News politics 2008-08-10 Andanh.com

Denver wants delegates to see the old and the new Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:02 EDT
This frontier town turned modern city wants to put its best foot forward for the Democratic National Convention - just not necessarily one wearing a cowboy boot.

Western duds - like a shiny pair of boots, a finely shaped Stetson and a pearl-snap Western cut shirt - would've been appropriate for the rodeo Rep. Diana DeGette suggested for the party welcoming delegates and news media. That venue didn't sit well with some of the organizers and sponsors, she said, and they opted for an amusement park setting.

"They didn't want to look like a cow town," DeGette, D-Colo., said, declining to name anyone. "I thought it would have been a great nod to our Western heritage and we could talk about Western values as we move forward."

Conflicting feelings about Denver's Wild West image are nothing new. A century ago, when Denver was preparing to host its first Democratic National Convention, organizers were eager to present a modern, contemporary image.

"We're really stuck with the idea that we want to look progressive and modern and cosmopolitan, but we also want to play up our romantic past," state historian Bill Convery said. "In 1908, Denver was trying to have it both ways."

U.S. has few options to deter Russia Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:47 EDT
Even as it accuses Russia of using "disproportionate" force in the conflict over Georgia's rebel South Ossetia province, the United States find itself with few diplomatic or military options to deter Moscow's ferocious air and ground assault.

In fact, most of the key cards, including the power to veto any United Nations, were held by Russia, which appeared to be using the crisis to ram home to the United State and its allies that it will not accept further expansion of NATO. Both Georgia and the former Soviet republic of Ukraine are seeking to join the alliance.

The Russian invasion "sends a message to all of the countries in the former Soviet space that Russia is resurgent and is willing to flex its muscles," said David Philips, an expert with the Atlantic Council.

"This is Russia's assertion of power," said retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a former top NATO commander.

Jim Jeffrey, a national security official at the White House, said from Beijing Sunday that the United States has "made it clear to the Russians that if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on U.S.-Russian relations."

Paulson: Bush right on Wall Street `hangover' quip Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:42 EDT
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former investment firm executive, says "absolutely there's a lot of truth" to President Bush's comment that Wall Street "got drunk and now it's got a hangover," in understanding the current economic climate.

Paulson also is taking a wait-and-see approach on a possible second round of economic aid, an idea that congressional Democrats are pushing to a vote. The $168 billion program of tax rebate checks that Bush signed into law in February was the right size to help the struggling economy this year, Paulson said. He wants to see how it ends up helping the economy in the July through September period and worries about driving the budget deficit higher with a second plan.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to have the House vote on additional aid when lawmakers return in September from their summer vacation. She believes more is needed to counter higher gasoline prices and other costs.

The economy is struggling to emerge from crises in the housing, financial and credit markets and cope with rising prices at the pump and grocery store. Paulson, in a television interview broadcast Sunday, asserted that the country's economic fundamentals are sound.

But asked about Bush's remark, the former Goldman Sachs chairman and chief executive acknowledged Wall Street has played a role in the current downtown, particularly in its borrowing and lending practices.

Reduce partisan fight over judges, lawyers urge Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:52 EDT
The American Bar Association is calling on the next president and Senate to reduce partisan tensions in federal judicial nominations.

The incoming president of the lawyers' group, H. Thomas Wells Jr. of Birmingham, Ala., said Sunday that he also is enlisting the help of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to study threats to fair and impartial state courts.

At the federal level, the White House should create a commission of Democrats and Republicans to recommend nominees for federal appeals courts and the two senators from each state should establish similar panels to evaluate and recommend federal trial judges, the ABA says in a resolution inspired by Wells. The proposal is certain to be adopted at the group's annual meeting in New York.

The bipartisan panels would help "avoid the times when there have been really rancorous debates in the confirmation process," Wells said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Nominations from Florida and other states that now use such commissions, Wells said, "almost never have bitter confirmation fights."

Rockmount shirts set the fashion in the West Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:22 EDT
Its Western shirts have been worn by everyone from Elvis Presley in "Love Me Tender" to Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain."

