Other Political News

[Soldier4Christ]

Gov't adding fruits, veggies to WIC list

The grocery shopping list for the far-reaching Women, Infants and Children program is getting its first significant update since the 1970s. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains are being added to the program, which helps feed more than half the babies born in the U.S. To cover the cost, WIC will pay for less of the juice, eggs, cheese and milk that have been staples of the program.

The changes to the low-income nutrition program were proposed Friday and will be finalized next year. Anti-hunger groups are enthusiastic about the additions.

"Overall, we're really happy about this food package. We think, for WIC clients, this is going to make a huge difference," said Geri Henchy, director of early childhood nutrition at the Food Research and Action Center.

"We like the idea that there are choices, that clients go to the grocery store and can pick the fruits and vegetables they want," she said.

The revisions follow the advice of the federally chartered Institute of Medicine, which said the WIC program needs to reflect changes in science and society since it was created three decades ago.

Adding fruits, vegetables and whole grain products follows changes last year to the government's dietary guidelines.

"The WIC food package has not been revised or updated since 1980," said Kate Coler, the Agriculture Department deputy undersecretary who oversees the program. "We thought it was a prudent time to have a scientific review of the package."

The department aims to add the new foods without changing the overall cost.

The shopping list has gone largely unchanged since WIC began in the 1970s. In the meantime, food availability has grown, obesity has become a major public health threat and WIC itself has grown dramatically, reaching 8 million people nationwide.

Knowledge about nutrition has also advanced, another impetus for updating the list of WIC foods. The government proposes to add fruits and vegetables and cut the amount of juice by half or more. The government now encourages whole fruits rather than fruit juices, which can have more sugar and less fiber, in its dietary guidelines

Juice makers said the juice reductions are much too severe. Allowing more juice would help ensure kids are getting the vitamin C they need and discourage kids from drinking soda or other sweetened drinks, said Jim Callahan, spokesman for Welch's.

Anti-hunger groups expressed some disappointment over the Agriculture Department's decision to pay for fewer fruits and vegetables than recommended by the institute.

"We are disappointed that some budget constraints USDA placed on itself means the proposal doesn't allow the full amount of fruits and vegetables, which WIC clients need and the Institute of Medicine recommended," Henchy said.

The program would pay for $6 worth of fruits and vegetables for children and $8 for women per month. These totals are about $2 less than the institute recommended, keeping the program's cost unchanged from current levels.

Under the WIC program, people receive vouchers or food checks that can be redeemed at stores for infant formula and specific foods worth about $35 a month, depending on who is receiving the food. People can be at or slightly above the federal poverty level, depending on the state. A family of four with income averaging $37,000 would qualify.

Under the proposed changes, the monthly value would increase for women and infants but drop for children ages 1 through 5, which is another sore point with nutrition groups. Children 1 through 5 are the majority of people in the program.

The program also offers nutrition education, health and social service referrals and breast-feeding support.

Among the proposed changes:

_The amount of juice would be cut from up to 9 ounces daily to 4 ounces for children ages 1 through 5.

_Milk would be cut from up to 3 cups daily to 2 cups for children 1 through 5. New substitutions would allow soy milk and tofu for people who have milk allergies or trouble digesting lactose.

_Whole grain bread would be added to the list. Substitutions such as corn tortillas and brown rice would be allowed to reflect the cultural diversity of those served by WIC.

WIC encourages mothers to breast-feed their babies by offering more foods, particularly for women whose children aren't getting formula through the program. Those women currently can get one vegetable, carrots, as well as canned tuna.

The new list would increase the amount of canned fish to 30 ounces and add canned salmon as an option. The president of the U.S. Tuna Foundation, Anne Forristall Luke, applauded the plan.

"Canned tuna is a convenient, affordable and nutritious food we all grew up on and is unrivaled in its nutritional benefits," she said.

WIC pays for canned white, light, dark or blended tuna packed in water or oil.

