http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081121/bs_nm/us_usa_obama

Obama moves to pick Geithner for Treasury
Mason And Caren Bohan – Fri Nov 21, 5:47 pm ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) – President-elect Barack Obama on Friday moved toward
nominating Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary and charging the respected
head of the New York Federal Reserve with helping pull the United States out of
an economic nosedive.

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton appeared headed to be nominated as Obama's
secretary of state, bringing his one-time main Democratic rival into the fold in
a pivotal role in his new administration.

Geithner, 47, had been seen as one of two main candidates for the Treasury job
along with former Clinton administration Treasury chief Lawrence Summers.

U.S. stocks soared on the Geithner news, first reported by NBC News, pushing
major indices up more than 6 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average closed
above 8,000, an important psychological trading level.

Obama may consider Summers as a possible successor to Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke, whose term ends in January 2010, a Democratic source said.

Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton, appeared set to take the top
U.S. diplomatic post after wrestling with whether she wanted to give up her
Senate seat.

"We're still in discussions, which are very much on track. Any reports beyond
that are premature," Clinton senior adviser Philippe Reines told Reuters.

The New York Times said it was a done deal. "She's ready," The Times quoted one
of two Clinton associates who confirmed the deal as saying.

A senior Democrat told Reuters in Washington that Obama wanted Geithner for the
Treasury job, but had yet to make an offer. He did confirm that Summers was no
longer under consideration. "Summers is off the list," he said.

The New York Times reported that Obama was likely to name Summers as an economic
adviser with the expectation that he will eventually be tapped for the Federal
Reserve Board and perhaps as Bernanke's successor.

MARKET BOOST

Obama, who beat Republican John McCain in the November 4 election, takes over
from George W. Bush on January 20. He has been largely hunkered down in Chicago
since the election working on his administration team.

NBC News said Obama was expected to announce Geithner and other members of his
economic team Monday in an effort to calm U.S. financial markets that have sunk
like a stone all week before Friday's surge.

"A fantastic choice to help lead the financial markets out of the wilderness,"
said Chris Rupkey, senior economist at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York,
of Geithner. "A crisis manager par excellence who will hit the ground running as
he has been on the case since the global funding crisis began way back in July
2007."

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Treasury secretary, Geithner would be at the
helm of efforts to guide the country out of the financial crisis, which some
analysts predict could lead to the worst economic downturn since the Great
Depression.

NBC also said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- who was one of a crowded pack
of Democratic presidential candidates early this year -- could get Obama's nod
to become commerce secretary.

Richardson's elevation to the cabinet would give the Obama administration its
first high-profile Hispanic member as its main liaison to the business
community. Richardson was a United Nations ambassador and energy secretary under
former President Bill Clinton.

NATIONAL SECURITY FRONTRUNNER

Obama's early moves got the thumbs up from the Senate's Republican leader, Mitch
McConnell, who said he believed the Obama team was preparing to "govern in the
middle and tackle big things."

"I think the new administration is off to a good start," he told reporters on
Capitol Hill.

Democrats increased their majority in the Senate and U.S. House of
Representatives in the November 4 vote.

Set to become the first black U.S. president, Obama will inherit a deeply
unpopular war in Iraq and another war in Afghanistan, where violence has soared,
and will seek to rebuild relationships with allies, particularly in Europe.

Retired Marine Gen. James Jones has emerged as a leading contender for White
House national security adviser, according to Democratic sources. Jones is a
former top operational commander of NATO.

Obama is also leaning toward keeping Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Gates, who
replaced the combative Donald Rumsfeld in 2006, is praised by both Republicans
and Democrats in Congress for overseeing a military strategy shift in Iraq that
helped bring the country back from the brink of civil war.

(Editing by Kristin Roberts and Frances Kerry)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081120/bs_afp/financeeconomyusgulf;_ylt=AoveXQpto0\
WDdPa4aJKShZpv24cA

US seeks 300 billion dlrs from Gulf states: report
Thu Nov 20, 2:29 am

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – The United States has asked four oil-rich Gulf states for
close to 300 billion dollars to help it curb the global financial meltdown,
Kuwait's daily Al-Seyassah reported Thursday.

Quoting "highly informed" sources, the daily said Washington has asked Saudi
Arabia for 120 billion dollars, the United Arab Emirates for 70 billion dollars,
Qatar for 60 billion dollars and was seeking 40 billion dollars from Kuwait.

Al-Seyassah said Washington sought the amount as "financial aid" to face the
fallout of the financial crisis and help prevent its economy from sliding into a
painful recession.

The daily said the United States plans to use the funds to help the ailing
automobile industry , banks and other companies suffering from the global
financial turmoil.

The four nations, all members of OPEC, produce together 14 million barrels of
oil per day, around half of the cartel's production and about 17 percent of
world supplies.

The four states are estimated to have amassed close to 1.5 trillion dollars in
surplus in the past six years due to high oil prices that rocketed above 147
dollars in July before sliding to just above 50 dollars.

The daily also said that the United States has asked Kuwait to forgive its Iraqi
debt estimated at around 16 billion dollars.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081124/ap_on_go_co/biden_senate;_ylt=AnLtbUb5rcdBIX\
L4LPQhC8nLLJ94

Longtime Biden aide picked to fill his Senate seat

WILMINGTON, Del. – Edward "Ted" Kaufman, a former aide to Sen. Joe Biden, was
named Monday by Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to fill the Senate seat Biden is
leaving for the vice presidency. Kaufman is president of a political and
management consulting firm based in Wilmington. Kaufman served on Biden's Senate
staff from 1973 to 1994, including 19 years as chief of staff. He is an advisory
board member to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.

Speculation on Biden's successor had centered in recent weeks on his son,
Attorney General Beau Biden. Last week, however, the younger Biden announced
that he planned to fulfill his National Guard duties and wouldn't accept an
appointment to his father's U.S. Senate seat.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/24/europe/greenland.php?WT.mc_id=newsalert

Greenland: Further cracks in ties with Denmark?
By Sarah Lyall Published: November 24, 2008

LONDON: Greenland, the world's largest island, is to vote Tuesday on whether it
wants greater independence from Denmark, which colonized it nearly 300 years
ago.

Greenland - 2,200,000 square kilometers, or 850,000 square miles, some 80
percent of which is covered by ice - has steadily been gaining more autonomy for
decades and has had its own home-rule government since 1979. But it still
depends on Denmark for much of its budget and is bound by Danish decisions in a
variety of policy areas.

If it passes, the referendum on Tuesday will pave the way for Greenland's
eventual independence from Denmark. The measure would allow Greenlanders to be
recognized as a separate people under international law; make the Eskimo-Inuit
tongue known as Greenlandic the island's official language; and give the
home-rule government the option of taking more responsibility over areas like
justice, defense and foreign affairs.

Perhaps more importantly, a "yes" vote would allow Greenland the opportunity to
wean itself from its annual grant of $550 million by giving it control of the
revenues from potential oil, gas and mineral finds. Experts say that huge
quantities of natural resources are lurking offshore and under Greenland's
melting ice cap, but it remains to be seen exactly what is there and how much it
is worth.

Native Greenlanders have been talking about independence for years, but not
until now has the island felt emboldened to take the next step toward it.

Today in Europe
France and Germany find little common ground on economyAfter 26 years, Red Army
Faction member to be releasedKosovo blast sends shock wave to BerlinPolls show
that the proposals have overwhelming support among Greenland's population of
more than 56,000, nearly 90 percent of whom are native-born Inuits. About 39,000
people are eligible to vote.

"The future of Greenland is being strengthened a lot with this," said Hans Jakob
Helms, political adviser to Lars Emil Johansen, one of two Greenlandic members
of the Danish Parliament. "This allows the Greenlandic people to decide
themselves if, at a later date, they want independence."

Greenland has come a long way economically in the last few decades. But while 60
percent of its people live in the six largest towns, the rest live in more than
120 isolated, austere settlements and trading posts that have perhaps one store
apiece and few job opportunities.

Outside the towns, people make their living by hunting and fishing. There is no
national road network, and people rely on boats and planes to travel - weather
permitting - from one area to another. Besides several dialects of Greenlandic,
English and Danish is spoken.

Greenlanders stress that it may be several decades before Greenland is able to
declare complete independence from Denmark but said that the vote was the next
step in a long evolution toward that goal.

"Home rule was a compromise," Helms said. "It's a simple fact that home rule has
reached its limit and there's a need for more room for self-government."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081125/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_politkovskaya

Lawyer: Russian politican link to journalist death

MOSCOW – A defense lawyer in the trial of three men charged in the killing of
investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya says the indictment indicates a
politician in Russia was behind her slaying.

Russian prosecutors have suggested somebody from abroad ordered Politkovskaya
killed in an effort to discredit and destabilize Russia.

But lawyer Murad Musayev says the indictment indicates a politician inside
Russia was behind the killing as revenge for criticism in her reporting.

Musayev said Tuesday that the judge also ordered the trial opened to the public,
the second reversal on the issue. Several reporters were then allowed into the
courtroom.

Musayev said the judge asked the jury if they opposed an open trial and they
said they did not.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081125/pl_politico/15986;_ylt=AqNViTJ7Sek.Zki\
nK01LB.r9xg8F

Gates agrees to stay on under Obama
Mike Allen – 2 hrs 20 mins ago

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to stay on under President-elect
Barack Obama, according to officials in both parties. Obama plans to announce a
national-security team early next week that includes Gates at the Pentagon and
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of state, officials said.

Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, former Marine commandant and commander of U.S.
and NATO forces in Europe, will be named national security adviser, the
officials said.

The national security adviser heads the National Security Council, which is the
part of the White House structure that deals with foreign policy, and varies in
influence from presidency to presidency. Jones insisted on – and got – a
commanding role, the sources said.

