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America could become a less divided society as result of hurricane Katrina, former US President Bill Clinton said today. “Americans were profoundly disturbed by the losses suffered and by the sense that maybe our government did not perform as well as it should have,” Mr Clinton said. “There was a profound sense of grief at the magnitude of the losses and not only the death but the dislocation of a million people. “And I think people were very sensitive to the fact that it disproportionately affected Americans of colour, principally African Americans, and low income Americans. “So I think it...

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at FEMA on Tuesday, complaining the agency is moving too slowly in recovering the bodies of those killed by Hurricane Katrina. The dead "deserve more respect than they have received," she said at state police headquarters in Baton Rouge. She said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency still has not signed a contract with the company hired to handle the removal of the bodies, Houston-based Kenyon International Emergency Services. Calls to a FEMA spokesman in New Orleans and the Homeland Security Department in Washington were not immediately returned.

It has long been said -- even in the capital's post-September 11 environment -- that the most dangerous place to be in Washington is between Sen. Charles Schumer and a camera. Yet, even by his remarkable standard of chutzpah, Mr. Schumer outdid himself at Wednesday's press conference. The eminent UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, in his essay, "Yiddish & the Law," observes that the classic definition of chutzpah is itself taken from the law: Chutzpah is when the man who kills his parents begs for mercy because he's an orphan.

But for Dershowitz to try to stop publication of the book is simply unacceptable. The appropriate response to speech that is wrong is not to silence it, but to argue against it — because nobody has a monopoly on the truth. Dershowitz, of course, knows all this. He has said he doesn't want to suppress Finkelstein's freedom of speech, but that he wants to ensure that "maliciously false statements about me … are not published." In fact, he says he supports publication of Finkelstein's book — by some publisher other than UC Press, which, he told me, should not "give...

Repudiate This Robin Mullins Boyd The Democrats are just beside themselves with anguish and indignation over Karl Rove’s comparison of the Conservative response to terrorism versus the Liberal response. Funny how this one statement has raised the Dem’s moral indignation while Durbin’s comparison of our fighting men and women to Nazis flew under their indignation radar. When I read all of the comments from the outraged Dems and then listened to Sen. Kennedy harangue Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, the word hypocrisy immediately jumped into my brain. (Yes Mr. Dean I am Republican and I have a brain). Where does this crowd...

LeBoutillier says the book will reveal Hillary's struggle with New York's Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to get his seat. Though a Democrat, Moynihan had little use for Hillary. LeBoutillier writes: "Seven years later - after her husband's impeachment - Hillary Clinton decided to run for Pat Moynihan's Senate seat from New York. First Lady Hillary Clinton came to ask for Senator and Mrs. Moynihan's blessing and endorsement, visiting the Senator in his Washington D.C. living room - this time at the Watergate hotel and apartment complex. "Pat Moynihan was recuperating from recent back surgery and hadn't been up to the...

Immigration: While California's governor is accused of racism for advocating a secure border with Mexico, a Los Angeles billboard provides a revealing glimpse into the mind-set of those advocating open borders. In a recent radio interview, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger committed a couple of faux pas (or however you say that in Spanish). First, he said the U.S. government was failing to secure the border with Mexico. Second, he said the Arizona Minutemen, a bunch of old men in lawn chairs, "have done a terrific job." "Shameful" was the reaction of Nativo Lopez, state national president of the Mexican American Political...

THE PUBLIC EDITOR ONE of the more persistent criticisms of The Times comes from those who believe the news pages are the designated disseminator of views passed down from the Olympus that is the editorial page. If there's anyone among the 1,200 newsroom employees of The Times who believes this to be true, I've failed as a reporter: in 16 months, I haven't found a soul here who has ever experienced any pressure, or even endured a suggestion, to conform to the opinions expressed on the editorial page.Hold your hoots. There may be perfectly sensible reasons why some readers believe...

...Venezuelans would prefer at this time if the Carter Center stayed away from our country. The role the Center played in the recall referendum, before and after it, left a very bitter taste in all of those like me, who are certain that the outcome was fraudulent. ... Carter ... did not demand that the CNE do the “hot audits” on August 16th. ... There are lies in the reports from the Carter Center, such as that the boxes containing the ballots never left their sight. Thus, Venezuelans in the opposition think the Carter Center failed them completely by being...

Bwahahahah!!! Gasp! Bwahahahahahahah! (tears of laughter, blogger convulsing on the floor subject to one of the biggest laugh attacks recorded in blogdom). (Breathe, breathe deeply, garner composure, start writing again) Today we learn that Jennifer Mc Coy of the Carter Center will brave Venezuela to offer help in consolidating peace and democracy! The nerve! What is in store for us? Are they going to approve the new judicial system whose near uniform composition will ensure "peace" through a "uniform justice" (pun intended)? Will they offer to monitor the 2006 elections to validate yet another "fair" Chavez victory? ... I have...

