http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/ee/index.php en editor@TheRochesterDemocrat.com Copyright 2008 2008-07-23T15:21:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/rice_presses_north_korea_on_nuclear_program/ {summary} State Department



SINGAPORE (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged North Korea to accept terms to verify the dismantling of its nuclear weapons program, as the two countries ended a four-year hiatus in cabinet-level talks on Wednesday.

Rice told North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun that his nation must move quickly to prove it has told the truth about its past atomic activities if it wants to improve ties with the United States, its immediate neighbors and end its international isolation.

"We didn't get into specific timetables, but the spirit was good because people believe we have made progress," she told reporters after the meeting on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Singapore.

"There is also a sense of urgency about moving forward and a sense that we can't afford to have another hiatus," Rice said of her talks with Pak and the foreign ministers of the other four nations - China, Japan, Russia and South Korea - involved in the effort.

In a brief one-on-one exchange at the end of the 80-minute meeting, she reminded Pak of the importance the United States places on the process and also on North Korea resolving the issue of Japanese citizens it abducted in the 1980s, a senior U.S. official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private diplomatic exchange.

Rice said there had been "no surprises" at the gathering, which had been characterized as informal and informational, and agreed with her counterparts that all six parties to the talks had reaffirmed their commitment to the ultimate goal of denuclearizing North Korea.

"I think this is quite significant," said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. "It shows the six parties have the political will to move forward with the ... process."

Yang said the group had made "major headway" in obtaining verifiable accounting of North Korea's nuclear program and others said they believed the meeting would boost the effort ahead a formal ministerial meeting to be held at an as-yet-unscheduled date in Beijing.

"Although it was not an official meeting, I think it was a good opportunity to show that the six-party process is maturing," said South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan. "I think (it) will give a political impetus for further six-party talks."

Diplomats had expected Pak to present at least an initial response to the four-page proposed "verification protocol" that was given to North Korea this month after it delivered a declaration containing details of its nuclear program in June.

But just hours before the talks began, North Korea insisted it had met its commitments and said Washington must completely abandon its "hostile policies" toward the regime if the denuclearization process is to succeed.

"What is important in the next stage is that these measures should lead to a complete abandonment of hostile (U.S.) policies toward our republic," North Korean spokesman Ri Tong Il told reporters. Pyongyang maintains that Washington is intent on North Korea's destruction.

However, he also said that Pyongyang hoped the meeting would build momentum toward ending the declaration and verification stage and move toward a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which closed with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Rice said there had been "a lot of discussion" about the proposal, which calls for intrusive inspections, interviews with scientists and a role for the U.N. nuclear watchdog, but would not say if the North had moved beyond preliminary objections to some of elements.

However, she insisted that the meeting "was actually very good."

"It wasn't a standoff with people just stating their positions ... it was interactive," she said.

Wednesday's meeting marked the first time since 2004 that the top diplomats from the United States and North Korea have met face-to-face.

]]> 2008-07-23T15:21:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/president_bush_drops_opposition_to_housing_bill/ {summary} Administration



WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush dropped his opposition Wednesday to legislation aiming to calm the chaotic housing market despite his objections to a $3.9 billion provision. The House was expected to vote on the bill Wednesday, and it could become law as early as this week.

Under the bill, the government would help struggling homeowners get new, cheaper loans and would be allowed to offer troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) a cash infusion.

The Bush administration and lawmakers in both parties teamed to negotiate the measure, which pairs Democrats' top priorities - federal help for homeowners facing foreclosure and $3.9 billion for neighborhoods hit hardest by the housing crisis - with Republicans' goal of reining in mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while reassuring financial markets of their stability.

Bush had objected to the $3.9 billion provision in the measure, saying that it was aimed at helping bankers and lenders, not homeowners who are in trouble.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in fact, made the same complaint in a talk Wednesday with reporters, calling it a "wasteful" provision. But he also said the agreement will send a strong message to investors around the world and will be key to helping the nation turn the corner on the housing crisis.

"This is a very important message that we are sending to investors around the world," Paulson said, adding that it would play a key role in "turning the corner" on the housing crisis.

White House press secretary Dana Perino announced Bush's switch in an earlier telephone conference call with reporters. "We believe this is not the time for a prolonged veto fight but we are confident the president would prevail in one," she said.

It hands the Treasury Department the power to extend the government-sponsored mortgage companies an unlimited line of credit and buy an unspecified amount of their stock, if necessary, to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two companies chartered by Congress. The two companies back or own $5 trillion in U.S. mortgages - nearly half the nation's total.

"The positive aspects of the bill are needed now to increase confidence and stability in the housing and financial markets," Perino said. "While we have concerns with other aspects of the bill, it is important that the new authorities are put in place promptly. And so President Bush will accept Secretary (Henry) Paulson's recommendation to sign the bill."

She said she expected that the $3.9 billion provision would be included in the final legislation. "With Congress scheduled soon for yet another recess," she said, "the risk of not having a bill until at best the middle of September - if they even were act then - is not a risk worth taking in the current environment."

Congressional analysts estimated Tuesday that the rescue could cost $25 billion, but predicted there's a better than even chance it won't be needed at all.

The bill would let hundreds of thousands of homeowners trapped in mortgages they can't afford on homes that have plummeted in value escape foreclosure by refinancing into more affordable, fixed-rate loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration. Lenders would have to agree to take a substantial loss on the existing loans, and in return, they would walk away with at least some payoff and avoid the often-costly foreclosure process.

The plan also creates a new regulator with tighter controls for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and modernizes the FHA.

It includes about $15 billion in housing tax breaks, including a credit of up to $7,500 for first-time home buyers for people who bought homes between April 9, 2008, and July 1, 2009. It also allows people who don't itemize their taxes to claim a $500-$1,000 deduction on their 2008 property taxes. That chiefly benefits homeowners who have paid off their homes and can't claim a deduction for mortgage interest.

And it increases the statutory limit on the national debt by $800 billion, to $10.6 trillion.

The White House, which initially denounced the FHA rescue as too burdensome on the government and risky for taxpayers, dropped most of its objections to the measure in recent weeks in search of a swift deal. The urgent request by Paulson to throw Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a federal lifeline acted as a powerful locomotive for a deal.

The bill sets a cap of $625,000 on the loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may buy and the FHA may insure. It lets them buy and back mortgages up to 15 percent above the median home price in certain areas.

Lawmakers abandoned efforts to place conditions on any Fannie and Freddie rescue, but the bill hands the new regulator approval power over the pay packages of executives at the companies regardless of whether the government moves to financially reinforce them.

It also counts any federal infusion for the mortgage giants under the debt limit, essentially capping how much the government could spend to stabilize the companies without further approval from Congress. As of Tuesday, the national debt that counts toward the limit stood at about $9.5 trillion, roughly $360 billion below the statutory ceiling.

]]> 2008-07-23T15:19:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/obama_tries_to_reassure_israelis_and_palestinians/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential



SDEROT, Israel (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says it's in the interest of Israeli security to arrive at a lasting peace with the Palestinians.

Obama spoke at a press conference in Sderot, near the Gaza border. The city has been a frequent target of rocket attacks from Palestinian militants.

In Obama's words: "America must always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself against those who threaten its people."

He also said that Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel, but the issue should be dealt with by the parties involved.

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., pauses after laying a wreath in the...
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THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

JERUSALEM (AP) - Presidential hopeful Barack Obama donned a Jewish skullcap at Israel's Holocaust memorial on Wednesday and vowed to preserve America's close ties with Israel in a dramatic visit to the Holy Land in which he also promised the Palestinians to push vigorously to win them a state.

Obama clearly was trying to allay fears on both sides on how he would tackle their stubborn conflict.

Many Israelis are concerned that Obama - a first-term U.S. senator with little foreign policy experience - would push Israel too hard in negotiations with the Palestinians. His family's Muslim roots have added to the unease, even though Obama is a Christian.

Palestinians doubt Obama or any other U.S. leader would reverse what they see as Washington's bias toward Israel.

(AP) US Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, listens to Israel's President Shimon...
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"I'm here on this trip to reaffirm the special relationship between Israel and the United States and my abiding commitment to Israel's security and my hope that I can serve as an effective partner, whether as a U.S. senator or as president," Obama during a visit to the official residence of Israeli President Shimon Peres.

A 30-minute drive away, in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Obama assured Palestinian leaders he'd get involved in the Mideast conflict quickly, a top Palestinian official said.

In his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Obama confirmed "that he will be a constructive partner in the peace process" and would not "waste a minute" if elected, Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said.

Obama is visiting at a time of great political turmoil in the region that has jeopardized prospects for Mideast peace. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under investigation in a corruption probe that threatens to topple him. And the Palestinians are deeply divided, with Abbas' forces in charge of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip ruled by Islamic Hamas militants.

Obama plunged into the intricacies of the region's longest-running conflict with a packed schedule of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

At Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, he laid a wreath of white chrysanthemums and lisianthus and lit a memorial flame. "Despite this record of monumental tragedy, this ultimately is a place of hope," he said.

"At a time of great peril and torment, war and strife, we are blessed to have such a powerful reminder of man's potential for great evil, but also our capacity to rise up from tragedy and remake our world," he wrote in the visitors' book.

American tourists who passed by him at the memorial told him, "Remember what you see here," and he replied, "Yes, I understand, I understand," said Yad Vashem's director, Avner Shalev.

Security guards at the memorial kept back the few American and European visitors who had hoped to get a closer glimpse of the presidential contender.

But the somberness of the occasion at Yad Vashem also gave way to moments of warmth and lightheartedness.

Peres gave him an effusive welcome, saying he had read Obama's two books and was "moved" by them. The Israeli president handed Obama an English translation of a book he wrote, "The Imaginary Voyage: With Theodor Herzl in Israel." Obama asked him to sign and dedicate the book, Peres' office said in a statement.

Obama praised Israel's accomplishments 60 years after its creation, and he complimented the 84-year-old Israeli president on his youthful appearance.

"I also want to get his recipe for looking as good he does," Obama quipped.

An aide to the president said Obama showed a "strong grasp" of regional affairs and that "he said he came to listen and learn." The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was not open to the public.

Earlier in the day, Obama met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and parliamentary opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud Party takes a hard line against the Palestinians. He was to meet with Olmert in the evening, after visiting a southern Israeli town that's been bombarded by Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials said their talks with Obama included discussions about Iran's nuclear ambitions. Many Israelis are worried by Obama's willingness to talk to Tehran, the Jewish state's bitterest enemy.

Obama met with Barak and Netanyahu at Jerusalem's posh King David Hotel, where an "Israel for Obama" campaign poster was draped over an armchair in the lobby. The poster included Obama's campaign slogan - "Change you can believe in" - in Hebrew.

