Montana's public universities must provide their gay employees with insurance coverage for their domestic partners, the state's Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

The majority in the 4-to-3 decision said the decision had nothing to do with the rights of gay couples to marry. But a dissenting judge criticized his colleagues as "radically altering common law marriage in Montana."

Gay rights advocates said the decision was an important victory on the narrower point.

"It is the first time that any state high court has ruled that a state has a constitutional obligation to provide domestic partner health care benefits," said James D. Esseks, the litigation director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights and AIDS Projects, which represented the two lesbian couples who brought the suit challenging the state's policy. "It's a recognition by the Montana Supreme Court that the government can't treat gay people differently on economic issues."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:27 PM | | Basie! Home

As the death toll mounts in the areas hit by Sunday's tsunami in southern Asia, private organizations and individuals are scrambling to send out money and goods to help the victims. Such help may be entirely proper, especially considering that most of those affected by this tragedy are suffering through no fault of their own.

The United States government, however, should not give any money to help the tsunami victims. Why? Because the money is not the government's to give.

[...]

The question no one asks about our politicians' "generosity" towards the world's needy is: By what right? By what right do they take our hard-earned money and give it away?

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:22 AM | | Basie! Home

Sudanese government and southern rebel officials signed landmark deals Friday on how to implement a series of agreements on ending a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan.

The adversaries signed deals on how to implement protocols sharing power and natural wealth, what to do with their armed forces during a six-year transition period and on how to administer three disputed areas in central Sudan.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:02 AM | | Basie! Home

House Republican leaders are urging members to alter one of the chamber's fundamental ethics rules, which would make it harder for lawmakers to discipline a colleague.

The proposed change would essentially negate a general rule of conduct that the ethics committee has often cited in admonishing lawmakers -- including Majority Leader Tom DeLay -- for bringing discredit on the House even if their behavior was not covered by a specific regulation. Backers of the rule, adopted three decades ago, say it is important because the House's conduct code cannot anticipate every instance of questionable behavior that might reflect poorly on the chamber.

Republicans, returning to the Capitol on Tuesday after increasing their House majority by three seats in the Nov. 2 election, also want to relax a restriction on relatives of lawmakers accepting foreign and domestic trips from groups interested in legislation before the House.

A third proposed rule change would allow either party to stop the House ethics committee from investigating a complaint against a member.

Ethics and government accountability groups say these events are a sign of weakening ethical restrictions. "We're seeing an easing of ethical standards and disclosure standards," said Charles Lewis, who runs the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity. "They can dress it up any way they want, but they're trying to increase the employment opportunities for their officials."

For example, the Office of Government Ethics has proposed, and Bush supports, legislation to ease financial disclosure requirements for government officials, reducing the amount of conflict-of-interest information that candidates and their families must report. The House recently passed a version of the legislation.

In addition, the ethics office last month issued a new rule, without giving notice or allowing public comment, that would make it easier for retiring administration officials to lobby former subordinates. The OGE says that Cabinet secretaries would still be blocked by other rules and that its changes were routine. But numerous nongovernmental analysts say the changes were a significant loosening of restrictions, a change championed by business interests.

After a summary of the Republican plans became public on Thursday, officials of the organizations said the changes appeared to represent a step backward and could cripple the ethics panel in efforts to hold lawmakers accountable for suspect conduct.

"We think this sends a message that there are no consequences for unethical behavior," said Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for Common Cause, part of a coalition fighting the proposals.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:48 AM | | Basie! Home

Prosecutors agreed to drop an illegal campaign contribution charge against Sears, Roebuck and Co. in exchange for its cooperation in an investigation of contributions to a political action committee associated with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

A Travis County judge signed off on the agreement Thursday. It calls for the retailer to enact additional internal policies, and to strengthen its policy against making illegal contributions in any state.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:16 PM | | Basie! Home

Key measures of the level of insurgent violence against American forces in Iraq, numbers of dead, wounded and insurgent attacks, show the situation has gotten worse since the summer.

While those numbers don't tell the full story of the conflict in Iraq, they suggest insurgents are growing more proficient, even as the size of the U.S. force increases and U.S. commanders succeed in soliciting more help from ordinary Iraqis.

For example:

• The U.S. military suffered at least 348 deaths in Iraq over the final four months of the year, more than in any other similar period since the invasion in March 2003.
  
  
• The number of wounded surpassed 10,000, with more than a quarter injured in the last four months as direct combat, roadside bombs and suicide attacks escalated. When President Bush (news - web sites) declared May 1, 2003, that major combat operations were over, the number wounded stood at just 542.
  
  
• The number of attacks on U.S. and allied troops grew from an estimated 1,400 attacks in September to 1,600 in October and 1,950 in November. A year earlier, the attacks numbered 649 in September, 896 in October and 864 in November.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:03 PM | | Basie! Home

Artie Shaw, the clarinetist and bandleader whose recording of "Begin the Beguine" epitomized the Big Band era, died Thursday at his home. He was 94.

Shaw had been in declining health for some time and apparently died of natural causes, his attorney and longtime friend Eddie Ezor said. Shaw's caregiver was with him when he died, Ezor said.

At his peak in the 1930s and '40s, Shaw pulled in a five-figure salary per week and ranked with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller as the bandleaders who made music swing. But he left the music world largely behind in the mid-'50s and spent much of the second half of his life devoted to writing and other pursuits.


