news.notes20090517a

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]

Sunday, May 17, 2009
Ruhollah Khomeini
Shi'ite cleric Ruhollah Khomeini—born this day in 1900, it is believed—led the 1979 revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and for the next 10 years served as Iran's ultimate political and religious authority.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]

Sunday, May 17, 2009
1954: School segregation outlawed by U.S. Supreme Court
On this day in 1954, lawyer Thurgood Marshall scored a landmark victory as the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.


[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Teens in Kobe test positive for H1N1
First in-country swine flu cases shut schools

(Kyodo News) Schools in the Kansai region were shut down in three wards in Kobe and in the nearby city of Ashiya after a local high school student became the first of a spate of nine domestic cases of H1N1 swine flu.

The student, who has been hospitalized, is a 17-year-old male from prefecture-run Kobe High School who has never been overseas, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.

Two other students from the school, a male and a female, also tested positive later in the day, along with five more people from a different high school in Kobe, and a high school student from Osaka Prefecture, the ministry said.

The findings kicked off a raft of new measures to contain the virus, including the school closures, which will last until Friday.

"We have entered a new phase (in tackling the new flu)," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said in a meeting with senior government officials.

"We need to take appropriate measures to prevent the disease from spreading by examining the patient's activities and finding those who had close contact with him," he said.

In response, the government upgraded its four-stage flu action program from "overseas outbreak" to the second stage — "early period of domestic outbreak." If cases continue to crop up, it will go to the third stage, which has three levels: "spreading further," "widespread," and "recovering." The fourth stage is "outbreak in remission."

The domestic cases came a week after the nation's first four flu cases — a group of Japanese students and a teacher — who were detected with H1N1 influenza A during quarantine inspections at Narita International Airport on May 8. The four arrived via the United States after staying in Canada.

Health minister Yoichi Masuzoe said the government "will detect through aggressive epidemiological study those who had close contact with the patient to hospitalize them or to urge them to refrain from going out."

Prime Minister Taro Aso said in a statement that the government is ready to take measures to prevent the new flu from spreading beyond Hyogo Prefecture.

"I hope people in Japan remain vigilant while staying calm," the statement said.

The Kobe high school student was sent early Saturday to a local hospital that handles infectious disease patients. After exhibiting cold symptoms Monday morning, he developed a fever of 37.4 degrees on Tuesday and visited a clinic, where he tested positive for influenza A.

When his specimen was examined on Friday by a municipal lab, it tested positive for the new flu, which is a subtype of influenza A.

The teen's doctor asked the lab to test the specimen for a seasonal flu, rather than the new flu, because he had no history of overseas travel, the city said.

The student took a leave of absence from school Tuesday. As of Friday, he was coughing but his fever had dropped below 37. No health problems have been observed in his family, which also has no history of going overseas.

The other male, 16, had a fever Friday and left school early with a temperature of 39.7. A preliminary test showed Saturday that he had influenza A.

The third student, a 16-year-old female, had a fever of 38 Tuesday night and tested positive for influenza A in a preliminary test. She was almost back to normal as of Saturday.

More than 8,450 people in 38 countries and regions have been confirmed infected with the new flu as of noon Saturday, with 73 deaths reported in four countries, the vast majority of them in Mexico.

Given that none of the students had been overseas, the ministry has decided to send an investigator to check where they went and who they may have had contact with.

The city has decided to close public kindergartens, elementary, junior high and senior high schools for seven days in Higashi-Nada, Nada and Chuo wards, as well as adjacent Ashiya city. The city has also decided to postpone school excursions for the same period.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Hatoyama elected head of DPJ
Diet members go against public opinion; winner says Ozawa, Okada to hold key posts

By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer

Democratic Party of Japan chose Yukio Hatoyama as its new president Saturday by a relatively large margin over Katsuya Okada, who was the more popular candidate among the public in opinion polls.

The DPJ, as the largest opposition force and most powerful party in the Upper House, could be the next ruling party depending on the Lower House general election. This means Hatoyama, grandson of a former prime minister, could hold the No. 1 office himself before the year is out.