Some Israelis who support Obama hope he will take a stronger hand with Israel when it ignores its commitments to the U.S. to halt settlement building and dismantle settlement satellites known as outposts.

"In general, I think tough love is better than a free hand," said the head of the "Israel for Obama" campaign, Samson Altman-Schevitz. He moved to Israel two years ago from Chicago, where Obama's wife, Michelle, was his adviser at the University of Chicago.

Obama left Abbas' headquarters without speaking to reporters. But on Tuesday, he cautioned it is "unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region."

His meeting with the Palestinians stands in contrast to the decision by Republican presidential hopeful John McCain to visit only Israel in March, without stopping in the West Bank.

On the road leading to Abbas' headquarters on Wednesday, police were out in full force, standing 10 yards apart and outfitted in full battle regalia, wearing camouflage uniforms, helmets and bulletproof vests and carrying truncheons and assault rifles.

The Illinois Democrat is working to shore up support among U.S. Jewish voters. Many supported Hillary Rodham Clinton in the battle for the party's presidential nomination, and some have questioned his commitment to Israel.

Obama arrived in Israel Tuesday night from neighboring Jordan and is due to leave for Germany early on Thursday.

Hours before his arrival, a Palestinian man wreaked havoc in downtown Jerusalem - several hundred yards from Obama's hotel - by plowing a front-end loader into cars and a bus. Five people were wounded before a bystander and a policeman shot him dead in the second such incident in the city in less than a month.

A spokeswoman for Yad Vashem, Estee Yaari, said at the end of his visit there, Obama met with the policeman and told him, "Oh, I thought they would have given you the day off."

]]> 2008-07-23T15:15:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/researcher_says_gulf_dead_zone_bigger_than_ever/ {summary} Environment



HOUSTON (AP) - A "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas-Louisiana coast this year is likely to be the biggest ever and last longer than ever before, with marine life affected for hundreds of miles, a scientist warned.

"It's definitely the worst we've seen in the last five years," said Steve DiMarco, a Texas A&M University professor of oceanography who for 16 years has studied the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, so named because the oxygen-depleted water can kill marine life.

The phenomenon is caused when salt water loses large amounts of oxygen, a condition known as hypoxia that is typically associated with an area off the Louisiana coast at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The fresh water and salt water don't mix well, keeping oxygen from filtering through to the sea bottom, which causes problems for fish, shrimp, crabs and clams.

This year's dead zone has been aggravated by flood runoff from heavy spring rains and additional runoff moving into the Gulf from record floods along the Mississippi.

DiMarco, joined by researchers from Texas A&M and the University of Georgia, just returned from an examination of 74 sites between Terrebonne and Cameron, La. He said the most severe hypoxia levels were recorded in the mid-range depths, between 20 and 30 feet, as well as near the bottom of the sea floor at about 60 feet.

Some of the worst hypoxic levels occurred in the western Gulf toward the state line.

"We saw quite a few areas that had little or no oxygen at all at that site," DiMarco said Tuesday. "This dead zone area is the strongest we've seen since 2004, and it's very likely the worst may be still to come.

"Since most of the water from the Midwest is still making its way down to the Gulf, we believe that wide area of hypoxia will persist through August and likely until September, when it normally ends."

Last year, DiMarco discovered a similar dead zone off the Texas coast where the rain-swollen Brazos River emptied into the Gulf.

The zone off Louisiana reached a record 7,900 square miles in 2002. A recent estimate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Louisiana State University shows the zone, which has been monitored for about 25 years, could exceed 8,800 square miles this year, an area roughly the size of New Jersey.

DiMarco said a tropical storm or hurricane likely would have no impact on this year's zone, believed to be caused by nutrient pollution from fertilizers that empty into rivers and eventually reach the Gulf.


]]> 2008-07-23T12:06:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/rice_meets_with_north_korean_diplomat_in_singapore/ {summary} State Department



SINGAPORE (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met North Korea's top diplomat in Singapore Wednesday, ending a four-year hiatus in cabinet-level contacts between the Bush administration and the Stalinist state over its nuclear program.

Rice and North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun smiled for photos and shook hands as they greeted each other and their counterparts from the four other nations - China, Japan, Russia and South Korea - involved in the effort to get the North to abandon atomic weapons.

"It was a good meeting," Rice said after the session. "No surprises."

"Everybody essentially confirmed (previous agreements), and confirmed we need to move ahead rapidly," she said.

Ahead of the talks on the sidelines of an Asian security conference in Singapore, Rice said she and the others would press for North Korea to prove it has told the truth about its past atomic activities by agreeing to a U.S.-drafted verification proposal.

But hours before the meeting, North Korea insisted it had met its commitments and said Washington must completely abandon its "hostile policies" toward the regime.

North Korean spokesman Ri Tong Il told reporters that Pyongyang hoped the meeting would build momentum toward ending the declaration and verification stage and move toward a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which closed with an armistice and not a peace treaty.

"What is important in the next stage is that these measures should lead to a complete abandonment of hostile (U.S.) policies toward our republic," he said. Pyongyang maintains that Washington is intent on North Korea's destruction.

After the meeting, Rice said there was "a lot of discussion" of the four-page proposed "verification protocol" that was given to North Korea this month following its long-delayed delivery of an accounting of its nuclear programs in June. But she said the North Koreans did not give the other parties any kind of definitive response.

The draft calls for intrusive inspections of North Korean nuclear facilities, soil sampling, interviews with key scientists and a role for U.N. atomic experts. Hill travels on Friday to the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna to brief them on developments.

Before the meeting, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said, "It shows the six parties have the political will to move forward with the six-party talks process."

"We should all continuously contribute to the progress of this process," Yang added. "When we look back we find that because of this spirit of mutual benefit and win-win progress we have been able to overcome quite a few difficulties and we have completed the implementation of the initial phase."

Yang said the parties had made "major headway" in obtaining verifiable accounting of North Korea's nuclear program.

The six-way talks mark the first time since 2004 that the top diplomats from the United States and North Korea have met face-to-face.

Wednesday's gathering, billed as an informal affair, was held in a hotel ballroom. The participants sat in overstuffed armchairs arranged in a circle with a flower arrangement in the middle. Rice sat between the Chinese and Russian foreign ministers. Pak sat between the Chinese and Japanese ministers.


]]> 2008-07-23T12:03:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/house_to_vote_on_foreclosure_rescue_measure/ {summary} U.S. House



WASHINGTON (AP) - The government would help struggling homeowners get new, cheaper loans and be allowed to offer troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) a cash infusion as part of legislation that aims to calm the chaotic housing market.

The House was expected to vote on the bill Wednesday, and it could become law as early as this week.

The Bush administration and lawmakers in both parties teamed to negotiate the measure, which pairs Democrats' top priorities - federal help for homeowners facing foreclosure and $3.9 billion for neighborhoods hit hardest by the housing crisis - with Republicans' goal of reining in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while reassuring financial markets of their stability.

It hands the Treasury Department power to extend the government-sponsored mortgage companies an unlimited line of credit and buy an unspecified amount of their stock, if necessary to prop up Fannie and Freddie. The two companies back or own $5 trillion in U.S. mortgages - nearly half the nation's total.

Congressional analysts estimated Tuesday that the rescue could cost $25 billion, but predicted there's a better than even chance it won't be needed at all.

The bill would let hundreds of thousands of homeowners trapped in mortgages they can't afford on homes that have plummeted in value escape foreclosure by refinancing into more affordable, fixed-rate loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration. Lenders would have to agree to take a substantial loss on the existing loans, and in return, they would walk away with at least some payoff and avoid the often-costly foreclosure process.

The plan also creates a new regulator with tighter controls for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and modernizes the FHA.

It includes about $15 billion in housing tax breaks, including a credit of up to $7,500 for first-time home buyers for people who bought homes between April 9, 2008, and July 1, 2009. It also allows people who don't itemize their taxes to claim a $500-$1,000 deduction on their 2008 property taxes. That chiefly benefits homeowners who have paid off their homes and can't claim a deduction for mortgage interest.

And it increases the statutory limit on the national debt by $800 billion, to $10.6 trillion.

The White House, which initially denounced the FHA rescue as too burdensome on the government and risky for taxpayers, dropped most of its objections to the measure in recent weeks in search of a swift deal. The urgent request by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson to throw Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a federal lifeline acted as a powerful locomotive for a deal.

The bill sets a cap of $625,000 on the loans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may buy and the FHA may insure. It lets them buy and back mortgages up to 15 percent above the median home price in certain areas.

Lawmakers abandoned efforts to place conditions on any Fannie and Freddie rescue, but the bill hands the new regulator approval power over the pay packages of executives at the companies regardless of whether the government moves to prop them up.

It also counts any federal infusion for the mortgage giants under the debt limit, essentially capping how much the government could spend to prop up the companies without further approval from Congress. As of Tuesday, the national debt that counts toward the limit stood at about $9.5 trillion, roughly $360 billion below the statutory ceiling.

]]> 2008-07-23T12:02:01-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/barack_obama_tours_holocaust_memorial_in_israel/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential



JERUSALEM (AP) - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama toured Israel's Holocaust memorial Wednesday, laying a wreath in memory of the 6 million Jews who died and saying, "Ultimately, this is a place of hope."

Obama toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on a Jerusalem hillside as he moved through a busy day of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Democratic nominee-in-waiting is on a tour of the Mideast and Europe, a journey financed by his campaign and designed to reassure skeptical voters back home of his ability to serve as commander in chief and guide diplomacy after eight years of the Bush administration.

Obama drew an unusually warm welcome from Israeli President Shimon Peres, who said his greatest wish is for a "great president of the United States. That is the greatest promise for us and the rest of the world."

"God bless you," said the 85-year-old fixture of Israeli politics, who joked that he was speaking as one young man to another. Obama is 46.

At the Holocaust memorial, Obama wore a white skullcap as he laid a wreath in memory of the victims of the Nazis.

Later, he said: "I am always taken back to sort of the core question of humanity that the Holocaust raises. That is, on the one hand, man's great capacity for evil, and on the other hand, our ability to come together to stop evil."

He added, "So despite this record of monumental tragedy this ultimately is a place of hope because it reminds us of our obligations and responsibilities hopefully to raise a better future for our children and our grandchildren." He said he hoped he could bring his two young daughters with him on his next trip.

In signing the guestbook, he wrote, "May we remember those who perished, not only as victims but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed like us, and who have become symbols of the human spirit."

Earlier Wednesday, Obama held a breakfast meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Neither man spoke to reporters as they posed for news cameras at the plush downtown King David Hotel before sitting down to a breakfast of smoked salmon and local cheeses. After the Barak meeting, Obama met opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Barak's office issued a laconic statement saying the two discussed "all the relevant issues" and the "future challenges facing Israel and the region" - which meant they most likely discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts and Israel's determination that Iran not be allowed to build atomic bombs.