The expanded food list was outlined Friday in a proposed change to the WIC program. The Agriculture Department will accept comments from the public over the next three months. Final approval is expected next year.

[Soldier4Christ]

Deficit estimated lowest in 4 years

The federal deficit will register $260 billion this year, the lowest in four years, reflecting a strong economy and resulting growth in tax revenue, congressional analysts said Friday.

The estimate by the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office is well below its earlier predictions and also below the $296 billion White House estimate less than a month ago.

Better-than-expected revenues are driving the deficit down from last year's $318 billion figure and far below the record $413 billion posted in 2004.

At $260 billion, it would be the lowest since the $158 billion figure in 2002, the first deficit following four years of surpluses.

The deficit picture is even better when measured against the size of the economy, which is the comparison economists think is most important.

"At 2 percent of gross domestic product, the 2006 deficit would be smaller than the deficit recorded in the past three years — 3.5 percent in 2003, 3.6 percent in 2004 and 2.6 percent in 2005," said the CBO report.

So far this year, taxes on corporate profits are 27 percent or $56 billion higher compared to the first 10 months of last year. That reflects the strong economy. All told, receipts from corporate profits are estimated to tally two and a half times those collected in 2003, CBO said.

The budget year ends Sept. 30.

Receipts are also 20 percent higher on income and payroll taxes paid quarterly by wealthier people and small businessmen but taxes withheld in paychecks are only 8 percent higher. Tax receipts are estimated to run $223 billion higher than 2005, CBO said.

The CBO estimate continues a positive trend on the deficit after a grim deficit performance during
President Bush's first term.

Republicans credited GOP fiscal policies centered on tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 and a clampdown on domestic agencies funded by Congress each year. Were it not for the war in
Iraq and ongoing hurricane relief costs, the deficit would be far lower.

"Even with the extraordinary circumstances of the past year — including Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing War on Terror — we're seeing the deficit fall," said House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa. "Thanks to pro-growth policies and a responsible budget blueprint, we're on the right track, but we've got to remain diligent."

Democrats said a $260 billion deficit is nothing to crow about.

"The deficit for this year will be the sixth largest in history, and will stand a long way from the $236 billion surplus recorded in 2000, the last year of the Clinton Administration," said top House Budget Committee Democrat John Spratt Jr. of South Carolina.

The Bush White House has gained a reputation for overstating deficit figures early in the year in order to report better news later. In February, the White House predicted a $423 billion deficit for the current year.

[Soldier4Christ]

Rice sends message of US support to Cubans

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sent a message of support to Cubans on Friday, urging them to stay at home to work for "positive change" now that President Fidel Castro's leadership was in question.

Castro temporarily handed over control of the country to his brother Raul Castro this week while he recovers from intestinal surgery, raising speculation over how much longer Castro will rule the communist island.

"All Cubans who desire peaceful democratic change can count on the support of the United States," said Rice in a message taped at the State Department in Washington and intended for broadcast via networks that reach the Cuban people.

"We encourage the Cuban people to work at home for positive change, and we stand ready to provide you with humanitarian assistance as you begin to chart a new course for your country," the top U.S. diplomat added.

The United States is anxious to avoid a flood of refugees amid the political uncertainty that has followed Castro's illness, and Rice made clear Cubans should not attempt to cross the Florida Straits to reach the United States.

"Clearly we believe that Cubans should stay in Cuba and be a part of what will be a transition to democracy," said Rice in an interview to be aired on MSNBC's "Hardball" program.

Referring to the handover in power to Castro's brother, Rice said it was not acceptable to "go from one dictator to another" and the Cuban people deserved better.

A U.S. government report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba recommended a month ago the United States act fast to boost a transitional government in Cuba when Castro's rule ends and get advisers on the ground within weeks.

U.S. officials say this plan has not been activated and White House spokesman Tony Snow said on Friday the United States was still trying to assess the situation in Cuba and no changes were planned in overall policy at this point.

