November 2006

Just days after Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo called Miami a "Third World Country" and less than a month after minorities of every background largely rejected Republicans across the country, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman urged his party to reach out to "every community where" Republicans haven't "done as much as (they) should in the past." (CBS4, Miami, 11/30/06; RNC Press Release, 11/30/06) Read more

Editors of the Harvard Health Letter, in consultation with the doctors on its editorial board, have chosen the top 10 health stories of 2006. Here they are:

-- 1. A new shot in the arm against cancer. The newly approved HPV vaccine represents a different approach to fighting cancer. Instead of just screening patients to spot cancer early, doctors can use this vaccine to actively prevent it. The vaccine is designed to immunize women against infection by two strains of human papillomavirus (HPV), which are believed to cause some 70 percent of cervical cancers. Because the vaccine cannot prevent the remaining 30 percent, screening with Pap smears will remain important, but that may change as the vaccine is improved and cervical cancer becomes increasingly rare. Read more

The World Jewish Congress today welcomed the call for a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council devoted to the human rights crisis in Darfur. The request was submitted by Finland, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, and supported by 19 other Council members. Read more

In recognition of World AIDS Day, Catholics around the globe are calling on the pope to lift the ban on condoms and help stem the spread of HIV and AIDS. On Dec. 1, Catholics for a Free Choice will deliver a Letter to Pope Benedict XIV signed by thousands of individuals from more than 110 countries as well as 25 members of the European Parliament which asks the pope to recognize the negative effects the Vatican's opposition to condoms has on preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and calls on him to act quickly and overturn the ban. Many signatories have appended poignant stories about how the ban affects them and their communities. The effort to add signatures will continue until the pope rescinds the ban. Read more

Methamphetamine is a powerfully addictive drug that dramatically affects users' minds and bodies. Fighting the dangerous proliferation of methamphetamine remains a significant priority for the Bush Administration. In addition to undertaking a significant public education campaign through National Methamphetamine Awareness Day, the Department of Justice and its components have taken the following steps to fight this epidemic... Read more

The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that it is seeking information and comment from the public on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and its implementing regulations. The request for information (RFI) will be published in the Federal Register on Friday, Dec. 1. Read more

Following is a release from the National Center for Public Policy Research.

As the 2006 hurricane season comes to a close, the failure of forecasters to accurately predict the frequency and intensity of this year's hurricanes should remind Americans that climatology is an uncertain science. It should also cause Americans to question the reliability of definitive claims made by prominent environmental activists that global warming is increasing the intensity of hurricanes. Read more

"New findings on the aging of plutonium in nuclear warheads, which were released today by the Department of Energy (DOE), demonstrate that current warheads will remain dependable for many decades to come. This research eliminates a major rationale for two DOE nuclear weapons initiatives: the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) Program, under which all current U.S. nuclear warheads would be replaced with newly designed warheads over the next two to three decades; and the Complex 2030 proposal to rebuild the U.S. nuclear weapons complex by 2030." Read more

Today, faith-based and secular groups advocating for basic human rights and public health approaches to HIV prevention called on Congress and the administration to remove restrictions in U.S. global HIV prevention programs. Civil society leaders were joined by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (Calif-9) in an audio press conference to highlight the need for effective HIV prevention strategies, particularly for women and girls. Read more

On the heels of an election that shifted political party control of Congress, some observers insist that the nation remains a house divided into "red" states and "blue" states. Yet, the current research leaves many open questions about the causes, consequences, and depth of the country's political divisions. Read more

On the heels of an election that shifted political party control of Congress, some observers insist that the nation remains a house divided into "red" states and "blue" states. Yet, the current research leaves many open questions about the causes, consequences, and depth of the country's political divisions. Read more

"Bill Frist has been and will remain the very definition of a public servant. Whether it's saving lives through performing surgery in Africa or helping craft new laws to save Americans from terrorists, Bill Frist's dedication, principles, creativity and compassion have made America a more prosperous place and the world a more decent place. I salute his service and look forward to his continued service in the coming years." Read more

Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) has agreed to pay the United States $8 million to settle allegations of overcharging and other procurement irregularities regarding the Houston-based company's billings to the Army under a contract for logistical support of military operations in the Balkans during 1999 and 2000, the Justice Department announced today. The settlement resolves allegations under the False Claims Act that concerned various purchase orders awarded to 10 different foreign KBR subcontractors or vendors. Read more