Netanyahu told reporters those same two subjects were discussed in his meeting with Obama.

"The senator and I agreed that the primacy of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power is clear, and this should guide our mutual policies."

Many people in Israel are concerned that Obama - a first-term U.S. senator with little foreign policy experience - would push Israel too hard in negotiations with the Palestinians.

But Netanyahu said Obama told him that "he would never seek in any way to compromise Israel's security, and that this would be sacrosanct in his approach to political negotiations."

At the King David Hotel, an "Israel for Obama" campaign poster was draped over an armchair in the lobby. The poster included Obama's campaign slogan - "Change you can believe in" - in Hebrew.

Some Israelis who support Obama hope he will take a stronger hand with Israel when it ignores its commitments to the U.S. to halt settlement building and dismantle settlement satellites known as outposts.

"In general, I think tough love is better than a free hand," said Samson Altman-Schevitz, head of the Israel for Obama campaign. He moved to Israel two years ago from Chicago, where Obama's wife, Michelle, was his adviser at the University of Chicago.

Aides said that while at the Holocaust Memorial, Obama met briefly with Aml Ganim, the Israeli border police officer who shot and killed the Palestinian man who used a bulldozer Tuesday to try and overturn cars outside the King David Hotel.

Obama arrived in Israel Tuesday night from neighboring Jordan and is due to leave for Germany early Thursday.


]]> 2008-07-23T12:00:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/is_mccain_close_to_choosing_his_vp/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential


ROCHESTER, N.H. - Yet another town-hall meeting isn't doing the trick. Neither is dropping in on a former Republican president. So just what can John McCain do to draw attention away from his showy Democratic rival? Pick a running mate, perhaps.

Speculation swirled Tuesday that McCain might name his vice presidential partner within the next few days — right in the middle of Barack Obama's overseas tour.

McCain aides were not helping tamp down the speculation with their comments, often made late in the afternoon, of "no announcement today."

But what about tomorrow? Or where? On Tuesday, McCain campaigned in New Hampshire, not all that far from a lakeside summer home of vanquished GOP rival Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor. Romney was nowhere to be seen. Well, it wasn't really that close to his lakeside home.

One member of the audience told McCain he seemed like a very "forgiving" man. "Have you forgiven Mitt Romney?" he asked the senator.

Amid laughter, McCain said, "Mitt has been of tremendous help to my campaign. ... He does a better job for me than he did for himself."

Later, when reporters asked if this was a good week to announce his own running mate with Obama overseas, McCain chuckled and said, "We have the same answer we always have. ... We'll let you know when we have an announcement."

Last Sunday, McCain was in the Bronx at a Yankees game with another former rival, one-time New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. "You hear all kinds of stuff," Giuliani later said, "but I'm not thinking about anything but helping to get him elected."

The campaign is also not very open about where McCain is going next, keeping scheduling matters close to the vest. And that adds to the frenzy.

All questions about the process of selecting a running mate are quickly shot down.

"It's the one subject we've been forbidden to talk about," said senior adviser Mark Salter. He promised to come to the press area of McCain's plane, "but I won't tell you anything." That is, unless it's "what's wrong with Barack Obama's judgment," Salter joked. Actually, he wasn't joking.

When reporters caught a glimpse of McCain and rushed forward on the plane, he grinned and waved them away. "What do you want, you little jerks?" he asked.

There are a lot of potential running mates that McCain could visit as he jets around the country — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist or Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, for instance, three governors mentioned frequently as possible running mates. McCain ends up in New Orleans on Wednesday evening.

McCain returned to New Hampshire, a state where he his fared well in two presidential primaries (2000 and 2008). Obama and McCain are neck-and-neck in this swing state, and only half of likely voters said they have definitely decided on their choice for president.

A University of New Hampshire poll showed Obama with 46 percent and McCain with 43 percent, a statistical tie given the poll's margin of error of 3 percentage points. "This will be one of those states who decides who the next president of the United States will be," McCain said.

Even former President George H.W. Bush was asked by reporters for his views on McCain's vice presidential search when the Arizona senator visited the elder Bush at his family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush said he wasn't in the politics business any more.

But what about Romney, once governor of neighboring Massachusetts? Bush didn't jump to the bait. But what do you think of him as a person? "I like him," said the former president.

And that was it.

McCain on Tuesday participated in a town-hall meeting in a theater and "opera house" this central New Hampshire village. Half a world away, reporters were trailing Obama as he visited Jordan in route to Israel.

McCain has told reporters he doesn't care if Obama's trip was stealing attention and thinks it "doesn't in the slightest" undercut his own message. But on Tuesday the campaign released two videos set to love songs and encouraged viewers to choose which one best conveyed this message: "The media is in love with Barack."

Meanwhile, McCain told his audience, "I know you know there's been a lot of back and forth" on the issue of Iraq. He said when he was campaigning in New Hampshire a year ago, "when everybody declared my candidacy dead ... I said we've go to do the 'surge' ... and we will win the war in Iraq. And we are winning that war."

"If he had his way, we would have been out last March," McCain said. "We would have never succeeded and we would have had defeat. ... He was wrong then, he is wrong now."

McCain renewed a proposal to have town-hall meetings with Obama in the coming days, a suggestion that has so far been turned down by Obama's team.



]]> 2008-07-22T22:15:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/democrats_prepare_for_first_hearing_on_dont_ask_dont_tell_policy/ {summary} Congress, Military


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats are convening the first congressional hearing on the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy since its enactment 15 years ago. But they acknowledge there's no chance of repealing it this year.

Indeed their only hope of success, they say, is if Democratic Sen. Barack Obama gets elected president.

"We need a new president in order to get this passed" — specifically, a President Obama, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., told reporters on a conference call Tuesday convened by the Human Rights Campaign and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Obama wants to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" and will work with military leaders to get it done, his campaign Web site says. Republican opponent John McCain supports "don't ask, don't tell."

Tauscher's legislation to overturn the policy has 133 co-sponsors. But key Democrats including House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., support the status quo, and there are no plans to bring the bill to a vote this year.

Tauscher said she has no interest in a "show vote" that her side might lose.

Instead, the hearing Wednesday in the Armed Services Committee's military personnel panel is meant to draw attention to the issue and to the growing public sentiment in favor of gay people serving openly in the military, Tauscher said.

In a Washington Post-ABC News poll over the weekend, 75 percent of respondents said openly gay people should be allowed to serve, up from 62 percent in early 2001 and 44 percent in 1993.

"We believe that this is a good first step to have this hearing, but we don't believe that this bill will come forward until we have a new president," Tauscher said.

Even if Obama wins, overturning "don't ask, don't tell" might not be his first order of business.

The policy was enacted shortly after Democrat Bill Clinton became president and sought to make good on a campaign pledge to open the military to gays. After a divisive debate that gave fuel to social conservatives and little political benefit to Clinton, "don't ask, don't tell" was the result.

It was intended to keep the military from asking recruits their sexual orientation, and to prevent servicemembers from declaring that they are gay or bisexual or engaging in homosexual activity.

If elected, Obama's key task would have to be trying to end the Iraq war while maintaining military and public support. Despite the seemingly strong promise on his campaign site, in a recent interview with The Advocate, a gay newsmagazine, Obama stopped short of promising to lead the way for change, saying only that he can "reasonably see" a repeal of the current ban if elected president.

Wednesday's hearing, convened by subcommittee chair Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., includes three former military officials who want to overturn "don't ask, don't tell," and two witnesses who oppose gays serving in the military.

No current Pentagon official or military officer was invited to testify, Tauscher said, because "it's a waste of time ... They always have the same answer," which is that they'll follow the law, she said.

]]> 2008-07-22T22:13:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/texas_oilman_tells_congress_either_build_wind_power_lines_or_get_out_of_pri/ {summary} Congress



WASHINGTON (AP) -- Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens asked Congress on Tuesday to "clear the path" for his plan to boost use of wind and natural gas for U.S. energy needs.

Pickens has been on a $58 million publicity tour to promote his plan to erect wind turbines in the Midwest to generate electricity, replacing the 22 percent of U.S. power produced from natural gas. The freed up natural gas then could be used for transportation.

Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Pickens said the government should begin building transmission lines for wind-generated power or provide the right of way on private land and extend tax credits so the private sector can build the lines.

"If the government wanted to build a grid, I mean, do it," he said. "But if they don't want to do it, I think the money is there to do it private, and so it's kind of like either do it or get out of the way, but give us the corridors to put it in and it'll be done. You could do this on a very, very fast track if you wanted."

Pickens suggested that Congress follow the lead of former President Eisenhower, who declared an emergency to build the interstate highway system in the 1950s and 1960s.

He warned that oil could cost $300 a barrel in 10 years as supplies drop, if the nation continues to "drift" on energy policy.

Pickens has leased hundreds of thousands of acres for a giant wind farm in West Texas, where he plans to erect 2,700 turbines and produce energy for urban areas such as Dallas and Fort Worth. He has run into some opposition from West Texas landowners who are unhappy with his efforts to obtain rights of way to build the wind farm and a pipeline for a separate water project.

Specifically, Pickens asked Congress to extend a 2005 law intended to speed up the creation of energy corridors, and to give him control over any transmission lines he builds for wind-generated power. All electric transmission lines are now regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Pickens also called for a 10-year extension of a tax credit for energy producers. He estimated it would cost taxpayers $15 billion a year in production tax credits for 200,000 megawatts of wind power.

"When you look at $700 billion dollars going out of country every year for purchase of oil, $15 billion is somewhat insignificant," he said.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., called Pickens' plan bold and said he hoped Pickens' testimony would "infect people in a position in Washington to do something about it."

But the oilman's plan raised questions with Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, who asked if it would hurt the chemical industry, which relies on natural gas as raw material. He said the industry probably won't like seeing natural gas costs increase.

Pickens estimated it would cost about $500 billion to increase wind energy production from the 4,000 megawatts to be generated at his Texas wind farm to 200,000 megawatts, the amount needed to power 20 percent of U.S. energy needs. Transmission lines and the tax credit would add another $15 billion.

At that level, he said, "You're approaching about one year's supply of oil that you're buying. But don't get the idea that replaces that oil, it doesn't. It will only replace 38 percent."

In addition to the hearing, Pickens also met privately Tuesday with Democratic and Republican members of Congress as well as Texas senators.

___

On the Net:

Pickens Plan: http://www.pickensplan.com/theplan/


]]> 2008-07-22T22:07:01-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/analysis_obama_pledges_engagement_in_mideast/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential



WASHINGTON (AP) - Is there anything new a presidential candidate can say about the absence of peace in the fragile Middle East?

Anything beyond a promise to work at it hard?