Image from Downbeat.com

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:26 PM | | Basie! Home

California's hybrid car owners who'd hoped to drive solo in the carpool lanes come Jan. 1 have to put the brakes on those dreams because of a legislative stalemate in Washington, D.C.

Although Assembly Bill 2628 is set to become law with the New Year, it cannot be implemented without approval by Congress, where the measure is stalled indefinitely.

The proposed federal law faces still a tough fight on Capitol Hill, where the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has mounted opposition.

The group says there are a host of new hybrids coming to the market that don't quite achieve the 45 mph fuel-efficiency requirement from the Ford Escape SUV that debuted this year to the Lexus RX400H coming in 2005 and the perk shouldn't be limited to only those three cars that do.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:23 PM | | Basie! Home

An Arkansas circuit judge on Wednesday threw out the state's ban against foster parenthood by gay couples or by households that include a gay adult.

The judge, Tim Fox of Little Rock, side-stepped the issue of whether the ban unconstitutionally discriminated against gay couples. Instead he ruled that the state administrative board, which imposed the ban, was not authorized to do so.

"That's good enough. We'll take it," said Rita Sklar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arkansas, which challenged the ban.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:00 AM | | Basie! Home

After three vote tallies and 58 days of waiting, Democrat Christine Gregoire was declared Washington's governor-elect on Thursday. But her Republican rival did not concede and wants a new election.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, certified Gregoire, the three-term attorney general, as the winner of the closest governor's race in state history. She won a statewide hand recount by a scant 129 votes out of more than 2.8 million cast.

But Republican candidate Dino Rossi, a former state legislative leader and real-estate investor, said the election was hopelessly flawed and that the Legislature should authorize a new election. He won both of the earlier counts. [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:46 AM | | Basie! Home

In the wake of back-to-back ethics slaps at the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, House Republicans are preparing to make it more difficult to initiate ethics investigations and could remove the Republican chairman who presided over the admonishments of Mr. DeLay last fall.

A House leadership aide said a package of rules changes to be presented to the House when Congress convenes on Tuesday could include a plan that would require a majority vote of the ethics panel to pursue a formal investigation. Now, a deadlock on the panel, which is evenly split between parties, keeps a case pending. The possible change, the aide said, would mean that a tie vote would effectively dismiss the case.

The aide said the change would instill more bipartisanship in ethics cases. But Democrats and outside groups said the proposal would dilute an already weak ethics process.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:21 PM | | Basie! Home

AARP, the influential lobby for older Americans, signaled Wednesday for the first time how fervently it would fight President Bush's proposal for private Social Security accounts, saying it would begin a $5 million two-week advertising campaign timed to coincide with the start of the new Congress.

The organization, which played a huge role in the passage of Medicare drug legislation last year, said it was prepared to spend much more in the next two years to block the creation of private accounts financed with payroll tax revenues.

"This is our signature issue," said Christine M. Donohoo, chief communications officer for AARP, which represents 36 million Americans 50 and older. "We will do what it takes." [emhpasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:42 PM | | Basie! Home

In the most expensive presidential contest in the nation's history, John F. Kerry and his Democratic supporters nearly matched President Bush and the Republicans, who outspent them by just $60 million, $1.14 billion to $1.08 billion.

But despite their fundraising success, Democrats simply did not spend their money as effectively as Bush. That is the conclusion of an extensive examination of campaign fundraising and spending data provided by the Federal Election Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and interviews with officials of the two campaigns and the independent groups allied with them.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:26 PM | | Basie! Home

• The key to winning the White House might not be in the middle.
  
• Wartime pessimism may not doom public support.
  
• Twenty-first century Democrats can compete financially with Republicans.
  
• For a Democratic resurgence, look Southwest.
  
• Pop culture has become big politics -- advantage Republican.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:05 PM | | Basie! Home

The top ten lobbyists are shown above. Three of them (GE, Freddie Mac, and Philip Morris) appear to be garden variety corporate lobbyists. Among the other seven, though, you'll note the dead absence of anything resembling a liberal cause. In fact, unless I miss my guess, five of the seven are united in whole or part by a single topic: tort reform. No wonder it's at the top of George Bush's agenda this year.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:29 PM | | Basie! Home

Insurgents lured police to a house in west Baghdad with an anonymous tip about a rebel hideout, then set off explosives, killing at least 29 people and wounding 18 in the latest in a series of deadly strikes against Iraqi security forces, police said Wednesday.

The explosion late Tuesday erupted from inside the house in the capital's Ghazaliya district as officers were about to enter, a local police official said. Ten neighboring houses collapsed from the blast and several residents were believed trapped under the rubble. Seven policemen were among the 29 dead.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:09 AM | | Basie! Home

From Yahoo! News

Actor Jerry Orbach, who played a sardonic, seen-it-all cop on TV's "Law & Order" and scored on Broadway as a song-and-dance man, has died of prostate cancer at 69, a representative of the show said Wednesday.

Orbach died Tuesday night in Manhattan after several weeks of treatment, Audrey Davis of the public relations agency Lippin Group said.

When his illness was diagnosed, he had begun production on NBC's upcoming spinoff "Law & Order: Trial By Jury," after 12 seasons playing Detective Lennie Briscoe in the original series. His return to the new show had been expected early next year.

