Nov
27
NY subway terror threat emerges on busy travel day
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NEW YORK - Police bolstered security in subways and trains Wednesday after the government warned that al-Qaida suicide bombers were contemplating an attack on New York’s mass-transit systems during the holiday season. An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a “plausible but unsubstantiated” report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system.
The internal bulletin says al-Qaida terrorists “in late September may have discussed targeting transit systems in and around New York City. These discussions reportedly involved the use of suicide bombers or explosives placed on subway/passenger rail systems,” according to the document.
“We have no specific details to confirm that this plot has developed beyond aspirational planning, but we are issuing this warning out of concern that such an attack could possibly be conducted during the forthcoming holiday season,” according to the warning dated Tuesday.
A person briefed on the matter, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the intelligence-gathering work, said the threat may also be directed at the passenger rail lines running through New York, such as Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road, which are particularly busy with Thanksgiving holiday travelers.
A federal law enforcement official said there’s no indication that anyone involved in the planning is in the United States. That official also spoke on condition of anonymity because it involved intelligence-gathering.
While law enforcement stepped up patrols around subways and trains, many commuters around the city were unfazed by the news and had not even heard of the threat.
“If you get scared that means they win,” commuter Omid Sima said on the platform of the subway below Rockefeller Center. “There’s always been terror warnings. I can’t change my life because of that.”
The Big Apple’s tightly packed passenger trains and subway cars have long been a source of concern for police officers – and a tempting target for would-be terrorists – but there is often disagreement as to how seriously authorities should take specific intelligence reports.
The city has more than 450 subway stations that handle millions of commuters every day.
A Pakistani immigrant was arrested and convicted for a scheme to blow up the subway station at Herald Square in 2004. There was also a planned cyanide attack on the subways by al-Qaida operatives that authorities say was called off in 2002; another aborted al-Qaida plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge in 2003; and a plot to bomb underwater train tunnels to flood lower Manhattan, which was broken up in 2006 by several arrests overseas.
Three years ago, authorities weighed reports that bombers might try to use baby strollers to bring explosives into city trains. Many security officials later concluded that was a false alarm.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said they have received an unsubstantiated report and as a result have “deployed additional resources in the mass transit system.”
While federal agencies regularly issue all sorts of advisory warnings, the language of this one is particularly blunt.
Intelligence and homeland security officials are working with local authorities to try to corroborate the information “and will continue to investigate every possible lead,” the memo says.
Rep. Peter King, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said authorities “have very real specifics as to who it is and where the conversation took place and who conducted it.”
“It certainly involves suicide bombing attacks on the mass transit system in and around New York and it’s plausible, but there’s no evidence yet that it’s in the process of being carried out,” King said.
Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the warning was issued “out of an abundance of caution going into this holiday season.”
No changes are being made to the nation’s threat level, or for transit systems at this time, he said.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko confirmed only that his agency and the Homeland Security Department issued a bulletin Tuesday night to state and local authorities, and the information is being reviewed.
Nov
27
Thai Cabinet to consider emergency decree
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BANGKOK, Thailand – Thailand’s government spokesman says an emergency Cabinet session will include talks about whether to impose a state of emergency to restore order in Bangkok.
The spokesman, Nattawut Sai-kua, said the Cabinet will also consider enacting the Internal Security Law when it meets later Thursday.
An emergency decree would give the prime minister authority to use the military to restore order and to suspend certain civil liberties.
The security law is a separate measure that would enable officials to bar public assembly and “suppress” actions considered harmful to national security.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat on Wednesday resisted demands from the army chief to resign as anti-government protesters shut Bangkok’s two airports.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) – Thai authorities shut down Bangkok’s second airport Thursday after it was overrun by anti-government protesters, completely cutting off the capital from air traffic as the prime minister rejected their demands to resign, deepening the country’s crisis.
Thailand’s powerful army commander, who has remained neutral in the conflict, stepped into the fray Wednesday, urging Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat to step down.
He also asked thousands of protesters to end their siege of the main Suvarnabhumi International Airport. It has been shut since Tuesday night, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, and drawing world attention to a turmoil that has reduced Thailand to a dysfunctional nation.
The anti-government protests, which gathered pace three months ago, have paralyzed the government, battered the stock market, spooked foreign investors and dealt a serious blow to the tourism industry.
The crisis worsened early Thursday as authorities shut down the Don Muang domestic airport, which had been receiving some diverted flights from Suvarnabhumi.