Barack Obama is not offering a sure-to-work formula to bring Israel and its Arab neighbors together.

The Democratic candidate for president is speaking of the security needs of Israel and the economic hardships of the Palestinians.

But the bottom line is, and will always be, it is up to the parties and not the American president to make peace.

"It's unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region," Obama said.

If the Jewish vote, assuming there is such a thing, weren't valued especially in what could be a tight race, Obama might have left it at that. His Republican opponent, John McCain, isn't offering anything new yet. He appears to be relying on stating clearly his commitment to Israel and its security.

At least to some observers, Obama appeared to be saying something new in a speech last month to pro-Israel lobbyists at a dinner in Washington.

He spoke in one breath of Jerusalem remaining undivided and Israel's capital.

It turned out, though, that he wasn't exactly saying all of Jerusalem should be Israel's capital.

The Palestinians want at least the part of the city Israeli troops captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war, and Obama was not ruling out that possibility.

If the Illinois senator is signaling a change it is his promise to be active from the get-go, insinuating that President Bush sat on his hands too long and opportunities may have been lost.

"What I think can change is the ability of the United States government and a United States president to be actively engaged with the peace process," Obama said.

It is debatable whether a sleeves-rolled-up Bush could have been any more successful than Bill Clinton was in playing a direct role in trying to drive Israel and the Palestinians and Israel and Syria into peace agreements.

On the other hand, President Jimmy Carter kept Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin from quitting the Camp David talks in 1978 and drove them to a treaty the next year.

At this point, Iran appears to be overtaking peacemaking as the primary topic in the region.

"Iran has become the biggest issue for Israelis," said David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "It is making peacemaking harder with its support for rejectionist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and that will be a daunting challenge for any president."

And Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. negotiator, in a separate interview said "reassuring the Palestinians and the world that he is going to take the Arab-Israeli conflict seriously" is important.

And Miller, author of "A Much Too Promised Land" added that assuring the pro-Israeli community of his commitment to Israel's security is important as well.

However, Miller said, the more important reassurance is that "while Obama may engage the Iranians he is irrevocably committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."


]]> 2008-07-22T22:05:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/obama_vows_to_work_for_mideast_breakthrough/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential



AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama stepped into the thicket of Mideast politics Tuesday, declaring in Jordan that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are strong enough internally to make the bold concessions necessary for peace.

Obama said he would work to bring the two sides together "starting from the minute I'm sworn into office." But he cautioned it is "unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region."

After meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II, Obama flew to Israel for talks with Israeli leaders. He'll also meet later with Palestinians.

Upon his arrival in Jerusalem, he spoke of a "historic and special relationship between the United States and Israel, one that cannot be broken" and one that he hoped to strengthen as president.

In Jordan, he made his comments on the struggle for Mideast peace within a few hours of stepping off a military aircraft - a presidential contender carrying body armor and wearing orange earplugs - following a five-day tour of war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq with two fellow senators.

Standing alongside ancient mountaintop ruins with the Amman city skyline his memorable backdrop, Obama declined repeatedly to concede that President Bush's decision to dispatch 30,000 troops to Iraq in 2007 had succeeded. Still, he said, "I believe that the situation in Iraq is more secure than it was a year and a half ago."

The Illinois Democrat predicted at the time the troop increase was begun that it would not succeed.

On Tuesday, he also stood by his call for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq over a 16-month period and said the United States, NATO and the Afghanistan government must do more to counter a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaida.

Back home, Republican rival John McCain renewed his criticism of Obama's pledge to pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by the second year of his administration if he wins the presidency.

"Sen. Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign," McCain said at a town hall meeting in Rochester, N.H.

Jordan was the initial stop of a second stage of Obama's international trip, this part financed by his presidential campaign after the official congressional visit to the war zones with fellow senators.

Obama has been to the Middle East before, but not as the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting, and his Jordanian hosts seemed eager to prepare a warm greeting.

King Abdullah flew back from Colorado for the visit, and Obama aides said the Jordanians had suggested a one-on-one meeting before the two were joined by a larger group for dinner at the palace. The king later drove his guest to the airport in his Mercedes.

Following dinner, Obama flew aboard his newly refurbished chartered campaign jet to Israel for meetings with Israeli leaders as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on the West Bank. After that he was to visit Sderot, an Israeli town under periodic shelling from Palestinian militants in the nearby Gaza strip.

Obama said that an ultimate resolution in the region is going to involve "two states standing side-by-side in peace and security and that the Israelis and the Palestinians are going to both have to make compromises in order to arrive at that two-state solution."

Yet, he added, "One of the difficulties that we have right now is that in order to make those compromises you have to have strong support from your people. And the Israeli government right now is unsettled. ...

"The Palestinians are divided between Fatah and Hamas. And so it's difficult for either side to make the bold move that would bring about peace the way, for example, the peace between Israel and Egypt was brought about. Those leaders were in a much stronger position to initiate that kind of peace."

In particular, he said the United States should create "a greater sense of security among the Israelis, a greater sense that economic progress and increased freedom of movement is something that can be accomplished in the Palestinian territories and, with those confidence-building measures, that we get discussions back on track."

Jordan's king told Obama that an evenhanded U.S. policy would bolster America's credibility in the Middle East and that achieving Palestinian statehood was essential for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict, according to a royal palace statement summarizing Abdullah's remarks during their private meeting.

In Israel, Obama also was expected to stop at Yad Vashem, the memorial to victims of the Holocaust, and possibly the Western Wall, the site of an ancient temple and Judaism's holiest place.

At its political core, Obama's trip is designed to reassure skeptical voters about his ability to function as commander in chief and to forge a new foreign policy after eight years of the Bush administration.

Jewish voters in the U.S. are among those Obama is seeking to impress. He trailed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton among them during the Democratic primaries, although he has made inroads in recent weeks.

He steered well clear of explicitly criticizing President Bush in his Mideast comments, although he said, "What a U.S. president can do is apply sustained energy and focus on the issues of the Israelis and the Palestinians."

The administration has been prodding the two sides toward a compromise in its final months in office, but has come under criticism from some for not making it a stronger priority earlier.

In comments on his trip to Iraq, Obama acknowledged that Gen. David Petraeus, the overall commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, had concerns about a fixed timetable for withdrawal.

He expressed sympathy with that view, though he made it clear his outlook would be a broader one.

"I think he wants maximum flexibility to be able to - to do what he believes needs to be done inside of Iraq," Obama said, "But keep in mind, for example, one of General Petraeus' responsibilities is not to think about how could we be using some of that $10 billion a month to shore up a U.S. economy that is really hurting right now. If I'm president of the United States, that is part of my responsibility."

After leaving Israel, Obama flies to Germany, France and England before returning to the United States next weekend.

Before Obama arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday, a Palestinian rammed a construction truck into three cars and a bus near the hotel where he was to stay, injuring five people before an Israeli civilian shot and killed the attacker.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack. And Obama, speaking from Jordan before leaving for Israel, called it "a reminder of what Israelis have courageously lived with on a daily basis for far too long."

"I will always support Israel in confronting terrorism and pursuing everlasting peace and security," Obama said.


]]> 2008-07-22T22:02:01-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/obama_iraq_now_needs_a_political_solution/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential



AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Tuesday that security in Iraq has improved and that the United States urgently needs to turn its attention to Afghanistan.

"There is security progress, but now we need a political solution" in Iraq, Obama said in the first news conference of his highly publicized trip abroad. Afghanistan is now the "central front in the war against terrorism," he added.

"The situation in Afghanistan is perilous and urgent," he said. "We must act now to reverse a deteriorating situation."

He reiterated his goal of withdrawing combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of becoming president. But he said he would consult with military commanders to determine how many troops to keep in the country to protect diplomatic and humanitarian operations, to train Iraqis and to conduct counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida in Iraq.

"My goal is to no longer have U.S. troops engaged in combat operations in Iraq," he said.

Obama and his two traveling Senate companions, Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, all emphasized at the news conference the need to turn U.S. attention to Afghanistan and to help Pakistan confront a growing terrorist presence within its borders.

Obama acknowledged that the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, does not want a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. combat forces.

"He wants to retain as much flexibility as possible," Obama said. "What I emphasized to him was ... if I were in his shoes, I'd probably feel the same way. But my job as a candidate for president and a potential commander in chief extends beyond Iraq." Obama said he also needs to take into account the security needs in Afghanistan, the views of the Iraqi government and the potential domestic uses for the money now being spent in Iraq.

Tucker Bounds, spokesman for Republican candidate John McCain, responded, "By admitting that his plan for withdrawal places him at odds with Gen. David Petraeus, Barack Obama has made clear that his goal remains unconditional withdrawal rather than securing the victory our troops have earned."

Meantime in London on Tuesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain will begin a major troop withdrawal from Iraq in early 2009, if security continues to improve and work to train local security forces is completed. Britain currently has around 4,100 troops in Iraq, based mainly on the outskirts of Basra.

Brown told lawmakers Britain will keep current numbers in place for several months, but Britain's role in Iraq will change next year from combat and military training to boosting the economy of the oil-rich southern region.

Obama arrived in Jordan after a tour of war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. He stepped off his military aircraft carrying body armor, orange earplugs sticking out of his ears.

His joint news conference with Reed and Hagel was at the Amman Citadel, an ancient hilltop ruin that bears evidence of settlements dating to 2000 B.C. The skyline of modern-day Amman, cement dwellings and the occasional mosque, formed a made-for-television backdrop.

Later, he was scheduled to have talks with Jordan's King Abdullah.

Before he left Iraq, Obama traveled to a former hotbed of the Sunni insurgency for talks Tuesday with tribal leaders who joined the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq and now seek a deeper role in Iraq's political future.

Obama met leaders of the so-called Awakening Council movement in Ramadi, one of the main cities of the western Anbar Province where al-Qaida once had the upper hand against embattled U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Tribal sheiks last year began an uprising against insurgents that is credited with uprooting extremist strongholds and helping bring violence around Iraq to its lowest levels in four years.

The meetings came near the end of Obama's two-day stop in Iraq, where he held discussions with Iraqi leaders on possible troops withdrawal initiatives and was briefed by top U.S. military commanders.

Iraq was the third leg of a tour that's included Kuwait and Afghanistan. From Jordan, his trip moves on to Israel and Europe.

He leaves Iraq with a possible political boost: Iraqi backing for his hope of withdraw U.S. combat troops by 2010.

Iraqi leaders on Monday stopped short of giving specific timetables or endorsing Obama's proposal to withdraw combat troops within 16 months if he wins the presidency. But their comments fit roughly into Obama's campaign pledge.

The Iraqi government appears increasingly confident to press for timeframes as violence drops and Iraqi security forces expand their roles alongside the 147,000 U.S. soldiers in the country.

