[fire_mat99]

well goes to show

[fire_mat99]

Bush: talk of strike on Iran is ridiculous

Europe's fears about an imminent military strike against Iran are "simply ridiculous", the US president, George Bush, declared last night, using blunt language to allay widespread concern about another unilateral attack by the US.
As police fired water cannon at hundreds of demonstrators protesting in the centre of Brussels against Mr Bush's visit, the president praised Europe's efforts to persuade Iran to abandon plans to develop nuclear weapons.

Mr Bush said he was being offered "good advice" by Europeans: "Great Britain, Germany and France are negotiating with the ayatollahs to achieve our common objective. This notion that the US is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. Having said that, all options are on the table."

Mr Bush's remarks echoed a setpiece speech on Monday, in which he applauded European diplomacy and made clear that, for the moment, he had no intention of attacking Iran.

But his colourful language last night showed that he felt the need to do more to reassure Europeans.

Mr Bush experienced at first hand the widespread European anger at his presidency; he could hear protesters as he left the headquarters of the European Council. Police fired water cannon at demonstrators after a petrol bomb landed among police in riot gear, injuring a police officer.

Behind a ring of security, European leaders were all smiles as Mr Bush embarked on the most intense day of his trip, with back-to-back summits at the headquarters of Nato and the EU. But the limits of the new transatlantic love-in were highlighted yesterday when Jacques Chirac, the French president, and Mr Bush clashed over China.


Mr Bush voiced "deep con cern" about EU plans to lift its arms embargo on China. "There is deep concern in our country that a transfer of weapons would be a transfer of technology to China, which would change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan, and that's of concern," Mr Bush said after the Nato summit.

Within minutes of the remarks, Mr Chirac insisted that the embargo was "no longer justified", a message he had delivered over dinner with his US counterpart on Monday night. Mr Chirac, an accomplished English speaker, addressed Mr Bush in French throughout the dinner.

Less than 24 hours later, Mr Chirac kicked off yesterday's Nato summit with a lecture on how the US should do more to listen to Europe. He said: "Europe and the United States are true partners, which is why we need dialogue and to listen to each other more."

Mr Chirac then threw his weight behind Germany's call for a major overhaul of Nato. Mr Bush made clear that he had doubts about the German plan when he described Nato as the most successful alliance in the history of the world.

But he was encouraged when Mr Chirac praised his efforts to create a "real partnership".

[fire_mat99]

Bush Stresses Diplomacy With Iran

WASHINGTON- President Bush said Friday the United States does not intend to attack Iran to crush its suspected nuclear weapons project but added that ``you never want a president to say never.´´ He expressed hopes that a European diplomatic initiative would persuade Tehran to abandon any such program.

In interviews with European journalists at the White House, Bush was asked about an opinion poll showing that 70 percent of Germans believe the United States is planning military action against Iran.

``I hear all these rumors about military attacks, and it´s just not the truth,´´ said Bush, who leaves Sunday for Europe to mend fences with allies. ``We want diplomacy to work.´´

The president sat down for a series of broadcast interviews with correspondents from Russia, France, Belgium, Slovakia and Germany in connection with a five-day trip to Europe. There were repeated questions about whether the United States would attack Iran.

``Listen, first of all, you never want a president to say ´never.´ But military action is certainly not _ it´s never the president´s first choice. Diplomacy is always the president´s first _ at least my first choice.´´

Bush said he supports European nations´ efforts to persuade Iran to scrap its uranium enrichment program in exchange for technological, financial and political support. But he did not address U.S. reservations about Europe´s approach. The United States has refused to get involved in the bargaining with Tehran or to make commitments, insisting that Iran abandon its program.

``I believe diplomacy can work so long as the Iranians don´t divide Europe and the United States,´´ Bush said. ``There´s a lot more diplomacy to be done.´´

Bush said he applauds efforts by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and other leaders for sending a clear message to Iran.

``They know what they need to do,´´ Bush said of Iran. ``And so what they are trying to do is kind of wiggle out.´´

He said Iranians think they don´t have to do anything because the Americans are not involved.