Democrats familiar with the national-security event early next week said they
also expect James Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser in the
Clinton administration, to be named deputy secretary of State; Susan Rice,
Obama’s senior foreign policy adviser on the campaign, to be named U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations; and retired Adm. Dennis Blair, the former
commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command and a veteran of the NSC, Central
Intelligence Agency and Joint Chiefs of Staff, to be named the director of
national intelligence.

Tom Donilon, an assistant secretary of state for public affairs and chief of
staff at the U.S. Department of State during the Clinton administration, is a
leading candidate to be Jones’ deputy at the NSC, officials said.

The team gives Obama experience in the bureaucracy and credibility with the
military, although it could lead to criticism from his party’s left wing that
the lineup is more hawkish and less revolutionary than his supporters expected.

David Axelrod, the incoming White House senior adviser, said Sunday on ABC’s
“This Week”: “The president-elect was clear throughout the campaign that
when he became president, that he was going to give the secretary of defense a
new mission, and that mission was going to be to wind down our involvement.
Nothing has changed.”

Axelrod said Obama enjoys and invites strong opinions and there will be no
“potted plants” in his Cabinet.

Gates has been negotiating with Obama emissaries over his deputies — some will
be retained, and some new — and how the Pentagon will be run.

The selection of a member of President George W. Bush’s inner circle allows
Obama to deliver on his promise of a bipartisan Cabinet, even though Gates has
an intelligence background and has not been an active Republican.

The appointment has substantial advantages for Obama, who now can keep his
pledge of drawing down troops in Iraq with the aid of an architect of the Bush
administration’s successful troop "surge" strategy.

The presence of Gates also will help finesse Obama’s relationship with Gen.
David Petraeus, the former U.S. commander in Iraq and now the head of the U.S.
Central Command, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Gates nomination was first reported as a “done deal” by ABC News.

Gates will not have to be reconfirmed, ofificials said.

http://newspapertree.com/politics/3128

Cobos was in D.C., but what for?
by David Crowder
Reyes’ office denied that the subject of Cobos' meeting with the congressman
was U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton or the investigation. It was about a job. That
is, if there might one for him in D.C.

Posted on November 25, 2008
El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos was making the rounds in Washington last
week, but just what he was doing there depends on who one asks.

He was spotted along the way by other El Pasoans, and the county auditor’s
office reports that there was a $125 charge on the county credit card Cobos
carries in Dallas, a stop-over, that Monday afternoon.

He skipped the day’s Commissioners Court meeting (Monday, Nov. 17, 2008) and
has since missed two special meetings of Commissioners Court.

The auditor's office said the computer showed only "American" with no further
indication of what the charge was for.

Could have been his extra baggage. Or maybe he changed planes for the Dallas to
Washington leg to get away from all the El Pasoans who recognized him.

One account had him in the capital visiting the offices of U.S. Reps. Silvestre
Reyes and Ciro Rodriguez in an effort to hook up with someone close to
President-elect Barack Obama.

The tale has him wanting to talk about the ongoing public corruption
investigation in El Paso and how soon U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, a Bush
appointee, would be out-going.

That story led to others.

Reyes’ office denied that the subject of Cobos meeting with the congressman
was Sutton or the investigation.

It was about a job, they said. That is, if there might one for him in D.C.

His visit to Reyes' office was described as an unplanned courtesy call.

Cobos has been a known target in the FBI’s public corruption investigation
since early 2007 when FBI agents turned up in force at the courthouse to search
his office and the offices of Commissioners Luis Sarinana and Miguel Teran.

None of them has been charged, though nine others have pleaded guilty in the
past 17 months to various bribery, conspiracy and fraud charges, including
Cobos’ former chief of staff, Travis Ketner, who was the first to plead.

Cobos’ term as county judge is supposed to last for two more years, so why he
might be looking for a job is anybody’s guess.

On checking with Rodriguez’s office, Press Secretary Phallan Davis, on her
last day in that job, initially said Cobos came by last Tuesday as a “a
last-minute thing … just a courtesy visit.”

“What I understand they talked about was funding projects for El Paso …
money for city buses for El Paso.”

The idea of Cobos lobbying for the city’s Sun Metro department made little
sense since the city has highly paid lobbyists to do that who are often assisted
by the Mayor John Cook and other city officials.

Asking the press secretary to try again, brought Rodriguez’s chief of
communications, Josh Rosenbloom, to the phone.

“He was visiting about rural bus stuff,” Rosenbloom said, adding that
someone from the county’s lobby firm was with him.

Rosenbloom described the visit as a courtesy call but then said it had been set
up earlier.

“He didn’t just show up on our doorstep,” Rosenbloom said.

The county does provide limited bus service in rural areas and reportedly has
two old buses due to be replaced by two more that are already in the pipeline.
The money is budgeted.

But the county doesn’t need any more buses.

So they never talked about Sutton and the investigation?

“No,” Rosenbloom said.

So why was Cobos in Washington? He did not return Newspaper Tree’s call.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081126191716.lac3x2r9&show_article=1

Russia building 'Berlin Wall' in Georgia: FM

Nov 26 03:17 PM US/Eastern

Georgian Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili said Wednesday that Russian forces
were erecting a "Berlin Wall" as part of a campaign to cut off rebel regions
from the rest of the country.
Russia is trying to divide Abkhazia and South Ossetia from the rest of Georgia,
she said in a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies
think-tank in London.

Tkeshelashvili said Russia was building a wall at Zugdidi, a city at the Abkhaz
border.

"Russia physically destroys physical links between the regions of Georgia," she
said. "It is blowing up bridges in Gali region so that it is harder for people
to go to the neighbouring region of Samegrelo.

"In Zugdidi city, for that matter, they are building a wall which will be not
perhaps the size of the Berlin Wall but is something resembling that.

"The same goes for South Ossetia with which the roads and then bridges are being
blown up. In physical terms, they try to dismember these regions in such a way
that there's a physical detachment of these regions.

And she warned: "If Russia is allowed to continue along the way, that would
damage the process of talks and negotiations."

Russian troops and tanks poured into Georgia on August 8 to repel a Georgian
military attempt to retake South Ossetia, which had received extensive backing
from Moscow for years.

Russian forces occupied swathes of the country, but later withdrew to within
South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow recognised as independent states.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she would not insist on
granting NATO membership to Georgia and Ukraine at the military alliance's
ministerial meeting in Brussels next week.

Tkeshelashvili, 31, said Georgia still aspired to join Western community
frameworks.

"It's not NATO membership that unnerves Russia," she said. "It's the very fact
of the independence of Georgia and the possibility of independence of other
countries (formerly under Moscow's control).

"The blackmailing of Russia cannot be successful."

She added: "If Russia is allowed to be effective in reinstating the Soviet
Union, it will be a danger not only for Georgia."

Outgoing US President George W. Bush was a staunch ally of Georgia during the
August war with Russia.

But despite Washington cooling its support for a formal path to help Georgia
join NATO, Tkeshelashvili said she was not worried about the incoming US
president-elect Barack Obama being less attentive to Georgia.

"There are no concerns of that type attached to the situation," she said.

"We have had very interesting consultations with the possible new administration
and then with the president-elect himself."

Both Obama and vice president-elect Joseph Biden had made a "very firm
commitment to the cause of Georgia's independence and sovereignty" on a number
of occasions.

Key members of the incoming administration have "a very full understanding what
is the situation in the in the region, what are the challenges ahead, what needs
to be done," she said.

"I don't think that there will be any chance of fading interest from the United
States."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

Iraqi parliament OKs US troops for 3 more years

  Associated Press Writer Qassim Abdul-zahra, Associated Press Writer – 58 mins
ago

BAGHDAD – Iraq's parliament approved Thursday a security pact with the United
States that lets American troops stay in the country for three more years.

The vote in favor of the pact was backed by the ruling coalition's Shiite and
Kurdish blocs as well as the largest Sunni Arab bloc, which had demanded
concessions for supporting the deal.

The breakdown of the vote was not immediately available. But parliament speaker
Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said an "overwhelming majority" of lawmakers who attended
the session voted in favor. Parliament's secretariat, which counted lawmakers as
they entered the chamber, said 220 out of 275 legislators attended.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appeared to have won the comfortable majority
that he sought in order to give the agreement additional legitimacy.

A bloc of 30 lawmakers loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who
opposed the pact, chanted protests and hoisted banners that said "No, no to the
agreement" during the 25-minute session.

The deal must now be ratified by the Presidential Council, which is expected to
approve it.

Under the agreement, U.S. forces will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30 and
the entire country by Jan. 1, 2012. Iraq will have strict oversight over U.S.
forces.

The security pact meets an Iraqi goal of a clear timetable for the departure of
American forces and has been described by al-Maliki as a path toward full
sovereignty.

The vote had been delayed by one day because of sectarian-based disputes and
power struggles among the political factions, which have hampered reconciliation
efforts after years of war.

The Shiite and Kurdish blocs agreed to a Sunni demand that a national referendum
on the pact be held by July 30. A vote against the pact at that time could
torpedo the deal.

But the Sunnis did not get two concessions: the repeal of a law designed to weed
out former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, and the dissolution of a
special court that tried the dictator and top officials of his regime. Saddam
was sentenced to death and executed in 2006.

Iraq's Shiites and Kurds, who account for 80 percent of Iraq's 27 million
people, were the target of massacres and other atrocities under Saddam's
Sunni-dominated regime. Grievances run deep, and caving in to Sunni demands on
the special court and the Baathist law could have produced voter backlash ahead
of provincial and general elections in 2009.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9f26121e-bcaf-11dd-af5a-0000779fd18c.html

India points finger at Pakistan
By Joe Leahy and James Fontanella-Khan in Mumbai and James Lamont in New Delhi

Published: November 27 2008 19:03 | Last updated: November 28 2008 02:45

Indian commandos fought room-to-room battles with terrorists in two Mumbai
luxury hotels on Thursday night as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in effect
blamed Pakistan for the attacks.

The rear of the five-star Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel on Mumbai’s
waterfront was on fire and the building was picked out by searchlights as
India’s special forces painstakingly worked through the 565-room building,
freeing hostages and guests trapped in their rooms.