Actor Clark Gable and singer Bob Dylan also sported Rockmount Ranch Wear shirts, and when the Democratic National Convention rolls around, each member of Colorado's House delegation will have his or her own custom-made shirt.

"The bottom line is, we are unique," said Steve Weil, Rockmount's president and the grandson of 107-year-old Jack A. Weil, the company's founder, fondly known as "Papa Jack."

"We are the last domestic manufacturer of our type of product," Steve Weil said.

Rockmount is a family-owned business that has stayed competitive in the global market.

Bush urges religious and political freedoms in meeting with Chinese leaders Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:10 EDT
President Bush continued to urge Chinese leaders Sunday to allow their citizens more political and religious freedoms as he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese officials on the opening weekend of the Summer Olympic Games.

Since the beginning of his six-day Asian tour, Bush has repeatedly brought up human rights issues, to the irritation of his hosts in Beijing, while at the same time praising Chinese reforms that have opened up this economy of 1.3 billion people to record development.

On Sunday, Bush attended church services at the Beijing Kuanjie Protestant Christian Church with much of his family, a provocative act in a country where Christians are limited by law to worshiping at state-approved churches. The Associated Press reported that Chinese authorities detained a worshipper, Hua Huqui, on his way to the service attended by Bush Sunday.

After the service, Bush alluded to Chinese religious restrictions, saying, "You know, it just goes to show that God is universal, and God is love, and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion."

Bush pressed the matter hours later with Hu, telling him the church service gave him "a spirit-filled, good feeling." He added, "As you know, I feel very strongly about religion, and I am so appreciative of the chance to go to church here in your society."

Local corruption probe clouds Ohio for Obama Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT

CLEVELAND . A federal investigation of Democratic Party leaders in Cuyahoga County could pose problems for Barack Obama's campaign in Ohio, party insiders and political analysts say.

If the party's local campaign operation suffers, some Democrats said, it could cost Obama votes in a Democratic area where he must win overwhelmingly to offset Republican strength elsewhere in the state.

.There's no question that this is not helpful,. said Peter Lawson Jones, a Democrat who serves on the three-member Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners with Jimmy Dimora, the chairman of the county Democratic Party, who is at the center of a federal inquiry.

But representatives of Obama's campaign in Ohio dismiss the idea that the events in Cuyahoga County will have any effect on the November election. They argue that Obama has built an effective organization in Ohio that does not need the county party's help.

Another politician finds TV can't redeem him Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT

It's not impossible to understand why John Edwards had an affair. It's not so hard to imagine why he thought he could get away with it. What is baffling is why he thought talking about it on television would help.

The answer was not in the solemn, carefully worded interview he gave on Nightline on Friday. It is buried in the campaign .Webisodes. taped in 2006 by his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, just before he formally declared his candidacy in the Democratic race for president.

Sprawled on a private jet in faded jeans and open-collar blue shirt, Edwards is glowing with confidence, laughing and flirting a little, but earnestly convinced that it was necessary and wise to have the filmmaker and her crew recording his every movement and offstage thought.

.I have come to the personal conclusion that I actually want the country to see who I really am,. he says in the slow, emphatic tone of a man under the spell of his own centrality. Those Webisodes, which were removed from the Internet when rumors about the affair surfaced, are back up and also flashing furiously on television, another widening ripple in the scandal he stirred up by telling his version of the story to ABC News.

Energy problems ahead for whoever is next president Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT

WASHINGTON . No matter who moves into the White House in January, energy problems will hit him with the punch of a winter storm.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, agree that the era of cheap energy and abundant supplies is over. Both have called for breaking away from the nation's overwhelming oil dependency.

Obama would take a decade to wean the nation off its reliance on foreign oil. Mc.Cain, dubbing his energy agenda the .Lexington Project. . after the Massachusetts town where America's war for independence began 233 years ago . says his goal is to achieve .energy independence. by 2025.

Last week Obama said he's ready to turn to the federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve and make available as much as 70 million barrels of the government's emergency oil.