Snow also sought to reassure Cubans the United States would not use the uncertainty surrounding Castro's illness to invade the communist island.

Rice's taped message is intended to be broadcast on Radio Marti, a Miami-based network which transmits Spanish language broadcasts to Cuba.

However, few Cubans are likely to receive the message via the U.S.-funded network as Cuba successfully jams the TV Marti signal and most of Radio Marti broadcasts in Cuban cities. The message is more likely to reach Cubans via commercial Miami-based stations which they get through pirate satellites.

Rice urged all democratic nations to join together to call for the release of political prisoners in Cuba and a transition that quickly leads to multi-party elections there.

"It has long been the hope of the United States that a free, independent and democratic Cuba would be more than just a close neighbor -- it would be a close friend," said Rice.

[Soldier4Christ]

Justice frees records in library search

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Wednesday ordered full disclosure of records in a court battle between FBI terrorism investigators and Connecticut librarians.

Using a national security letter rather than a subpoena signed by a judge, the FBI sought records last year of a library computer in Connecticut. Such a letter allows the executive branch of government to obtain records about people in terrorism and espionage investigations without a judge's approval or a grand jury subpoena.

Four librarians who received the demand resisted, though they said they might have been willing to comply with a similar demand had it been approved by a judge, according to the
American Civil Liberties Union, which represented them.

The librarians had been under a gag order that prohibited them from even acknowledging the existence of the demand for the material.

The FBI dropped its demand for the computer records in June, saying it had discounted a potential terrorism threat. In July, the FBI said it would not seek to enforce nondisclosure in the case.

The court fight had been waged largely in secret and with the battle over, the ACLU last week asked the Supreme Court to release the records in the case.

Ginsburg directed that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York and a lower federal court in Connecticut unseal the material.

The national security letter sought subscriber and billing information related to a computer used within a 45-minute time period Feb. 15, 2005, when the potential threat was transmitted from a library computer. Authorities have declined to say where exactly that computer was located, but that the request did not involve reading lists of library patrons. The potential threat was in an e-mail.

"We concluded that based on the passage of time as well as other information we've been able to develop that this threat is probably not viable," U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor in Connecticut had said.

The ACLU said it was not seeking to unseal any of the classified information filed in the case.

[Soldier4Christ]

Hoping for Castro's exit, exiles plan transition
Some question if post-Castro reforms are likely

BOGOTÁ -- After an ailing Fidel Castro ceded power last week to his younger brother, Raúl, reinvigorated foes of the legendary revolutionary returned to their situation rooms in Washington and Miami to strategize about how to bring about a democratic transition on the island 90 miles south of Florida.

The so-called transition plans range from a Bush administration vision of rebuilding the island and a congressional effort to fast-track $80 million to dissidents in Cuba, to independent efforts such as Peace Corps-style humanitarian brigades, and schemes by militant exiles to send boatloads of Cuban-Americans to foment revolution.

Yet all of the plans depend on a crucial, and not-at-all foregone conclusion: that Cuba's military officers, bureaucrats, or ordinary citizens will rise up in a post-Fidel era to demand democracy and free markets. The transition plans, many Cuba watchers say, have scant hope for success if Fidel Castro's passing from power results in a long-planned succession to his 75-year-old brother and revolutionary comrade, the defense minister.

``They're all pie-in-the-sky plans," said Wayne Smith, a former top US diplomat in Havana and director of the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank. ``The Bush administration's new plan is to . . . insist on a transition government acceptable to the US. Are the Cuban people going to rise up and make that happen? How can they?"

For nearly half a century, the White House and Cuban exiles have plotted and prepared for a post-Fidel Cuba. Yet despite every conceivable pressure -- from the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, to diplomatic and economic isolation from an embargo that began in 1962, to hundreds of shadowy assassination attempts and propaganda drives -- Washington's wily nemesis has survived , and brutally suppressed dissent at home. Now Castro's opponents in the United States think they have a unique opening to try again.

