Collective Sigh

The Bush administration plans to delay major assaults on rebel-held cities in Iraq until after U.S. elections in November, say administration officials, mindful that large-scale military offensives could affect the U.S. presidential race.

Although American commanders in Iraq have been buoyed by recent successes in insurgent-held towns such as Samarra and Tall Afar, administration and Pentagon officials say they will not try to retake cities such as Fallouja and Ramadi — where the insurgents' grip is strongest and U.S. military casualties could be the highest — until after Americans vote in what is likely to be an extremely close election.

President Bush's campaign announced Sunday its plans to use as the basis of a new commercial a quote from an 8,000-word New York Times Magazine article about Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

The parsing prompted the Kerry camp to retort that the soon-to-be-released Bush ad was another example of the president's campaign taking words out of context to create a misleading impression.

The article, a largely analytical cover story in the magazine, says the interviewer asked Kerry "what it would take for Americans to feel safe again."

''We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance,'' the article states as the Massachusetts senator's reply.

''As a former law enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life.''

The goal of the editorial page has been to provide an arena for the expression of a variety of thoughtful opinions, some by the publishers, some by columnists, and some by our readers.

The new mode of operation, I am told, is that when a newspaper prints an editorial of which some sectors might disagree, the focus is now upon how to run the newspaper out of business. Out the window are the contributions the newspaper has made to the community in the past and the newspaper’s extensive investment in the community.

French President Jacques Chirac considered committing up to 15,000 troops to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq until a dispute over U.N. support scuttled prospects for cooperation, according to a new book.

The book, "Chirac Contre Bush: L'Autre Guerre" ("Chirac vs. Bush: The Other War"), claims Chirac was on the fence about offering French forces as late as January 2003 – two months before the invasion – but balked amid signs that President Bush was bent on war.

The book maintains Chirac ruled out any prospect of sending troops because of a seemingly clear intent in the U.S. administration to attack Saddam Hussein's regime without support from the U.N. Security Council.

At the time, France pressed for renewed efforts by U.N. weapons inspectors to disarm Iraq. Chirac became a leading advocate for a peaceful resolution to the threat posed by Saddam.

A shaky personal relationship between the two presidents contributed to the ill-feeling engendered during the Iraq debate, and U.S. officials eavesdropped on phones used by Chirac, the book alleges.

Authors Thomas Cantaloube and Henri Vernet, reporters for Le Parisien newspaper based respectively in Washington and Paris, say the book is based on interviews with at least 50 French and American government and military officials. The book hit stores in France on Wednesday.

In one of its most significant allegations, the book claims a French general, Jean-Patrick Gaviard, was sent to Washington on Dec. 16, 2002, and offered between 10,000 and 15,000 troops, plus military planes and other equipment for an Iraq invasion – on condition U.N. inspectors were allowed to continue their work.

A spokesman for Chirac could not immediately be reached for comment about the book.

"God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam [ Hussein], which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.” Washington Post, June 27, 2003

The broad outlines of why and how Mr Bush went to war in Iraq are familiar. After the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the immediate focus was on Afghanistan. But as soon as victory was in sight, Mr Woodward tells us, Mr Bush ordered Donald Rumsfeld, his defence secretary, to draw up plans for a war against Iraq. By late 2001, the president had made up his mind: Saddam Hussein's removal was necessary to defeat the Iraqi threat to US security. Though he was willing to enlist the UN, Mr Bush never wavered in his determination to oust Mr Hussein. Within weeks of weapons inspectors returning to Iraq, he had had enough. "Time is not on our side," Mr Bush told Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser, in early January 2003. "Probably going to have to, we're going to have to go to war."
Review of Bob Woodward's book, Plan of Attack, Ivo H. Daalder, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, Brookings Institution

The Bush White House does not merely aim to put the most appealing gloss on truth. By holding back documents, officials, information, images and the sight of returning military coffins, by twisting and exaggerating facts to fit story lines, by demonizing anyone who disagrees with its version of reality, this administration strives to create an optical delusion. - Maureen Dowd, “Maureen Dowd: Reality can't penetrate Bush's bubble”, Arizona Daily Star