"All along, our rival has been the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito bloc and not each other," Hatoyama said after he was elected. "There were no sides the minute the election ended."

Only the DPJ's 221 sitting Diet members were allowed to vote. Hatoyama received 124 ballots to 95 for Okada.

Stressing party unity, Okada vowed to cooperate with Hatoyama to fight the LDP. The general election must be held by fall.

"From today, let us come together as the new Hatoyama-led DPJ and bring politics back into the hands of the public and take power," he said.

At a news conference after the vote, Hatoyama said he intends to give key party posts to Okada and scandal-tainted Ichiro Ozawa, whose resignation as party president forced Saturday's election. But Hatoyama refused to give any details, saying only that he will make his selections as soon as possible.

"I would like to play ball with everyone — this means that I would like both Okada and Ozawa to take key posts," he said.

Hatoyama's first major task will be to reverse the negative swing in the party's fortunes since Ozawa's chief secretary was arrested and charged in a fundraising scandal, but appointing Ozawa to a key position is likely to trigger harsh public criticism.

"I am aware that the Nishimatsu problem has not been resolved, and I do think it is a fact that Ozawa has not completely fulfilled his responsibility to explain the situation," Hatoyama said, referring to the construction company whose fully documented campaign contributions are at the heart of the scandal.

"I would like Ozawa to go around the country where he will face various questions raised by the people," he said. "I would like him to provide the necessary information to the public without running away."

Ozawa resigned amid strong negative reaction over the scandal, while Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Cabinet began to show signs of recovering from extremely low public support.

After Ozawa stepped down Monday, various media polls showed that Okada, with his "clean image," was the more popular of the two candidates. Hatoyama for his part, being Ozawa's right-hand man as the party's secretary general, was seen as more of the same and the election was viewed as a battle between those for Ozawa or against him.

Lower House member Sumio Mabuchi, who voted for Okada, said it is up to the DPJ's Diet members to explain why Hatoyama was the winner contrary to public sentiment.

"Despite public opinion, (most of the party's lawmakers) decided that Hatoyama's power was necessary for the DPJ right now," Mabuchi said. "Starting tomorrow, we must return to our districts nationwide and bring with us a message from our new leader to explain" why he was chosen.

But a veteran lawmaker of the LDP, who declined to be named, said it will be easy to attack Hatoyama because of his close ties with Ozawa. And with the majority of the public pushing for Okada, it remains unclear whether the DPJ will regain its strength.

Many DPJ lawmakers had protested the decision to allow only Diet members to vote in the presidential election, and not DPJ supporters.

news.notes20090517b

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Kobe officials start limited measures to halt flu spread
Residents of Kansai meanwhile respond by stocking up on masks

By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer

KOBE — As Kobe confirmed the nation's first domestic swine flu infections, city officials instituted a limited number of measures to prevent further infections from developing, prompting Kansai-area residents to prepare for further possible outbreaks.

But the response Saturday indicated Kobe officials still view the spread of the H1N1 virus as more likely to happen overseas than in Japan, as they had no immediate plans to institute the kind of quarantine checks at city-run Kobe airport that are present at Japan's international airports.

In and around Kobe Saturday, flu masks were flying off the shelves of stores near both JR Sannomiya and Hankyu Sannomiya stations, and the trains and department stores were less crowded than normal following news that a 17-year-old boy in his third year of high school had tested positive for the new virus.

Several Kobe residents said they felt uneasy.

"I'm not sure if I'm going to go to work in Osaka on Monday. If there are other outbreaks in Kobe, I may take a few vacation days if I can and just stay home. But I'll probably stock up on groceries this weekend, just in case," said Yuko Ohashi, a 25-year-old Kobe resident.

Two second-year students at the same school, a 16-year-old boy and a 16-year-ld girl, had preliminary tests that showed they were also infected with the new strain of influenza virus A, although the girl was tested Tuesday and was reportedly almost back to normal health by Saturday, Kobe officials said.

