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To: steve harris who wrote (280820)	3/19/2006 9:28:47 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575941

Rumsfeld: leaving Iraq like giving Nazis Germany Sun Mar 19, 4:28 AM ET Leaving Iraq now would be like handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a column published on Sunday, the third anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. "Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis," he wrote in an essay in The Washington Post. Rumsfeld said "the terrorists" were trying to fuel sectarian tensions to spark a civil war, but they must be "watching with fear" the progress in the country over the past three years. In London, former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Sunday that Iraq is in a civil war and is nearing the point of no return when the sectarian violence will spill over throughout the Middle East. "It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day, as an average, 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is," he told BBC television. Rumsfeld's view was that the Iraqi insurgency was failing. "The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. I believe that history will show that to be the case," he wrote. He said 75 percent of all military operations in Iraq include Iraqi security forces. "Today, some 100 Iraqi army battalions of several hundred troops each are in the fight, and 49 percent control their own battle space," Rumsfeld wrote. Thousands of anti-war protesters gathered in cities around the world for demonstrations on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Doubts about the Iraq war have helped drive down President George W. Bush's approval ratings to their lowest level. In a Newsweek poll released on Saturday, only 36 percent of Americans said they approved of his performance as president. Sixty-five percent disapprove of his handling of the situation in Iraq, once one of his strongest suits. Bush used his weekly radio address on Saturday to urge Americans to resist a temptation to retreat from Iraq, but opposition Democrats pressed him to offer a plan for drawing down U.S. troops and said Iraq was moving closer to a civil war. Rumsfeld wrote that if U.S. forces leave Iraq now, "there is every reason to believe Saddamists and terrorists will fill the vacuum -- and the free world might not have the will to face them again." A recent Le Moyne College/Zogby poll showed 72 percent of U.S. troops serving in Iraq think that the United States should exit within a year. Nearly one in four said the troops should leave immediately.

To: steve harris who wrote (280820)	3/19/2006 9:29:47 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 1575941

Boston Globe pushing Tattooing for Nursery School "Teachers" .............................................................. Visible Ink Tattoos come out from under, and show up for work Boston Globe ^ \| \| March 16, 2006 \| By Christopher Muther, Globe Staff There was no hesitation when preschool teacher Alex Campbell began the process of filling her lower leg with a bright orange koi swimming in a blue pond of labyrinthine waves. The intricate tattoo is not hidden under schoolmarm tights or practical slacks; instead it has become part of the lesson plan in her class at Corner Co-op Nursery School in Brookline. Campbell's students followed the process of their teacher getting a tattoo firsthand -- or as close as a 4-year-old can get to firsthand without stepping into a tattoo parlor. They talked about sketching, needles, and, most importantly, not touching Campbell's leg the day after she was tattooed. Campbell, who seldom wore skirts before getting her calf tattooed, has switched over to a wardrobe that is far more skirt-friendly to display her pricey body art. Her next step is getting a full arm tattoo (those in the know refer to a full arm tattoo as a sleeve). ''I asked a few parents about how they'd feel about a teacher with tattoos on her arm, and they were fine with it," the 37-year-old Brookline resident says. As tattooing reaches a mainstream crest thanks to shows such as ''Miami Ink," ''Inked," and even ''Meet the Barkers" and ''Prison Break," professionals such as Campbell are bringing more elaborate -- and more visible -- body art into the workplace. For Campbell, the tattoos were a non-issue at school, and even became a teaching tool that resonated with the tykes in her class. In the current tattoo-friendly climate, a number of white collar professionals are finding that body art is a helpful tool at the office -- a way to give a subtle nod and a wink to co-workers or clients that they run with a crowd that owns the new Arctic Monkeys CD ... (Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...

