheney to Talk

HealthDay News: U.S. Lags Behind Other Nations in Health Care

Associated Press: Some Travelers to Be Screened for Diseases Reuters: Rice to visit Israel, Palestinian territories

Reuters: US says Iran damages jailed journalist's health

Associated Press: Chavez Aims to Challenge Bush on Trade Associated Press: DeLay's Staff Tried to Help Abramoff

Reuters: Jury finds Merck not liable over Vioxx

Associated Press: Appeals Court Hears Cases on Patriot Act

C-Span Washington Journal: Eminent Domain, Tribal Lobbying, and Online Piracy

2005-11-03T07:41:00.000-08:00

Show Schedule for November 3, 2005

7am - Newspapers, Phones & Roll Call

7:30am - Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)

8am - Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND)

8:30am - Supreme Court Watch: Stephen Henderson, Knight Ridder Newspapers

8:45am - Carol Leonnig, Washington Post, Courts Reporter

9:15am - Bradford Smith, Microsoft, Senior V.P & General Counsel

INTERVIEW SUMMARY
Eminent Domain and the Private Property Protection Act
with Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
Written by Kristofer M., Washington Journal Watch, 11/03/05

During the beginning of the new millennium, the city of New London located in Connecticut underwent a period of rough time with their tumbling economy. With the opportunity to revitalize their city, seen in the opening of a new Pfizer drug manufacturing research facility in the neighborhood, the government of New London reactivated their privately owned Development Corporation. In the Fort Trumbull area, near the Pfizer facility, the local government created a strategy that hopefully would increase tax income pouring out of new structures intended to house residents, businesses, tourists, conventions, and retail spaces. However, a few residents from the historic neighborhood impeded, by refusing to sell their homes that stood in the center of the city's plans.

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EXPAND FOR THE FULL GOODLATTE/EMINENT DOMAIN INTERVIEW SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The local government was desperate to continue on their agenda to bring life back to their city. The local officials decided to use eminent domain to forcibly condemn the homes of the holdouts and proceed with the revitalization. The residents took their case to court, resulting to the elevation of the debate all the way up to the Supreme Court. In the end, even though the Development Corporation was a private business, the actions of New London were permitted with a 5-4 vote, giving the reasoning that it “will provide appreciable benefits to the community.”

In response to the Supreme Court Kelo v. New London decision, there has been activity within Congress to protect citizens from the use of eminent domain. Leading the way is Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia with his bill, titled the Private Property Protection Act. This morning, the Congressman joins the moderator in the studio of C-Span's Washington Journal to discuss his goals addressing the issue of eminent domain.

“This is a continuation of a trend than many have seen in the erosion of private property rights that are protected in the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution,” Goodlatte says. This “very controversial” and “appalling decision” made by the Supreme Court “impacts the entire country,” he continues.

Goodlatte, the head of the House of Representative's Agriculture Committee, oversaw the beginning of this fight by Congress that strengthened ownership rights in the form of House Resolution number 3405, introduced by Representatives Republican Henry Bonilla of Texas and Democrat Stephanie Herseth of South Dakota. After this resolution was passed 40 to 1, the Judiciary Committee took parts of this bill and carried on with the battle introducing another one, in which Goodlatte describes as being a “very bipartisan legislation across the political spectrum supporting this measure.”

The bill showed cooperation beyond party lines with support from Democrats including John Conyers from Michigan and Maxine Waters of California. After “intense debate,” this measure was ultimately passed with the vote of 27 to 3. Now what is referred to as the Private Property Protection Act heads to the floor for a vote by the House.

This act intends to prevent motions by local governments that “tramples on individuals private property rights,” Goodlatte says. This legislation will continue to permit governments to apply eminent domain for public benefit including roads, schools, transportation, and gas and electric lines. The bill also makes an exception for seizures of property that pose eminent danger to public health or safety. The Private Property Protection Act intends to curtail the use of eminent domain for the reasons of tax revenue gain or increasing the tax base.

The governments that apply eminent domain will be penalized by cutting off access to all federal funds, including transportation, education, housing, agriculture for a period of two years. If the bill passes, it will not take effect until the fiscal year following the adoption legislation, in order to allow local governments enough time to comply to the new guidelines.

According to Goodlatte, this measure is a step down from the originally debated harsher penalty proposed. One plan discussed imposed to permanently cut off funds to communities that apply eminent domain for tax revenue gain. However, after further consideration, the Congress found that they wanted governments to have an “opportunity to cure” and an “incentive to change back.”

Ten amendments involving the Private Property Protection Act are scheduled for debate on the floor today. Goodlatte states that some of these amendments contain vague exceptions in which eminent domain can be applied, with the proposals including phrases such as “obsolete”, “insufficient light,” and “overdevelopment.” He says that these wordings may “lead to misinterpretation” of the bill. He hopes that at the end of the debate there will be a bill that has a “clear sense of what Congress intended.”