"We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq," the government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said Monday after Obama met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Obama released a statement late Monday noting that Iraqis want an "aspirational timeline, with a clear date," for the departure of U.S. combat forces.

"They do not want an open-ended presence of U.S. combat forces. The prime minister said that now is an appropriate time to start to plan for the reorganization of our troops in Iraq - including their numbers and missions. He stated his hope that U.S. combat forces could be out of Iraq in 2010," Obama said in a joint statement with Hagel and Reed.

The senators said that while there has been some "forward movement" on political progress, reconciliation and economic development, there has not been "nearly enough to bring lasting stability to Iraq."

]]> 2008-07-22T16:04:01-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/a_new_openness_to_talks_with_that_axis_of_evil/ {summary} Administration



By HELENE COOPER
NY Times
Published: July 22, 2008


WASHINGTON — When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets her North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui-chun, in Singapore this week, it will be the first substantive high-level meeting between Washington and the North since Madeleine K. Albright visited North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, during the waning months of the Clinton administration.

After a weekend in which the Bush administration sent a top State Department official to a meeting in Geneva with an Iranian official, the North Korea meeting may well amount to last rites for the “axis of evil,” the one that President Bush said in 2002 was “arming to threaten the peace of the world.”

The Bush administration began long ago to step down from its vow not to talk to America’s foes. But its recent concessions to Iran and North Korea — and to Iraq, another charter member of the axis — have further muddled the old message.

Mr. Bush has now agreed, in principle, to the idea of a timetable for troop withdrawals from Iraq, something he has long derided as dangerous.

The State Department sent Under Secretary of State William J. Burns to talk to Iranian and European officials in Geneva, despite having said it would enter such talks only if Tehran suspended its enrichment of uranium, which Iran has not done.

And now, Ms. Rice will meet with Mr. Pak to finalize a phase in a denuclearization agreement less than two years after North Korea tested a nuclear weapon.

The White House maintained on Monday that nothing had changed. When pressed by a reporter on whether Mr. Bush still believed that North Korea and Iran were part of an axis of evil, Dana M. Perino, the White House press secretary, said they were.

“I think that until they give up their nuclear weapons programs completely and verifiably, I think that we would keep them in the same category,” Ms. Perino said.

And Ms. Rice herself, two days after the Geneva talks on Iran, described them as disappointing.

“We expected to hear an answer from the Iranians, but as has been the case so many times with the Iranians, what came through was not serious,” she said aboard her flight to Abu Dhabi for talks before heading to Singapore.

She said that if Iran did not respond in the next two weeks to an offer of incentives, the United States and other major powers would go back to the United Nations Security Council for additional sanctions against Tehran.

America’s European allies and even a few members of the Bush administration have been struck by what they call a zigzag.

A senior administration official described the Iran policy as “erratic,” while a European diplomat said, “It does seem a bit schizophrenic.”

Abbas Milani, an Iran expert at Stanford University who has advised the Bush administration, echoed the sentiment. “I don’t understand what they’re doing,” Mr. Milani said. Ms. Rice’s “provocative acts and words” on Monday could derail any chance that Iran’s leaders might reward the Bush concession on talks by suspending uranium enrichment, he said.

Some foreign policy experts said the multiplying concessions were to be expected in the waning months of any administration. The Reagan administration, for instance, began formal talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1988 during its last months in office, and President Clinton sent Ms. Albright to Pyongyang in late 2000, less than three months before he left office.

But the Bush administration’s concessions are particularly noteworthy because Mr. Bush and his deputies went to great lengths to propound an intellectual and moral doctrine that eschewed talking to foes; Mr. Bush compared such outreach to appeasement just two months ago before the Israeli Parliament.

Some national security hawks have been sharply critical of the latest moves toward Iran and North Korea.

“The metaphor to look at is intellectual collapse,” said John R. Bolton, the Bush administration’s former ambassador to the United Nations. “It’s not even a carefully staged retreat. Instead, it’s just a sign to the Iranians that toward the end of the administration, they’re desperate to sign deals.”

European officials say they have privately been urging the administration for several years now to engage Iran on the nuclear issue.

But some European diplomats questioned the timing of the decision to send Mr. Burns to the Geneva meeting. They said they had little hope that Iranian officials — known for their ability to draw out negotiations for as long as they can — would give the departing Bush administration the concession it was seeking and suspend uranium enrichment. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic rules.

The furthest Iran will go this year, the diplomats said, is likely to be a “freeze for freeze” proposal, in which it would agree not to enrich uranium beyond current levels, in return for a freeze on sanctions.

But the United States has said repeatedly that it will not accept such a proposal and seeks complete suspension of uranium enrichment.

For the Bush administration to accept the freeze-for-freeze proposal that is currently being floated, European and American diplomats said, would require yet another major concession.


]]> 2008-07-22T15:53:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/adwatch_mccain_ad_blames_obama_for_gas_price_hike/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential
Associated Press | July 21, 2008


TITLE: "Pump."

LENGTH: 30 seconds

AIRING: National cable and Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Northern Virginia and Wisconsin.

SCRIPT: Announcer: "Gas prices — $4, $5, no end in sight, because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America. No to independence from foreign oil. Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?"

Crowd chanting: "Obama, Obama, Obama!"

Announcer: "One man knows we must now drill more in America and rescue our family budgets. Don't hope for more energy, vote for it. McCain."

McCain: "I'm John McCain and I approve this message."

KEY IMAGES: A lonely gas pump with heat waves rising around it. A pump's price readout rolls over to $5. At first indiscernible, background chanting grows louder. A smiling Obama appears on the screen with a pump rising over his right shoulder. It is now clear that the chants are a pro-Obama crowd: "Obama, Obama, Obama!" The screen goes dark. A clip appears of McCain speaking to a crowd, replaced by a still shot of McCain against a blue backdrop.

ANALYSIS: This ad is the latest tit-for-tat commercial over energy in the presidential campaign. Earlier this month, an Obama ad accused McCain of being "part of the problem" of high gas prices. This one flat out blames Obama.

The main premise of McCain's ad — that opposition to drilling is responsible for high gas prices — is an assertion that has been disputed even by McCain allies. There is a strong case that proponents make for additional drilling, but few will argue that it would alleviate this summer's prices at the pump.


]]> 2008-07-22T12:06:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/state_department_warns_embassies_to_give_only_minimal_aid_to_traveling_pres/ {summary} State Department



WASHINGTON (AP) -- As Democrat Barack Obama began an overseas tour, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told employees at U.S. embassies to provide only minimal help to visiting presidential candidates.

The orders went to all overseas posts and told government employees not to do anything that might show favoritism or amount to improper campaign activity. The department said the State Department issued similar orders ahead of presumed Republican nominee John McCain's overseas tours to Iraq, Mexico and elsewhere this year, but limited the communication to embassies in countries the Republican planned to visit.

Officials said the orders had been in the works for months and it was just coincidence that they were issued Thursday, the day the presumptive Democratic candidate left Washington for a much-watched trip to Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East and Europe.

Government employees are prohibited from certain political activity on the job and cannot perform campaign work on the public payroll. Rice's orders give examples of things embassy employees should not do, such as arrange high-level meetings for visiting candidates or get involved in nitty-gritty logistical details.

As an example of appropriate logistical help, Rice's memo, sent late Thursday, said, "If the campaign staff wants to rent a bus for press, tell them where they can rent a bus."

Obama traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq in his capacity as a member of Congress and was joined by Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Jack Reed, D-R.I. Like his Afghanistan stop, his visit to Iraq had heavy security and limited media access. Visiting U.S. officials and lawmakers often invite reporters to cover their visits and some hold news conferences with leaders in Baghdad, but Obama has been shielded from the media.

In Iraq, journalists were able to watch him depart from meetings and managed to shout questions, but the replies were brief and Obama didn't break stride. His movements around Iraq were also kept secret by U.S. officials.

The Defense Department released three brief videos of Obama meeting with troops in Basra and President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki in Baghdad's heavily secured Green Zone.

Obama's advisers have insisted the visit is not a campaign trip but a chance to strengthen international relationships. Still, he traveled to the war zone with two potential vice presidential candidates — Hagel and Reed.

Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy said embassy employees began asking questions about what they could and could not do for Sen. McCain several months ago, and further questions arose about the Obama trip. In both cases, embassy staff wondered how to treat presidential candidates who are also sitting members of Congress, who are normally accorded extensive embassy help when they travel overseas.

These ... trips don't quite fit neatly into something we regularly publish because it happens only every four years," Kennedy said. "So someone said 'Aha, let us do the worldwide notification."

State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said there was nothing unusual about the instructions or their timing, but would not provide the full text.

"I don't have any information to show that it was anything but us providing information to the field about what we're expecting our folks to be doing," Gallegos said Monday.

Gallegos said there was no "specific reason that because he, this specific candidate, is going out that we now have to remind everybody."

Rice's order, first reported by The Washington Times, makes clear that the rules apply to either candidate, and discuss the differences between a congressionally chartered trip and one organized under the auspices of a political campaign.

The orders tell diplomats and bureaucrats overseas to treat the candidates as "members of Congress visiting in personal or semi-personal capacities," but "with additional restrictions based on rules related to political activity."

Under ordinary circumstances, diplomats might meet congressional delegations at the airport, set up briefings with the host government, and arrange sightseeing or shopping tours.

Obama's trip is further complicated by the fact that two fellow senators traveled with him during his visits to Afghanistan and Iraq over the past several days, but Obama will continue solo for other stops in the Middle East and Europe.

In Iraq, journalists were able to watch him depart from meetings and managed to shout questions, but the replies were brief and Obama didn't break stride. His movements around Iraq were also kept secret by U.S. officials.

The Defense Department released three brief videos of Obama meeting with troops in Basra and President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki in Baghdad's heavily secured Green Zone.

Obama's advisers have insisted the visit is not a campaign trip but a chance to strengthen international relationships. Still, he traveled to the war zone with two potential vice presidential candidates — Hagel and Reed.

Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy said embassy employees began asking questions about what they could and could not do for Sen. McCain several months ago, and further questions arose about the Obama trip. In both cases, embassy staff wondered how to treat presidential candidates who are also sitting members of Congress, who are normally accorded extensive embassy help when they travel overseas.

These ... trips don't quite fit neatly into something we regularly publish because it happens only every four years," Kennedy said. "So someone said 'Aha, let us do the worldwide notification."

State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said there was nothing unusual about the instructions or their timing, but would not provide the full text.

"I don't have any information to show that it was anything but us providing information to the field about what we're expecting our folks to be doing," Gallegos said Monday.

Gallegos said there was no "specific reason that because he, this specific candidate, is going out that we now have to remind everybody."

