http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_13144144?source=rss

Sen. Hutchison harshly criticizes Texas Gov. Perry
By JAY ROOT Associated Press Writer
Posted: 08/17/2009 10:16:22 AM MDT

SAN ANTONIO—If there was any doubt that Texans would witness a red-hot
Republican race for governor, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison removed it Monday
when she kicked off a five-day announcement tour and delivered her harshest
attack ever on Gov. Rick Perry.

Returning to her native Gulf Coast to announce her bid for governor, she said
Perry had overstayed his welcome with an administration marked by arrogance and
"tragic" mistakes.

Using her old high school about 40 miles southeast of Houston as a backdrop, she
also proposed limiting governors to two, four-year terms. She called Perry—a
fellow Republican—a "dedicated public servant," but otherwise laid into him.
Perry, in office since 2000, is the longest serving governor in Texas history.

Perry took over the remainder of former President George W. Bush's second term
as governor and has been elected to two, four-year terms since. If he's
re-elected in 2010 and completes his term, Perry would have held the job for 14
years.

"We can't afford fourteen years of one person appointing every state board,
agency and commission," Hutchison said. "It invites patronage. It tempts
cronyism. And it has to stop, now." She also uttered a line that is likely to be
repeated

In a gymnasium that drew about 150 supporters and the La Marque High School
cheerleading squad—which Hutchison once belonged to—she delivered a broad
and harsh critique of the Perry years and warned Republicans would suffer up and
down the ballot without a change in leadership.

Hutchison said Texas is awash in government debt, leads the nation in uninsured
children and suffers from the highest property taxes in the country. She also
described Perry's embrace of a business tax overhaul as a job killer.

"I call it a tragic mistake," she said. Hutchison singled out the Texas
Department of Public Transportation, calling it the "most arrogant,
unaccountable state agency in the history of Texas."

Under Perry, the department has shunned local input and built too many toll
roads, she said.

The state's senior U.S. senator also belittled Perry's decision to turn down
$550 million in federal stimulus money to help the state's empty unemployment
insurance trust fund. She called the move politically motivated and
"irresponsible."

Her highly critical speech underscored the bitter clash that the Republican
primary for Texas governor is becoming. Hutchison had flirted with a
gubernatorial run in 2005 but ultimately decided to stay in
Washington—avoiding a race that GOP honchos feared would leave the party badly
divided.

The rancor was evident from the moment Hutchison's vast entourage pulled into
the parking lot of La Marque High School, the site of her first event. Perry's
aides had already parked a large truck carrying an oversized picture of the
senator with a sign emblazoned across the front: "Kay Bailout Express," it read
in reference to Hutchison's vote in favor of the 2008 financial rescue package.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner also showed up at the gymnasium where Hutchison was
speaking and delivered a response before the senator even began her speech.

"Once again, the senator is coming up with no ideas," Miner said. "It's easy to
criticize after being in Washington for 16 years, but the people of Texas want
results not rhetoric."

Miner later popped into an event in Houston to distribute copies of a 1993
speech in which Hutchison advocated term limits for members of Congress.
Hutchison had said when first elected that she would only serve two terms but
later ran—successfully—for a third.

Experts predict the race will touch off an ideological divide in the party, with
Perry carrying the torch of social conservatives and Hutchison, who has
supported the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, striking a more
moderate tone by comparison.

Hutchison has been itching to come home for years. Hutchison has said she will
resign her Senate seat this fall to focus on the governor's race. In that case
Perry would get to appoint a successor for her unexpired term.

Hutchison planned to continue her five-day announcement tour in Houston, San
Antonio and Austin as well as 15 other cities. The primary elections will be
held in March. Then voters can choose the Democratic or Republican nominee in
November 2010.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090820/ap_on_re_us/us_kennedy_massachusetts_senate

Ailing Kennedy asks for speedy replacement process
Glen Johnson, Ap Political Writer – 11 mins ago

BOSTON – A cancer-stricken Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has asked Massachusetts
leaders to change state law to allow a speedy replacement of him in the Senate,
fearing a months-long open seat will deny Democrats a crucial vote on President
Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

In a note to Gov. Deval Patrick and other state leaders, Kennedy wrote "it is
vital for this commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its
citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months
between a vacancy and an election."

Health care has been Kennedy's signature issue. Although Democrats hold a
potentially filibuster-proof margin in the Senate, the fate of a sweeping health
care bill could hinge on a single vote and some moderate Democrats have been
wavering. Another Democrat, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, has been
seriously ill and often absent.

Kennedy's letter acknowledges the state changed its succession law in 2004 to
require a special election within five months to fill any vacancy. At the time,
legislative Democrats — with a wide majority in both chambers — were
concerned because then-Republican Gov. Mitt Romney had the power to directly
fill any vacancy created as Democratic Sen. John Kerry ran for president.

The letter was sent Tuesday, but Kennedy aides insist there is no material
change in his condition since he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in
May 2008. Kennedy was initially treated with surgery, followed by chemotherapy
and radiation treatment.

"For almost 47 years, I have had the privilege of representing the people of
Massachusetts in the United States Senate, Kennedy wrote in his letter. He added
that serving in the Senate "has been — and still is — the greatest honor of
my public life."

The 77-year-old has been convalescing at his homes in Washington and in Hyannis
Port, as well as a rental property in Florida, but his absence from last week's
funeral on Cape Cod for his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, prompted a flurry of
questions about his own health.

An aide said the letter was one of several written by Kennedy in early July.
Another was to Pope Benedict XVI and was hand-delivered by President Barack
Obama during a visit to the Vatican.

In his succession letter, Kennedy suggests the governor ensure the fairness of
any appointment to replace him by seeking an "explicit personal commitment" his
appointee will not seek the position on a permanent basis.

Despite speculation that Kennedy's wife, Vicki, is interested in the seat,
family aides have said she is not interested in replacing her husband either
temporarily or permanently. One of Kennedy's nephews, former Rep. Joseph P.
Kennedy II, has also been described as interested, along with a number of the
state's remaining congressional members and local lawmakers.

Amid similar speculation about a Senate vacancy last fall, when Kerry was under
consideration for secretary of state, Senate President Therese Murray was
adamant that the law not be changed. After recent inquiries from The Associated
Press, aides to both Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo said they are
unlikely to back any change.

Aides to both leaders say an election was more democratic than a gubernatorial
appointment, and they cited the legal and political problems that plagued former
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and New York Gov. David Paterson when they filled
vacancies for President Barack Obama and former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton,
respectively.

Murray is also a strong backer of Martha Coakley, the first female attorney
general in Massachusetts and someone who has quietly laid the groundwork for a
special-election campaign.

In a joint statement to The Boston Globe, which first reported news of Kennedy's
letter, both Murray and DeLeo were noncommittal.

"We have great respect for the senator and what he continues to do for our
commonwealth and our nation. It is our hope that he will continue to be a voice
for the people of Massachusetts as long as he is able," they said.

Patrick said in a statement: "It's typical of Ted Kennedy to be thinking ahead
and about the people of Massachusetts, when the rest of us are thinking about
him."

Patrick was the top civil rights official in the Clinton administration, and he
has argued about the importance of the public vote. But last fall he noted more
than 40 other states fill congressional vacancies by gubernatorial appointment.
He also cited the state's deteriorating fiscal condition as one argument to skip
a special election and empower the governor to fill vacancies.

"These are always sensitive calls, but there are sensitive calls and decisions
that governors have to make," he said in December.

Under the current law, the governor must call an election within 145 to 160 days
of receiving a resignation letter. A primary would be held five or six weeks
beforehand, reducing the time candidates would have to raise money for a
campaign.

Besides Joseph Kennedy and Coakley, Democrats who might try to succeed Kennedy
include Reps. Stephen Lynch, Michael Capuano, Edward Markey, James McGovern and
William Delahunt.

Former Rep. Martin Meehan, now chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at
Lowell, has $4.8 million in his federal campaign account, the largest sum of any
potential candidate. That would give him the advantage in any special election
sprint.

On the Republican side, potential candidates include Cape Cod businessman Jeff
Beatty, former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and
Chris Egan, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Cooperation and
Development.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090821/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

Low turnout seen in Afghan election; 26 killed
Jason Straziuso And Robert H. Reid, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 1 min ago

KABUL – Millions of Afghans defied threats Thursday to cast ballots in the
country's second national elections since Taliban rule, but turnout appeared
weaker this time because of continuing violence, fear and disenchantment. In
much of the Taliban's southern strongholds, many people did not dare to vote,
bolstering the hopes of President Hamid Karzai's chief rival.

At least 26 people were killed in election-related violence, fewer than had been
feared.

Officials began counting millions of ballots as soon as the polls closed at 5
p.m. after a one-hour extension. First preliminary results weren't expected for
several days, and some major candidates were already alleging fraud.

A top election official, Zekria Barakzai, told The Associated Press that he
estimated 40 to 50 percent of the country's 15 million registered voters cast
ballots — far lower than the 70 percent who voted in the presidential election
in 2004.

Nevertheless, many Afghans did vote, some at great risk to their lives. Many
waited until midday to see whether the Taliban would carry through with threats
to attack polling stations. Some proudly showed off the ink on their index
fingers to prove they had voted.

"I know the security situation of my country is not good, but I have made my
decision to come and cast my vote anyway," said Shukran Ahmad, 32, said as he
waited at a polling center in western Kabul. "I wanted to be the first person to
vote today in this polling center."

Authorities managed to open 6,202 polling centers — 95 percent of those
planned, according to Barakzai.

The top U.N. official in the country, Kai Eide, said the election "seems to be
working well," and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen hailed the
balloting as "testimony to the determination of the Afghan people to build
democracy."

International officials had predicted an imperfect election — Afghanistan's
second-ever direct presidential vote — but expressed hope that Afghans would
accept the outcome as legitimate, a key component of President Barack Obama's
strategy for the war.

A low turnout and allegations of fraud could cast doubt over the legitimacy of
the vote and raise fears that followers of defeated candidates may take to the
streets like opposition supporters in neighboring Iran following June's
contentious presidential ballot there.

Hours after the polls closed, the deputy campaign manager for Karzai's top
challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, was alleging "very large
scale" fraud in at least three of the country's 34 provinces where Karzai had
been expected to run well but where turnout appeared low.

"The ballot boxes were stuffed and now we're investigating to see how big it
was," Saleh Mohammad Registani told the AP. "We're going to work under electoral
law. Overall, we are satisfied with the election, and we are optimistic about
the result. But so far we don't know about the extent of the fraud."

Another presidential candidate, Ramazan Bashardost, who had 10 percent support
in pre-election polls, said he washed off the supposedly indelible ink used to
identify people who had already voted. He called on authorities to "immediately
stop this election."

Fraud allegations aside, a low turnout in the ethnic Pashtun south would harm
Karzai's re-election chances and boost the standing of Abdullah, who draws his
strength from the Tajik minority. Turnout in the Tajik north appeared to be
stronger, a good sign for Abdullah.

Karzai, a Pashtun tribal leader who has held power since a U.S.-led invasion
ousted the Taliban in late 2001 by a U.S.-led invasion, was favored to finish
first among 36 official candidates. A strong showing by Abdullah could force a
runoff if no one wins more than 50 percent.

The election was carried out despite Taliban threats to disrupt the vote and
punish those who took part in "this American process."

Karzai said militants carried out 73 election day attacks in 15 provinces — a
50 percent increase over recent days, according to NATO figures. Karzai's
ministers of defense and interior said attacks killed eight Afghan soldiers,
nine police and nine civilians. A U.S. service member died in a mortar attack in
the east Thursday, bringing to at least 33 the number of U.S. troops killed this
month.

In Kabul, security companies reported at least five bomb attacks, and police
exchanged fire for more than an hour with a group of armed men. Police said two
suicide bombers died in the clash, police said.

Those militant attacks did not rise to the level that officials had feared, in
part because of stringent security measures taken by Afghan forces and their
U.S. and NATO allies.

Nevertheless, the Taliban pre-election campaign of intimidation seemed to dampen
turnout, especially in areas where the extremists are strongest.

An election official in Kandahar, the south's largest city and the Taliban's
spiritual birthplace, said turnout there appeared to be 40 percent lower than in
the 2004 election. The official asked not to be identified because he wasn't
authorized to release turnout figures.

An AP reporter in southern Helmand province, where thousands of U.S. and British
troops are battling the Taliban partly to make it safe to vote, said turnout was
also modest. More than 20 rockets struck the Helmand capital of Lashkar Gah,
including one near a line of voters that killed a child.

Journalists also reported lower turnouts in Kabul than during the 2004 election.
Many shopkeepers shuttered their stores, and relatively few private vehicles
were seen on the capital's streets.

U.S. officials had hoped for a wide turnout as a symbolic rejection of the
insurgency. The voting was seen partly as a test of the ability of U.S. forces
to protect civilians — the new top military priority — and the willingness
of voters to accept that help.

The Foreign Ministry asked news organizations to avoid "broadcasting any
incidence of violence" during voting, and Afghan officials appeared reluctant to
confirm violence, but the order did not significantly affect the flow of
information during the day.

The next president will lead a nation plagued by armed insurgency, drugs,
corruption and a feeble government. Violence has risen sharply in Afghanistan in
the last three years, and the U.S. now has more than 60,000 forces in the
country.

Some of the lower turnout may have stemmed from public disillusionment with
politics after years of corruption, sluggish economy, poverty and rising
violence. Karzai won his first regular term in 2004 with 55 percent of the vote,
riding a wave of public optimism.

Instead of progress, the country slipped into a steep decline as a corruption,
opium poppy production and violence increased.

"I am not voting," said Mohammad Tahir, a 30-year-old shopkeeper in Kabul. "It
won't change anything in our country."

___

Associated Press reporters Amir Shah, Fisnik Abrashi, Heidi Vogt and Rahim Faiez
in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/74112.html

Posted on Thursday, August 20, 2009
Would-be Zelaya successor is Honduras coup's other victim
By Tyler Bridges | McClatchy Newspapers

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Elvin Santos, a 46-year-old construction company
executive with a political pedigree and a beauty pageant wife, seemed a sure bet
to win November's election and succeed Manuel Zelaya as Honduras' president.

All bets are off, however, following the June 28 coup that deposed Zelaya.

Santos is now trailing in the race and has been pelted with insults, eggs and
bags of water by Zelaya supporters who think that Santos helped plot Zelaya's
forced exile nearly two months ago.

In one incident earlier this month at the National Autonomous University,
Santos' bodyguards drew their weapons, beat one student with a pistol butt and
fired one shot in the air as Santos escaped a jeering mob.

No evidence has emerged to substantiate claims that Santos supported the coup.
But his nuanced position on Zelaya's ouster and their rivalry within the Liberal
Party — Santos served as Zelaya's vice president before breaking with him when
he resigned last year to run for president — have made him a ready target.

"This might be the most violent election in the history of the country," said
Edmundo Orellana, a long-time Liberal Party stalwart who was Zelaya's defense
minister. "There's a lot of anger and hate."

The rising campaign tension threatens interim President Roberto Micheletti's
efforts to oversee the Nov. 29 presidential and congressional elections and hand
over power to the new president on Jan. 27.

