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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (24182)	1/13/2004 3:49:40 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793928

BORDERS: President Bush last week unveiled a new plan to address the disaster and the crisis that is US immigration policy. Conservatives immediately attacked the proposal. Why? Because it rewards lawbreakers. Liberals immediately attacked the proposal. Why? Because Bush proposed it. One thing should be clear: We need a debate in this country over immigration. This is a national security issue at least as much as an economic issue. No nation fighting terrorists can afford to have porous borders. Today there are millions of illegal immigrants in the US, including hundreds of thousands who have been ordered out of the country - but who can't be deported because they have melted into the population. At a time of war, the government needs to know who is coming into the country and what foreign visitors are doing while they are here..... ....KEY QUESION: Every presidential candidate, Democrat and Republican alike, should be asked these questions: Did 9/11 change your views about national security? If so, how exactly? What did you not understand before 9/11 that you have come to comprehend since 9/11? FROM THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI: As part of Muammar Gaddafi's new charm offensive, Libyan officials - including Gaddafi's son -- have been meeting with Israeli officials. "Libya clearly feels that the road to the White House passes through Israel," said Ra'anan Gissin, a senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This is obviously a subsidiary benefit of America's use of force in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Americans - and Israelis as well - should not lose sight of how oppressive Gaddafi remains at home, and the extent to which he supports dictators in Africa. And Gaddafi's promises to disarm and end his support for terrorism deserve more verification than trust. AHEAD OF THE CURVE I "We witnessed three global wars in the past century. Only a decade ago we ended WWIII, also known as the Cold War. But a new enemy has been on the march and we have entered a dangerous but subtler conflict: World War IV. This is not only a war against terrorism but also a war for democracy and for freedom." - Ambassador R. James Woolsey, FDD White Paper, May 2003 "What you are witnessing is why Sept. 11 amounts to World War III - the third great totalitarian challenge to open societies in the last 100 years." - Thomas Friedman column, The New York Times, January 8, 2004 AHEAD OF THE CURVE II "A key failing has been to assume that the tactics of the terrorists are and will remain constant. For example, the debate over whether airline passengers should or should not be 'profiled' was largely based on the false assumption that future atrocities would be carried out by operatives with easily recognizable characteristics: 'young Arab males.' For a few years now, al-Qaida has recognized that this is a potential vulnerability of its activities and has looked to recruit so-called 'White Moors.'" - Andrew Apostolou, FDD White Paper, November 24, 2003 "Although Whitehall sources strongly denied suggestions that UK passport holders were suspected in the threat to British Airways, telephone intercepts seen by this newspaper make clear that Islamist terror cells are deliberately targeting 'well-educated' foreigners, Britons among them. In one call, an unidentified jihadist tells a colleague: 'We need foreigners. We have Albanians, Swiss and English... all that is important is that they are of a high cultural level ... businessmen, professors, engineers, doctors and teachers.' The focus on well-educated, capable and highly committed 'foreigners' was a hallmark of the al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, which ran a strict selection policy for its students." - The Observer (UK), January 4, 2004 - Clifford D. May defenddemocracy.org

To: michael97123 who wrote (24182)	1/13/2004 7:57:42 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793928

"President Bartlett" stumps for Dean. POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Fictional president and Hollywood director stump for Dean BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, January 13, 2004 ©2004 Associated Press URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/01/13/politics1840EST0743.DTL (01-13) 16:09 PST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean got some star-powered help Tuesday from a man who is president, at least on TV. Martin Sheen, who plays the fictional President Bartlett on NBC's political drama "The West Wing," stumped for Dean in western Iowa, along with director Rob Reiner, another outspoken Hollywood Democratic activist. The two made a similar swing through Iowa for Al Gore in 2000. "We're going into areas where there are a lot of undecideds," Sheen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "We're just going to try to get people to caucus and focus on what's ahead and who can win, and we're convinced that it's Howard Dean. And it all starts here." Added Reiner: "They're pretty motivated anyway, but we're here to just keep people's eyes on the ball." Both Sheen and Reiner say they like Dean, Vermont's former governor, for his early and continued opposition to the Iraq war. There are several parallels between Dean and Sheen's character. Both were liberal governors of New England states who are married to doctors and eager to shake up the establishment, Sheen said. Reiner and Sheen began their two-day visit in Council Bluffs, where they spoke to a crowd in a hotel lobby. On Wednesday, Sheen was helping send Dean off on a bus tour as the campaign to win Iowa's caucuses draws to a close. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Several Democratic Party leaders in Arkansas and former advisers to the Clinton administration are hitting the road in New Hampshire on Saturday to campaign for Wesley Clark, already a favorite of many Clintonites. The volunteers, including former Sens. Dale Bumpers and David Pryor, will pair up Saturday and canvass throughout New Hampshire before joining Clark for an afternoon rally, Clark spokesman Bill Buck said. Clark's connections to Clinton come without the former president's endorsement or that of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Clintons have declined to endorse any of the nine Democrats seeking the nomination. In December, the Clark campaign sent a planeload of volunteers from Little Rock, Ark., to New Hampshire in the middle of a snowstorm hoping they could connect with voters the way Bill Clinton's "Arkansas Travelers" did in 1992. Clinton relieved Clark from duty as supreme allied commander because his defense secretary, William Cohen, had clashed with Clark during the Kosovo campaign and had recommended his removal. Later, he presented Clark the Presidential Medal of Freedom. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Howard Dean won the endorsement of Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi on Tuesday while Wesley Clark earned the support of Rep. Martin Frost of Texas. Thompson, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, cited Dean's efforts to develop and help rural America. Frost praised Clark, a former Army general, for his service and leadership. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Andrew Grossman, resigned on Tuesday, the second senior aide to announce his departure since late last year. Grossman will be replaced by David Rudd, a former chief of staff to Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C. Five southern Democrats have announced plans to retire next year, making that region pivotal to the battle for control of the Senate, which has 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one Democratic-leaning independent. The staff change was announced by Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., the committee chairman, who praised Grossman and said he was "leaving to pursue other opportunities in national Democratic politics." Grossman was originally tapped for the post after the 2002 elections by Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D, according to several party officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. These officials added Corzine and Grossman had a poor relationship, and sometimes went long periods of time without speaking to one another. One Democrat described the two as working "in separate silos" in an effort to prepare for the 2004 elections. Mike Siegel, the former communications director whom Corzine had recruited, resigned late last year.