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Politics : WHO IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2004 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (3075)	7/7/2003 12:13:14 AM
From: calgal	Respond to of 10965

Jul 3, 10:58 AM EDT Bush Thanks Mideast for Arrest of Suspect URL:http://ads.mm.ap.org/html.ng/Params.richmedia=yes&SITE=DCTMS&WEBSITE=CUSTOM_WIRE&SECTION=WORLD&PAGEPOS=2&ADSIZE=180x150&DYNAMIC=Stories WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush continued his effort to bolster support for the Palestinian prime minister, thanking Mahmoud Abbas via telephone for the arrest of an individual implicated in a rocket attack into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Bush "stressed that it's important for the Palestinian Authority to have a quote `no nonsense' approach to security," said White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. "The president concluded by thanking him again for this strong leadership and stated that he looks forward to continuing to work with him," the spokesman said. In the 10-minute call to Mahmoud Abbas, Bush urged the prime minister to continue to stay in touch and work with Americans and others sent to the region to help implement a way to achieve a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Fleischer said. "The president also thanked Prime Minister Abbas, and expressed his appreciation, for the arrest the Palestinian Authority has made of one of the individuals responsible for the rocket attack into Israel from the Gaza Strip," the spokesman said.

To: calgal who wrote (3075)	7/7/2003 12:43:20 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10965

Saddam's Counterattack Quit beating around the bush: America faces a guerrilla war. Monday, July 7, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT Historians will record the U.S. lightning march to Baghdad this spring as a great military achievement, but unfortunately the weeks since have shown that our victory remains incomplete. The sooner President Bush acknowledges and explains this truth, the quicker the public will rally to support him in the challenge that lies ahead. We say this not as critics of the war but as advocates who want to consolidate its many gains. The war's opponents have been exploiting the difficult aftermath to insist that it should never have been fought, and the polls for the first time show some erosion in public support. Especially as casualties mount, as they very well may, Mr. Bush has to explain why Americans are still fighting and dying in Iraq. One reason, clear enough in recent days, is that the remnants from Saddam Hussein's regime are mounting an anti-American guerrilla war. They have been joined by jihadis from around the world who see a chance to inflict enough casualties to undermine U.S. resolve and drive America home before a new Iraqi government can assert control. What is unfolding, in short, is a counterattack intended to deal the U.S. war on terror a dispiriting defeat. Saddam himself may be inspiring this guerrilla effort, whether from the grave or some bunker, as his taped message on the weekend purported to show. "Make the mujahedeen secure and catch any spies," he said on the tape broadcast on Al Jazeera. "We call on Iraqis who deal with the Americans to stop doing so." A day later seven young Iraqis were killed by a bomb that exploded as they were graduating to join the new U.S.-trained police force. Only days before that the former Sunni chief of Saddam's tribe who'd later disavowed him was assassinated. Like the sabotage against oil pipelines and electric plants, these killings are designed to sow fear among Iraqis that the Baathists can take revenge on anyone who works with the Americans. The Bush Administration has been slow to recognize and describe the nature of this threat. Its instinct has been to hunker down and compare security in Baghdad to the crime rate in Washington, D.C., or to Shays Rebellion after the American Revolution. These analogies understate the problem, to say the least. Criminals in the U.S. aren't lobbing mortar rounds into military bases or putting a bullet into a soldier in the gun seat of his Bradley Fighting Vehicle while guarding a Baghdad museum. By playing down the risks, American officials also invite the press corps to play gotcha and portray events as more dire than they are. The new U.S. offer of a $25 million reward for Saddam, and $15 million for either of his two sons, is a sign that the Bush Administration at least privately realizes the danger. The U.S. may have to go further and consider larger-scale detentions, especially in the Sunni-Baathist heartland north of Baghdad. The U.S. military doesn't like to hold prisoners, because it takes away resources from offensive operations, but perhaps this is a duty for some of the foreign troops the U.S. is recruiting. We'd also feel more encouraged if the U.S. began to rethink its strategy against military tribunals for the crimes and torture committed under Saddam's rule. In the best of all worlds, the decision on how to balance prosecution with reconciliation might have been left to a new Iraqi government. But with the Baathist-jihadi challenge, anti-terror prosecution is needed now as a tool of security and a sign that the old killers will never return. Iraqis afraid that the Baathists might come back need to be reassured by seeing their jailers punished. There is every reason to believe that the U.S. will eventually defeat this Baathist-terror counterattack, as completely as it did the Republican Guard in April. The guerrillas lack the kind of foreign sanctuary or great power patron that, for example, the North Vietnamese had. Presumably Mr. Bush has told the Syrians and Iranians that we will cross their borders in hot pursuit, or to root out terror bases, if those countries help the terrorists. And for all of the damage the counterattack is doing, life continues to improve for most Iraqis, especially in the south.But the first step toward that victory is recognizing the challenge, and explaining it to America with the same thoroughness and candor Mr. Bush displayed before he committed U.S. troops. The lesson we draw from American wars is that the public will accept casualties, even in large numbers, as long as it feels the cause warrants it and that its leaders have a strategy to succeed. As late as May of 1967, long into the war and after more than 10,300 U.S. deaths, 50% of the American public still supported the conflict in Vietnam. The public won't turn against the U.S. commitment in Iraq merely because of casualties. But it will turn if it thinks its leaders aren't being honest with them about the challenges we face or the sacrifices required to prevail. One certain way to undermine public trust is to fail to recognize that the systematic murder of friendly Iraqis is a sure sign of guerrilla war. It's far better for Mr. Bush to define the anti-guerrilla task now and on his terms, rather than wait for casualties to increase and have Howard Dean find a new and more receptive audience for his antiwar message later. URL:http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110003712