The family of Sgt. Joseph Darby, the whistleblower who exposed the abuses in Abu Ghraib, is in protective custody because of death threats. His wife Bernadette Darby told Reuters that Darby's actions made many people in her town in western Maryland: "People were mean, saying he was a walking dead man, he was walking around with a bull's eye on his head. It was scary." – “Abu Ghraib whistleblower targeted”, Alternet

“…two years after the 9/11 attacks, a Washington Post poll found that 69 percent of Americans believed it was likely that Saddam Hussein had a hand in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. What does it take to get an idea like this lodged in the public consciousness? And what does it take to dislodge it?” – ”Bob Garfield, NPR “On The Media”, January 30, 2004

Contradicting the main argument for a war that has cost more than 1,000 American lives, the top U.S. arms inspector reported Wednesday that he found no evidence that Iraq produced any weapons of mass destruction after 1991. He also concluded that Saddam Hussein's weapons capability weakened during a dozen years of U.N. sanctions before the U.S. invasion last year.

Evil Bald Guy: The allies have stepped forward and agreed to reduce and forgive Iraqi debt to the tune of nearly $80 billion by one estimate.

McClellan ticked off a litany of what he said were links between Iraq and al-Qaida. Both were "sworn enemies of the free world, including the United States"; both "celebrated the Sept. 11 attacks on America," he said.

"There are clearly ties between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaida," McClellan said. "There (were) clearly some disturbing similarities that existed as well."

Some analysts considered U.S. Sen. John Edwards' second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses Monday "surprising" or even "stunning."

But to those who have studied Edwards' career in law and politics, there was no surprise. It's a familiar scenario.

"His opponents underestimate him. They did it in the courtroom. They sure did it in the Senate race. And they've done it in the presidential race," said Gary Pearce, the Democratic consultant who ran Edwards' first campaign in 1998 to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth.

"He is likable. He's got a positive message. And he talks to people rather than down to people. And that is a rare combination in politicians," Pearce said.

Wade Smith, the Raleigh lawyer in whose firm Edwards once worked, said that Edwards' opponents usually don't take him seriously enough.

"This was true early in his career when he handled (legal) cases," Smith said. "He was just this fresh face. People would tend to not see him coming ... until it was too late."

Workers repairing a home damaged in a tornado discovered nearly two dozen boxes filled with child pornography. The homeowner remained jailed Monday on $96,000 bail.

Robert L. Medvee, 52, was charged Friday with 48 counts of creating computer images of child pornography and 48 counts of possession of child pornography, sheriff's Deputy Jennifer Bailey said.

The seized material -- computer discs, videotapes and photographs -- filled 20 to 24 boxes, Frederick County State's Attorney Scott Rolle said.

"The hard truth is that when it comes to stem cell research, this president is making the wrong choice to sacrifice science for extreme right-wing ideology," Kerry said.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes wasn't invited to speak Sunday at a dinner sponsored by the New Trier Township Republican Organization, but he showed up anyway.

Tolbert Chisum, who heads the group, said the ultraconservative candidate didn't get a chance to be heard "because we have a full program."

Keyes and his wife, Jocelyn, arrived at 5 p.m. for the annual dinner, scheduled to run until 11 p.m., and left about an hour later because of "plans with the family," Proft said.

Obama, a state senator from Hyde Park, leads former Maryland resident Keyes by up to 51 percentage points in recent polls.

An October trial for Saddam would fulfill the prediction of Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who told ABC-TV last month, during his visit to the United States, "I think (it will be) October, with some of his supporters who are detained; will be in court. Maybe he will appear in November or December, but definitely in October the whole issue will start -- of the trial".

The chances of trying former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2004 are remote, a U.S. official said Friday, casting doubt on remarks by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi who said the trial could begin as early as October.

(,..)