North Korean defectors including a construction worker, a factory worker, a sales woman and a housewife, will reveal their harrowing escape through China and what drove them to leave their homeland. They are a sample of the estimated 500,000 refugees who have crossed the border into China to escape starvation and persecution in their homeland. Read more

The following is a statement by President George W. Bush released today by the U.S. Department of Justice: "Methamphetamine abuse shatters families and threatens our communities. On National Methamphetamine Awareness Day, we underscore the dangers of methamphetamine and reaffirm our collective responsibility to combat all forms of drug abuse." Read more

The nation's leading source for nonpartisan and non-advocacy news and information on election reform released its first comprehensive look at the 2006 election, finding widespread problems but no meltdown at the nation's polling places. Read more

An indictment has been brought against a U.S. citizen and a citizen of Pakistan in the country on an expired student visa for allegedly planning to aid the Taliban, U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today. Kobie Diallo Williams, also known as Abdul Kabeer and Abdul Kabir, 33, a U.S. citizen and Houston resident, and Adnan Babar Mirza, 29, a Pakistani national who overstayed a student visa, are charged with conspiring to train with firearms with a goal to fight with the Taliban against coalition forces in the Middle East and providing approximately $350 in cash to support terrorist groups. Read more

"Congressman Alcee Hastings and I have had extensive consultations and today I advised him that I would select someone else as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Alcee Hastings has always placed national security as his highest priority. He has served our country well and I have full confidence that he will continue to do so." Read more

Over the past 20 years education funding in America has increased by almost 80 percent so that today school systems spend an average of more than $9,000 per student. Despite this record of growth, student achievement has remained stagnant. However, pockets of success do exist and can help guide policy makers and educators in the right direction towards better schools. Read more

Widely reported data on Americans' incomes paint a disappointing picture of the current economic expansion, especially for low- and middle-income families. By most measures, Americans' real (inflation-adjusted) incomes in 2005 were still below their level in the recession year of 2001. Less-well-known data on consumer spending -- including newly released Labor Department data for 2005 -- add an important element to this story, showing that only high-income households have been able to raise their living standards in recent years. Read more

Fourteen senior retired military leaders have filed a brief urging the First Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a lower court ruling regarding the federal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members. The leaders' brief was filed Nov. 22 in support of the plaintiffs in Cook v. Rumsfeld, a constitutional challenge to the law. Read more

According to new numbers from the Leading Indicator of National Employment (LINE(tm)) report, the modest employment growth of December 2005 will be repeated in December and employers revealed no evidence of increasing wage inflation. The findings are reported in the December report of the LINE(tm) index, a collaborative effort between the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations. Read more

College Democrats of America President Lauren Wolfe today blasted Boston University College Republicans for setting up a "whites only" scholarship to ridicule minority scholarships. ABC News reported last week that "Joe Mroszczyk, president of the College Republicans at Boston University, admits he set out to stir up a hornet's nest" with the scholarship, and claims the idea was to show that minority scholarships are "ridiculous." (ABC News, 11/22/06) Read more

Higher oil revenues have enabled mismanagement and abuse of power in Venezuela, leading to record levels of corruption, argues a new policy analysis by the Cato Institute. In the study released today, "Corruption, Mismanagement, and Abuse of Power in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela," author Gustavo Coronel, member of the first Board of Directors of Petroleos de Venezuela from 1976 to 1979 and Venezuelan representative to Transparency International from 1996 to 2000, details how the Chavez regime is squandering the country's wealth through rampant official and personal corruption. Read more

The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is pleased to announce the debut of IPI Policy Bytes -- http://www.policybytes.org -- a new public policy group blog featuring news, notes and opinions on technology policy, intellectual property, health care, tax policy, trade policy and entitlement reform. Read more

"Democrats will pursue an aggressive legislative agenda during the first days of the new Congress that serves the public interest rather than the special interests. An integral part of restoring integrity to Congress is ensuring that legislative decisions are made for the common good. The People's House should not be an auction house, with legislation being sold to the highest bidder. For that reason, the first order of business will be ethics reform." Read more

In Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power (Simon and Schuster; 2006), Joseph Margulies traces arguments from both conservatives and liberals about the controversial U.S. policies on detention and torture. This book should be of interest to everyone who cares about human rights, the "war on terror" and personal freedom and civil liberties in America. Read more

