************************************************** * RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST * * Volume IV, Issue #999 * Friday, October 6th, 2006 * Email Circulation 2,054 * * Published every non-holiday weekday * by the staff of Rational Review * * On the Web: http://www.rationalreview.com/news * In cooperation with ISIL: htp://www.isil.org **************************************************
************************************************** * SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS * * MIDDLE AMERICA * The Third Revolution continues! * http://tinyurl.com/gl5od * * BIRD FLU: REAL OR JUST MORE HYPE? * Boost your immune system naturally! * http://www.shopnutronix.com/freetexas * * NEW LIBERTARIAN MANIFESTO -- BACK IN PRINT! * http://kopubco.com/nlm_trade.html * ************************************************** In The News: 1) Bush asserts new illegal power on privacy reports 2) Panel approves subpoenas in page scandal 3) Iraq: Rice sneaks in, slinks out as more die 4) NV: Religious leaders unite on marijuana initiative 5) CA: Court upholds anti-marriage law 6) Russia deports Georgians by plane 7) CA: Growers express puzzled by "spinach" raid 8) NY: Stores resist land theft 9) Nations to meet, talk action on Iran 10) Clark: Hanging Saddam would cause chaos 11) Navy corpsman to testify against Marines 12) Mayors vow more victim disarmament 13) AZ: Appeals court blocks voter ID law 14) Thousands nationwide protest Bush 15) WI: Pistol-packing teachers advocated 16) CO: Homeowner justified in shooting but faces charge 17) FL: City council rejects Know-Nothing nonsense 18) Unlikely terrorists on no-fly list 19) DC police: Spycams not helping fight crime much 20) Cigars and sex "boost Cuba lives" 21) CA: Mogul's network bankrolls Prop 90 22) ME: Parents indicted in teen's kidnapping 23) Muppets teach children a land mine lesson 24) MA: Patrick says he gave money to aid convict 25) Workplace rules lax for Congress Everybody Has An Opinion: 26) States of denial 27) Dear libertarian Democrats ... 28) What makes Tony run? 29) Breaking away 30) There is no step-God 31) A moral and practical disaster 32) Investigate Bush 33) Despite "withdrawal," Gaza siege goes on 34) Media should protect identity of Foley page 35) Congress's shameful retreat 36) Waterboarding the Constitution 37) The myth of non-political AIDS 38) Close but no cigar 39) Political offensive could leave us defenseless 40) Theopublican ship takes on more water 41) Two cheers for the Welches 42) Foleygate 43) Fall guy of Foleygate 44) Rice's lost credibility 45) Woodward and you 46) Is Obama ready to roll? 47) Say goodnight, Denny 48) On every level, the Iraq war is hurting America 49) The gay problem in the GOP 50) The Constitution, writ or wrong 51) "Competition" with China is killing US 52) Retiring with dignity 53) Can John Laesch take down Hastert? 54) Government money deserves a "swift" abolition 55) Hawaii Democrats pay for Foley scandal 56) Why did the founders omit term limits? 57) The turtle war 58) Free-market medicine 59) Bad drugs coming to a pharmacy near you? 60) Citizens committee lauds NJ judge's "epiphany" See No Evil, Hear No Evil: 61) Jack Roeser on Freedom Rings 62) Free Talk Live, 10/05/06 63) Freedomain Radio #448 64) The Labour-Tory blur Weekly Symposium: 65) Religion and politics What's Up In The Freedom Movement: 66) Today's events WaYbAcK: 67) Tyndale burns *************** * In The News *************** 1) Bush asserts new illegal power on privacy reports MSNBC "President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit the Homeland Security Department's reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists. In the law Bush signed Wednesday, Congress stated no one but the privacy officer could alter, delay or prohibit the mandatory annual report on Homeland Security department activities that affect privacy, including complaints." (10/05/06) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15145197/ ----- 2) Panel approves subpoenas in page scandal Lincoln Courier "The House ethics committee approved nearly four dozen subpoenas Thursday as its investigation of a page sex scandal sprang to life with a promise by its leaders to go 'wherever the evidence leads us.' Speaker Dennis Hastert said he accepted responsibility for any earlier failures to investigate complaints of inappropriate behavior by Rep. Mark Foley toward teenage male pages. But he resisted pressure to step down." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/s8hy9 ----- 3) Iraq: Rice sneaks in, slinks out as more die San Francisco Chronicle "Wearing a helmet and a flak jacket and flanked by machine-gun-toting bodyguards to defend against insurgents, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came here Thursday, insisting that there were new signs of progress in Iraq and that the Bush administration had never sugarcoated its news about the American occupation. ... the military transport plane that brought her to Baghdad was forced to circle the city for about 40 minutes because of what a State Department spokesman later said was either mortar fire or rockets at the airport. ... She arrived in the midst of an especially bloody few days for American troops. At least 21 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Saturday, most in Baghdad. Two car bombings in the city Thursday left at least four Iraqi civilians dead." (10/06/06) http://tinyurl.com/lgrxv ----- 4) NV: Religious leaders unite on marijuana initiative Gazette Journal "A dozen Northern Nevada religious leaders plan to announce today they support the initiative to legalize marijuana. 'I know of no place else in the country where a group of religious leaders is coming together to speak with a unified voice with regulating marijuana,' said Troy Dayton, associate director of the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative. The Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative addresses drug policies issues nationwide and is working with the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana. Dayton said he called many religious leaders to get their support on the initiative. The list of 32 churches, mostly in Las Vegas and Reno, includes Christians and Jews, mainline denominations and several black churches." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/ndcuy ----- 5) CA: Court upholds anti-marriage law San Francisco Chronicle "Gays and lesbians have no constitutional right to marry in California, and any change giving them that right must come from state lawmakers or the voters rather than the legal system, a state appeals court declared Thursday. The 2-1 decision reversed a lower-court ruling in favor of plaintiffs who were among the thousands of gays and lesbians who married at San Francisco City Hall in 2004. It cleared the way for both sides to argue their case before the state Supreme Court, which will have the final say on whether the courts can give same-sex couples the right to marry." (10/06/06) http://tinyurl.com/lpndd ----- 6) Russia deports Georgians by plane International Herald Tribune [France] "Russia deported on Friday a planeload of Georgians accused of illegal immigration in its latest blow against its southern neighbour, officials said. 