This tension also adds to the pressure that Micheletti faces from the Obama
administration and Latin American and European leaders who've warned that they
won't accept the election results unless Zelaya returns to power, preferably
under a plan brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

"They need to embrace it fully," a senior State Department official said by
telephone Wednesday. "Countries in the hemisphere clearly want both sides to
resolve this."

The political problems began after Zelaya veered left in the middle of his
four-year term and embraced the socialist anti-poverty program of Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez, a fierce U.S. critic. Zelaya worsened matters by pushing
for a June 28 vote giving Hondurans the chance to say whether they supported
calling a special body to rewrite the country's constitution.

Virtually all of Honduras' major institutions lined up against him, saying that
the country's current constitution did not permit the vote. They suspected that
Zelaya was bent on making changes so he could seek another term as president, as
Chavez and his allies have done.

Zelaya's supporters say any modification of the constitution wouldn't have taken
place until after he left office in January.

The unintended beneficiary of the June coup has been Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, the
presidential candidate of the more conservative National Party.

Lobo is a 61-year-old rancher who flirted with Communism as a youth by studying
in the Soviet Union before graduating from the University of Miami. He served as
president of Congress and then narrowly lost the 2005 presidential election to
Zelaya.

An aide said he wouldn't be available for an interview, in keeping with Lobo's
strategy of avoiding discussion of the coup.

Santos led Lobo by 39 to 35 percent in a February poll for CID Gallup. A CID
poll immediately after the coup showed Lobo had pulled into the lead, 31 to 25,
with the number of voters who were undecided or supporting another candidate
rising from 27 to 44 percent.

"Elvin is a victim of what's happened," said Carlos Denton, the president of CID
Gallup. "The Liberal Party is now divided, and he's the man in the middle.
You've got one group that supports Mel (Zelaya) which feels like Elvin is not
supporting their effort to bring Mel back. The group not supporting Mel feels
like Elvin hasn't supported their side either. Both sides are saying, 'Elvin, we
want your support.' If they could settle this, he could bounce back."

Santos is a graduate of Lamar University in Texas whose father was Tegucigalpa's
mayor and now serves as the Liberal Party's president. His wife, Becky, won a
local beauty pageant 20 years ago, and his supporters frequently say that her
beauty is a campaign asset.

Santos agreed to an interview with McClatchy but then didn't make himself
available.

He's said that the June 28 vote was illegal but has criticized the military for
spiriting Zelaya out of the country that day.

"Zelaya should have had the right to defend himself in the country," said Bill
Santos, a cousin and Elvin Santos' campaign manager. Bill Santos noted that
Elvin supports the Arias Plan, which, reflecting his centrist position, puts him
at odds with the country's interim government.

Bill Santos blamed outside agitators for stirring up trouble for his cousin but
said onetime supporters would return to the fold once they better understand
Elvin Santos' views.

In the meantime, Santos is facing furious Zelaya supporters practically wherever
he goes.

In the city of La Esperanza in the state of Intibuca last week, Santos held an
unannounced meeting with local supporters. Some 100 Zelaya backers found out and
chanted "Get out! "Get out!"

When Santos' caravan emerged, they threw bags of water and eggs at the vehicles.

"He had better not return to Intibuca," said Gustavo Caceres, one of the
protesters. "The response will be even more forceful next time."

Santos canceled a planned campaign stop in the neighboring state of Lempira on
Friday.

"We were waiting for him with sticks and stones," said Jose Rosa Sanchez, a
local activist. "We wanted to show that we repudiate him."

On Saturday in La Ceiba, a city on the northern coast, pro-Zelaya activists
invaded a Santos campaign meeting without the candidate. The hotel where it was
taking place cut off electricity to force everyone outside, and police came to
keep the two sides apart.

"If the police hadn't come, a fight would have broken out between the two
Liberal Party groups," said Geovany Alfonso, the owner of a TV station in La
Ceiba.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090821/pl_afp/usattackspoliticsridge;_ylt=AgCrvNM2\
.JA1iPm60Z95ksCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJrMjU5Z2JrBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDA5MDgyMS91c2F0dGFja3\
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Politics colored US 'terror alert': Former Bush aide
Olivier Knox – 2 hrs 16 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Former US homeland security chief Tom Ridge charges in a
new book that top aides to then-president George W. Bush pressured him to raise
the "terror alert" level to sway the November 2004 US election.

Then defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and attorney general John Ashcroft pushed
him to elevate the color-coded threat level, but Ridge refused, according to a
summary from his publisher, Thomas Dunne Books.

"After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the
federal government for the private sector," Ridge is quoted as writing in "The
Test of Our Times: America Under Siege ... And How We Can Be Safe Again."

Some of Bush's critics had repeatedly questioned whether the administration was
using warnings of a possible attack to blunt the political damage from the
unpopular Iraq war by shifting the debate to the broader "war on terrorism,"
which had wide popular appeal.

Fran Townsend, Bush's homeland security adviser at the White House, disputed
Ridge's account, saying: "There was never a discussion of politics in the terror
alerts discussions in the four and a half years I was there."

Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania, was the first secretary of the US
Department of Homeland Security that the US Congress created in response to the
September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes.

He also says that Townsend called his department ahead of an August 1, 2004
speech to ask Ridge to include a reference to "defensive measures ... away from
home" -- language that he read as being a reference to the Iraq war.

In those remarks, Ridge said he was raising the threat alert level for the
financial services sector in New York City, northern New Jersey, and Washington
DC, and went on to praise Bush's leadership against extremism.

"The reports that have led to this alert are the result of offensive
intelligence and military operations overseas, as well as strong partnerships
with our allies around the world, such as Pakistan," said Ridge.

"Such operations and partnerships give us insight into the enemy so we can
better target our defensive measures here and away from home," he said at the
time.

He later publicly acknowledged that much of the information underpinning the new
alert was three years old, stoking Bush critics' charges of political
manipulation.

Townsend told AFP by telephone that Ridge had sent her his remarks in advance of
the speech and asked that she forward them around the White House for comment,
and that he was free to disregard such the advice.

"The only reason I saw his words is that he sent them to me, and asked that I
circulate them for comment," she said. "It was up to him, ultimately, what he
was going to say."

But Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg, a frequent critic of the color-coded
alert system, said Thursday that Ridge's book "confirms our worst suspicions."

"Just like they did in Iraq, the Bush Administration manipulated intelligence to
cause fear in the public to further its political goals," he said in a
statement.

Ridge also details his frustration after the White House rejected his suggestion
to establish department of homeland security offices in major cities such as New
York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and -- long before Hurricane Katrina --
New Orleans, according to the summary.

He also says he urged his successor, Michael Chertoff, to reconsider the
appointment of Michael Brown as the head of the Federal Emergency Response
Agency (FEMA), whose response to the killer storm drew widespread criticism.

Ridge also charges that he was often "blindsided" during daily morning briefings
with Bush because the FBI withheld information from him, and says he was never
invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings.

The book goes on sale September 1.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090822/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan;_ylt=Al__IQn5sWd9\
l7NYBw32z5Gs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTMwYmFub3NlBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwODIyL2FzX2FmZ2hhbmlzdG\
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FoYWNjdQ--

Abdullah accuses Karzai of 'rigging' Afghan vote
Jason Straziuso And Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer – 57 mins ago

KABUL – President Hamid Karzai's leading challenger accused him of using the
Afghan state to "rig" this week's election and detailed allegations of cheating
by government officials in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press.

Abdullah Abdullah, once Karzai's foreign minister, said he was in contact with
other campaigns to explore the possibility of a coalition candidacy in case none
of the 36 candidates won enough votes in last Thursday's ballot to avoid a
runoff, probably in October.

The accusations, which Karzai's spokesman denied, are the most direct Abdullah
has made against the incumbent in a contest that likely has weeks to go before a
winner is proclaimed. Both Abdullah and Karzai claim they are in the lead based
on reports from campaign pollwatchers monitoring the count.

Officials of Abdullah's campaign have alleged fraud in several southern
provinces where the insurgency is strongest and Karzai had been expected to run
strong.

"He uses the state apparatus in order to rig an election," Abdullah said in the
interview. "That is something which is not expected."

Abdullah said it "doesn't make the slightest difference" whether Karzai or his
supporters ordered the alleged fraud.

"All this happens under his eyes and under his leadership," Abdullah said. "This
is under his leadership that all these things are happening, and all those
people which are responsible for this fraud in parts of the country are
appointed by him. And I'm sure he has all those reports, so he knows all of
this. This should have been stopped and could have been stopped by him."

If Abdullah supporters believe the election was stolen, it could lead to the
type of street violence that marred Iran's presidential election in June.
Abdullah has called for calm and says grievances should be resolved through the
country's Electoral Complaints Commission.

Abdullah said during the interview that government officials in Kandahar and
Ghazni provinces, including a provincial police chief and a No. 2 provincial
election official, stuffed ballot boxes in Karzai's favor in six districts. He
also said his monitors were prevented from entering several voting sites.

Karzai's campaign spokesman Waheed Omar dismissed Abdullah's allegations and
claimed the president's camp had submitted reports of fraud allegedly committed
by Abdullah's followers to the election complaint commission.

"These are not new allegations. These were made even before the election took
place," Omar said. "We have documented violations that were made by Abdullah's
campaign team. But we believe our job is to report to the elections complaint
commission ... We do not want to make a media propaganda campaign out of the
violations we have documented."

Omar said losing candidates often claim fraud to "try to justify their loss."

Millions of Afghans voted in the country's second-ever direct presidential
election, although Taliban threats and attacks appeared to hold down the
turnout, especially in the south where Karzai was expected to run strong among
his fellow Pashtuns. Election observers have said the voting process was mostly
credible, but are cataloging instances of fraud and violence.

Abdullah said he was not claiming victory but "in these early days and early
preliminary results I'm very happy."

U.S., U.N. and Afghan officials said they had not expected a fraud-free
election, but hoped that cheating would be on a small enough scale that the vote
was seen as credible.

An Afghan monitoring group, the Free and Fair Election Foundation of
Afghanistan, said Saturday that its observers saw widespread problems from
election officials who were not impartial and were pressuring people to vote for
certain candidates. Election monitors also reported seeing voters carrying boxes
of voter cards — so that multiple votes could be cast — to polling sites and
saw many underage voters, according to the foundation head Nader Nadery.

The National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-based democratic group, said Saturday
the vote "involved serious flaws" and pointed to the fact that members of the
Independent Election Commission are appointed by Karzai, suggesting a likelihood
of bias.

Preliminary results will not be released until Tuesday, but final certified
results won't come until next month. If neither Karzai or Abdullah gets 50
percent of the vote among a field of some three dozen candidates, then the two
will go to a run-off.

Anticipating that likelihood, Abdullah said he has been in contact "either
directly or indirectly" with most of the presidential candidates — aside from
Karzai — over the possibility of a coalition candidacy in round two.

If Abdullah could persuade supporters of Ramazan Bashardost and Ashraf Ghani —
the other top candidates — to endorse him, the extra support could be enough
to defeat Karzai in a second round.

Taliban militants carried out dozens of attacks on election day, violence that
killed 26 Afghan civilians and security forces. Abdullah said he had expected
better security and more competence from the election authorities.

In a harrowing attack on voting day, Taliban militants cut off the ink-stained
fingers of two voters in Kandahar province shortly after casting ballots, said
Nadery. Kandahar is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.

Rumors that militants would sever voters' ink-stained fingers spread before the
vote. A Taliban spokesman had said militants would not carry out such attacks,
but the Taliban is a loose organization of individual commanders who could make
good the threat on their own.

Also Saturday, the U.S. command reported that an American service member died of
a noncombat injury in eastern Afghanistan. No further details were released. The
death brought to 35 the number of U.S. service members to die in Afghanistan
this month.

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

Kennedy successor to be chosen by special election
The Associated Press – 1 hr 56 mins ago

Unlike most states, a successor to fill Sen. Edward Kennedy's seat in the Senate
will be chosen through a special election, not by the governor.

Massachusetts law requires a special election for the seat no sooner than 145
days and no later than 160 days after a vacancy occurs. The law bans an interim
appointee.

The law was changed in 2004, when Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., became his party's
presidential nominee and Republican Mitt Romney was the state's governor. Before
the change, the governor would have appointed a replacement to serve until the
next general election.

That would have created the opportunity for Romney to install a fellow
Republican in office, a move that Democrats who control the state legislature
sought to prevent.

Last week, Kennedy asked Massachusetts lawmakers to change state law to give
Massachusetts' current governor, Deval Patrick, a fellow supporter of President
Barack Obama, the ability to appoint an interim replacement to Kennedy's seat
should Kennedy be unable to continue serving.

"It is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of
its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months
between a vacancy and an election," Kennedy said in a letter to Patrick.

Though Massachusetts is dominated by Democrats, a change in the law isn't a sure
thing. Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo
— all Democrats — gave no indication if they would support the change.

Patrick and Murray both issued statements of condolence early Wednesday; neither
mentioned succession.

Any change could not happen immediately. Lawmakers are not expected to return to
formal sessions until after Labor Day.

Despite speculation that Kennedy's wife, Vicki, could assume his Senate seat,
family aides have said she is not interested in replacing her husband either
temporarily or permanently. One of Kennedy's nephews, former Rep. Joseph P.
Kennedy II, has also been described as interested.

Any race to succeed Kennedy would be crowded and fiercely fought.

Other potential Democratic candidates include state Attorney General Martha
Coakley, U.S. Reps. Stephen Lynch, Michael Capuano, Edward Markey, James
McGovern and William Delahunt, and former Rep. Martin Meehan, now chancellor of
the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

On the Republican side, potential candidates include Cape Cod businessman Jeff
Beatty, former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and
Chris Egan, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Cooperation and
Development.

From my blog early this morning.

http://dekerivers.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/senator-teddy-kennedy-inpacted-my-life/

The news that flashed over the airwaves after midnight concerning the death of Senator Teddy Kennedy made my heart sink.  I know it should not have come as any shock.  We were aware of the valiant fight he waged against the cancer, and so we were ready for the news that had to come eventually.  Right?  Wrong.  No matter how hard we try this news is never easy.  As much as we prepare for the end of a life the thud of the news in the soul still stings, and makes us pause and reflect.  After all this was not just another politician, another senator.  This was one of my heroes.  One of the good guys who stood up and fought for what he believed in even when the odds were stacked against him.  I think I uttered "No�.No�.No�" half a dozen times as my heart sank in the kitchen as the words of his death tumbled out of the television. 

My interest in the Kennedy family started young, as my mom found the various family members of interest while I was kid.   As I grew up my interest in news and politics was formed, and the liberal leanings I developed were sharpened and focused by the work of  Senator Ted Kennedy.

In 1980 I sat transfixed in front of the television in our home as Senator Kennedy gave one of his most powerful speeches of his career while at the Democratic National Convention.  The final words that summed up his efforts to win the party's nomination stirred my soul.  At age 18 I was intensely interested in politics, and also struggling to find how a kid from Hancock, Wisconsin could find my own niche at making a difference with the causes I cared about.