Running on enmity Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT

WASHINGTON . Sen. John McCain is so quick to pick up his gold-colored cell phone to solicit advice . from senators, campaign consultants, even the stray former deputy press secretary . that aides, concerned about his tendency to adopt the last opinion he has heard, have tried to cut back on the time he has to make calls.

McCain is known to sign off on big campaign decisions and then to march off his own reservation. Two weeks ago, he publicly disagreed with his own spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, after she used a line of attack against Sen. Barack Obama that he had approved after careful strategizing within his campaign. Hazelbaker raced out of the Virginia campaign headquarters and refused to take McCain's calls of apology, aides said, and a plan to have Republican members of Congress use the same critical line about Obama's foreign trip fell apart.

Out of his hearing, McCain is called the White Tornado by some people who have worked for him over the years. Throughout his presidential campaign, he has been the overseer of a kingdom of dissenting camps, unclear lines of command and an unsettled atmosphere that keeps aides constantly on edge.

Even now, after a shake-up that aides said had brought an unusual degree of order to McCain's disorderly world in the last month, two of his pollsters are at odds over parts of the campaign's message, while past and current aides have been trading snippy exchanges debating the wisdom of attack advertisements he has aimed at Obama.

television news shows Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT

Fox News Sunday

Rick Davis, John McCain's .campaign manager; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Amy Zantzinger, White House social secretary.

9 a.m., Fox-56

Meet the Press

Vote for Obama, Clinton says:.We are on one journey now' Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:58 EDT

LAS VEGAS . Hillary Rodham Clinton told an exuberant crowd Friday she wants Barack Obama to win the White House, even though he dashed her own presidential dreams . and she wants her supporters to vote for him, too.

.Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Senator Obama than Senator McCain,. Clinton said in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. .Remember who we were fighting for in my campaign..

Although she has endorsed her former rival, the speech was Clinton's first appearance at a rally for the Illinois Democrat since the two appeared together in Unity, N.H., in June.

In another sign of growing d.tente between the House of Clinton and the House of Obama, Democrats said Bill Clinton would speak on the third night of this month's national convention in Denver.

Clinton to headline second night of convention Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:27 EDT
Hillary Rodham Clinton will headline her own night at the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama's campaign announced Sunday in a nod to her strong second-place showing in the party's presidential primary.

The former first lady will speak on the second night, Tuesday, Aug. 26 - the 88th anniversary of the women's right to vote. The campaign and convention committee in a statement called her "a champion for working families and one of the most effective and empathetic voices in the country today."

The Obama campaign is trying to avoid hard feelings among Clinton's supporters at their carefully orchestrated convention. But they still haven't reached a deal on whether Clinton will be included in the roll call vote for the nomination, which could make the party appear divided heading into the final stretch of the White House race.

The campaign said Obama's wife, Michelle, is slated to headline the opening night on Aug. 25. The high-profile appearance at the kickoff is a chance for the potential first lady, who has been attacked by critics, to get more positive exposure. Even more importantly, she can help explain her husband to voters in the most personal terms.

The yet-to-be-named vice presidential pick will speak on the third night, as is the tradition. Democratic officials say Bill Clinton is also scheduled to speak that night, but only the headliners were listed in Sunday's official announcement, made while Obama was vacationing in his native state of Hawaii.

McCain: Obama seeks to 'legislate failure' in Iraq Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:37 EDT
Republican John McCain on Saturday issued a scathing critique of Barack Obama's judgment and readiness to be commander in chief, telling a veterans' group his Democratic rival had tried to "legislate failure" in Iraq and placed his own ambition ahead of military success there.

Addressing the Disabled American Veterans convention here, McCain mocked what he called Obama's varying positions on the Bush administration's decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq last year. The GOP hopeful supported the so-called "surge" strategy, even as polls showed most voters opposed sending more troops into combat at the time.

Obama spoke out against the original invasion as an Illinois state senator and strongly opposed the subsequent troop increase in the U.S. Senate and on the campaign trail.