To: calgal who wrote (3075)	7/7/2003 1:01:44 AM
From: calgal	Respond to of 10965

JOHN FUND'S POLITICAL DIARY URL:http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110003704 Capital of Choice Will Congress finally enact vouchers for Washington, D.C.? Monday, July 7, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT WASHINGTON--Dozens of anxious Washington, D.C., parents crowded into a congressional hearing room late last month to express support for a school-choice bill that would let their kids escape the deplorable schools of the nation's capital. Choice supporters may finally get a highly visible demonstration project in a city with perhaps the nation's highest concentration of political and media elites. School choice has long been touted as a means to prod the District of Columbia's schools to improve, but teachers unions have always blocked Congress--which has ultimate authority over the district's government--from making choice a reality. This time things look to be different. Both Mayor Anthony Williams and School Board president Peggy Cooper Cafritz have now endorsed vouchers targeted at low-income district students. "Parents ought not be compelled to choose a public school, a charter school or a private school solely by default," the mayor told last month's congressional hearing. He sadly acknowledged that more than 70% of the district's fourth-graders score below basic proficiency in reading, and only 53% of high school sophomores score at or above basic reading levels. To explain his support for choice, Mayor Williams pointed to a raft of studies that show the positive impact of such programs. He noted that a recent study found that district students who currently attend private schools with help from the nonprofit Washington Scholarship Fund gained almost 10 percentile points in math and reading achievement after the first year. Democratic opponents of choice were remarkably subdued after Mayor Williams's testimony and that of Education Secretary Rod Paige. Rep. Bill Clay of Missouri noted that he had supported charter schools when in the state Legislature and now regretted doing so. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the House delegate from the District of Columbia, engaged in a desultory exchange with Mr. Paige about the record of choice programs he had implemented while superintendent of schools in Houston. Just when choice supporters began to wonder if the fire had gone out of the other side, Rep. Todd Platts, a Pennsylvania Republican, began peppering Mayor Williams with questions. Mr. Platts noted proudly that he had always opposed school choice during his 11-year record in public office because he believed "that if there are problems in the public schools we should solve them for all students and not just some." That may be fine for some folks, Mayor Williams responded evenly, but the district schools are in crisis. He likened it to an emergency room: "If I'm a doctor, am I supposed to say to victims who walk through the door that I won't treat you unless I can treat everyone? I think not. I think we have to help those we can. I also think the others can be helped if the public schools are spurred to action." Mr. Platts nonetheless pushed on with his efforts to discredit the choice bill. Later, one of his Republican colleagues complained about Mr. Platts: "The teacher unions have apparently found their spokesman to attack the bill, and they think their arguments will have more impact if they come from a Republican." We'll see if Mr. Platts repeats his performance when the choice bill reaches the House floor later this month (it is scheduled for a final committee vote Thursday). After last month's hearing, elated parents spilled out of the committee room to attend a nearby picnic and rally for school choice. They eagerly watched as several pro-choice members of Congress, among them Jeff Flake(R., Ariz.), Marilyn Musgrave (R., Colo.) and Melissa Hart (R., Pa.), announced the winners of a drawing that awarded Washington Scholarship Fund grants to deserving parents who could not afford to send their kids to a private school. The parents attending the picnic form an impressive lobbying force that has been missing in previous choice battles in the district. One commented that the elected officials in Washington who oppose choice have exercised it for their own kids. Only one of Washington's City Council members, Republican Carol Schwartz, is known to have sent her children to the local public schools. Rhoi Wangila, who immigrated from Uganda a decade ago, said that when she came to this country she quickly realized that without a good education her child might be little better off than in her native land. "The choice scholarship made all the difference for my kid, and I hope my good fortune can be shared by others," echoed Tanza Coullette, who daily scrimps to save the tuition money her private scholarship does not cover. Opposition to school choice has been generally successful in limiting choice experiments to a handful of places such as Florida, Milwaukee and Cleveland. But last year's Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of Cleveland's voucher program has spurred renewed efforts to pass choice legislation in the states. Now Congress is poised to take up the subject despite filibuster threats by some Democratic senators. Should choice gain a foothold in the nation's capital, its prospects for spreading nationally would brighten. Any success it had here would happen under the noses of much of the nation's political and media elites and undermine the moral standing of choice opponents. That is why this summer's battle for choice in Washington will have implications far beyond the Beltway.

To: calgal who wrote (3075)	7/7/2003 1:05:33 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10965

What happened on July 7 in American history. Hawaii became a U.S. Territory this day, July 7, 1898, as President McKinley signed the Treaty of Annexation. Discovered by Captain James Cook in 1778, the islands were soon united by King Kamehamaha. After his death, his son, with his mother as prime minister, abolished their pagan religion which included human sacrifice. The next year the first missionaries arrived from New England, creating a written language and translating the Bible. Hawaii's Motto, "The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness," was first uttered by Queen Ke'opuolani as she was baptized into the Christian faith. Ka'ahumanu, Queen Regent-Prime Minister of Hawaii. The State Motto of Hawaii, first uttered by Queen Ke'opuolani, wife of King Kamehameha II, as she was baptized into the Christian faith before her death in 1825, and reiterated by King Kamehameha III at Kawaiaha'o Church for the return of his kingdom in 1843. The State of Hawaii, December 30, 1993, issued an Executive Proclamation declaring February 12 - 22, 1994, as "Christian Heritage Week," signed by Governor John Waihee, in the Capitol City of Honolulu. Courtesy of Bruce Barilla, Christian Heritage Week Ministry (P.O. Box 58, Athens, W.V. 24712; 304-384-7707, 304-384-9044 fax). URL:http://www.townhall.com/americanminute/