7/27

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/28/2006 01:12:00 PM 0 comments   

7/26 - Neal Katyal

• Stossel Column. John Stossel’s July 19, 2006 column arguing against prohibitions on marriage between cousins is on-line here. According to the website Cousin Couples, most states allow marriage between first cousins, though some only allow such marriage when the couples will not bear children (site on-line here).

• The Word: Democrazy. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki spoke to Congress on July 26 after a two-day visit with President George W. Bush. An article about the address to Congress is on-line here; transcripts of appearances on July 26 and 27 with Bush are on-line here and here. Some Democrats have criticized Maliki for not condemning Hezbollah, which abducted two Israeli soldiers on July 12, an action sparking Israel’s recent military actions in Lebanon.
  Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein recently ended a hunger strike protesting his ongoing trial. Hussein began the hunger strike on July 7 but began receiving food via a tube on July 23.
  As for that meeting between Hussein and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, they did meet in the early 1980s, but the context is worth noting. At the time, Rumsfeld was acting as President Ronald Reagan’s Middle East envoy and was visiting Iraq as one of many stops in that time period. His first visit to Iraq was no secret; instead, the New York Times reported at the time that the State Department was hailing it as “an effort to demonstrate to the Arabs the American desire for good relations with them as well as the Israelis.”
  At the time, Iraq was involved in a war with neighboring Iran, a war that Iraq started with an attack in 1980 and that would go on until 1988. The United States was officially neutral in the Iran-Iraq war, but did recognize Iran as more of a threat to U.S. interests. Iranian students had held Americans hostage from December 1979 to January 1981, and Iran had threatened to cut off oil supply routes.
  Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Iran does appear to have been a concern to the United States at the time. Official documents (on-line here) indicate that the United States did know that Iraq had used chemical weapons against Iran and had warned Iraq against doing so as early as November 1983. According to official documents, Rumsfeld did not raise concerns about chemical weapons in his December 1983 meeting with Saddam Hussein, but did tell Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq that the United States’ “efforts to assist were inhibited by certain things that made it difficult for us[,] citing the use of chemical weapons, possible escalation in the Gulf, and human rights.”
  The United States then publicly condemned Iraq’s chemical weapons use on March 5, 1984. Rumsfeld visited Iraq again weeks later, and documents indicate that “bilateral relations were sharply set back by our March 5 condemnation of Iraq for CW use, despite our repeated warnings that this issue would emerge sooner or later.”
  Despite Iraq’s continued use of chemical weapons, the United States formally restored diplomatic relations with Iraq in November 1984 (Iraq and all other Arab nations broke ties with the United States in 1967 after Israel’s war defeat of Egypt, Syria and Jordan).

• Stephen’s Sound Advice: What to Do in a Blackout. Panic. Arm yourself. Be prepared. Eliminate perishables. Turn everything on. Get it on.

• Reference to Supreme Court Decision. The United States Supreme Court decided on July 29 that the Bush administration’s order creating the military commissions being used to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay exceeded the limits set by Congress for convening military courts (on-line here). A majority of justices also held that the procedures for the commissions did not satisfy the Geneva Convention’s requirement of a “regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”

• Superhero Stamps. DC superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Green Arrow and Plastic Man are featured on new 2006 commemorative stamps. Future stamp sets might feature Marvel superheroes such as Captain America and Spider-man. A press release is on-line here and a recent article is on-line here.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/27/2006 08:12:00 AM 0 comments   

7/25 - Bill Donohue

• Commentary on Better Know a District. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Florida) appeared on the show on July 20 and is on-line here. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Georgia) appeared on the June 14 show and is on-line here.
  The morning talk shows are not the first to ask why politicians appear on the show. A New York Times article from February 2006 is on-line here.
  By the way, the Ten Commandments, otherwise known as the Decalogue, are drawn from God's speech to Moses on Mount Sinai in the Book of Exodus, Chapter 20. As generally understood, the first four commandments deal with the beliefs and practices of Christians and Jews. The last six are moral and ethical rules dealing with general behavior and are thus applicable to non-believers.
  1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
  2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
  3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
  4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant.
  5. Honour thy father and thy mother.
  6. Thou shalt not kill.
  7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
  8. Thou shalt not steal.
  9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
  10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant.