Allawi, who has urged Iraq’s Special Tribunal to speed up proceedings against Saddam and his associates, has said he wants the trial to begin next month, before elections set for January.
But the U.S. official told reporters: "If you are talking of a Saddam Hussein trial in 2004, I think that is remote. It's a very difficult schedule to meet.

True Confession

Maybe it makes me a geek, but I'm a nice geek. And yeah, I also subscribe to National Geographic.

I think this is sooooo exciting -

USGS: Mount St. Helens could erupt within 24 hours; Observatory 3 miles from volcano's base evacuated

Kerry's the one treating the voters with respect

The US military, which traditionally avoids meddling in politics, is expressing its views about the US presidential race in the one place where a soldier can speak his mind freely: the latrines.

Here, in graffiti, young soldiers wax philosophical -- albeit crudely and with a fondness for four-letter words -- about God, death, President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and his democratic rival John Kerry.

And if one straw poll is to be believed on this gigantic air base in the western Iraqi desert, Kerry is due to rout Bush in the November 2 elections after the Massachusetts senator picked up 73 votes to 58 on the bathroom wall.

The House emphatically rejected a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage Thursday, the latest in a string of conservative pet causes advanced by Republican leaders in the run-up to Election Day.

The vote was 227-186, 49 votes shy of the two-thirds needed for approval of an amendment that President Bush backed but the Senate had previously scuttled.

President Bush, accused by Democrats of shirking his duty in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, wrote that he had "inadequate time" to meet future Reserve commitments in his Nov. 1974 letter of resignation released on Wednesday.

The letter was released by the White House on the eve of the first presidential debate, in Miami on Thursday, between Bush and his Democratic challenger, John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran.

In the one-page "Tender of Resignation," Bush hand-wrote the following reason for resigning: "Inadequate time to fullfill (sic) possible future commitments."

During a campaign stop with her husband, a group of volunteers moved into the crowd with microphones for the question-and-answer period. Vice President Dick Cheney told supporters to look for the people with dark orange shirts.

When Cheney paused as if searching for the words to describe the shade of orange, Lynne Cheney said, "How about John Kerry's suntan?"

The remark drew a big laugh from the crowd and the vice president.

Responding to her comments, Kerry campaign spokesman Bill Burton said, "Is Mrs. Cheney jealous considering how hard it is to get sun in the undisclosed location with her husband Dick? Or is she distracted over how red-in-the-face George Bush be considering his failed presidency?"

"Kerry doesn't know what the working-class people do; he hasn't done any physical labor all his life," Sharon Alfman, a 51-year-old cook in New Lexington, Ohio, told a New York Times reporter. It's true. Kerry is a rich boy. But then she added: "Bush's values are middle-class family values."

Demonstrating that stupefying ignorance can be bipartisan, another Ohioan interviewed for the same article said she is against the war in Iraq because, like 42 percent of her fellow Americans, she thinks Iraq was behind 9/11: "We shouldn't be over there building them back up because they didn't build our towers back up." She is wrong on so many levels that it makes my brain hurt.

In a recent survey, viewers of Stewart's "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central tested better than Letterman and Leno viewers on a six-question politics quiz.

Viewers of all three shows know more about the background of presidential candidates and their positions on issues than people who don't watch late-night TV.

On top of that, "Daily Show" viewers know more about election issues than people who regularly read newspapers or watch television news, according to the National Annenberg Election Survey.

(snip)

While viewers of NBC's "The Tonight Show" and CBS' "The Late Show" scored better than the general public, Stewart's fans came out on top.

Forty-nine percent of Leno and Letterman viewers got a perfect score on the quiz.

But 60 percent of "Daily Show" viewers answered all six questions correctly.

Just 42 percent of those who read a newspaper four days a week aced the test. Only 40 percent of those who watch network news four days a week got every answer right.

Comedy Central was waiting for news like this. On September 17, Stewart appeared on Bill O'Reilly's "The O'Reilly Factor" only to be told his viewers are "stoned slackers" and "dopey kids."

