Today's Top News

July 3, 2008

New York magnate leaves billions to the dogs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York hotelier and real estate magnate Leona Helmsley left millions to her beloved dog, Trouble, but she has left billions for the care of dogs in general, The New York Times said on Tuesday.

Helmsley left instructions that an entire charitable trust valued at $5 billion to $8 billion (2.5 billion to 4 billion pounds) and amounting to virtually all of her estate, be used for the care and welfare of dogs, the newspaper said, citing two people who had seen the document and described it on condition of anonymity.

The two people who had seen the document said Helmsley signed it in 2003 to establish goals for the trust that would disburse assets after her death. The first goal was to help indigent people and the second to provide for the care and welfare of dogs, the newspaper said. But a year later, she deleted the first goal.

But all the money may not go to the dogs, the article said. It said the mission statement also has a provision that Helmsley's trustees may use their discretion in distributing the funds, and some lawyers say the statement may not mean much, given that it was not incorporated into her will or the trust documents.

Helmsley, who was known as "the Queen of Mean" because of the way she dealt with her employees, had a soft spot for her dog. But a New York court last month lowered the dog's inheritance to $2 million from $12 million on grounds that Helmsley was mentally unfit when she made her will.

A spokesman for the executors of Helmsley's estate told the Times they did not want to comment on the statement because they were still working to determine the trust's direction.

Helmsley died in August 2007 at age 87. She amassed a fortune in real estate and hotels with her husband, Harry Helmsley, who died in 1997.

Famously quoted as having said "only the little people pay taxes," Helmsley spent 18 months in federal prison for evading $1.7 million in taxes in 1989.

(Writing by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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Patricia Zengerle - Reuters | Thursday, July 3, 2008

 

RNC to run its first ad of presidential campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) - An independent arm of the Republican National Committee plans to spend $3 million on an ad campaign contrasting GOP presidential candidate John McCain to Democrat Barack Obama on energy security.

The ad will run in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin beginning Sunday. The ad represents the first of the RNC's independent expenditure operation.

The effort will be run by Republican media consultant Brad Todd of On Message Inc., a media and polling firm that worked on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

Todd said the ad will focus on energy, "which is emerging as a defining difference in the race for president."

By setting up a separate organization within the RNC, the national party can spend unlimited resources on behalf of McCain as long as it does not coordinate with the candidate's campaign.

McCain and the RNC have been raising money together for a joint victory fund that can that can be used to coordinate efforts between the national party and the McCain campaign. But the RNC is limited to spending no more than $19.1 million on coordinated activities.

The independent operation faces no such restriction, but can have no connection to the rest of the RNC or the McCain campaign. McCain has decided to accept public financing in the general election, which limits him to about $84 million in spending, a step that makes reliance on the national party even more important. Obama, who has shattered fundraising records, has decided to bypass the public money and raise his own instead.

"Following Barack Obama's decision to become the only major party presidential candidate in history to not adhere to campaign spending caps, the Republican National Committee has begun an independent expenditure campaign in accordance with FEC regulations," Todd said in a statement Wednesday.

The Democratic National Committee first aired ads critical of McCain in the spring.

McCain and Obama have been running their own general election ads. Obama has focused on reintroducing himself to voters through biographical ads that are airing in 18 states. McCain ran one ad that featured his family's military service and highlighted his five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam; he is now on the air in 11 states with an ad promoting his stance to control global warming.

The RNC's first salvo of the election comes as several outside groups take advantage of a lull in summer election activity to begin defining and prodding presidential and congressional candidates with their own multimillion-dollar advocacy campaigns.

Health care, gun rights and financial security will be among the dominant issues as unions and special interest organizations try to set the tone for the general election campaign and beyond.