Serirat Prasutanont, chief of the Thailand Airport Authority, said authorities feared protesters who stormed the Don Muang terminal late Wednesday might harm passengers and aircraft.
He said authorities might consider using the U Ta Pao air force base, 140 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Bangkok, and were alerting airports nationwide to be ready for diverted flights.
The closure of the two airports left thousands of foreign tourists stranded, including Americans trying to get home for their Thanksgiving holiday Thursday.
Bart Edes, a 45-year-old American banker, had planned to spend Thanksgiving with his wife at a friend’s home in Manila, where he lives.
“They’re going to put on a traditional feast – roast turkey, sweet potatoes, all the things you crave when you’re outside of the United States,” he said.
But Edes said he still had a lot to be thankful for. “Look at what happened in Mumbai. This is an inconvenience, but it could be worse.”
At least 100 people were killed in the Indian city of Mumbai by a series of overnight militant attacks that reportedly targeted Americans and Britons.
The protests are being led by a loose coalition known as the People’s Alliance for Democracy. It accuses Somchai of acting as the puppet for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a September 2006 military coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin, who is Somchai’s brother-in-law, is in exile, a fugitive from a conviction for violating a conflict of interest law.
On Wednesday, a district court ordered the alliance leaders and their supporters to immediately leave Suvarnabhumi, calling the occupation “an infringement on other individuals who have freedom of movement.”
There was no sign of the protesters leaving Thursday – a reflection of their boldness amid the government’s unwillingness to use force for fear of causing bloodshed.
Somchai, who was forced to land in the northern city of Chiang Mai when he returned from Peru on Wednesday, is also not budging. In a televised address to the nation, he said his government was legitimately elected and that it has “a job to protect democracy for the people of Thailand.”
The statement amounted to a rejection of Army Gen. Anupong Paochinda’s suggestion to quit, which seemed to put him on a collision course with the military, although the general has said he would not launch a coup.
Somsak Kosaisuk, a key protest alliance leader, said protesters stormed Don Muang airport to prevent members of Somchai’s Cabinet from flying to Chiang Mai for an emergency Cabinet meeting Thursday.
The drive from Bangkok to Chiang Mai takes about eight hours.
Government spokesman Nattawut Saikau said the emergency meeting would nevertheless go ahead. “The key issue is how to deal with escalating violence in the country,” he told The Associated Press.
The People’s Alliance for Democracy insists it will continue its airport occupation and other protests until Somchai resigns. It also has rejected the general’s proposal for elections, pushing instead for the appointment of a temporary government.
The alliance comprises mainly well-educated, affluent, urban Thais who want the country to move away from a Western-style electoral system, which they say Thaksin exploited to buy votes. They favor a system in which representatives are chosen by certain professions and social groups.
They are vastly outnumbered by Thaksin’s supporters in the rural majority, who delivered his party two resounding election victories. Their loyalty was sealed by generous social and economic welfare programs for previously neglected areas.
On Thursday, the EU and the British Foreign Office expressed concern at the deteriorating situation.
“We urge all sides to this political dispute to resolve their differences peacefully and legally, respecting Thailand’s democratic institutions,” Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said.
The European Union said in a statement that “any anti-constitutional attempt to interfere in the democratic process would have a negative impact on EU/Thailand relations.”
As the deadlock continued, political violence spread Wednesday to Chiang Mai, where government supporters attacked a radio station aligned with the protesters. Separately, there were unconfirmed reports that one man was killed and several people assaulted in an attack on the city’s local airport.
The protest alliance launched its current campaign in late August, storming the grounds of the prime minister’s office, which they continue to use as their stronghold. The group has also tried twice to blockade Parliament, in one case setting off a daylong street battle with police that left two people dead and hundreds injured.
Nov
27
101 killed as gunmen rampage in India city
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MUMBAI, India - Teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, a crowded train station and a Jewish group’s headquarters in India’s financial capital, killing at least 101 people, taking Westerners hostage and leaving parts of the city under siege Thursday. A group of suspected Muslim militants claimed responsibility.
Police and gunmen were exchanging occasional gunfire at two luxury hotels and dozens of people were believed held hostage or trapped inside the besieged buildings. Pradeep Indulkar, a senior official at the Maharashtra state Home Ministry said 101 people were killed and 287 injured.
Officials said eight militants had also been killed in the coordinated attacks on at least 10 sites that began around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Gunmen also seized the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch, the New York-based group said. Indian commandos surrounded the building Thursday morning and media reports said gunfire was heard from the building.