At the end of an emotional and dramatic speech that brought tears and standing ovations from the crowd Kennedy ended with the words that left goose bumps on my arms, and a calling to higher ideals that still lingers.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

Soon thereafter I bought a large piece of tagboard and in very neat and precise penmanship wrote out the last line of his speech.  That reminder about  the intensity of politics, and the noble and uplifitng end result that a hard fight can produce made its way with me through various apartments over the years.    The words of Senator Kennedy followed me at broadcasting school, during my stint at a radio station, and while working at the Wisconsin State Legislature.

The words and what they mean never left my soul.

There is much work left to be done on the never ending story of America, and the people who are blessed to live here.  During the last months of his life  Senator Kennedy was determined to do what he could to fight for his signature issue of health care.  The dream he had for such a policy was not realized in the final summer of his life.  It should have been.  It stings that this was the time that all should have made the right policy choice, but instead allowed divisive politics to prevail.  Yet tonight it he could, I am sure Ted Kennedy would beckon us onwards to fight again for the cause that America needs, and to keep the  hope alive for all that we aspire to as a nation.

Senator Ted Kennedy is gone.  In the morning when I awake for the first time in my life there will not be that liberal fighter in my corner, and that saddens me greatly.  I am sure that countless others feel the loss and understand my thoughts.  But the dream and hope of a better and more just society has not faded.  It never does in America.  Teddy knew that.  We know that.  The best way to honor the `The Lion Of The Senate" is to commit ourselves to the ideals we hold in our hearts.

God Bless Teddy Kennedy.  

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26540.html

Charlie Crist names George LeMieux to Senate
By ANDY BARR & CAROL E. LEE | 8/28/09 11:05 AM EDT
Updated: 8/28/09 12:53 PM EDT

Florida GOP Gov. Charlie Crist on Friday named former aide George LeMieux to
fill the seat of outgoing GOP Sen. Mel Martinez.


LeMieux, a longtime Republican insider in the state, has served as chairman of
the Broward County Republican Party, deputy state attorney general and campaign
manager for Crist’s 2006 run for governor. He ran unsuccessfully for the state
House in 1998.


LeMieux was among nine other candidates who made Crist’s short list, which
included several former congressmen, former Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney and
former state attorney general and secretary of state Jim Smith.


Martinez, who announced on August 7 he would step down when his successor was
named, congratulated LeMieux and promised a smooth transition.


“George is bright, capable, and an accomplished administrator,” Martinez
said in a statement.


GOP state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, another contender for the vacant seat, told
POLITICO that she found out LeMieux was the pick when Crist called her Friday
morning to inform her.


Carroll said Crist made the pick because “he probably felt safe in knowing
George, he’s been his chief of staff and confidant for years.”

Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer said he thinks LeMieux is a “well
qualified” and “excellent” choice.


“I think the governor recognized that George brought much to the table to be
considered,” Greer said.


Greer added that governor’s comfort and history with LeMieux played a major
role in Crist’s decision.


“There’s no doubt about it,” said Greer. “When you’re making an
appointment like this you want to make sure that the person you’re appointing
is not only qualified but that you feel comfortable with them.”


Mac Stipanovich, a top Florida Republican lobbyist who supports Crist, told
POLITICO that he is “surprised” by the governor’s choice of LeMieux.


“I’m dumbfounded. I’m never without something to say and I’m practically
speechless,” Stipanovich said in a telephone interview. “The governor
certainly won't have anything to worry about in terms of the new senator doing
anything contrary to his interests.”


Stipanovich said he spoke with Crist as the governor mulled selecting a
replacement for Martinez, although he declined to discuss the details of their
private conversations. He said LeMieux is a peculiar choice when looking at the
breadth of experience present on Crist's short list of possibilities.


LeMieux, by contrast, Stipanovich said, has “never held public office. He’s
never run a large business. He's not a war hero.”


Stipanovich said the reception of the selection among Republicans “depends on
how [Crist] explains it.”


Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen L. Thurman wasted little time in attacking
the pick as an example of cronyism and accused Crist of playing “political
games with the public’s trust.”


“In appointing LeMieux, someone who has made millions over the past several
years selling access to Crist to the highest bidders among Tallahassee's special
interests, Charlie Crist once again put his own political ambition above doing
what is right for Florida,” Thurman said in a statement. “Floridians are
sick of the Republican culture of corruption and the Tallahassee back room
dealings that clearly led Crist to pick LeMieux, whose only qualification is
being Charlie Crist's crony.”


LeMieux will serve out the remainder of the Martinez term. Crist, who is running
for the seat in 2010, faces Senate primary opposition from Marco Rubio, the
formerstate House Speaker.

Amie Parnes contributed to this report.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26540.html#ixzz0PXww5TO7

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090830/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_politics

Media: Opposition wins landslide in Japan election
Eric Talmadge, Associated Press Writer – 20 mins ago

TOKYO – Japan's opposition party won historic elections in an apparent
landslide Sunday, media projections said, sending the conservatives to defeat
after 54 years of nearly unbroken rule amid widespread economic anxiety and
desire for change.

The left-of-center Democratic Party of Japan was set to win 300 or more of the
480 seats in the lower house of parliament, ousting the Liberal Democrats, who
have governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955, according to exit polls by
all major Japanese TV networks.

The loss by the Liberal Democrats — traditionally a pro-business, conservative
party — would open the way for the Democratic Party, headed by Yukio Hatoyama,
to replace Prime Minister Taro Aso and establish a new Cabinet, possibly within
the next few weeks.

The vote was seen as a barometer of frustrations over Japan's worst economic
slump since World War II and a loss of confidence in the ruling Liberal
Democrats' ability to tackle tough problems such as the rising national debt and
rapidly aging population.

The Democrats have embraced a more populist platform, promising handouts for
families with children and farmers and a higher minimum wage.

The Democrats have also said they will seek a more independent relationship with
Washington, while forging closer ties with Japan's Asian neighbors, including
China. But Hatoyama, who holds a doctorate in engineering from Stanford
University, insists he will not seek dramatic change in Japan's foreign policy,
saying the U.S.-Japan alliance would "continue to be the cornerstone of Japanese
diplomatic policy."

National broadcaster NHK, using projections based on exit polls of roughly
400,000 voters, said the Democratic Party was set to win 300 seats and the
Liberal Democrats only about 100. Official results were expected early Monday.

TV Asahi, another major network, said the Democratic Party would win 315 seats.

The LDP's secretary-general, Hiroyuki Hosoda, said he and two other top
officials plan to submit their resignations to Aos, who serves as president of
the party.

As voting closed Sunday night, officials said turnout was high, despite an
approaching typhoon, indicating the intense level of public interest in the
hotly contested campaigns.

"We've worked so hard to achieve a leadership change and that has now become
almost certain thanks to the support of many voters," said Yoshihiko Noda, a
senior member of the DPJ. "We feel a strong sense of responsibility to achieve
each of our campaign promises."

Ruling party leaders said they were devastated by the results.

"I feel deeply the impact of this vote," former Prime Minister Shintaro Abe, a
leading Liberal Democratic Party member, told television network TBS. "Our party
must work to return to power."

Even before the vote was over, the Democrats pounded the ruling party for
driving the country into a ditch.

Japan's unemployment has spiked to record 5.7 percent while deflation has
intensified and families have cut spending because they are insecure about the
future.

Making the situation more dire is Japan's aging demographic — which means more
people are on pensions and there is a shrinking pool of taxpayers to support
them and other government programs.

"The ruling party has betrayed the people over the past four years, driving the
economy to the edge of a cliff, building up more than 6 trillion yen ($64.1
billion) in public debt, wasting money, ruining our social security net and
widening the gap between the rich and poor," the Democratic Party said in a
statement as voting began Sunday.

"We will change Japan," it said.

Hatoyama's party held 112 seats before parliament was dissolved in July.

The Democratic Party would only need to win a simple majority of 241 seats in
the lower house to assure that it can name the next prime minister. The 300-plus
level would allow it and its two smaller allies the two-thirds majority they
need in the lower house to pass bills.

Many voters said that although the Democrats are largely untested in power and
doubts remain about whether they will be able to deliver on their promises, the
country needs a change.

"We don't know if the Democrats can really make a difference, but we want to
give them a chance," Junko Shinoda, 59, a government employee, said after voting
at a crowded polling center in downtown Tokyo.

Having the Democrats in power would smooth policy debates in parliament, which
has been deadlocked since the Democrats and their allies took over the less
powerful upper house in 2007.

With only two weeks of official campaigning that focused mainly on broadstroke
appeals rather than specific policies, many analysts said the elections were not
so much about issues as voters' general desire for something new after more than
a half century under the Liberal Democrats.

The Democrats are proposing toll-free highways, free high schools, income
support for farmers, monthly allowances for job seekers in training, a higher
minimum wage and tax cuts. The estimated bill comes to 16.8 trillion yen ($179
billion) if fully implemented starting in fiscal year 2013.

Aso — whose own support ratings have sagged to a dismal 20 percent —
repeatedly stressed his party led Japan's rise from the ashes of World War II
into one of the world's biggest economic powers and are best equipped to get it
out of its current morass.

But the current state of the economy has been a major liability for his party.

"It's revolutionary," said Tomoaki Iwai, a political science professor at
Tokyo's Nihon University. "It's the first real change of government" Japan has
had in six decades.

___

AP reporters Mari Yamaguchi, Kelly Olsen, Shino Yuasa and Tomoko Hosaka
contributed to this report.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/world/europe/01armenia.html?nl=todaysheadlines\
&emc=a1

Turkey and Armenia to Establish Diplomatic Ties
By SEBNEM ARSU
Published: August 31, 2009

ISTANBUL — Turkey and Armenia, whose century of hostilities constitutes one of
the world’s most enduring and acrimonious international rivalries, have agreed
to establish diplomatic relations, the two countries announced Monday.

In a breakthrough that came after a year of tiny steps across a still-sealed
border and furtive bilateral talks in Switzerland, the foreign ministries of the
two countries said that they would begin talks aimed at producing a formal
agreement.

The joint statement said they had agreed “to start political negotiations”
but did not touch on when or how some of their more intractable disputes would
be addressed, starting with the killing of more than a million Armenians by the
Ottoman Turk government from 1915 to 1918, which the Turkish government has
denied was genocide.

The two countries have never had diplomatic relations, and their border has been
closed since 1993, when Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet republics,
went to war over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey supported Azerbaijan in the dispute, but Russia’s military action in
Georgia last year shifted the security calculus in the region. After the war in
Georgia, Turkey sought to improve ties with its neighbors in the Caucasus, and
Armenia elected a new government interested in reciprocating.

Both countries hope an eventual opening of the border will benefit their
struggling economies. Currently, there are limited charter flights between the
countries but no real trade.

For Turkey, better relations with Armenia could improve its chances for
admission to the European Union, where the genocide issue remains one of the
main obstacles, and remove a bone of contention over the same issue with the
United States, which has a large Armenian community.

The Swiss-mediated talks began last year, keeping a low profile to avoid
exciting nationalist antagonism in both countries. Armenia’s insistence that
border and trade relations be normalized before any discussion of genocide began
helped push the most contentious issue to the back burner.

Last September, President Abdullah Gul of Turkey attended a Turkey-Armenia
soccer match in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, the first visit by a Turkish
leader in the two nations’ history.

The symbolic gesture, dubbed soccer diplomacy, was widely opposed in both
countries, where bitter ethnic enmity commands large majorities.

The central dispute is the genocide, about which there is little dispute among
historians. Turkey has resisted the label, arguing that the Armenians were
killed in warfare.

The next round of talks is scheduled to last six weeks, ending about the time of
a World Cup match between Turkey and Armenia in Istanbul. President Serge
Sargsyan of Armenia is invited to attend.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090902/od_nm/us_election_alien

Japan's new first lady says rode in a spaceship
Wed Sep 2, 1:18 pm ET

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan's next prime minister might be nicknamed "the alien,"
but it's his wife who claims to have had a close encounter with another world.

"While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and
went to Venus," Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama,
wrote in a book published last year.

"It was a very beautiful place and it was really green."

Yukio Hatoyama is due to be voted in as premier on September 16 following his
party's crushing election victory over the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party
Sunday.

Miyuki, 66, described the extraterrestrial experience, which she said took place
some 20 years ago, in a book entitled "Very Strange Things I've Encountered."

When she awoke, Japan's next first lady wrote, she told her now ex-husband that
she had just been to Venus. He advised her that it was probably just a dream.

"My current husband has a different way of thinking," she wrote. "He would
surely say 'Oh, that's great'."

Yukio Hatoyama, 62, the rich grandson of a former prime minister, was once
nicknamed "the alien" for his prominent eyes.

Miyuki, also known for her culinary skills, spent six years acting in the
Takarazuka Revue, an all-female musical theater group. She met the U.S.-educated
Yukio while living in America.

(Reporting by Colin Parott; Editing by Linda Sieg)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26787.html

GOP's new diversity push
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 9/5/09 8:53 AM EDT Text Size-+reset.

After two successive elections that have exposed the Republican Party to
ridicule for its lack of diversity and narrow demographic appeal, the GOP
suddenly finds itself with an unexpected bounty.


From the West Coast to the East Coast, in some of the smallest and largest
states in the nation, the party is currently fielding an unusually diverse crop
of serious statewide candidates drawn from the seemingly endless list of
constituencies the GOP lost in 2008—notably women, Latinos, African Americans,
Asian Americans and young people.


Electing just a few of these prospects would give the party a dramatic facelift
and go a long way toward addressing its long-running diversity deficit, though
it may not alter any of the underlying ideas that may be contributing to the
gap.


Under the right conditions, the GOP could end up in 2011 with female governors
in the two largest states in the nation—California and Texas. Or with a black
senator from Texas, an Hispanic female governor in New Mexico, a Colorado
governor in his early 30s and two Indian American governors in the Deep
South—one of them female.


Some Republicans see the pipeline of diverse 2010 candidates as an unprecedented
opportunity for the party to shake up its white-guy image, nothing less than a
godsend after the historic election of a Democratic African American
presidential candidate.


"When people start thinking about parties and they see who people put on tickets
nationwide, that is what really impacts people's perceptions of a party," said a
GOP operative who closely follows governor's races. "When you're thinking about
how the GOP is going to grow its base, it's when you really put forward a field
of 37 candidates that represent America. And over time, people notice that the
GOP actually has a lot of good candidates that are not white males."


The roster of viable contenders goes on and on. In Nevada, former federal judge
Brian Sandoval, an Hispanic, is expected to enter the governor's race as the GOP
frontrunner while state party chair Sue Lowden is testing the waters for a run
against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.


Hawaii's likely GOP nominee for governor is Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona, who is of
Chinese, Portuguese and ethnic Hawaiian descent. In Colorado, the Senate primary
already includes Aurora Councilman Ryan Frazier, an African American, with
former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton likely to join the race.


Republicans are also fielding promising female Senate candidates in New
Hampshire and California, and women are leading candidates for governor in
Oklahoma, where Rep. Mary Fallin is her party's top candidate, and California,
where former eBay CEO Meg Whitman leads the field in the polls. In Texas, Sen.
Kay Bailey Hutchison is engaged in a contentious gubernatorial primary with
incumbent Rick Perry.