Among the top efforts under way:

- The AARP began airing a new ad on national cable Wednesday pressing Obama and McCain to keep talking about financial security for retirees and affordable health care. Beginning Monday, the ad will run in Orlando and Tampa, Fla.; Des Moines, Iowa; Manchester, N.H., and Detroit - markets in key battleground states. The seniors' advocacy group, acting on behalf of a coalition called Divided We Fail, plans to spend more than $20 million on its bipartisan ad campaign through Labor Day.

- A coalition of labor and liberal organizations next week plans to launch a $40 million campaign in key congressional districts to promote affordable health care coverage for all Americans. The group expects to spend $25 million in commercials in 45 states between now and Election Day in November. Its members include unions such as the Service Employees International Union, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Democratic-leaning organizations such as the Center for American Progress, MoveOn.org, and the Campaign for America's Future.

- The National Rifle Association plans to spend about $40 million to influence the presidential election, starting with a voter registration effort this summer and eventually moving to an ad campaign during the fall. The NRA has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate, but plans to air ads criticizing Obama's past support for restrictions on access to guns. The NRA also has had a tense relationship with Republican John McCain over his work on campaign finance laws that the NRA has opposed, concerned about the limits imposed on free speech.

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JIM KUHNHENN - AP | Thursday, July 3, 2008

 

Economy sheds jobs for 6th month

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers cut workers from their payrolls for the sixth straight month in June for the longest losing employment streak since 2002, government data on Thursday showed.

A separate report showed new applications for jobless benefits hurdling to 404,000, suggesting further weakness ahead for employment.

U.S. stock futures rallied on the news, while prices on U.S. government debt retreated as investors shifted their attention toward the equities market.

"It shows that the labor market still is very soft. We're not seeing dramatic job cuts, but clearly companies are trying to hold the line on costs," said Gary Thayer, senior economist at Wachovia Securities in St. Louis.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent in June and 62,000 jobs were lost from nonfarm payrolls, bringing jobs shed for the year so far to 438,000 as housing market woes chilled growth.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the unemployment rate to edge down to 5.4 percent. Payrolls were forecast to shed 60,000 jobs in June versus a 62,000 loss in May.

Both May and April's count were revised lower, taking their combined job losses to 129,000, compared to an early estimate of 77,000 jobs lost.

TAME WAGES

Average hourly earnings, closely watched by the Federal Reserve as it monitors price pressures to make sure they do not creep into higher wages, edged up six cents, or 0.3 percent in June to $18.01.

This took the year-on-year gain in average hourly earnings to 3.4 percent, the lowest reading since January 2006.

The Fed last week halted an aggressive interest rate cutting campaign, holding rates at 2 percent and warning that inflation risks had risen amid soaring energy and food prices. The central bank had been cutting rates to shield growth from a collapsing housing market.

"It does show that the Fed has to hold policy steady for now. We've now seen job cuts all year long and that suggests that raising interest rates now would probably hurt the economy significantly," said Thayer.

June's decline was also the longest consecutive monthly shrinkage in payrolls since the collapse of the technology stock bubble, when they fell from March 2001 until May 2002 without respite as the economy went through a mild recession.

There were 43,00 job losses in construction in June as the housing slowdown continued to bite, while manufacturing shed 33,000 jobs. Both of these sectors have lost jobs in every month over the past year.

Providers of professional services lost 51,000 jobs as the financial services and real estate industries continued to suffer the country's housing market woes.

Flooding in the Midwest had no impact on June's national employment report, the Labor Department said, holding out the possibility of additional pressure on the jobs market in the coming months as flood-related job losses get counted.

A separate report from the labor department showed that U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped 16,000 last week to 404,000.

The four-week average of new jobless claims, a better gauge of underlying labor trends because it irons out week-to-week volatility, increased for the fourth straight week to 390,500, the highest reading since October 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

(Reporting by Alister Bull, editing by Joanne Morrison)

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Alister Bull - Reuters | Thursday, July 3, 2008

 

Conservative evangelicals discuss backing McCain

Conservative evangelical leaders met privately this week to discuss putting aside their misgivings about John McCain and coalescing around the Republican's presidential bid while urging him to consider social conservative favorite Mike Huckabee as a running mate.