"Just after 4:00 a.m. yesterday morning, Saturday, November 25, 2006, a horrible, inexplicable tragedy occurred. Five police officers fired at least 50 rounds into an automobile driven by 23 year-old Sean Bell, who, along with two passengers, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were leaving Mr. Bell's bachelor party at a nearby nightclub. Mr. Bell, a father of two daughters - three years-old and five months-old - who was to be married to his children's mother later that day, was hit three times and pronounced dead on arrival at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. I extend my deepest sympathy to his fiancee, daughters, and family." Read more

Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi announced today that House Democrats will hold a forum to discuss the war in Iraq on Tuesday, Dec. 5. Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and Maj. Gen. John Batiste will join current and new members of the Democratic Caucus in discussing options for a way forward in Iraq.

"The war in Iraq is one of the most critical issues confronting our nation, and the American people have clearly called for a New Direction in Iraq," Pelosi said. "We know that 'stay the course' is not working, has not made our country safer, has not honored the commitment to our troops, and has not brought stability to the region. I look forward to hearing from our distinguished group of experts as House Democrats discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq." Read more

Just days after former Secretary of State and frequent Bush advisor Henry Kissinger joined the growing chorus of war supporters publicly criticizing the Bush Administration's handling of the war in Iraq, President Bush today is bringing his failed, stay the course approach to the war in Iraq to Hawaii. This latest photo-op with the troops comes just two weeks after the American people sent a clear message by rejecting his party's permanent commitment to a failed strategy in Iraq and by electing a Democratic Congress. Read more

A federal court in Washington, D.C., has entered an order revoking the U.S. citizenship of a former Florida resident for his role in a Ukrainian police unit that participated in the mass murder of over 100,000 Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today. Read more

Roughly $92 million in holiday cash is awaiting nearly 100,000 Americans in the form of "missing" federal tax refunds and an online database from the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) can help people locate their money more easily than the IRS's version. This is the fifth year that NTU and its research affiliate's publication Tax Savings Report have sponsored the database, available as a public service at http://www.ntu.org. Read more

Concerned citizens from over 150 countries have supported a campaign to run newspaper ads in the United States and United Kingdom today calling for a new strategy for Iraq, including a U.N.-led international peace conference. The effort is organized by CeasefireCampaign.org, an online activist network of 340,000 citizens that rose up to demand a ceasefire in the conflict in Lebanon last July. Read more

Statement of Esta Soler, president, Family Violence Prevention Fund, on the Fox Television Network's decision to cancel its O.J. Simpson special:

"Fox Entertainment acted responsibly by cancelling its planned O.J. Simpson special, sparing the nation the spectacle of a violent batterer discussing or recreating two murders he claims he did not commit. It is very good news that millions of outraged viewers and Fox's own affiliates prevailed." Read more

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today applauded a new agreement between the governments of the United States and Indonesia that will fight illegal logging in the Southeast Asian country, home to some of the most biologically diverse forests in the world. The two nations have expanded their collaboration to exchange vital information on the trade in illegally-harvested forest products and cooperate on law enforcement. The U.S. also announced that it has devoted $1 million to the effort. Read more

In the ongoing debate about the causes and consequences of America's polarized politics, the mass media often are blamed for contributing to this division. The rise of cable television and 24-hour news channels has created more media outlets than ever, giving citizens greater choice among sources of news, and giving news greater competition from entertainment programming. This ever-increasing and changing coverage of political news, including today's "in-your-face" talk shows, may play a role in polarizing the public and threatening our democratic institutions. Read more

Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is scheduled to appear on Wednesday's edition of Larry King Live, airing from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST on CNN.

Dobson will be King's guest for the entire hour, and is expected to make his first televised comments about the results of the Nov. 7 election -- and what's next for the social conservative movement. He also hopes to talk to King about the growing threat of radical Islam to the United States -- and the necessity for the federal government to continue to take that threat seriously, regardless of the political power balance in Congress. Read more

A new survey of Catholic Charities agencies across the country shows requests for help are growing much faster than the money to provide assistance, putting continued strain on social services during the holiday season.

The Catholic Charities USA survey this month drew from 88 Catholic Charities agencies across the United States. Agencies reported by a 3-to-1 margin (76 percent), that local agencies believe that it will be harder to meet the needs of those they serve this holiday season because the need is greater. Read more

We've taken away the "home base" for al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We've destroyed training camps, cut off funding channels, and disrupted means of communication.