``Well, America is involved,´´ Bush said. ``We´re in close consultation with our friends.´´

``We´ve got a common goal,´´ the president said. ``And that is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. ... If we continue to speak with one voice and not let them split us up, and keep the pressure on them, we can achieve the objective.´´

Bush also said Iran should stop supporting Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon because this could threaten the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Iran is on record as firmly opposed to any peace process that might legitimatize Israel´s presence as a Jewish state in the Middle East.

Asked if trusted Iran, Bush said, ``Well, it´s hard to trust a regime that doesn´t trust their own people.´´

The president also said that he and his French counterpart, Jacques Chirac, should set their differences aside to focus on the Middle East, Lebanon and other issues. Bush said he and Chirac would send a clear signal to Syria that it must remove its soldiers from Lebanon and that ``we´re very serious about this.´´

Bush said he would talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin about actions widely viewed as a retreat from democracy. ``I mean, he´s done some things that (have) concerned people,´´ Bush said. But Bush also emphasized that he has ``a good relationship´´ with Putin and would talk with him ``in a friendly way´´ about Western values based on the rule of law, openness, freedom of expression and checks and balances in government.

``We don´t need a fresh start in my personal relationship with Vladimir Putin,´´ Bush said. ``We´re friends. And that´s important.´´

Bush said Putin ``sees clearly the common enemy´´ in the war on terrorism and ``he knows you got to be tough and resolute and strong.´´

The president also said he would join Putin in Moscow on May 9 when Russia marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

In an interview with Germany´s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Bush said he disagrees with Schroeder over the future role of NATO.

At a security conference in Munich last weekend, Schroeder suggested a move away from NATO as a place to coordinate policy, saying the alliance ``is no longer the primary venue where trans-Atlantic partners discuss and coordinate strategies.´´

Bush rejected that idea, telling the newspaper that NATO remains ``vital.´´

[fire_mat99]

Report: China's Consumer Society Booming

WASHINGTON - For decades, while China was closed to business from the United States, American companies lusted over the boundless merchandise market that such a big country was certain to offer one day. Now that day has come: China has surpassed the United States in consumption of every basic food, energy and industrial commodity except oil.



The Chinese have overtaken the Americans in refrigerators, watch 1 1/2 times as many television sets and use 1-2/3 as many cell phones. Only in automobiles does China still lag, with barely one-tenth the number of motor vehicles the United States has on its roads.


A report released Wednesday by the environmental advocate Earth Policy Institute said, however, that per capita consumption in China remains far below that of the United States.


China's 1.3 billion people ate 64 million tons of meat in 2004, for instance, compared with 38 million tons consumed by the 297 million people in the United States. That's an annual intake of 108 pounds of meat — mainly pork, with half the world's pigs in China — for every Chinese and 279 pounds of steak, hot dogs and fried chicken for every American.


Fertilizer to grow more food is a measure of more growth to come in China's food consumption. It was double that of the United States in 2004, and both countries cover roughly 3.8 million square miles.


Steel is the commodity that most reflects a modernizing country, and China was using more than twice as much as the United States by 2003. "Steel consumption has climbed to levels not seen in any other country," the report said.


The consumption report said American dominance in automobiles — 226 million to 24 million — is one reason the United States uses three times as much oil as China. Another major fossil fuel product, coal, amounts to two-thirds of China's energy consumption, and its homes and factories burn 40 percent more than those in the United States.


The report was issued on the day the Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites) was enacted by 35 industrialized states. The protocol is designed to cut into pollutants caused by fossil fuels, the so-called greenhouse gases.


The protocol has no effect on greenhouse gas production in either country. As negotiated, the protocol considers China a developing country that needs not cut back. The United States withdrew from the protocol four years ago.


To feed its consumption, China imports massive quantities of grain, soybeans, iron ore, aluminum, platinum and many other products, which the report said puts its economy "at the center of the world raw materials economy. Its voracious appetite for materials is driving up not only commodity prices but ocean shipping rates as well."


