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The Hardball Briefing On MSNBC
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Tonight we'll delve back into the "politics of greed" with Howard Fineman and talk to
Martha, Inc. author Christopher Byron on the question: Why has she become the poster
girl for spoiled elites who think they're above the law?
Martha Stewart now has a target on her back. Federal investigators are focusing their
criminal probe on whether the homemaking diva gave the FBI a bogus story to cover up
insider trading, two sources familiar with the case said yesterday. (NY Daily News)
http://nydailynews.com/today/News_and_Views/Scandal_Sheet/a-155748.asp
Howard's piece: The Politics of Greed...As the business world churns, the Democrats
ponder how to make Wall Street's moral chaos pay at the polls
http://www.msnbc.com/news/771108.asp
Dig this USA Today piece: Spouses get board seats forbidden to lawmakers Critics say
corporations are trying to influence Congress
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020627/4228521s.htm
WorldCom Sought Influence Up to Announcement...Access to Politicians in Both Parties,
Donations Mean Earnings Scandal May Have Fallout on Hill (The Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51915-2002Jun26.html
We'll do the culture war underpinnings of today's Supreme Court rulings with Barr and
Jackson-Lee...Judiciary Committee Chairman Orin Hatch will kick off the block
Breaking news on that controversial appeals court ruling yesterday: A day after he
shocked the nation by declaring the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, a federal
appeals court judge put his ruling on hold Thursday. (AP)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=703&e=2&u=/ap/20020627/ap_on_re_us/pledge_of_allegiance_22
The Supremes are at it again! A closely divided Supreme Court upheld Thursday the use
of public money to send disadvantaged students to religious schools, a victory for
President Bush and other advocates of tuition voucher programs. (Reuters)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54620-2002Jun27.html
A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that public middle and high schools can require
drug tests for students in extracurricular activities such as choir or band without
violating their privacy rights. (Reuters)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54482-2002Jun27.html
Hot D Block debate tonight! Mueller in Keynote Controversy...FBI Chief Criticized for
Planned Speech to Muslim Council (The Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39204-2002Jun24.html
We'll talk to the head of the American Muslim Council and Frank Gaffney on whether
Mueller should speak at the group's meeting..
The political buzz will be Ralph Reed and Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein on their "Stand For
Israel" campaign http://www.standforisrael.org/
Dominic Bellone compiled and edited this document in Washington, DC
Infrastructure infiltration...Cyber warfare attacks...Al-Qaeda's next frontier? It
may sound like innocuous e-mail viruses you're used to getting at your office that may
destroy a file or two...But imagine a massive attack like 9-11 and then criticial
infrastructure systems going haywire: an entire power grid shutting down, hospitals
without power, or the water supply shutting off, or the 911 emergency response
breaking down...According to senior government officials and terrorism experts, it's a
possibility...
WashPost: Cyber-attacks by al-Qaida feared...Unsettling signs of al-Qaida's aims and
skills in cyberspace have led some government experts to conclude that terrorists are
at the threshold of using the Internet as a direct instrument of bloodshed.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/772908.asp
Court rejects Pledge of Allegiance...A federal appeals court declared the Pledge of
Allegiance unconstitutional Wednesday because the words "under God" added by Congress
in 1954 constituted an endorsement of religion.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/772714.asp
Lawmakers rushed to the steps of the Capitol to defiantly recite the Pledge of
Allegiance following a federal appeals court's decision declaring it unconstitutional.
(AP)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=703&e=2&u=/ap/20020627/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pledge_reaction_8
President Bush told his key allies today that the United States would cut off aid to
the Palestinians if they failed to embrace the kind of changes he demanded on Monday.
(NY Times)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nyt/20020627/ts_nyt/bush_says_palestinians_will_lose_aid_if_they_keep_arafat
Palestinian officials on Thursday brushed aside President Bush's threat to withhold
financial aid and said Palestinians would defy U.S. pressure to replace their longtime
leader, Yasser Arafat. (Reuters)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20020627/wl_nm/mideast_dc_2801
Gertz: Two Chinese jet fighters came within 150 feet of a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft
near China in the first close encounter since a collision last year between an EP-3
and a Chinese jet, The Washington Times has learned.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020627-14770304.htm
Renewed hunt for al-Qaida holdouts...U.S. soldiers, accompanied by local soldiers, are
stepping up the search for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida holdouts in remote provinces
of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/627086.asp
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling for legislation that would give employees
who hold strong religious beliefs more rights in the workplace. (The Washington Times)
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20020627-835603.htm
Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday urged both former former Tennessee governor
Lamar Alexander and Rep. Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.) to "tone down the rhetoric" in their race
for the GOP Senate nomination. (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/midsouth_news/article/0,1426,MCA_1497_1232528,00.html
Al Gore is holding a retreat this weekend that could let other Democrats know whether
he can raise the money he needs to makes another run at the White House. (AP)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53567-2002Jun27.html
Leaders Reach Out to Davis...After the resounding defeat of Rep. Earl Hilliard
(D-Ala.) on Tuesday marked the end to a contest that strained relations between black
and Jewish Democrats, observers said the same tensions are all but certain to erupt in
other races in this cycle. (Roll Call)
http://www.rollcall.com/pages/news/00/2002/06/news0627c.html
Neal Travis: I'm not sure how well Playboy will do with its "Women of Enron" exposure,
but Hugh Hefner could be on a real winner if he tries "The Girls of ImClone."
http://pagesix.com/nealtravis/nealtravis.htm
Opinion/editorial
Law and order...Slate's Dahlia Lithwick and former U.S. Solicitor General Walter
Dellinger discuss today's federal appeals court ruling that the 'one nation under God'
clause in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional.
http://slate.msn.com//?id=2067003&entry=0
Novak: Corporate corruption steams Bush
http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak27.html
Rossett: Back to the Futures...What Martha Stewart could learn from Hillary.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/cRosett/?id=110001898
Tyrrell: The perfect book for Hillary http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/tyrell.html
Doonesbury http://www.ucomics.com/doonesbury/viewdb.cfm?uc_full_date=20020627
Mallard Fillmore http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/mallard.asp
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