House health bill unacceptable to many in Senate
By Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar
Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Don't look for the Senate to quickly follow the House on health care overhaul.

A government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate. They're locked in a battle with liberals, with the fate of President Barack Obama's signature issue at stake.

If a government plan is part of the deal, "as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent whose vote Democrats need to overcome GOP filibusters.

"The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said.

Democrats did not line up to challenge him. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has yet to schedule floor debate and hinted last week that senators may not be able to finish health care this year.

Nonetheless, the House vote provided an important lesson in how to succeed with less-than-perfect party unity, and one that Senate Democrats may be able to adapt. House Democrats overcame their own divisions and broke an impasse that threatened the bill after liberals grudgingly accepted tougher restrictions on abortion funding, as abortion opponents demanded.

In the Senate, the stumbling block is the idea of the government competing with private insurers. Liberals may have to swallow hard and accept a deal without a public plan to keep the legislation alive. As in the House, the compromise appears to be to the right of the political spectrum.

Palin goes rogue, bans cell phones, cameras, laptops from speech
By Stephen C. Webster

Palin goes rogue, bans cell phones, cameras, laptops from speechFormer Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is notoriously sensitive to media criticism. Even so, to many observers this move may seem drastic.

Hoping to keep a "low profile" on her upcoming trip to Wisconsin, the one-time GOP vice presidential candidate decided to ban all press from covering her speech. She further issued an edict against cell phones, cameras, laptops and recording devices of any kind, CNN noted.

During a radio interview, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate called the restrictions "bizarre," especially coming from a self-described "rogue."

A recent CNN poll found that were Palin to stage a run for the White House in 2012, just three in 10 Americans would seriously consider voting for her.

Contrary to polls, Luntz claimed IN, NE, AR voters "do not want" heath care reform

On ABC's This Week, Republican pollster Frank Luntz claimed that voters in Indiana, Nebraska, and Arkansas "do not want" health care reform because of "the cost to the deficit." In fact, recent polling indicates that voters in all three states support or are split on creating the public option -- a key element in health care reform -- and the recently passed House health care reform bill is projected to reduce, not add to, the deficit.

US troops killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash
Four American troops have been killed and two injured when two helicopters collided in midair in southern Afghanistan.
26 Oct 2009

Hostile fire has been ruled out as the cause of the crash, a military statement said.

US military spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said he did not have any other details yet about the cause of the collision.

Col Shanks said the injured had been evacuated to hospitals inside Afghanistan.

In an unrelated incident, another helicopter went down during an operation by international forces against insurgents in western Afghanistan in which a dozen militants were killed.

The US said military casualties were reported and a recovery operation is under way. Casualties could refer to either dead or injured.

This has been the deadliest year for international and US forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban. Fighting peaked around the presidential vote in August, and 51 US soldiers died that month – the deadliest for American forces in the eight-year war.

So far in October, more than 30 American troops

This quote comes from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.):

“What do congressmen hope for when they wave to a constituent? That they wave back with all five fingers, and that’s not just in New Jersey..”

DOJ shifts medical marijuana strategy
By: Nia-Malika Henderson

The Obama administration was accused of being soft on drugs Monday after the Justice Department released new guidelines telling federal prosecutors not to target people involved in the medical use of marijuana where state laws permit it.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the new guidelines would allow prosecutors to focus more of their efforts and resources on combating hard-core drug trafficking — a reprioritization that some advocacy groups hailed as sensible and long overdue. But critics accused the administration of tacitly condoning drug use and surrendering without a fight in a key front of the war on drugs.

“The administration’s new guidelines directing federal prosecutors to ignore local medical marijuana dispensaries that allegedly operate in compliance with state laws fly in the face of Supreme Court precedent and undermine federal laws that prohibit the distribution and use of marijuana,” said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), a member of the House Judiciary Committee. He cited a 2005 Supreme Court ruling that said the federal government had the discretion to enforce drug laws, even in medical marijuana states.

“By directing federal law enforcement officers to ignore federal drug laws, the administration is tacitly condoning the use of marijuana in the U.S.,” Smith said. “If we want to win the war on drugs, federal prosecutors have a responsibility to investigate and prosecute all medical marijuana dispensaries and not just those that are merely fronts for illegal marijuana distribution.”

But Holder said in a statement that the new policy reflected a more common-sense approach.

“It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal,” he said. “This balanced policy formalizes a sensible approach that the department has been following since January: Effectively focus our resources on serious drug traffickers while taking into account state and local laws.”

Fourteen states have laws on the books addressing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, among them California, Michigan, Hawaii and Colorado. There have been several raids on California dispensaries recently, and there are dozens of pending cases involving medical marijuana

Italy's crucifixes in classrooms 'violate rights'
AFP

Italy violates parents' right to educate their children along secular lines by displaying crucifixes in classrooms, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday.

The judgment sparked anger in Catholic Italy, with the country's education minister attacking the decision, insisting the crucifix was a "symbol of our tradition".

The Strasbourg court found that: "The compulsory display of a symbol of a given confession in premises used by the public authorities... restricted the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions."

It also restricted the "right of children to believe or not to believe," the seven judges ruling on the case said.

The case was brought by Soile Lautsi, who was also awarded 5,000 euros (7,400 dollars) in damages.

The ruling drew immediate criticism in Italy, where Lautsi's efforts to change tradition have come up against stiff resistance from the Catholic establishment.

Years of legal wrangling saw the case eventually thrown out by judges in Italy, who ruled the crucifix was patriotic and a sign of the country's tradition, not simply a symbol of Catholicism.