• The Word: Opposite Day. President George W. Bush vetoed a bill (H.R. 810) that would have changed Bush’s federal policy and would have allowed for federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells that are taken from embryos that would otherwise be destroyed. The Senate passed the bill by a 63-37 vote on July 18, Bush vetoed the bill on July 19 (veto message on-line here and press conference on-line here), and the House, which had passed the bill in 2005, failed to get the 2/3 majority necessary to override the veto.
  While federal funding has been limited, California has been working to fund stem cell research. On July 20, the day after Bush’s veto, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger directed the California Department of Finance to move forward on a $150 million loan to the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (release on-line here). The institute was established in 2004 after California voters passed a referendum that will provide $3 billion in funding for stem cell research and is on-line here.
  Embryonic stem cells have been controversial in recent years, first because of their derivation from aborted fetuses, and then because of their connection with a particular kind of human, non-reproductive cloning. Stem cells in general are unspecialized cells that can self-renew indefinitely and that can develop into more mature cells with specialized functions, and embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from an early-stage embryo. Whether the federal government should fund the development of such cells grew into a major policy question in recent years, culminating with Bush's decision on August 9, 2001 to allow federal funding for research on then-existing stem cell lines as long as the lines were derived from embryos that were already destroyed and that had not been created specifically for research (on-line here).

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/26/2006 07:46:00 AM 0 comments   

7/24 - Howell Raines

• U.S.A! The British Open is on-line here. The Tour de France is on-line here. The Miss Universe pageant is on-line here.

• The Rapture. The concept of the Rapture, which has reached a wide audience in recent years through the popular Left Behind series of books by Tim LaHave and Jerry Jenkins, holds that Jesus will take away devout Christians will be taken to Heaven before seven years of suffering that will precede Jesus's return to Earth and his rule for a thousand years. The basis for this concept is a reading of some parts of the New Testament, especially the Book of Revelation, and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, which holds that "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout … and the dead in Christ shall rise first : Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
  However, some religious leaders dispute the entire Rapture concept as well as the Left Behind series. The Illinois Conference of Bishops (on-line here) has said that the Rapture concept "is not supported in Scripture" and has criticized the Left Behind series as "a vehicle for anti-Catholic sentiments" and for "reinforce[ing] an unhealthy and immature belief in a harshly judgmental God whose mercy we earn by good behavior."

• The Word: Moral Minority. Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition, lost the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in Georgia, getting 44 percent of the vote to Casey Cagle’s 56 percent.

• Threat Down: Camp Quest! Religion in School! La Porte, Indiana! Shyamalan! Kix! Camp Quest is on-line here. An article about schools arranging their holiday schedule for religious holidays is on-line here and a list of religious holidays approved by the New Jersey State Department of Education is on-line here.

• Reference to Jayson Blair. Former reporter Jayson Blair, 27, resigned from the New York Times in May 2003 amidst reports that he had falsified stories and committed acts of plagiarism.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/25/2006 08:37:00 AM 0 comments   

7/20 - Tom Brokaw

• NAACP Speech President George W. Bush spoke to the National Convention of the NAACP in person for the first time in his presidency on July 20 (speech on-line here). In his speech, Bush said that he considered it “a tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historic ties with the African American community. For too long my party wrote off the African American vote, and many African Americans wrote off the Republican Party.”
  White House spokesman Tony Snow said on July 18 (transcript on-line here) that Bush had decided to do so at this time because he “wants to make the argument that he has had a career that reflects a strong commitment to civil rights” and “to talk about some of the commonalities he has with members of the NAACP.”
  A Gallup poll of African-Americans’ views on Bush from June 2006 found that 15 percent approved of Bush’s job as president and that 78 disapproved. This is consistent with Bush’s approval rating among African-Americans from June of 2004 and 2005, and the lowest of the five years of Bush’s presidency (poll report on-line here).

• Better Know a District. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Florida) is on-line here. Wexler and other Florida officials generally have opposed drilling off Florida’s coast (recent release on-line here).