Rice's order, first reported by The Washington Times, makes clear that the rules apply to either candidate, and discuss the differences between a congressionally chartered trip and one organized under the auspices of a political campaign.

The orders tell diplomats and bureaucrats overseas to treat the candidates as "members of Congress visiting in personal or semi-personal capacities," but "with additional restrictions based on rules related to political activity."

Under ordinary circumstances, diplomats might meet congressional delegations at the airport, set up briefings with the host government, and arrange sightseeing or shopping tours.

Obama's trip is further complicated by the fact that two fellow senators traveled with him during his visits to Afghanistan and Iraq over the past several days, but Obama will continue solo for other stops in the Middle East and Europe.

]]> 2008-07-22T12:03:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/on_his_last_day_in_iraq_obama_meets_tribal_leaders_who_joined_fight_against/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential


BAGHDAD (AP) -- Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama traveled to a former hotbed of the Sunni insurgency on Tuesday for talks with tribal leaders who joined the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq and now seek a deeper role in Iraq's political future.

Obama, wrapping up his stop in Iraq, gathered with leaders of the so-called Awakening Council movement in Ramadi, one of the main cities of the western Anbar Province where al-Qaida once had the upper hand against embattled U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Tribal sheiks last year began an uprising against insurgents that is credited with uprooting extremist strongholds and helping bring violence around Iraq to its lowest levels in four years.

The meetings came near the end of Obama's two-day stop in Iraq, where he held discussions with Iraqi leaders on possible troops withdrawal initiatives and was briefed by top U.S. military commanders. He is scheduled to travel next to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah.

Obama sat in an ornate, gold-colored chair next to Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, the older brother of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, a leader of a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq who was killed in Ramadi in September 2007. An Iraqi flag was draped behind them.

A spokesman for the Anbar province, Jamal Mashedani, said Obama's talks included further efforts to battle al-Qaida in Iraq and Awakening Council demands for a greater voice in Iraqi affairs.

It was the second highly symbolic stop for Obama in Iraq.

On Monday, he inspected the southern city of Basra, where an Iraqi-led offensive launched in March broke the control of Shiite militias with suspected links to Iranian forces.

Anbar, meanwhile, was the birthplace of the Sunni insurgency and scene to some of the intense urban battles of the war that Obama has long opposed. U.S. forces sustained some its heaviest casualties in an offensive in November 2004 to regain footholds in the city of Fallujah.

Obama has given only a few brief comments since arriving in Iraq, the third leg of tour that's included Kuwait and Afghanistan. He promised to give his full impressions of the two war zones as his trip moves on to Jordan, Israel and then Europe.

But he leaves Iraq with a possible political boost: Iraqi backing for his hope of withdraw U.S. combat troops by 2010.

Iraqi leaders on Monday stopped short of giving specific timetables or endorsing Obama's proposal to withdraw combat troops within 16 months if he wins the presidency. But their comments fit roughly into Obama's campaign pledge.

Obama's Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, said Obama has been "completely wrong" to press for withdrawal timetables. "When you win wars, troops come home," McCain said during a visit in Maine with former President George H.W. Bush.

The Iraqi government, however, appears increasingly confident to press for timeframes as violence drops and Iraqi security forces expand their roles alongside the 147,000 U.S. soldiers in the country.

"We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq," the government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said Monday after Obama met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Obama released a statement late Monday noting that Iraqis want an "aspirational timeline, with a clear date," for the departure of U.S. combat forces.

"They do not want an open-ended presence of U.S. combat forces. The prime minister said that now is an appropriate time to start to plan for the reorganization of our troops in Iraq — including their numbers and missions. He stated his hope that U.S. combat forces could be out of Iraq in 2010," Obama said in a joint statement with Sens. Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska, and Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, who accompanied him to the war zone.

The senators also acknowledged a significant decline in violence in Iraq, and said that while there has been some "forward movement" on political progress, reconciliation and economic development, there has not been "nearly enough to bring lasting stability to Iraq."

Obama told ABC News that military leaders have "deep concerns" about a timetable that does not account for changing conditions.


]]> 2008-07-22T11:55:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/obamamania_in_full_flight_ahead_of_tour_of_europe/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential



BERLIN (AP) - Europe is about to give Barack Obama one of the grandest of stages for statesmanship.

In this city where John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all made famous speeches, Obama will find himself stepping into perhaps another iconic moment Thursday as his superstar charisma meets German adoration live in shadows of the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. He then travels to Paris and London where he can expect to be greeted with similar adulation.

It's not only Obama's youth, eloquence and energy that have stolen hearts across the Atlantic. For Europeans, there have always been two Americas: one of cynicism, big business and bullying aggression, another of freedom, fairness and nothing-is-impossible dynamism.

If President Bush has been seen as the embodiment of that first America, Obama has raised expectations of a chance for the nation to redeem itself in the role that - at various times through history - Europe has loved, respected and relied upon.

"Americans need a change - and what's good for America is good for the whole world," said Maike Smerling, a physician who was born and raised in the former East Germany.

Ioannis Ioannidis, a 27-year-old salesman in Stockholm, Sweden, said Obama represented the American ideals of "We the People" and of an equal chance at success for all.

"He's different from other politicians. He represents minorities and he's down to earth and smart," said Ioannidis. "He comes from nowhere. He wasn't born into it, and it's got nothing to do with what family he's from."

Beyond his electric personality, Obama is popular among Europeans because he hits all the right notes on the issues that are important to them.

In his first major speech on foreign policy, Obama last week vowed to fight climate change, stress diplomacy in dealing with Iran and produce a clear exit strategy for Iraq - all issues where Bush angered Europe by taking an opposite tack.

Evoking a time when Europe looked to America with gratitude, he called for a 21st-century Marshall Plan to alleviate world misery because "that can be our best investment in increasing the common security of the entire world."

Polls from Germany, France and Britain - the only three countries on Obama's European tour - show the presumptive Democratic candidate an overwhelming favorite over his rival, Republican John McCain.

Some experts have a simple explanation for Europe's Obamamania, and Josef Braml, an America expert with the German Council on Foreign Relations, put it bluntly: "He's not Bush."

But there appears to be a deeper mechanism behind Europe's palpable excitement over Obama than just a break from the acrimonious Bush years. After all, it's difficult to imagine the continent being swept by "Clinton-mania" or "Edwards-mania" had one of Obama's main rivals for the Democratic nomination prevailed.

For Europeans, perhaps, it isn't just that Obama isn't Bush but that he's come to be seen as the "anti-Bush" - a figure who represents such a startling contrast to the outgoing president that there's a sense the whole Washington power structure might be purged of much that Europeans see as wrong with American leadership.

These are great expectations that may very well be dashed if Obama is elected and is thrown into the intricate realities of the Beltway game - but for now European hope is prevailing over its habitual tendency toward cynicism.

"Obama ... projects the vision of a better America," said Georg Schild, an expert on German-American relations at the University of Tuebingen.

It's difficult to gauge how race is playing out in European attitudes toward Obama, but there is no denying that color is a big ingredient of the Obama magic here. One German newspaper has anointed the candidate "Der Schwarze JFK" - the black JFK.

But the "feel-good" factor that many pundits have identified among educated white Americans in their support for Obama may at least in part be behind Europeans' eagerness to embrace a black U.S. presidential candidate. All three countries on Obama's European tour have experienced ethnic flare-ups in recent years. And despite large minority populations across the continent, there are only a sprinkling of nonwhite legislators in European parliaments - let alone candidates to be a national leader.

Given Europe's troubled history with its own minorities, Obamamania may be an expedient way for some Europeans to convince themselves they are racially tolerant while brushing aside ethnic tensions at home.

"It's a vicarious thrill," said Reginald Dale, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Europe Program. "After they've switched off their TV screens they're not going to go out and find a black candidate to put forward to lead their own country."

Above all, Europeans seem to sense that America is on the brink of a fundamental change - and see the protagonist of that transformation in Obama.

Such is the sense of the importance of the upcoming American election that France has given birth to a "Comite Francais de Soutien a Barack Obama," or French Committee to Support Barack Obama.

It includes famous figures such as Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, fashion designer Sonia Rykiel and philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy. Other politicians, artists and academics, as well as ordinary French citizens, are among its ranks.

"These elections have repercussions on the whole world," said committee president Samuel Slovit. "What happens in the United States will affect us here. It's the result of political globalization."


]]> 2008-07-22T11:40:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/lawmakers_move_to_curb_fannie_mae_freddie_mac_pay/ {summary} Congress



WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats and Republicans queasy about a federal rescue of mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) are coalescing around the idea of letting the government slap limits on the multimillion-dollar pay packages of their executives.

Key lawmakers - puzzling over how to explain to constituents why they voted to bail out the troubled government-sponsored firms - see new curbs on compensation for the top officers as a crucial measure to cut down on the cringe factor.

At a time when Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's troubles have investors worried and the government ready to jump in with untold sums of cash, the lavish pay of the two companies' executives is increasingly difficult to defend, they say.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., says Fannie and Freddie "have had their hard-won credibility undermined in recent weeks," on the heels of major accounting scandals at the firms in 2003 and 2004.

"While the subprime mortgage crisis is hardly the fault of these companies, past practices of awarding huge bonuses and higher executive salaries calls into question the prudence of extending an unlimited credit line of taxpayer money to the companies whose management practices have been questionable over recent years," Casey said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson.

Casey called for capping the companies' executive pay "at reasonable levels" if they used the line of credit or need Treasury to step in and buy their stock. Casey also said their boards should sue to recover recent bonuses.

Last year, Freddie Mac paid Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Syron nearly $19.8 million in compensation even though the mortgage company's stock lost half its value. During the same period, Fannie Mae President and Chief Executive Daniel Mudd got compensation valued by the company at $12.2 million, including a $2.2 million bonus.

"I would like to know why taxpayers should extend Fannie and Freddie an unlimited line of credit at a time when their stock and investor confidence has fallen precipitously and their CEOs continue to make multimillion-dollar salaries and bonuses," Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., told Paulson in a letter last week.

Critics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including Republicans who question the very existence of government-sponsored mortgage companies, have long denounced the firms for richly compensating shareholders and executives in good times while relying on taxpayers and the government to prop them up should they falter.

With the request for a federal lifeline, though, even their biggest boosters are embracing the idea of scrutinizing pay packages.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the House Financial Services Committee chairman, said a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should have the power to approve executive compensation. Frank and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., the Senate Banking Committee chairman, want to add the controls to a broad housing package that creates a new regulator.

The House could vote on the bill, which also includes a foreclosure rescue for 400,000 strapped homeowners, as early as Wednesday.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together hold or guarantee $5 trillion in mortgages - almost half the nation's total. Their stocks have plummeted on fears about their financial stability in a chaotic housing market where falling home values and rising defaults have contributed to large losses at the companies.