Kobe and Hyogo Prefecture officials announced nine steps they were taking to contain the spread of the virus and calm public fears. These included closing 75 public and private kindergartens, elementary, junior high and high schools, and universities in the city's Higashi-Nada, Nada, and Chuo wards, as well those in nearby Ashiya, until Friday. International schools in the designated wards, including the Canadian Academy, were also closed.

School trips scheduled for the coming week have been postponed, and the annual Kobe Festival, which was supposed to have been held this weekend, was canceled.

The city launched an information campaign asking people not to go outside, but to wear masks and wash their hands carefully. Worried about potential patients overwhelming medical facilities, they urged residents who feel ill to call special consultation centers in their wards first rather than going immediately to a hospital.

Beyond providing information, however, an official said the city had no plans, at least at present, to introduce the kinds of quarantine measures or body temperature checks at Kobe airport being conducted at international airports. Kobe airport has 23 domestic flights daily, including 10 to Haneda airport in Tokyo, six to New Chitose Airport in Sapporo, and five to Okinawa's Naha airport.

"We're offering information at the airport, telling passengers to be careful. But Kobe airport is not an international airport, so we don't have the same kind of checks as Kansai airport or Narita," said Shinichi Inoue, a Kobe city spokesman.

In neighboring Osaka, 30 minutes from Kobe and served by three separate train lines, municipal and prefectural officials said in the afternoon they were keeping an eye on the situation in Kobe.

Osaka officials are still dealing with three people — two high school students and a teacher — who returned home Friday from Narita airport, where they had been quarantined after becoming Japan's first confirmed cases of swine flu.

Kobe is operating a hotline for non-Japanese speakers seeking more information on the flu and health services available in the city. Call 080-6115-9901 weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

[LIFE IN JAPAN]
Sunday, May 17, 2009
JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Don'ts for ladies, hunting pickpockets and Tokyo named Olympic host

By EDAN CORKILL
100 YEARS AGO

Thursday, May 6, 1909
Don'ts for Japan's young ladies

A draft of the rules for our young women with regard to their attitude towards the hard sex has been drawn up by seven prominent females' educationists, including Mrs. Tanahashi, of Tokyo Girls' High School, Miss Tsuda, Mrs. Sakurai, Mr. Motomichi Miwata, of Miwata Girls' High School, and Mr. Jiro Shimoda, of Girls' Higher Normal School.

It consists of the following 15 articles:

Art. 1. — Don't have a talk with young men in a closed room; the presence of a third party is required. / Art. 2. — Don't visit young men. / Art. 3. — Don't see a bachelor at his lodgings except under the guardianship of elder women. / Art. 4. — Don't communicate with young men; when necessary, send letters through proper men. Don't open yourselves the letters which you have received from a stranger. / Art. 5. — Don't exchange photos and other articles with young men. / Art. 6. — Don't receive men in your bedchamber or sickroom. / Art. 7. — Don't go out, if possible, after sundown; when necessary, be accompanied by a chaperone. / Art. 8. — Don't travel or put up at an hotel without a chaperone. / Art. 9. — Don't live alone in any house without a chaperone. / Art. 10. — Don't behave vulgarly towards men, taking every care in speaking and deporting. / Art. 11. — Don't speak with men and receive favour therefrom without being introduced to them in a proper manner. / Art. 12. — Don't go near such a person or place as may create suspicion or misunderstanding. / Art. 13. — Don't take a walk, or play games with young men without a chaperone. / Art. 14. — Don't see young men off or meet them on a trip. / Art. 15. — Don't dress or undress in the presence of others.

The draft will be introduced in the meeting of the Imperial Education Association to be held at Kanda on the 15th inst., and after being subjected to discussion it will be distributed among girls' schools with the title "Rules for Unmarried Women."

75 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 17, 1934
Detectives given prizes for largest numbers arrested in pickpocket man-hunting game

Fifteen detectives of the Metropolitan Police Board were given prizes as winners in the pickpocket-catching contest, Tuesday morning.

In view of the activity of pickpockets in the city, the Metropolitan Police decided to give prizes to detectives who caught the largest number of pickpockets in six months from November 1933 to April 1934.