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/21/2006 08:45:00 AM 0 comments   

7/19 - Joe Scarborough

• Bush Veto. President George W. Bush vetoed a bill (H.R. 810) that would have changed Bush’s federal policy and would have allowed for federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells that are taken from embryos that would otherwise be destroyed. The Senate passed the bill by a 63-37 vote on July 18, Bush vetoed the bill on July 19 (veto message on-line here and press conference on-line here), and the House, which had passed the bill in 2005, failed to get the 2/3 majority necessary to override the veto.
  Embryonic stem cells have been controversial in recent years, first because of their derivation from aborted fetuses, and then because of their connection with a particular kind of human, non-reproductive cloning. Stem cells in general are unspecialized cells that can self-renew indefinitely and that can develop into more mature cells with specialized functions, and embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from an early-stage embryo. Whether the federal government should fund the development of such cells grew into a major policy question in recent years, culminating with Bush's decision on August 9, 2001 to allow federal funding for research on then-existing stem cell lines as long as the lines were derived from embryos that were already destroyed and that had not been created specifically for research (on-line here).

• The Word: R-E-S-P-E-C-T. President George W. Bush is scheduled to speak to the National Convention of the NAACP in person for the first time in his presidency on July 20. White House spokesman Tony Snow said on July 18 (transcript on-line here) that Bush had decided to do so at this time because he “wants to make the argument that he has had a career that reflects a strong commitment to civil rights” and “to talk about some of the commonalities he has with members of the NAACP.”
  A Gallup poll of African-Americans’ views on Bush from June 2006 found that 15 percent approved of Bush’s job as president and that 78 disapproved. This is consistent with Bush’s approval rating among African-Americans from June of 2004 and 2005, and the lowest of the five years of Bush’s presidency (poll report on-line here).

• The Convenientest Truth. Many people do agree that global average surface temperature has increased over the 100 years by about one degree and that higher concentrations of greenhouse gases relating to human activity such as the use of fossil fuels have contributed to this increase. President George W. Bush himself acknowledged the temperature increase and the greenhouse effect in a June 11, 2001 speech (on-line here), though he also raised questions about how much was known and what should be done in response.
  The documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” which features former Vice President Al Gore, is on-line here.

• Reference to Abramoff. Former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff pled guilty in January to charges of conspiracy, aiding and abetting fraud, and tax evasion (release on-line here) and was sentenced in March to 70 months in prison (press release on-line here). According to the plea agreement, Abramoff admitted conspiring to defraud four Native American Indian tribes that were clients by charging high fees and taking some in kickbacks. Abramoff also reportedly admitted to engaging in a pattern of corruptly providing things of value – including trips, tickets to events, campaign contributions, and meals at his restaurant - to public officials to benefit his clients. Abramoff also admitted to a tax evasion charge for not reporting the income he received in kickbacks.

• Buck O’Neil. Buck O’Neil, 94, played on July 18 in the Northern League All-Star Game, becoming the oldest player appearing in a professional baseball game. The Negro League Baseball Players Association has information on O’Neil on-line here.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/20/2006 07:34:00 AM 0 comments   

7/18 - Dhani Jones

• New York Times. The New York Times announced on July 18 that it would move to a smaller size in 2008 (press release on-line here).

• World War III? Israel currently is involved in military action on two fronts: it has sent forces into Gaza after members of the terrorist organization Hamas captured an Israeli soldier on June 25, and it has sent forces into Lebanon, fired missiles at the airport in Beirut, and imposed a naval blockade on Lebanon’s ports after members of the terrorist organization Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers on July 12. The United States and other G-8 countries have supported Israel’s right to self-defense but have said that Israel should refrain from acts that destabilize Lebanon’s government (statement on-line here).

• The Word: Solidarity. An issue pending before the National Labor Relations Board is whether nurses who give care assignments to other nurses should be classified as supervisors who are illegible for union membership; three cases raising this issue are called the “Kentucky River” decisions based on a Kentucky facility that sought to block charge nurses from becoming union members. The NLRB decided in June not to hold hearings on the issue, and union members held rallies around the country on the issue. A NLRB statement on the issue is on-line here.

• Problems without a Solution. Bears!

• Dhani Jones. Dhani Jones is on-line here.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/19/2006 08:28:00 AM 0 comments   

7/17 - Lee Silver

• Stephen & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has made headlines in the past month with the June 15 announcement that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates would transition out of a day-to-day role at the company in July 2008 in order to spend more time on charitable work through the foundation (release on-line here) and with the announcement that renowned investor Warren Buffet would give away much of his fortune to it and four other foundations (article on-line here). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on global health and education issues, is on-line here.