About 90 of the movement's leading activists gathered Tuesday night in Denver for a meeting convened by Mathew Staver, who heads the Florida-based legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel.

Many evangelical leaders backed other GOP candidates early on and remain wary of McCain's commitment to their causes and his previous criticisms of movement leaders. But with the presidential field now set, many evangelical leaders are taking a more pragmatic view, realizing also that the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, is making a strong play for evangelical voters and talking freely about his faith.

"Our shared core values compel us to unite and choose the presidential candidate that best advances those values," said Staver, who previously backed Huckabee's bid. "That obvious choice is Sen. John McCain. I think people left the meeting in unity the likes of which have not been evident through the primaries."

The group also agreed to sign a letter urging the McCain campaign to consider Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister, as his vice presidential choice, said another participant, Phil Burress. Burress, who heads an Ohio group that helped pass an anti-gay marriage measure in that state in 2004, was among a group of conservative Christian leaders who met with McCain last week.

Burress characterized the Huckabee overture as a "suggestion, not a demand."

"This is a man you don't threaten," Burress said of McCain. "His principles are his principles. The last thing you want to do is try to force him to do something he doesn't want to do because he'd probably do the opposite."

Burress said that while Huckabee is a favorite of Christian conservatives, the most important thing is that McCain's running mate be "pro-life and pro-family." Huckabee isn't a favorite of all evangelical leaders, either; some dislike his populist message, emphasis on the environment and economic positions.

The leaders meeting in Denver included Phyllis Schlafly, head of the Eagle Forum; "Left Behind" co-author Tim LaHaye and his wife, Beverly, founder of Concerned Women for America; David Barton, founder of WallBuilders; Rick Scarborough of Vision America; and Don Hodel, a former interior secretary and former president of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, according to Staver.

James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and a fan of neither McCain nor Obama, did not attend. Dobson has been in California working on a new book, aides have said.

Time magazine first reported on the meeting on its Web site Wednesday.

Staver said the result will be more leaders "energizing their base" and targeted efforts in battleground states and states with anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives this fall such as Florida and California.

"Obama is a considerable threat to our values," Staver said. "At the same time, Sen. McCain recently has been reaching out to evangelicals and conservative voters that we represent."

Even so, Burress said that at this point, conservative Christians are motivated more out of opposition to Obama than enthusiasm for McCain.

"People are not saying, 'Let's all go out and support John McCain,'" Burress said. "It's more like, 'We have to do what we have to do for our country.' Basically, that boiled down to John McCain."

Although McCain opposes abortion rights, his support for embryonic stem cell research and opposition to a federal amendment prohibiting gay marriage clashes with the widely held social conservative view.

Obama this week called for expanding White House efforts to steer social service dollars to religious groups, and he has developed campaign events targeting religious voters. But the Democrat's support for abortion rights and gay rights calls into question how many evangelical votes he can win.

"The only evangelicals that will support Obama are the ones who haven't read their Bible," Burress said. "The more and more we learn about Obama, the closer and closer we get to McCain."

"We have agreed," he said, "that we'll be working hard the next few months."

(This version CORRECTS a word in quote to 'few months,' not 'two months.')

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ERIC GORSKI - AP | Thursday, July 3, 2008

 

The 'mushy middle' hard to reach for Obama, McCain

WASHINGTON (AP) - They're the most fickle voters, and potentially the most powerful. Thus, with party nominations secure, John McCain and Barack Obama now are pushing toward the center to win them over.

Meet the "mushy middle," a complex chunk of people likely to decide the presidential election but difficult to reach and hard to please.

"Yes, we can!" isn't floating their boat. Nothing much is, from either candidate.

They aren't uniformly conservative or liberal, and they don't fit strict Republican or Democratic orthodoxy. They aren't typically engaged in politics, and they don't much care about the campaign. And like so many others, they are extraordinarily pessimistic.