On Broadway, Orbach starred in hit musicals including "Carnival," "Promises, Promises" (for which he won a Tony Award), "Chicago" and "42nd Street."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:06 AM | | Basie! Home

My father and me overlooking Hong Kong,
December 23, 2004


My father, a man from one of Beijing's Hutong
villages and me, December 23, 2004


My father, rickshaw drivers and me,
December 24, 2004


My father and me in front of the Forbidden City
in Beijing, December 25, 2004


Me halfway up a section of the Great
Wall of China, December 26, 2004


Me at end of section of the Great Wall of China
(2700 feet, 1543 steps up, 20 degrees Fahrenheit),
December 26, 2004

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:47 PM | | Basie! Home

Rumsfeld made a passing reference to United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to stop al Qaeda hijackers.

But in his remarks, Rumsfeld referred to the "the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania."

A Pentagon spokesman insisted that Rumsfeld simply misspoke, but Internet conspiracy theorists seized on the reference to the plane having been shot down.

"Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it the truth, finally being dropped on the public more than three years after the tragedy" asked a posting on the Web site WorldNetDaily.com.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:02 PM | | Basie! Home

The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a decision that determined a disputed legislative race was tied, likely giving Democrats control of the state House of Representatives.

The 6-1 decision threw out a lower court ruling from earlier this month that seven contested ballots had properly been counted for Constitution Party candidate Rick Jore.

The high court declared "one or more" contested ballots in the tied race invalid. Throwing out even one of those ballots means the vote tally swings to Democrat Jeanne Windham, the Supreme Court said.

That, in turn, creates a 50-50 tie between Republicans and Democrats in the House and means the next House speaker likely will be from the party of Democratic Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer. The party that controls the governor's office in Montana breaks ties in electing House speakers.

The legislative race was declared a tie after a recount earlier this month.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:49 PM | | Basie! Home

The Pentagon has told the White House and Congress that it plans sharp cuts in the Air Force's program for the F/A-22, the most expensive fighter jet in history, in an effort that budget analysts said was intended to offset mounting deficits and the growing costs of the war in Iraq.

[...]

At the moment, the fighter, known as the Raptor, costs about $258 million a plane. That is based on an overall cost of $71.8 billion, and the Air Force's plans to buy 277 Raptors.

Senior Pentagon and Air Force officials were still discussing details of the cutbacks. One leading industry analyst, Loren Thompson, said the program could be ended after producing about 160 aircraft, possibly saving more than $15 billion over time but significantly raising the cost per plane. The Pentagon has already spent nearly $40 billion to develop the aircraft, which is just now coming into full production, Air Force officials said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:38 PM | | Basie! Home

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is leaning toward removing the House ethics committee chairman, who admonished House Majority Leader Tom DeLay this fall and has said he will treat DeLay like any other member, several Republican aides said yesterday.

Although Hastert (Ill.) has not made a decision, the expectation among leadership aides is that the chairman, Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), long at odds with party leaders because of his independence, will be replaced when Congress convenes next week.

The aides said a likely replacement is Rep. Lamar S. Smith, one of DeLay's fellow Texans, who held the job from 1999 to 2001. Smith wrote a check this year to DeLay's defense fund. An aide said Smith was favored for his knowledge of committee procedure.

Republicans are bracing for the possibility that DeLay, who is the chamber's second-ranking Republican and holds enormous sway over lawmakers, could be indicted by a Texas grand jury conducting a campaign finance investigation that the party contends is politically motivated.

Government accountability and fiscal responsibility

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:19 PM | | Basie! Home

This month, in a little-noted administrative decision, the Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to a Harvard proposal to test the benefits of the illegal street drug Ecstasy in patients diagnosed with severe anxiety related to advanced cancer. The study will look at whether the drug can help terminally ill patients lessen their fears, quell thoughts of suicide and make it easier for them to deal with loved ones.

"End-of-life issues are very important and are getting more and more attention, and yet there are very few options for patients who are facing death," Dr. John Halpern, the Harvard research psychiatrist in charge of the study, said yesterday.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:36 PM | | Basie! Home

• 20s: 1919-1929 (League of Nations vote to stock market crash)
  
• 30s: 1929-1941 (Great Depression)
  
• 40s: 1941-1946 (WWII)
  
• 50s: 1946-1963 (Churchill "Iron Curtain" speech to JFK assassination)
  
• 60s: 1964-1973 (Civil Rights Act to end of Vietnam War)
  
• 70s: 1973-1980 (1st oil shock/Watergate to 2nd oil shock/Iran hostage crisis)
  
• 80s: 1981-1989 (Reagan election to fall of Berlin Wall)
  
• 90s: 1990-2001 (Berlin Wall to 9/11)
  
• 00s: 2001-

• 1946-1954: Partisan balance (control of Congress changed in 1946, 1948, 1952 and 1954)
  
• 1955-1963: The emergence of a permanent Democratic majority

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:20 PM | | Basie! Home

Oregon's members of Congress will confront a difficult balancing act next year when they vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

The state is home to Cafta backers such as Intel and Nike. However, the agreement faces opposition from sugar producers in Eastern Oregon and area human rights groups. As a result, Oregon's five representatives and two senators will have to consider the competing business interests as well as labor and environmental concerns.

• Senator Ron Wyden (D): "Reviewing the agreement"
  
• Senator Gordon Smith (R): In favor
  
• Rep. David Wu (D): In opposition
  
• Rep. Greg Walden (R): No stance
  
• Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D): "Weighing all the arguments"
  
• Rep. Peter DeFazio (D): In opposition
  
• Rep. Darlene Hooley (D): Opposes agreement as "currently drafted"

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:50 PM | | Basie! Home

The House ethics committee will investigate Rep. Jim McDermott, to determine whether he violated standards of conduct when an illegally recorded telephone conversation was leaked to reporters during a committee investigation.