Early on Friday morning police said terrorists were still holed up at both
hotels along with an unknown number of hostages. Police had said 55 hostages
were being held at the Taj and 39 people were trapped in the Oberoi. The number
of people killed in the attacks rose to at least 119, with about 315 wounded.

Early on Friday morning sporadic gunfire and explosions were heard at a Jewish
centre several blocks from the Taj where at least 10 Israelis were trapped or
being held hostage.

Indian commandos were dropped by helicopter onto the roof of a Jewish centre in
Mumbai, where suspected Islamist militants are holding at least 10 Israelis,
live television pictures showed on Friday.

One victim was named on Thursday night as self-made millionaire businessman
Andreas Liveras, 72, a Cyprus-born UK citizen who died shortly after he had
spoken to the BBC via his mobile phone about the attacks.

Mr Singh, in a televised address, said the attacks were probably masterminded by
a group based in a neighbouring country. “We will take up strongly with our
neighbours that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not
be tolerated and there will be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by
them,” he said.

Pakistan denied involvement, with President Asif Ali Zardari describing the
attacks as “detestable”. A little-known group calling itself the Deccan
Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attacks. A militant claiming to be one
of those holding the Jewish family rang an Indian television channel to offer
talks on the release of the hostages while complaining about India’s actions
in Kashmir. India and Pakistan are at odds over the disputed territory, with
Islamic fundamentalists staging cross-border raids against Indian forces.

The attacks come at a critical time for the Congress party-led government, which
faces an election by next May and is trying to deal with a slowing economy.

Commentators have been critical of its record on security, with police
struggling to bring militants to justice despite the growing frequency of
attacks in cities.

“We’re the ultimate soft state,” said Suhel Seth, a marketing expert who
had a room at the Taj when the attacks occurred. “You have 20 people holding a
country of 1.1bn people to ransom.”

Mumbai’s government said up to 25 men dressed in jeans and T-shirts and armed
with AK-47s and grenades arrived by boat in the city and attacked up to eight
locations. Mumbai’s most senior police officer A.N. Roy said the terrorists
would be “caught or killed”. More than half have been reported killed or
missing, and police said nine suspects had been arrested.

Condemnation flooded in over the attacks, which have brought India’s financial
capital to a halt, with most businesses closed on Thursday, including stock
markets. US President George W. Bush called Mr Singh to express condolences and
offer support.

At least six foreigners, including Mr Liveras, an Australian, an Italian and a
Japanese national have been killed. Mr Liveras set up Liveras Yachts based in
Monaco. The wife of Karambir Singh Kang, Taj’s general manager, and their two
children died from smoke asphyxiation, according to a hotel spokesperson.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_india;_ylt=AqQ_j2_j5\
4Aaw39AU4CKDw2s0NUE

Pakistan U-turns on sending spy chief to India

Munir Ahmad, Associated Press Writer – 9 mins ago AP –

AP ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan on Saturday withdrew an offer to send its
spy chief to India to help investigate the Mumbai terrorist attacks, damaging
efforts to head off a crisis between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Indian officials have linked the attacks to "elements" in Pakistan, raising the
prospect of a breakdown in painstaking peace talks between South Asian rivals
that has alarmed the U.S.

However, Washington also kept up the pressure on Pakistan with a suspected
missile strike on an al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold near the Afghan border that
reportedly killed two people.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani insisted on Friday that his country
was not involved in the carnage that left more than 190 people dead in India's
financial capital.

With Pakistan promising to help identify and apprehend those responsible,
Gilani's office said the head of the Inter Services Intelligence agency would go
to India at the request of India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh.

However, Zahid Bashir, a spokesman for Gilani, told The Associated Press on
Saturday that the decision had been changed and that a lower-ranking
intelligence official would travel instead.

He declined to explain the about-face, which followed sharp criticism from some
Pakistani opposition politicians and a cool response from the army, which
controls the spy agency.

Bashir didn't say who would be making the trip or when.

India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of complicity in terrorist attacks on its
soil, many of which it traces to militant groups fighting Indian rule in the
divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Pakistan insists its support for agitation in Kashmir, where anti-India
sentiment runs high, is only moral and political. But it is widely believed to
have supported the militants with training and equipment.

Infiltration into Kashmir from Pakistan has eased in recent years under U.S.
pressure, and relations have improved markedly under a peace process begun in
2004.

But ties nose-dived again in July when India accused Pakistan's ISI spy agency
of involvement in the bombing of its embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The United States has being trying to persuade Islamabad to shift its security
focus from India, with which it has fought three wars, to Islamic militants
along the Afghan border.

President-elect Barack Obama has identified rapprochement between the two
countries as a main plank of his plan to stabilize Afghanistan and defeat
al-Qaida.

Reflecting U.S. concern, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called the
foreign minister of India twice, as well as Pakistani President Asif Ali
Zardari, since the crisis began.

"There were very worrying tensions in the region," State Department spokesman
Gordon Duguid said Friday. "She was calling the president of Pakistan to get his
read on how those tensions might be affected."

A clear Pakistani link to the attacks could support Washington's goals if a
regional crisis is averted and Pakistani authorities agree to take tougher
action against militant groups on their soil.

U.S. forces have increasingly taken matters into their own hands by launching
more than 20 suspected missile strikes in Pakistan since August, despite
Pakistani protests that the tactic is fueling hard-line Islamist sentiment.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials said Saturday's strike destroyed a house in
the North Waziristan region. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of their work, said several more people were injured.
The identity of the victims was not clear.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081202/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_political_unrest;_yl\
t=AkxZyoPFu_j0s7YsZva_FxSb.HQA

Court dissolves Thai government for election fraud

BANGKOK, Thailand – Thailand's Constitutional Court has dissolved two main
parties in the ruling coalition and banned the prime minister along with top
party executives from politics for five years.

The ruling sinks Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat's government, which has faced
strident protests for months seeking its ouster.

The court ruled that Somchai's People's Power Party and the Machima Thipatai
party were guilty of electoral fraud. Somchai and dozens of party executive
members also were found guilty and banned from politics for five years.

Tuesday's ruling raises hopes that thousands of anti-government protesters will
end their siege of the country's two main airports.

Court President Chat Chalavorn says the ruling will "set a political standard."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/30/AR2008113002217_\
pf.html

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security

By Spencer S. Hsu and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 1, 2008; A01


The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United
States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear
terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was
recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by
Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties
groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis
threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act,
a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law
enforcement.

But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened
homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest
domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.

Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to
domestic response -- a nearly sevenfold increase in five years -- "would have
been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable," Paul McHale, assistant defense
secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies. But the realization that civilian
authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe prompted "a fundamental change
in military culture," he said.

The Pentagon's plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for
emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around
an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of
Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.

If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National
Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and
state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic
chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or
CBRNE event, as the military calls it.

Military preparations for a domestic weapon-of-mass-destruction attack have been
underway since at least 1996, when the Marine Corps activated a 350-member
chemical and biological incident response force and later based it in Indian
Head, Md., a Washington suburb. Such efforts accelerated after the Sept. 11
attacks, and at the time Iraq was invaded in 2003, a Pentagon joint task force
drew on 3,000 civil support personnel across the United States.

In 2005, a new Pentagon homeland defense strategy emphasized "preparing for
multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents." National security threats were
not limited to adversaries who seek to grind down U.S. combat forces abroad,
McHale said, but also include those who "want to inflict such brutality on our
society that we give up the fight," such as by detonating a nuclear bomb in a
U.S. city.

In late 2007, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed a directive
approving more than $556 million over five years to set up the three response
teams, known as CBRNE Consequence Management Response Forces. Planners assume an
incident could lead to thousands of casualties, more than 1 million evacuees and
contamination of as many as 3,000 square miles, about the scope of damage
Hurricane Katrina caused in 2005.

Last month, McHale said, authorities agreed to begin a $1.8 million pilot
project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through which civilian
authorities in five states could tap military planners to develop disaster
response plans. Hawaii, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Washington and West
Virginia will each focus on a particular threat -- pandemic flu, a terrorist
attack, hurricane, earthquake and catastrophic chemical release, respectively --
speeding up federal and state emergency planning begun in 2003.

Last Monday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ordered defense officials to
review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to
domestic disasters.

Gates gave commanders 25 days to propose changes and cost estimates. He cited
the work of a congressionally chartered commission, which concluded in January
that the Guard and reserve forces are not ready and that they lack equipment and
training.

Bert B. Tussing, director of homeland defense and security issues at the U.S.
Army War College's Center for Strategic Leadership, said the new Pentagon
approach "breaks the mold" by assigning an active-duty combat brigade to the
Northern Command for the first time. Until now, the military required the
command to rely on troops requested from other sources.

"This is a genuine recognition that this [job] isn't something that you want to
have a pickup team responsible for," said Tussing, who has assessed the
military's homeland security strategies.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are
troubled by what they consider an expansion of executive authority.

Domestic emergency deployment may be "just the first example of a series of
expansions in presidential and military authority," or even an increase in
domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU's National Security
Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping
militarization" of homeland security.

"There's a notion that whenever there's an important problem, that the thing to
do is to call in the boys in green," Healy said, "and that's at odds with our
long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the
peace."

McHale stressed that the response units will be subject to the act, that only 8
percent of their personnel will be responsible for security and that their
duties will be to protect the force, not other law enforcement. For decades, the
military has assigned larger units to respond to civil disturbances, such as
during the Los Angeles riot in 1992.

U.S. forces are already under heavy strain, however. The first reaction force is
built around the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, which
returned in April after 15 months in Iraq. The team includes operations,
aviation and medical task forces that are to be ready to deploy at home or
overseas within 48 hours, with units specializing in chemical decontamination,
bomb disposal, emergency care and logistics.

The one-year domestic mission, however, does not replace the brigade's next
scheduled combat deployment in 2010. The brigade may get additional time in the
United States to rest and regroup, compared with other combat units, but it may
also face more training and operational requirements depending on its homeland
security assignments.