Since 2003, the Bush administration has been working on a plan to hasten the end of communism in Cuba. The first report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, a controversial 423-page document released in May 2004, advocated tightening the embargo and travel ban, and limiting family contacts and remittances to deprive the regime of currency and bring about Castro's demise. Critics say the measures have cut exiles off from their families and closed down back channels to influence the regime, while failing to weaken Castro.

The report envisioned that after Castro, Cubans would appeal for help and Washington would respond with 100,000 tons of food, as well as water, fuel, vaccines, and medical equipment. Under the scenario, US advisers and nongovernmental groups would establish democratic institutions and free elections, American technicians would rebuild the nation's infrastructure, and financial specialists would establish banks, a tax system, private property, and small businesses.

The report was bitterly denounced by the Cuban government, which questioned why a country with universal healthcare and one of the world's lowest illiteracy rates would need humanitarian aid from its archenemy.

``How dare they talk of `transition.' Our transition occurred 47 years ago with our revolution. Why would we want to go back to how it was before, with a few people controlling everything, with private healthcare, private education?" a Cuban diplomat said on condition of anonymity last week.

Lisandro Pérez, a sociologist and founder of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, called the Bush administration report ``a thinly disguised plan to create a US protectorate under a presumed scenario of chaos."

In a telephone interview, Pérez complained that the administration and many exiles assume that Cubans are waiting for salvation from the outside world.

``A lot of these plans and people advising the US government haven't been in Cuba in more than 40 years. There's language in the report about getting in vaccines, helping the starving masses, keeping schools open that leads you to believe these people think Cuba is like Sudan," he said.

The commission's 93-page follow-up report last month, which includes a classified appendix purported to address a US response to a post-Castro emergency on the island, conditioned its offers of assistance on the wishes of Cubans .

On Thursday, Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, introduced a bill dubbed the Cuba Transition Act to speed the report's recommendation to disburse $80 million to members of the small and besieged dissident community.

But several dissidents on the island worried the money would give Castro ammunition to discredit them as US-funded mercenaries. ``Those are 80 million arguments for the Cuban government" to portray us as US lackeys, said democracy campaigner Manuel Cuesta Morúa.

The White House has sought to cool emotions in Florida, where more than a dozen exile groups across the political spectrum were refreshing their action plans. The most radical said that they were preparing flotillas of boats and planes to send exiles to the island to unite internal opposition or foment rebellion.

Coast Guard officials said boats trying to make the illegal crossing would be stopped and sent home.

Francisco Hernández, president of the Miami-based Cuban-American National Foundation, an influential exile group that collaborated closely on the US government report, said his organization has had its own transition plan for 14 years, ``but it is changing almost every day."

The foundation's vision is of a civilian-military transition government that would release political prisoners, call for multiparty elections, and permit foreign governments and exiles to participate in reconstruction.

With some 800,000 Cuban-born Americans, including entrepreneurs who represent 52 of the richest 100 Latinos in the United States, according to Forbes magazine, ``We have enough wealth to take on a substantial amount of reconstruction that's needed," Hernández said.

Olga Nodarse, founder of Cuba Corps, a Florida-based initiative to train 700 volunteers as a Peace Corps-style brigade, said her group has sent books and assistance to 79 civil society groups on the island, from independent libraries to clandestine democracy campaigners. The Corps' plan is to send volunteers ``when relations are reestablished and the State Department says it is OK."

Eric Driggs of the University of Miami's ``Cuba Transition Project," cautioned that while many exiles have been ``looking at Fidel's incapacitation or death as the starting point for transition, I don't think that's happening." While some analysts predict that the younger Castro may take steps toward Chinese-style mixed-economy changes after consolidating his power, no one suggests he will move away from one-party rule.

Whatever scenario plays out, Driggs said, ``the exile community has really matured. Twenty years ago, they wanted to go back and relive the Cuba they knew. The majority now realizes their role is secondary, a support role."