• Middle East. Israel currently is involved in military action on two fronts: it has sent forces into Gaza after members of the terrorist organization Hamas captured an Israeli soldier on June 25, and it has sent forces into Lebanon, fired missiles at the airport in Beirut, and imposed a naval blockade on Lebanon’s ports after members of the terrorist organization Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers on July 12.
  President George W. Bush has acknowledged Israel’s right to defend itself but has said that Israel should refrain from acts that destabilize Lebanon’s government, which Bush described on July 13 as a “fragile democracy” (on-line here). Bush said on July 13 that for the situation to settle down, “the soldiers need to be returned, and [Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad] needs to show some leadership toward peace.” When asked if he was concerned if Israel’s attacks on the airport in Beirut could trigger a wider Middle East war, Bush said that he was most concerned about weakening the government in Lebanon, where the anti-Syrian opposition won a majority of seats in the parliament in June 2005.
  An article about President George W. Bush’s comments on July 17 while his microphone was on without his knowledge is on-line here.

• The Word: T&A. The Miss Universe 2006 pageant will air July 23 and is on-line here.

• Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger. Arizona citizens will vote in November on a measure to award a $1 million prize to one voter in the primary and general elections held every two years, beginning retroactively with the 2006 elections. Proponents of the measure say that it will help encourage voter turnout, while opponents say that the measure is unnecessary and possibly illegal. The text of the measure is on-line here and an article on the measure is on-line here.
  A New York Times story about the change in Wal-Mart policy towards shoplifting of items under $25 in price is on-line here. The story is based on documents provided by WakeUpWal-mart.com, a group trying to unionize Wal-Mart workers (release on-line here.

• Stem Cells. Stem cell research is not currently illegal in the United States, but President George W. Bush has allowed federal funding only for research on existing embryonic stem cell lines, which some have criticized as limiting the extent to which effective research can be done. The Senate is considering a bill (H.R. 810) that would change Bush’s policy and allow for federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells that are taken from embryos that would otherwise be destroyed. The White House has announced its opposition to this bill and has said that Bush would veto it if passed (policy statement on-line here.
  Embryonic stem cells have been controversial in recent years, first because of their derivation from aborted fetuses, and then because of their connection with a particular kind of human, non-reproductive cloning. Stem cells in general are unspecialized cells that can self-renew indefinitely and that can develop into more mature cells with specialized functions, and embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from an early-stage embryo. Whether the federal government should fund the development of such cells grew into a major policy question in recent years, culminating with President George W. Bush's decision on August 9, 2001 to allow federal funding for research on then-existing stem cell lines as long as the lines were derived from embryos that were already destroyed and that had not been created specifically for research (on-line here).

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/18/2006 08:20:00 AM 0 comments   

7/13 - Ron Suskind

• Terror Targets. The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security released a report (on-line here) on July 11 questioning the effectiveness of the National Asset Database, which was an inventory of more than 77,000 national assets as of January 2006. The Inspector General noted that the ambiguity about what constituted a critical asset, the inconsistency in reporting criteria, and the inclusion of non-critical assets in the database could lead to inefficient uses of homeland security resources. As noted, Indiana had the most assets in the database, with about 50 percent more assets than New York and more than double the number of assets in California. Some of the assets included in the database were Old MacDonald’s petting zoo, Sweetwater flea market, a groundhog zoo, and other apparently non-essential locations. An article about the database is on-line here.

• The Word: Inquisition. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut) announced on July 3 that he was taking steps to run for a fourth term in the general election even if he does not win the Democratic primary on August 8 (release on-line here). Lieberman has faced opposition from businessman Ned Lamont (on-line here), who has criticized Lieberman’s support for the war in Iraq. The column by David Brooks is on-line here.