Police loudspeakers declared a curfew around Mumbai’s landmark Taj Mahal hotel, and black-clad commandos ran into the building as fresh gunshots rang out from the area, apparently the beginning of an assault on gunmen who had taken hostages in the hotel.
Soldiers outside the hotel said forces were moving slowly, from room to room, looking for gunmen and traps.
A series of explosions had rocked the Taj Mahal just after midnight. Screams were heard and black smoke and flames billowed from the century-old edifice on Mumbai’s waterfront. Firefighters sprayed water at the blaze and plucked people from balconies with extension ladders. By dawn, the fire was still burning.
At the nearby upscale Oberoi hotel, soldiers could be seen on the roof of neighboring buildings. A banner hung out of one window read “save us.” No one could be seen inside the room from the road.
Officials at Bombay Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a Japanese man had died there and nine Europeans had been admitted, three of them in critical condition with gunshots. All had come from the Taj Mahal, the officials said.
At least three top Indian police officers – including the chief of the anti-terror squad – were among those killed, said and A.N. Roy, a top police official.
The attackers specifically targeted Britons and Americans at the hotels and restaurant, witnesses said.
Alex Chamberlain, a British citizen who was dining at the Oberoi, told Sky News television that a gunman ushered 30 to 40 people from the restaurant into a stairway and, speaking in Hindi or Urdu, ordered everyone to put up their hands.
“They were talking about British and Americans specifically. There was an Italian guy, who, you know, they said: ‘Where are you from?” and he said he’s from Italy and they said ‘fine’ and they left him alone. And I thought: ‘Fine, they’re going to shoot me if they ask me anything – and thank God they didn’t,” he said.
Chamberlain said he managed to slip away as the patrons were forced to walk up stairs, but he thought much of the group was being held hostage.
The motive for the onslaught was not immediately clear, but Mumbai has frequently been targeted in terrorist attacks blamed on Islamic extremists, including a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people.
Mumbai, on the western coast of India overlooking the Arabian Sea, is home to splendid Victorian architecture built during the British Raj and is one of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million crammed into shantytowns, high rises and crumbling mansions. The Taj Mahal hotel, filled with Oriental carpets, Indian artifacts and alabaster ceilings, overlooks the fabled Gateway of India that commemorated the visit of King George V and Queen Mary.
A spokesman for the Lubavitch movement in New York, Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, said attackers “stormed the Chabad house” in Mumbai.
“It seems that the terrorists commandeered a police vehicle which allowed them easy access to the area of the Chabad house and threw a grenade at a gas pump nearby,” he said, citing a variety of sources.
He said he did not know the status of occupants of the house, which serves as an educational center and a synagogue.
Early Thursday, state home secretary Bipin Shrimali said four suspects had been killed in two incidents in Mumbai when they tried to flee in cars, and Roy said four more gunmen were killed at the Taj Mahal. State Home Minister R.R. Patil said nine more were arrested. They declined to provide any further details.
“We’re going to catch them dead or alive,” Patil told reporters. “An attack on Mumbai is an attack on the rest of the country.”
An Indian media report said a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen had claimed responsibility for the attacks in e-mails to several media outlets. There was no way to verify that claim.
The state government ordered schools and colleges and the Bombay Stock Exchange closed Thursday.
Police reported hostages being held at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, two of the best-known upscale destinations.
Gunmen who burst into the Taj “were targeting foreigners. They kept shouting: `Who has U.S. or U.K. passports?’” said Ashok Patel, a British citizen who fled from the hotel.
Authorities believed up to 15 foreigners were hostages at the Taj Mahal hotel, said Anees Ahmed, a top state official.
It was also unclear where the hostages were in the Taj Mahal, which is divided into an older wing that was in flames, and a more modern tower.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood said U.S. officials were not aware of any American casualties, but were still checking.
“We condemn these attacks and the loss of innocent life,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Blood smeared the grounds of the 19th century Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station – a beautiful example of Victorian Gothic architecture – where attackers sprayed bullets into the crowded terminal.
Nasim Inam’s hands shook when he spoke of seeing four attackers gunning down commuters as they walked to catch late trains home.
“They wore black T-shirts and blue jeans. They were carrying big guns,” said Inam. “They just fired randomly at people and then ran away. In seconds, people fell to the ground.”
Other gunmen attacked Leopold’s restaurant, a landmark popular with foreigners, and the police headquarters in southern Mumbai, the area where most of the attacks took place. The restaurant was riddled with bullet holes and there was blood on the floor and shoes left by fleeing customers. Gunmen also attacked Cama and Albless Hospital and G.T. Hospital, though it was not immediately clear if anyone was killed.