Many of those goods come through government-to-government agreements from countries rich in resources, such as Brazil, Kazakhstan, Russia, Indonesia and Australia. Ironically, China keeps its trade balance stable partly by maintaining the largest trade surplus of any country ever with the United States, $162 billion in 2004. That was one-fourth of the overall record $617.7 billion U.S. trade deficit.

[Wino]

Originally Posted by fire_mat99

Bush Stresses Diplomacy With Iran

After the mess he got us into with Iraq, what did you expect? Mr. Swagger Stagger may be stupid, but he's not crazy.

[rawmeat]

Originally Posted by Wino

After the mess he got us into with Iraq, what did you expect? Mr. Swagger Stagger may be stupid, but he's not crazy.

Define mess!

Let's see, the predictions when he resumed the war with Iraq were that there would be tens of thousands of US deaths (very wrong), Saddam would use his WMDs to cause more death to US and Iraqi civilians (wrong again), that they could never have an election (wrong again), that it would not cause other countries to behave more civilly (wrong, Lybia and as of this weekend even Syria turns over Saddam's brother).

Yes, there have been many trajedies for the US service men and women that have been killed or wounded, but the cost of freedom is high and the numbers of killed and wounded are a pittance compared to previous wars where the world waited and tried to appease tyrants and dictators. Appeasement of tyrants NEVER works, NEVER! Learn from history, talking tough and occasionaly backing it up, especially when the goal is NOT occupation but freedom, does work. It is not easy, pretty or for the faint of heart (liberals anymore, what ever happened to FDR, Truman, & Kennedy). We need a strong liberal counterpoint to keep the debate open, but the vicious hatred of many liberals (you know who you are Linsky) is not helping the situation at all. As for an exit strategy, when is FDR/Truman going to explain their exit strategy from Japan and Germany? Exit strategies are for losers, winners exit when the time is right. That means that we should get out of Japan and Germany ASAP, they don't need us anymore. Korea is another topic alltogether. How to deal with a "percieved" madman ( I know Linsky thinks that is President Bush)? I believe that the current path of having the 6-way talks is the only decent path as they are all threatened by this kook. It is funny how Bush gets slammed for being "unilateral" in Iraq with 30 countries in the coalition, yet gets slammed for not instigating unilateral talks with N. Korea and insisting on the 6-way talks.

[fire_mat99]

Bush's New Intelligence Czar

After more than 40 years, serving under every President since Kennedy in such trouble spots as Vietnam, Honduras and Iraq, U.S. ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte, 65, is the consummate diplomat—discreet, deliberate and always careful choosing his words, whether in English, French, Greek, Spanish or Vietnamese. So a day after President Bush nominated him to be the nation's first Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Negroponte's brief exchange at a breakfast with the ambassadors representing the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council was telling. Asked by a diplomat whether he should "congratulate you or offer condolences on your nomination," Negroponte replied simply, with a dose of dry, self-deprecating wit that he doesn't often reveal, "Both."

Given the enormous responsibilities about to be thrust upon his shoulders and the less than clear powers he will have to carry them out, any ambivalence Negroponte might have about his promotion would be understandable. As the government's new intelligence czar and the President's primary intelligence adviser—a position created late last year by Congress after fierce lobbying by the 9/11 commission and families of the 9/11 victims—Negroponte has the job of making sure that the kinds of intelligence stumbles that led up to 9/11 and the sorts of miscalculations about Iraq's WMD programs don't happen again. Or, as Bush put it more delicately when announcing Negroponte's nomination, of ensuring "that our intelligence agencies work as a single, unified enterprise."

That is easier said than done. If confirmed by the Senate, Negroponte would oversee parts of 15 different agencies, including the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, agencies whose willingness to share closely guarded secrets is notoriously poor and whose suspicion of one another is strong. CIA Director Porter Goss and FBI Director Robert Mueller, for instance, still haven't worked out a lingering turf war over some aspects of human intelligence gathering, and the White House recently ordered that they get it done, sources tell TIME.


