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Wednesday, February 04, 2004
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[Washington Post: Editorial]
UNLESS TEXAS authorities or the courts come to their senses, Scott Louis Panetti will be executed tomorrow for the double murder of his in-laws more than a decade ago. Texas is unique among the states of the union in its unbridled enthusiasm for capital punishment; it has executed about 35 percent of those put to death nationally since 1976. But even against this bloody backdrop, Mr. Panetti's execution would stand out. The state would be killing someone who is seriously mentally ill and who, despite that fact, was permitted to represent himself at trial and thereby end any chance that a jury might take his illness into account.
4:53:47 PM Google It!
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[AP Politics] By JIM ABRAMS
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, trying to restrain spending, threatened Tuesday to veto a huge highway spending bill that would ensure building projects for almost every member of Congress and provide a jolt of new jobs to the economy.
Lawmakers from both parties said the six-year, $318 billion highway bill now before the Senate was must-pass legislation in an election year when few major bills are expected to pass.
4:50:20 PM Google It!
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US elections 2004: Signs of strong support for John Kerry among Catholics could mean trouble for Bush, say Albert Scardino and John Scardino. [Guardian Unlimited]
4:47:35 PM Google It!
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The commission will decide if it will examine whether President Bush exaggerated the evidence that Iraq possessed stockpiles of illicit weapons. By Douglas Jehl and David E. Sanger. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
4:46:26 PM Google It!
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Economic dispatch: Bush's willingness to run up a mammoth deficit may hide, as it did for Reagan, a rightwing agenda to cut welfare, writes William Keegan. [Guardian Unlimited]
4:43:25 PM Google It!
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[AP World News]
As of Wednesday, Feb. 4, 528 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq (news - web sites), according to the Department of Defense (news - web sites). Of those, 368 died as a result of hostile action and 160 died of non-hostile causes, the department said.
The British military has reported 57 deaths; Italy, 17; Spain, eight; Bulgaria, five; Thailand, two; Denmark, Ukraine and Poland have reported one each.
4:32:51 PM Google It!
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[AP Politics] By H. JOSEF HEBERT
WASHINGTON - Rep. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana is stepping down as chairman of one of the most powerful committees in Congress, and is considering an offer to become the top lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry.
Tauzin, who has spent nearly 24 years in Congress, informed House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Tuesday that he would give up his chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee, effective Feb. 16.
4:30:03 PM Google It!
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President Bush reversed himself today and said he now supports giving a commission investigating the 9/11 attacks more time to produce a final report. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
3:50:32 PM Google It!
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[AP Politics] By KEN GUGGENHEIM
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites)'s decision to appoint a commission on Iraq (news - web sites) intelligence was intended to take pressure off a potentially explosive political issue. But setting up the commission offers its own dangers.
If the commission is truly independent, as the president has promised, it could examine not only the work of intelligence agencies, but how the administration handled intelligence. It could make demands for access to Bush's secret intelligence briefings, as has the congressionally created commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
11:53:37 AM Google It!
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© Copyright 2004 David Remer.
Last update: 3/1/2004; 1:22:02 PM.
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