http://http://www.kentucky.com/676/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2009 Kentucky.com Politics -Wire 60 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:01:42 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench interactive-ops@herald-leader.com http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1008266.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1008266.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:30 EST
Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said in a nationally broadcast interview Friday that authorities have not yet been able to talk to the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who survived and hospitalized on a ventilator.

Cone said some 300 soldiers were lined up to get shots and eye-testing at a Soldier Readiness Center when the shots rang out, killing 13 and injuring 30 others. Cone said one soldier who had been shot told him, 'I made the mistake of moving and I was shot again.' " The general said survivors told him that during the rampage, soldiers "would scramble to the ground and help each other out." Cone appeared on CBS's "The Early Show."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1008224.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1008224.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:25 EST
The law is also aimed at spurring job creation by giving an additional tax cut to struggling businesses.

Later Friday, the president will visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Then he meets in the Oval Office with Congressman-elect Bill Owens, the Democrat who won a special election in New York's 23rd District that's been controlled by Republicans for decades.

Obama will also meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, just back from a trip to the Middle East.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1008139.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1008139.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:30 EST
The White House signing ceremony Friday comes a day after the House, displaying rare bipartisan agreement over the seriousness of the jobless situation, voted 403-12 for the measure. The Senate approved it unanimously on Wednesday.

The White House said the bill, which also includes tax cuts for struggling businesses, builds on provisions in the $787 billion stimulus package enacted last February that aim at spurring job creation.

Lawmakers stressed that the fourth unemployment benefit extension in the past 18 months was necessary because initial signs of economic recovery have not been reflected in the job market.

"The truth is that long-term unemployment remains at its highest rate since we began measuring it in 1948," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said. About one-third of the 15 million people out of work have gone at least six months without a job.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007934.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007934.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:35 EST
Obama had planned to head to the Capitol on Friday. Now the White House schedule shows Obama planning to visit the Capitol on Saturday.

On Friday afternoon, Obama plans to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

White House officials say the trip to Walter Reed had been scheduled before the fatal shootings Thursday at Fort Hood in Texas. They insist that the visit to Walter Reed, Obama's first as president, is separate from the incident at Fort Hood.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007896.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007896.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:50 EST
The former head of Hewlett-Packard, who is running for the seat now held by Democrat Barbara Boxer, said she has no excuse for not voting more often when people have died for that right.

"I'm a lifelong registered Republican but I haven't always voted," she said Thursday during an event in Sacramento. "And I will provide no excuse for it. You know, people die for the right to vote. And there are many, many Californians and Americans who exercise that civic duty on a regular basis. I didn't. Shame on me."

Fiorina's frank assessment of her inconsistent past appears to be a campaign strategy to blunt potential criticism after Whitman found herself in the middle of a political firestorm over her poor voting record. Several newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News, began raising questions about Fiornia's voting records even before she announced her candidacy Wednesday.

Whitman's voting became a hot-button campaign issue after the former chief executive of eBay refused to answer questions about her voting record during the state GOP convention in September. Whitman explained a few days later that she was focused on her family and it wasn't until she was in a Silicon Valley leadership position that she realized why she should vote.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007890.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007890.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:40 EST
The Senate's 54-45 vote to reject the measure by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., opens the door for President Barack Obama to bring Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to trial in federal courts, rather than the military commissions Graham helped create.

Obama has pledged to shutter the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by January and transfer some of its 220 detainees to the U.S. for trials in civilian courts.

Three Democrats - Jim Webb of Virginia and Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor - and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut joined all 40 Senate Republicans in voting for the measure.

Graham, a military lawyer who has served active duty in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, pleaded with his colleagues to back his amendment to a spending measure for the Justice Department and other federal agencies.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007840.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007840.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:00 EST
Another Capitol Hill newcomer, John Jacobson, drove his family from Allamuchy, N.J., to warn lawmakers that the Democrats' plan that the House of Representatives will debate on Saturday is dangerous.

"I've never been to the Capitol in my life," the unemployed Jacobson said. "I can't believe it's come to this, that I may have to pay for other people's bad choices."

Lawmakers are being bombarded as rarely before by first-time constituent visitors such as these, not to mention by special interests and professional lobbyists - especially lobbyists. Health industry interests spent $396.2 million on lobbying in the first nine months of this year, a pace that would likely shatter last year's $486 million total by them, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, which monitors money in politics.

Every day, there's another rally at the Capitol, a new ad, a fresh batch of people from home. Friday morning, the lobbyist-in-chief, President Barack Obama, is scheduled to add his muscle when he meets behind closed doors with House Democrats.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007767.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007767.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:45 EST
With about 72 percent of the expected vote counted Thursday in unofficial returns, Referendum 71 was leading 52 percent to 48 percent, with a margin of about 60,000 votes.