Bush went out of his way to say that Negroponte will deliver the President's daily intelligence briefing and will have ultimate authority over the nation's sprawling intel apparatus, including an estimated $40 billion annual budget. But considering how vague the legislation that established the DNI is, Negroponte's ability to actually do that is an open question. In fact, his position puts him smack in the middle of what could be the nastiest bureaucratic battle in Washington for years to come: a tussle over money with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, considered an almost unmatched infighter.

Until now, Rumsfeld controlled roughly 80% of total intelligence spending, but now that control will have to be shared.

Negroponte won't have to fight alone. His deputy, Bush announced, will be Air Force Lieut. General Michael Hayden, who has overseen electronic eavesdropping and code breaking for the intelligence community as chief of the highly secretive National Security Agency for the past six years. Diminutive and bookish in appearance, Hayden, 59, has already shown himself willing to stand up to Rumsfeld. A former senior U.S. official told TIME that while Rumsfeld made it clear that he thought Hayden, who supported intelligence reform after 9/11 and the Iraqi WMD fiasco, "was not right-thinking on these matters," Hayden nevertheless testified to Congress in favor of serious reform last August. "It was very clear that the Secretary was displeased," said the former official.

For the chattering classes of Washington, the selection of Negroponte came as a surprise. During the two-month search for a nominee, candidates with intelligence or military backgrounds were bandied about, including General Tommy Franks and 9/11 Commission co-chairs Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton. Several individuals were felt out about their interest in the job, including former CIA Director Robert Gates, who was not interested. The President had initially resisted creating the post, and many observers had come to conclude it would be largely ceremonial, but Bush repeatedly told his chief of staff Andrew Card that he wanted "a workhorse, not a show horse," for the job. Negroponte, who shuns the limelight and almost never goes public with a dispute, fit the bill perfectly.

Though Negroponte has no formal intel background, he's an experienced consumer of intelligence, having headed five U.S. diplomatic missions. His well-tested skills as a diplomat may be particularly valuable. "He understands the power centers in Washington," Bush said of Negroponte. "That was code to the intelligence agencies that John is not going to rock the boat," says Leslie Gelb, a former Defense and State Department official and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. "He's not going to try to pound the table and create a revolution. The agencies would blow up anybody who would try. He'll get them in the room, get them talking to each other, and if Bush wants a particular thing done, he will get it done."

Negroponte's patrician manner belies what friends and enemies alike say is a hard-headed resolve.

As valuable as he could be in his new role, some question the wisdom of pulling Negroponte out of Baghdad at such a critical moment. With Iraq's freshly elected National Assembly about to start writing a new Constitution, and the American exit strategy waiting to be negotiated, "this is the worst possible time to be sending in a newcomer," says a Western diplomat in the country. "This is a time when the U.S. would want an ambassador here who already has built up close contacts with Iraqi leaders." Negroponte has won plaudits for having a light touch with local officials, always offering advice rather than giving orders.

The son of a Greek shipping magnate, Negroponte was brought up amid privilege in New York City, attending boarding school at Exeter and college at Yale, where he played a mean game of poker and one of his classmates was CIA Director Goss, who will soon be reporting to him.

After graduation, he joined the foreign service and was posted first to Hong Kong, then in 1964 to Vietnam. There he attracted the attention of a visiting Harvard professor named Henry Kissinger, who brought Negroponte to the National Security Council during the Nixon Administration, but the two fell out when Negroponte complained to his boss that the Paris peace talks had essentially sold out the South Vietnamese. As Secretary of State, Kissinger sent him next to the relative backwaters of Ecuador and Greece.

At the beginning of the Reagan Administration, Negroponte snagged what seemed to be a plum assignment in Honduras. As the base for U.S.-backed contra rebels fighting the Sandinistas in neighboring Nicaragua, Honduras was vital to Washington's anti-communist policies in Central America. But if Negroponte and his wife hadn't ended up adopting five Honduran children, he would probably just as soon have forgotten his tenure there. The posting proved to be the black mark in his career. He was accused of turning a blind eye to human-rights abuses by the Honduran government; he says he saw no evidence of them. Just as the U.S. is being criticized for abusing and torturing suspects in the war on terrorism, critics are sure to try to make that period an issue in his confirmation hearings.