During the six months, 959 pickpockets were caught by detectives and policemen of Tokyo, while, in all, reports of 1,404 cases of pickpocketing were registered. The police believes that the arrested number of pickpockets reaches nearly 68 percent of the total pickpocketing cases.

The detective who received first prize in the contest was Keiji Shizu, who caught 38 offenders in six months. Toshigo Sato received the second prize, having caught 30 pickpockets. Nanao Taguchi was third with 26 arrests.

50 YEARS AGO
Wednesday, May 27, 1959
Tokyo gets '64 Olympics — Kishi, other leaders hail IOC decision

A wave of rejoicing swept the nation last night as news was flashed from Munich that Tokyo had been awarded the 1964 Olympic Games.

The fifth ring in the Olympic symbol had been completed. The Olympic Games had finally come to Asia.

Radio and television stations broke off their regular programs to flash the happy tidings to the nation.

Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi led the nation in expressing great pleasure and elation over the International Olympic Committee's selection of the Japanese capital (over Vienna, Brussels and Detroit) as the site of the 18th Olympiad.

Kishi said it was a great honor for Tokyo, and its selection offered "a great opportunity for the Japanese people to demonstrate their love of sports and their attitude of respect for sportmanship to the world."

Government officials and former Olympic stars joined the prime minister in expressing joy over the news.

Hosting the Olympic Games had been the long-cherished hope of the Japanese people, and now they had finally got it they went wild with joy.

Tokyo was awarded the 1940 Olympic Games, but had to abandon it because of the hostilities.

Saying how much Japan had wanted the Games, Kishi recalled last night that the Diet last year adopted a resolution urging efforts to seek the Olympics for Tokyo.

He urged the Japanese people to exert their utmost efforts for the success of the forthcoming Games.

The IOC's decision was also eagerly hailed by former Japanese Olympic stars, who had long hoped that the Games would one day come to Tokyo. This is what one of them had to say:

Yoshiyuki Tsuruta, winner of the breaststroke at the Amsterdam and Los Angeles Olympics [in 1928 and 1932] and now Tokyo Bureau chief of the Ehime Shimbun [in Shikoku], regarded the selection of Tokyo as stemming from international recognition that Japan is now a leading sports nation.

In this feature, which appears in TIMEOUT on the third Sunday of each month, along with our regular Week 3 stories, we delve into The Japan Times' 113-year-old archive to present a selection of stories from the past. Stories may be edited for brevity.

news.notes20090517c

[Today's Paper] from [Los Angeles Times]

Results mixed when voters set spending caps
Backers of Proposition 1A say it would control state spending, but similar plans elsewhere don't always work as intended.

By Evan Halper
May 17, 2009

Reporting from Sacramento -- The centerpiece of Tuesday's ballot is pitched as a simple concept and as the path toward ending California's repeated flirtations with financial ruin.

Voters are being asked to force Sacramento to build a huge savings account available for withdrawals almost exclusively in times of fiscal crisis. No longer would lawmakers be allowed to spend the windfalls the state receives when the economy is humming and revenue soars. Those extra billions would be socked away under Proposition 1A.

Similar plans are already in place in other states. They haven't always produced the desired effect, though, and experts say it is impossible to predict whether the proposed spending controls would achieve the intended goal in California.

"It is challenging to get it just right," said Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States. "There are a lot of unanswered questions about whether or not [spending limits] are a useful tool."

The California measure is trailing in the polls, though not necessarily because voters oppose financial restraint. Many don't like the fine print: As part of a deal lawmakers and the governor rushed together in the Capitol's back rooms, Proposition 1A would also extend for up to two years billions of dollars in temporary tax hikes that recently took effect.

That very large caveat aside, even some supporters of the plan hedge when asked how effective it would be.

Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, now co-chairman of California Forward, a think tank focused on solving the state's budget problems, says voters should support the measure because a well-stocked savings account is always a good thing. But they should be under no illusion that it's a cure-all.

"These spending caps are just artificial ways to not deal with the underlying problem," he said.