• Threat Down: Canadian Drugs! Fake Sperm! Jackie Chan! Rogue Waves! Magna Morphs! The Senate voted 68-32 on July 11 to prevent Homeland Security funds from being used to stop the importation of drugs from Canada. Senator David Vitter (R-Louisana) said in a statement that “while this is good news, we still have to secure this amendment in the upcoming House-Senate Conference” and that the measure may be eliminated from the homeland security appropriations bill when the Senate’s version is reconciled with the House’s.
  Researchers have reported the successful use of embryonic stem cells to grow sperm that can be used to produce offspring (release on-line here, which may help treat male infertility.
  The New York Times article about rogue waves is on-line here. Another article on rogue waves is on-line here.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/14/2006 08:37:00 AM 0 comments   

7/12 - Mort Zuckerman

• Massachusetts. Massachusetts legislators ended their legislative session on July 11 without voting on a measure that would begin a process for banning same-sex marriage in the state. Opponents of same-sex marriage have proposed a constitutional amendment that would end same-sex marriage in Massachusetts; this amendment must get the support of a quarter of the state’s legislators two times before being placed on a ballot for voters.
  Massachusetts is the only state that recognizes same-sex marriages, as a result of decisions by that state's highest court in 2003 and 2004. Only two states (Vermont and California) recognize same-sex couples' rights via an equivalent to marriage such as civil unions or domestic partnerships: Vermont and California. New York’s highest court decided on July 6 that New York’s constitution does not require the recognition of same-sex marriages and that the decision to allow same-sex marriages should be decided by the legislature (decision on-line here).

• The Word: The America Conventions. The United States Supreme Court decided on July 29 that the Bush administration’s order creating the military commissions being used to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay exceeded the limits set by Congress for convening military courts (on-line here). A majority of justices also held that the procedures for the commissions did not satisfy the Geneva Convention’s requirement of a “regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”
  The Bush administration reportedly announced on July 11 that terror suspects had rights and legal protections under the Geneva Conventions (article on-line here). This marks a change from the prior policy that President George W. Bush announced in February 2002, that all al-Qaeda fighters would be considered unlawful combatants and not as prisoners of war who would have certain rights under the Geneva Conventions.

• Better Know a District. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Washington) is on-line here.

• Mort Zuckerman. A collection of Mort Zuckerman’s columns from U.S. News & World Report is on-line here.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/13/2006 09:19:00 AM 0 comments   

7/11 - Tony Hawk

• Our Kids – What the Hell is Wrong with Them? The USA Today article about recess that Stephen mentioned is on-line here. Information about Illinois’s All Kids program, which provides health care to all children in Illinois, is on-line here; Governor Rod Blagojevich announced on June 29 that 43,000 children were enrolled in the program and that coverage would start on July 1, 2006 (release on-line here).

• The Word: Psychopharmaparenting. The June 6 New York Times article that Stephen referenced is on-line here. The article referred to a recent study that found that the number of antipsychotic medication prescriptions for children and adolescents increased six-fold between 1993 and 2002 and that most prescriptions in the 2000-02 period were for newer medications that had not yet been approved for youths (press release for the study on-line here).

• Stephen R.A.P.S.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/12/2006 08:22:00 AM 0 comments   

7/10 - Amy Sedaris

• World Cup. Italy defeated France on penalty kicks in the World Cup’s final game on July 9. French star Zinedine Zidane was ejected from the game after using his head to strike Italian player Marco Materazzi in the chest, apparently after Materazzi insulted Zidane in some way (see article on-line here).

• Flags. The Senate voted 66-34 on June 27 in favor of a constitutional amendment that would allow for the banning of flag-burning, falling one vote short of the 2/3 majority required for Senate approval (roll call vote on-line here). Since 1989, when the Supreme Court ruled that a law banning flag-burning unconstitutionally suppressed free expression, Congress has tried several times to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow for such a law. If such an effort were to make it past Congress, then three-quarters of the states would have to approve the amendment for it to be ratified.
  The American Legion has supported the passage of a constitutional amendment allowing for the banning of flag-burning. Information about the American Legion’s ceremony for disposing unserviceable flags, which includes the destruction by burning, is on-line here.

• The Word: Silver Foxes. Newsweek columnist Jane Bryant Quinn’s column on the decline in pensions is on-line here.

• Stephen’s Sound Advice on Wildfires: Stop fires before they start. Cut trees down. Avoid people. Location, location, location. The National Interagency Fire Center, which supports efforts to fight wildland fires, is on-line here.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/11/2006 08:12:00 AM 0 comments