"To me, it's not about the party, it's about who is the best person for the job," says Pam Robinett, 47, from Wellington, Kan., who always votes. Then again, "they'll all lie, cheat and steal to get what they want."

Talk about a tough sell.

"The country's going to go to hell in a handbasket with this election," seethes James Nauman, 55, from Lutz, Fla. "I don't think Obama's qualified and McCain's another Bush. Neither of them really have impressed me."

Both will try.

A recent AP-Yahoo News poll finds that 15 percent call themselves moderates and aren't solidly supporting a candidate. More than half of this still-persuadable middle is made up of independents.

"The center always matters," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. "It matters more this year. Both candidates were nominated because they appealed to independents and moderates, so how these voters make a choice between Obama and McCain will be even more decisive."

---

For now, at least, the race is competitive and the rivals' bases are mostly intact.

The survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks, found that three in four Republicans and three in four conservatives are backing McCain, while Obama has nearly identical support among Democrats and liberals.

So, both are tacking away from their party's ideological ends to appeal to this unpredictable swath in between.

McCain is moving away from the unpopular President Bush if not from the Republican Party itself. He emphasizes bipartisanship while pressing two issues that resonate strongly with voters of all stripes.

He "stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming," one McCain commercial says. Another promotes a "bipartisan plan to lower prices at the pump, reduce dependence on foreign oil through domestic drilling and champion energy alternatives."

Obama, for his part, broke from the left by backing new rules for the government's terrorist eavesdropping program, straddling a Supreme Court ruling striking down a gun ban and objecting to the justices' decision outlawing executions of child rapists. He even quoted conservative hero Ronald Reagan's "trust but verify" line in reacting to North Korea's latest agreement on nuclear weapons.

His leadoff campaign commercial cast him as the embodiment of the center and pitched family values, patriotism, "welfare to work" and lower taxes. It stressed "love of country" and "working hard without making excuses" - echoes of Bill Clinton.

McCain naturally may be better positioned to capture more of the middle; he came out of the GOP's center to dispatch liberal Rudy Giuliani on his left and conservative Mitt Romney and Christian evangelical Mike Huckabee on his right. Obama emerged from the party's left to topple the more centrist Hillary Rodham Clinton.

However, Obama and McCain both won their nominations with the support of independents, moderates and crossovers from the opposite party.

Some 39 percent of voters called themselves Democratic, 29 percent Republican, and 32 percent independent in the June 13-23 survey, part of an ongoing study tracking opinions of the same group of people over the election cycle. The overall margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

That Democratic edge suggests Obama may be less dependent on votes in the middle than McCain.

Still, the likeliest path to the White House cuts through the center of the electorate.

"They're the kingmakers in American politics," said Matt Bennett, a Democratic operative at the centrist Third Way policy group. "They're the people who decide elections."

---

Who exactly are these power-wielding voters?

They look much like the general population. They reflect the same frustration with the status quo. A significant majority has a low opinion of Bush and Congress. They have more favorable impressions of Democrats than Republicans. Many are feeling the economic pinch. They want troops to return from Iraq as soon as possible.

Like the broad electorate, they rank gas prices and the economy as their top concerns, followed by health care, Social Security, taxes and education. Terrorism and Iraq are lower.

But there are important differences.

Compared with far-right and far-left voters, this group tends to be more Hispanic, more Catholic than the left and more secular than the right. They are more likely to be married with children and live in far-flung suburbs or rural areas. They also tend to be less educated.

They are not nearly as motivated as those who identify with political parties or ideologies. Fewer are registered to vote.

"These are the most disengaged voters," said Ron Shaiko, a public policy specialist at Dartmouth College. "There's a point at which they're going to engage, and it's not clear who will win when they do."

Nearly half view McCain favorably, while slightly more than a third see Obama positively. Still, the candidates are little-known to a quarter, and many have little enthusiasm for either.