"I think there's kind of an organic uprising of new blood and new faces in the
party right now," said Alan Philp, the Republican National Committee's field
director for an area including Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and five other
states. "We're not going to be the party of nominating the next guy in line. I
think there's an eagerness for new faces."


It’s not entirely clear, however, that all Republicans view the moment as a
time for choosing new faces. There have been few efforts aimed at clearing the
primary election field to give these candidates a head start. In some cases, the
party establishment has weighed in against them, raising the distinct
possibility that many of these candidates will never go before the general
electorate in November 2010.


In Florida, where the GOP’s lone Hispanic senator is stepping down, national
Republicans have already made clear that Gov. Charlie Crist is their preferred
candidate over former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, a Cuban American. Other
candidates, such as prosecutor Susana Martinez, who is running for governor in
New Mexico, must navigate potentially crowded primaries. Elsewhere, veteran
party stalwarts stand in the way of promising fresh upstarts.

"The starting point, for so many Republicans, is a deep-seated frustration with
the direction of the party over the last 8, 10 years," explained state Senate
Minority Leader Josh Penry, a 33-year-old running for the GOP gubernatorial
nomination in Colorado against former six-term Congressman Scott McInnis. "We
held the reins of power and in many respects we blew it, especially on the
fiscal issues. I think that creates a huge market for new faces, new leaders."

In previous years, the GOP has had limited success in fielding women and
minority candidates and even less success in electing them. With Sen. Mel
Martinez’s impending departure, the Senate Republican Conference will be
all-white, with just four female senators, compared to the Senate Democratic
Caucus, which has 12 women, two Asian Americans, an Hispanic American and an
African American.

Republicans, who have long decried race- and gender-based politics, tend to
dismiss such head counts. But as the party looks to turn the page on a troubled
chapter,

some candidates acknowledge that simply looking different than a traditional
Republican is an asset.


"We've got to have different kinds of messengers," said Texas Railroad
Commissioner Michael Williams, who is seeking Hutchison’s Senate seat. "Voters
may not vote for me just because I'm African American. I wouldn't expect that.
But I may get a look-see because of that."


Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who endorsed Williams in a fundraising
letter last week, suggested the Texan could appeal to voters eager for change,
generating enthusiasm just as President Barack Obama and then-Sen. Hillary
Clinton did with their historic presidential bids.


"It opens the door for a first look," Gingrich told POLITICO. "It opens up
moderate areas and suburban areas in a way that traditional candidates can't…A
lot of Americans want to find ways to bring us together to transcend ethnicity
and become, truly, one country."


Susana Martinez, who currently serves as district attorney in New Mexico's Dona
Ana County, downplayed suggestions that her campaign might prove especially
appealing to women and minorities. At the same time, however, she acknowledged
that voters might respond differently to a Republican candidate with her
background.


"Their willingness to listen may be sparked because I'm female or Hispanic, but
that isn't what I have to offer. What I have to offer is my education and my
training and my experience," she said. "That may be why they pause a second to
maybe listen to the message that I have."


Rubio, who is seeking the Florida Senate seat, framed a small-government,
pro-business pitch that he said could appeal to non-traditional Republican
voters—particularly the ones turned off by some conservatives’ overheated
rhetoric on illegal immigration. Indeed, several top candidates now frame their
conservatism explicitly in terms of the immigrant experience.


"One of the strongest sentiments in the Hispanic community is a desire to be an
entrepreneur," Rubio argued. "Why do people abandon their native lands and come
to the United States?...You can be anything you want to be, if you're willing to
work hard and play by the rules."


State Rep. Nikki Haley, an Indian American running for governor of South
Carolina, echoed that rhetoric.


“I'm the daughter of immigrant parents that reminded us every day, the value
of the opportunity to live in this country,” she said.


Like Martinez, Haley said she's skeptical that people will vote for her because
of her gender or ethnicity. But, she noted, "I think that of course I can
connect with people based on my life experiences, whether that's being a wife,
whether that's being a mom, whether that's being an accountant."


Even if the party ultimately fields a diverse array of candidates, there’s no
guarantee that the party's public image will be burnished or that its message
will be embraced. In 2006, the GOP fielded credible African American nominees
like Ken Blackwell, who ran for governor of Ohio, and Lynn Swann, who ran for
governor in Pennsylvania. Both lost by wide margins.


In Maryland that same year, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael
Steele, then the party's Senate nominee, lost 54 percent to 44 percent.


Just being a new face, Penry cautioned, isn't enough to win over voters on
Election Day.


"Every event we go to, the event organizer tells us it's the biggest event
they've had, but I have to close the deal," Penry said. "I think Sarah Palin
created tremendous enthusiasm because she was new and didn't necessarily close
the deal with a lot of people."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-texwa\
tch_06nat.ART.State.Edition1.4c2a1de.html

Timeline is murky for Perry to call election to replace Hutchison in Senate

03:58 PM CDT on Sunday, September 6, 2009
By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
tgillman@...

WASHINGTON – The death of Sen. Ted Kennedy has provided a fresh reminder that
when a Senate seat comes open, two things are sure to happen: Ambitious
politicians will scramble for a shot at a rare prize, and law books will get
dusted off as state and party officials sort through the arcane and confusing
rules.

In Massachusetts, unlike in Texas and 44 other states, the governor has no legal
authority to install a temporary replacement. One of Kennedy's final acts was to
ask his state's leaders to change that.

In Texas, all eyes are on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who says she'll resign
ahead of the March primary in which she hopes to oust Gov. Rick Perry, but
hasn't said when.

Depending on when she quits and when Perry orders a special election, an interim
senator he names could serve for a few weeks or many months.

We'll leave speculation over names to another time. For now, let's focus on the
rules.

The first thing to know is that the governor is empowered to name a temporary
senator who will serve until a special election is held to fill what's left of
the term – in this case, through Jan. 3, 2013 – and the winner is sworn in.

Under state law, special elections can be held on the state's twice-annual
"uniform election dates."

The next such dates are Nov. 3, 2009, and May 8, 2010.

And there's a 36-day deadline, which means that to trigger a Nov. 3 special
election, Hutchison would have to resign by Sept. 28.

For a May 8 special election, she would have to quit by April 2.

The governor can declare an "emergency," though, and order a special election on
any Tuesday or Saturday that is more than 36 days and less than 50 days away.

Election lawyers and campaign strategists will go cross-eyed trying to figure
out deadlines to apply for a ballot slot. Bottom line: filing ends anywhere from
two months to 20 days before Election Day, depending on how much warning the
governor gives.

(Thanks to Randall Dillard at the Texas secretary of state's office for sorting
through the rules with me.)

All of this lends itself to gamesmanship, on both sides.

Presumably, Hutchison would try to time her resignation to prevent Perry from
setting a special election to coincide with their March primary, on the theory
that a double feature would only bring out even more hard-core conservatives.

On the other hand, Perry's choice of interim senator could alter the dynamic.

The field of candidates that emerges would also shape the electorate in
unpredictable ways, and as Hutchison would remember from June 1993, when she won
a special election, this will be a bipartisan free-for-all, not a one-party
primary.

Perry is not obliged to call a quick election. He could install an ally to serve
for months until the next uniform election date. The impact on his fight with
Hutchison? Guesswork at this point.

So, there it is in a nutshell.

Texans will go to the polls to fill a Senate vacancy – on Nov. 3, May 8 or
some other Tuesday or Saturday in the next three, five or nine months.

Save the date.


Changing the rules

Congress is studying whether to ban the appointment of interim senators. The
fiasco in Illinois, where the governor apparently shopped President Barack
Obama's seat to high bidders, fueled the push for reform.

So did the high turnover after the 2008 elections. Obama, his vice president,
interior secretary and secretary of state all resigned from the Senate, creating
vacancies in Illinois, Delaware, Colorado and New York.

Nearly a quarter of Americans were represented by an unelected senator. Adding
Texas to that equation in coming months would put a sharp focus on the issue.

In August, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee called for a constitutional amendment
requiring that all senators be elected.

In the House, a short but bipartisan list of co-sponsors for that idea includes
San Antonio Rep. Lamar Smith, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary
Committee.

Todd J. Gillman is Washington Bureau Chief of The Dallas Morning News.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090907/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_cabinet_changes;\
_ylt=ApKgsfYtc3kN9MVJ.8RQdjqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFiZW1zZDB1BHBvcwM1NQRzZWMDYWNjb3Jka\
W9uX3dvcmxkBHNsawNtZXhpY29jaGFuZ2U-

Mexico changes justice, farm, oil Cabinet posts
14 mins ago

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's president has announced the resignation of the attorney
general, one of the architects of the war on drug cartels. The agriculture
secretary and the head of the state-owned oil company also stepped down.

In expressing appreciation for the work of the officials, President Felipe
Calderon gave no explanation for the Cabinet changes Monday.

Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora has been Calderon's point-man in the
offensive against drug gangs and in his farewell speech he said that "we have
done a lot clean the house." He is being given an unspecified foreign service
post.

Calderon says he will propose lawyer Arturo Chavez as the new attorney general.
He praises Chavez as a man who has experience in fighting organized crime.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090909/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_hijacking

Fanatic hijacked Mexican plane after 'revelation'
Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – 9 mins ago

MEXICO CITY – A Bolivian religious fanatic briefly hijacked a jetliner from
the beach resort of Cancun as it landed in Mexico City on Wednesday, police
said. All passengers and the crew were released unharmed.

The Bible-carrying hijacker used a juice can he said was a bomb to hold the 103
passengers and crew on the tarmac for more than an hour. Masked police stormed
the aircraft with their guns drawn and escorted several handcuffed men away
without firing a shot. Police later said there was only one hijacker.

Jose Flores, 44, told investigators he hijacked Aeromexico Flight 576 after a
divine revelation, according to Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna.
Flores said Wednesday's date — 9-9-09 — is the satanic number 666 turned
upside down.

Flores, speaking to reporters after he was detained, said he took control of the
aircraft with "a juice can with some little lights I attached."

"Christ is coming soon," he added, smiling.

As the plane was landing, Flores stood up and showed his contraption to a flight
attendant, saying he and three others were hijacking the plane, Garcia Luna
said. Flores later told police his three companions were "the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost."

He ordered the pilot to circle over Mexico City seven times and asked to speak
with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, saying he wanted to warn him of an
impending earthquake, Garcia Luna said.

Garcia Luna said Flores is a drug addict who was convicted of armed robbery in
Bolivia, and has lived in Mexico for 17 years. Flores described himself as a
pastor in southern Oaxaca state who had gone to Cancun to preach.

The attorney general's office said it was opening an investigation into
terrorism and kidnapping.

U.S., French and Mexican citizens were among the passengers, according to a U.S.
official who had been briefed on the situation. The official was not authorized
to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Passenger Rocio Garcia told the Televisa network that the pilot made an
announcement after landing in Mexico City that the airplane was being hijacked.

"These were scary moments," she said.

Mexican officials negotiated the release of women and children through the pilot
before sending in the police. The plane was isolated at the end of a runway in
an area designed for emergencies and the airport remained open.

The most recent hijacking in the Americas occurred on April 19, when a man with
a handgun tried to commandeer a Canadian jetliner from Jamaica. The standoff
ended before takeoff at Montego Bay's airport when military commandos burst onto
the plane and disarmed the man, who was described as "mentally challenged."

___

Associated Press writer Devlin Barrett contributed to this report from
Washington.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_13302122

Obama heckled by GOP during speech to Congress
The Associated Press
Posted: 09/09/2009 07:00:25 PM MDT


WASHINGTON—The nastiness of August reached from the nation's town halls into
the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as President Barack Obama tried to move his health
care plan forward.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" after Obama had
talked about illegal immigrants.

It wasn't the only interruption during Obama's speech to a joint session of
Congress in the House of Representatives. Earlier, Republicans laughed when
Obama acknowledged that there are still significant details to be worked out
before a health overhaul can be passed.

Wilson's outburst caused Obama to pause briefly before he went on with his
speech. Overhead in the visitors' gallery, first Lady Michelle Obama shook her
head from side to side.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6829735.ece?&EMC-Bltn=CGMH\
DB

September 11, 2009

Thatcher told Gorbachev Britain did not want German reunification
Michael Binyon

Two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Margaret Thatcher told President
Gorbachev that neither Britain nor Western Europe wanted the reunification of
Germany and made clear that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to
stop it.

In an extraordinary frank meeting with Mr Gorbachev in Moscow in 1989 — never
before fully reported — Mrs Thatcher said the destabilisation of Eastern
Europe and the breakdown of the Warsaw Pact were also not in the West’s
interests. She noted the huge changes happening across Eastern Europe, but she
insisted that the West would not push for its decommunisation. Nor would it do
anything to risk the security of the Soviet Union.

Even 20 years later, her remarks are likely to cause uproar. They are all the
more explosive as she admitted that what she said was quite different from the
West’s public pronouncements and official Nato communiqués. She told Mr
Gorbachev that he should pay no attention to these.

“We do not want a united Germany,” she said. “This would lead to a change
to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would
undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger
our security.”

Her hardline views emerge from a remarkable cache of official Kremlin records
smuggled out of Moscow. After Mr Gorbachev left office in 1991, copies of the
state archives went to his personal foundation in Moscow. A few years ago Pavel
Stroilov, a young writer doing research at the foundation, understood the huge
historical significance of what they recorded. He copied more than 1,000
transcripts of all the Politburo discussions and brought them with him when he
moved to London to continue his research.

His copies were made just in time, as all the transcripts of Politburo meetings
and talks with foreign leaders have now been sealed. The records detail how the
Russians reacted to the tumultuous events of 1989 and reveal the frantic
attempts by Britain and France to halt moves to German unification by
manoeuvring the Soviet Union into opposing it.

They also show the complete bemusement in the Kremlin in the face of riots
across Eastern Europe and the flight of thousands of East Germans to Hungary and
Czechoslovakia. And they make vividly clear Mr Gorbachev’s hatred of the old
East European Communist leaders — he referred once to East Germany’s Erich
Honecker as an “arsehole”,and his naive belief that if they were removed
from office, East Europeans would be grateful to the Russians for promoting
perestroika.

Mrs Thatcher knew full well that her remarks would cause a row if revealed. She
was already courting controversy — especially among Solidarity supporters in
Poland and the West — by telling Mr Gorbachev that she was “deeply
impressed” by the courage and patriotism of General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the
Polish Communist leader. She noted, approvingly, that Mr Gorbachev had reacted
“calmly” to the results of the Polish elections, in which the Communists
were defeated for the first time in an open vote in Eastern Europe, and to the
other changes in Eastern Europe.

“My understanding of your position is the following: you welcome each country
developing in its own way, on condition that the Warsaw Pact remains in place. I
understand this position perfectly.”

Then she launched her bombshell. She asked that her next remarks should not be
recorded. Mr Gorbachev agreed — but the Kremlin transcript included them
anyway, noting laconically: “The following part of the conversation is
reproduced from memory.” She spoke of her deep “concern” at what was going
on in East Germany. She said “big changes” could be afoot.

And this led to her fear that it would all eventually lead to German
reunification — an official goal of Western policy for more than a generation.