** BACKGROUND INFORMATION **

** BOB GOODLATTE **

Republican representative of Virginia most likey will be speaking about his new bill and Eminent Domain

C-Span: Private Property Rights Protection Act

Rockbridge Weekly: Goodlatte Introduces Private Property Bill

The Supreme Court's ruling gives local governments broad power to seize property to generate tax revenue. State and local governments can now use eminent domain to take away the property of any individual for nearly any reason, including taking property for the benefit of another individual or corporation. Cities can now bulldoze private citizen' homes to make way for shopping malls or other development, essentially ensuring that no citizen's property is safe.

Per a release from Goodlatte's office the Private Property Rights Protection Act will prevent governments from taking property from one private party and giving it to another private party for economic development purposes. When abuses occur, this legislation will prevent localities and states from receiving federal economic development funds. In addition, the Private Property Rights Protection Act prohibits the federal government from using eminent domain for economic development purposes.

** BYRON DORGAN **

Democratic Senator of North Dakota and Vice Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee will probably be discussing Tribal Lobbying, Jack Abramoff, and his Republican connections.

AP: Senate probe to focus on former Colorado political operative

...during Wednesday's almost four-hour hearing, McCain and the Indian Affairs Committee's top Democrat - Byron Dorgan of North Dakota - questioned whether Abramoff directed donations to CREA in order to secure influence at the Interior Department, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Bloomberg: Abramoff Offered Job, `Raised Alarms,' Official Says

[J. Steven] Griles said Abramoff, 46, and Fred Baggett, a managing shareholder of Abramoff's former law firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP, made him the job offer. He said that was the only time he met Baggett, who also testified before the committee earlier today. Abramoff was lobbying for the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana at the time. E-mails released by the Senate panel show that he wanted the Interior Department, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to block a plan by the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians to open a casino that would compete with one run by the Coushattas. The Interior Department gave the initial go-ahead, though the Jena casino has not been built... Griles's assertion that he played no role in any consideration of the Jena plan was disputed by both Michael Rosetti, Norton's former counsel, and Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the panel's ranking Democrat. Dorgan said Federici told committee staff members earlier that she had ``many discussions'' with Griles.

** BRADFORD SMITH **

Senior V.P & General Counsel for Microsoft will probably discuss software piracy.

Express Outlook:
Microsoft plans cheaper Windows version for India

Microsoft Corp. plans to release a low-cost version of its Windows software for India in an attempt to check high piracy levels, the legal affairs head of the world’s largest independent software maker said. “We will launch more value products at affordable prices in India soon to reduce software piracy levels,” Bradford Smith told reporters late on Friday in Hyderabad, where Microsoft has a software development facility.

Rediff: Online piracy poses a major threat

We all know that piracy is rampant...

Rampant would be the wrong word. It is everywhere. India's $17 billion IT industry is growing at 50-60 per cent and pirated software can be a big depression on this growth. Bootleggers have already caused a $519 million revenue loss by copying and selling, and with unauthorised bundling with hardware.

The only hope is that last year, the worldwide rate of personal computer software piracy decreased by one percentage point to 35 per cent. This occurred despite an influx of new PC users from high piracy market sectors -- consumer and small business -- and the increasing availability of unlicensed software on peer-to-peer file-sharing sites.

The study also finds that online piracy poses a major threat to most countries. Without strong copyright laws and enforcement of those laws, online piracy - via warez groups, spam, auction sites and P2P systems - will proliferate alongside Internet usage.

C-Span Washington Journal Questions: Karl Rove

2005-11-03T04:26:00.000-08:00

Opening Question: Amid Should Karl Rove Go?

Notable Headlines:

Wash.Post: Rove's Future Role Is Debated

MSNBC: Is Rove a Security Risk?

Philly Inq: Libby case will bring face long in shadows into light

NY Times: Iraq Asks Return of Some Officers of Hussein Army

Wash.Post: Charles and Camilla Meet the Capital's Little People

Wash.Times: GOP warms to 'tax' on oil

USA Today: FEMA credit cards got heavy workout in Katrina's wake

2005-11-02T21:08:00.000-08:00

WJW HEADLINES

NZS: Protests await Bush at Americas summit visit

Christian Science Monitor: Senate to probe how case for war was made

The Guardian: East Europe 'has secret CIA jails for al-Qaida' Reuters: Bush officials oppose amending India nuclear deal

Washington Post:Alito's Civil Rights Judgments Scrutinized

Associated Press: 4 Officers Join Air Force Evangelism Suit Reuters: Bush aide denies ties to fake Iraq-Niger documents

Reuters: Iraq focus imperils US, ex-Pentagon official says

Reuters: Chertoff says US wants to "gain control" of borders