Early Thursday, several European lawmakers were among those who barricaded themselves inside the Taj, a century-old seaside hotel complex and one of the city’s best-known destinations.
Nov
16
Wildfires in LA reduce hundreds of homes to ash
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LOS ANGELES – Southern Californians endured a third day of destruction Saturday as wind-blasted wildfires torched hundreds of mobile homes and mansions, forced tens of thousands of people to flee and shut down major freeways.
No deaths were reported, but the Los Angeles police chief said he feared authorities might find bodies among the 500 burned dwellings in a devastated mobile home park that housed many senior citizens.
“We have almost total devastation here in the mobile park,” Fire Capt. Steve Ruda said. “I can’t even read the street names because the street signs are melting.”
The series of fires has injured at least 20 people and destroyed hundreds of homes from coastal Santa Barbara to inland Riverside County, on the other side of the Los Angeles area. Smoke blanketed the nation’s second-largest city Saturday, reducing the afternoon sun to a pale orange disk.
As night fell, a fire fed by a sleet of blowing embers hopscotched through the winding lanes of modern subdivisions in Orange and Riverside counties, destroying more than 50 homes, some of them apparently mansions.
A blaze in the Sylmar community in the hillsides above Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley destroyed the mobile homes, nine single-family homes and several other buildings before growing to more than 8,000 acres – more than 12 square miles. It was only 20 percent contained Saturday.
It sent residents fleeing in the dark Saturday morning as notorious Santa Ana winds topping 75 mph torched cars, bone-dry brush and much of Oakridge Mobile Home Park. The blaze, whose cause was under investigation, threatened at least 1,000 structures, city Fire Department spokeswoman Melissa Kelley said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Orange and Riverside counties. Fire officials estimated that at its peak 10,000 people were under orders to evacuate, including residents of the mobile home park.
Extreme fire conditions were expected to continue into Sunday morning, with humidity at just 10 percent to 15 percent and winds gusting to 45 mph through canyons. Winds, however, could reverse direction and dip to 5-mph breezes Sunday afternoon.
“We still have another 15 hours of red flag conditions,” Robert Balfour, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego, warned fire officials at a briefing Saturday night.
Many heat records were set as the region withered under the Santa Anas. Downtown Los Angeles was 20 degrees above normal at a record 93 degrees.
At an evacuation center, Lucretia Romero, 65, wore a string of pearls and clutched the purse and jacket she snatched as firefighters shouted at them to flee hours earlier.
Her daughter, Lisa, 42, wore a bloodstained shirt and pants. A helicopter dropping water on their home caused the entryway ceiling to collapse. Debris scratched her forehead and gave her a black eye.
Lucretia Romero said she saw smoke above the hills beyond the front door and then, within an hour, saw that a canyon across from her home was red with flame.
“They would drop water, the water would squash the flames and then two minutes later the flames would come back,” she said. Firefighters soon banged on the door and gave them 10 minutes to evacuate.
Flames swept across the park and scorched cypress trees, Ruda said. Firefighters had to flee, grabbing some residents and leaving hoses melted into the concrete.
Ruda produced a burned U.S. flag on a broken stick as a sign of hope and bravery for firefighters. “The home that this flag was flying from is gone,” he said.
Police Chief William Bratton said cars were found in the debris at the park, raising concerns that bodies might be found. Crews were waiting for the ground to cool before bringing in search dogs, he said.
The Santa Anas – dry winds that typically blow through Southern California between October and February – tossed embers ahead of flames, jumping two interstate highways and sparking new flare-ups. Walls of flame raced up ridge lines covered in sun-baked brush and surrounded high-power transmission line towers.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the fire caused problems that shut down power lines in places, and he asked residents to conserve power to help avoid possible blackouts.
Shortly after midnight, the Sylmar fire burned to the edge of the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center campus, knocking out power and forcing officials to evacuate two dozen critical patients.
The shifting winds caused the fire to move uphill toward the San Gabriel Mountains, downhill toward homes and sometimes skip across canyons. It also jumped across Interstates 5 and 210, forcing the California Highway Patrol to shut down portions of both freeways and some connecting roads.
More than 60 homes were damaged or destroyed in a fire that erupted in the Riverside County city of Corona and spread west to the Orange County communities of Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills.
In addition, 50 apartment units burned in a complex in Anaheim Hills. Devin Nathanson, 27, had put down a deposit on an apartment there and planned to move in Saturday. Instead, he watched from the road as it burned to the ground.