'I can confirm that the plane with Georgians deported from Moscow will arrive in Tbilisi at 1600 local time (1200 GMT),' Georgian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nino Kajaia said. The Georgians were rounded up in police raids over the past few days as part of a wider Russian campaign of sanctions against Tbilisi. Moscow acted after Georgia briefly arrested four Russian officers on spying charges." (10/06/06) http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/06/europe/web.1006georgia.php ----- 7) CA: Growers express puzzled by "spinach" raid San Jose Mercury News "When the first of the dozen or so federal agents arrived Wednesday about 9:30 a.m. at Growers Express in Salinas, equipped with sidearms and search warrants, some employees initially thought it was some kind of sick joke. It wasn't. The FBI and Food and Drug Administration agents spent the next six hours meticulously sifting through paper and computer records looking for evidence of violations of federal law that might have led to an E. coli outbreak in bagged spinach that has now led to two confirmed deaths. ... Growers Express doesn't process any fresh bagged spinach, the only product found to have E. coli contamination. And the company says the small amount of bagged spinach it markets is purchased from processors not connected to the recent recall." (10/06/06) http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/15693599.htm ----- 8) NY: Stores resist land theft Albany Times Union "A group of stores is asking the state's highest court to hear their challenge to a development agency's use of eminent domain in the proposed expansion of the Carousel Center into a multibillion dollar megamall. Macy's, Lord & Taylor, J.C. Penney and seven other stores on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeals in Albany to hear their arguments against the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency's use of eminent domain on behalf of developer Robert Congel to seize some of their lease rights at the mall." (10/06/06) http://tinyurl.com/rhr5j ----- 9) Nations to meet, talk action on Iran Tacoma News Tribune "The U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia will confer Friday in London to assess Iran's defiant refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. They are expected to refer the nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council for talks next week on possible sanctions, diplomats said Thursday. Russia's foreign minister, however, said he believes it is too soon to impose sanctions on Iran and that further efforts are needed to push Tehran to negotiate." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/nbtjd ----- 10) Clark: Hanging Saddam would cause chaos Porterville Recorder "Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a member of Saddam Hussein's defense team, predicted on Thursday that a bloodbath would follow should an Iraqi court trying the former president have him executed. At a news conference, Clark said he feared that should Saddam and the others be hanged, 'catastrophic violence' would follow that would lead to 'the end of civilization as we know it in the birthplace of civilization, Mesopotamia. Total, unmitigated chaos.'" (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/p8qqa ----- 11) Navy corpsman to testify against Marines Greensburg Daily News "During two tours of duty in Iraq, Navy corpsman Melson J. Bacos experienced fire fights with insurgents, soldiers dying in his arms, thoughts of whether he'd live another day, he said. Now he has another unnerving assignment. On Friday, the 21-year-old is scheduled to give testimony that military prosecutors hope will help them convict seven Marines accused of kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi man in the town of Hamdania." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/kfclr ----- 12) Mayors vow more victim disarmament CNN "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said Thursday the mayors of more than 100 U.S. cities have joined their effort to get illegal guns off America's streets after a spike in violent crime. They pledged to increase gun control and impose stiffer penalties on illegal weapons traffickers. They also announced plans for regional intelligence databases to track illegal firearms and a new Web site on gun-trafficking legislation." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/fprdf ----- 13) AZ: Appeals court blocks voter ID law Charlotte Observer "A federal appellate court has blocked the enforcement of an Arizona law that requires voters to show identification before casting a ballot and submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday came a month before the Nov. 7 general election, and just before Monday's deadline to register. The law had already been used for the Sept. 12 primary and in some municipal elections." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/fd24t ----- 14) Thousands nationwide protest Bush Ada Evening News "Hundreds of people called the Bush administration's policies a crime and held up yellow police tape along a three-block stretch in front of the White House on Thursday as part of a nationwide day of protest against the president. The 500 demonstrators were among many who gathered for similar events in more than 200 cities to protest Bush on issues ranging from global warming to the war in Iraq." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/zwnk2 ----- 15) WI: Pistol-packing teachers advocated KRQE News "The recent string of school shootings has prompted a Wisconsin lawmaker to propose arming teachers with guns. Republican state Rep. Frank Lasee said it's a concept that's worked in Israel and Thailand, so why not Wisconsin? Lasee said if teachers had guns, students or others would think twice about committing acts of violence in schools. Lasee is from Bellevue, near Green Bay, where an attack on a school was recently prevented. Under his proposal, no teacher would be required to carry a weapon, but those who want to would get extensive training. He plans to introduce the bill at the start of next year's legislative session." [editor's note: About damn time! - TLK] (10/05/06) http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?ID=17525 ----- 16) CO: Homeowner justified in shooting but faces charge Coloradoan "A Fort Collins homeowner who shot a man on a stoop outside a side door was justified in doing so, the District Attorney's office decided Wednesday, but the homeowner still will face a misdemeanor charge related to the incident. Steven Ray, 58, faces one count of prohibited use of a weapon stemming from the early-morning shooting .... Ray said barking dogs woke him around 1:30 a.m. and he noticed someone in the backyard when he looked outside. The power was out because of an unrelated outage, and when David Ebner refused to identify himself when asked by Ray, the statement said, Ray retrieved a .45 caliber handgun from his basement. According to the statement, Ebner was reaching for a door handle when Ray returned, a struggle ensued and Ray fired three times. ... he third shot, Abrahamson said in the release, was an un-aimed shot fired several seconds later and Ray had no idea as to where the bullet was going. This shot, Abrahamson said in the statement, placed all those within range at risk and warranted the misdemeanor charge." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/mcfwe ----- 17) FL: City council rejects Know-Nothing nonsense BBC News [UK] "A city council in central Florida has rejected a by-law that would have been among the strictest local legislation in the US against illegal immigrants. Members of the Avon Park council voted 3-2 against the by-law, or ordinance, after a heated five-hour debate. The law would have made English the official language and penalised people doing business with illegal immigrants. A Pennsylvania council passed a similar law this month while other US towns and cities are considering such measures." (10/04/06) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5213260.stm ----- 18) Unlikely terrorists on no-fly list CBS News "60 Minutes, in collaboration with the National Security News Service, has obtained the secret list used to screen airline passengers for terrorists and discovered it includes names of people not likely to cause terror, including the president of Bolivia, people who are dead and names so common, they are shared by thousands of innocent fliers. Steve Kroft's investigation, in which an ex-FBI agent who worked on its al Qaeda task force says the list of 44,000 names is ineffective, will be broadcast this Sunday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. ET/PT." (10/05/06) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/05/60minutes/main2066624.shtml ----- 19) DC police: Spycams not helping fight crime much NBC 4 News "Many D.C. police said they had hoped that installing dozens of new surveillance cameras across the city would assist them in cracking down on crime, but the system does not appear to be working as planned. It was a very violent weekend across the D.C. area, with 11 people shot, four of them fatally. One of the shootings in the District was caught on one of the new cameras, but police said so far, the cameras have not been much help in any other case. ... The surveillance program has been in effect for about a month, but police said there has yet to be prosecution involving evidence used from the cameras. Some residents have mixed feelings on the cameras. 'Yes and no. Yes, because it's safeguarding the community. No, because it's like an invasion of privacy to look out your window and see a camera there,' said a community member." (10/02/06) http://www.nbc4.com/news/9985252/detail.html?rss=dc&psp=news ----- 20) Cigars and sex "boost Cuba lives" BBC News [UK] "Cuba's high number of centenarians say their longevity is down to laying off alcohol, but indulging in coffee, cigars and sex. The findings are the result of a study that looked into the lives of 54 out of the more than 100 centenarians who live in Villa Clara province. More than 60% of them had parents who also lived to be over 100. Cuba, with a population of 11.2 million, has about 3,000 people who have lived for more than a century. The results of the study were reported to the National Geriatrics and Social Work workshop in Santa Clara town, the newspaper Juventud Rebelde said." (10/05/06) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5407636.stm ----- 21) CA: Mogul's network bankrolls Prop 90 San Francisco Chronicle "A network of tax-exempt advocacy groups -- all with ties to a New York real estate investor -- is funneling millions of dollars to the campaign for a California property rights measure in a way that cloaks the identity and number of financial supporters. The intricate financial web is the source of nearly all the money used to promote Proposition 90, an initiative on the November ballot aimed in part at curbing the power of government to seize private property. The financing network has spent more than $14.6 million around the country since late last year on 20 initiative drives, most concerning property rights and taxes. The man at the center of this national effort is Howie Rich, a wealthy libertarian who believes in limited government and has long used tax-exempt groups to promote his favored candidates and political beliefs -- property rights, term limits, tax cuts and school vouchers, among others." [editor's note: Of course, we'd never leftie "moguls" like George Soros bankrolling their favored causes, right? - TLK] (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/jcyyu ----- 22) ME: Parents indicted in teen's kidnapping Fox News "A couple accused of tying up their pregnant daughter and taking her across the state line to try to force her to have an abortion were indicted on charges of kidnapping, assaulting and terrorizing. The Cumberland County grand jury handed up the indictments late Wednesday against Nicholas and Lola Kampf, who were arrested Sept. 15 at a shopping center in Salem, N.H., after their daughter, Katelyn, 19, fled and called police on a cell phone. The Kampfs were originally charged with kidnapping in New Hampshire, but prosecutors there dropped their case after Maine officials filed charges against the couple last week." (10/05/06) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,218018,00.html ----- 23) Muppets teach children a land mine lesson Christian Science Monitor "'Bang!' The little puppet boy steps on a mine, and now he only has one leg. The Afghan children watching the video at a school on a Kabul hillside gasp. Puppets have long been used to entertain and to teach children basic lessons such as how to count and the letters of the alphabet. Now in Afghanistan the creators of Muppet stars Miss Piggy and Fozzy Bear have teamed up with two charities to teach children a lesson in survival: how not to get killed or maimed by the millions of land mines still buried in the Afghan soil. 'The Story of the Little Carpet Boy,' loosely based on Pinocchio, is the brainchild of No Strings International, a British charity set up to reach children in war-torn areas and teach them vital life lessons through puppetry." (10/05/06) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1005/p15s01-legn.html ----- 24) MA: Patrick says he gave money to aid convict Boston Globe "Deval L. Patrick, who a week ago said his 'sole involvement' in the campaign to free a convicted rapist was a letter he wrote more than a decade ago, acknowledged last night that he made a financial contribution in 2001 to help pay for a DNA test the inmate hoped would free him from prison. The disclosure is the latest evidence that the Democratic nominee for governor was more deeply involved in the controversial effort to free Benjamin LaGuer than his statements to reporters indicated." [editor's note: So if someone once helped to make sure a man didn't get convicted of a crime he had not committed, by donating to a fund pay for DNA testing, it makes him a lesser candidate for Governor of Taxachusetts? One more reason I am glad I don't live there anymore - SAT] (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/plsmv ----- 25) Workplace rules lax for Congress Arizona Republic "When former Rep. Mark Foley and other soldiers of the 'Republican Revolution of 1994' took control of the U.S. House in 1995, they kept a promise to bring Congress under many of the same laws that apply to the rest of the country. But the reforms delivered from the GOP's 'Contract with America' may have fallen short when it comes to sexual harassment. In applying to Congress the same civil rights, labor and workplace-safety laws that U.S. businesses must observe, members set up a compliance system that legal experts say doesn't meet the standards seen in many corporations. 