Committee Chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo., and ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia formed a four-member investigative subcommittee Tuesday to investigate the 1997 incident. McDermott was ranking Democrat on the ethics committee at the time, and the panel was investigating the conduct of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:30 PM | | Basie! Home

Q: The (Bush) administration has been focusing on Social Security, which faces a $3.7 trillion long-term liability. Medicare is looking at $27.7 trillion in unfunded promises in the next 75 years. Do you plan on using this new committee to bring the administration's attention to the larger problem, the more immediate problem of Medicare?

A: Yes, very much so. Social Security is a very actuarially determinative problem (that is; the problems could be improved by actuaries who calculate statistical risks). Medicare, on the other hand, is very, very difficult to get your hands around, to fully understand how best to proceed.

Q: As I understand it, the Hospital Trust Fund, the largest part of Medicare, will exhaust its surplus by about 2019. I can think of only two fixes: increase the payroll tax or cut hospitalization benefits. Is there a third thing I'm not thinking of? Neither of those would be very popular.

A: Part of the benefit to the Medicare modification in the last Congress -- adding a prescription-drug benefit -- was that there were a number of reforms in it that we hope will shine a light on what are the best ways to proceed. And certainly Oregon, with its experience in health-care reform, has some very valuable experiences that can benefit the whole country.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:17 PM | | Basie! Home

The secretary of state, who declared President Bush the official winner in Ohio, is seeking a court order to keep himself from being interviewed as part of a court challenge of the Nov. 2 vote.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell claims his deposition is not required, and accused 37 voters challenging the election of "frivolous conduct."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:55 PM | | Basie! Home

Iraq's top Sunni Muslim party is withdrawing from Jan. 30 elections, saying persistent violence would keep people from voting in the Sunni north and west.

"We are withdrawing," Mohsen Abdel Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, told a news conference on Monday.

"We are not calling for a boycott but we said we would take part only if certain conditions had been met and they have not."

The Bush administration is talking to Iraqi leaders about guaranteeing Sunni Arabs a certain number of ministries or high-level jobs in the future Iraqi government if, as is widely predicted, Sunni candidates fail to do well in Iraq's elections.

An even more radical step, one that a Western diplomat said was raised already with an aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, is the possibility of adding some of the top vote-getters among the Sunni candidates to the 275-member legislature, even if they lose to non-Sunni candidates.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:56 AM | | Basie! Home

A suicide bomber detonated his car Monday at the gate of the home of the leader of Iraq's biggest political party, killing nine people and injuring 39, police said. The cleric was unharmed.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq — the country's most powerful Shiite political group — was in his residence in Baghdad's Jadiriyah district when the attack occurred, said his spokesman, Haitham al-Husseini.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:18 AM | | Basie! Home

1. US Election
   
2. Iraq
   
3. Florida hurricanes
   
4. Abu Ghraib scandal
   
5. Sept. 11 report
   
6. Gay marriage
   
7. Arafat dies
   
8. Reagan dies
   
9. Russian school seizure
   
10. Madrid bombings

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:10 AM | | Basie! Home

Exit polls projected an easy victory Sunday for opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko in a bitter campaign that required an unprecedented three ballots and Supreme Court intervention to pick a new Ukrainian leader. Early official returns showed him leading by just over 18 percentage points.

Elated opposition supporters flooded Kiev's Independence Square, the center of protests after the Nov. 21 election that was beset with fraud allegations and eventually annulled. Music blared from loudspeakers and fireworks lit up the sky. In Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's home base of Donetsk, the streets were largely empty, with only a few people stumbling home from the bars.

Three exit polls had projected Yushchenko winning by at least 15 percentage points, and with ballots from just more than 30 percent of precincts counted he was leading with 57.43 percent to 38.89 percent for Yanukovych, election officials said. Final official results were not expected until Monday.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:54 PM | | Basie! Home

Bonds posted by companies with federal oil and gas leases cover only a small fraction of the projected costs of plugging wells and restoring land once the fuel is extracted, leaving taxpayers with the potential for huge cleanup bills, an Associated Press analysis of federal records shows.

The Bureau of Land Management has collected just $132 million in bonds from oil and gas companies responsible for more than 100,000 wells on federal lands. The government estimates it costs between $2,500 and $75,000 to cap each well and restore the surface area.

In the past five years, the BLM has spent $2.2 million to clean up 187 wells where operators defaulted on their bonds.

At that average rate of $13,066 per well, the shortfall between the bonds and the actual cleanup costs could leave taxpayers with as much as a $1 billion potential liability if companies reneged on their cleanup responsibilities, the AP analysis found.

The Bush administration this fall quietly shelved an eight-year effort to increase the minimum bond requirements for oil and gas drilling on federal lands.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:44 PM | | Basie! Home

Voted into being just five months apart 32 years ago, the 1972 Downtown Plan and Oregon Senate Bill 100 gave Oregon two of the most far-reaching visions in the history of American urban planning.

At least until the nearsightedness of 2004.

Much as they rose together, they fell in November. The Downtown Plan's brilliant framework of tightly focused partnerships between business and government cracked with November's pitiful deal to revitalize the transit mall. Senate Bill 100's design for a mutually beneficial urban/rural divide was shattered by Measure 37.