“At least none of my stuff was inside yet,” he said.
Palm trees lining the entrance to the complex were ablaze, and two firefighters manned hoses at the swimming pool and sprayed water on the leasing center. The roof caved in with a loud bang.
About 2,000 acres – more than 3 square miles – were charred by that fire, with more than 12,000 people in 4,500 dwellings ordered to evacuate in Anaheim alone. Six firefighters were injured, including four Corona firefighters who were hurt when flames swept over their engine. Two of the Corona crewmembers were treated at a hospital and released.
Winds began to decrease in the afternoon and were expected to drop further overnight, but humidity was expected to remain low.
Nov
16
Animal rights group throws flour on fur-clad Lohan
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PARIS – U.S. actress Lindsay Lohan has been pelted with a flour bomb on arrival at a Paris nightclub wearing a fur stole.
Animal rights activists showered the 22-year-old actress with flour when she went to the VIP Room Theater in the early hours of Saturday with her friend, disc jockey Samantha Ronson.
The owner of the nightclub helped Lohan dust off her blue sequined dress and black stole before she posed on the red carpet. Ronson went on to spin tracks for a crowd that included reggae rapper Shaggy and “I Kissed a Girl” singer Katy Perry.
Nov
16
waves a rainbow colored flag to a large crowd of supporters of same-sex ...
* Same-Sex Marriage Issues Slideshow: Same-Sex Marriage Issues
* Two Teens Arrested In Election Night Hate Crime Play Video Video: Two Teens Arrested In Election Night Hate Crime CBS 2 New York
* Short-List For Sen. Obama’s Office Play Video Video: Short-List For Sen. Obama’s Office CBS 2 Chicago
BOSTON – Gay rights supporters waving rainbow colors marched, chanted and danced in cities coast to coast Saturday to protest the vote that banned gay marriage in California and to urge supporters not to quit the fight for the right to wed.
Crowds gathered near public buildings in cities large and small, including Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Fargo, to vent their frustrations, celebrate gay relationships and renew calls for change.
“Civil marriages are a civil right, and we’re going to keep fighting until we get the rights we deserve as American citizens,” said Karen Amico, one of several hundred protesters in Philadelphia, holding up a sign reading “Don’t Spread H8″.
“We are the American family, we live next door to you, we teach your children, we take care of your elderly,” said Heather Baker a special education teacher from Boston who addressed the crowd at Boston’s City Hall Plaza. “We need equal rights across the country.”
Connecticut, which began same-sex weddings this past week, and Massachusetts are the only two states that allow gay marriage. The other 48 states do not, and 30 of them have taken the extra step of approving constitutional amendments. A few states allow civil unions or domestic partnerships that grant some rights of marriage.
Protests following the vote on Proposition 8 in California, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, have sometimes been angry and even violent, and demonstrators have targeted faiths that supported the ban, including the Mormon church.
However, representatives of Join the Impact, which organized Saturday’s demonstrations, asked supporters to be respectful and refrain from attacking other groups during the rallies.
Seattle blogger Amy Balliett, who started the planning for the protests when she set up a Web page three days after the California vote, said persuasion is impossible without civility.
“If we can move anybody past anger and have a respectful conversation, then you can plant the seed of change,” she said.
Balliett said supporters in 300 cities in the U.S. and other countries were holding marches, and she estimated 1 million people would participate, based on responses at the Web sites her group set up.
“We need to show the world when one thing happens to one of us, it happens to all of us,” she said.
The protests were widely reported to be peaceful, and the mood in Boston was generally upbeat, with attendees dancing to the song “Respect.” Signs cast the fight for gay marriage as the new civil rights movement, including one that read “Gay is the new black.”
But anger over the ban and its backers was evident at the protests.
One sign in Chicago, where several thousand people gathered, read: “Catholic Fascists Stay Out of Politics.”
“I just found out that my state doesn’t really think I’m a person,” said Rose Aplustill, 21, a Boston University student from Los Osos, Calif., who was one of thousands at the Boston rally.
In San Francisco, demonstrators took shots at some religious groups that supported the ban, including a sign aimed at the Mormon church and its abandoned practice of polygamy that read: “You have three wives; I want one husband.”
Chris Norberg, who married his partner in June, also referred to the racial divisions that arose after exit polls found that majorities of blacks and Hispanics supported the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
“They voted against us,” Norberg said.
In Salt Lake City, where demonstrators gathered just blocks from the headquarters of the Mormon church, one sign pictured the city’s temple with a line adapted from former Republican vice president candidate Sarah Palin: “I can see discrimination from my house.”