Renuart said the Pentagon is accounting for the strain of fighting two wars, and
the need for troops to spend time with their families. "We want to make sure the
parameters are right for Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. The 1st Brigade's
soldiers "will have some very aggressive training, but will also be home for
much of that."

Although some Pentagon leaders initially expected to build the next two response
units around combat teams, they are likely to be drawn mainly from reserves and
the National Guard, such as the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade from South
Carolina, which returned in May after more than a year in Afghanistan.

Now that Pentagon strategy gives new priority to homeland security and calls for
heavier reliance on the Guard and reserves, McHale said, Washington has to
figure out how to pay for it.

"It's one thing to decide upon a course of action, and it's something else to
make it happen," he said. "It's time to put our money where our mouth is."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081202/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_political_unrest

Thai airports to reopen after government falls

Ambika Ahuja, Associated Press Writer – 1 min ago
BANGKOK, Thailand – Thailand's prime minister was ousted Tuesday after weeks
of protests closed the capital's airports, stranding 300,000 travelers.
Protesters promised to lift their siege, and international flights were expected
to resume Friday.

The government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was doomed when the nation's
Constitutional Court dissolved Thailand's top three ruling parties for electoral
fraud in the 2007 vote that brought them to power. Somchai was banned from
politics for five years.

Somchai did not formally resign, as the protesters had demanded for months, but
accepted the ruling.

"It is not a problem. I was not working for myself. Now I will be a full-time
citizen," he told reporters in Chiang Mai, the northern city where his paralyzed
administration has been forced to govern since Wednesday.

Protest leaders said the airport seizures would end Wednesday.

With the waning of the political crisis, the official in charge of Thailand's
airports said Suvarnabhumi international airport will resume operations on
Friday.

"Please have confidence in us," said Vudhibhandhu Vichairatana, the chairman of
the Airports of Thailand.

He called the flights a birthday gift for Thailand's revered King Bhumibol
Adulyadej, who turns 81 on Dec. 5. The airport reopened to cargo flights
Tuesday.

Officials had earlier said the airport would not reopen for commercial flights
before Dec. 15, but Vudhibhandhu said he brought forward the date because an
inspection revealed the airport had suffered no damage and could become
operational more quickly.

After Tuesday's court decision, government spokesman Nattawut Sai-kau said the
six-party governing coalition would step down.

Despite the appearance of a smooth political transition, the ruling is expected
to widen the dangerous rift in Thai society that many fear could lead to more
violence between pro- and anti-government groups.

Late Monday, an explosive device fired from an elevated highway fell among
hundreds of protesters inside Don Muang airport, killing one person and wounding
22. The death raised to seven the number of people killed in bomb attacks,
clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and
supporters.

On hearing the court's decision, a cheer rose from thousands of members of the
People's Alliance for Democracy occupying the international airport.

"My heart is happy. My friends are very happy," said Pailin Jampapong, a
41-year-old Bangkok housekeeper choking back tears as she jumped up and down.

"This is a blow for corruption," said Nong Sugrawut, a 55-year-old businessman
at Suvarnabhumi.

Somchai had become increasingly isolated in recent weeks. Neither the army, a
key player in Thai politics, nor the country's much revered king offered firm
backing.

But hundreds of his supporters gathered outside the court, saying the swiftness
of the ruling — which came just an hour after closing arguments ended —
appeared predetermined. At one point they cut off the power supply to the court,
but electricity was restored with diesel generators.

"The court is not qualified to make this ruling. They are nothing more than
apologists for the alliance, who are ruining the country," an activist shouted
through a megaphone outside the court.

Somchai's People's Power Party, the Machima Thipatai party and the Chart Thai
party were found guilty of committing fraud in the December 2007 elections that
brought the coalition to power.

"Dishonest political parties undermine Thailand's democratic system," said Court
President Chat Chalavorn.

The ruling sends Somchai and 59 executives of the three parties into political
exile and bars them from politics for five years. Of the 59, 24 are lawmakers
who will also have to abandon their parliamentary seats.

But lawmakers of the three dissolved parties who escaped the ban can join other
parties, try to cobble together a new coalition and then choose a new prime
minister.

Until then, Deputy Prime Minister Chaowarat Chandeerakul will become the
caretaker prime minister, said Suparak Nakboonnam, a government spokeswoman. She
said parliament will have to pick a new prime minister within 30 days.

The protesters accuse Somchai of being a proxy of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's
brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to
escape corruption charges.

Alliance supporters are largely middle-class citizens who say Thailand's
electoral system is susceptible to vote-buying and argue that the rural majority
— the Thaksin camp's political base — is not sophisticated enough to cast
ballots responsibly.

They have proposed discarding direct elections in favor of appointing most
legislators, fostering resentment among rural voters.

The protest leaders have been charged with several criminal offenses, but are
out on bail, and it is not known when they will be tried.

___

Associated Press reporters Jocelyn Gecker, Vijay Joshi and Mick Elmore
contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081202/ap_on_el_se/mel_martinez_8

Sen. Mel Martinez of Fla. won't seek re-election

Brendan Farrington And Mark Wangrin, Associated Press Writers – 2 hrs 14 mins
ago

ORLANDO, Fla. – U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, who has struggled to boost
public support because of his close ties to President George W. Bush, announced
Tuesday he will not seek a second term in 2010, saying he wants to spend more
time with his family.

The Republican pushed an immigration reform bill that was unpopular with many in
his party, and his seat was widely seen as vulnerable in two years. However,
Martinez rejected suggestions he faced difficult re-election prospects in a
state won last month by Democrat Barack Obama.

"I've faced much tougher obstacles in my life," Martinez said. "My decision is
not based on re-election prospects, but on what I want to do with the next eight
years of my life."

Martinez, 62, was elected in 2004 after serving as the U.S. secretary for
Housing and Urban Development during the Bush administration. He served as
general chairman of the Republican National Committee for 10 months, resigning
in October 2007.

Martinez was born in Cuba. At the age of 15, he fled to America as part of a
Catholic humanitarian effort called Operation Pedro Pan. Catholic charitable
groups provided Martinez, who was alone and spoke virtually no English, a
temporary home at two youth facilities. He then lived with two foster families,
with whom he remains close. He was reunited with his family in Orlando in 1966.

In appointing Martinez in 2001, Bush said he was "the embodiment of the American
Dream." Martinez said during his announcement that he wants to continue to
encourage the hopes and dreams of other Hispanics.

"I always tried very much to be a mentor and role model, particularly to young
people," Martinez said.

Martinez played a big role in getting Congress to pass a bill attempting to save
Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of a bitter right-to-die
battle.

He also worked to protect oil drilling off Florida's coast, helped secure the
release of a Florida woman being held prisoner in Vietnam for political activism
and added language to a health care bill the Senate passed that would double
Medicare fraud penalties.

A Quinnipiac University poll taken last month showed only 36 percent said
Martinez should be re-elected, and 38 percent said he wasn't deserving.

Also, as of Sept. 30, Martinez reported only $1.2 million in cash on hand for
his possible re-election bid, meaning he would have faced raising millions more
to be competitive in Florida's expensive media markets. Earlier this year,
Martinez agreed to pay $99,000 in fines for his 2004 campaign's violations of
election laws, including accepting more than $313,000 that exceeded legal
contribution limits.

Speculation about who would run for Martinez' seat began immediately after his
announcement.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush is seriously considering a run and has received e-mails of
encouragement from many party and elected officials, according to a former
political adviser close to Bush who spoke on condition of anonymity because the
former governor is not ready to publicly discuss his plans.

Several Florida congressman also are considered potential candidates, including
Democratic Reps. Kendrick Meek and Allen Boyd and Republican Reps. Vern
Buchanan, along with about a half dozen other former or current state officials.

___

Associated Press Writer Brendan Farrington reported from Tallahassee, Fla.
Associated Press writers Tamara Lush and Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to
this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/georgia_senate

Georgia Sen. Chambliss wins re-election in runoff

Shannon Mccaffrey, Associated Press Writer – 11 mins ago

ATLANTA – Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss handed the GOP a firewall
against Democrats eager to flex their newfound political muscle in Washington,
winning a bruising runoff battle Tuesday night that had captured the national
limelight.

Chambliss' victory thwarted Democrats' hopes of winning a 60 seat
filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It came after a bitter monthlong runoff
against Democrat Jim Martin that drew political luminaries from both parties to
the state and flooded the airwaves with fresh attack ads weeks after campaigns
elsewhere had ended.

Minnesota — where a recount is under way — now remains the only unresolved
Senate contest in the country. But the stakes there are significantly lower now
that Georgia has put a 60-seat Democratic supermajority out of reach.

With 92 percent of the precincts reporting, Chambliss captured 58 percent to
Martin's 42 percent. Chambliss' win is a rare bright spot for Republicans in a
year where they lost the White House as well as seats in the House and the
Senate.

Chambliss portrayed his win as an encouraging sign for Republicans looking to
regroup as they head into the next election cycle.

"I'm excited to be the first race that leads us into the 2010 campaign because
it'll be a tough fight," Chambliss said at a victory party in Cobb County.

Martin called Chambliss to concede before 10 p.m., then emerged to tell
supporters as his voice cracked: "For me and my family and campaign team and all
of you this is a sad moment."

Chambliss' mantra on the runoff campaign trail was simple: His re-election was
critical to prevent Democrats in Washington from having a blank check.
Chambliss, 65, had angered some conservatives with his vote for the $700 billion
bailout of the financial services industry and his early support in 2007 for the
guest worker provision in President Bush's immigration bill. But fearful of
unchecked Democratic dominance, some came back into the GOP fold Tuesday

Martin made the economy the centerpiece of his bid, casting himself as a
champion for the neglected middle class. He also linked himself at every
opportunity to Barack Obama and his message of change. The Democratic president
elect was a no show on the campaign trail in Georgia but did record a radio ad
and automated phone calls for Martin.

