Colleges line up against allowing guns on campuses by Dave Montgomery AUSTIN — Texas universities are firing back against a bill that would permit students to carry handguns on campus.Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, said his bill would be limited to students 21 and older. But campus police chiefs and administrators say the idea of permitting firepower on campus is a potential threat to student safety.
Gates: Postpone changes to 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy by David Edwards and Jeremy Gantz Sixteen years after it began under former President Bill Clinton, there's no end to the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays serving openly in sight.Although President Obama has said he wants to end the ban, he's elected to "push that one down the road a bit," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Fox Sunday morning. In January, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama would end the policy, but didn't give a time frame when he would do so.
McCain won't say if he'd support Palin in 2012 by David Edwards and Muriel Kane When Senator John McCain's presidential campaign began faltering last October, some media sources blamed "tension" between him and Palin. There were also suggestions that Palin was more interested in her own future as a potential future leader of the Republican Party than in helping McCain to victory.
Conservative ratings suggest Rust Belt GOP growing more moderate by Muriel Kane The American Conservative Union recently released its Congressional ratings for 2008 -- and the figures suggest the possibility of a significant division between hardcore conservatives in the Republican Party and those who might be more open to voting with the Democrats, particularly on economic issues.
Seymour Hersh: Obama helped end Israel's Gaza offensive by Muriel Kane The prospects for a long-delayed peace agreement between Israel and Syria are now better than ever, according to investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Writing in the current issue of the New Yorker, Hersh asserts that, despite Syria's anger over Israel's recent Gaza incursion, "renewed Israeli-Syrian negotiations over the Golan Heights are now highly likely."
Mexico drug violence "out of hand": Obama by AFP Drug violence in Mexico has "gotten out of hand" and poses a serious threat to communities along the US-Mexico border, President Barack Obama said Sunday.But Obama, in an interview with CBS television, said his administration would wait to see the impact of stepped up US law enforcement efforts before deploying national guard troops to the border.
Is Jon Stewart Our Ed Murrow? Maybe... by Eric Alterman The Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer confrontation on The Daily Show is being widely compared to that between Edward R. Murrow and Joe McCarthy over alleged Communist subversion in the Army. The analogy is considerably less crazy than it first appears. Sure, Murrow was Murrow, but there was a shlocky side to the Great Man. On Person to Person he would visit the homes of stars and suck up to them with a cloying mien that might impress Barbara Walters. And while the celebrity-stroking aspect of Murrow's career does not comport in our minds with the brave, tough-minded reporter who covered war, famine and the like, it probably helped build much of his audience and garner the trust of those who did not follow national affairs closely.
Don't Go There Mr. President! by Tom Hayden 17,000 or 21,000 more US troops will not protect Americans against Al Qaeda attacks.The Obama plan instead will accelerate any plans Al Qaeda commanders have for attacking targets in the United States or Europe. The alternative for Al Qaeda is to risk complete destruction, an American objective that has not been achieved for eight years. A terrorist attack need not be planned or set in motion from a cave in Waziristan. The cadre could already be underground in Washington or London. The real alternative for President Obama should be to maintain a deterrent posture while immediately accelerating diplomacy to meet legitimate Muslim goals, from a Palestinian state to genuine progress on Kashmir.
And These Are the People We Expect to Fix Things Now? A Financial History Lesson by Dave Lindorff George Santayana once famously said, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." But what about those who don't just ignore history, but who hire and take counsel from those who committed historic follies in the past?Back in November 1999, Congress passed legislation pushed by then Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX), rescinding the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act. The measure, backed by the Clinton administration, and overwhelmingly passed by the Senate (90-8) and the House (362-57), opened the way for banks to merge with investment banks and insurance companies, and led directly to the current financial cataclysm.
Blue Eyed Greed? by Maureen Dowd As international lunacy goes, it was hard to beat the pope saying that condoms spread AIDS.But Brazil’s president, known simply as Lula, gave it his best shot.At a press conference Thursday in Brasilia with Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain — who has a talent for getting himself into dicey spots — Lula started off coughing from some cheese bread he’d wolfed down. Then he suddenly turned accusatory.
Trust Your Guts by William Greider A reassuring new story line is emanating from our leaders. I heard Representative Barney Frank, chair of the House Banking Committee, explain it. Then I read the same line in a Washington Post news story. That tells me people in high places are selling it. Dynamic capitalism, they explain, invents ways to create greater wealth, but sometimes it goes a little too far. Then government has to step in to correct things. This need typically occurs every generation or so, all in a day's work. The Obama administration is proposing "sweeping" new regulatory laws so that capitalism can continue its good works.
G20 Protesters Face Police with Tasers by David Leppard and Steven Swinford LONDON - Scotland Yard is to deploy officers armed with 50,000-volt Taser stun guns to deal with violent demonstrators planning to disrupt this week's G20 summit in London.The centrepiece of the security plan will be hundreds of officers from the Metropolitan police territorial support group, who are routinely armed with speedcuffs, extended batons and CS gas spray.
Earth Hour 2.0 a Success by Daniel Dale And the environmentalists said let there be darkness. And - for an hour, at least - there was darkness: in downtown office towers and suburban homes, in stores big-box and mom-and-pop, at gatherings long-planned and impromptu.Not a solution, no, but a statement. At 9:30 p.m., the conclusion of the second global Earth Hour, the meter at Toronto Hydro's control centre that measures city-wide electricity demand hit 2,545 megawatts - 15 per cent below typical demand at that time and 7 per cent below the lowest demand during Earth Hour in 2008.
It's a big deal: No-limit poker on state's horizon by Michael Vasquez For five days in 2007, big-money poker ruled the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood. Thanks to the casino's quite liberal -- and short-lived -- interpretation of state law, players could buy tens of thousands of dollars' worth of poker chips, or more.