More than 500 demonstrators in Washington marched from the U.S. Capitol through the city carrying signs and chanting “One, two, three, four, love is what we’re fighting for!”
A public plaza at the foot of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge was packed by a cheering crowd of thousands, including people who waved rainbow flags and wore pink buttons that said “I do.”
Protests were low-key in North Dakota, where people lined a bridge in Fargo carrying signs and flags.
Mike Bernard, who was in the crowd of hundreds at City Hall in Baltimore, said Proposition 8 could end up being a good thing for gay rights advocates.
“It was a swift kick in the rear end,” he said.
In Los Angeles, protesters gathered near City Hall before marching through downtown. Police said 10,000 to 12,000 people demonstrated.
Supporters of traditional marriage said the rallies may have generated publicity but ultimately made no difference.
“They had everything in the world going for them this year, and they couldn’t win,” said Frank Schubert, co-manager of the Yes on 8 campaign in California. “I don’t think they’re going to be any more successful in 2010 or 2012.”
In Chicago, Keith Smith, 42, a postal worker, and his partner, Terry Romo, 34, a Wal-Mart store manager, had photos of a commitment ceremony they held, though gay marriage is not legal in Illinois.
“We’re not going to wait for no law,” Smith said. “But time’s going to be on our side and it’s going to change.”
Nov
16
the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as he takes the oath of …
* Obama to deliver radio addresses online Play Video Video: Obama to deliver radio addresses online KMOV Channel 4 St. Louis
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* Obama urges Congress for rescue plan Play Video Video: Obama urges Congress for rescue plan Reuters
WASHINGTON – Presidents typically say they want to be surrounded by strong-willed people who have the courage to disagree with them. President-elect Barack Obama, reaching out to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans, actually might mean it.
Abraham Lincoln meant it. He appointed his bitter adversaries to crucial posts, choosing as war secretary a man who had called him a “long-armed ape” who “does not know anything and can do you no good.”
You could say his Cabinet meetings were frank and open.
Richard Nixon didn’t mean it.
“I don’t want a government of yes-men,” he declared. But among all the president’s men, those who said no did so at their peril. He went down a path of destruction in the company of sycophants.
It so happens that Obama and New York Sen. Clinton share a reverence for “Team of Rivals,” Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book about how Lincoln brought foes into his fold. Clinton listed it during the campaign as the last book she had read. Obama, clearly a student of Lincoln, spoke of it several times.
Now past could be prologue.
Obama is considering Clinton for secretary of state or another senior position, meeting John McCain on Monday to see how his Republican presidential rival might help him in the Senate, and sizing up one-time opponents in both parties for potential recruitment. He made one Democratic presidential opponent, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, his running mate.
“I think it reflects a great inner strength on Obama’s part that he is seriously considering creating a team of rivals as Lincoln did,” Goodwin told The Associated Press on Friday.
“By surrounding himself with people who bring different perspectives, he will increase his options, absorb dissenting views and heighten his ability to speak empathetically to people on different sides of each issue. The challenge, of course, is to ensure that the discussions do not become paralyzing, and that once a decision is made the inner circle accepts that the time for debate is over,” she said.
During the bitter primary campaign, Clinton dismissed Obama as a neophyte who could not be trusted to handle crises and who had not done much more in politics than make fancy speeches. Obama sniffed that “you’re likable enough, Hillary.”
Yet she strongly supported Obama in the general campaign, not unlike William Henry Seward, the Hillary Clinton of his day.
Seward, the front-runner in the race for the 1860 Republican nomination, was so confident of taking the prize that he went on an eight-month tour of Europe a year earlier, only to see Lincoln vanquish him. Lincoln buried animosities and made him secretary of state.
Lincoln also enlisted Democrat Edwin Stanton as his second war secretary, despite being humiliated by Stanton years earlier when they worked together as trial lawyers. Salmon P. Chase, a constant critic of Lincoln and another Republican rival, became his treasury secretary. Other rivals were put in the Cabinet, too.
Lincoln’s reasoning: “We needed the strongest men. These were the very strongest men. I had no right to deprive the country of their services.”
None of this has been lost on Obama, who said in May that Lincoln’s inclusion of former foes “has to be the approach that one takes.”
At the time, he said he would consider McCain for the Cabinet if that made sense. Now, aides for both men say such a move is not in the works but they will seek other ways to cooperate.