Some have gone even further, shifting their position from demanding the violent overthrow of Castro to calling for an end to the US embargo and engagement of the communist regime, much like President Nixon engaged Mao Zedong in China.

Alfredo Durán, a prominent Bay of Pigs veteran, dismisses transition plans cooked up in Washington and Miami as ``unrealistic" and ``counterproductive," rooted in Washington's ``historical arrogance over why Castro hasn't given in."

The United States would be wise, said Durán, a board member of the Miami-based Cuban Committee for Democracy, to allow succession to run its course. Most Communist Party central committee members are younger and well educated, he said, and ``know Cuba has to get into the 21st century, which will require changes in politics, economics, and social structures."

If the US government or exiles interfere in what he and many academics see as an inevitable opening, ``hard-liners in Cuba will get into their bunkers and say they're under threat, and moderates willing to make a transition will be unwilling to be seen as traitors," Durán said. ``We need a silken hand to wait this process out before we make any rash decisions."

[Soldier4Christ]

Medicare payment cuts set for doctors

Medicare reimbursements to doctors are set to drop by nearly 5 percent next year, an amount that physicians say could make it harder for elderly patients to see a doctor.

Mark McClellan, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told reporters Monday that the agency would soon issue new regulations updating reimbursement rates for physicians. He did not provide an exact amount the rates would change in 2007, but trustees for the Medicare program projected in May that the cut would be 4.7 percent.

The reimbursement rates are established by formula, which sets annual and cumulative spending targets for physician reimbursements. When spending increases exceed economic growth, payments to doctors are supposed to be cut.

McClellan attributed proposed payment reductions to a "vicious cycle" in health care. Doctors provide more and more services per patient, which drives up Medicare spending faster than the overall economy.

However, Congress in the past has headed off similar reductions called for by federal regulation, and it's expected to step in again this year once lawmakers return from their August recess. Already, 80 senators wrote their respective leaders in that chamber this past month to say they believe the Senate should increase the reimbursement rates for doctors before Congress adjourns in October.

McClellan said he was optimistic that the federal government could also make some structural changes as soon as this year in the way doctors are reimbursed. Those changes would focus more on paying doctors when they provide services proven to improve patient outcomes rather than just reimbursing doctors for more care.

He said he is seeing more leadership from physician groups this year when it comes to providing guidance on how the government could undertake such a transformation.

[Soldier4Christ]

McKinney alleges voting irregularities

By Carlos Campos | Tuesday, August 8, 2006, 08:17 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Shortly after the polls opened on Tuesday, allegations of voting irregularities began appearing on U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s campaign Web site.

At 8:14 a.m., the first complaint appeared: “Less than an hour into voting, McKinney’s name is not on ballot, opponent’s is,” read an item on her blog.

Other similar allegations would follow throughout the day as 4th Congressional District voters decided whether to send McKinney back to Congress, or give the Democratic nomination to runoff opponent, Hank Johnson, a lawyer and former DeKalb County commissioner.

The McKinney Web site noted voting machines not working or mysteriously casting incorrect ballots, “insecure” voting equipment, police harassment, and poll workers refusing to hand out Democratic ballots.

At one campaign stop Tuesday, McKinney said, “We also had a problem at Midway [elementary school polling place], where my name was not on the ballot,” McKinney said.

“My opponent’s name was on the ballot. … We are disappointed that the secretary of state’s office has not dealt adequately with these electronic voting machines and the deficiencties. Also, polling places have opened up and some of the machines were not zero-counted out. … And that is a problem. That is a serious problem.”

Dana Elder, the precinct manager at the school, said there was a power failure around 2:20 p.m. affecting one machine that lists registered voters in the precinct, but it posed no problem because there was another backup machine. The broken machine was fixed within 10 minutes and did not affect the actual voting machines, Elder said.

“It was really nothing,” Elder said.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office kept an eye on the elections, with 15 roving monitors on the ground in the 4th District, said spokeswoman Kara Sinkule.