Since then, the surge has been credited with helping stabilize Iraq and reduce violence there. Obama has argued that it has not brought about the political reconciliation between rival Sunni and Shia factions needed to create lasting peace in the country.

But in a tacit acknowledgment that his original assessment of the troop increase may have proven incorrect, Obama's campaign removed criticisms of the strategy from its Web site last month.

Today on the presidential campaign trail Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:22 EDT
IN THE HEADLINES

Clinton-favored plan for guaranteed health care gets a top plank in Democratic Party platform ... McCain accuses Obama of seeking to legislate failure in Iraq ... A whisper campaign damaged Edwards' reputation well before he admitted to extramarital affair

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Guaranteed health care key plank in Dems' platform

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Democrats shaped a set of principles that commits the party to guaranteed health care for all, heading off a potentially divisive debate and edging the party closer to the position of Barack Obama's defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Edwards' ex-mistress nixes paternity test Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:22 EDT
The ex-mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday she will not participate in DNA testing to establish the paternity of her daughter.

Rielle Hunter's lawyer, Robert Gordon, says his client is a private individual who is not running for public office and that she wishes to maintain the privacy of her and her daughter.

"Rielle is therefore making no statement now or in the future," Gordon said in a statement. "Furthermore, Rielle will not participate in DNA testing or any other invasion of her or her daughter's privacy now or in the future."

On Friday, Edwards admitted to having an extramarital affair with Hunter in 2006 but denied that he was the father of Hunter's 5-month-old daughter. Edwards offered to take a paternity test to prove he is not the father.

Hunter's decision means that the issue of who the father is remains an open question.

On the road to power: A profile of Leonard Lawson Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:38 EDT
Editors Note: This story was first published in the Lexington Herald-Leader on Aug. 21, 2005. Many of Leonard Lawson's business holdings have since changed, but he remains one of the state's top road contractors.

Leonard Lawson grew up poor in southeastern Kentucky, plowing his neighbors' fields for $1 a day, plus feed for his horse.

Today, as Kentucky's top road builder, he is one of the wealthiest and most politically influential men in the state.Of $3.5 billion awarded for state road projects since 2000, nearly one-fourth have gone to companies Lawson owns or has an interest in. And that's just part of his business.

When Lawson wants a road, governors try to fund it. Kentucky ranked last among the states in school spending in a recent survey, but it placed 14th in highway spending.

When Lawson wants a law, legislators labor mightily to comply. The overweight gravel truck bill in this year's General Assembly -- which would have authorized 60-ton loads, up 50 percent from the current limit -- was backed by Lawson and hotly opposed by nearly everyone else. It almost passed.

Vacancy filled on high court Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:58 EDT

A former circuit and district court judge has been appointed to the state's highest court.

Gov. Steve Beshear appointed Daniel J. Venters of Somerset to a Kentucky Supreme Court seat vacated by former Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert of Rockcastle County. Lambert retired June 27.

Venters will represent the 3rd Supreme Court District, which comprises 27 counties. The Judicial Nominating Commission, led by Chief Justice Don Minton Jr., recommended Venters, Robert W. Dyche III of London and Eddie C. Lovelace of Albany for the open spot Tuesday.

Venters is currently in private practice and received his law degree from the University of Kentucky. He will serve until the Nov. 4 general election.

Adult education has few audit problems Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:58 EDT

A state audit of more than $11.6 million in adult education programs found $10,540 in questionable costs. State Auditor Crit Luallen, in an audit of 31 adult education programs released Friday, said the $10,540 in questioned costs were mostly due to lack of documentation.

The Council on Postsecondary Education oversees the grants to local counties. Luallen's office has done an audit of the adult education program, which includes an assortment of classes, each of the past four years.

Auditors examined 31 adult education programs in 29 counties. Auditors found some of problems with lack of oversight regarding student eligibility and failure to keep accurate records on staff development, according to a press release from Luallen's office.

.The overall management and administration of the CPE grants by the local adult education programs seems to be in good standing based on our audits,. Luallen said.