It also trotted out stats from Nelson Media Research to show that Stewart's viewers are not only smart, but more educated than O'Reilly's.

"Daily Show" viewers are 78 percent more likely than the average adult to have four or more years of college education, while O'Reilly's audience is only 24 percent more likely to have that much schooling.

Plus, the network noted, "Daily Show" viewers are 26 percent more likely to have a household income more than $100,000, while O'Reilly's audience is only 11 percent more likely to make that much money.

So the guy watching Stewart may not only be smart, but may also be rich.

The newspaper in President Bush's adopted hometown of Crawford threw its support on Tuesday behind Bush's Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry.

The weekly Lone Star Iconoclast criticized Bush's handling of the war in Iraq and for turning budget surpluses into record deficits. The editorial also criticized Bush's proposals on Social Security and Medicare.

The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda," the newspaper said in its editorial. "Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John Kerry."

It urged "Texans not to rate the candidate by his hometown or even his political party, but instead by where he intends to take the country."

Both Buchman and Valladeres cite the war in Iraq, as well as a rising tide of anti-Americanism, as the main reasons many expatriates are calling for a shift in US foreign policy and a change in administration.

“It’s getting to the point that little old ladies on the tram are hitting me with their umbrellas, saying ‘You bad American, what are you doing?’” said Buchman.

“Even in a US-centric country like Switzerland, we’ve seen how our image has eroded in a frightening way since September 11,” she added. “We don’t like it, so we’re voting.”

It seems that the Bush administration’s domestic and foreign policies have even prompted some diehard Republicans to switch camps.

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, a Cuban-born American and professor of international law living in Geneva, says he is encouraging his fellow party members to “think twice” before voting for Bush.

She worked for over thirty years as bookkeeper at a small company. When she came home, it was to another full-time job – a farmer’s wife and the mother of several children. In all her “spare time”, she was active in her church and community, donating her time and talents to many volunteer organizations.

Retirement was just a few years away. Thanks to a frugal, simple lifestyle and a lifetime of hard work, she and her husband would be able to enjoy their “golden years in financial security. She looked forward to retiring from her bookkeeping job and spending more time with her grandchildren, volunteer work, and a little travel.

That was then – this is now. A few years before her retirement date, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

These days, she is never left alone. She depends on someone else to dress her, feed her, take her to the bathroom, and give her a bath. Her mind is still active, but her depression is profound.

Along with the ravages of Parkinson’s, she is now in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Her “golden years” have become a living hell.

Otherwise, her health is fine. She will probably live - and continue deteriorating - for many years to come.

Today, millions of children and adults suffer from incurable diseases like diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, heart disease, cancer, and spinal cord injuries. John Kerry and John Edwards believe that we must lift the barriers that stand in the way of science and push the boundaries of medical exploration so researchers can find cures that may exist. Continuing in our nation's great ethic of discovery, John Kerry and John Edwards believe that stem cell research holds immense promise for curing or treating these diseases and medical conditions. They will lift the ideologically-driven restrictions on stem cell research that are impeding progress toward cures for millions of Americans suffering from debilitating diseases.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is coming out on DVD in 10 days. There's been a lot of buzz that the DVD "extras" will be even more explosive than the film itself.

Listen, you know you're going to buy it anyway when it comes out. So why not let your purchase work for progressive candidates? All affiliate proceeds received from your purchase of F9/11 (or any other videos you buy when clicking on the link below) will be donated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Rural areas, which trend conservative and Republican, aren't necessarily reporting the same growth as urban, more liberal and Democratic strongholds: Brazos County, Texas, hasn't beaten its 2000 numbers so far, though officials said applications are now rolling in. The state of Oklahoma, however, saw new registrations in July and August increase by 60 percent compared with four years ago.

Oklahoma officials said they had 16,000 new Republican registrations, 15,000 new Democrats and 3,500 new independents. In Oregon, where new registrations grew by 4 percent from January through Sept. 1, Democrats outregistered Republicans two-to-one.