"I like McCain more because I'm concerned about Obama. I question his judgments," says Tony Miller, 39 and a left-leaning moderate from Springfield, Ill. Conversely, Susan Carroll, 43, a moderate Democrat from Garrettsville, Ohio, says Obama's "the better choice" because "I honestly think that McCain is anti-woman."

This voting group's views cross some of the usual lines.

For instance, they overwhelmingly favor abortion rights and legal rights for same-sex couples, typically Democratic and liberal positions. But they also overwhelmingly say cutting taxes should be a high priority, typically a Republican and conservative refrain.

These voters say they are far less interested in cultural issues and far more interested in bread-and-butter subjects like health care and Social Security.

"All are a few points from the ideological center of the country, and they tend to be fiscally conservative and socially tolerant," said Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster in New York.

---

Take Jan Thomas.

"I'm liberal in some areas and I'm conservative in others," says the undecided moderate from Stevensville, Mont., who is 69 and shuns party labels.

Unlike the GOP, she supports abortion rights and declares "to each his own" on gay marriage. Splitting from the Democrats, she objects to "big government," costly entitlement programs that "lead to dependency" and universal health care proposals "that mean higher taxes."

She's unsettled about both candidates.

Obama's "inexperience and his voting record on gun control" bug her; she owns two handguns, a shotgun and a rifle and is still "a pretty good shot." She doesn't like McCain's "vacillating" or stances on the environment and comprehensive immigration reform. "I do not believe in global warming," she says. And "we've got to secure our borders."

David Donovan, 31, a GOP-leaning independent from Crystal River, Fla., also is "not exactly thrilled with either of them."

McCain on foreign policy "just doesn't make a lot of sense," but Obama's "abundance of gun control" irks this gun owner, as does the Democrats' education platform. And, he says, "I think taxes suck."

Not that he has time to follow the campaign closely; Donovan travels 150 miles roundtrip to build bridges for 14 hours a day. The commute costs his one-income household $50 in tolls and $220 in fuel each week. He and his wife haven't had health care coverage for two years. She's on disability after seven mild strokes. Her student loan debt is growing.

"There are some days where I'd vote for Mickey Mouse for president," Donovan said. "It's got to be better than this."

---

Associated Press Director of Surveys Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

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LIZ SIDOTI - AP | Thursday, July 3, 2008

 

June 24, 2008

McCain veep helper is discreet lawyer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The choice for John McCain's running mate is such a mystery that few people even know who is helping in that search.

The Republican is leaning on a consummate behind-the-scenes player in Washington - attorney Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. - for this maximum-discretion, minimal-disclosure assignment. In Culvahouse, a one-time White House counsel to President Reagan, McCain gets someone whose work mostly has been so obscure that he likely isn't recognized outside Washington's Beltway.

Culvahouse has been involved in vetting people for positions at all levels of government for three decades, roles he's gotten partly because of his reputation for under-the-radar maneuvering.

McCain has turned to him in recent weeks as he sorts through a list of some 20 or more would-be No. 2s - not that you'd know it. The Arizona senator, like every nominee-in-waiting, is demanding privacy and trying to keep the search under wraps, including the involvement of the man who goes by A.B.

McCain's advisers, the few in the know, are under strict orders not to even discuss the search. McCain, at times, has violated his own rule, including mentioning he wanted to consult with Culvahouse and disclosing he had a preliminary names list.

When word leaked that three potentials - former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist - were invited to McCain's estate Arizona for Memorial Day weekend, aides were furious and insisted it was a social affair.

Democrat Barack Obama, too, has advocated a private process but, so far, it's been fairly public. Obama, for example, announced that a former Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign manager would be chief of staff to his yet-to-be-chosen running mate.