An outdated and unpredictable tax structure that relies too much on windfalls of income, a dysfunctional and complex relationship with local governments and the absence of stringent oversight on government spending are among the fundamental problems that Hertzberg says the state needs to tackle.

Some states that have experimented with spending controls found that they forced spending down so much that there was not enough money for basic government services.

In Colorado, for example, many of the same fiscal conservatives who sold voters on tough spending limits came back to the electorate several years later, asking that the controls be relaxed. Voters obliged after being warned that the state would otherwise be forced to abandon the repair of some essential roads and be deprived of other fundamental services.

California went through the same exercise decades ago. Voters capped state spending, through what is known as the Gann limit, in 1979 in the midst of a taxpayer revolt. The cap forced down spending so much that people panicked about school funding and voted to ease it in 1988, then relaxed it further in 1990.

Now the Gann limit allows so much spending that Sacramento didn't come close to reaching it as the state ran up the latest deficit, projected at $21.3 billion if Tuesday's ballot measures don't pass.

In other states, lawmakers have found ways to step around spending controls without asking voters. Escape clauses are typical, providing governors and lawmakers with the option to raid their reserve funds or delay deposits.

Jean Ross, executive director of the nonprofit California Budget Project and an opponent of Proposition 1A, says Nevada and Arizona have spending caps on the books, yet their financial condition is as bad as, or worse than, California's right now.

She says that of the five states with the smallest budget gaps this year, only one has a spending limit.

"These limits don't always result in a better fiscal outcome," she said.

Supporters of California's bipartisan proposal say they have learned from the mistakes others have made in crafting spending controls.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders tried to strike a balance with Proposition 1A, giving it some of the teeth of the earlier tough spending limits enacted here and in other states while providing release valves intended to keep the measure from strangling government.

Under the plan, yearly state spending could grow only as much as state revenue grew, on average, during the previous 10 years. Analysts say that would allow for a roughly 5% annual increase.

If tax collections exceeded the sum the state was permitted to spend, the extra money would go to the rainy-day fund. The fund would be considered full when it reached 12.5% of overall state spending. That would currently amount to about $12 billion.

Once the fund is full, excess revenue could be used only for one-time purposes such as paying debt or rebates to taxpayers -- not for long-term programs.

However, lawmakers could dodge the spending controls by raising taxes. That new revenue would not be subject to the cap for several years and could be used to boost spending beyond the 5% or so allowed.

The proposition would permit the state to tap the rainy-day fund for education if voters pass the accompanying Proposition 1B on Tuesday. It also would permit lawmakers to raise the amount they spend on public works -- opponents say that could include pork projects -- at the cost of healthcare, social services, law enforcement and other government programs.

What would the long-term effect of all this be?

1A and 1B are among six proposals that include the diversion of hundreds of millions of dollars from early childhood education and mental health programs, borrowing against the state lottery and a salary freeze for elected state officials in deficit years. Experts say it's fairly simple to predict the effects of most of the measures. But not so with the ballot's signature proposal.

"There is no question it would have been a lot more helpful to have $12 billion in the bank this year instead of near nothing," said Michael Cohen, chief deputy at the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, which lawmakers look to for financial advice. "But it is hard to know how this would play out.

"There are a lot of moving parts here," Cohen said. "The formulas in this proposal might not make sense for situations the state finds itself in in the future."

Backers of 1A say that, at the very least, the measure would require more financial planning in a state that seems incapable of managing its books. California is the only state that never really closed its budget gap from the last recession -- the deficit that helped move voters to throw Gov. Gray Davis out of office in the 2003 recall.

The state has since been pushing the problem into the future with accounting maneuvers and borrowing and now finds itself -- again -- with a projected deficit that dwarfs those of other states.

Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Assn. of State Budget Officers, said he is not taking a position on Proposition 1A. But he did say the state might benefit from "anything that creates some discipline and a little more long-term thinking."

news.notes20090517d

[Today's Paper] from [The New York Times]

Conservatives Map Strategies on Court Fight

By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: May 16, 2009

WASHINGTON — If President Obama nominates Judge Diane P. Wood to the Supreme Court, conservatives plan to attack her as an “outspoken” supporter of “abortion, including partial-birth abortion.”