By the time the second Bush Administration came into power, Negroponte thought he had left public service for good. Having finished his career with stints on the NSC and in the Philippines and Mexico, he had moved on to earn a great deal more money as a vice president for global markets at publisher McGraw-Hill. But his restlessness with corporate life led him to reach out to his old boss at the NSC, Colin Powell, and soon he was representing the U.S. at the U.N., working to persuade members of the necessity of war against Iraq. His U.N. tenure may soon seem like a picnic compared with his next assignment. In part owing to the White House's reservations about making drastic changes, the bill establishing the DNI was written with more than enough ambiguity for Rumsfeld and Goss to exploit if they so choose. For instance, the White House resisted giving the new intelligence czar so-called tasking authority over the CIA director, according to one expert, meaning that in practice, Negroponte can't, say, order up CIA action.

While nominally handing massive new budget powers to the DNI, the law also makes clear that he will not "abrogate the statutory responsibilities" of any existing intelligence-related agency. That could be used by the Pentagon to justify holding onto the purse strings. Because of Rumsfeld's reluctance to challenge Bush's authority directly, it's unlikely Rumsfeld will openly take on Negroponte, but that does not mean he won't assert his will in more subtle ways, such as keeping him out of the loop on small budget issues or stonewalling him on information requests.

Negroponte's introduction to the intel community went well, at least.

House intelligence committee chairman Peter Hoekstra, a Republican, said that at a retreat late last week for the heads of the 15 intelligence agencies and the committee—which another source said was held at The Farm, the CIA's secret training facility—Goss, Hayden, Mueller, Rumsfeld's intelligence aide Stephen Cambone and the others got along well and that all seemed ready to help Negroponte succeed. "I think they're all genuinely excited about him coming on board. I talked to Porter. He's thrilled," said Hoekstra. "I think all of these folks recognize that this is where the President wants to go."

In the end, whether Negroponte succeeds or fails in his new job will depend largely on the force of his personality as well as the strength of his relationship with the President. After the announcement of his nomination, Negroponte returned to the State Department. While grabbing a snack in the cafeteria, he bumped into a fellow ambassador, who complimented him for maintaining the element of surprise until the President was ready to break the big news. "The first requirement of the national director of intelligence," Negroponte deadpanned, "is being able to keep a secret." But unless the officeholder can make sure secrets are as well shared as they are guarded, no one will be laughing.

[fire_mat99]

suicide bomber drove into a crowd of people

Just one day after security officials in Iraq announced they'd nabbed a key insurgent leader, a suicide bomber drove into a crowd of people lined up outside a government building looking for work and detonated his device – at least 115 people were killed.

About 133 were also wounded in the blast, officials said, which was the single bloodiest attack in the country's post-Saddam era. The worst day was in March last year, when 170 were killed in a series of bombings in Baghdad and Kerbala.

The explosion happened Monday in Hilla, about 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, and the aftermath was horrific – smoke billowed up from the wreckage and the blast left dozens of bodies strewn on the streets.

The job seekers were reportedly lined up outside the building to get health certificates that are needed to apply for government jobs.

Health officials were calling on people to donate blood and doctors from neighbouring cities were asked to help.

And in a second attack, one police officer was killed and several others were hurt when another car bomb blew up at a police check point in Musayyib, north of Hilla.

On Sunday Syria handed over Saddam’s half brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, along with 29 others. He was apparently organizing the insurgency from Syria.

American military officials named him number 36, or the six of diamonds, on a list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis. Under Saddam, he was responsible for internal security and he is accused of torturing and killing political opponents.

Syrian officials nabbed al-Hassan in their country, near the Iraqi border, but they wouldn’t say when he was caught. The U.S., Israel and the United Nations have accused Syria of helping and harbouring radical groups in the Middle East

[fire_mat99]

Hundreds of residents were out power

Hundreds of residents were forced to bundle up in some extra layers after a hydro problem cut power to a downtown neighbourhood Saturday.