In the end, Martin, a 63-year-old former state lawmaker from Atlanta, wasn't
able to get Obama voters back to the polls in large enough numbers to overcome
the Republican advantage in Georgia, which has become an increasingly a reliable
red state since 2002.

Turnout was light throughout the state Tuesday. A spokesman for Secretary of
State Karen Handel predicted between 18 and 20 percent of the state's 5.75
million registered voters would cast ballots — far less than the 65 percent
who voted in last month's general election.

The runoff between the former University of Georgia fraternity brothers was
necessary after a three-way general election prevented any of the candidates
from getting the necessary 50 percent.

Chambliss came to the Senate in 2002 after defeating Democratic Sen. Max Cleland
in a campaign that infuriated Democrats. Chambliss ran a TV ad that questioned
Cleland's commitment to national security and flashed a photo of Osama bin
Laden. Cleland is a triple amputee wounded in the Vietnam War.

He was a loyal supporter of President Bush and, as a freshman, rose to become
chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. the former agriculture lawyer from
Moultrie has been the ranking Republican on the panel since Democrats won
control of the Senate.

Some 3.7 million people cast ballots in this year's general election, and both
sides have since tried to keep voters' attention with a barrage of ads and
visits by political heavy-hitters.

Former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore both stumped for
Martin.

Several ex-Republican presidential candidates made appearances for Chambliss,
including GOP nominee John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Chambliss brought in Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's vice presidential pick,
as his closer. She headlined four rallies for Chambliss across the state Monday
that drew thousands of party faithful.

Associated Press writers Greg Bluestein, Kate Brumback and Errin Haines
contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

Saxby Chambliss: http://www.saxby.org

Jim Martin: http://www.martinforsenate.com

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081204/ap_on_go_pr_wh/torture_generals_8

Obama legal team meets with anti-torture generals

Pamela Hess, Associated Press Writer – 11 mins ago

WASHINGTON – A dozen retired generals met with President-elect Barack Obama's
top legal advisers Wednesday, pressing their case to overturn some of the Bush
administration's terrorism-fighting policies.

Obama has criticized practices that he says amount to torturing detainees during
interrogations and has promised to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.

Among those who met with Eric Holder, Obama's pick to be attorney general, and
Greg Craig, the incoming White House counsel, were Gen. Charles Krulak, a former
Marine Corps commandant, and retired Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, former chief of
the Central Command.

"It's important that the dialogue is going," Hoar said. "Part of the challenge
here is big and philosophical. Part is nuts and bolts. How do you translate the
rhetoric of the campaign and the transition period into action?"

The generals would like to see authority rescinded for the CIA to use harsh
interrogation methods that go beyond those approved for use by the military; an
end to the secret transfer of prisoners to other governments that have a history
of torture; and the closing of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

They organized against the current policies through an advocacy group, Human
Rights First, shortly after the 2004 revelations of prison abuse at Abu Ghraib
in Iraq. They helped win passage of a 2005 bill requiring that all U.S.
prisoners, including those taken by the CIA, receive humane treatment.

President George W. Bush in March vetoed legislation championed by the retired
officers that would have held the CIA to the military's interrogation methods.

The transition team official said no decisions about the detainee policies will
be made until after the inauguration and Obama's full national security and
legal teams are in place.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081204/ap_on_re_us/texas_mental_hospitals

Texas time warp? State criticized for mental care

Jeff Carlton, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 3, 7:27 pm ET AP – F

DENTON, Texas – For more than a century, thousands of mentally disabled
Americans were isolated from society, sometimes for life, by being confined to
huge state institutions.

In at least one place, they still are.

Texas has more mentally disabled patients in institutions than any other state,
and the federal government has concluded that the state's care system is
stubbornly out of step with modern mental health practices.

Critics allege that Texas remains stuck in an era when the mentally disabled
were hidden away in large, impersonal facilities far from relatives and
communities.

"In Texas, it's like a time warp," said Jeff Garrison-Tate, an advocate who
wants to close the 13 facilities called "state schools" and move patients into
group homes.

For the third time in three years, the criticism has attracted the attention of
the Justice Department, which on Tuesday accused Texas of violating residents'
constitutional rights to proper care.

Investigators found that dozens of patients died in the last year from
preventable conditions, and officials declared that the number of injuries was
"disturbingly high."

In addition, hundreds of documents reviewed by The Associated Press show that
some patients have been neglected, beaten, sexually abused or even killed by
caretakers. Inspection reports also describe filthy rooms and unsanitary
kitchens.

Many of the nation's mentally ill or disabled in the 1800s were housed together
in institutions, sometimes called insane asylums. But by the 1960s, most experts
concluded that mentally disabled patients fared better in smaller,
community-based settings.

The American Institution on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities says
large care facilities — usually those with at least 16 residents — "enforce
an unnatural, isolated, and regimented lifestyle that is not appropriate or
necessary."

Because of those concerns, eight states have abolished large institutions for
the mentally disabled. Another 13 states closed most of their largest
facilities, leaving just one open in each state.

But Texas has remained "the institution capital of America," said Charlie Lakin,
director of the Research and Training Center on Community Living at the
University of Minnesota.

The 13 facilities in Texas house nearly 5,000 residents — more than six times
the national average.

On a per-capita basis, Texas has 20.4 people per 100,000 in large institutions,
Lakin said. The national average is 12.2 people.

Other states with large populations such as New York and California — which
have rates of 11.2 and 7.5 people, respectively — rely far less on large
institutions.

Federal law requires the mentally disabled to be treated in "the most integrated
setting" possible — a factor that led to the Justice Department rebuke of
Texas.

Laura Albrecht, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Aging and Disability
Services, said the agency is expanding community-based services. Texas officials
say keeping the facilities open is a matter of preserving as many treatment
options as possible.

But critics allege that "warehousing" patients in large institutions invites
abuse. Patients are isolated from their families and communities, making regular
contact with loved ones more difficult. And caretakers often get overwhelmed by
the large numbers of patients, Garrison-Tate said.

In Texas, officials verified 465 incidents of abuse or neglect against mentally
disabled people in state care in fiscal year 2007. Over a three-month period
this summer, the state opened at least 500 new cases with similar allegations,
according to federal investigators.

An AP investigation earlier this year revealed that more than 800 state
employees have been fired or suspended since the summer of 2003 because they
abused, neglected or exploited mentally disabled residents.

And in the one-year period ending in September, as many as 53 deaths in the
facilities were due to potentially avoidable conditions such as pneumonia, bowel
obstructions or sepsis, the Justice Department said.

Some families tell horror stories of their loved ones in the state facilities.
For instance, Michelle Dooley said her son spent three months in the Austin
State School, which she described as a place of "dingy yellow floors and
patients running around without any clothes on."

During his time there, he refused to leave his bed and often languished in his
own excrement, she said.

Dooley eventually moved her son into a group home in Denton where treatment
costs average about $50,000 per year — roughly half as much as the costs at
state schools, Garrison-Tate said. Medicaid often picks up most of those costs.

"It was just horrible," Dooley said. "If he goes back to a state facility, he
will shut down and die."

At the San Angelo State School, inspection reports from 2007 took note of
scuffed walls pocked with holes, rotting food, dirty kitchens, broken furniture
and missing shower curtains.

More seriously, two employees were fired after throwing a resident into a pool
while he was wearing a restraint jacket. The employees had made a bet with the
resident that he would be unable to dunk another resident under water. When he
lost the bet, the employees restrained him and threw him in the water, according
to the reports.

Other families say they are happy with the state care.

Neil Davidson said his daughter Susan, who has cerebral palsy and is mentally
retarded, has flourished during her 10 years at the Lubbock State School.

"I'm very impressed with the level of care she has received," Davidson said. "As
far as I am concerned, it's Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. Everybody is looking out
for everybody else."

A visit to the Denton State School, the largest in Texas, reveals a sprawling
campus spread across well-kept lawns. Superintendent Randy Spence described the
place as a "happy, homelike atmosphere."

"The vast majority of our employees love the people they work with," said
Cecilia Fedorov, another spokeswoman for the Department of Aging and Disability
Services. "They think of them as extended family."

But Denton is also the site of Texas' most notorious case of state school abuse.

In 2002, a care worker repeatedly kicked and punched a resident in the stomach
and groin. Haseeb Chishty nearly died after that beating. He is now confined to
a wheelchair and unable to feed himself or use the bathroom.

"It got to the point where it was fun beating him, torturing him," said former
care worker Kevin Miller, who is now serving 15 years for aggravated assault.

In a statement videotaped by Chishty's lawyer, Miller said he and many of his
fellow care workers used methamphetamines, cocaine and Oxycontin on the job.

Chishty's mother filed a lawsuit against the facility, but it went nowhere. In
Texas, government entities are all but immune from lawsuits.

Some critics want to close the state schools. But because the Texas Legislature
created each one, only lawmakers can close them.

Many of the institutions are large employers in small towns, and they often pay
more than other jobs in rural areas. Lawmakers fear taking action that would
lead to layoffs, Garrison-Tate said.

"Even if we said we wanted to close all state schools, the community resources
aren't there at this time," said state Rep. Larry Phillips, chairman of a
legislative committee studying the facilities.

Kelly Reddell, the lawyer whose client's son was beaten nearly to death, said
the state is not doing right by its mentally disabled.

"The very nature of the institutional setting, I think, creates the environment
for the abuse to take place," she said. "How in the world can you think this
system is the best and it makes sense?"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081204/ap_on_re_ca/canada_political_crisis;_ylt=Ar1\
48G1GhJPTZunSa1f30t9bbBAF

Canadian leader shuts Parliament to keep power

Rob Gillies, Associated Press Writer – Thu Dec 4, 1:10 pm

OTTAWA – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper shut down Parliament on
Thursday in an unprecedented attempt to keep his government in power, fending
off a no-confidence vote he was all but certain to lose.

