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DALLAS - Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes said he is "more ashamed at myself than I've ever been" because he helped President Bush (news - web sites) and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas National Guard so they could avoid serving in Vietnam.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry called today for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign and urged President George Bush to appoint an independent group to recommend reforms after a report faulted all levels of the military for abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. “It’s not just the little person at the bottom who ought to pay the price of responsibility,” Kerry said at a Philadelphia union hall. “The buck doesn’t stop at the Pentagon.” A report released yesterday by an independent panel led by former Defence Secretary James Schlesinger concluded that senior US military leaders in Iraq and the...

The Republican National Convention may be two months away from opening in New York City, but scores of lawyers are already bracing for battle. The New York Civil Liberties Union has mounted a multifaceted "Protecting Protest" campaign that includes legal action against the city, filing three lawsuits in federal court in New York seeking an injunction to prevent the police from using heavy-handed practices to discourage protesters at the convention. The lawsuits do not seek to impede the police from doing their jobs, according to Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. The suits ask the...

Garrison Keillor doesn't beat about the Bush when he explains why he wrote "Homegrown Democrat.'' "I want to strengthen and encourage my fellow Democrats because I think they have been so extensively beaten up on, especially on radio, with Rush Limbaugh and 10,000 imitators,'' Keillor said in an interview before he left town for season-ending performances of his "A Prairie Home Companion" radio show. "There are people in this country who cannot comprehend why anyone would vote for a candidate other than George W. Bush. My book is addressed to that. This is an intuitive book, not a closely reasoned...

Bill and Teddy Will Be Heavyweight Opening Acts for Kerry - Hollywood contingency will be strong at Democratic Convention By Maria L. La Ganga, Times Staff Writer BOSTON — Former President Clinton will get the coveted primetime speaking slot on opening day of the Democratic convention here, while hometown favorite Sen. Edward M. Kennedy will speak during primetime on Day 2. Ben Affleck, Sean Astin, Larry David and two Baldwin brothers, Billy and Alec, are set to headline a sizeable Hollywood cast that also will be on hand, helping John F. Kerry accept his party's nomination for president next month....

Teresa Heinz Kerry, through a network of investments in blue-chip corporations, venture capital funds and municipal bonds, controls a family fortune worth an estimated $1 billion, an analysis of public records shows. The $1 billion figure is double the estimates of her wealth that are widely cited in news stories about her husband, Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. The couple would rank as the wealthiest to occupy the White House, far surpassing such storied presidential fortunes as the Kennedys'. Their assets are so vast and far-reaching that they mirror the U.S. economy and will probably...

The emergence of Senator John Kerry as a presidential candidate raises crucial questions about how bishops may react, seeing that he presents himself both as a staunchly pro-choice politician and as a practicing Catholic. The issue is of immediate moment, for it is a time when bishops across the United States -- including on Kerry's home turf of Boston -- have been issuing statements or even canonical declarations warning those who favor abortion to abstain from the Eucharist. Kerry represents Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate and hails from Boston. He has seized control of the Democratic primaries -- at least...

Most regular churchgoers want to re-elect President Bush. Most non-churchgoers plan to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate. That's the finding of a recent poll by the Pew Center for the People and the Press -- and it's a finding that Lexington's Albert M. Pennybacker hopes will change between now and November. Pennybacker, a former Lexington Theological Seminary professor, a Disciples of Christ minister and a lifelong Demo-crat, is chief executive officer of the Clergy Leadership Network, a new organization that hopes to mobilize thousands of moderate and liberal religious leaders before the Nov. 2 election. Due to the group's...

Democrats Caught Plotting to Worsen California's Budget Crisis You know the Democrats have done something awful when even the leftist Los Angeles Times breaks ranks and exposes them. "In a meeting they thought was private but was actually broadcast around the Capitol on Monday, 11 Assembly Democrats debated prolonging California's budget crisis to further their political goals." Members of Democratic Study Group, which has pushed to confiscate billions more dollars from taxpayers, failed to note that a microphone in a committee room in the state Capitol was on as they schemed about using the Dems' favorite tactic, obstructionism, to pressure...

Ah...I love the smell of toasted demoncRAT in the morning! Hip, hip, HOORAY!