The blackout came at the same time an extreme cold weather alert had been issued for the city. Crews finally restored the electricity late Saturday night after the lights went out earlier that morning.

Two blown underground cables at a Charles Street substation were to blame for the outage that hit St. Jamestown around 2am. There was no power from Bloor to Carlton Street and from Church to Parliament Street.

Twelve neighbourhood high rises and about 2,000 people were plunged into darkness, including Cristina Pimenta and her 15-month-old baby, who spent part of the night at a relative’s apartment because of the cold.

“We had to put on bonnet on her head just to make sure that she doesn't feel the cold because I'm living upstairs on the ninth floor, and it's a bit colder in the ninth floor than here in the third floor,” she explained.

Blair Peberdy, vice president of Toronto Hydro, said three underground crews were called in to work on the unusual problem.

“It's not very common at all that you get two cables blowing,” he said.

Underground power cables should last about 40 to 60 years and on Sunday Toronto Hydro will try to figure out how and why they malfunctioned.

[fire_mat99]

What are they saying

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish clinic that allows women to adopt frozen embryos to save them from scientific research said Monday 14 women were pregnant with adopted embryos.

The Barcelona clinic launched a scheme last year to allow embryos left over from fertility treatment and destined for stem cell research to be implanted into women.


Tens of thousands of embryos are currently frozen in Spain and the launch of the program coincided with the government allowing scientists to use them for research.


Scientists believe investigation on stem cells -- master cells with the potential to grow into any human cell or tissue -- could provide cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's.


The Institut Marques said couples who had lost a child, infertile couples, and single and homosexual women were among those who had decided to have an embryo implanted.


But there were also women who wanted to save the frozen embryo from being used in scientific research. Opponents of stem cell research including the Roman Catholic Church say it is unethical to destroy a human embryo.


"There are also couples who already have children and for ethical reasons consider this a new kind of parenthood, to provide a solution for a leftover embryo and avoid its use in research," Dr. Olga Serra, head of the program said in a note.


Infertile couples can already receive embryos from other couples but they tend to ask for embryos with certain characteristics, such as race or hair color.


This scheme -- which the Barcelona clinic says is the first of its kind -- aims to find parents for the embryos, not babies to couples' specifications.


The clinic said about a third of the people who had shown an interest in the embryo adoption program were from outside Spain, with most coming from France, Italy and Portugal.

[fire_mat99]

The Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them
Report from the Oakland Docks

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003...ason8apr03.htm

[fire_mat99]

The Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling further narrows the application of the death penalty. It's time to abolish it.

The U.S. Supreme Court has been chipping away at the rationale for capital punishment in recent years. Yesterday, the court pulled another brick from the wobbly edifice, ruling in a 5-4 vote that the death penalty cannot be used against convicted killers who committed their crimes when they were juveniles.
This is from a story in The Washington Post:
" 'From a moral standpoint, it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor's character deficiencies will be reformed,' Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in the opinion for the court.

" 'Our determination,' Kennedy added, 'finds confirmation in the stark reality that the United States is the only country in the world that continues to give official sanction to the juvenile death penalty.'

"The ruling was the second time in three years the court had carved out a new categorical exception to the death penalty, having banned capital punishment for the moderately mentally retarded in 2002. It came after 59 people were executed in 2004, the fewest since the Supreme Court permitted states to resume the death penalty in 1976. That decline is the result in part of lower murder rates and in part of events such as the exoneration of some death row inmates by DNA evidence.

"Thus, the ruling showed that society's reconsideration of capital punishment has penetrated the court, with the four liberal justices who joined Kennedy yesterday — John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer — pushing hardest to change capital punishment with the occasional help of either Kennedy or his fellow moderate conservative on the court, Sandra Day O'Connor."