Less than two months after winning re-election, Harper successfully asked the
unelected representative of the head of state for the power to close down
Parliament until Jan. 26, hoping to buy enough time to develop a stimulus
package that could prop up the economy.

"Today's decision will give us an opportunity — I'm talking about all the
parties — to focus on the economy and work together," Harper said after the
private meeting.

Governor General Michaelle Jean, who represents Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as
head of state, granted the unusual request to suspend parliament. Had she
refused, Harper would have had two choices: step down or face a no-confidence
vote Monday he was sure to lose.

Harper would not offer details on their conversation.

Three opposition parties united against Harper, charging he has failed to
insulate Canada from the global financial crisis. The credit crisis and a global
sell off of commodities have slowed Canada's resource-rich economy, and the
finance minister said last week he expects a recession.

"For the first time in the history of Canada the prime minister is running away
from the parliament of Canada," said Liberal leader Stephane Dion, who headed up
the opposition movement against Harper.

He said the coalition would seek to oust Harper unless he makes a "monumental
change" in dealing with the economy and the opposition.

The opposition was also outraged by a government proposal to scrap public
subsidies for political parties, something the opposition groups rely on more
than the Conservatives. Although that proposal was withdrawn, the opposition has
continued to seek Harper's ouster, saying he has lost the trust and confidence
of parliament.

Opposition New Democrat leader Jack Layton called it a sad day.

"He's trying to lock the door of Parliament so that the elected people cannot
speak," Layton said. "He's trying to save his job."

Layton said the shutdown only delays Harper's inevitable defeat.

Harper's Conservative Party was re-elected Oct. 14 with a strengthened minority
government, but still must rely on the opposition to pass legislation.

The Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois, which together control a
majority of parliament's 308 seats, signed a pact agreeing to vote this coming
Monday to oust Harper and setting the structure for their proposed coalition
government.

Analysts said a governor general has never been asked to suspend parliament to
delay an ouster vote when it was clear the government didn't have the confidence
of a majority of legislators.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1208/Hutchison_announces_shes_running_fo\
r_governor.html

December 04, 2008

Hutchison announces plans to run for governor

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has set up an exploratory committee to run
for governor of Texas — the first official step as she prepares to run against
Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) in the 2010 GOP primary.

Hutchison announced she is transferring $1 million from her Senate campaign
committee to begin funding the gubernatorial campaign. At the end of September,
she reported $8.7 million in her account.

"Today, I am filing an exploratory committee so I can begin the process of
organizing a campaign for Governor of Texas," Hutchison said in a statement. "I
am not yet a candidate, but Texas law requires this first, important step before
an announcement can be made."

"Texans deserve a Governor who, in the context of sound budgetary policies and
low taxes, works for quality schools and universities, access to health care for
our families, communities safe from crime and drugs, protection of private
property rights, safe transportation and a government that listens and responds
to them," she added.

Hutchison said she will remain in the Senate during this exploratory phase, but
has not signaled whether she will do so once an official candidate. She would be
able to serve in the Senate while running; her term doesn't expire until 2012.

If she resigned, Perry would name a temporary replacement for her.

Hutchison was considered a possible running mate for John McCain during the
presidential race.  She has long eyed the governorship, and has never been close
with Perry.



By Josh Kraushaar 12:04 PM

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/nadler_plans_constitutional_am\
.php

Nadler Plans Constitutional Amendment To Curtail Pardon Power
By Justin Elliott - December 5, 2008, 11:09AM
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) plans to introduce a Constitutional amendment in the
coming months to impose limits on the president's near absolute pardon power, he
told an NYU-Harper's forum on justice in the post-Bush era Thursday night.

Nadler, who two weeks ago introduced a resolution demanding President Bush not
issue 'pre-emptive' pardons of officials in his administration, said his
amendment would bar presidents from pardoning members of their own
administration for official acts. The president would retain the power to pardon
the secretary of state for, say, beating his wife, Nadler said, but not for
actions taken in an official capacity.

Nadler added he is considering adding a section limiting the pardon power in the
final months of a presidential administration.

"This is something the Congressman thinks is very important, and it's a priority
for him," Nadler spokesman Ilan Kayatsky told TPMmuckraker today. Kayatsky said
Nadler's office is still doing planning and research on how to structure the
amendment.

The president's pardon power is drawn from Article II, Section II of the
Constitution, which states in part:

[The president] shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses
against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

Nadler's amendment would have to be passed by a two-thirds vote of both the
Senate and the House and then be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081204/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_russia_putin_georgia_odd;_\
ylt=AllBUuzE728FozYaoHe7axPtiBIF

Putin had painful plans for Georgian leader

  Thu Dec 4, 11:13 am ETMOSCOW (Reuters) – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
appeared wryly to confirm on Thursday French media reports that he had said
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili deserved to be hung by his testicles for
his role in the August war with Russia.

French media had quoted Putin as saying in a heated conversation with French
President Nicolas Sarkozy in Moscow on August 12 that Saakashvili should be
"hung by his balls" for starting the war which was roundly condemned by the
West.

In a distraction from queries about the economic crisis during a lengthy
televised question and answer session with the Russian public, Putin was asked:
"Is this true you promised to hang Saakashvili by one part?"

Smiling thinly at the question, posed over a crackling phone line by a man in
the Russian city of Penza, Putin, who has in the past used coarse language to
hammer home a point, waited for the laughter of his studio audience to subside
before replying:

"But why only by one part?"

Up until now, Russian officials had described the talks with the French
president as a "tough dialogue" but did not deny that Putin had made such a
comment.

Putin then frowned and blamed Saakashvili for triggering the brief war and
compared his attack on the breakaway region of South Ossetia with the U.S.-led
2003 invasion of Iraq.

"Seriously speaking, both me and you know about tragic events in another region
of the world, in Iraq, invaded by American troops due to a concocted pretext of
searching for weapons of mass destruction," said Putin.

"They found no weapons, but hanged the head of state, albeit on other charges
... " said Putin, referring to the 2006 execution of former Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein.

"I believe it is up to Georgia's people to decide what kind of responsibility
must be borne by those politicians who led to these harshest and tragic
consequences," he said.

Months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops erupted into war in
August when Georgia sent troops and tanks to retake the pro-Russian rebel region
of South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in 1991-92.

Russia responded with a counter-strike that drove the Georgian army out of South
Ossetia. Moscow's troops then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to
prevent further Georgian attacks. The West condemned Russia for a
"disproportionate response" to Georgia's actions.

Russia said Georgia's attack on civilians and Russian peacekeeping troops in
South Ossetia left it with no other option. Georgia accused Moscow of launching
a premeditated and unprovoked invasion of its territory.

(Writing by Conor Sweeney; Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov and Conor Sweeney)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAJN0eI6vj9Y&refer=home

Obama to Name Eric Shinseki as Secretary of Veterans Affairs

By Julianna Goldman

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama will name former Army Chief
of Staff Eric Shinseki to head the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs tomorrow
at a news conference in Chicago, according to two Democratic aides who spoke on
condition of anonymity.

Shortly before the 2003 U.S. invasion to oust dictator Iraqi Saddam Hussein,
Shinseki told Congress it would take several hundred thousand troops to
stabilize postwar Iraq.

Critics of the Bush administration say Shinseki was punished for that statement
-- an assessment roundly rejected at the time by then-Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld and his then-deputy Paul Wolfowitz -- by having his tenure as
chief of staff cut short.

Rumsfeld named Shinseki’s replacement more than a year before the general was
set to leave the Pentagon. Rumsfeld himself later resigned his post, his
reputation damaged by the failure of U.S. planning for the invasion’s
aftermath and the subsequent violence.

Retired General Shinseki will join Obama at a press conference scheduled to
begin at 1 p.m. Chicago time to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the attack
on Pearl Harbor.

Cabinet secretaries are subject to Senate confirmation once they are formally
nominated after Obama takes office on Jan. 20.

To contact the reporter on this story:

Last Updated: December 6, 2008 18:29 EST

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16261.html

Biden to limit role of vice president
By MIKE ALLEN | 12/6/08 2:11 PM EST

Dialing back his predecessor’s expansive view of the office, Vice
President-elect Joe Biden plans on “restoring the Office of the Vice President
to its historical role” as adviser to the president and tie-breaker in the
Senate, an aide to Biden said Saturday.

The declaration results from an attention-getting article coming from the Las
Vegas Sun, which is reporting Sunday in a story by Washington Bureau reporter
Lisa Mascaro that the new Congress “will reassert its constitutional
independence from the White House by barring the vice president from joining in
internal Senate deliberations, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in an
interview with the Sun.”

“The move is intended to restore checks and balances to a system that tilted
heavily toward the White House in the Bush presidency,” Mascaro writes. “By
giving Vice President Dick Cheney regular access to Senate Republican caucuses,
at times with White House advisers in tow, party unity became more important to
many Republicans than upholding their responsibilities to provide legislative
oversight of the executive, experts say.”

The paper says that when Reid was asked whether Biden will be allowed to attend
Senate Democratic caucus meetings, Reid said: “Absolutely not.”

Elizabeth Alexander, spokesperson for the vice president-elect, e-mailed in
response: "Vice President-elect Biden had no intention of continuing the
practice started by Vice President Cheney of regularly attending internal
legislative branch meetings — he firmly believes in restoring the Office of
the Vice President to its historical role. He and Senator Reid see eye to eye on
this.”

Cheney has vastly enlarged the office’s power, even claiming at one point that
it had a special status beyond both the executive and legislative branches, by
virtue of the role of president of the Senate. That’s a largely ceremonial
function, except in the case of breaking ties.

Biden articulated his view of the office in St. Louis in early October, during
his vice presidential debate with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Asked about the incumbent’s interpretation of the vice presidency, Biden said:
“Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had
probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the
Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's
the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand
that. Everyone should understand that.”