If he nominates Judge Sonia Sotomayor, they plan to accuse her of being “willing to expand constitutional rights beyond the text of the Constitution.”

And if he nominates Kathleen M. Sullivan, a law professor at Stanford, they plan to denounce her as a “prominent supporter of homosexual marriage.”

Preparing to oppose the confirmation of Mr. Obama’s eventual choice to succeed Justice David H. Souter, who is retiring, conservative groups are working together to stockpile ammunition. Ten memorandums summarizing their research, obtained by The New York Times, provide a window onto how they hope to frame the coming debate.

The memorandums dissect possible nominees’ records, noting statements the groups find objectionable on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, the separation of church and state and the propriety of citing foreign law in interpreting the Constitution.

While conservatives say they know they have little chance of defeating Mr. Obama’s choice because Democrats control the Senate, they say they hope to mount a fight that could help refill depleted coffers and galvanize a movement demoralized by Republican electoral defeats.

“It’s an immense opportunity to build the conservative movement and identify the troops out there,” said Richard A. Viguerie, a conservative fund-raiser. “It’s a massive teaching moment for America. We’ve got the packages written. We’re waiting right now to put a name in.”

Gary Marx, executive director of the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network, said donors, whom he declined to identify, had committed to contributing millions of dollars for television, radio and Internet advertisements that might reunite conservatives in a confirmation battle.

Conservatives face big obstacles, though, in rousing supporters or spurring Republican lawmakers to mount an all-out fight.

The movement is much diminished from four years ago under President George W. Bush, when Supreme Court vacancies last arose and conservatives marshaled their forces to champion his nominees. (Judge Richard Posner, a prominent Reagan appointee, wrote recently that the conservative movement suffers from “intellectual deterioration.”) Republicans have lost control of the White House and Congress, have no clear party leader and have received low approval ratings.

And some leading groups are having budget woes. Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based evangelical group led by the semi-retired James C. Dobson, rallied social conservatives in support of Mr. Bush’s judicial nominees, but it recently cut more than 200 jobs.

The conservative movement is sharing its resources as it prepares for the nomination. The Judicial Action Group, founded in 2006 and based in Alabama, has organized a research network — dubbed the Supreme Court Review Committee — of about 15 “pro-family ministries” and conservative legal groups, said Phillip Jauregui, president of the group.

Legal analysts with liberal groups, which have also set up a shared research pool, said they were confident that any effort to cherry-pick cases to portray an Obama nominee as radical would fail. “I think the mood and the politics of the country have passed them by,” said Nan Aron, the president of one of the groups, the Alliance for Justice. “It’s not going to work.”

Leaders of both factions say they expect Mr. Obama to appoint a woman. While conservatives have gathered files on three dozen people, for example, all 10 for whom they have made one-page summaries are women: Judge Sotomayor, Judge Wood, Johnnie Rawlinson, Kim Wardlaw and Ann Williams, all federal appellate judges; Martha Vasquez, a federal district judge; Solicitor General Elena Kagan; Beth Brinkmann, a former assistant solicitor general; Leah Ward Sears of the Georgia Supreme Court; and Ms. Sullivan, of Stanford.

Those summaries suggest that conservatives find some potential picks to be less objectionable than others.

The memorandum on Judge Wardlaw, for example, approvingly notes cases in which she voted to deny an appeal in a death penalty case, to allow a city to display a Ten Commandments monument, and to allow a police force to fire an officer who sold sexually explicit videos of himself and claimed to be protected by the First Amendment.

By contrast, the memorandum on Judge Wood says with alarm that she has not only been a strong supporter of abortion rights, but has also sided with a university that revoked a religious student group’s official status because it barred gay students and with a group of taxpayers who said they had standing to sue over a state legislature’s practice of starting sessions with prayers.

And to support the contention that Judge Sotomayor is willing to expand rights beyond the text of the Constitution, the memorandum on her cites a ruling in which she said a man could sue a private corporation for violating his constitutional rights while acting as a government contractor. Her decision was reversed by the Supreme Court, which said only individual agents, not corporations, may be sued for such violations.