Sinkule noted that the complaints were only coming from the McKinney campaign. “We are not having voters saying we are having equipment malfunctions,” Sinkule said.

McKinney has always held a distrust of the state’s new touch-screen voting machines. She has appeared at events promoted by activists opposed to electronic voting in Georgia. One of her congressional aides, Richard Searcy, was one of the most outspoken critics of Georgia’s electronic voting platform before taking a job in McKinney’s office.

When McKinney beat out five opponents in the Democratic primary in 2004 to re-claim her congressional seat, she did not question the voting machines’ accuracy or the results. On Tuesday, she was anything but silent on the issue.

“Voters should be able to go into the precinct with the assurance that their vote is actually going to be cast, first of all, and counted,” McKinney said Tuesday. “But at this point we have had voters to tell us the voting machines took several tries before they would actually even cast the correct ballots.”

McKinney made other claims about voting problems but did not elaborate or take questions before disappearing into a truck.

Both local and state elections officials said they are taking McKinney’s allegations seriously. But they were also quick to say many of the complaints were unwarranted.

The DeKalb County elections office released a statement addressing complaints from the McKinney campaign.

In answer to an allegation that a voter tried to vote for McKinney, but the machine popped up a vote for Johnson, the office said:

“Upon investigation by the manager, it was determined while the one candidates’s name was touched by the ball of the finger, the fingernail hit the name,” the statement read. “We do not expect voters to cut their nails to vote, but we are cautioning everyone to make certain they are satisfied with their choices before they hit the ‘cast ballot’ button.”

“We don’t have a problem addressing any claims that they have,” said Linda Lattimore, head of elections for DeKalb County, where much of the 4th Congressional District lies. “We’ll investigate and respond to each claim.”

The statement from Lattimore’s office addressed other issues raised by the McKinney campaign, claiming they were immediately rectified when brought to officials’ attention.

Some voters who wanted to vote in the runoff did not realize congressional lines were redrawn by the state Legislature in 2005, Lattimore said. So some voters accustomed to voting in the 4th District were perplexed at not being able to do so.

Lattimore said some voters who were told to wait while a poll worker investigated a problem misinterpreted it as being turned away from the polls. “We ask a voter to wait a second and suddenly [they think] we turn them away.”

[Soldier4Christ]

Georgia Congresswoman Ousted in Runoff

  Rep. Cynthia McKinney, known for her conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11 attacks and a scuffle with a U.S. Capitol police officer, conceded the Democratic primary runoff early Wednesday in a speech that blamed the media for her loss and included a song criticizing President Bush.

McKinney, the state's first black congresswoman, said electronic voting machines are "a threat to our democracy" and lashed out a journalists, accusing them of injuring her mother and failing to "tell the whole story."

 "My mother was hurt by someone in the press in this room tonight," McKinney said after losing to challenger Hank Johnson Tuesday. "One of my assistants needs stitches because of the press that are in this room tonight."

WXIA-TV said on its Web site that a boom microphone had struck members of McKinney's entourage: "In the confusion, McKinney staffers struck an 11Alive photographer and knocked his camera equipment to the ground." Earlier in the day, the station said a McKinney staffer had scuffled with another 11Alive photojournalist.

Johnson defeated McKinney by more than 12,000 votes, getting 59 percent of the vote to 41 percent for McKinney. The black attorney and former DeKalb County commissioner is now the general-election favorite in the predominantly Democratic district east of Atlanta.

He will face Republican Catherine Davis, a black human resources manager who ran against McKinney in 2004.

"The people in District Four were looking for a change," Johnson said. "And what happened indicated it was time for a change."

In her concession speech, McKinney repeated her criticism of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq, and said electronic voting machines, which have been used in all of Georgia's precincts since "are a threat to our democracy."

"Let the word go out. We aren't going to tolerate any more stolen elections. ... We want our party back!" she said.