She assured Mr Gorbachev that President Bush also wanted to do nothing that
would be seen by the Russians as a threat to their security. The same assurance
was later spelt out in person to Mr Gorbachev at the Soviet- American summit off
Malta.

The Kremlin records are an extraordinary snapshot of the confusion that
accompanied the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe. The Russians knew
that East Germany was vital to their interests, but they could no longer afford
to prop it up. And Mr Gorbachev was determined not to send in troops in yet
another bloody Soviet crackdown.

Amazingly, the Russians even discussed pulling down the Berlin Wall themselves,
as revealed in Kremlin notes of a Poliburo discussion on November 3, 1989 —
six days before the wall was opened:

[Vladimir] Kryuchkov [head of the KGB]: Tomorrow 500,000 people will come out on
the streets of Berlin and other cities . . .

Gorbachev: Are you hoping that Krenz [Honecker’s replacement as party boss]
will stay? We won’t be able to explain it to our people if we lose the GDR.
However, we won’t be able to keep it afloat without the FRG [West Germany].

[Eduard] Shevardnadze [Foreign Minister]: We’d better take down the wall
ourselves.

Kryuchkov: It will be difficult for them if we take it down.

Gorbachev: They [East Germany] will be bought up whole . . . And when they reach
world prices, living standards will fall immediately. The West doesn’t want
German reunification but wants to use us to prevent it, to cause a clash between
us and the FRG so as to rule out the possibility of a future “conspiracy”
between the USSR and Germany.

Mrs Thatcher was not the only one worried by events in Germany. A month after
the Berlin Wall came down, Jacques Attali, the personal adviser to President
Mitterrand, met Vadim Zagladin, a senior Gorbachev aide, in Kiev.

Mr Attali said that Moscow’s refusal to intervene in East Germany had
“puzzled the French leadership” and questioned whether “the USSR has made
peace with the prospect of a united Germany and will not take any steps to
prevent it. This has caused a fear approaching panic.”

He then stated bluntly, echoing Mrs Thatcher: “France by no means wants German
reunification, although it realises that in the end it is inevitable.”

In April 1990, five months after the wall came down, Mr Attali said that the
spectre of reunification was causing nightmares among France’s politicians.
The documents quote him telling Mr Mitterrand that he would “fly off to live
on Mars” if this happened.

Mr Gorbachev’s most difficult meetings were with the old guard in the Warsaw
Pact. They were all deeply suspicion of his attempts to reform Communism. The
fiercest opposition came from East Berlin.

Honecker was aged, unwell and unbending. The East German leadership feared that
he was losing control and wanted to dump him. Mr Gorbachev insisted they had to
sort things out themselves. Egon Krenz, Honecker’s deputy, thinking that he
needed the Kremlin’s permission, had already suggested to Mr Gorbachev a coup.
Three weeks later, Honecker was ousted.

Mr Gorbachev saw the chaos for himself when he went to East Berlin for the
fortieth anniversary celebrations of East Germany. The entry for October 9 in
the diary of Anatoli Chernayev, the Kremlin aide responsible for links with
fellow Communist parties, records the tumultuous situation.

“As M.S. [Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev] and Honecker walked together, a
continuous roar in the air: ‘Gorby! Gorby!’ emanated from the thousands of
people. Nobody paid attention to Erich . . . There were around 20 various
leaders in attendance (Zhivkov, Ceaucescu, Nicaraguan Ortega etc) but nobody
gave them much heed. All festivities concentrated on Gorbachev’s presence in
Berlin.

“On October 10, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany will have a plenum . . .
They might overthrow Erich. Otherwise it will soon come to a storm on the
wall.”

Mr Chernayev noted that “all of Europe” was raving about Mr Gorbachev in
Berlin. “And everybody is whispering in our ear, ‘It is good that the USSR
has delicately expressed its stance against German reunification’.”

Politicians who met Mr Gorbachev’s advisers around Europe “say in unison
that nobody wants a unified Germany”. Astonishingly, he noted, in France Mr
Mitterrand was even thinking of a military alliance with Russia to stop it,
“camouflaged as a joint use of armies to fight natural disasters”.

Mr Chernayev recorded Mr Gorbachev’s loathing of Honecker. “M.S. called him
an arsehole. He said, ‘He could have said to his people that he has had four
operations, he is 78, he does not have the strength to fill his position, so
could they please let him go as he has done his duty. Then, maybe, he would have
remained an esteemed figure in history.’ ”

If he had left two or three years earlier, he would have had a place in history,
Mr Gorbachev said. Instead, Honecker was “cursed by the people”.

After the wall fell, Mr Gorbachev’s relaxed attitude to reunification
hardened. At his summit with Mr Bush, he insisted that this should happen only
as part of a general rapprochement in Europe. He accused the West of trying to
“impose” Western values on Eastern Europe.

He also launched a ferocious attack on Helmut Kohl,the German Chancellor, for
hurrying along discussion of unification. The next day, in Moscow, he accused Mr
Kohl of issuing an ultimatum, of pushing unification for electoral reasons and
of betraying agreements already made with Moscow.

Even in 1990 Mrs Thatcher was still trying to slow things down. “I am
convinced that reunification needs a long transition period,” she told Mr
Gorbachev. “All Europe is watching this not without a degree of fear,
remembering very well who started the two world wars.”

It took another year of tough negotiations involving both Germanies and the four
victorious wartime allies before a deal was done on unification.

Translation of the documents and additional research by Sergei Cristo.

Steps to unity

June 12, 1987 President Reagan, in a speech in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg
Gate, demands: “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

July 17, 1989 Border controls lifted between Hungary and Austria. GDR citizens
flee to the West

October 7 During a visit to the GDR, Gorbachev urges reform

October 18 Erich Honecker, East Germany’s head of state, resigns. A new
Government prepares a law to lift travel restrictions for East Germans going to
the West

November 4 More than 500,000 people demonstrate in East Berlin, demanding reform

November 9 The Politburo announces that East Germans are allowed to move freely
into West Germany. Tens of thousands flock to the Berlin Wall. Border guards
with no clear orders stand aside and East Germans stream through

November 10 The Brandenburg Gate is opened

May 18, 1990 The two German states sign a treaty on monetary, economic and
social union, which comes into force on July 1

October 3 East Germany joins the Federal Republic of Germany Source: German
Embassy and Times database

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6831459.ece

September 12, 2009

Vladimir Putin hints that he could return to lead Russia until 2024 Richard
Beeston in Moscow

Vladimir Putin has given his strongest hint yet that he is considering a return
to the Kremlin, a move that could allow the combative Russian leader to stay in
power until 2024.

Speaking at the Novo-Ogaryovo official residence outside Moscow, Mr Putin
insisted that swapping places with Dimitri Medvedev, the President, was no more
sinister than the Labour leadership agreement in which Gordon Brown took Tony
Blair’s job.

Mr Putin, who turns 57 next month, expounded on a range of domestic and foreign
policy issues that left few in doubt that he remains Russia’s paramount
leader, even though he officially occupies the number two position as Prime
Minister.

Asked whether he would run again for the presidency, Mr Putin said that he would
come to an accommodation with Mr Medvedev, just as the two men had done when Mr
Putin stepped down in 2008.

“We will come to an agreement because we are people of the same blood and of
the same political views,” he told foreign journalists and academics at the
annual Valdai Discussion Club.

“According to the reality of the moment, we will make an analysis and take a
decision. Did we compete in 2008? No. So we will not compete in 2012,” Mr
Putin said.

This is the strongest hint he has given so far that he is considering returning
to the Kremlin. Mr Putin stepped down after serving a maximum two terms as
President and allowed Mr Medvedev to run largely unopposed in presidential
elections last year.

His term ends in 2012 when new constitutional provisions will allow the next
president to serve two six-year terms.

If the men complete this revolving-door manoeuvre Mr Putin could, in theory, be
in power until 2024, when he would be 72. Although that is a decade older than
most Russian men live, Mr Putin looked fit, alert and certainly confirmed what
everyone in the country already knew — that he remains the real power in the
land.

When asked who was in charge in Russia, Mr Putin insisted that Mr Medvedev was
in control.

“We have nothing to prove to anyone,” he said. “If someone lives in a
dream he needs to wake up, take a shower and look at reality. If you want to
co-operate with Russia you need to know that it is the President who heads
Russia.”

Anatol Lieven, a Russian expert at King’s College London, said that it did not
matter whether Mr Putin or Mr Medvedev were president or prime minister. “What
he is saying is that the political establishment will remain united and in
power,” he said.

The prospect of Mr Putin dominating politics for another decade and a half will
shock the liberal minority in the country where, under his rule, human rights
and freedom of speech have been curtailed.

It would cause concern across Russia’s borders, where the Kremlin is in open
dispute with Ukraine and Georgia, which is still suffering the effects of its
war with Russian forces last year.

Many Russians, however, would be delighted with the prospect of having the most
popular post-communist politician leading the country. Mr Putin is credited with
restoring self-respect, rehabilitating the economy and restoring order after the
chaos of the 1990s.

Relations between Russia and the US remain pivotal. Mr Putin said that a visit
to Moscow in July by President Obama had improved the atmosphere.

He provided a long list of complaints about outstanding disputes with the Bush
Administration regarding Russia’s failed attempt to join the World Trade
Organisation and high-handed treatment by Condoleezza Rice, the former US
Secretary of State.

Although Russia should be pleased that the Obama Administration is planning to
shelve a plan by the former President Bush to base a missile defence system in
Eastern Europe, there is still no sign that the two sides will complete a
strategic nuclear weapons treaty by the end of the year, when the existing
agreement expires.

Relations between Washington and Moscow could come under strain this month over
Russia’s relationship with Iran. Russia is helping Iran to build a civilian
nuclear reactor and has agreed to sell Tehran sophisticated anti-aircraft
missiles.

The US, Britain and France fear that Iran is building a nuclear bomb secretly
and are pressing for sanctions at the United Nations. Israel has warned that it
may attack the nuclear facilities before Iran builds a nuclear weapon.

Mr Putin deflected questions about whether he had met Binyamin Netanyahu, the
Israeli Prime Minister, on a secret visit to Moscow on Monday.

He warned that any attacks against Iran would be counter-productive. “This
would be very dangerous, unacceptable, this would lead to an explosion of
terrorism, increase the influence of extremists,” he said, adding that he
doubted airstrikes would achieve their objective.

Mr Putin added, however: “The Iranians should show restraint in their nuclear
programme. We have told Iran that it has the right to a civilian nuclear
programme but that it should understand what region of the world it is in.

“This is a dangerous region and Iran should show responsibility, especially by
taking into account Israel’s concerns, all the more so after the absolutely
unacceptable statements [by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President] about
the destruction of the state of Israel.”

Judo and spying

— Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin Born October 7, 1952, in Leningrad

— Putin did well at school despite an impoverished upbringing. He became
interested in judo and spy stories

— He applied to the KGB at the age of 17 but was told that he could not be
considered until he had a degree. He graduated from Leningrad State University
with a law degree in 1975

— He was a KGB agent in East Germany between 1985 and 1990

— He became Prime Minister in August 1999 and President in March 2000,
standing down to become Prime Minister again in 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/13/angela-merkel-steinmeier-germany-ele\
ction

Coalition partners Angela Merkel and foreign minister in German TV 'duel'
• Chancellor faces her coalition partner in debate
• Take German troops out of Afghanistan, say polls
Ian Traynor, Europe editor The Guardian, Monday 14 September 2009

The Social Democratic underdog in Germany's lacklustre election campaign
appeared to score a surprising points victory against the chancellor, Angela
Merkel, last night in the sole television showdown of the campaign.

In what was painted as a potential turning point a fortnight before general
elections, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a rival and partner in the current Merkel
government, was seen to have come out ahead.

A poll of viewers immediately after the 90-minute debate, broadcast live on four
national television channels, gave Steinmeier a 31-21 margin of victory, while
48% thought the "TV duel" was a draw.

Steinmeier's performance is unlikely to dent the prospect of victory for
Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) who are around 13 points ahead of his SPD in
the opinion polls. But the unexpectedly strong showing by Steinmeier could ruin
the electoral arithmetic, spoiling Merkel's hopes of ditching the SPD in favour
of a centre-right coalition with the smaller liberal Free Democrats (FDP).

Merkel and Steinmeier, rivals for the chancellorship, are partners in the
current grand coalition of the CDU and SPD, with Steinmeier serving as Germany's
foreign minister and vice-chancellor.

The co-responsibility of both contenders for the last four years inhibited last
night's confrontation, with the party leaders repeatedly agreeing and making
common points on foreign policy, such as the war in Afghanistan, or the
financial and economic crisis.

The TV debate frequently saw the two rivals allied in common purpose against the
four journalists grilling them. "You're like an old married couple," one of the
questioners told them. "Very harmonious."

Two weeks before the vote, much was at stake in the contest, with pundits hoping
the debate would enliven a campaign that has been disappointing, routinely
described as soporific.

Last night's lack of fireworks, despite the best efforts of the interviewers,
confirmed the bland tenor of the election campaign.

With five main parties fighting for votes in a proportional system, there is a
sense that the German voter is being cheated, since the main contenders are
reluctant to commit and will trim their policies depending on who they can form
a coalition with after the ballot.

The clearest division last night was over the future of nuclear energy in
Germany, with Steinmeier committed to phasing it out, while Merkel wanted to at
least delay Germany's nuclear exit beyond the cut-off date of 2020.

Foreign policy or European issues were completely ignored in the TV encounter,
with the brief exception of the war in Afghanistan, highly unpopular in Germany
and which has erupted into the campaign because of the botched bombing of oil
tankers 10 days ago that left dozens of civilians dead near Kunduz in the north
of the country.

A German officer ordered the Nato raids, to the consternation of Nato allies,
triggering a bout of soul-searching at home. Around 60% of Germans, according to
opinion polls, support a prompt withdrawal of the 4,200 German troops in
Afghanistan.

Steinmeier disclosed a 10-point plan aimed at listing the terms for withdrawal
over the four-year life of the next parliament, while Merkel hinted that
conditions could be right to leave Afghanistan in five years, after joining
French and British leaders in calling for a major international conference on
the crisis. There was no dispute, though, between the centre-right and
centre-left leaders.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,649452,00.html#ref=rss

Thursday, September 17, 2009
09/16/2009
Barroso Wins Second Term
A Victory for the EU's Political Chameleon
By Hans-J�rgen Schlamp in Brussels

The European Parliament voted Wednesday to give Jose Manuel Barroso a second
five-year term as president of the European Commission. But Brussels is getting
a weak boss. The unpopular Portuguese politician has become the butt of jokes,
with even allies like Angela Merkel poking fun at him.

Jose Manuel Barroso beams and shakes hands, celebrating his victory. A total of
382 members of the European Parliament have finally given him what he has been
wanting for so long: a second five-year term at the head of the powerful
European Commission in Brussels.


But despite his frozen smile, traces of frustration and irritation can be seen
in his face, even in his moment of triumph. It is not the 219 MEPS who voted
against him in Wednesday's vote or the 117 abstentions that are responsible for
his mood. Rather, it is the insults and injuries which he has had to put up with
in recent months -- and not just from political opponents but also from within
his own camp. Most of the participants in the election actually consider Barroso
to be the wrong choice.