In the local world of architecture and planning for 2004, nothing measures in profundity to those two events.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:09 AM | | Basie! Home

For most politicians, fundraising is a dreaded chore. But until recently, Rep. John T. Doolittle of California and other members of the House Republican leadership had adopted a painless solution: fundraising events in luxury sports boxes leased largely with the money of Indian gaming tribes, where supporters snacked on catered fare in plush surroundings as they watched the Wizards, Caps, Redskins or Orioles.

Doolittle, a Mormon, is an ardent opponent of casino gambling, so it is somewhat ironic that he would invite supporters to watch the Wizards play the Sacramento Kings from an MCI Center suite paid for by casino-rich Indian tribes. But the plaque at the door to Suite 204 did not say Chitimacha or Choctaw. It said "Jack Abramoff," a name synonymous with largesse and influence in the GOP-controlled Congress.

A list of skybox fundraising events maintained by Abramoff at his former law firm, Greenberg Traurig, lists 72 events for members of Congress between 1999 and 2003. All but eight were put on for Republicans, many of them members of the House leadership. Some of the fundraising events, including Doolittle's, were not reported as required under federal election laws.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:51 AM | | Basie! Home

FOX NEWS SUNDAY: Lynne Cheney and Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington.

THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.).

FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens.-elect John Thune (R-S.D.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Ken Salazar (D-Colo.).

MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), psychologist and author Phil McGraw, and the U.S. Navy Band Brass Quartet.

LATE EDITION (CNN): Reps. David Dreier (R-Calif.) and Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.); former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger; former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski; Jesse L. Jackson; Jerry Falwell; retired Army Gen. George A. Joulwan, former NATO supreme commander; retired Army Maj. Gen. David Grange and retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:33 AM | | Basie! Home

Reid may not be the most colorful figure in Washington, but his career is far more interesting than that of the average senator. In politics, Nevada is the next best thing to Louisiana. To take just one example, is there another U.S. senator who has been part of the inspiration for a character in a Martin Scorsese film? (A character played by Dick Smothers, no less.) In Casino, Robert DeNiro's character melts down in front of the Nevada Gaming Commission after the commission denies him a license to operate a casino. The scene is loosely based on a December 1978 hearing when Reid was the commission's chairman, and some of the dialogue spoken by Smothers is taken directly from Reid's words during the hearing. (The rest of the scenes involving Smothers, who plays a composite politician known only as "Senator," have nothing to do with Reid.) OK, it's lackluster Scorsese, but at least it's not Gangs of New York. And there are other Reid echoes in Casino: Joe Pesci's character refers to a "Mr. Cleanface," which gangster Joe Agosto said was his nickname for an in-his-pocket Reid, but a five-month investigation of Agosto's claims cleared Reid of wrongdoing.

I'll concede. Harry Reid is no Tom Daschle. Whether that will be good for the Democrats remains to be seen. But it won't be boring.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:05 AM | | Basie! Home

College students in virtually every state will be required to shoulder more of the cost of their education under new federal rules that govern most of the nation's financial aid.

Because of the changes, which take effect next fall and are expected to save the government $300 million in the 2005-6 academic year, at least 1.3 million students will receive smaller Pell Grants, the nation's primary scholarship for those of low income, according to two analyses of the new rules.

In addition, 89,000 students or so who would otherwise be getting some Pell Grant money will get none, the analyses found.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:26 PM | | Basie! Home

Washington state's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that more than 700 belatedly discovered ballots from Seattle's King County should be counted in the extraordinarily close governor's race — potentially enough to tip the balance in favor of Democrat Christine Gregoire.

King County is a Democratic stronghold, the biggest county in the state and the last to report results from the statewide hand recount that began Dec. 8.

The ruling was a boost to the Democrats, who even before the decision were claiming victory, saying their own analysis showed that even without the belated ballots, Gregoire had erased Republican Dino Rossi's slim lead and won the race by just eight votes out of 2.9 million cast.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:34 PM | | Basie! Home

The pharmaceutical industry has issued an urgent warning to its work force: Be on the lookout for a scruffy-looking fat guy in a baseball cap. The Los Angeles Times reports that at least six of the nation's biggest drugmakers have alerted employees to steer clear of filmmaker Michael Moore, whose previous targets have included General Motors ("Roger & Me"), the gun lobby (the Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine") and President Bush ("Fahrenheit 9/11"). Moore, it seems, is taking aim at the health-care industry, including drug companies. The companies told employees to refer all questions to "corporate communications," the Times reported. The Moore epic is tentatively titled "Sicko," and will probably be released in the first half of 2006. The movie, Moore said, is only in its early stages "and already people are freaky-deaky."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:28 PM | | Basie! Home

For the first time, a major U.S. contractor has dropped out of the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild Iraq, raising new worries about the country's growing violence and its effect on reconstruction.

Contrack International Inc., the leader of a partnership that won one of 12 major reconstruction contracts awarded this year, cited skyrocketing security costs in reaching a decision with the U.S. government last month to terminate work in Iraq.

"We reached a point where our costs were getting to be prohibitive," said Karim Camel-Toueg, president of Arlington, Va.-based Contrack, which had won a $325-million award to rebuild Iraq's shattered transportation system. "We felt we were not serving the government, and that the dollars were not being spent smartly."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:29 AM | | Basie! Home

The number of people who think we have a Social Security "crisis" is down considerably, and the number of people who think it has "minor problems" — which is probably the most accurate choice here — is up. That huge tranche of people who continue to think Social Security has major problems is still worrisome, of course, but hardly unexpected after years of doom-mongering from both parties. Obviously we still have a lot of work cut out for us in the public education department, but at least the trends are in the right direction.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:21 AM | | Basie! Home

The Bush administration is facing a wave of new allegations that the abuse of foreign detainees in U.S. military custody was more widespread, varied and grave in the past three years than the Defense Department has long maintained.