Thieves Steal Built-In Swimming Pool 2 hours, 21 minutes ago Strange News - AP OSLO, Norway - A Norwegian family's swimming pool wasn't just bolted down, it was in the ground, but that was impediment to a band of determined thieves. When the Nicolaysen family visited their mountain cabin over the weekend, they discovered a big hole in the yard in place of the swimming pool that had been installed 20 years ago. "This can't be, we thought," Arild Nicolaysen told state radio network NRK on Monday. "We didn't think it was possible. No one can steal a swimming pool."...

Washington, DC, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The remembrance of Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor took on partisan political spin Tuesday with a Democrat leader using it to attack House Republicans. Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, in a special Pearl Harbor Day statement, said national unity 63 years ago enabled Americans to go forward and defeat the country's enemies, but the same kind of unity needed now was being undermined by Republican disagreements over provisions of the yet-to-be-voted on intelligence reform bill. "While we as a nation are united in this fight, there are clearly deep divisions within...

No Apologies Helen Thomas has been shaking up the White House press corps since George W. took office. She talked to Real Change about power, truth, and women in Washington interview by Adam Holdorf For most of her four-decade career covering the White House, journalist Helen Thomas stuck to the straight facts. Lately, though — having left United Press International, where she wrote wire stories, and taking on a new role as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers (like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, where she’s regularly printed) — she’s loosened the lid on her own opinions. But unlike other columnists, she has...

MUSCATINE, Iowa — Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (search) accused the Bush administration on Thursday of ignoring problems ranging from scarce flu vaccine to the war in Iraq while officials campaign in battleground states and asked, "Who's minding the store?" Edwards, speaking in a high school gymnasium during a bus tour of eastern Iowa, cited national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (search), Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson (search) and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans (search) as examples of Bush officials who are campaigning while pressing issues remain unresolved. "There's a solution for this," Edwards said. "In America, that's called...

The former Texas National Guard commander who supplied CBS with forged records on President Bush's National Guard service now plans to sue the network, his former lawyer said Tuesday. Burkett's one-time attorney, David Van Os, told the New York Sun that his former client had "several meetings with lawyers to determine the best course of action." He said the planned lawsuit would center on what he termed "defamation of character and libel." Van Os declined to name the attorneys who Burkett consulted, but a Tuesday New York Times report cited attorney Gabe Quintanilla as his lawyer, saying that his client...

05/06/04 NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey Senator John Kerry, the recipient of three Purple Hearts, has signed a contract with Johnson & Johnson to endorse a new line of band-aids. The band-aids will be small purple hearts designed to cover minor, superficial wounds like Kerry suffered as a lieutenant in the Vietnam War. "We're proud to be working with Senator Kerry," said a Johnson & Johnson spokesperson. "We plan to use actual shrapnel removed from his arm in our ad campaign to highlight the small size of our J&J Band-Aid brand Purple Heart bandages." The doctor who treated Kerry at Cam...

TEHRAN, Aug 19 (AFP) - Iran's judiciary ordered a man to be released after he killed his unfaithful wife in the courtroom, because the woman's immediate forebears are not alive to claim retaliation, press reports said Thursday. According to the newspaper Shargh, the man, identified as Mahmoud, had filed a complaint against his wife and her lover when he had found out that she was cheating on him. When she appeared in court in Shahr Ray city in Tehran province in 2003 he lost control and stabbed her to death.But a court sentenced him Wednesday only to pay compensatory "blood...

We are here tonight because we love our country. We are proud of what America is and what it can become. My fellow Americans: we are here tonight united in one simple purpose: to make America stronger at home and respected in the world. A great American novelist wrote that you can't go home again. He could not have imagined this evening. Tonight, I am home. Home where my public life began and those who made it possible live. Home where our nation's history was written in blood, idealism, and hope. Home where my parents showed me the values of...

The Bush administration routinely suppresses, censors and distorts science on environmental and other issues, according to a major new report by a group of scientists. The scientists make the claim in a 38-page report in which they urge citizens, Congress and other scientists to push to "reverse this dangerour trend" and "restore scientific integrity to federal policymaking." "The report really coduments what we see as a disturbing and unprecedented pattern of misuse and misrepresentation of science by the Bush administration," said Kevin Knobloch, president of the 65,000-member Union of Concerned Scientists. The report claims that federal scientsts are muzzled, advisory...

ELECTION 2004 Kerry unrepentant for pro-Hanoi activism Local paper described him as 'closest thing to a male Jane Fonda' Posted: March 6, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: WorldNetDaily is pleased to have a content-sharing agreement with Insight magazine, the bold Washington publication not afraid to ruffle establishment feathers. Subscribe to Insight at WorldNetDaily's online store and save 71 percent off the cover price. By J. Michael Waller © 2004 Insight/News World Communications Inc. Since quitting the Navy six months early at age 27 so he could run for Congress on an antiwar platform, John Kerry has built a political...