'When, ultimately, Congress made itself susceptible to these laws, it did the right thing. It was a shameful thing for Congress to not be covered,' said Micah Salb, a Washington, D.C.-area employment-law attorney. 'But if this were a business, without question it would not be operating as it should,' Salb said of Congress' compliance program." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/pt5dn ******************************************************************* * HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 10/06/06 * * Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 43,799 ... Max - 48,639 * (source: www.iraqbodycount.org) * * American Military Deaths in Iraq: 2,737 * (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/) ******************************************************************* **************************** * Everybody Has An Opinion **************************** 26) States of denial AntiWar.Com by Justin Raimondo "Bob Woodward's revelation that Condoleezza Rice was warned by George Tenet and two other top CIA officials, on July 10, 2001, that a terrorist attack on the U.S. was imminent continues to reverberate -- auguring potentially devastating consequences for the Bush White House. While Rice initially denied it, her spokesman confirmed that a meeting took place on that date, although Rice continues to plead a memory lapse. And as the news that Rice wasn't the only one privy to this briefing leaks out, a veritable epidemic of amnesia seems to be breaking out in Washington. Less than two months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped taking commercial domestic flights, and started chartering government jets for all his travels. Now why was that? In the wake of the attacks, so-called 'conspiracy theorists' immediately glommed on to this information and hailed it as evidence that 9/11 was 'an inside job.' Now we know that the conspiracy theorists were on to something, although not exactly what they imagined." (10/06/06) http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9807 ----- 27) Dear libertarian Democrats ... TCS Daily by Arnold Kling Dear Libertarian Democrats, Thank you for your recent overture. Libertarians are not very good at accepting overtures. We tend to be purists, and there is much in your essay that violates my ideas of libertarianism. Nonetheless, I would like to offer a constructive response. What I would propose is that we adopt a pragmatic, experimental approach toward working together. I am ready to acknowledge that Republicans have not served libertarians well the past six years. In fact, I recently made a controversial Case for Staying Home this November, because I am fed up with Republicans' focus on power politics and 'big-government conservatism.' My guess is that the Democratic Party is not going to suddenly convert en masse to libertarianism. But I can see the possibility of at least a temporary alliance between libertarians and Democrats, provided that both are willing to experiment." (10/05/06) http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=100506C ----- 28) What makes Tony run? Reason by David Weigel "Williams is one of the most visible black Republicans running for local office in 2006. He's attracted some attention from his famous-for-D.C. status -- his father is the liberal journalist and commentator Juan Williams -- and some attention for his approach to the campaign. Ohio's gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell stumps with religious voters, arguing that the Democratic Party wants to marry off gays and leave no fetus unaborted. Maryland's Michael Steele argues that the party of LBJ takes black voters for granted and wants to keep them in the cheap seats as crusty, white establishment pols run the country. Williams doesn't pick up either of those cudgels. 'You'll lose every time if you just talk about gay marriage,' he says. And he doesn't mention his GOP affiliation until he's asked (it doesn't appear on the campaign flyers he handed out at the metro stop). He talks about taxes, education, eminent domain. All issues that, over the last few decades, have crept up on white Democrats and clubbed them to the carpet like a character from Clue. All issues on which black voters are more libertarian than they are liberal." (10/05/06) http://www.reason.com/links/links100506.shtml ----- 29) Breaking away CounterPunch by Kirkpatrick Sale "The Middlebury Institute, in keeping with its mission of 'the study of separatism, secession, and self-determination,' is holding the First North American Secessionist Convention this fall in Burlington with a dual purpose: to assess the secessionist movement on the continent at this time and to bring together those with an interest in the movement for a discussion of strategies and policies to make it stronger." (10/05/06) http://www.counterpunch.org/sale10052006.html ----- 30) There is no step-God from Reason to Freedom by Sandra Price "How did we allow our Constitution to fail us? Why do we elect our government leaders to simply change the rules when it suits them? Where is the oversight group called our Congress who should be watching out for our freedoms? They are not! Our Constitution has lost its power to protect from the government and nobody is looking out for our freedoms. We have no recognizable American Values any more as they have been taken over by the very people we elect and sadly they are based in a destructive Judeo Christian movement." (10/04/06) http://www.reasontofreedom.com/There_is_no_Step-God.html ----- 31) A moral and practical disaster LewRockwell.Com by Anthony Gregory "Proponents of continuing the war on drugs will sometimes concede its futility, but then compare their crusade to other law-enforcement endeavors with which nearly no one disagrees. They argue that even if it is impossible for the government to stop all murders, it doesn't follow that murder should be legal, and the same is true with drugs. But comparing drug use to murder is unrealistic. The vast majority of people would agree that even if drug use is immoral in some sense, it is not immoral in the same way as murder." (10/06/06) http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory121.html ----- 32) Investigate Bush Common Dreams by Bill Davis "In the 90's it was assumed bombs were dropped to divert from a sex scandal -- now we have a sex scandal that is diverting from a savage, vicious