Several memorandums raise the issue of citing foreign law when interpreting the Constitution, as several justices have done in recent cases involving the death penalty and antisodomy laws. Conservatives call that practice a threat to American sovereignty.

The summary for Ms. Kagan notes that during her confirmation hearings, she said that because some justices find foreign law to be relevant in some contexts, it was appropriate for the solicitor general’s office to offer foreign law arguments.

And the memorandum on Judge Wood notes with disapproval, under “sovereignty,” that she ruled that a foreigner could sue the police for failing to advise him that he had a right to contact his consul for assistance when he was arrested, as a treaty requires. (The summary does not note that she later withdrew that decision.)

Manuel Miranda, who has led conference calls for conservative groups about judges, said the focus on such issues would present “a great opportunity to really prepare the great debate with a view toward Senate elections in 2010 and the presidency.”

“It isn’t just about the nominee,” he said. “It’s about the fact that the American people gave control of presidency to a Democrat who will appoint a certain type of judge and the Senate that will most likely rubber stamp that choice.”

Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family’s political arm, said he believed that despite conservatives’ recent political troubles in other arenas, the public still prefers their judicial philosophy.

“This is an issue that if Americans focus on it, it will bring out their conservative side,” he said. “And that could help the political fortunes of conservatives in the future.”

Still, some conservatives worry about how the confirmation process will play out. Gary Bauer, a social conservative advocate, said the battle could backfire if Republicans did not fight hard enough.

“The risk for the Republican Party is they will be tempted to be more gentlemanly than Democrats are when a conservative is nominated,” Mr. Bauer said. “By doing that, they will not only lose an educational moment with the public, but they will risk driving the base of the Republican Party to once again be frustrated.”

news.notes20090517e

[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]

Gay-Marriage Issue Awaits Court Pick
Same-Sex Unions Supplant Abortion As Social Priority for Conservatives

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 17, 2009

As President Obama prepares to name his first Supreme Court justice, conservatives in Washington are making clear that his nominee will face plenty of questions during the confirmation process on the legal underpinnings of same-sex marriage.

In addition to shedding more light on the nation's most contentious unfolding social drama and legal frontier, Senate Republicans say the debate could provide a road map to an Obama nominee's judicial philosophy.

"It may reflect the degree to which they think that they're not bound by the classical meaning of the Constitution, and that they may want to let a personal agenda go beyond what the law said," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Questions on social issues in confirmation hearings have tended for the past 30 years to focus squarely on abortion, with partisans from both sides poring over a nominee's writings and rulings and presidents typically denying that any "litmus test" was employed in the selection.

Same-sex marriage carries the same freighted potential to dominate a hearing, conservatives say.

"It is now the flash point where politics and law meet. That flash point used to be abortion. I don't think anybody thinks that's going to be the flash point in this nomination," said William A. Jacobson, a Cornell University law professor and conservative blogger.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), another GOP member of the Judiciary Committee, said conservatives are particularly eager to avoid a Supreme Court ruling akin to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide and has divided the country ever since. "I don't think members of the court, or any of us, ever want to see a decision like that again," Hatch said. Obama assured the senator in a recent meeting that he will not pick a "radical" to replace Souter, but Hatch added: "Presidents always say that. That's why we have the hearing process."

Same-sex marriage gained national resonance in the wake of last month's Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized the practice in that state. And in the two weeks since Justice David H. Souter announced his retirement, Maine also legalized same-sex marriage, becoming the fifth state to do so; the New Hampshire legislature sent a marriage-equality bill to the governor; the New York State Assembly approved gay-marriage legislation; and the District of Columbia voted to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

Those actions, in so short a time, have outstripped the ability of Democrats in Washington to stake out their public position on the issue.

Obama has said that he personally opposes same-sex marriage, based on his Christian faith, but the White House said after the Iowa ruling that the president "believes that committed gay and lesbian couples should receive equal rights under the law."