O'REILLY: But it is. It's true. I mean, you've got stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night, OK, and they can vote.

STEWART: Yeah.

O'REILLY: You can't stop them.

STEWART: Yeah, I just don't know how motivated they would be, these stoned slackers.

O'REILLY: Yeah, it just depends if they have to go out that day.

STEWART: What am I, a Cheech and Chong movie? Stoned slackers?

O'REILLY: Come on, you do the research, you know the research on your program.

STEWART: No, we don't.

O'REILLY: Eighty-seven percent are intoxicated when they watch it. You didn't see that?

STEWART: No, I didn't realize that.

O'REILLY: Yeah, we have that there.

The folks at Comedy Central were annoyed when Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly kept referring to "The Daily Show" audience as "stoned slackers." So they did a little research. And guess whose audience is more educated?

Viewers of Jon Stewart's show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch "The O'Reilly Factor," according to Nielsen Media Research.

(snip)

Comedy Central also touted a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey, which said young viewers of "The Daily Show" were more likely to answer questions about politics correctly than those who don't.

Comedy Central had no statistics on how many people watch "The Daily Show" stoned.

"Are you telling me seriously that people in Wisconsin are going to return to the presidency a man who promised jobs and lost them?" Kerry asked. "I think the good commonsense, fiscally responsible, conservative citizens of Wisconsin know that it's our responsibility to pay our bills and not dump them on our kids and on future generations."

Kerry told the town hall that voters shouldn't be wary of changing horses midstream when the horse is drowning. Kerry also poked fun at reports that the Bush campaign insisted that the debate podiums be set relatively far apart so Kerry's five-inch height advantage won't be so apparent.

"May I also suggest that we need a taller horse?" he said. "You can get through deeper waters that way."

Overthrown Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was arrested by US forces last December, reportedly plans to run as a candidate in the Iraqi elections scheduled for January 2005.

Saddam's lawyer Giovanni di Stefano told Denmark's B.T. newspaper that Saddam decided during one of their discussions that he would declare his candidacy for the elections.

Stefano said that there was no law that prevented Saddam from appearing on the ballot. He added that Saddam hopes to regain his presidency and palaces via the democratic process.

(snip)

Saddam's lawyer defends that the ambiguity in Iraq will favor Saddam at the polls. Stefano remarked that a recent Gallup poll indicates that 42 percent of the Iraqi people want their former leader back.

In a 30-second advertisement to debut today, Bush lampoons one of his Democratic challenger's favorite recreational pastimes while attacking him as indecisive on Iraq and other matters.

The spot includes footage of Kerry windsurfing off Nantucket Island, showing the Massachusetts Democrat sailing back and forth to the strains of the "Blue Danube Waltz" by Johann Strauss.

"John Kerry," the ad says, citing what it calls shifting positions on Iraq, education and healthcare. "Whichever way the wind blows."

"The past year witnessed record levels of poppy cultivation in areas previously not used for this purpose," Peter Rodman, assistant defense secretary for international affairs, said at a congressional hearing with Charles (Robert B. Charles, head of the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs).

"We know that profits from the production of illegal narcotics flow into the coffers of warlord militias, corrupt government officials and extremist forces," Rodman said in a written statement for the House International Relations Committee hearing on the Oct. 9 Afghan elections.

Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., criticized the administration for not moving faster against a drug trade that threatens efforts to build a stable Afghan government. "The drug lords are getting stronger faster than the Afghan authorities are being built up," he said.

Ranking Democrat Tom Lantos of California repeated previous criticism of NATO for not contributing more troops, saying it threatens to turn Afghan's "potentially triumphant exercise of freedom" into "a tragedy with dozens of terror attacks against polling stations."

"Coalition forces, including many brave Afghans, have brought America, Afghanistan and the world its first victory in the war on terror," the president said. "Afghanistan is no longer a terrorist factory sending thousands of killers into the world."