New documents released yesterday detail a series of probes by Army criminal investigators into multiple cases of threatened executions of Iraqi detainees by U.S. soldiers, as well as of thefts of currency and other private property, physical assaults, and deadly shootings of detainees at detention camps in Iraq.

In many of the newly disclosed cases, Army commanders chose noncriminal punishments for those involved in the abuse, or the investigations were so flawed that prosecutions could not go forward, the documents show. Human rights groups said yesterday that, as a result, the penalties imposed were too light to suit the offenses.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:03 AM | | Basie! Home

The Knoxville NEWS SENTINEL reports that state Sen. Rosalind Kurita yesterday said she would seek the 2006 Democratic nomination for the seat of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who is not expected to seek re-election. Kurita, a Clarksville nurse, won a new four-year term last month. Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. of Memphis is also weighing a Senate race, but Kurita "said she is running regardless of Ford's decision," the paper reported. At least three Republicans say they will seek the GOP nomination: former Rep. Ed Bryant, Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker and outgoing state Republican Chairwoman Beth Harwell.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:47 AM | | Basie! Home

Democrats have claimed victory in the race for Washington governor by a razor-thin margin of eight votes, citing preliminary results of a hand recount they say puts Christine Gregoire in front for the first time. Republicans maintained the race was still too close to call.

The stunning turnaround was reported late Tuesday by the head of the state Democratic Party, who said party officials' analysis of hand-counted returns from King County — the last county to finish the grueling process — showed that Gregoire had eclipsed the dwindling margin that Republican Dino Rossi has held since Election Day.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:37 AM | | Basie! Home

The Washington Post Co. said today it is buying Slate in an effort to boost the newspaper company's online traffic but does not plan any editorial changes at the eight-year-old Web magazine.

In announcing a deal to buy Slate from Microsoft Corp. for an undisclosed sum, said to be in the millions of dollars, Post executives said they would keep Jacob Weisberg as editor and most of the 30-person staff. Cliff Sloan, general counsel of Washington Post Newsweek Interactive, will also become publisher of the money-losing magazine when the deal takes effect next month.

Weisberg pronounced himself "delighted" with the move. "Microsoft has been a great place for us for the last 8-1/2 years," he said, but "it was a tough place to develop our business because it wasn't a media company and doesn't want to be a media company. They're really big and we're really small. The joke was always that we're almost a rounding error, but a rounding error probably exaggerated our status."

I am confident that we have found the right buyer for Slate. The Washington Post Co. is known for supporting high-quality publications, for taking editorial integrity seriously, and for being as good as its word. Don G., as we shall now call him, recognized early on the journalistic potential of the Web, making a significant long-term investment in Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), the Post's online wing. Don wants Slate to become consistently profitable, but he is a patient man and prepared for this to take a while. Like the other people we've met at the Post Co., Don is almost suspiciously nice and appears to have some kind of personal relationship with each of the approximately 30,000 employees at his company. Another of these disturbingly nice Posties, Cliff Sloan, has agreed to become Slate's new publisher.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:29 AM | | Basie! Home

Multiple rounds hit a dining hall at a U.S. military base near Mosul on Tuesday, killing 22 people, including U.S. troops, members of the Iraqi national guard, and Iraqi civilians, Pentagon officials said.

Fifty-one people were wounded in the incident -- which occurred at noon (4 a.m. ET) as people ate lunch at the Camp Marez base, the officials said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:24 AM | | Basie! Home

Until now, Bush has seemed either too dumb or too stubborn to recognize that Social Security privatization will necessitate either hitting up taxpayers or reducing Social Security benefits. But watching Bush in today's press conference, I realized that there was another possibility: Bush is simply too cynical to acknowledge practical realities of which he is well aware. Maybe he figures that accommodating those realities simply isn't his job. Maybe he's thinking: Let Congress get the blame for insisting that two plus two equals four!

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:24 AM | | Basie! Home

An Alzheimer's disease prevention trial was suspended after researchers said there were more heart attacks and strokes among patients taking naproxen, an over-the-counter pain reliever in use for 28 years and commonly known under the brand name Aleve.

The study, involving some 2,500 patients, was to test whether naproxen or Celebrex, both pain relievers, could reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease among healthy elderly patients who were at an increased risk of the disease.

Officials at the National Institutes of Health said the study was suspended after three years when it was found that patients taking naproxen had a 50 percent greater incidence of cardiovascular events — heart attack or stroke — than patients taking placebo.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:11 AM | | Basie! Home

The Department of Homeland Security appears likely to lose its No. 2 official within weeks of the departure of its No. 1.

James M. Loy, the department's deputy secretary, plans to stay until March 1 or until a successor is confirmed, the agency said yesterday. Secretary Tom Ridge, who announced his resignation from the Cabinet late last month, plans to leave by Feb. 1 if his replacement has been lined up. [emphasis original]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:44 PM | | Basie! Home

Fresh from their role in overhauling the nation's intelligence agencies, members of the independent Sept. 11 commission say they will now lobby to restructure Congress and what the commission described in its final report as the lawmakers' "dysfunctional" oversight of the C.I.A., other spy agencies and the Department of Homeland Security.

The commissioners, who have formed a private group known as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, say their lobbying effort will begin in earnest next month, when Congress returns from its holiday recess. The lobbying campaign appears to have the support of the White House, which has called for the sort of Congressional restructuring recommended by the commission.