Obama also named his search committee shortly after clinching the nomination - Jim Johnson, the former chairman of Fannie Mae (FNM), Eric Holder, a former deputy attorney general, and Caroline Kennedy. Within days, the committee went to Capitol Hill to consult with Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Under fire from Republicans and McCain, Johnson abruptly resigned after The Wall Street Journal reported he got home mortgages with help from the CEO of Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) Holder, too, has faced a barrage of GOP attacks; he was the former Justice Department official who vetted President Clinton's oft-criticized 2001 pardon of financier Marc Rich.

The third member of Obama's team has a larger-than-life name as the daughter of former President Kennedy.

Conversely, Culvahouse's role in McCain's search has been largely shrouded in secrecy.

McCain aides won't confirm his position, but it's an open secret in GOP circles that while McCain and campaign manager Rick Davis are running the show, Culvahouse is closely involved the process.

"From my understanding, he has been asked to take a look at the potential candidates for vice president, look at their background," said former Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, for whom Culvahouse was a top aide in the 1970s.

Baker called Culvahouse the perfect choice for such an assignment, saying: "He's smart. He's discreet. He doesn't seek out the press and a forum. He knows the system here in town; he's worked in it and understand it. He has no discernible ax to grind, and those things together make him enormously qualified and capable."

And, Baker said, he's not prone to leaking names: "You ain't going to get it from him, and that's one of his endearing qualities."

Aside from working for Baker, Culvahouse's other high-profile political post was as Reagan's counsel for nearly two years in the 1980s. During that time, Culvahouse vetted an estimated 200 nominees for various positions, including Robert Bork and Anthony Kennedy for the Supreme Court and Alan Greenspan for Federal Reserve chairman. He also advised the president on a range of matters, including the Iran-Contra investigations.

These days, Culvahouse, 59, is the chairman of O'Melveny & Myers, an international law firm where he has worked since 1976, save for a few years in the 1980s. His biography posted on his firm's Web site says he also has an "active corporate governance, internal investigations and compliance, and strategic counseling practice." Among his clients: the International Olympic Committee in the scandal surrounding the Salt Lake City games and Ford Motor Co. (F) in the Firestone tire investigations.

Lobbying is not listed as part of his role, and Republicans familiar with his work say that he isn't a lobbyist by trade and does not have a lobbying practice. Senate records show he was registered to lobby on behalf of Fannie Mae and Lockheed Martin in a couple of instances several years ago but his allies say those were rare occasions and he hasn't done any work requiring him to register with the Senate in five years. They call it "a stretch" to describe Culvahouse as a lobbyist, a description Democrats use for him.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton has called it "the height of hypocrisy" for McCain to choose someone to help him who had been registered to lobby for government-sponsored mortgage lender Fannie Mae, where Johnson was CEO, and whose firm's clients have included ExxonMobil Corp. and former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

A George W. Bush donor in 2000 and 2004, Culvahouse was in McCain's camp during the 2008 primary.

"John McCain is the only candidate who can rally the Reagan coalition of conservatives, independents and conservative Democrats needed to defeat the Democratic nominee," Culvahouse told The Washington Times in January. He praised McCain as like Reagan, saying that McCain is "motivated by obligation" and "sees government service as an honor and a privilege."

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Liz Sidoti - AP | Tuesday, June 24, 2008

 

McCain adviser apologizes for September 11 comment

FRESNO, California (Reuters) - A top adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain apologized on Monday after he was quoted as saying a September 11-type attack before the November election would benefit McCain.

The campaign of Democrat Barack Obama condemned the remark by McCain political adviser Charlie Black, calling it a "complete disgrace."

"I deeply regret the comments, they were inappropriate," Black said in a statement after McCain said that if Black had made such a comment, "I strenuously disagree" with it.

"I recognize that John McCain has devoted his entire adult life to protecting his country and placing its security before every other consideration," said Black, one of McCain's most trusted political advisers.

Fortune magazine said Black, in discussing how national security was McCain's strong suit, had said when asked about another terrorist attack on U.S. soil that "certainly it would be a big advantage to him."