The leaders of India and Pakistan promised Friday to work together to “restore normalcy and co-operation” between their countries and seek peace in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, meeting for the first time since Singh took power in May, also discussed the possibility of running a natural gas pipeline between their nations.

Dialogue between the nuclear-armed rivals started in January when Gen. Musharraf met with Mr. Singh's predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

“I sincerely believe that today is an historic day. We have made a new beginning,” Mr. Singh said after Friday's meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session.

He expressed confidence that “despite the difficulties on the way,” he and Gen. Musharraf would “succeed in writing a new chapter in the history of our people.”

In a joint statement, the leaders reiterated their commitment to continued bilateral talks and to implementing confidence-building measures.

President Bush on Thursday countered gloomy assessments of the situation in Iraq by citing a survey that suggested that Iraqis were more upbeat about their future than Americans were about theirs.

"I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America," Bush said in a Rose Garden appearance with Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart apologized Wednesday for saying in a televised worship service that he would kill any gay man who looked at him romantically.

A complaint was filed with a Canadian broadcasting group, and Swaggart said his Baton Rouge-based Jimmy Swaggart Ministries has received complaints from gay groups over the remarks made on the Sept. 12 telecast.

In the broadcast, Swaggart was discussing his opposition to gay marriage when he said "I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry."

"And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died," Swaggart said to laughter and applause from the congregation.

On Wednesday, Swaggart said he has jokingly used the expression "killing someone and telling God he died" thousands of times, about all sorts of people. He said the expression is figurative and not meant to harm.

"It's a humorous statement that doesn't mean anything. You can't lie to God -- it's ridiculous," Swaggart told The Associated Press. "If it's an insult, I certainly didn't think it was, but if they are offended, then I certainly offer an apology."

The period from may 1972 until May 1973 would come to be called Bush's "missing year." But the only thing Bush appeared to be missing during that year was his National Guard duty.

It was man against beast for a three-hour struggle, but in the end, Chucky the alligator was back in custody, five days after escaping from an Alabama zoo during Hurricane Ivan.

Chucky -- 12 feet long and more than 1,000 pounds -- was captured Tuesday night by a team brought in from the Orlando, Florida, theme park Gatorland to track down the huge reptile in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

The Web site said that the "daredevil team used the cover of night to surprise and outwit the alligator."

Chucky was one of several alligators that escaped from the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores when storm surges from Hurricane Ivan demolished the facility Thursday.

Officials had told area residents to be cautious, warning that Chucky has been fed by humans for years and could approach people if he sees them.

"If you're a male -- say 6-foot-5 -- and he wants you, you're his," zoo general manager Kate Raymond said last week.

Over the past year, the Federal Voting Assistance Program Web site has been widely advertised all over the foreign press as the way for Americans to get help on how to vote in the upcoming election. The site, which is maintained by the Department of Defense, is a nonpartisan, comprehensive, and official clearinghouse for voting registration information. Now that it's been put off-limits to many Americans just before registration deadlines kick in, activists fear that Americans will be unfairly barred from voting this year.

Why would the Pentagon do this? Officials at the Voting Assistance Program have told some Americans living abroad that the blocked ISPs were havens for "hack" attacks against the voting site; the Pentagon had no choice but to block them in order to keep the voting site secure from attack. But that explanation is extremely fishy, say critics who see something more nefarious at work. The Defense Department maintains all manner of sensitive Web sites -- for instance, MyPay, which allows military personnel to manage their compensation online -- and it's had no problem protecting those from hackers while keeping them open for legitimate uses.

The centerpiece of Bush's plan is meant to encourage individuals to take more control of their own health care.

The plan includes tax breaks for individuals and small businesses who contribute to health savings accounts. HSAs are accounts in which people can save money tax-free and use the funds to purchase health care.

"The Bush vision is quite radical. He essentially is dreaming of a world where there is no employer-provided insurance," said Uwe Reinhardt, a health economist at Princeton University. "You buy your own insurance, but you pay the first $2,000 to $4,000 per year out of your own pocket."