The panel's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican and former governor of New Jersey, said the commission's 10 members were delighted by the passage this month of a sweeping intelligence overhaul bill that enacted the commission's central recommendation: creation of the job of national intelligence director to oversee the Central Intelligence Agency and other spy agencies.

"But we've still got a ways to go; there are still some things that are very important in our report that have not been implemented," Mr. Kean said, referring to a host of recommendations by the panel for streamlining Congressional oversight of intelligence agencies and the Homeland Security Department. "There has to be more power given to those intelligence committees."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:26 PM | | Basie! Home

Senate Republican leaders yesterday appointed two of Congress's most outspoken antiabortion members to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is bracing for potentially bruising hearings on nominations to the Supreme Court.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Sen.-elect Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) will join the panel's eight returning Republicans next month, assuming the Republican Conference follows tradition and approves the leadership's committee assignments for all 55 GOP senators. The breakdown of Judiciary will be 10 Republicans and eight Democrats.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:02 PM | | Basie! Home

The Fort Worth STAR-TELEGRAM reports that the gloves "are clearly off now in the Republican family feud between U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry. On abortion, transportation, fund raising and even internal polling tactics, both sides are increasingly taking public shots at each other as Perry prepares for a re-election campaign and Hutchison considers challenging him." The paper said it appears that "Hutchison will attempt to tag Perry as a failed leader who's too cozy with big contributors, and the governor will paint Hutchison as too liberal for conservative Republican primary voters."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:41 PM | | Basie! Home

Most Americans now believe the war with Iraq was not worth fighting and more than half want to fire embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the chief architect of that conflict, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that 56 percent of the country now believes that the cost of the conflict in Iraq outweighs the benefits, while 42 percent disagreed. It marked the first time since the war began that a clear majority of Americans have judged the war to have been a mistake.

Barely a third of the country approves of the job that Rumsfeld is doing as defense secretary, and 52 percent said President Bush should sack Rumsfeld, a view shared by a big majority of Democrats and political independents.

Still, nearly six in 10 -- 58 percent -- said the United States should keep its military forces in Iraq rather than withdraw them, a proportion that has not changed in seven months.

As for Bush, 49 percent of respondents said they approved of the job the president is doing. That number is down from his November approval rating of 55 percent. Bush is the first incumbent president to have an approval rating below 50 percent one month after winning re-election. The question had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:49 PM | | Basie! Home

The Bush administration on Monday upheld the imposition of penalty tariffs on shrimp imports from Brazil, Ecuador, India and Thailand.

The move won praise from U.S. shrimp producers but drew criticism from importers, who said the penalty tariffs would drive up food costs for consumers.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:34 PM | | Basie! Home

Ukraine's two presidential candidates faced off Monday in a televised debate less than a week before a rerun of their disputed election, with opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko accusing his rival of trying to steal the Nov. 21 runoff vote.

As they traded accusations amid a campaign filled with tension and fears of unrest, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych appeared to call for a government of national unity and tried to be more reconciliatory throughout the debate.

[...]

The debate was marked by several sharp exchanges, including finger-pointing, but both shook hands when it ended, maintaining a controlled tone for most of the 100-minute session.


The clash between the contenders in the Dec. 26 rerun of the vote is the first since the Supreme Court annulled the Nov. 21 runoff and came amid tensions fueled by massive street protests and revelations that Yushchenko was poisoned by dioxin in September.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:10 AM | | Basie! Home

Moving Milbank off the front lines is part of the Post’s strategy for covering the second Bush term. The Post is changing its entire team of White House reporters. Milbank, Mike Allen, and Amy Goldstein are out; Mike Fletcher, Jim VandeHei, and Peter Baker are in.

[...]

The Post will be competing with a New York Times trio that will stay from the first term: Elisabeth Bumiller, David Sanger, and Richard Stevenson. At the Los Angeles Times, Warren Vieth and Peter Wallsten will join Ed Chen to cover the White House. The Wall Street Journal assigned John McKinnon and Christopher Cooper to handle the new term.

But as Times Washington bureau chief Phil Taubman says, there’s more than the Post and other big dailies out there.

“The old days when you could count your competitors on one hand is long gone,” says Taubman. “If there’s a good story on a blog site, that’s competition.” [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:16 AM | | Basie! Home

Racial animosity and revenge are among the possible motives in the arson fires in a subdivision in southern Maryland on Dec. 6, a spokesman for federal investigators said Sunday.

Four men have been charged with arson in the fires, which destroyed 10 houses and partly burned 16 others, causing $10 million in damage. No one was hurt; many of the houses were still under construction.

A federal law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonymity said two of the four men in custody made racial statements to investigators during questioning. The men are white, and many of the families moving into the development are black.

[...]

Initially, there was speculation the fires had been set by environmental extremists, because some environmental groups had complained that the houses threatened a nearby bog. But no evidence has been found to support that theory, the police said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:47 AM | | Basie! Home

1. Dan Rather’s Forgery Fiasco
   
2. Ignoring, then Attacking, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
   
3. Pounding the Bush National Guard Story
   
4. Spinning a Good Economy into Bad News
   
5. The Networks’ Outrageous Convention Double-Standard
   
6. Swooning Over Edwards’ Image, Ignoring His Liberalism
   
7. CBS’s Byron Pitts Promotional Kerry Coverage
   
8. CBS Promotes Fears of a New Military Draft
   
9. Misrepresenting the 9/11 Commission on Iraq/al-Qaeda Links
   
10. Equating New Terrorism Warning to LBJ’s “Gulf of Tonkin”

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:41 AM | | Basie! Home

Ballots mysteriously appeared or disappeared. Vote totals didn't add up. Regional officials barred a controversial candidate from the ballot. And hundreds of thousands of residents registered complaints.