McConnell ad compares views on energy Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:58 EDT

Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell's latest TV commercial about energy policy compares his views on drilling and oil company profit taxes with those of his Democratic challenger, Bruce Lunsford.

.Billions of barrels of oil are off America's coasts but 85 percent is off limits. McConnell is leading the fight for more exploration. Lunsford wouldn't open a single new acre for offshore drilling,. says the announcer of the 30-second ad.

The ad cites as its source an Aug. 4 opinion piece by Lunsford that ran in the Herald-Leader. In that column, however, Lunsford never says he opposes off-shore drilling . he just doesn't mention lifting current moratoriums as part of his eight-point energy plan.

Earlier this summer, Lunsford told the Herald-Leader that he would support allowing companies to drill new off-shore leases as part of a broader energy plan.

Vencor ties surface in Senate race Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:58 EDT

The re-election campaign of U.S. Sen Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has settled on a quick response to criticism by Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford: .Vencor..

But challenging Lunsford about past troubles at the national health care company he founded is an argument that cuts both ways. Lunsford and McConnell both hold Vencor ties.

The Louisville-based company made national headlines in 1998 for evicting Medicaid patients from nursing homes to make room for more lucrative private-pay patients. Lunsford apologized, and the company paid a $270,000 fine. In 1999, Vencor filed for bankruptcy protection and reorganized.

Asked about a new Luns.ford commercial tying McConnell to Washington's moneyed special interests, McConnell spokesman Justin Brasell on Thursday said, .Here is how it works in Lunsford's world: You run a nursing home business that takes millions from the federal government, and then you are forced to pay record fines for treatment of senior citizens. Then you bankrupt the business but make sure that you walk away with millions..

AmEx questions law passed after deadline Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:18 EDT

American Express is asking a federal judge to throw out a new law because it was passed after the General Assembly's constitutional deadline of April 15.

A lawsuit filed by the New York-based financial services company challenges a law meant to help bolster the state's bottom line by changing the time period after which travelers checks are presumed abandoned.

The suit was filed just days before a state judge in Frankfort ruled last week that lawmakers cannot .stop the clock. so that their 60-day session can continue into the early-morning hours of April 16.

Travelers checks that are not cashed are considered abandoned after 15 years in every state. But the General Assembly made Kentucky the only state that considers the checks abandoned after seven years, said Molly Faust, a spokeswoman for American Express.

Clinton supporterstry to ban caucuses Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT

PITTSBURGH . Hillary Clinton supporters urged the Democratic Party on Saturday to end caucuses, the town hall meetings in states such as Iowa, where Clinton's presidential campaign first stumbled and Barack Obama launched his march to the nomination.

They didn't prevail . the Democratic National Committee's platform committee Saturday ruled that such an idea doesn't belong in the party platform. But their complaint about the caucuses as unfair could be the start of a long-term quest to change the way the Democrats pick their presidential nominees.

.We need to get rid of caucuses,. said Melissa Whitener, a waitress from Conneaut, Pa., who lobbied the Democratic National Committee as it prepared its party platform.

.Caucuses are inherently unfair,. she said. .I can't take off a whole shift to go sit in a caucus. We need to all be on the same primary system. Why should 2,000 people in Iowa have the same say as 2 million in Pennsylvania?.

Lawson accused of buying bid info Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT

A sworn statement from an FBI agent accuses a politically influential road contractor in Kentucky of paying $20,000 to a state highway engineer in exchange for confidential bid information on state contracts.

The FBI affidavit says investigators are exploring whether former Transportation Cabinet Secretary Bill Nighbert facilitated the release of secret bid estimates to the contractor, Leonard Lawson.

Details of the affidavit, filed in U.S. District Court in London, were first reported Saturday by The Times-Tribune of Corbin and The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

Attorneys for Nighbert and Lawson questioned Saturday how FBI Special Agent Clay Mason's statement became public. The affidavit was used to obtain a warrant last week to search two Eastern Kentucky businesses for evidence of a financial link between Nighbert and Lawson.

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