war that is being revealed to be a calculated crime. As those revelations try to reach critical mass the national consciousness is chewing on sexualized instant messages between predator and prey and in some cases between two different types of opportunists. One has to wonder if any of these pages are signing up to fight in this war that the people they deliver messages to voted for. One wonders if any one in Congress urged any of the pages to sign up for a tour of duty in Baghdad. They voted for this war -- they surrendered their exclusive right to declare war and gave it to the president who talked dirty to the country and to young soldiers -- and now we have the instant message -- war is the biggest obscenity. Using soldiers as mercenaries is molestation. Investigate Bush." (10/05/06) http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1005-29.htm ----- 33) Despite "withdrawal," Gaza siege goes on Independent [UK] by John Dugard "In August last year Israel withdrew its settlers and armed forces from Gaza, claiming that this brought to an end 38 years of military occupation. Of course, it did nothing of the sort. Israel retained power over Gaza by controlling its air space, sea space and external borders. Sporadic shelling continued, as did the targeted assassination of militants. Despite this, there was at least an appearance of disengagement, which Israel could claim as a major step towards the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." (10/05/06) http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article1799424.ece ----- 34) Media should protect identity of Foley page Fox News by Wendy McElroy "On Sept. 29, Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned from the House of Representatives due to a scandal sparked by sexually provocative e-messages he had sent in 2005 to a (then) 16-year-old male page. (Congressional pages are high school juniors employed by Congress to run errands.) A consensus of outrage is blasting Foley, as it should. But, currently, there are two individuals at the heart of this scandal: Foley and the former page. It is not clear how the media intends to treat the victim who, after all, is not a public figure and has not pressed charges, demanded compensation or sought attention.Indeed, the only evidence of the victim's wishes came last year when he and his parents attempted to privately and quietly resolve the matter; they asked Foley to cease communication. Will the media respect the teenager's privacy and reveal only what is necessary for them to accurately portray Foley's behavior and any possible cover-up? Or will they make 'a meal' of this young man?" (10/03/06) http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,217600,00.html ----- 35) Congress's shameful retreat Chicago Tribune by Garrison Kellior "I would not send my college kid off for a semester abroad if I were you. Last week, we suspended human rights in America, and what goes around comes around. Ixnay habeas corpus. The U.S. Senate, in all its splendor and majesty, decided that an 'enemy combatant' is any non-citizen whom the president says is an enemy combatant, including your Korean greengrocer or your Swedish grandmother or your Czech au pair, and can be arrested and held for as long as authorities wish without any right of appeal to a court of law to examine the matter. If your college kid were to be arrested in Bangkok or Cairo, suspected of 'crimes against the state' and held in prison, you'd assume that an American foreign service officer would be able to speak to your kid and arrange for a lawyer, but this may not be true anymore. Be forewarned." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/qrucw ----- 36) Waterboarding the Constitution CounterPunch by James Abourezk "So, waterboarding is now OK. So is the suspension of one of our basic rights of freedom -- the Writ of Habeas Corpus. Habeas Corpus, according to the U.S. Constitution, can only be suspended in cases of invasion or rebellion. Our Supreme Court has held, 'habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.' ... President Bush continually says that 'they' hate us because of our freedoms. That may explain why, in this legislation and in the Patriot Act, he is, piece by piece, trying to remove our freedoms. If this is his idea of protecting Americans, we really can't stand much more protection." (10/05/06) http://www.counterpunch.org/abourezk10052006.html ----- 37) The myth of non-political AIDS Liberty Unbound by Richard Kostelanetz "Since WGBH-NET's Frontline gained its reputation as the most serious American documentary producer on airwave television, precisely by going beyond conventional understandings, I was disappointed by the recent program, four hours in length, about the rise and dissemination of the deadly disease called AIDS, which has prematurely taken friends of mine -- people I miss. As Frontline's claim of 'political indifference' about the epidemic is demonstrably untrue, I suspiciously wondered why the producers had not directly addressed several major issues." (for publication 11/06) http://libertyunbound.com/archive/2006_11/kostelanetz-aids.html ----- 38) Close but no cigar Free Market News Network by Lewis J. Walker "As you read this in the second week of October, who knows where the market will be? September was a game of 'will it or won't it?' as the DJIA flirted with its record high of 11,722.98 on January 14, 2000. Then, on September 29, 2006 the average closed 43.91 points below its record. The Dow did surpass its old record on October 3, 2006 and the debate between bulls and bears started anew. In measuring market results, one yardstick does not tell the whole story. The S&P 500 Index closed the 3rd quarter roughly 12% below its 2000 record peak; the Nasdaq Index closed 55% below its peak. Using major indexes as a guide, for more than 5 years, the first half of this decade, the stock market has offered a bungee jump into the valley and back to 'not quite even.'" (10/05/06) http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/81/6113/close.asp?nid=6113&wid=81 ----- 39) Political offensive could leave us defenseless Human Events by Tim Chapman "With only weeks to go before the midterm congressional elections, partisans on both sides of the aisle are focusing on a repulsive congressional sex scandal. The now infamous Mark Foley affair is on the front pages of every newspaper and Internet site and it remains the talk of the 24-hour cable news cycle. If you believe most professional pundits, the Foley scandal has now sealed the GOP's fate this fall and will lead to Democratic control of at least one (if not both) chambers of Congress. If that happens, many serious issues that deserve attention are likely to be ignored. One such issue is missile defense." (10/06/06) http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=17397 ----- 40) Theopublican ship takes on more water Classically Liberal by "CLS" "The most recent Rasmussen polls are bad news for the Republicans. Take Tennessee, which ought to go Republican as an example. In the Senate race between Harold Ford (D) and Bob Corker (R) support has shifted. In a July poll the Republican had a lead of 11 points. In August his lead was only six points. By September his lead had dropped to one point. And now he trails by five points. The Rasmussen people have been tracking how the likely outcome of the election would effect the balance of power in the US Senate. Again all bad news for the Theopublicans." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/mcqq9 ----- 41) Two cheers for the Welches Rebirth of Reason by Tibor R. Machan "In their BusinessWeek column of October 9, 2006, Suzy and Jack Welch make a valiant effort to debunk the stakeholder theory of corporate ethics. This is the view that managers do not owe service first and foremost to shareholders or owners of a company but, rather, to anyone who has an 'interest' in the company's activities. The idea has also been dubbed the CSR thesis, whereby the first duty of business managers is their so-called 'corporate social responsibility.' The Welches do a fine job of affirming the idea that what company managers ought to be doing is improving the value of the firm for their employers, the stockholders or owners." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/oe9fy ----- 42) Foleygate National Review by Mona Charen "Former Representative Mark Foley has set some kind of land speed record in framing himself as a victim. His seat in the House was barely cold before he let it be known that a) he was checking himself into rehab for alcoholism, and b) he was himself molested as a youth by a 'clergyman.' A two-fer! Book this man on Oprah now. Perhaps with Foley, America will finally reach the point of gagging on victimhood. Obviously Foley was the perpetrator, not the victim. He was a powerful man preying upon kids away from home for the first time, abusing his prestige and power, betraying the public trust, and in a particularly sour twist, sponsoring legislation to shield kids from Internet predators. And now he asks us to spare some sympathy for him?" (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/rd2ky ----- 43) Fall guy of Foleygate The American Prospect by Harold Meyerson "It is a mark of the sheer panic sweeping the ranks of Republican congressmen that one of their most levelheaded members, Ray LaHood of Illinois, has suggested that Congress abolish its page program altogether in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal. What conclusion are we supposed to draw from LaHood's proposal? That members of Congress cannot be trusted in the company of adolescents? If so, why punish the adolescents? ... If LaHood believes that pages pose an irresistible temptation to his peers, there are surely solutions straight out of the Republican playbook that wouldn't punish the victims. How about building a 700-foot fence around all Republican members of Congress?" (10/05/06) http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=12082 ----- 44) Rice's lost credibility Tom Paine by John Prados "'Mushroom Cloud' Condi is at it again. In Sept. 2002, when then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice shilled for the Bush war policy by retailing the fantasy that the warning on Iraqi nuclear weapons might well be a mushroom cloud over America, her president was highly vulnerable on charges of having done nothing about terrorism warnings before 9/11, and Iraq was a suitable diversion. Fantasies evaporate, of course, and Iraq has turned into a nightmare, but the shilling goes on. According to Rice recently, the phony mushroom cloud line was merely a generic warning about terrorists' potential access to weapons of mass destruction. Then, in the context of last month's ABC television movie, 'The Path to 9/11,' Rice erupted again." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/hlcnm ----- 45) Woodward and you Slate by John Dickerson "Bob Woodward's State of Denial is the hottest book in the country right now. It details the infighting, disarray, and mistakes made by the Bush war council during the Iraq war. The third in the famous reporter's portraits of George Bush, it is also the longest. Slate's reading guide fast-forwards you straight to the juicy parts. Want to know where to go to read accounts of Donald Rumsfeld's every flaw? Do you wonder about Bush's decision-making abilities? How does former CIA Director George Tenet come out? Grab a copy and read along." (10/04/06) http://www.slate.com/id/2150955 ----- 46) Is Obama ready to roll? MSNBC/Newsweek by Jonathan Alter "Ask Washington insiders about Sen. Barack Obama's presidential hopes, and you'll get a pat response: great idea, a cycle or three from now -- or maybe this time as veep. But they need to get out more. I've talked to Democrats in 10 cities in the last four months and found Obama fever throughout the Democratic Party. Besides an online Al Gore boomlet, no one else raises a reaction anything like it. More impressively, there's now a distinct possibility that Obama may seize the moment and run in '08. A close associate introduces a note of caution: 'I'd put the chances right now at no better than 50 percent,' he told me Tuesday, as Obama taped Oprah's show in Chicago. Fifty percent? For Obama-hungry Democrats, those are much better odds than they've assumed. Whatever happens in the midterms, '08 could get very exciting, very fast." (10/05/06) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15132259/site/newsweek/ ----- 47) Say goodnight, Denny Fox News by Susan Estrich "So now it's the abuse excuse. Poor Mark Foley. He was abused by a clergyman as a boy. But according to his lawyer, who released this information, he's not asking us to excuse him for what he did 40 years later. So what's the point? Bad things (may) have happened to him as a child. Get help. Of all people, he was in a position to do something about it. But what did he do instead? He used his power to prey on vulnerable kids. And we're supposed to feel sorry for him? No way. And, oh yes, he's a gay man. Mr. Right Wing Conservative. Do you think he would have told his constituents that if he hadn't been caught? Not a chance. The bigger question is, did they have a right to know what everyone else in Washington apparently did? I don't care what people do on their own time (with consenting adults who don't work for them) as long as they don't turn around and vote like hypocrites. But that is, unfortunately, precisely what the Republican closet caucus does. And everyone knows." (10/05/06) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,217877,00.html ----- 48) On every level, the Iraq war is hurting America Christian Science Monitor by Pat M. Holt "The conventional wisdom says that President Bush's recent campaigning has brought on a tilt toward Republican congressional candidates in fall elections. But all the other indicators point the other way. The latest National Intelligence Estimate of the war on terror reports that 'anti-US sentiment ... is on the rise and fueling other radical ideologies.' One reason is the lack of success in stabilizing and pacifying Iraq. The implication is that the US is losing the war in Iraq. In one sense, the Army is plainly losing the