Black's comment to Fortune was a distraction for McCain as he seeks to catch up to Obama in the polls, where Obama leads by about 6 percentage points.

"The fact that John McCain's top adviser says that a terrorist attack on American soil would be a 'big advantage' for their political campaign is a complete disgrace, and is exactly the kind of politics that needs to change," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who lost to President George W. Bush in the 2004 election based largely on who would make the country safer, said Black's comment smacked of "the worst of the Rove-Bush fear playbook," a reference to Bush's former political adviser, Karl Rove.

A McCain campaign official said Black did not remember making the particular comment to Fortune but did not dispute the characterization.

The official said Black was speaking in the context that any day on the campaign trail that the theme was national security, was a good day for McCain.

McCain, asked about the magazine article at a news conference, distanced himself from the comment.

"I cannot imagine why he would say it. It's not true," McCain said, adding he had worked hard since the September 11 attack to prevent another such attack. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Caren Bohan; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Steve Holland - Reuters | Tuesday, June 24, 2008

 

Iran says EU sanctions could hurt nuclear diplomacy

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday new sanctions imposed on it by the European Union over its nuclear plans could hurt diplomatic efforts to resolve the row.

The standoff between the West and the Islamic state has sparked fears of a military confrontation that would disrupt oil supplies. Last week a report said Israel had practiced for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear sites.

But a senior Iranian official denied on Tuesday the rumors of an Israeli attack on his country, which sent stocks lower and oil prices higher.

"No attack against Iran's nuclear facilities has taken place," the official said. In Jerusalem, an Israeli army spokesman said: "We are not aware of any such incident in Iran."

Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, has described Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its existence.

Western powers suspect Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, wants to make nuclear arms but Tehran denies this.

On Monday, the 27-nation EU agreed new punitive measures targeting businesses and individuals the West says are linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic program.

The latest sanctions include an asset freeze on Iran's largest state bank, Bank Melli, and visa bans on senior officials including Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar and Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini condemned the move by the EU, still an important economic partner for Tehran even if trade volumes have declined, as "illegal" and made clear it would not slow Iran's nuclear activities.

OIL WINDFALL

Hosseini said the sanctions would strengthen the determination of Iranians "to establish their obvious rights and will not help to create an appropriate atmosphere to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels".

He was referring to separate proposals put forward by Iran and by six world powers intended to defuse the dispute that has helped push up oil prices to record highs.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana handed Iran an offer on June 14 of economic and other benefits proposed by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France to try to convince it to halt uranium enrichment.

Iranian officials have repeatedly ruled out suspending enrichment, which can have both civilian and military uses.

Their refusal to do so has drawn three rounds of limited U.N. sanctions since 2006 and Western powers have warned of more such measures if Iran rejects the latest offer.

Iran has put forward its own package of proposals aimed at resolving the row, but diplomats say it ignores global concern about its enrichment program.

Analysts say Western companies are becoming more wary of investing in Iran even though its windfall crude export earnings, which its oil minister estimates at $6 billion per month, are helping it to cushion the sanctions impact.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, widely expected to stand for re-election in 2009, is also under increased political pressure at home for failing to rein in annual inflation of 25 percent.

The United States, which has also imposed sanctions on Iran beyond the U.N. resolutions, says it is focusing on diplomatic pressure to thwart Tehran's nuclear plans but has not ruled out military action as a last resort.

On Friday, The New York Times quoted U.S. officials as saying Israel had carried out a large military exercise, apparently a rehearsal for a potential bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Additional reporting by Jerusalem bureau; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl - Reuters | Tuesday, June 24, 2008

 

Dobson accuses Obama of `distorting' Bible

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement's biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.

The criticism, to be aired Tuesday on Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program, comes shortly after an Obama aide suggested a meeting at the organization's headquarters here, said Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family.

The conservative Christian group provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of the pre-taped radio segment, which runs 18 minutes and highlights excerpts of a speech Obama gave in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. Obama mentions Dobson in the speech.

"Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools?" Obama said. "Would we go with James Dobson's or Al Sharpton's?" referring to the civil rights leader.

Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy - chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."

"Folks haven't been reading their Bibles," Obama said.

Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus' teachings in the New Testament.

"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," Dobson said.

"... He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."

Joshua DuBois, director of religious affairs for Obama's campaign, said in a statement that a full reading of Obama's speech shows he is committed to reaching out to people of faith and standing up for families. "Obama is proud to have the support of millions of Americans of faith and looks forward to working across religious lines to bring our country together," DuBois said.

Dobson reserved some of his harshest criticism for Obama's argument that the religiously motivated must frame debates over issues like abortion not just in their own religion's terms but in arguments accessible to all people.

He said Obama, who supports abortion rights, is trying to govern by the "lowest common denominator of morality," labeling it "a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution."

"Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?" Dobson said. "What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."

The program was paid for by a Focus on the Family affiliate whose donations are taxed, Dobson said, so it's legal for that group to get more involved in politics.

Last week, DuBois, a former Assemblies of God associate minister, called Minnery for what Minnery described as a cordial discussion. He would not go into detail, but said Dubois offered to visit the ministry in August when the Democratic National Convention is in Denver.

A possible Obama visit was not discussed, but Focus is open to one, Minnery said.

McCain also has not met with Dobson. A McCain campaign staffer offered Dobson a meeting with McCain recently in Denver, Minnery said. Dobson declined because he prefers that candidates visit the Focus on the Family campus to learn more about the organization, Minnery said.

Dobson has not backed off his statement that he could not in good conscience vote for McCain because of concerns over the Arizona senator's conservative credentials. Dobson has said he will vote in November but has suggested he might not vote for president.

Obama recently met in Chicago with religious leaders, including conservative evangelicals. His campaign also plans thousands of "American Values House Parties," where participants discuss Obama and religion, as well as a presence on Christian radio and blogs.

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ERIC GORSKI - AP | Tuesday, June 24, 2008

 

June 22, 2008

The Other Bill Clinton

Not all the world hates the United States. Countries that make up the former Soviet empire have a great love of America, thanks to the U.S. commitment to ensuring their freedom and helping them join the EU and NATO. And in sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S.'s approval ratings are even stronger, including countries with mostly Muslim populations. In fact, George W. Bush's approval ratings on the continent are staggeringly high because of his commitment to AIDS and malaria funding, which has saved millions of lives.

Says who? Says none other than former President Bill Clinton, in a lecture at the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York on Tuesday.

It wasn't a night of nonpartisanship, of course. Mr. Clinton railed against global-warming skeptics and those who would drill in the Arctic. He blamed Republican economic policies for growing inequality in the U.S. and compared American society – in which the richest 1% control 42% of the wealth – to South American dictatorships.

Nonetheless, Mr. Clinton's tone in general suggested his finger-wagging behavior on the campaign trail does not carry over when speaking in his capacity as elder statesman and philanthropist. Then, he's all about policy and problem solving. Also missing was any hint of the isolationism and protectionism that were his party's stock in trade during the recent primary race.

"Divorce from the rest of the world is not an option," Mr. Clinton said, generating awkward laughs from the audience. He was referring to his own party's antitrade posturing as much as Mr. Bush's refusal to sign the Kyoto climate treaty. Though frustratingly silent on Nafta, a signature achievement of his administration that recently was criticized on the campaign trail by another candidate named Clinton, Mr. Clinton did speak at length about the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

That law, which he signed in 2000, allows certain sub-Saharan countries – those that improve their labor laws and move toward a market-based economy – to export goods to America duty-free. The act, says Mr. Clinton, created hundreds of thousands of jobs and lifted hundreds of thousands of African families out of dire poverty. Hmmm. If free trade works for Africans, is Mr. Clinton saying it can work for others?

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Wall Street Journal | Sunday, June 22, 2008