To: steve harris who wrote (280820)	3/19/2006 9:40:52 AM
From: paret	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575941

This will break your heart ..................................................... Big hurt: Washington Post's struggle Media Life Magazine ^ \| 3/17/06 \| Barton Biggs It’s the plight of so many American newspapers: declining circulation, flat or declining advertising revenues, rising newsprint costs. But it's a plight that seems to be hurting The Washington Post more. The Post announced just a week ago that it would be eliminating some 80 newsroom positions over the next year. That’s close to 10 percent of its reporters and editors. In some ways, the move isn’t really a surprise. Cuts and layoffs are increasingly common elsewhere. Not a week goes by that some paper somewhere in America isn't announcing yet another round of newsroom cuts. What's significant is who’s making the cuts. The Post is one of America’s most celebrated newspapers, a Pulitzer Prize winner times over, and also among the best-managed. Which raises the question: If one of America top papers is suffering so, what does it say for the future of all the rest? Post management is downplaying the staffing cuts, pointing out that they will come through attrition and buyouts, not layoffs. They also insist that the Post is in better shape financially than many papers. It's positioning the cuts as part of a larger plan that will actually improve overall news coverage. But the paper’s publisher is candid about the financial realities. "During the past year newspaper revenues have flattened while expenses--particularly newsprint--have continued to rise," Boisfeuillet Jones Jr. wrote in an internal memo to staff. The Post will not reveal circulation and ad revenue figures to Media Life, but data available elsewhere paints an alarming picture. Ad revenue is up just slightly over the past five years, to $783.5 million last year from $770.6 million in 2000, according to TNS Media Intelligence. But circulation has tumbled, falling by 137,695 for the weekday paper in the past decade, from 816,474 for the year ended Sept. 30, 1995 to 678,779 for the six-month period ended Oct. 2, 2005. That's a decline of 17 percent. That's according to numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the latter of which has not been audited yet and is based on publisher statements. If the Post must struggle to hold onto readers, other papers must be in real trouble, or so it would seem. Analyst John Morton says what the Post is experiencing is in some ways typical, the result of online publications taking a bigger bite out of print newspapers. He does not see that changing. “Generally speaking, their circulation will continue to decline,” Morton said yesterday. “I don’t know that there’s any solution.” What makes the Post unusual is that its circulation is sinking faster than that of many other newspapers around the country. And there are several reasons for it. One is sheer size. With such a huge circulation, among the largest in the country, the Post's subscriber losses will be that much greater in total numbers. Another, as Morton points out, is that the Post has enjoyed a deeper household penetration in its market. So as the city and the region change, as the ethnic mix shifts, the paper faces even greater challenges in maintaining those penetration levels. Too, the Post faces increasing competition, and not just from the internet. It now competes against two other dailies, the Washington Times and now the Washington Examiner. There are then a whole slew of free papers and magazines. “Big city newspapers are feeling it more because there are more choices in big cities,” says Morton. “There’s an awful lot of competition.” It’s still unclear how much the new, free, Washington Examiner is cutting into the Post’s readership. But Morton says that anytime you get a new entry into the market it’s bound to increase the pressure. Post management insists they will not cave into the pressures by compromising their high editorial standards, or allowing the overall quality of the paper to decline. But, if there’s a lesson in the Post’s woes, it’s that quality does not neccessarily hold the key to salvation. It certainly doesn't hold the key to halting the Post’s declining circulation numbers. So, how low could they eventually go? “I don’t have a clue,” Morton says. “And neither does anyone else.”

To: steve harris who wrote (280820)	3/19/2006 9:46:11 AM
From: paret	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575941

Another side of Senator Dick Durbin (Durbin supported military action against Iraq under Clinton) Dick Durbin Press Release ^ \| December 17, 1998 \| Dick Durbin web.archive.org For Immediate Release Contact: Melissa Merz (202) 224-7028 December 17, 1998 DURBIN STATEMENT ON MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAQ I fully support President Clinton and our national security team's decision to take swift action against Saddam Hussein. The attack against this dictator should come as no surprise. The record clearly shows that he has harassed American and United Nations inspectors, ordered the destruction of important documents in anticipation of inspections and hampered the ability of inspectors to carry out their mission. His defiant protection of his weapons of mass destruction cannot go unanswered. The mission has bipartisan support, including U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee; U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN); and U.S. Sen. John Warner (R-VA), incoming Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. I call on those who question the motives of the president and his national security advisors to join with the rest of America in presenting a united front to our enemies abroad. The men and women who are risking their lives in defense of our national and global security deserve nothing less.