“The primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to
support the president of the United States of America, give that president his
or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the
Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote,” Biden said., “The
Constitution is explicit. The only authority the vice president has from the
legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no
authority relative to the Congress. The idea he's part of the Legislative Branch
is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary
executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16264.html

Transition to disclose meetings
By JONATHAN MARTIN | 12/6/08 5:29 PM EST

CHICAGO — In a nod to transparency, Barack Obama's transition team is
disclosing some of their meetings with outside groups and posting policy
documents from the organizations online.

Billed as the "Seat at the Table" initiative, Obama aides have already placed
memos from such groups as La Raza, the ACLU and the Business Roundtable on a new
page on their website. In blog fashion, readers are invited to leave comments
about the proposals.

The move draws a contrast with the Bush administration, and especially Vice
President Dick Cheney, whose office went to lengths to keep White House meetings
between Cheney and oil companies secret.
In a memo sent to staffers and made public Friday, transition co-chair John
Podesta indicated that they would make public "the dates and organizations
represented at official meetings in the Transition headquarters or agency
offices."

The transition defines "official meetings" "for both purposes of disclosing both
the session and the policy documents shared at it" as "a meeting with outside
organizations or representatives of those organizations to which three or more
outside participants attend."

Asked why three or more individuals had to attend to clear the disclosure
threshold, transition spokesman Nick Shapiro downplayed the standard and said
they would err on the side of transparency.

"The transition staff has been instructed that the three-person rule is merely a
guide and that, whenever possible, information disclosed at all meetings,
regardless of the number of attendees, should be publicly disclosed," Shapiro
said. "No transition has ever attempted to implement such a disclosure
requirement, and should it become clear that outside groups are trying to
circumvent the policy, refinements will be made to it."

Per Podesta's memo, organizations will be told before their meetings that any
documents provided will be made public.

Director of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs Michael Strautmanis
explained the intent behind the policy in a YouTube video posted on the
Transition website, saying "Transparency is the process that leads to real
change, and transparency is the process by which people will have confidence
that things really will be different."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081207/ap_on_el_ho/louisiana_congress;_ylt=AlclQ_BY\
CfYfmRdY3u0V76as0NUE

La. voters oust indicted Rep. William Jefferson

Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Writer – 15 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – Voters in Louisiana have ousted indicted Democratic Rep. William
Jefferson and sent a little-known Republican to Congress.

Unofficial results showed Republican attorney Anh "Joseph" Cao denying Jefferson
a 10th term.

Republicans made an aggressive push to get rid of the 61-year-old incumbent, who
has pleaded not guilty to charges of bribery, laundering money and misusing his
congressional office.

Cao won a predominantly black and heavily Democratic district that covers most
of New Orleans. He will become the first Vietnamese-American in Congress.

He came to the U.S. as a child after the fall of Saigon in 1975. He went on to
earn degrees in philosophy, physics and law.

Turnout appeared low in the election delayed because of Hurricane Gustav.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's
earlier story is below.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, the nine-term Democratic
incumbent whose career has faltered since his 2007 indictment on corruption
charges, faced an aggressive Republican challenge Saturday.

Early, unofficial returns from Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District showed
Jefferson, 61, trailing Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao.

With about 55 percent of precincts reporting, Cao had 52 percent of the vote to
Jefferson's 43 percent. Two minor party candidates split the remaining vote.

Cao led in suburban Jefferson Parish but Jefferson was narrowing the gap as
returns started to come in from urban precincts.

Jefferson was expected to win the seat in a heavily black and Democratic
district that covers most of New Orleans despite his indictment in an alleged
international bribery scheme. He has pleaded not guilty.

But Republicans mounted a strong late-campaign push emphasizing the corruption
investigation.

He faced Cao, a little-known 41-year-old attorney who is trying to become the
first Vietnamese-American in Congress.

By nightfall, turnout appeared light.

New Orleans voters had long been loyal to Jefferson, re-electing him in 2006
even after news of the bribery scandal broke.

"People are innocent until proven guilty," said voter Faye Leggins, 54, an
educator and Democrat who moved back to the city six months ago and still has
fresh memories of Hurricane Katrina. "He has enough seniority, so he can do a
lot to redevelop this city."

But Republicans saw a shot to pick up a seat. Election Day brought excitement to
the state's usually low-key Vietnamese-American community, said David Nguyen,
45, a store manager and Cao supporter.

"The Vietnamese aren't much into politics," he said.

A barrage of election-day automated telephone calls on Cao's behalf flooded the
district, including a pitch from the national Republican Party. Despite being
the underdog, Cao had generated endorsements from some Democrat and
green-conscious groups as well as the area's Vietnamese-American community.

The election was one of two postponed by Hurricane Gustav.

In western Louisiana's 4th Congressional District, Republican physician John
Fleming and Democratic district attorney Paul Carmouche were in a tight race to
replace U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery, a 10-term Republican who is retiring.

Both candidates had help from national heavyweights. President-elect Barack
Obama recorded a radio ad for Carmouche, while Vice President Dick Cheney helped
Fleming with fundraising.

The national GOP also has backed Cao, an immigration lawyer, with a barrage of
advertising that tried to portray Jefferson as corrupt.

Jefferson easily won re-election in 2006 even as late-night TV comics made him
the butt of their jokes after federal agents said they found $90,000 in alleged
bribe money hidden in his freezer.

Prosecutors contend Jefferson used his influence as chairman of the
congressional Africa Investment and Trade Caucus to broker deals in Nigeria,
Ghana, Cameroon and other African nations on behalf of those who bribed him.

The 2007 indictment claims Jefferson received more than $500,000 in bribes and
demanded millions more between 2000 and 2005, including the $90,000 found in the
freezer of his Washington home.

Jefferson has pleaded not guilty to charges of bribery, laundering money and
misusing his congressional office. No trial date has been set.

He became Louisiana's first black congressman since Reconstruction when he took
office in 1991.

He also faces the Green Party candidate Malik Rahim and Libertarian Gregory W.
Kahn in the race.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081207/ap_on_re_af/af_kenya_zimbabwe

Kenya PM says foreign troops must go to Zimbabwe

Katharine Houreld, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 10 mins ago AP –

NAIROBI, Kenya – Foreign troops should prepare to intervene in Zimbabwe to end
a worsening humanitarian crisis and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should be
investigated for crimes against humanity, the Kenyan prime minister said Sunday.

Raila Odinga, in the latest sign of growing international frustration over
Zimbabwe's slide into chaos, urged the African Union to call an emergency
meeting to authorize sending troops into Zimbabwe.

"If no troops are available, then the AU must allow the U.N. to send its forces
into Zimbabwe with immediate effect, to take over control of the country and
ensure urgent humanitarian assistance to the people dying of cholera," he said.

More than 500 Zimbabweans have officially died of the disease since an outbreak
in August but health officials fear the toll may be much higher. They warn that
deaths could spiral into the thousands due to the collapse of Zimbabwe's health
system, the scarcity of food and the oncoming rainy season, which may help
spread infections.

Odinga said Mugabe had reduced a once-prosperous country to a "basket case" and
warned, "Mugabe's case deserves no less than investigations by the International
Criminal Court at The Hague."

Odinga slammed other African leaders for being slow to criticize Zimbabwe,
saying they had shamed the continent by treating Mugabe with "kid gloves"
because Mugabe had supported their liberation struggles.

"We refuse to accept the idea that African countries should be judged by lesser
standards than other countries in the world," Odinga said. "Participation in the
liberation struggle is no license for anyone to own a country."

He declined to say whether Kenya was ready to send troops. The AU and U.N. are
already over-stretched in Africa, unable to fulfill commitments in Sudan's
Darfur region and Somalia.

Global criticism of Mugabe is growing louder. On Sunday former U.S. President
Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and human rights
campaigner Graca Machel released a report in Paris urging Zimbabwe's leaders to
end their power-sharing impasse and concentrate on saving lives. The three
members of group called The Elders were refused visas to enter Zimbabwe but
interviewed aid workers, politicians and others for the report.

Machel is the wife of Elders founder Nelson Mandela, the former South African
President. She said either Zimbabwe's leaders do not understand how deeply their
people are suffering "or they don't care."

In America, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told ABC News that
Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak endangered the whole of southern Africa and the
international community was failing to protect the people of Zimbabwe.

"I am still really appalled at the inability of the international community to
deal with tyrants," she said. "Robert Mugabe should have gone a long time ago."

Botswana's Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani, British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu have all called on Mugabe to
step down.

Although it was once one of Africa's most prosperous nations, Zimbabwe's economy
has almost completely collapsed under Mugabe. Elections held last March were
widely denounced for murderous attacks on the opposition, and Mugabe reluctantly
joined a power-sharing government designed by international mediators. But
negotiations on the distribution of cabinet positions have deadlocked.

At least a quarter of Zimbabwe's population has fled the country and many of
those who remain are surviving on leaves and roots.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7a03e5b6-c541-11dd-b516-000077b07658.html

And now for a world government
By Gideon Rachman

Published: December 8 2008 19:13 | Last updated: December 8 2008 19:13

I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over
the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana.
But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world
government is plausible.

A “world government” would involve much more than co-operation between
nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body
of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27
countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency,
thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy
military force.

So could the European model go global? There are three reasons for thinking that
it might.

First, it is increasingly clear that the most difficult issues facing national
governments are international in nature: there is global warming, a global
financial crisis and a “global war on terror”.

Second, it could be done. The transport and communications revolutions have
shrunk the world so that, as Geoffrey Blainey, an eminent Australian historian,
has written: “For the first time in human history, world government of some
sort is now possible.” Mr Blainey foresees an attempt to form a world
government at some point in the next two centuries, which is an unusually long
time horizon for the average newspaper column.

But – the third point – a change in the political atmosphere suggests that
“global governance” could come much sooner than that. The financial crisis
and climate change are pushing national governments towards global solutions,
even in countries such as China and the US that are traditionally fierce
guardians of national sovereignty.