Barroso is convincing "neither in terms of his program nor politically," said
Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament and a
regular critic of Barroso. The Portuguese politician was simply "not appropriate
and not electable," Schulz said.

A Political Chameleon

Barroso lacks "courage and vision" is the opinion of Graham Watson, the longtime
head of the Liberal group in the European Parliament. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, head
of the Green group, calls Barroso "a chameleon," saying that the Commission
president "adapts himself to suit everybody."

As it happens, Barroso has a checkered political past. As a student he was a
Maoist, but now he sees himself as a "reformer of the center." He made his
career in the Social Democratic Party of Portugal, which calls itself social
democratic but which is actually center-right and therefore belongs to the
conservative European People's Party (EPP). French President Nicolas Sarkozy's
Union for a Popular Movement and German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian
Democrats are also part of the EPP.

Merkel and her friends got Barroso the job as head of the European Commission
five years ago, defeating then-Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, the
candidate of choice of then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schr�der. Merkel was also
one of Barroso's strongest supporters, along with Sarkozy, when it came to a
second term in the post of Commission president. This did not, however, prevent
the two leaders from first cutting Barroso down to size.

Like a teacher with a student who has been held back a year, Sarkozy openly gave
Barroso the task of writing a new, "ambitious" program in the summer holidays if
he wanted to keep the job. The obedient schoolboy wrote out his political
ambitions for the next five years. It's a document full of generalities and
platitudes -- but that didn't bother Sarkozy at all. The French president wasn't
worried about the content of the document, just the demonstration of power and
submission.

'Tell Him He Shouldn't Be Calling all the Time'

Angela Merkel doesn't do things so crudely. She shows that she has the
Commission president under control using refined irony. Take, for example, one
scene in the Chancellery in Berlin. "Barroso called and asked to be called
back," an aide told Merkel at the end of a meeting as the chancellor was leaving
the room. "Tell him he shouldn't keep calling all the time," Merkel responded,
and made a face that was intended to show the bystanders what a nuisance the man
was.

In fact, the Commission president managed to irritate both friends and foes so
much during his campaign to keep his job, that Barroso jokes have become part of
the standard repertoire in political circles. For example, during a chat with
colleagues on the sidelines of a meeting, one German member of the European
Parliament loudly and facetiously asked Swedish Minister for EU Affairs Cecilia
Malmstr�m: "Well, did Barroso call you twice already today too?" The Swede shook
her head and laughed. "No, three times!"

So why did they choose Barroso, if they think he is such a laughing stock? "His
campaign was not appropriate to the office," says one German diplomat, who
preferred not to be named. Barroso had to do some hard campaigning in the
European Parliament. He promised the Liberals an EU commissioner for basic
rights, the Greens a climate change commissioner and the Social Democrats a
social affairs commissioner. Barroso's questionable behavior has permanently
damaged his position, says the diplomat. But the governments of many EU member
states are "not at all sad about having a weak Commission president," the source
added.

Quite the contrary. It is particularly the "Big Three" -- the governments in
Paris, London and Berlin -- who just want a harmless figurehead for the EU in
Brussels, someone who is not going to cause them any trouble. The triumvirate
has long been working on increasing its powers. If necessary, they get the OK
from Rome, Madrid and Warsaw and everything is settled -- most of the time,
anyway. And the parliament, which is still under the pleasant but mistaken
belief that it is currently seeing an increase in its powers, does not notice
that the Big Three is riding roughshod over it just like it does with Barroso
and the Commission. There, too, the majority sees Barroso as a mistake. The
antipathy reaches deep into the conservative ranks. But, as a veteran CDU
parliamentarian says, nobody wanted to risk "an institutional crisis" -- in
other words, trouble with the governments.

Opponents Couldn't Agree on Alternative

So the parliament rubber-stamped the Big Three's decision, albeit on the second
attempt. In mid-July, when the Barroso sinecure was already on the agenda, there
was no parliamentary majority and the vote was postponed. But since then, both
the left and the right were put under hard pressure from their bosses in their
home countries not to oppose Barroso any longer. Barroso's opponents couldn't
agree on a common alternative candidate, anyway.

But the governments of the EU's major powers certainly managed to agree on what
they wanted. Besides Barroso as head of the Commission, they want another
conservative candidate to become the first permanent president of the European
Council. In exchange, a center-left candidate will get the post of the EU's
first foreign minister.

Both jobs, however, will only exist if the Irish do not reject the Lisbon Treaty
for a second time in the referendum on Oct. 2. And if they do oppose it, nobody
has any idea how Europe is going to proceed, anyway.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=4719

Friday, September 18, 2009
Let them eat chili
posted by paulburka at 5:18 PM

This is the YouTube link for Perry’s comments yesterday about Texas being
recession-proof before an audience of business leaders in Houston.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btQIVffY5cY

* * * *

Here is the transcript of what Perry said:

“Why is Texas kind of recession-proof, if you will? As a matter of fact, just
today I think, Michael, you said someone had put a report out that the first
state that’s coming out of the recession is going to be the State of Texas. I
told him, I said, ‘We’re in one?’” And Perry and his audience share a
good laugh.

Unlike “Adios mofo,” or “Why don’t you just let us get on down the
road?” or “If Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American
people, you know, who knows what might come out of that?” there is nothing
redeeming or feisty about Perry’s comment. The words and the body language
betray an egotism, an arrogance, a self-importance, a callousness that are
downright creepy. This is “power corrupts” in action. If a governor of a
state were running for president and made this comment in a public forum, he
would be finished as a candidate.

If I had to pick one word to describe my reaction, it would not come from the
shopworn political vocabulary: “shocked,” “disturbed,” “outraged,”
or “appalled.” It would be “surprised.” I saw the video just a short
time after I had posted a writeup about the Rasmussen poll and about how the
Perry campaign has been arrogant and overconfident. Seldom have I been proven so
right so quickly. Never have I seen Perry so much off his game.

Perry’s biggest strength as a campaigner is that he is very disciplined. He
doesn’t make this kind of gaffe. I have written before about how Perry told me
in 1998 that he would defeat John Sharp for lieutenant governor because he was
more disciplined. He was right. Sharp blinked in the end game and made a bad
tactical decision that cost him the race.

This gaffe is going to stick. It is going to be national news. It will come back
to haunt him in a campaign spot. If Hutchison can’t make something of it, the
Democrats can. You cannot be callous and cavalier when people are losing their
jobs and their homes. I don’t care how ideological the Republican base is.
Unemployment in Texas just reached the 8% mark. Everybody knows someone who is
suffering in these times. Everybody has lost part of their life savings. It
could cost him the race.

http://newspapertree.com/news/4266

Two Obama czars opt out of drug war forum
by David Crowder and Elizabeth Ruiz
“I don’t know why you’re all so surprised about the federal government’s
unwillingness to address this because, quite frankly, they’ve ignored the
problem for years, and that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in now." --
El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles.

Posted on September 20, 2009
Two key Obama administration officials have dropped out of this coming week’s
Global Public Policy Forum on the U.S. War on Drugs, raising questions about
whether U.S. federal authorities will be listening to what goes on so far from
Washington and so close to the bloody front of the real drug war.

At a panel discussion organized by the El Paso Press Club on Saturday, UTEP
Professor Kathy Staudt announced that President Obama’s border czar Alan
Bersin and National drug control policy czar Gil Kerlikowske surprised
organizers by bowing out days before the start of the conference.

Ahead of the 40th anniversary of the "War on Drugs" that President Richard Nixon
declared in 1969, the forum will take place on the UTEP campus and in Juarez on
Monday and Tuesday. (See War on Drugs forum)

The purpose, according to forum’s website, will be to "take a comparative look
at the drug-war policy in an effort to calculate the effects on societies and
economies." (Click here for further information).

UTEP Assistant Professor Tony Payan, an authority on the two-year conflict
between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels, said the absence of Obama’s two
top advisors suggests that the young administration is still uncertain about its
own stand on the nation’s decades-old drug policy.

El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles offered this scathing assessment:

“I don’t know why you’re all so surprised about the federal government’s
unwillingness to address this because, quite frankly, they’ve ignored the
problem for years, and that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in now.

“As a matter of fact, the only reason that we’ve got national attention is
because it’s on the backs of the dead people in Juarez.”

While federal laws and policy still call for drug interdiction and the
prosecution of drug traffickers and users alike, Wiles said, “we have been on
a slope of decriminalization for years.”

In the 1960s, he said, simple possession of marijuana was a felony in Texas, but
the laws have been loosened to the point that the possession of a small amount
of the drug is now a misdemeanor for which people receive a citation instead of
being arrested.

Last month, the Mexican government legalized possession of small amounts of
marijuana in hopes of eliminating some of the incentive for the on-going cartel
wars there.

El Paso city Rep. Beto O’Rourke said he hopes for a meaningful public
discussion at the conference about legalizing drugs in the face of a failed
strategy that has had such a destructive impact on everyday life in Juarez.

“I think that many of us here were at the Border Security Conference last
month, and I thought it was very fitting that you had the border czar and the
drug czar construct this Potemkin village of ‘Everything’s okay.’

“Look, (Mexican President) Calderon’s decided to fight the drug war, we’re
pumping money in there, (saying) ‘Let’s stay the course; let’s stick with
it; everything’s going to be okay.’ What struck me was how disassociated
with reality these people were, and I found myself thinking, or asking, ‘What
planet are they on?’ ”

The energy behind the move to stage this week’s drug forum sprang largely from
the controversy that arose last January over a resolution introduced to the El
Paso City Council by the city’s Border Relations Committee addressing the drug
war.

The council unanimously approved the resolution with a 12-word amendment offered
by O’Rourke urging the federal government to come to the aid of Juarez by
"supporting an honest open national debate on ending the prohibition on
narcotics."

The resolution created a furor and Mayor John Cook vetoed it, leading to the
approval of the original resolution calling for a conference to examine U.S.
drug policy and the War on Drugs.

O’Rourke recalled that in the midst of the debate over the resolution, Sal
Payan, speaking for U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes’ office, predicted that the
violence that took more than 1,600 lives in Juarez last year would play itself
out within six months.

Reyes himself likened the conflict to the movie “Last Man Standing” in
which, O’Rourke said, the two sides would “kill each other off and
eventually one side will win.”

Since then, O’Rourke said, his position has shifted from supporting a national
discussion about legalizing some drugs, to favoring the decriminalization of
drugs, especially marijuana.

As much as I can, as far … as I can, I want to push that point of view,” he
said.

UTEP’s Tony Payan said the conflict in Juarez is no longer just between two
cartels but involves tens of thousands of young, uneducated men who have lost
jobs and resorted to crime in a city that can no longer fight crime.

“We are talking about 100,000 young men with nothing else to do and …
nowhere to go,” he said. “You can kill 10,000 or 20,000 and there’s still
20,000 waiting to take their place in crime.

“The city has fallen into veritable chaos, and you can see it on the streets
of Juarez.”

Given the extent of the bloodshed between the two cartels, he said, it is
unlikely that Juarez will see the peace that settled over Nuevo Laredo several
years ago when a drug war there ended.

So, Reyes may have been right.

“They have done so much damage to one another that there will be no pax
mafiosa,” Payan said, “It will be a fight to the death, and it could go on
for months.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

Ousted leader returns to Honduras, defies arrest
Freddy Cuevas, Associated Press Writer – 2 mins ago

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Deposed President Manuel Zelaya made a dramatic return
to Honduras' capital on Monday, taking shelter from arrest at Brazil's embassy
and calling for negotiations with the leaders who forced him from the country at
gunpoint.

The interim government ordered a 15-hour curfew, but thousands of Zelaya
supporters ignored the decreed 4 p.m. (2200 GMT) shutdown and remained outside
the embassy, dancing and cheering.

Others in the capital started rushing home, lining up at bus stands and
frantically looking for taxis.

The leftist leader's homecoming creates a sharp new challenge for the interim
government that has threatened repeatedly to throw him in jail if he returns.

Chants of "Yes we could! Yes we could!" bellowed from the crowd.

Zelaya told The Associated Press that he was trying to establish contact with
the interim government to start negotiations on a solution to the standoff that
started when he soldiers who flew him out of the country on June 28.

"As of now, we are beginning to seek dialogue," he said by telephone, though he
gave few details. Talks moderated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have been
stalled for weeks over the interim government's refusal to accept Zelaya's
reinstatement.

He also summoned his countrymen to come to the capital for peaceful protests and
urged the army to avoid attacking his supporters.

"It is the moment of reconciliation," he said.

The government of interim President Roberto Micheletti, who took power after
Zelaya's ouster, said the curfew would continue to 7 a.m. (1300 GMT) Wednesday
due to "the events of the last few hours." Micheletti, who has promised to step
aside following scheduled presidential elections in November, made no other
comment on Zelaya's return.

The interim government was caught off guard by Zelaya's appearance. Only minutes
before he appeared publicly at the embassy, officials said reports of his return
were a lie.

Zelaya's presence could revive the large demonstrations that disrupted the
capital following the coup and threatens to overshadow the presidential election
campaign.

The U.S. State Department had already announced on Sept. 4 that it will not
recognize results of the presidential vote under current conditions. The coup
has shaken up Washington's relations with Honduras, traditionally one of its
strongest allies in Central America.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza called for calm and warned Honduran
officials to avoid any violation of the Brazilian diplomatic mission, saying
"they should be responsible for the safety of president Zelaya and the Embassy
of Brazil."

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin said neither his country or the OAS had
any role in Zelaya's journey before taking him in.

"We hope this opens a new stage in negotiations," Amorin said. He also warned:
"If something happens to Zelaya or our embassy it would be a violation of
international law," which bars host countries from arresting people inside
diplomatic missions.

Honduras' Foreign Relations Department criticized Brazil, saying it was
violating international law by "allowing Zelaya, a fugitive of Honduran justice,
to make public calls to insurrection and political mobilization from its
headquarters."

Micheletti urged Brazil in a nationwide radio address to turn Zelaya over to
Honduran authorities.

In the days following the coup, at least two of the thousands of demonstrators
who took to the streets were killed during clashes with security forces.
Thousands of other Hondurans demonstrated in favor of the coup.

The country's Congress and courts, alarmed by Zelaya's political shift into a
close alliance with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuba, backed
Zelaya's removal.

He was arrested on orders of the Supreme Court on charges of treason and abuse
of power for ignoring court orders against holding a popular referendum on
reforming the constitution.

Micheletti said Zelaya sought to remove a ban on re-election — grounds for
immediate removal from office under the Honduran constitution. Zelaya denies any
such plan.

International leaders were almost unanimously against the armed removal of the
president, alarmed that it could return Latin America to a bygone era of coups
and instability. The United States, European Union and other agencies have cut
aid to Honduras to press for his return.

Zelaya said he had "evaded a thousand obstacles" to return, traveling 15 hours
by land in different vehicles. He declined to give specifics on who helped him
cross the border, saying that he didn't want to jeopardize their safety.

His staunch supporter, Chavez, described the journey: "President Manuel Zelaya,
along with four companions, traveled for two days overland, crossing mountains
and rivers, risking their lives. They have made it to Honduras."