In a developing democracy, such incidents would spark international condemnation and insistence on electoral reforms.

Americans and their leaders should join that chorus, even though those problems happened in Hometown, U.S.A.

The system worked. However, it has too many cracks, especially for a country that considers itself the world's leading democracy.

[...]

Oregon's and America's election systems are pretty good, but we shouldn't settle for "pretty good" when it comes to the foundation of our democracy: elections.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:29 AM | | Basie! Home

It was the mildest of criticism, offered in the most opaque terms.

Sen. Ron Wyden, during this month's debate on intelligence reform, said a "major acquisition program" was "too expensive" and "unnecessary."

But in the arcane world of intelligence spending, where billions are doled out with no public discussion, it was the equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theater. Wyden is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which typically meets in top-secret, closed sessions.

Now, Wyden and two fellow Democrats who also vaguely attacked an unnamed intelligence program are facing criticism that they alluded to classified committee information.

A few days after Wyden's statement, The Washington Post reported that the program at issue was a $9.5 billion spy satellite system. For years, such programs have been debated and approved in secret.

"Anonymous defenders of a program that Senator Wyden believes to be a boondoggle are using the news media in an attempt to intimidate him and stifle appropriate debate in the United States Senate," Kardon said.

Kardon said that before Wyden submitted his statement, every word was approved for national security purposes by the Intelligence Committee staff of Sen. Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is chairman of the committee.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., has another theory about why some large projects are kept secret.

"They're classified because they're hugely wasteful, unnecessary projects that are incredibly expensive, and they just want to keep that from the public," DeFazio said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:22 AM | | Basie! Home

The Social Security Administration is rejecting marriage documents issued for heterosexual couples in four communities that performed weddings for same-sex couples earlier this year.

The agency is rejecting marriage certificates issued in New Paltz; Asbury Park, N.J.; Multnomah County, Ore.; and Sandoval County, N.M., during the brief periods when those localities recognized same-sex marriages.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:03 AM | | Basie! Home

The Bush administration and some of its critics squared off yesterday over whether the Food and Drug Administration is doing an adequate job overseeing drug safety, and whether the agency needs major reforms.

In a preview of the debate to come, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. said the agency is doing a "spectacular" job and should "continue to do the job they do."

But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, shot back that the FDA's "record on protecting us from harmful prescription drugs is a catastrophic failure."

"Early action on bipartisan FDA reforms is possible in Congress, and I hope that the White House and congressional leadership will not stand in the way," Kennedy said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:27 PM | | Basie! Home

Oregon Republican Chairman Kevin Mannix has laid out an ambitious to-do list for 2005:

Run for re-election as party chairman. Eliminate virtually all of the $587,000 debt left from his 2002 race for governor. Launch a new race for governor.

Although many politicians might regard that as an overly ambitious, or even contradictory, set of goals, Mannix said he's confident he can simultaneously build up the party, retire campaign debt and put together a new gubernatorial effort.

[...]

After his losses, Mannix faces considerable skepticism from Democrats and some Republicans about his ability to win a governor's race in 2006. And he has taken some heat for the poor showing of Republicans in state races this year and for persuading the party to help retire $37,000 of his old campaign debt.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:21 PM | | Basie! Home

Acknowledging mistakes in Iraq by the Bush administration, leading Republicans expressed reluctance Sunday that the White House replace Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has lost the confidence of some GOP lawmakers over the conduct of the war.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:05 PM | | Basie! Home

Car bombs rocked Iraq's two holiest Shiite cities Sunday, killing at least 62 people and wounding more than 120, while in downtown Baghdad dozens of gunmen carried out a brazen ambush on car, pulling out three election officials and executing them on the pavement in the middle of morning traffic.

The bombs exploded an hour apart. First, a suicide blast ripped through parked minibuses at the entrance to the Karbala bus station. Then a car bomb shattered a central square in Najaf, crowded with residents watching a funeral procession. The city police chief and provincial governor were among the group but were not hurt.

Also Sunday, a militant group claimed to have kidnapped 10 Iraqis working for an American security contractor, threatening to kill them unless the company pulls out of Iraq.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:58 AM | | Basie! Home

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he will sign each letter written to family members of service members killed in military action.

Stars and Stripes, the newspaper devoted to military news, published a statement it said Rumsfeld provided to them on the matter.

"I wrote and approved the now more than 1,000 letters sent to family members and next of kin of each of the servicemen and women killed in military action.

"While I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter," Rumsfeld said in the statement, published in Friday's edition of the paper.

[...]

The secretary had been criticized for not personally signing all such letters and using mechanical signatures. Stars and Stripes quotes family members who have disliked the practice. [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:33 PM | | Basie! Home

Nearly three-fourths of Americans middle age and older support legalizing marijuana for medical use, according to a poll taken for AARP.

More than half of those questioned said they believed marijuana has medical benefits, while a larger majority agreed the drug is addictive.

AARP, whose 35 million members are all at least 50 years old, says it has no political position on medical marijuana and that its local branches have not chosen sides in the scores of state ballot initiatives on the issue in recent elections.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:28 PM | | Basie! Home