Her campaign manager, John Evans, blamed the loss on the ABC _ Anybody But Cynthia _ movement and the Capitol Hill incident.

"It's over," he said. "Folks just beat us. They got a lot of white votes, a lot of Republican votes and they took some of our votes where we have been stable."

McKinney has long been controversial, once suggesting the Bush administration had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Tuesday's election was the second time in three election years that she has lost. After 10 years in Congress, the firebrand lawmaker lost in the 2002 primary to political newcomer Denise Majette, who vacated the seat two years later to run for the U.S. Senate. McKinney emerged from a crowded 2004 primary to reclaim the seat.

After her return to Washington, McKinney kept a relatively low profile until March, when her scuffle with a Capitol Hill police officer grabbed national headlines.

McKinney struck a Capitol Police officer who did not recognize her and tried to stop her from entering a House office building. A grand jury in Washington declined to indict her, but she was forced to apologize before the House. She drew less than 50 percent of the vote in last month's primary, forcing Tuesday's runoff.

"I'm getting tired of being embarrassed. She's an embarrassment to the whole state," said James Vining, 72, who said he voted for McKinney's opponent.

But Anthony Tyler, 47, said he backed McKinney because of her outspoken nature. "She speaks her mind, regardless of the issue. She is straight forward," he said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Lieberman Files to Run As Independent


Hours after a Democratic primary defeat, Sen. Joe Lieberman filed petitions Wednesday morning to run as an independent in the general election. Senate party leaders in Washington quickly said they'll back the anti-war businessman who beat the three-term senator.

"The Democratic voters of Connecticut have spoken and chosen Ned Lamont as their nominee," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the chairman of the party's Senate campaign committee, said in a joint statement. They said they "fully support" Lamont's candidacy and congratulated him on the victory and a "race well run."

Lieberman said his campaign collected more than 18,000 signatures on its petitions, more than twice the number needed to get on the fall ballot under the new party created, called Connecticut for Lieberman. The new party allows him to secure a position higher on the ballot than he would have if he petitioned as an individual.

If the signatures are approved, as expected, it set up a three-way November race with Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, who won the Democratic primary, and Republican Alan Schlesinger.

"Joe Lieberman has been an effective Democratic Senator for Connecticut and for America. But the perception was that he was too close to George Bush and this election was, in many respects, a referendum on the president more than anything else," Reid and Schumer said. "The results bode well for Democratic victories in November and our efforts to take the country in a new direction."

The two Senate Democrats did not address whether Lieberman should follow through with his plans to run as an independent but it was clear that they do not intend to support him.

"I'm definitely going forward," Lieberman told The Associated Press. "I feel that I closed strong in the primary. I feel we began to get out message across strongly and we're going to keep on going.

"This race is going to be all about who can get more done and who can be a better representative of Connecticut."

In Cleveland, Republican Party chairman Ken Mehlman seized on the results in the Connecticut primary to assail the Democrats on national security and called Lieberman's defeat a "shame."

"Joe Lieberman believed in a strong national defense, and for that, he was purged from his party. It is a sobering moment," Ken Mehlman said.

The Republican National Committee chairman said Lieberman's loss also is a "sign of what the Democratic Party has become in the 21st century. It reflects an unfortunate embrace of isolationism, defeatism and a blame America first attitude by national Democratic leaders at a time when retreating from the world is particularly dangerous."

[Soldier4Christ]

Bush 'in bid to protect top staff'

The Bush administration has drafted changes to the War Crimes Act that would protect US policymakers from possible retrospective criminal charges for authorising humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.

The move marks the administration’s latest effort to deal with how the US should treat people taken into custody in President George Bush’s campaign against terror.

At issue are interrogations carried out by the CIA and the degree to which harsh tactics such as waterboarding were authorised by administration officials. A separate law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, applies to the military.

The Washington Post first reported on the War Crimes Act amendments yesterday.

One section of the draft would outlaw torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, but it does not contain prohibitions from Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions against “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment”.