Paulson's request for a government lifeline to them has shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the workings of the companies. Both wield armies of lobbyists and shower lawmakers with campaign cash - prompting critics to charge that their financial problems are of their own making.

Frank said the housing legislation already includes "any reasonable control over Fannie and Freddie," but that he now believes Congress should explicitly give the regulator power to approve pay packages.

The agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac already has the authority to bar them from awarding executives "excessive" compensation that's out of whack with what similar firms' top people receive. But the law expressly forbids capping Fannie and Freddie executives' compensation.

Both versions of the housing bill give the new regulator more latitude to decide what constitutes excessive pay, including taking into account wrongdoing by an executive. The Senate-passed bill also gives the government the power to limit or ban "golden parachute" payments for executives if either company becomes financially unstable, goes belly up or needed a federal bailout.


]]> 2008-07-22T11:39:01-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/obama_visits_former_insurgent_hotbed_in_iraq/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential




BAGHDAD (AP) - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama traveled to a former hotbed of the Sunni insurgency on Tuesday for talks with tribal leaders who joined the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq and now seek a deeper role in Iraq's political future.

Obama, wrapping up his stop in Iraq, gathered with leaders of the so-called Awakening Council movement in Ramadi, one of the main cities of the western Anbar Province where al-Qaida once had the upper hand against embattled U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Tribal sheiks last year began an uprising against insurgents that is credited with uprooting extremist strongholds and helping bring violence around Iraq to its lowest levels in four years.

The meetings came near the end of Obama's two-day stop in Iraq, where he held discussions with Iraqi leaders on possible troops withdrawal initiatives and was briefed by top U.S. military commanders. He is scheduled to travel next to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah.

Obama sat in an ornate gold-colored chair next to the Anbar governor, Maamoun Sami Rashid al-Alwani. He also met with Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, the older brother of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, a leader of a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq who was killed in Ramadi in September 2007. An Iraqi flag was draped behind them.

A spokesman for the Anbar province, Jamal al-Mashhadani, said Obama's talks included further efforts to battle al-Qaida in Iraq and Awakening Council demands for a greater voice in Iraqi affairs.

It was the second highly symbolic stop for Obama in Iraq.

On Monday, he inspected the southern city of Basra, where an Iraqi-led offensive launched in March broke the control of Shiite militias with suspected links to Iranian forces.

Anbar, meanwhile, was the birthplace of the Sunni insurgency and scene to some of the intense urban battles of the war that Obama has long opposed. U.S. forces sustained some its heaviest casualties in an offensive in November 2004 to regain footholds in the city of Fallujah.

Obama has given only a few brief comments since arriving in Iraq, the third leg of tour that's included Kuwait and Afghanistan. He promised to give his full impressions of the two war zones as his trip moves on to Jordan, Israel and then Europe.

But he leaves Iraq with a possible political boost: Iraqi backing for his hope of withdraw U.S. combat troops by 2010.

Iraqi leaders on Monday stopped short of giving specific timetables or endorsing Obama's proposal to withdraw combat troops within 16 months if he wins the presidency. But their comments fit roughly into Obama's campaign pledge.

Obama's Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, said Obama has been "completely wrong" to press for withdrawal timetables. "When you win wars, troops come home," McCain said during a visit in Maine with former President George H.W. Bush.

The Iraqi government, however, appears increasingly confident to press for timeframes as violence drops and Iraqi security forces expand their roles alongside the 147,000 U.S. soldiers in the country.

"We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq," the government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said Monday after Obama met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Obama released a statement late Monday noting that Iraqis want an "aspirational timeline, with a clear date," for the departure of U.S. combat forces.

"They do not want an open-ended presence of U.S. combat forces. The prime minister said that now is an appropriate time to start to plan for the reorganization of our troops in Iraq - including their numbers and missions. He stated his hope that U.S. combat forces could be out of Iraq in 2010," Obama said in a joint statement with Sens. Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska, and Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, who accompanied him to the war zone.

The senators also acknowledged a significant decline in violence in Iraq, and said that while there has been some "forward movement" on political progress, reconciliation and economic development, there has not been "nearly enough to bring lasting stability to Iraq."

Obama told ABC News that military leaders have "deep concerns" about a timetable that does not account for changing conditions.

"I don't think that there are deep concerns about the notion of a pullout per se," he said in the television interview. "There are deep concerns about, from their perspective, of a timetable that doesn't take into account what they anticipate might be some sort of change in conditions."


]]> 2008-07-22T11:37:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/court_tosses_fcc_wardrobe_malfunction_fine/ {summary} Federal Courts



PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. (CBS) for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction."

The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Communications Commission "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" in issuing the fine for the fleeting image of nudity.

The 90 million people watching the Super Bowl, many of them children, heard Justin Timberlake sing, "Gonna have you naked by the end of this song," as he reached for Jackson's bustier.

The court found that the FCC deviated from its nearly 30-year practice of fining indecent broadcast programming only when it was so "pervasive as to amount to 'shock treatment' for the audience."

"Like any agency, the FCC may change its policies without judicial second-guessing," the court said. "But it cannot change a well-established course of action without supplying notice of and a reasoned explanation for its policy departure."

The 3rd Circuit judges - Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica, Judge Marjorie O. Rendell and Judge Julio M. Fuentes - also ruled that the FCC deviated from its long-held approach of applying identical standards to words and images when reviewing complaints of indecency.

"The Commission's determination that CBS's broadcast of a nine-sixteenths of one second glimpse of a bare female breast was actionably indecent evidenced the agency's departure from its prior policy," the court found. "Its orders constituted the announcement of a policy change - that fleeting images would no longer be excluded from the scope of actionable indecency."

In a statement Monday, CBS said it hoped the decision "will lead the FCC to return to the policy of restrained indecency enforcement it followed for decades."

"This is an important win for the entire broadcasting industry because it recognizes that there are rare instances, particularly during live programming, when it may not be possible to block unfortunate fleeting material, despite best efforts," the network said.

Messages left for an FCC spokesman were not immediately returned.

Andrew Jay Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of a group of TV writers, directors and producers, said the ruling "is an important advance for preserving creative freedom on the air."

"The court agreed with us: the FCC's inconsistent and unexplained departure from prior decisions leaves artists and journalists confused as to what is, and is not, permissible," Schwartzman said in a statement Monday.

The FCC had argued that Jackson's nudity, albeit fleeting, was graphic and explicit and CBS should have been forewarned. Jackson has said the decision to add a costume reveal - exposing her right breast, which had only a silver sunburst "shield" covering her nipple - came after the final rehearsal.

At the time, broadcasters did not employ a video delay for live events, a policy remedied within a week of the game.

In challenging the fine, CBS said that "fleeting, isolated or unintended" images should not automatically be considered indecent.

But the FCC said Jackson and Timberlake were employees of CBS and that the network should have to pay for their "willful" actions, given its lack of oversight.

The $550,000 fine represents the maximum $27,500 levied against each of the network's 20 owned-and-operated stations.

Shortly after the 2004 Super Bowl, the FCC changed its policy on fleeting indecency following an NBC broadcast of the Golden Globes awards show on which U2 lead singer Bono uttered an unscripted expletive. The FCC said at the time that the "F-word" in any context "inherently has a sexual connotation" and can trigger enforcement.

NBC challenged the decision, but that case has yet to be resolved.

In June 2007, a federal appeals court in New York invalidated the government's policy on fleeting profanities uttered over the airwaves. The case involved remarks by Cher and Nicole Richie on awards shows carried on Fox stations.

---

On the Net:

http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/063575p.pdf


]]> 2008-07-21T17:02:01-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/former_bin_laden_driver_pleads_not_guilty/ {summary} Military



GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - The first Guantanamo war crimes trial began Monday with a not guilty plea from a former driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.

Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, entered the plea through his lawyer at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

He is the first prisoner to face a U.S. war crimes trial since World War II.

Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, called a jury pool of uniformed American military officers into the courtroom for questioning by lawyers on both sides. A conviction on charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism could lead to a life sentence for Hamdan.

"You must impartially hear the evidence," Allred told the potential jurors. "He must be presumed to be innocent."

The 13 officers were hand-picked by the Pentagon and flown in from other U.S. bases over the weekend. Hamdan's lawyers asked if they had any friends or family affected by the Sept. 11 attacks to see if any should be excluded as too biased to serve. A minimum of five officers must be selected for a trial under tribunal rules.

Hamdan, who is in his late 30s, wore a khaki prison jumpsuit to the courthouse overlooking an abandoned airport runway. The flowing white robe and headdress he wore at pretrial hearings was not cleaned in time for his trial, said Charles Swift, one of his civilian attorneys.

The trial is expected to take three to four weeks, with testimony from nearly two dozen Pentagon witnesses.

Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan in November 2001, allegedly with two surface-to-air missiles in the car. But his lawyers say he was merely a low-level driver and mechanic without any role in the al-Qaida conspiracy against the United States.

Hamdan was taken to Guantanamo in May 2002 and selected as one of the first inmates to face prosecution. His case has created repeated legal obstacles for the Pentagon including a Supreme Court ruling that struck down an earlier version of the tribunal system.

Allred indicated earlier Monday he would not allow the government to use some of the evidence interrogators obtained from Hamdan during his detention in Afghanistan. Defense lawyers have argued those statements were tainted by "coercive" techniques and the fact that interrogators did not advise him of a right against self-incrimination.

The U.S. has so far charged 20 Guantanamo prisoners and military officials say they expect to prosecute about 80 in all.


]]> 2008-07-21T16:59:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/iraq_sees_hope_of_us_troop_withdrawal_by_2010/ {summary} Campaign - Presidential



BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's government welcomed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday with word that it apparently shares his hope that U.S. combat forces could leave by 2010.

The statement by Iraq's government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, followed talks between Obama and Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki - who has struggled for days to clarify Iraq's position on a possible timetable for a U.S. troop pullout.

Al-Dabbagh said the government did not endorse a fixed date, but hoped American combat units could be out of Iraq sometime in 2010. That timeframe falls within the 16-month withdrawal plan proposed by Obama, who arrived in Iraq earlier in the day as part of a congressional fact-finding team.

"We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq," al-Dabbagh told reporters, noting that any withdrawal plan was subject to change if the level of violence kicks up again.

As he departed from talks with al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone, Obama said, "We had a very constructive discussion." Obama also plans meetings with U.S. military commanders who will outline recent progress in the war he has opposed from the start.

This was the third stop on a foreign tour designed to gather information while burnishing the Democratic contender's foreign policy credentials. National security issues are the one issue area in which Obama trails Republican John McCain in the polls.

The Iraqi government comment on troop withdrawals could be embraced by the Obama campaign, but may irritate White House officials. The Bush administration has refused to set specific troop level targets and only last week offered to discuss a "general time horizon" for a U.S. combat troop exit.