To be sure, the pledge to build a strong and politically diverse Cabinet of people who will not be cowed by the president and his aides is made in one election after another. It usually has all the staying power of a New Year’s resolution.
Michael Nelson, in his “Guide to the Presidency,” noted that Jimmy Carter promised: “There will never be an instance while I am in office where the members of the White House staff dominate or act in a superior position to the members of the Cabinet.”
That didn’t last long. Carter met weekly with his Cabinet in his first year, every two weeks in his second, monthly in his third and only sporadically in his fourth, Nelson calculated, tracing a typical pattern of good intentions lost in the wind.
Walter Hickel, Nixon’s interior secretary, thought the president valued his contrary views “because, to me, an adversary in an organization is a valuable asset.” Not to Nixon.
Hickel came to realize Nixon “considered an adversary an enemy.” The two particularly disagreed over the Alaskan pipeline – the secretary wanted to protect wilderness lands coveted by the oil companies.
During one testy meeting, he asked Nixon whether he should leave his administration. “He jumped from his chair, very hurried and agitated,” Hickel recalled. “He said, ‘That’s one option we hadn’t considered.’” A week later, Hickel was fired.
Goodwin says a true team of rivals is exceptionally difficult to make work in these days of hyperpartisanship, scandal-hungry blogs and raw feelings between parties and factions of the same party from the often nasty campaign. Disharmony in Lincoln’s Cabinet was largely kept inside the meetings, exposed years later in memoirs, and that’s not how the world works anymore.
Still, she said the even-keeled Obama displayed a temperament in the campaign that could help him pull it off.
“And I believe the country would respond with great enthusiasm, recognizing the great contrast to recent times.”
Obama invited dissent in his election night victory speech, promising, “I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.”
It remains to be seen whether he wants naysaying of the kind delivered by Stanton, who served as Democrat James Buchanan’s attorney general in one of the few instances in history when a Cabinet member from one party has gone on to serve a president of the other party in the succeeding administration.
“You are sleeping on a volcano,” he warned Buchanan in the lead-up to the Civil War. Without prompt action, “you will be the last president of the United States.”
Nov
16
University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston, Thursday, Nov. 13, …
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Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.
Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.
From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.
There have been “hundreds” of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.
One was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: “I hope Obama gets assassinated.” That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law’s front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said.
She described her emotions as a combination of anger and fear.
“I can’t say that every white person in Snellville is evil and anti-Obama and willing to desecrate my property because one or two idiots did it,” said Millner, who is black. “But it definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with, and makes you wonder what they’re capable of and what they’re really thinking.”
Potok, who is white, said he believes there is “a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them.”
Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: “I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.
“If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama’s) church being deported,” he said.
Change in whatever form does not come easy, and a black president is “the most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced since the Civil War,” said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. “It’s shaking the foundations on which the country has existed for centuries.”
“Someone once said racism is like cancer,” Ferris said. “It’s never totally wiped out, it’s in remission.”
If so, America’s remission lasted until the morning of Nov. 5.
The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama’s victory.
Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the NAACP calling for a town hall meeting to address complaints from across the state about hostility and resentment. Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia.
The student’s mother, Eshe Riviears, said the principal told her: “Whether you like it or not, we’re in the South, and there are a lot of people who are not happy with this decision.”
Other incidents include:
_Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: “Let’s shoot that (N-word) in the head.” Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.
_At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool.” Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. “Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count,” the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written “Let’s hope someone wins.”
_Racist graffiti was found in places including New York’s Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and “Go Back To Africa” were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.
_Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted “assassinate Obama,” a district official said.
_University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. “It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork,” Houston said.
_Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.
_Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.
_A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted ‘Obama.’
_In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying “now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house.”
Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.
“The principle is very simple,” said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book “A Peacock in the Land of Penguins.” “If I can’t hurt the person I’m angry at, then I’ll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race.”
“We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by ‘the white man.’”
“It’s as stupid and ineffectual as kicking your dog when you’ve had a bad day at the office,” Gallagher said. “But it happens a lot.”
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Associated Press writers Errin Haines, Jerry Harkavy, Jay Reeves, Johnny Clark and researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.
Nov
15
Nash, Alston, Barnes suspended for fight
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NEW YORK – The NBA has suspended Steve Nash and Matt Barnes of Phoenix and Rafer Alston of Houston for their roles in a fight.
Alston and Barnes were suspended for two games without pay and Nash for one. The league also fined Shaquille O’Neal $35,000 and Tracy McGrady $25,000 on Friday for their actions during the Rockets’ 94-82 win in Phoenix on Wednesday.