BAGHDAD, Iraq - It's going to be a good day, the American soldiers thought, as they left the base and started their patrol in the most dangerous part of Baghdad.

On the decrepit streets lined with raw sewage and garbage, Iraqi men silently stared down the passing Humvees, sometimes with arms crossed. One man stepped out of his shop and spit toward the convoy. Children ran along the patrol route, waving, cheering and begging for candy.

A dirty look is better than no one out at all, the soldiers said. When parents are willing to venture out and let their children play, it means the insurgents aren't planning an attack, at least for the moment.

These are more than casual observations by the soldiers. The military calls it atmospherics, and it passes for military intelligence at a time when U.S. troops near Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood no longer can interact openly with Iraqis. It comes mostly from the limited view through the windows that line their Humvees. The soldiers said such looks helped them determine how dangerous their patrol route could be that day.

Two influential Christian groups are calling for a boycott of two best-selling products of Procter & Gamble to protest a statement on the company's internal Web site that opposes a local statute to exempt gays and lesbians from special civil rights protection.

The leaders of the groups, Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family and the Rev. Donald E. Wildmon of American Family Association, contend that by making the statement, Procter & Gamble, based in Cincinnati, is implicitly supporting same-sex marriage. Social conservatives are trying to place on the ballot a measure to amend the Ohio Constitution to ban same-sex marriage..

"For Procter & Gamble to align itself with radical groups committed to redefining marriage in our country is an affront to its customers," Dr. Dobson said yesterday.

A little-noticed provision cleared the House of Representatives last week that would prohibit local, state or federal authorities from requiring any institution or health care professional to provide abortions, pay for them, or make abortion-related referrals, even in cases of rape or medical emergency.

Ferrum and Chowan tried to play if safe Friday, moving their Division III football game up a day to avoid the remnants of Tropical Storm Ivan.

Instead, they wound up playing a bizarre game as Ivan, with whipping winds and sheets of rain, arrived early.

With only 127 people looking on, the teams endured two weather delays, skipped halftime and agreed to shorten the fourth quarter to 8 minutes as Ferrum won 44-0.

The Panthers (2-1) were leading 26-0 with 6:51 left in the second quarter when lightning forced a 40-minute delay. When play resumed, it was stopped a few minutes later amid reports of tornados nearby, including one that touched down 6 miles away.

The teams agreed to cancel halftime, and after Ferrum went up 38-0, both coaches agreed to an abbreviated fourth period.

A classified National Intelligence Estimate prepared for President Bush in late July spells out a dark assessment of prospects for Iraq, government officials said Wednesday.

The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that could lead to civil war, the officials said. The most favorable outcome described is an Iraq whose stability would remain tenuous in political, economic and security terms.

"There's a significant amount of pessimism," said one government official who has read the document, which runs about 50 pages. The officials declined to discuss the key judgments - concise, carefully written statements of intelligence analysts' conclusions - included in the document.

(snip)

As described by the officials, the pessimistic tone of the new estimate stands in contrast to recent statements by Bush administration officials, including comments on Wednesday by Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, who asserted that progress was being made.

"You know, every step of the way in Iraq there have been pessimists and hand-wringers who said it can't be done," Mr. McClellan said at a news briefing. "And every step of the way, the Iraqi leadership and the Iraqi people have proven them wrong because they are determined to have a free and peaceful future."

President Bush, who was briefed on the new intelligence estimate, has not significantly changed the tenor of his public remarks on the war's course over the summer, consistently emphasizing progress while acknowledging the difficulties.

(New Orleans mayor) Nagin said he would "aggressively recommend" people evacuate, but that it would be difficult to order them to, because at least 100,000 in the city rely on public transportation and have no way to leave.

"They say evacuate, but they don't say how I'm supposed to do that," said Latonya Hill, 57, who lives on a disability check and money she picks up cleaning houses or baby sitting. "If I can't walk it or get there on the bus, I don't go. I don't got a car. My daughter don't either."