At the White House on Monday, Press Secretary Dana Perino said she had not heard the latest statement from al-Dabbagh. But responding to the continuing debate over withdrawal, Perino said the U.S. shares the goal of bringing U.S. troops home based on security success.

"The key issue is that they understand it will not be arbitrary; it will not be a date that you just pluck out of thin air; it will not be something that Americans say, 'We're going to do - we're going to leave at this date,' which is what some have suggested," she said.

The Iraqi stance also is another wrinkle in a confusing series of remarks and denials in recent days.

Al-Maliki was quoted last week by the German magazine Der Spiegel appearing to endorse Obama's 16-month timetable. The Iraqi leader's aides have since said his comments were misunderstood, and he is not taking sides in the U.S. election.

The U.S. military also took the unusual step of translating and distributing the Iraqi government reaction to the Der Spiegel article.

The meetings with Iraqi officials came after Obama began his first on-the-ground inspection of Iraq since launching his bid for the White House.

It marked the second major leg of a war zone tour that opened in Afghanistan. The contrasts in tone and message were distinct.

Obama sees the battle against the resurgent Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan as America's most crucial fight and supports expanding troop strength there to counter a sharp rise in attacks.

But Obama had opposed the Iraq invasion and now worries that an open-ended U.S. combat mission here will sap military resources and focus - at a time when Iraq violence has dropped to its lowest level in four years.

The Illinois senator - traveling with Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. - arrived first in the southern city of Basra, the U.S. Embassy said.

Basra is the center for about 4,000 British troops involved mostly in training Iraqi forces. An Iraqi-led offensive begun in March reclaimed control of most of the city from Shiite militia believed linked to Iran.

His meetings in Baghdad were expected to include the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and other military chiefs outlining the significant gains in recent months against both Shiite militia and Sunni insurgents including al-Qaida in Iraq.

The White House and military leaders - and many residents of Baghdad - trace the momentum back to last year's buildup of more than 30,000 troops in areas around Iraq's capital. McCain has tried to hammer Obama on his criticisms of that military surge.

In an interview Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America," McCain said he hoped Obama would now "have the opportunity to see the success of the surge."

"This is the same strategy that he voted against, railed against," McCain said. "He was wrong about the surge. It is succeeding and we are winning."

All five surge brigades have left Iraq, but there are still about 147,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, more than in early 2007.

Iraqi leaders also pressed Obama for more clarity on his long-term vision for relations with Washington. Such discussions have added importance since Iraq and U.S. negotiators appear stalled in efforts to reach a long-range pact to define future U.S. military presence and obligations.

American diplomats hoped to reach a final accord by the end of the month, but it now seems the goal is a stopgap "bridge" document that would maintain the status for U.S. forces once a U.N. mandate on their presence expires at the end of the year. Such as move would leave the hard bargaining to the next president.

Obama arrived following talks Sunday in Kuwait with the emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah. Earlier he met with U.S. military commanders and troops in Afghanistan and held talks with President Hamid Karzai.

He is scheduled to go on to Jordan, Israel and European capitals.

]]> 2008-07-21T16:57:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/detainees_trial_in_military_system_begins_today/ {summary} Military



By Jerry Markon
Washington Post
July 21, 2008


GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- Nearly seven years after President Bush declared an "extraordinary emergency" that empowered him to bring terrorists before military judges, Osama bin Laden's former driver is scheduled to go on trial Monday in the first test of whether that system can dispense fair and impartial justice.

When Salim Ahmed Hamdan, accused of ferrying weapons for al-Qaeda, enters courtroom 01-A in a former aircraft operations center, he will face court proceedings unlike any the United States has seen in decades. They will unfold before a military commission -- the first since the end of World War II -- with a jury of uniformed officers and rules that give great deference to the prosecution. Evidence obtained from "cruel" and "inhuman" interrogation methods is admissible in certain circumstances, as is hearsay evidence.

Unlike a civilian trial, even if the defendant is acquitted of conspiracy and material support of terrorism charges, he probably will not be released. Hamdan has been designated an "enemy combatant" by the military, a status that prosecutors said would be unchanged by an acquittal even if international pressure mounts for his release.

The trial in a small, windowless courtroom is a step in the administration's legal efforts against terrorism. Pretrial hearings last week gave a glimpse into the workings of the controversial U.S. detention facility here, with Hamdan testifying that he was abused by his jailers and with prosecutors saying he was not.

Yet the proceedings are also something of a dry run, a way to test the long-delayed military system on an alleged low-level al-Qaeda foot soldier so it is primed for the self-confessed terrorist leaders to come. In line behind Hamdan at Guantanamo is Khalid Sheik Mohammed, self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and other accused planners.

"It's the first contested war crimes trial since World War II, so it's important," Col. Lawrence Morris, the military commissions' chief prosecutor, said recently. "You're looking at it primarily and appropriately as bringing Mr. Hamdan to justice, but we're also well aware that . . . it provides the first opportunity to test and validate this mechanism."

Whatever the verdict in the trial of Hamdan -- a Yemeni father of two whose lawyers insist was only a hired chauffeur for bin Laden -- opponents of the commissions have already pronounced them a failure. Human rights activists and European leaders have long considered the system a legal sham designed to secure convictions.

"This was supposed to be the premier system for bringing to justice the masterminds of the worst crime ever committed on U.S. soil," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "The only result in seven years was the conviction of an Australian kangaroo trapper, who is now free."

He was referring to Australian David M. Hicks, who last year pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge in the only Guantanamo case to be fully adjudicated. Hicks was sent to Australia as part of a political deal and was later released from prison there.

Defenders of the commissions point to layers of due process -- including the right to appeal a conviction to federal court -- that Congress added since Bush proposed the panels. Proponents of the new system say people who committed heinous acts against the United States do not deserve the constitutional protections of its federal courts.

"I find it ironic that there is this tremendous rush to unfairly discount a very well-thought-out military system," said D. Hamilton Peterson, of Bethesda, whose father and stepmother were killed on the hijacked airplane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11. "Mr. Hamdan and these other suspects are getting more due process than any of the people who were beheaded by the terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The trial of Hamdan, who faces a maximum of life in prison if convicted, is unfolding in a different political climate than when Bush invoked emergency powers after Sept. 11. His directive on Nov. 13, 2001, said non-U.S. citizens could be subject to commissions, with no judicial review and no prohibition on evidence gleaned through torture, though it said they would be treated "humanely."

Bush had hoped for swift justice for captured terrorists, but the process became mired in legal and diplomatic delays. U.S. officials had to negotiate with Britain and Australia over detainees from those countries. And in a lawsuit brought by Hamdan's attorneys, the Supreme Court in 2006 struck down the commission system, ruling that it was not authorized by federal law and that it ran afoul of the Geneva Conventions.

Congress reacted by passing the Military Commissions Act of 2006, under which Hamdan is being tried. It banned evidence obtained using torture but said statements derived from harsh interrogations are allowable if the judge finds the evidence reliable and relevant. Congress in December 2005 banned "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment," but statements made under such duress before that date could be admissible. Many of Hamdan's interrogations occurred before the congressional action, according to court testimony.

Eugene R. Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said that the rules are "really offensive" and that Hamdan should have been tried in the federal courts. The Justice Department has obtained convictions in 80 terrorism cases in those courts since Sept. 11, according to the Center on Law and Security at the New York University School of Law.

But David Rivkin, a Justice Department official in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, said evidence standards before the military cannot be the same as in a civilian trial. "The notion that you're going to obtain 'CSI'-level evidence on the battlefield is absurd," he said.

Hamdan's trial will start with questioning of the 13 prospective jurors, all military officers. At least five jurors will be seated, and a two-thirds majority is needed for conviction. The same jury would determine a sentence.

Though Hamdan, because of his enemy combatant status, may not be released even under an acquittal, prosecutors insist that Hamdan's trial is necessary. In addition to securing justice for his alleged crimes, a conviction could keep him in custody even beyond any official end to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism efforts. "The government can hold Mr. Hamdan all the way up until the end of hostilities," John Murphy, a Justice Department lawyer who is on the team prosecuting Hamdan, said in court last week. "It could hold him longer if he were convicted and sentenced beyond that in a commission."

Malinowski said an acquittal would make holding Hamdan "unsustainable."

And it is uncertain whether Hamdan would remain at Guantanamo, since Bush and both major presidential candidates have expressed a desire to close the detention facility. Yet it is equally uncertain where Hamdan, who is in his late 30s, could be sent if released. U.S. officials have expressed concerns about Yemen's ability to securely hold terrorism suspects.

If Hamdan is convicted, the verdict would automatically be reviewed by a Pentagon official and then appealed to a military appellate court. His attorneys could then appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District and the Supreme Court -- and could challenge his enemy combatant designation at each level of review, Pentagon officials said.

Prosecutors indicated they would rely on incriminating statements Hamdan allegedly made to interrogators in the two years after his capture in Afghanistan in late 2001. An FBI agent testified at a pretrial hearing that Hamdan admitted being aware of bin Laden's involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks and that he helped the al-Qaeda leader escape after Sept. 11 and after the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. Hamdan's lawyers continued to insist that he was a driver and mechanic who relied on bin Laden only for a paycheck.

But Hamdan's military lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, said the trial "is going to be deficient. It's going to proceed, but . . . there are fundamental flaws in this system. I don't know that I can predict an acquittal."


]]> 2008-07-21T12:31:00-06:00 http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/weblog/in_immigration_cases_employers_feel_the_pressure/ {summary} Immigation



By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post
July 21, 2008


A three-year-old enforcement campaign against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants is increasingly resulting in arrests and criminal convictions, using evidence gathered by phone taps, undercover agents and prisoners who agree to serve as government witnesses.

But the crackdown's relatively high costs and limited results are also fueling criticism. In an economy with more than 6 million companies and 8 million unauthorized workers, the corporate enforcement effort is still dwarfed by the high-profile raids that have sentenced thousands of illegal immigrants to prison time and deportation.

Stewart A. Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the Homeland Security Department, recently told immigration experts the disparity can be traced to ineffective policies that need to be addressed by Congress.

"Companies tell me, 'We have an immigration system that allows us to hire illegal workers, legally,' " Baker said. Asked to defend President Bush's track record, he said, "Why are employers not punished more often? Because the laws we have don't really authorize that."

In the first nine months of this fiscal year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made 937 criminal arrests at U.S. workplaces, more than 10 times as many as the 72 it arrested five years ago. Of those arrested this year, 99 were company supervisors, compared with 93 in 2007.

The arrests have led to several convictions, including a union official at a Swift meatpacking plant; three executives of a Florida janitorial services company; a temporary-staffing agency manager for a Del Monte Fresh Produce plant in Oregon; two supervisors of a Cargill