If the interim administration attempts to imprison Zelaya, protesters who have
demonstrated against his ouster could turn violent, said Vicki Gass at the
Washington Office on Latin America.

"There's a saying about Honduras that people can argue in the morning and have
dinner in the evening, but I'm not sure this will happen in this case," said
Gass. "It's been 86 days since the coup. Something had to break and this might
be it."

___

Associated Press writers Catherine E. Shoichet, Martha Mendoza and Alexandra
Olson in Mexico City and Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to
this report.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=4785

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Donald Yarborough, whose feud with John Connally brought JFK to Texas, reported
gravely ill
posted by paulburka at 7:18 PM

This writeup was sent by one of his daughters, Sophie Yarborough. According to
Ms. Yarborough, her father is gravely ill. I will request that commenters show
proper respect in posting their remarks.

Donald Howard Yarborough, who ran for governor of Texas three times and helped
mobilize the progressive Democratic movement in Texas against the conservative
big-oil factions that had so long dominated the state, was born in New Orleans
on Dec. 15, 1925. He is the key reason that JFK flew down to Dallas that fateful
day [November 22, 1963], because Don’s campaign against Governor John Connally
posed a very real threat to the conservative democrats in Texas at the time, and
Don was running against conservative John Connally (who later switched to the
Republican party in his bid for president), whereas Don was a true-blue liberal
championing civil rights, women’s equality and all of the most progressive
policies of the time. He did not win, but he made a lasting impact on the
state’s politics that continues to ripple to this day.

He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Charity O’Connell Yarborough. Don was
married three times, first to Trin (Kay K.) Edwards Yarborough, and they had
four children together: Inez VanderBurg, Francey Yarborough-Knotts, Leverett
Yarborough and Sophie Yarborough. Then to Gail Lind, and they had one child:
Daniel Yarborough. His current wife of 25 years is Charity O’Connell
Yarborough, and they had two children: Donald Patrick Arthur “Patrick”
Yarborough and Mollie O’Connell Yarborough. He has four grandchildren:
Madeleine de Vise, Donovan De Vise, Grace VanderBurg, and Rose VanderBurg.

Don’s father was the president of a bank in New Orleans that went bust in the
Great Depression, so Don was sent temporarily to spend part of his boyhood
living with an aunt in Mississippi, where he helped out picking cotton in the
fields of his family’s farm with the laborers, which contributed to his
lifelong compassion for the underprivileged and disempowered. His father
eventually got a job with the government and moved the family at one point to
Washington, D.C, where they lived near the zoo on Macomb Avenue in Woodley Park.
His family also spent time during the years after the Depression living with
relatives in Coral Gables, Florida. The family eventually moved together to
Houston when Don was 12. Upon graduating from San Jacinto High School at 17, he
enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, entering officer’s training school and
becoming, at the age of 19, one of the youngest Company Commanders in the
history of the Marines. He served one year in
  China at the close of World War II. After the war, Don entered the University
of Texas, where he belonged to Kappa Alpha fraternity, and worked part-time to
supplement the money he received under the G.I. bill. He earned his law degree
in 1950.

He re-entered the Marine Corps to serve during the Korean War as a member of the
Judge Advocate General’s Corp (JAG Corp). He then returned to Texas to found
his own law firm and take part in civic affairs. In 1956, as one of the youngest
presidents in the history of the [Houston] Junior Chamber of Commerce, Don
helped build the largest chapter in the nation at that time. He also won the
national debating championship for the organization due to his passionate
speaking skills.

He was also named BY LIFE MAGAZINE in 1963 as one of the 100 young Americans who
were distinguished by their dedication to something larger than private success,
because they had the courage to act against old problems, the boldness to try
out new ideas, and a hard-bitten, undaunted hopefulness about man.

Don ran for the office of Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1960. In 1962, he ran
for the first time for governor, and in a field of five Democratic candidates,
he reached a run-off with John Connally and came within 1 percent of winning the
nomination, an amazing and nationally-noted upset in a state long dominated by
the party’s conservative faction. He was the first Southern politician to come
out in support of the Civil Rights Act, a courageous stand, when Texas was still
suffering from segregation. Eleanor Roosevelt praised him for his courage in
doing that. He also ran for governor in 1964 and 1968. His politics focused on
gaining civil rights for the underprivileged and women’s equality, and he also
opposed the huge oil and other interests that had long dominated Texas politics.

John F. Kennedy flew to Dallas in an effort to heal the rift in the Texas
democratic party that was created by Don’s extremely powerful progressive
campaign, in which he united labor, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, women,
and progressive liberals behind him to pose a very real threat to the
conservative Democrats in Texas, as represented by John Connally (Connally later
switched to the Republican party under Nixon, when he decided to run for
president in 1980.) In speeches, Don Yarborough called Connally a wolf in
sheep’s clothing. When Connally was shot in the car with Kennedy during the
assassination, Connally became a national hero and was able to easily defeat
Yarborough in the 1964 governor’s race at that point, but before then, even
LBJ was extremely worried that Don would win the governorship and split the
Democrats between progressives and conservatives, meaning that Kennedy would
have a tough time winning Texas for himself for the
  next presidential election. o LBJ convinced Kennedy to fly to Dallas to unite
them. (Check out this month’s Vanity Fair article on Jackie O, which explains
this, although it mentions Ralph Yarborough, then United States senator, who was
not running against Connally, instead of Don Yarborough, who was.)

Years later, there was confusion when an unknown, unrelated person named Don
Yarbrough (different spelling) ran for the Texas Supreme Court and won handily
using the same name, and then went on to become indicted for criminal activity.
This Don Yarbrough was NO relation to the real Don Yarborough. Molly Ivins has
written several articles about this unfortunate confusion that created a
nightmare for Texas voters.

After leaving politics, Yarborough continued to dream big. Declaring that more
people could be helped through science than through politics, he devoted much of
his life to his deep passion for scientific research, especially his quest to
cure aging, which he felt was simply a disease like any other, but one that
affected everyone. He worked as a lobbyist for Paraplegia Cure Research in
Washington, D.C., where he lived for many years on Capitol Hill and in Mclean,
Va. He also played a large role in the Council for a Livable World, and was a
founding member of biotech research companies. “We are either the last
generation to die or the first generation to live forever,” he often said.

He believed scientists needed to keep a wide open child’s mind to make
breakthroughs and discoveries, uninhibited by societal norms, expectations. and
judgments.

He spent the last chapter of his life in Houston, Texas, his true home for most
of his life.

* * * *

I appreciate the opportunity to publish this biography of “the good Don
Yarborough,” as he came to be referred to after “the bad Don Yarborough”
won his Texas Supreme Court seat on the strength of the Yarborough name.

According to the Texas Almanac, Don Yarborough was one of six candidates for the
Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1962. Incumbent Price Daniel had served
three two-year terms and was seeking a fourth. Connally led the primary with
431,498 votes and Yarborough polled 317,986, finishing second and knocking out
Daniel’s bid to become the state’s longest-serving governor. The other
candidates were Major General Edwin A. Walker, who distributed John Birch
Society literature to his troops and regarded Harry Truman as a “pinko”;
Marshall Formby, who I think was a highway commissioner, and former attorney
general Will Wilson, who had organized the raid that shut down Galveston’s
famed gambling den, the Balinese Room, in 1957.

In the runoff, Connally had the backing of LBJ and the state’s business
establishment, but Houston was very much a union town, and Yarborough made it a
very close race. He trailed Connally by 565,174 to 538,924 — a difference of
approximately 27,000 votes out of 1,447,115 million cast. It is interesting to
speculate what might have happened had Yarborough defeated Connally. Would
Republican Jack Cox, who lost to Connally by some 132,000 votes, have defeated
Yarborough, accelerating by fourteen years the first victory for a Republican
since Reconstruction, or would the Democratic party have held together for
Yarborough?

Kennedy came to Texas in 1963 because the Democratic party was split between its
liberal and conservative wings, the liberals represented by the two Yarboroughs
and the conservatives championed by Connally and LBJ, who wanted Kennedy to
intervene. Don Yarborough challenged Connally in the 1964 Democratic primary,
but Connally campaigned wearing the sling for his arm that was hit by a Lee
Harvey Oswald bullet. Connally won by 650,000.

Yarborough had one more race in him. In 1968, Connally retired to join the
Vinson & Elkins law firm, and lieutenant governor Preston Smith sought the
governorship. Ten candidates entered the Democratic primary. Yarborough led
Smith by 421,607 to 386,875, but most of the other candidates were conservative
Democrats. Even so, the runoff was relatively close: Smith won by 767,490 votes
to 621,226. This was an era when segregation and civil rights were still issues,
and unions were still an important factor in Texas politics, and liberals had a
base from which to run. That Texas is gone.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090924/ap_on_re_us/us_kennedy_successor;_ylt=AmJF3Z\
ei9wyAhUjxq.CAK8Ws0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTMzcGtmZWg5BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwOTI0L3VzX2tlbm5l\
ZHlfc3VjY2Vzc29yBGNwb3MDMwRwb3MDMTAEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xr\
A2Zvcm1lcmRuY2hlYQ--

Former DNC head Kirk tapped to replace Kennedy
Glen Johnson, Ap Political Writer – 42 mins ago

BOSTON – Gov. Deval Patrick named former Democratic Party chairman Paul G.
Kirk Jr. to the late Edward Kennedy's Senate seat Thursday and said the rushed,
temporary appointment was necessary because the issues before Congress were "too
important to Massachusetts for us to be one voice short."

Kirk, a Kennedy family friend, served on the senator's staff for eight years and
is chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Kennedy's widow, Vicki
Kennedy, and son Edward Kennedy Jr. had urged Patrick to pick Kirk and attended
the announcement at the Massachusetts Statehouse.

"He (Sen. Kennedy) often said that representing the people of Massachusetts in
the Senate of the United States was the highest honor that he could possible
imagine, and it is certainly nothing that I imagined, but it will be my highest
honor, as well," said Kirk. He was immediately setting off with Patrick to shake
hands at a western Massachusetts fair, and he will be sworn in Friday afternoon.

Patrick's appointment means Kirk will serve in the interim post until voters
pick a replacement in a Jan. 19 special election. Kirk said he would not be a
candidate in the special election.

This week, lawmakers gave Patrick the appointment power, five years after taking
that power away when Republican Mitt Romney was in office. The legislation did
not take effect immediately, so Patrick had to sign an emergency letter Thursday
to make the appointment right away.

The interim senator allows President Barack Obama to regain a critical 60th U.S.
Senate vote to pass a health care overhaul.

"I am pleased that Massachusetts will have its full representation in the U.S.
Senate in the coming months, as important issues such as health care, financial
reform and energy will be debated," Obama said in a statement. "Paul Kirk is a
distinguished leader, whose long collaboration with Senator Kennedy makes him an
excellent, interim choice to carry on his work until the voters make their
choice in January."

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, said Kirk's
"wisdom, kindness and integrity mean the world to the entire Kennedy family."

Vicki Kennedy said after the appointment: "I certainly told (Patrick) of the
high esteem with which the entire Kennedy family held Paul Kirk, but this was
always the governor's decision."

Edward Kennedy Jr. said: "He knows my father, he knows my father's staff, he
knows the people of Massachusetts and, I think, you ask anyone, Democrat or
Republican, and you'll find out there's no one more respected to do this job."

Sen. John Kerry, who attended the announcement, choked up as he recalled his
late colleague. He said Kirk already has a personal relationship with many of
the people he will be working.

"Paul Kirk shares Ted's love of the commonwealth and the country and shares his
passion for public service," Kerry said, adding "he is going to hit the ground
running."

Kennedy died Aug. 25 after a yearlong battle with brain cancer. Kirk was master
of ceremonies last month for a memorial service the evening before Kennedy's
funeral.

The 71-year-old is a Boston attorney who also has been a registered lobbyist for
pharmaceutical companies. He said Thursday he would resign from his board
positions, including at Hartford Financial Services, known colloquially as "The
Hartford." It sells life and property insurance.

Federal records show Kirk registered as a lobbyist a decade ago. While Kirk
would be banned from lobbying for two years after his appointment ends, he would
retain Senate floor privileges, the honorific title "senator" and a coveted
Capitol Hill parking space for life.

Kirk said that while he had represented "a couple of pharmaceutical firms" as
recently as 2002, he no longer works as a lobbyist and has no conflicts of
interest.

Kirk also has been helping with efforts to raise money for a Senate institute
named for him. Organizers have been criticized for accepting donations from the
health care industry while Kennedy and the White House pushed for an industry
overhaul.

The senator-designate graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and
served on Kennedy's staff between 1969 and 1977. He ran the Democratic National
Committee in the run-up to former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis'
unsuccessful run for president in 1988.

Kirk also co-founded the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has sponsored
every presidential and vice presidential debate involving major candidates since
1988.

The Massachusetts Legislature laid the groundwork Wednesday for the
announcement, when, after a contentious debate and a whirl of parliamentary
maneuvering, it approved a bill allowing the governor to make an interim
appointment.

Some fellow Democrats have joined Republicans in accusing Patrick of a power
grab, but the governor said he was unfazed by the criticism.

"I'm quite satisfied that I am both within the law and within tradition," he
said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/us/politics/27hill.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadline\
s&adxnnl=1&emc=a25&adxnnlx=1253999298-KV5xRA8LeU9ketivMjbpMw

Republican Are Facing Divisive Primaries
By CARL HULSE
Published: September 26, 2009

WASHINGTON — Kelly Ayotte, the former attorney general of New Hampshire, was
on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, reaping the benefits of being a favored Republican
Senate candidate. She collected checks at a series of fund-raisers, including a
reception that drew Senate Republican leaders eager for her to join them as a
colleague in 2011.

Back in New Hampshire, Ovide Lamontange, one potential Republican rival to Ms.
Ayotte, was reaping the benefits of not being in Washington, hosting scores of
supporters at a Manchester club and collecting canned and dry goods in a food
drive.

The contrast was no accident. In New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado and other
states, the push by Republicans in Washington to identify preferred Senate
candidates has stirred resentment and touched off competition from those not
impressed by the Washington seal of approval.

“When folks in Washington say, ‘This is our candidate, get in line,’ I
think people are going to want to take a look first,” said Jim Merrill, an
adviser to Mr. Lamontagne, who won the state’s Republican gubernatorial
primary in 1996 in an upset before losing the general election.

Democrats have their own problems when it comes to Senate races, with
potentially divisive primaries looming in Pennsylvania, Colorado and elsewhere.
And the Obama administration discovered the perils of meddling in state politics
when its efforts to sideline Gov. David A. Paterson of New York provoked a
backlash in recent days.

But the pushback on national Republicans is striking because it comes at a time
when many in the party believe the political environment is rapidly improving
for them and after party strategists were initially keen on the early effort to
single out Senate choices.Yet in Florida, former House Speaker Marco Rubio has
refused to abandon his quest for the Republican Senate nomination despite the
National Republican Senatorial Committee’s quick blessing of the candidacy of
Gov. Charlie Crist. And the perception that the national party was going to
meddle in the Colorado primary on behalf of Jane Norton, the former lieutenant
governor, upset folks there.