Barnes knocked back Alston with his shoulder late in the third quarter, and Alston charged him. Nash ran in and was pushed back by McGrady, who was shoved down by O’Neal.
Nash was cited for “escalating the altercation.” He and Barnes will miss Friday’s game at Sacramento, and Barnes will sit Sunday against Detroit. Alston will miss games Friday against San Antonio and Saturday against New Orleans.
Nov
15
Steinbrenner: Yanks make offer to CC Sabathia
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NEW YORK – Joe Girardi said this week he’d enjoy showing free agents around the new Yankee Stadium. CC Sabathia is one of the players the New York manager has in mind for a tour of the spacious clubhouse, players lounge, indoor batting cage and underground hot tub.
Free-agent season opened Friday with the Yankees planning to give Sabathia a record offer for a pitcher.
Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner confirmed Friday night at the team’s spring training complex in Tampa, Fla., that an offer was made to Sabathia, and that proposals will be forthcoming for pitchers A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe.
“Yes,” Steinbrenner said when asked if an offer was made to Sabathia. “And we’re prepared to make offers to Burnett and Lowe.”
The Yankees formulated a proposal to the big lefty that would exceed Johan Santana’s $137.5 million, six-year contract with the New York Mets both in total and average, a baseball official familiar with the negotiations said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge details.
Steinbrenner declined to give details about the Sabathia offer.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and Greg Genske, one of Sabathia’s agents, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
Steinbrenner said he felt the Yankees will be successful in the free-agent market.
“I’m starting to become very optimistic,” Steinbrenner said. “I think it’s going to be mutually beneficial to us and for these particular players that we’re after for them to join the Yankees.”
Sabathia went a combined 17-10 for Cleveland and Milwaukee this year after winning the 2007 AL Cy Young Award, and is considered the best starting pitcher in this year’s free-agent class.
On Friday morning, the Yankees gave a media tour of the new ballpark, scheduled to be substantially completed by Feb. 17. The oval clubhouse has wide lockers, with a replica of the stadium frieze above them, and the Yankees hope one will be Sabathia’s.
Other top free-agent starters are likely will wait for Sabathia to set the price for pitchers.
“The signing of CC is going to create probably a truer market for a number of the pitchers, mainly because the clubs that are bidding on CC didn’t get him, and the demand for the other pitchers will be greater,” said agent Scott Boras, who represents free agents Oliver Perez and Lowe.
The 171 players who filed for free agency after the World Series could start negotiating money with all teams starting at 12:01 a.m. EST Friday. Boras, based in California, said his phone was ringing repeatedly late Thursday night.
“I got eight phone calls. They didn’t wait till the business day. You’re talking about owners, your talking about general managers, people taking very aggressive stances with particular players,” said Boras, who also represents outfielder Manny Ramirez and first baseman Mark Teixeira, among the top free-agent sluggers.
“They wanted to make sure they were on the board making offers,” Boras said.
Francisco Rodriguez tops the available relief pitchers, a group that also includes Brian Fuentes and Kerry Wood. Agent Paul Kinzer said he had received inquiries from four teams about K-Rod, who saved a record 62 games for the Los Angeles Angels.
“I just think we’ve got to be patient. We’ll know when the fit’s right,” Kinzer said. “When we get closer, we’ll probably meet with the people, maybe check out the area, living arrangements, that type thing, and then make a decision.”
He also reported an aggressive market for another client, shortstop Rafael Furcal.
“There’s been about five or six serious teams already on him today, and I expect that to even go up because there’s been at least eight or more that have been in contact,” Kinzer said.
Commissioner Bud Selig repeatedly cautions teams to be careful in their spending, but the economic downtown doesn’t appear likely to depress salaries for top players.
“We think that the time of free agents will still be recession-proof,” said Lew Wolff, owner of the low-revenue Oakland Athletics. “We think the second tier will present some opportunities.”
Other high-profile free agents include pitchers Ryan Dempster and Trevor Hoffman; first baseman Jason Giambi; outfielders Garret Anderson, Bobby Abreu, Milton Bradley, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr.; catchers Jason Varitek and Ivan Rodriguez; and third baseman Casey Blake.
“A lot of the owners want to sit down and have a meeting with some of the players,” Boras said. “There’s a couple players in this market that pay for themselves, in Teixeira and Ramirez, and they know that.”
It’s rare that a player spends his entire career with one team. Wood wanted to stay with the Cubs, who instead acquired Kevin Gregg as a less costly alternative.