Sen. Ed Murray, a Seattle Democrat who spearheaded the law, called it "a great step forward for equality in Washington state."

"I'm relieved," he said. "I was very concerned that if the voters had said no, it would have been a major setback for gay and lesbian families in Washington state."

The measure asked voters to approve or reject the latest expansion of the state's domestic partnership law, granting registered domestic partners additional state rights previously given only to married couples.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007765.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007765.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:05 EST
At least eight American troops have been killed this year in attacks on so-called Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, and 40 more have been wounded, said a senior U.S. military official who, like others interviewed on the issue, declined to be further identified because of the issue's sensitivity.

The insurgents' success in attacking the hulking machines, which can cost as much as $1 million each, underscores their ability to counter the advanced hardware that the U.S. military and its allies are deploying in their struggle to gain the upper hand in the war, which entered its ninth year last month.

The attacks also raise questions about how vulnerable a new, lighter MRAP, the M-ATV, which is now being shipped to Afghanistan, are to the massive explosive charges that Taliban-led insurgents have been using against its bigger cousin.

The insurgents are also hitting MRAPs with rocket-propelled grenades that can penetrate their steel armor, according to U.S troops in Afghanistan, several of whom showed McClatchy Newspapers a photograph of a hole that one of the projectiles had punched in the hull of an MRAP.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007726.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007726.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:20 EST
A spokesman for Rep. John Carter says Fort Hood officials informed Carter's office of the release. Carter's congressional district includes the Army post.

A soldier opened fire at Fort Hood on Thursday, killing 12 people and wounding 31 others. Authorities wounded the gunman.

Fort Hood spokesman Christopher Haug said a third person was in custody, however.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007706.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007706.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:20 EST
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said on the Senate floor that he'd spoken with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who told him that the administration would recognize the election Nov. 29 in Honduras "regardless of whether former President Manuel Zelaya is returned to office."

"I am happy to report the Obama administration has finally reversed its misguided Honduran policy and will fully recognize the Nov. 29 elections," DeMint said, noting that the stance means he'll lift his objection to the nominations of Arturo Valenzuela to be assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs and Thomas Shannon to be the U.S. ambassador to Brazil.

At Valenzuela's confirmation hearing July 8, DeMint argued that the administration had made the wrong call by pushing for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya's return to power.

But on Thursday, DeMint said that he'd spoken with Clinton and Shannon, who had told him that the U.S. would recognize the outcome of the Honduran elections regardless of whether Zelaya is reinstated.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007696.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007696.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:10 EST
William Thompson Jr. said in an interview with The Associated Press that he isn't ruling out any option for his next move, including a congressional run. Except one - he wouldn't take a job in the next Bloomberg administration.

"That's the one thing I can rule out - I won't be doing that," he said.

Thompson, who relied on donations and matching funds to finance his campaign, said he will likely have spent $9 million on his first mayoral bid when the bills have all been paid.

Bloomberg, the richest man in New York with an estimated fortune of $17.5 billion, will likely have poured more than 10 times that into his campaign for a third term.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007674.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007674.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:45 EST
Instead, senators voted 54-45 to support a request by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Attorney General Eric Holder to have the option of prosecuting Sept. 11 terrorists such as accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in either federal courts or by military commission.

The vote capped an impassioned - and substantive - Senate debate between those who believe the Sept. 11 terrorists simply don't belong in civilian courtrooms and those who say deciding where to prosecute them should be left to the best judgment of the Pentagon and the Justice Department.

Opponents noted that the government prosecuted 195 terrorists in civilian courts since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with a 91 percent conviction and that only three terrorists have been tried before military tribunals.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., led the drive to require those accused of plotting the attacks to be tried in military courts. He said it's wrong to treat the assaults as a criminal act instead of an act of war and that Sept. 11 terrorists don't deserve the same constitutional rights as U.S. citizens.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007644.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007644.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:25 EST
Another Capitol Hill newcomer, John Jacobson, drove his family from Allamuchy, N.J., to warn lawmakers that the Democrats' plan that the House of Representatives will debate on Saturday is dangerous.

"I've never been to the Capitol in my life," the unemployed Jacobson said. "I can't believe it's come to this, that I may have to pay for other people's bad choices."

Lawmakers are being bombarded as rarely before by first-time constituent visitors such as these, not to mention by special interests and professional lobbyists - especially lobbyists. Health industry interests spent $396.2 million on lobbying in the first nine months of this year, a pace that would likely shatter last year's $486 million total by them, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, which monitors money in politics.