Numerous newspapers — including The New York Times, New York Newsday, The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe.
The Globe editorial makes what I consider to be the strongest case, though all of the major papers that weighed in offer compelling arguments. Here is the Globe:

"This page opposes capital punishment in all cases, but the practice has been especially difficult to justify for juvenile defendants. Society declares that minors are not mature enough to vote, drink, marry without a parent's permission, or serve on a jury, but somehow they have been responsible enough to be subject to the country's most extreme sanction. Yesterday's decision is a victory for logic as well as justice."
Newsday echoes this line of reasoning:

"Juveniles are different. It's why they aren't allowed to legally possess alcohol or serve on juries or even to see certain movies. They aren't considered responsible enough to share those privileges that adults take for granted. Given such routine distinctions based on age and lack of maturity, the idea that juveniles should be considered equal to adults in the eyes of the law when it comes to the ultimate criminal penalty is ludicrous."

The key to all of this, in my mind, is that the court has been limiting the application of the death penalty in recent years. First, there was the 2002 decision involving the mentally retarded, and now juveniles. The questions becomes, who will be excluded next? And at what point will the American public finally find the gaping holes that exist in our death penalty system to be no longer acceptable?

I'll give the Globe the final word on the issue:
"Capital executions are far from fail-safe, do not deter crime, are applied arbitarily from state to state, discriminate against the poor, and brutalize society by accepting retributive violence. A life sentence without the possibility of parole is the appropriate sanction for heinous crimes in a decent society."

[LANMaster]

Originally Posted by fire_mat99

The Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling further narrows the application of the death penalty. It's time to abolish it.

Once the court fixes the conviction stage so that no innocents are executed, I say TRIPLE IT!
Until then, I will agree that it has to be stopped ... for now.

[fire_mat99]

]U.S. Troops Deaths in Iraq Top 1,500

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq (news - web sites) has topped 1,500, an Associated Press count showed Thursday after the military announced the deaths of three Americans, while car bombs targeting Iraqi security forces killed at least four people in separate attacks.

Two suicide car bombs exploded outside the Interior Ministry in eastern Baghdad Thursday, killing at least two policemen and wounding five others, police Maj. Jabar Hassan said. Officials at nearby al-Kindi hospital said 15 people were injured in the blasts, part of the relentless wave of violence since the Jan. 30 elections.


Another car bomb targeting a police convoy exploded in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital, killing one Iraqi policeman and a civilian, the U.S. military said. Six police and 10 other civilians were also wounded.


Amid the violence, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi extended the state of emergency, first announced nearly four months ago, for another 30 days until the end of March. The order remains in effect throughout the country, except in northern Kurdish-run areas.


The emergency decree includes a nighttime curfew and gives the government extra powers to make arrests without warrants and launch police and military operations when it deems necessary.


The latest reported American deaths brought the toll to 1,502 since the United States launched the war in Iraq in March 2003, according to the AP count.


The military said two U.S. troops died Wednesday in Baghdad of injuries suffered when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle. Another soldier was killed the same day in Babil province, part of an area known as the "Triangle of Death" because of the frequency of insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.


At least 1,140 Americans have died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. The figures include four military civilians.


Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush (news - web sites) declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,364 U.S. military members have died, according to the AP count. That includes at least 1,030 deaths resulting from hostile action, the military said.


The tally is based on Pentagon (news - web sites) records and AP reporting from Iraq.


The U.S. exit strategy is dependent on handing over responsibility for security to Iraq's fledgling army and police forces. Forming Iraq's first democratically elected coalition government is turning out to be a laborious process.


The car bombers in Baghdad were trailing a police convoy that was trying to enter the Interior Ministry, Hassan said. Iraqi security forces opened fire on the vehicles and disabled them before they could arrive at a main checkpoint, said Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman.


Iraqi forces also killed one Iraqi man during clashes with gunmen in the northern city of Mosul, army Capt. Sabah Yassin said. Two soldiers were injured.


Also in the north, insurgents blew up a gas pipeline that links Kirkuk to Dibis, about 20 miles away, said Col. Nozad Mohammad, a state oil security official in Kirkuk. Mohammad said the blast would cut gas production, but he could not say by how much.