In Illinois, Representative Mark Kirk, a man who party leaders wanted in the
race, is seeing his conservative credentials challenged. Republican contenders
in Missouri, Ohio and California who are seen as the establishment choice have
also encountered turbulence.

To some, the resistance is an extension of the grass-roots distrust of the
government that was on vivid display during town hall meetings this summer and
at the recent conservative protest on the National Mall. Though much of the
antipathy was aimed at Democrats, there is unhappiness with Republicans at the
national level as well, with home-grown conservatives citing them as part of the
overall problem.

Mr. Rubio, who has been embraced by leading conservatives as he takes on the
more moderate governor, said it also represents a failure by leaders in
Washington to recognize that the future of the party is in emphasizing the
conservative themes that resonated this summer.

“During the post ’08 hangover there were some in the establishment who
thought our way back was to moderate our message,” Mr. Rubio said in an
interview. “The arguments that were used to justify an endorsement in a
primary all look silly now.”

Senator John Cornyn, the Texan who heads the National Republican Senatorial
Committee, acknowledged that it is a “little bit of a balancing act” trying
to recruit and back top-tier candidates without seeming to stifle the political
process. But he said in some instances, including that of Mr. Crist in Florida,
it just made sense to get behind a strong candidate early on.

“Our general rule is to let the voters in the states pick their own primary
candidate but there have been exceptions to those rules,” he said. “It is
the logical choice to make because we have limited resources to spend on a
national basis.”

Republican strategists and independent analysts say Republicans are simply doing
what they should be doing: Being pragmatic in trying to lure the best candidates
in what could be a favorable environment and then focusing on building those
contenders into winners in November 2010.

“They are doing their job and yet for some reason in this cycle it has ruffled
feathers where it hasn’t in the past,” said Jennifer Duffy, who follows
Senate races for the Cook Political Report. “By and large, it may not cause
any damage.”

The real question for these outsider candidates who are emerging is whether they
can capitalize on anti-insider sentiment to build credible campaigns. There are
sound reasons the national party favors certain people — they have proven
appeal, experience, established organizations and a record of success than can
be built on. The insurgents clearly have their work cut out for them.

“It is very difficult for a candidate go from zero to 60 within a year’s
time without having a previous political network to fall back on,” said Nathan
Gonzales of the Rothenberg Political Report.

Some see Republican rivalry as a good thing. Dick Wadhams, the chairman of the
Colorado Republican Party, said Republicans should take a deep breath and get
comfortable with intra-party battles that could ultimately be advantageous in
taking on the real foe — Democrats.

“Many Republicans hear the word primary and they dive under the table and get
in the fetal position,” said Mr. Wadhams, who advised the national party to
steer clear of the Colorado Senate preliminaries. “I think primaries are
healthy. They make for better candidates and campaigns.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_elections;_ylt=AgD5ea\
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Conservative Merkel captures 2nd term in Germany
Geir Moulson, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 16 mins ago

BERLIN – German voters handed conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel a second
term and a chance to create new center-right government Sunday, while her
center-left rivals suffered a historic defeat in the national election.

Merkel succeeded in ending her "grand coalition" with the center-left Social
Democrats led by challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the current foreign
minister, according to television projections. She can now form a government
with the pro-business Free Democrats, who performed very strongly.

"We have achieved something great," a beaming Merkel told supporters. "We have
managed to achieve our election aim of a stable majority in Germany for a new
government."

She vowed to hold "swift and decisive" coalition talks with the Free Democrats'
leader, Guido Westerwelle, who has been widely tipped as Germany's next foreign
minister.

Merkel has argued that a change of coalition was needed to ensure stronger
economic growth as Germany emerges from a deep recession. In joining with the
Free Democrats, she hopes to cut taxes and halt a plan to shut down Germany's
nuclear power plants by 2021.

"I think that tonight we can really celebrate, but I would say that after that
there is work waiting for us," Merkel told the crowd at her party's headquarters
in Berlin, who chanted "Angie! Angie!"

"I would not tell anyone to remain sober, but we don't want to forget that there
are many problems in our country to be solved," she added.

Projections by the nation's public broadcasters, based on early vote counts and
exit polls, put support for Merkel's Christian Democrats at up to 33.8 percent
of the vote and for the Social Democrats at 23 percent. The Free Democrats
captured nearly 15 percent, the Left Party had more than 12 percent and the
Greens were at 10 percent or more.

Both ARD and ZDF television channels said that would produce a stable
center-right majority in parliament. It was a major shift from the 2005
election, in which Merkel's conservatives squeaked in with 35.2 percent of the
vote to the Social Democrats' 34.2 percent.

Sunday's election was the worst showing since World War II for the Social
Democrats — who head into opposition after 11 years in government.

"There is no talking around it: this is a bitter defeat," a subdued Steinmeier
said at the party's Berlin headquarters.

He vowed to lead a strong opposition.

"Our job in the opposition will be to very carefully pay attention to whether
they can do it," he said of the incoming government.

Merkel made clear that she wants to maintain the consensual approach that has
made her popular over the past four years.

"My understanding was, and my understanding is, that I want to be the chancellor
of all Germans," she said.

The Free Democrats have called for far deeper tax cuts than the modest
middle-income tax relief Merkel has pledged. Neither has said a date for the
proposed cuts, which Steinmeier's party has opposed — arguing that they were
unrealistic, in view of big government debt run up to combat the global economic
crisis.

The Free Democrats leader was eager to join the government.

"We are pleased with this exceptional result but we know that above all else,
this means responsibility," Westerwelle told supporters.

"We are ready to take on this responsibility," he added. "We want to help govern
Germany because we need to assure that there is a fair tax system, better
chances for education and that citizens' rights will finally be respected
again."

Germany's three opposition parties appeared to have gained in the past four
years, with all of them headed for their best results ever. In 2005, all three
parties scored less than 10 percent of the vote each.

While the outcome Sunday was particularly painful for the Social Democrats,
Merkel's party also performed poorly. The result wasn't much better than their
own worst postwar performance — 31 percent, in 1949.

Still, Merkel's conservatives were relaxed, seeing the surge in support for the
Free Democrats as a vote for their own leader.

"Together, they're all Merkel votes," the chancellor's chief of staff, Thomas de
Maiziere said of the center-right's support.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090928/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

Honduras restricts liberties to prevent rebellion
Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 23 mins ago

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Interim government leaders have suspended
constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties in a pre-emptive strike against
widespread rebellion Monday, three months to the day since they ousted President
Manuel Zelaya in a military-backed coup.

Zelaya supporters said they would ignore the decree issued late Sunday and march
in the streets as planned. Some already had arrived in the capital, Tegucigalpa,
from outlying provinces.

The measures — announced just hours after Zelaya called on his backers to
stage mass protest marches in what he called a "final offensive" against the
government — are likely to draw harsh criticism from the international
community, which has condemned the June 28 coup and urged that Zelaya be
reinstated to the presidency and allowed to serve out his term, which ends in
January.

Officials also issued an ultimatum to Brazil on Sunday, giving the South
American country 10 days to decide whether to turn Zelaya over for arrest or
grant him asylum and, presumably, take him out of Honduras. They did not specify
what they would do after the 10 days were up.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva responded, saying that his
government "doesn't accept ultimatums from coup-plotters."

Interim President Roberto Micheletti has pledged not to raid the Brazilian
Embassy building where Zelaya has been holed up with more than 60 supporters
since he sneaked back into the country a week ago. The building is surrounded by
armed police and soldiers. On Tuesday, the day after Zelaya's return,
baton-wielding troops used tear gas and water cannons to chase away thousands of
his supporters.

Protesters say at least 10 people have been killed since the coup, while the
government puts the toll at three.

Interim Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez has said that, because Brazil has broken
off diplomatic relations with the interim government, it would have to remove
the Brazilian flag and shield from the Embassy "and it (the building) becomes a
private office."

The government's suspension of civil liberties violates rights guaranteed in the
Honduran Constitution: The decree prohibits unauthorized gatherings and allows
police to arrest without a warrant "any person who poses a danger to his own
life or those of others."

The Honduran Constitution forbids arrests without warrants except when a
criminal is caught in the act.

The government measures also permit authorities to temporarily close news media
outlets that "attack peace and public order."

In a nationally broadcast announcement, the government explained it took the
steps it did "to guarantee peace and public order in the country and due to the
calls for insurrection that Mr. Zelaya has publicly made."

There was no immediate reaction from Zelaya, who is demanding to be reinstated
and has said that Micheletti's government "has to fall."

Zelaya's supporters pledged to ignore the restrictions and forge ahead with
their scheduled demonstrations.

"The protest is on," said pro-Zelaya leader Juan Barahona. "Tomorrow we will be
in the streets."

The media restrictions appear aimed at pro-Zelaya radio and television stations
that — while subject to brief raids immediately after the coup — had been
allowed to operate freely, openly criticizing the interim government and
broadcasting Zelaya's statements.

Under Sunday's order, authorities may now "prevent the transmission by any
spoken, written or televised means, of statements that attack peace and the
public order, or which offend the human dignity of public officials, or attack
the law."

The decree states that the country's national telecommunications commission,
known as Conatel, is authorized "through police and the armed forces ... to
immediately suspend any radio station, cable or television network whose
programming does not comply with these regulations."

Pro-Zelaya television station Channel 36 warned earlier Sunday that restrictions
on the news media were coming and said they were part of a pattern by the
interim government of quashing constitutional rights.

Micheletti's administration had previously bragged about the democratic
atmosphere in the country, citing media outlets such as Channel 36 as proof. The
station continued broadcasting without interruption Sunday night.

Talks between Zelaya and interim government officials aimed at resolving the
political standoff have gotten nowhere. Prospects for success appeared even
grimmer after the government expelled at least four members of an advance team
from the Organization of American States who had arrived Sunday to re-establish
negotiations.

Micheletti has previously said the OAS was welcome to come, but suggested that
representatives begin arriving Monday. Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez said that
the team's arrival didn't come "at the right time ... because we are in the
middle of internal conversations."

In addition, while many nations have announced they would send diplomatic
representatives back to Honduras to support negotiations, the interim government
said Sunday that it would not automatically accept ambassadors back from some
nations that withdrew their envoys.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090928/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

Coup-installed Honduras leader to revive liberties
48 mins ago

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The coup-installed president of Honduras backed down
Monday from an escalating standoff with protesters and suggested he would
restore civil liberties and reopen dissident television and radio stations by
the end of the week.

Riot police ringed supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya who gathered for
a large-scale protest march, setting off a daylong standoff. The government of
interim President Roberto Micheletti declared the march illegal, sent soldiers
to silence dissident broadcasters, and suspended civil liberties for 45 days.

But in a sudden reversal, Micheletti said Monday afternoon that he wanted to
"ask the Honduran people for forgiveness" for the measures and said he would
lift them in accordance with demands from the same Congress that installed him
after a June 28 coup. He said he would discuss lifting the measures with court
officials "as soon as possible," adding: "By the end of this week we'll have
this resolved."

He also repeated his pledge not to attack the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya
has been holed up with 60 supporters since sneaking back into the country on
Sept. 21. He even sent "a big hug" to Brazil's president, a day after giving him
a 10-day ultimatum to expel Zelaya or move him to Brazil.

The increasingly authoritarian measures by the government had prompted
international condemnation, though the U.S. representative to the Organization
of American States also had harsh words for Zelaya, calling his return to
Honduras "irresponsible and foolish."

The Micheletti government says Zelaya supporters are planning a violent
insurrection. So far, protests have seen little bloodshed — the government
says three people have been killed since the coup, while protesters put the
number at 10. Protest leader Juan Barahona said that could change.

"This mass movement is peaceful, but to the extent they repress us, fence us in
and make this method useless, we have to find some other form of struggle," he
said.

Micheletti made clear that even if the emergency measures are lifted, "that
doesn't mean the police are going back to barracks."

Monday's march drew hundreds of people, many of whom covered their mouths with
tape to protest government censorship. Protest leaders insisted that thousands
more were trying to join but were stopped from leaving poorer neighborhoods or
from traveling from the countryside.

"There is brutal repression against the people," Zelaya told The Associated
Press in a telephone interview Monday.

The emergency decree issued Sunday bans unauthorized gatherings and lets police
arrest people without warrants, rights guaranteed in the Honduran Constitution.
It also allows authorities to shut news media for "statements that attack peace
and the public order, or which offend the human dignity of public officials, or
attack the law."

In late afternoon, police allowed the protesters to board buses and leave.

Government soldiers raided the offices of Radio Globo and the television station
Channel 36, both critics of the Micheletti government, and silenced both.
Afterward, the TV station broadcast only a test pattern.

Radio Globo employees scrambled out of an emergency exit to escape the raid that
involved as many as 200 soldiers.

"They took away all the equipment," said owner Alejandro Villatoro. "This is the
death of the station."

Two journalists covering the raid for Mexico's Televisa and Guatemala's
Guatevision were beaten by security forces, who also took their camera,
according to Guatemala's ambassador to the Organization of American States,
Jorge Skinner. He asked the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission to intervene.

The OAS held an emergency meeting in Washington on Monday after Honduras
expelled members of an OAS advance team trying to restart negotiations between
the two sides. Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez said the team had not given advance
notice of its arrival.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley condemned the expulsion.

"I think it's time for the de facto regime to put down the shovel," he said.
"With every action they keep on making the hole deeper."

Lew Amselem, the U.S. representative to the OAS, also condemned the expulsion as
"deplorable and foolish." But had equally harsh words for Zelaya. He said
returning without an agreement "serves neither the interests of the Honduran
people nor those seeking the peaceful reestablishment of the democratic order in
Honduras."

He added: "Those who facilitated President Zelaya's return ... have a special
responsibility for the prevention of violence and the well-being of the Honduran
people." He did not say to whom he was referring.

The increasingly authoritarian actions by the interim government signaled an
abrupt shift in strategy after appealing for foreign support and arguing it
ousted Zelaya to preserve democracy.

Only last week, Micheletti argued in a letter to the Washington Post that his
government was not a coup, citing as evidence that freedom assembly was still
allowed: "They do not guarantee freedom of the press, much less a respect for
human rights. In Honduras, these freedoms remain intact and vibrant."

He argued that the international community will have no choice but to recognize
a Nov. 29 vote — "the ultimate civil exercise of any democracy — a free and
open presidential election."

Zelaya supporters noted that the emergency decree effectively outlawed any
campaigning until two weeks before election day.

"If they can't campaign ... what happens then to the electoral solution?" asked
protest leader Rafael Alegria.

Analysts called the shift a sign that the Micheletti government is feeling
increasingly threatened.

"It certainly shows that they're worried that Zelaya might be able to disrupt
the government," said Heather Berkman, a Honduras expert with the New York-based
Eurasia Group. "Zelaya's only recourse really is to mobilize people on the
streets. I'm sure that Micheletti and the government know that and they're going
to do whatever they can to prevent that."

She called it a risky move: "They're damaging their own credibility, and really
hurting the economy."

___

Associated Press writers contributing to this report included Freddy Cuevas in
Tegucigalpa and Martha Mendoza and Catherine Shoichet in Mexico City.