war. It is shorter of manpower and equipment now than when it invaded Iraq in 2003." (10/05/06) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1005/p09s02-coop.html ----- 49) The gay problem in the GOP Boston Globe by David Link "The tragic opera of former congressman Mark Foley is the revenge of 'don't ask, don't tell.' Foley, a Republican from Florida, resigned Friday after e-mails and instant messages between him and several teenage congressional pages surfaced. The Republican leadership knew that at least one page had gotten e-mails where Foley admired the body of one of the page's friends, and asked the page for a picture of himself, e-mails the page naturally found sick and a bit creepy. Republican leaders responded to the potential political problem by telling Foley to knock it off. With respect to the larger issue, though, there was no asking or telling. The boy's own revulsion at the obviously inappropriate attention was ignored, not only by Foley's partisan fellows, but by some news outlets that also had seen the e-mails. If this has a familiar ring, look in the Catholic Church for the bell." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/qxsmj ----- 50) The Constitution, writ or wrong The Weekly Standard by Adam J. White "The five-year legal debate over the global war on terror has focused predominantly on first principles: What does our Constitution allow? What does it forbid? But in those five years, three of the Supreme Court's four decisions have rested on statutory, not constitutional, grounds. The recent debate over the Military Commissions Act suggests that many legislators and commentators can't tell the difference between the two. Of the MCA's various controversial provisions, the most mischaracterized was its amendment of 28 U.S.C. 2241, limiting the right of detainees to petition the federal courts for the 'writ of habeas corpus' -- i.e., to challenge the legality of their detention." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/rw7gd ----- 51) "Competition" with China is killing US AlterNet by Matt Taibbi "According to The New York Times, what we need to do to compete with China economically is adopt commensurate 'homegrown business practices' that will enhance our performance. What do they have in mind? Eliminating the freedom of speech? Outlawing free trade associations? Legalizing child labor? Eliminating all environmental regulations and letting workers roll around in hazardous chemicals for fifteen hours a day for ten cents an hour? Ending all forms of corporate transparency? Come to think of it, we could solve our juvenile delinquency program and our trade competitiveness problem at the same time -- let's just lock up our high school dropouts in toy factories, get those little bastards making radioactive Lego sets six days a week for a buck a shift. Imagine the profits! Who'd be laughing then, Yunagjiang City?" (10/03/06) http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/42528/ ----- 52) Retiring with dignity Cato Institute by William Shipman "In his Sept. 22 op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean vowed his party would 'ensure that a retirement with dignity is the right and expectation of every single American,' and prevent 'the privatization of Social Security.' Mr. Dean didn't tell us what he means by 'privatization of Social Security' or 'retirement with dignity,' but he seems to conclude that the former would jeopardize the latter. Is he onto something?" (10/05/06) http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6716 ----- 53) Can John Laesch take down Hastert? Mother Jones by Josh Harkinson "Before this week, John Laesch was one of the most obscure congressional candidates in America. His fanciful bid to unseat the most powerful man in the House had drawn a yawn from his own party, barely 100 grand to match his opponent's war chest of $3.6 million, and scarcely a mention in the national press. A carpenter, former soldier, and erstwhile gas station manager, Laesch, 32, has never held elected office. And 2006 didn't look like any sort of year to start, until, that is, a political firestorm erupted around House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Sunday and Laesch's campaign against him took off." (10/05/06) http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2006/10/laesch.html ----- 54) Government money deserves a "swift" abolition Ludwig von Mises Institute by Nicholas Curott "It seems that everywhere we look today, government intrusion into people's lives and its expropriation of their property are on the rise. Thankfully, this trend is not inevitable. Ideology ultimately determines the course of the struggle between liberty and power, and history affords many instances where government coercion was rolled back due to the persuasive efforts of a few individuals. Jonathan Swift was one of the rare individuals to have won such a battle through the persuasiveness of his writing." (10/05/06) http://www.mises.org/story/2329 ----- 55) Hawaii Democrats pay for Foley scandal Hawaii Reporter by Andrew Walden "Evidence is emerging that Democrat operatives may have held transcripts of resigned Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley's salacious instant messaging conversations and emails for months if not years in hopes of using them in an 'October surprise' in order to defeat Republicans at the polls. The danger posed to underage Congressional pages is obvious -- but what is only now becoming evident is the danger to sitting Democrat Senators and Congressman as old sex-scandals re-emerge." (10/04/06) http://tinyurl.com/lqjaj ----- 56) Why did the founders omit term limits? Frontiers of Freedom by Nelson Walker "Our Founding Fathers visualized Congress made up of ordinary citizens, elected by their peers, to serve one, two, or three terms, then returning to their ordinary previous pusuits, such as being farmers, artisans, merchants, or other private activities. They certainly did not think of Congress as a permanent career opportunity for a class of professional politicians. In those days, Congressmen were paid only a token salary, had very poor accommodations, no perks, and very little press. The Founders knew from their English history, that tenure corrupts. They expected that elected representatives, whether good or bad, had best serve for only a brief period, and then leave office in favor of fresh faces, and fresh ideas (and be glad to go home)." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/hbtjj ----- 57) The turtle war FreedomWorks by Richard W. Rahn "If people were not allowed to own chickens and if chicken eggs and meat could not be legally sold, how many chickens would there be? The reason chickens, cattle, catfish, and goldfish are not endangered is because they are owned by private parties, bred and raised in captivity, and sold for commercial profit -- hence there are billions of these animals. The poor sea turtle is endangered precisely because the global environmental lobby refuses to let sea turtles be commercially farmed and marketed." (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/fdcnw ----- 58) Free-market medicine Foundation for Economic Education by Larry Van Heerden "The health-care system in the United States is beset by problems. After years of feeling shortchanged by managed care, doctors and hospitals are demanding and getting greater compensation; the elderly (under Medicare) have no prescription coverage; and many people find health insurance of any kind unaffordable. Managed care, which was hailed as the answer to spiraling costs, is under legislative and legal assault, while health-care costs are rising at double-digit rates. Proposed solutions range from a Canadian-style single-payer system to medical savings accounts to staying the course with managed care." (written 08/02; posted 10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/mfbno ----- 59) Bad drugs coming to a pharmacy near you? Competitive Enterprise Institute by Henry I. Miller "In 'The Third Man,' the brilliant, shadowy, 1949 film, Orson Welles' character, Harry Lime, is a morally bankrupt, cynical racketeer and dealer of black-market, diluted penicillin. Purveyors of fake or diluted drugs are no less detestable today than they were six decades ago, but the business has grown to frightening proportions. The highly professional and widespread counterfeiting of drugs increasingly casts doubt on what will actually be in your next vial of pills, especially if you buy them from abroad over the Internet." (10/05/06) http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,05548.cfm ----- 60) Citizens committee lauds NJ judge's "epiphany" Liberty For All by CCRKBA staff "Last week's decision by an Essex County, N.J. judge to scrap Newark's crack-down on gun offenders because there's no evidence that the 'Gun Strategy' program has done anything to curb crime was likened to an 'epiphany' by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA). According to the Newark Star-Ledger, State Superior Court Assignment Judge Patricia Costello reportedly saw no benefit from the four-year-old program. She was quoted as sating, 'It didn't work the way it was intended.'" (10/05/06) http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=135 ******************************************************************* * RRND MEDIA SHELF -- Tchotchkes from today's edition * * Clue, DVD * http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305882649/rationalrev08-20 * * State of Denial, by Bob Woodward * http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743272234/rationalrev08-20 * * The Third Man, DVD * http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000025RE7/rationalrev08-20 * * Turn Neither to the Right Nor to the Left, by Eric D. Schansberg * http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0972975454/rationalrev08-20 * * Note: Affiliate links generate commissions for RRND's editors. ******************************************************************* ***************************** * See No Evil, Hear No Evil ***************************** 61) Jack Roeser on Freedom Rings Freedom Rings Jack Roeser of the Family Taxpayers Foundation appears live on Freedom Rings -- libertarian talk radio with host Kenneth John. 9am CST on WRMN 1410 AM, Elgin, Illinois. [live radio or stream] (10/09/06) http://www.freedomrings.net/ ----- 62) Free Talk Live, 10/05/06 Free Talk Live "Another botched police raid / Massachusettes targets scofflaws! / Bureaucrat Psychology / Art teacher fired due to puritan outrage! / Best scene on TV ever! / The DEA continues to destroy and cause harm / States don't have rights / Stopping the DEA / Who benefits from the War on Drugs? / Nutjob wants to ban Harry Potter books from school / Video Camera Mandate / Re-Gifting / Pope abolishes Limbo / Useless Bureaucrats / More Homeland Stupidity." [MP3 format] (10/05/06) http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2006-10-05.mp3 ----- 63) Freedomain Radio #448 Freedomain Radio "Empiricism and Nonsense Part 1: Church ... A brief history of belief and disbelief." [MP3 format] (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/lq6se ----- 64) The Labour-Tory blur Cato Institute Cato daily podcast, featuring Jamie Dettmer. [MP3 format] (10/05/06) http://tinyurl.com/nzq4o ******************** * Weekly Symposium ******************** 65) Religion and politics Arguments for and against separation of church and state have been playing themselves out since long before Jefferson's religious freedom ordinance for Virginia, the subsequent incorporation of that ordinance in the US Constitution's Bill of Rights, and his letter to the Danbury Baptists explaining what he intended it to mean. Around the world, the issue of "religion in the public square" continues to top a number of agendas and the sides usually aren't shy about using ballots -- or bullets -- to make their arguments. We'll stick to words here, of course. To start things off, I'll point to an article on the subject from last week by Tibor R. Machan, one of my own from 8 years back), and to an excellent book-length take on the issue from a Christian Libertarian perspective: Turn Neither to the Right Nor to the Left by Eric D. Schansberg. Most symposia address themselves to at least one question. This week's implicitly includes several. One that it does not include is the question of whether or not religion in general, or any specific religion, is or might be true. Rather, the main question, starting from the premise that religious belief continues to be a major factor in the lives and beliefs of most humans, is "how should individuals deal with the presence of religious faith in the political arena?" Have at. http://www.rationalreview.com/content/18650 ************************************* * What's Up In The Freedom Movement ************************************* 66) Today's events Freedom Movement Events Check out the Google calendar in our sidebars for this week's events -- and don't forget to look ahead as well. Coming up later this month: Liberty Magazine's annual editors' conference, Acton's annual dinner, Cato's Tblisi Conference and the Gun Rights Policy Conference. Don't see YOUR event listed? Drop us a line at info at rationalreview.com. http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=info%40rationalreview.com *********** * WaYbAcK *********** 67) Tyndale burns Details, and the "quote of the day," from Leon's Political Almanac at: http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi ********************************************************************** * RRND is through the valued support of our readers. Forward freely. * * To subscribe, unsubscribe, or financially support RRND, visit: * http://www.rationalreview.com/news * * To support ISIL's Free-Market.Net Project (tax deductible) * http://www.isil.org/store/membership.html ********************************************************************** Thomas L. Knapp ..... Publisher Mary Lou Seymour .... Editor Steve Trinward ...... Editor R. Lee Wrights ...... Editor Brad Spangler ....... Editor --------------------------------- All-new Yahoo! Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster. 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