Architects of the Sept. 11 attacks have been captured and interrogated ... and we have learned vital information from them which has enabled us to prevent further attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and Ramzi bin al Shibh today await justice before a Military Commission at Guantanamo Bay. Read more

Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA's executive director, issued the following statement in response to today's news reports that the Department of Defense is planning to build a "legal compound" at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba:

"Once again, the Defense Department seems to be operating in - - even constructing -- its own universe. The new rules for the proposed military commissions under the Military Commissions Act (MCA) have not been made public, and not a single charge has been filed under the new system. And yet the Pentagon wants to build a permanent homage to its failed experiment in second class justice." Read more

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) Porker of the Month for helping to secure a record $2.3 billion federal loan for a railroad company.

The loan guarantee from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) would allow the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad (DM&E) to expand and improve a rail line that is used primarily to transport coal from Wyoming to Minnesota. In apparent anticipation of the loan, Thune was instrumental in increasing the FRA's loan guarantee authority from $3.5 billion to $35 billion in the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act. DM&E paid Thune $220,000 in 2003 and 2004 to lobby for the loan before his election to the Senate. Read more

"For twelve years, the Democrats have gotten away without leading, without offering an agenda, and without saying what they're actually for. Now they will be forced to govern.

"Under this Republican leadership, the job of the Minority Whip will no longer be to go to the House floor every day and lose. Instead, each time we hold our team together and force the Democrats to vote like Democrats, we'll be taking one more step toward recapturing our majority in 2008." Read more

Today, Wal-Mart sent out a press release wrongly accusing former Senator John Edwards of instructing a staffer to try and buy a Sony Playstation 3 at Wal-Mart on his behalf.

The following statement is attributable to Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com:

"Our campaign to change Wal-Mart is not about whether Americans choose to shop there or not, but about whether or not Wal-Mart will do what is right and become a responsible employer." Read more

Nobel laureate Dr. Milton Friedman passed away early this morning, in his San Francisco home, of heart failure. He was 94.

Dr. Friedman will be remembered around the world as one of the 20th century's greatest champions of freedom. When Dr. Friedman began writing about politics, freedom looked to many like an all but lost cause. Half the world was in slavery, and the other half badly hobbled by a crisis of confidence in its central political idea: government based first and foremost on the liberty of the individual. Read more

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and three Washington State residents have filed a federal lawsuit against a north-central Washington regional library system for denying them access to websites that include information on firearms and publications dealing with guns. Read more

Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi joined Majority Leader-elect Steny Hoyer, Whip-elect James E. Clyburn, Democratic Caucus Chairman-elect Rahm Emanuel, and Democratic Caucus Vice Chair John Larson at a news conference today to announce the Democratic Leadership of the House of Representatives for the 110th Congress. Below are her remarks:

"What an honor it is to be nominated by my colleagues to be the Speaker of the House. Everyone is very excited about the thought that I am the first woman Speaker -- I'm just absolutely delighted that we have a Democratic Speaker and a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives." Read more

Today, Voices for America's Children (Voices), a national child advocacy organization, addressed the Senate Committee on Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, urging members to support states' roles in providing children with access to comprehensive and quality health care. Read more

The Fifth Anniversary Benefit of Orphans International to be held at the United Nations, Friday, Nov. 17, has sold out. "Celebrating Ten Years' Vision, Five Years' Reality," this network of orphanages now operating on three continents is marking the event with Haitian soprano Martina Bruno, Salvadoran pianist Maria Letona and Egyptian stars Eman Elbahr Darwish and Leila Eloui. Read more

Almost 1,000 years ago, a Norse colony of nearly 3,000 people thrived on the island of Greenland. They farmed, fished, grazed cattle, and flourished for several centuries. But by 1350 A.D. a change in the climate made Greenland virtually uninhabitable. And by 1410 A.D. all trade to the island had ceased, leaving the remaining Norse men and women stranded, victims of what is now referred to as the "Little Ice Age." Read more

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a settlement agreement with former Enron executive Jeffrey K. Skilling resolving the department's action against him. Under the agreement, Skilling will drop his opposition to a previous $85 million settlement, waive his right to benefits from Enron's pension plans and be permanently barred from serving in a fiduciary capacity to any employee benefit plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in the future. Read more

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