Barack Obama, America’s president-in-waiting, does not share the Bush
administration’s disdain for international agreements and treaties. In his
book, The Audacity of Hope, he argued that: “When the world’s sole
superpower willingly restrains its power and abides by internationally
agreed-upon standards of conduct, it sends a message that these are rules worth
following.” The importance that Mr Obama attaches to the UN is shown by the
fact that he has appointed Susan Rice, one of his closest aides, as America’s
ambassador to the UN, and given her a seat in the cabinet.

A taste of the ideas doing the rounds in Obama circles is offered by a recent
report from the Managing Global Insecurity project, whose small US advisory
group includes John Podesta, the man heading Mr Obama’s transition team and
Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution, from which Ms Rice
has just emerged.

The MGI report argues for the creation of a UN high commissioner for
counter-terrorist activity, a legally binding climate-change agreement
negotiated under the auspices of the UN and the creation of a 50,000-strong UN
peacekeeping force. Once countries had pledged troops to this reserve army, the
UN would have first call upon them.

These are the kind of ideas that get people reaching for their rifles in
America’s talk-radio heartland. Aware of the political sensitivity of its
ideas, the MGI report opts for soothing language. It emphasises the need for
American leadership and uses the term, “responsible sovereignty” – when
calling for international co-operation – rather than the more radical-sounding
phrase favoured in Europe, “shared sovereignty”. It also talks about
“global governance” rather than world government.

But some European thinkers think that they recognise what is going on. Jacques
Attali, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, argues that:
“Global governance is just a euphemism for global government.” As far as he
is concerned, some form of global government cannot come too soon. Mr Attali
believes that the “core of the international financial crisis is that we have
global financial markets and no global rule of law”.

So, it seems, everything is in place. For the first time since homo sapiens
began to doodle on cave walls, there is an argument, an opportunity and a means
to make serious steps towards a world government.

But let us not get carried away. While it seems feasible that some sort of world
government might emerge over the next century, any push for “global
governance” in the here and now will be a painful, slow process.

There are good and bad reasons for this. The bad reason is a lack of will and
determination on the part of national, political leaders who – while they
might like to talk about “a planet in peril” – are ultimately still much
more focused on their next election, at home.

But this “problem” also hints at a more welcome reason why making progress
on global governance will be slow sledding. Even in the EU – the heartland of
law-based international government – the idea remains unpopular. The EU has
suffered a series of humiliating defeats in referendums, when plans for “ever
closer union” have been referred to the voters. In general, the Union has
progressed fastest when far-reaching deals have been agreed by technocrats and
politicians – and then pushed through without direct reference to the voters.
International governance tends to be effective, only when it is anti-democratic.

The world’s most pressing political problems may indeed be international in
nature, but the average citizen’s political identity remains stubbornly local.
Until somebody cracks this problem, that plan for world government may have to
stay locked away in a safe at the UN.

gideon.rachman@...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081209/ap_on_re_us/blagojevich_corruption_probe

Ill. Gov. arrested in Obama successor probe

Mike Robinson, Associated Press Writer – 24 mins ago AP –

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges of
conspiring to get financial benefits through his authority to appoint a U.S.
senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama's election as president.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Blagojevich also was charged with
illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of
the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field. In return for state
assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board
who had been critical of him fired.

A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democratic governor was intercepted
on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the
vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.

The affidavit said Blagojevich discussed getting a substantial salary for
himself at a nonprofit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor
unions.

It said Blagojevich also talked about getting his wife placed on corporate
boards where she might get $150,000 a year in director's fees.

He also allegedly discussed getting campaign funds for himself or possibly a
post in the president's cabinet or an ambassadorship once he left the governor's
office.

"I want to make money," the affidavit quotes him as saying in one conversation.

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement that "the breadth of
corruption laid out in these charges is staggering."

"They allege that Blagojevich put a for sale sign on the naming of a United
States senator," Fitzgerald said."

Among those being considered for the post include U.S. Reps. Danny Davis and
Jesse Jackson Jr.

Blagojevich also was charged with using his authority as governor in an attempt
to squeeze out campaign contributions.

His chief of staff, John Harris, also was arrested.

Corruption in the Blagojevich administration has been the focus of a federal
investigation involving an alleged $7 million scheme aimed at squeezing
kickbacks out of companies seeking business from the state. Federal prosecutors
have acknowledged they're also investigating "serious allegations of endemic
hiring fraud" under Blagojevich.

Political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko who raised money for the campaigns of
both Blagojevich and Obama is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of fraud
and other charges. Blagojevich's chief fundraiser, Christopher G. Kelly, is due
to stand trial early next year on charges of obstructing the Internal Revenue
Service.

According to Tuesday's complaint, Blagojevich schemed with Rezko,
millionaire-fundraiser turned federal witness Stuart Levine and others to get
financial benefits for himself and his campaign committee.

Federal prosecutors said Blagojevich and the chairman of his campaign committee
have been speeding up corrupt fundraising activities in the last month to get as
much money as possible before the end of the year when a new law would curtail
his ability to raise contributions from companies with state contracts worth
more than $50,000.

According to the affidavit, agents learned Blagojevich was seeking $2.5 million
in campaign contributions by the end of the year, with a large part allegedly to
come from companies and individuals who have gotten state contracts or
appointments.

Blagojevich took the chief executive's office in 2003 as a reformer promising to
clean up former Gov. George Ryan's mess.

Ryan, a Republican, is serving a 6-year prison sentence after being convicted on
racketeering and fraud charges. A decade-long investigation began with the sale
of driver's licenses for bribes and led to the conviction of dozens of people
who worked for Ryan when he was secretary of state and governor.

FBI spokesman Frank Bochte said federal agents arrested the governor and Harris
simultaneously at their homes at 6:15 a.m. and took them to the Chicago FBI
headquarters.

Bochte said he did not know if either man was handcuffed or if the governor's
family was their North Side home at the time of his arrest. He did say
Blagojevich and Harris both were given time to get dressed before being taken to
the headquarters.

He also did not have any details about Blagojevich's arrest, only that he was
cooperative with federal agents.

"It was a very calm setting," he said.

The governor was to appear later Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan
to answer the charges. The time was not immediately set.

___

Associated Press Writer Don Babwin contributed to this report.

http://www.propublica.org/article/who-is-senate-candidate-5-129

Who Is ‘Senate Candidate 5’?
by Ben Protess , ProPublica - December 9, 2008 5:15 pm EST

The FBI’s arrest today of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has brought a new
figure into our political lexicon: “Senate Candidate 5.“

The FBI recorded Blagojevich last week saying to an adviser that “Candidate
5” might raise money for Blagojevich and even give him “some (money) up
front, maybe” in exchange for being appointed to replace Obama, according to
today’s criminal complaint (PDF) filed by the United States Attorney’s
office in Chicago.

Blagojevich has the sole power to appoint Obama’s replacement under the state
constitution. Blagojevich allegedly analogized this power to that of a sports
agent shopping a potential free agent to the highest bidder, telling an adviser,
“I’ve got this thing and it’s [expletive] golden…I’m just not giving
it up for [expletive] nothing.“

Indeed, Blagojevich allegedly claimed in a recorded conversation on Oct. 31 that
“an emissary” of Senate Candidate 5 approached him with an offer that was
hard to refuse: “We were approached ‘pay to play,‘“ the governor said.
“That, you know, he’d raise 500 grand. Then the other guy would raise a
million, if I made him (Senate Candidate 5) a Senator.“

Of course, this account comes only from Blagojevich, whose credibility is
debatable.

Regardless, it seems worthwhile to explore who this mysterious Candidate 5 could
be.

ProPublica has previously noted that top candidates include U.S. Rep. Luis
Gutierrez (D-IL) and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., another Democrat from Chicago.
They both have openly coveted the position. Just yesterday, Jackson interviewed
with Blagojevich for the position. Jackson left the meeting saying, “I am
convinced that the governor has a very thoughtful process that he has put in
place and is wrestling and weighing a number of issues in this enormous decision
that he has to make.“

Today, Jackson said in a statement that he is “deeply concerned that this
process may have been tainted.“

The government’s complaint provides only veiled hints as to this Senate
Candidate 5’s identity. And U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald cautioned against
speculation, noting that only Blagojevich and his chief of staff have been
charged with wrongdoing.

Still, we can’t help but wonder. So let’s review the government’s hints:

On Nov. 10, Blagojevich was recorded talking to an adviser about leaking to a
Chicago Sun-Times columnist that the governor was seriously considering Senate
Candidate 5 for the open Senate seat.

Later that week, Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed wrote: “Gov. Blago, who
will choose Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate, privately feels there may
be only one choice that makes sense: His buddy, outgoing Senate President Emil
Jones.“ Today, Sneed reported on another possible candidate: Illinois state
Rep. Art Turner. Sneed wrote: “‘I’m told Turner, who is deputy [Illinois]
house majority leader, is being given serious consideration by the governor,‘
said a source.“

Blagojevich allegedly said he had a prior bad experience with Senate Candidate 5
for not keeping his word. An adversarial past makes Jones an unlikely option for
candidate 5. He was one of Blagojevich’s few remaining allies in state
government.

Blagojevich also reportedly told a fundraiser that Senate Candidate 5 was a very
realistic candidate, but the governor was getting a lot of pressure not to
appoint Senate Candidate 5.

Senate Candidate 5 is publicly reported to be interested in the open Senate
seat, according to the government’s complaint.

Finally, Blagojevich expected that Candidate 5 would have the ability to raise a
chunk of money for the governor, which seems to exclude the relatively unknown
Turner. In fact, Blagojevich allegedly told a fundraiser that if Senate
Candidate 5 is going to be chosen to fill the Senate seat “some of this stuffs
gotta start happening now…right now…and we gotta see it. You understand?“
Blagojevich allegedly warned the fundraiser, “You gotta be careful how you
express that and assume everybody’s listening, the whole world is listening.
You hear me?“

If readers flag any other hints in the complaint or have insight into the
identity of Candidate 5, feel free to send us your thoughts and ideas. We’ve
put calls into Jackson, Gutierrez and Turner and will report back if and when we
hear back.