A copy of the section of the draft was obtained by The Associated Press.

Another section would apply the legislation retrospectively, according to two lawyers who have seen the contents of the section.

One of them said the draft was in the revision stage, but the administration seems intent on pushing forward the draft’s major points in congress after it returns from its recess in early September.

“I think what this bill can do is in effect immunise past crimes. That’s why it’s so dangerous,” said a third lawyer, Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

Fidell said the initiative was “not just protection of political appointees, but also CIA personnel who led interrogations”.

Interrogation practices “follow from policies that were formed at the highest levels of the administration”, said a fourth lawyer, Scott Horton, who has followed detainee issues closely. “The administration is trying to insulate policymakers under the War Crimes Act.”

The administration argues that Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions includes vague terms that are susceptible to different interpretations. The refurbished War Crimes Act is supposed to rectify that.

Extreme interrogation practices have been a flashpoint for criticism of the administration.

When interrogators engage in waterboarding, a prisoner is strapped to a plank and dunked in water until he fears he is drowning.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a former military lawyer, said congress “is aware of the dilemma we face, how to make sure the CIA and others are not unfairly prosecuted”.

He said that at the same time, however, that congress “will not allow political appointees to waive the law”.

Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA’s executive director, said: “President Bush is looking to limit the War Crimes Act through legislation” now that the supreme court had embraced Article Three of the Geneva Conventions.

In June, the court ruled that Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals broke Common Article Three.

[Shammu]

I know brother, this is you arena............................. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cynthia McKinney Entourage’s Election Night Meltdown
Posted by Noel Sheppard on August 10, 2006 - 08:34.

If a long-time member of Congress lost a primary battle for re-election, and his/her campaign entourage shouted racial epithets at reporters and about her opponent after defeat, do you think this would have been on the evening news? Well, if said member of Congress was a Democrat, the answer apparently is “no,” for not one of the broadcast networks felt it was newsworthy to report Tuesday evening's events involving Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia).

For those that haven’t heard, McKinney’s campaign entourage now includes members of the New Black Panthers. After her primary defeat Tuesday to Hank Johnson for Georgia’s 4th Congressional district, some of these folks went on a bit of a rampage referring to white reporters as “crackers,” calling her opponent an “Uncle Tom,” blaming her loss on Israel, and shouting anti-Semitic epithets at a Jewish reporter (hat tip to Ms Underestimated with video to follow).

Yet, not one of the network evening news broadcasts bothered to report this event. Of course, all three networks began their shows with Sen. Joe Lieberman’s loss in Connecticut.

Ms Underestimated has been kind enough to supply us an absolutely unbelievable Fox News (WARNING BAD LANGUAGE!!) video of this event.

[Shammu]

I'm not sure which is more obscene, the comments made by McKinney's confidants, or the severe downplay of the comments by the media. They can't claim "didn't want to kick them when they were down," or "their emotions got the best of them." because those were ignored in the Mel Gibson coverage. 

For all the weeping and wailing over Mel Gibson's actions, there seems to be very little stiring among the media masses over soon to be ex-Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's anti-semetic mouth. The only place I saw it was Fox.

I'm not defending Mel's drunken words and actions, as they were inappropriate and offensive. But he did quickly apologize. Will these folks do the same.........

The world wonders??

[Soldier4Christ]

Nope no apologies forthcomming. Didn't you know that such racial epitaphs are accepted depending on who it is coming from. McKinney has done herself in. I do not see her in government politics in the future. A sort of black ball effect if you will. Her behaviour has appalled even the majority of the black populace as well.

[Shammu]

I guess where I am, is backwards.  Here we don't hear racial epitaphs, out of the general population.  Course I don't go out to that many places either.

[Soldier4Christ]

It is heard quite frequently around here. Primarily what is called "reverse" racial statements. I have yet to figure out why they call it "reverse". Racial bigotry is racial bigotry no matter who it is coming from or directed at.