Talks aimed at forging a new coalition government faltered Wednesday over Kurdish demands for more land and concerns that the dominant Shiite alliance seeks to establish an Islamic state, delaying the planned first meeting of parliament.


Shiite and Kurdish leaders, Iraq's new political powers, failed to reach agreement after two days of negotiations in the northern city of Irbil, with the clergy-backed candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leaving with only half the deal he needed.


The Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, which has 140 seats in the 275-member National Assembly, hopes to win backing from the 75 seats held by Kurdish political parties so it can muster the required two-thirds majority to insure control of top posts in the new government.


Al-Jaafari indicated after the talks that the alliance was ready to accept a Kurdish demand that one of its leaders, Jalal Talabani, become president. However, he would not commit to other demands, including the expansion of Kurdish autonomous areas south to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Kurdish leaders have demanded constitutional guarantees for their northern regions, including self-rule and reversal of the "Arabization" of Kirkuk and other northern areas. Saddam relocated Iraqi Arabs to the region in a bid to secure the oil fields there.

Politicians had hoped to convene the new parliament by Sunday. But Ali Faisal, of the Shiite Political Council, said the date was now postponed and that a new date had not been set.

"The blocs failed to reach an understanding over the formation of the government," said Faisal, whose council is part of the United Iraqi Alliance.

The Kurds, he added, were "the basis of the problem" in the negotiations.

"The Kurds are wary about al-Jaafari's nomination to head the government. They are concerned that a strict Islamic government might be formed," Faisal said. "Negotiations and dialogue are ongoing."

In another twist, alliance deputy and former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi was to meet Thursday with Allawi, whose party won 40 seats in the assembly. It was unclear why the meeting between the two rivals was taking place.

Both are secular Shiites opposed to making Iraq an Islamic state. Concerns over a possible theocracy are especially pertinent because the main task of the new assembly will be to write a constitution.

Elsewhere, Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s lead lawyer said Tuesday's shooting deaths of a judge and his lawyer son, both appointed to the Iraqi Special Tribunal to try the former Iraqi leader and his top henchmen, show the country remains too dangerous for such trials. The shootings marked the first time any legal staff working for the court have been killed.

"I can't imagine how the court would begin," Ziad al-Khasawneh told the AP in Tokyo. "The streets are burning, the judges are killed. ... The advocates and the judge, they need a quiet area to read, to study, to discuss. It is impossible to make these things this year, or after this year

[fire_mat99]

Explosion Kills 11 in Chinese Coal Town

BEIJING - Explosives stored at a coal mine manager's house blew up in northern China, killing him and at least 10 other people, including two students and a teacher at a nearby grade school, news reports and police said Thursday.



The mine manager, Lu Maolin, was killed, along with several family members in Wednesday's blast in Kecheng, a town in Shanxi province, according to an officer reached by phone at the county police station who would give only his surname, Li. He said several people were killed when a nearby clinic collapsed.


"We are investigating the cause of the explosion," Li said.


He denied a report by the newspaper Shanxi Commercial News that a school near Lu's house had collapsed, killing 20 students. He said that building was still standing.


The official Xinhua News Agency put the death toll at 11 and said it included two students and a teacher at the school.


Shanxi province, a major coal-mining region.


China's coal mining industry is the world's deadliest, with thousands of deaths reported every year despite a government safety campaign.


The country also suffers hundreds of deaths a year from the mishandling of explosives used for mining, construction and fireworks manufacturing.


Work safety authorities in Shanxi, one of China's biggest coal-mining regions, will begin to limit the number of miners working underground at one time in an effort to prevent overproduction and accidents, Xinhua said in a separate report.


Under the new guidelines, the maximum number of workers for mines with an annual coal production capacity of less than 90,000 tons is 29, Xinhua said, while the number for those producing up to 900,000 tons is 99.


"The high demand for energy and therefore the high price of coal in the country have pushed for over-production in many collieries, quite often at the cost of the great loss of miners' lives," the report said.


The province will also eventually limit the number of mines to about 3,000 and will no longer approve new mines producing less than 300,000 tons of coal a year, Xinhua said.