Every day, there's another rally at the Capitol, a new ad, a fresh batch of people from home. Friday morning, the lobbyist-in-chief, President Barack Obama, is scheduled to add his muscle when he meets behind closed doors with House Democrats.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007645.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007645.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:10 EST
The White House says Obama's answer on whether to expand the U.S. fighting force in Afghanistan by as much as 60 percent will be announced "in the coming weeks," the same vague timetable it has offered for much of the fall.

Obama has brushed off criticism that he is taking too long to decide whether to meet his war commander's request to provide about 40,000 more troops at the end of this year, atop a record 68,000.

But the longer the decision hangs fire, the more complications mount. The latest violence against foreign civilians and soldiers was unprecedented in scope. And that was on top of Afghanistan's perilous politics, an ongoing headache for the White House.

Obama is "taking into account the political situation, the security situation, the health of our force and all that needs to be done" to make good on the promise of dismantling the al-Qaida terror network, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007599.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007599.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:40 EST
There are many unknowns about Nidal Malik Hasan, the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base. Most of all, his motive. But details of his life and mindset, emerging from official sources and personal acquaintances, are troubling.

For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, Texas, in July, the 39-year-old Army major worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing his career in psychiatry, as an intern, a resident and, last year, a fellow in disaster and preventive psychiatry. He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.

While an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan had some "difficulties" that required counseling and extra supervision, said Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was the training director at the time.

Grieger said privacy laws prevented him from going into details but noted that the problems had to do with Hasan's interactions with patients. He recalled Hasan as a "mostly very quiet" person who never spoke ill of the military or his country.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007586.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007586.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:50 EST
While his entry into an already crowded field of Democrats has created a stir in this state, which hasn't seen a Democratic governor for about two decades, it's unclear if the millionaire businessman can generate the same enthusiasm and hype for a run for governor after the 2006 primary victory over Lieberman that made him a national political figure.

"Ned Lamont, of course, was a single-issue candidate back in 2006. So when people think of Ned Lamont, they think of Iraq," said Gary Rose, a political science professor at Sacred Heart University.

"He has to obviously broaden his message if he expects to win the party's nomination," he said. "I don't think you win a gubernatorial nomination based on foreign policy, at least not the last time I looked."

Lamont, a political unknown who eventually lost to Lieberman in the general election after the senator ran as an independent candidate, announced Wednesday he had formed an exploratory committee for governor under Connecticut's election laws.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007541.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007541.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:10 EST
"They say people won't walk a mile to vote for you but they'll walk 100 miles to vote against you," said Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat who won his Alabama seat with just 52 percent of the vote last year. "Well, people walked 100 miles Tuesday."

If the Virginia race signals a growing movement against the party's agenda, Democrats know it will be particularly fierce below the Mason-Dixon line next year. Even the perception of such a trend is enough to seriously damage the party's ability to recruit top candidates in the region. On Capitol Hill, it could convince moderates to distance themselves from the party on key votes, such as health care.

"Obviously you pay attention to it, you'd be a fool not to," said Rep. Bob Etheridge, a North Carolina Democrat who said he will make a long-awaited decision by this weekend on whether to challenge Republican Sen. Richard Burr.

Democrats made significant inroads in 2006 and 2008, winning House seats even in states like Mississippi and Alabama that had long been in Republican hands. President Barack Obama was the first Democrat to win Virginia since 1964, and he also won North Carolina. Democrats also picked up Senate seats in both states that could prove pivotal to their agenda.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007516.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007516.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:10 EST
The State Department said Thursday that it and the Homeland Security Department are nearing a decision on ways to reinstate a refugee resettlement program that was suspended last year when the fraud was uncovered.

"These new procedures will likely include DNA testing," the State Department said in a statement given to the Associated Press.

The U.S. experiment using genetic testing ended in 2008 and was aimed only at proving family relationships. The program was not used to identify nationality by country, similar to a controversial effort in England, officials said. Genetic experts have cast doubt on the ability to use DNA results to determine a person's country of origin.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because a decision has not yet been made on reviving or expanding the pilot program.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007491.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/1007491.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:45 EST
The committee, dominated by Democratic liberals, also voted to amend the anti-terrorism law to curb the government's surveillance and seizure powers.

The bill went to the full House on a 16-10 vote along party lines, with Republicans casting all the votes in opposition. GOP lawmakers said the legislation would hinder law enforcement and intelligence agencies in fighting terrorism.

The legislation would allow the Patriot Act's never-used "lone wolf" section to expire at the end of the year. The provision permits the government to spy on non-Americans even when they're not linked to a recognized terrorist group.

The Justice Department has asked that the "lone wolf" authority be continued, even though it hasn't been needed yet. Patriot Act revisions before the Senate would retain the tool, but the House Democrats said normal criminal investigative tools could be used instead.]]>