Most Republicans and Democrats -- Obama included -- agree that individual states should determine their own marriage laws. But Congress complicated that process by approving the Defense of Marriage Act.

Rushed through by Republicans and signed by President Clinton on the eve of the 1996 election, the law allows states to ignore marriages performed in other states and denies federal recognition of legal gay marriages.

Under that law, same-sex couples are barred from receiving a long list of federal benefits -- more than 1,100. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., the most recent addition to the Supreme Court, acknowledged during his January 2006 Senate hearing that "several constitutional doctrines seem to be implicated" in the legislation, including the "full faith and credit" clause that compels states to honor judgments by other state courts. Legal scholars differ on the clause's application to gay marriage, Alito noted, and "that's an issue that may well come up within the federal courts" and is "almost certain to do so."

For conservative activists, the Defense of Marriage Act is the levee holding back the flood. The 2003 Supreme Court decision that threw out a Texas sodomy law sparked scores of civil challenges to state and federal gay-marriage restrictions based on discrimination and other claims. Conservative legal organizations have mobilized in opposition to these lawsuits and to increasing activity on the issue in state legislatures. One priority is to establish the right not to recognize same-sex marriage on religious grounds. In New Hampshire, Gov. John Lynch (D) is seeking protections for churches and their employees before he signs his state's pending same-sex marriage bill into law.

"This is kind of like the abortion debate 30 years ago. Some states changed their laws; some didn't," said Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, who counseled New Hampshire Republicans on the religious exclusion, and whose group is active in other state and federal cases.

"Does the Supreme Court come in with a Roe v. Wade trump card?" Lorence asked. "How this is all going to play out over time, I think the new Supreme Court nominee is going to be a factor . . . which makes it a legitimate area of questioning."

Conservative groups are scrutinizing potential nominees for any hint of where they stand on the Defense of Marriage Act and other issues related to same-sex marriage. Gary Marx, executive director of the Judicial Confirmation Network, one of the leading groups revving up for the summer proceedings, said of the gravity of the marriage issue, "A lot of it does depend on who the nominee is."

One target is Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who is believed to be on Obama's shortlist. While dean of Harvard Law School, Kagan called the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay service members "both unwise and unjust" and sought to ban military recruiters from the Harvard campus. Her actions prompted numerous questions during Kagan's Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing about gay and lesbian legal rights.

Noting that as solicitor general Kagan would be charged with defending the 1996 marriage law, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) asked in a written question to Kagan whether she believes in a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. "There is no federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage," Kagan responded.

When Cornyn sought Kagan's opinion of the Massachusetts high court's ruling in 2003 in favor of same-sex marriage, she said she could not recall expressing one. "I suspect I participated in informal conversation about the decision when it came out, but I cannot remember anything that I said," Kagan wrote.

For Republicans, there are political risks in pushing the matter too far. A Washington Post-ABC News poll in April found 49 percent of respondents in favor of allowing gay marriage and 46 percent opposed to the idea. Three years ago, a broad majority -- 58 percent to 36 percent -- said such unions should be illegal.

Former congressman Bob Barr (R-Ga.), the lead author of the Defense of Marriage Act, recently renounced the law as a misguided muddle, and Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, one of the many Democrats who voted for the legislation, reversed his stance after the Iowa Supreme Court's ruling.

But while the gay rights agenda before Congress this year includes hate-crimes legislation and possibly a repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Democrats sense that the climate is not right for repealing the federal marriage law.

"Where we have prospects of success, we always want to expand to a place of more opportunity and more freedom for all Americans," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). But she added: "Right now, on our agenda, we're talking about turning the economy around."

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[Today's Papers] from [Slate Magazine]

Conservatives Draw Supreme Court Battle Lines

By David Sessions
Posted Sunday, May 17, 2009, at 2:22 AM ET

The New York Times leads with 10 memorandums that summarize the right's plan to obstruct President Obama's next Supreme Court nomination. Republicans know they have little chance of actually blocking the nominee but hope that a high-profile resistance will help unite their wandering party. The Washington Post also leads with conservatives and the high court, reporting consensus among Republican senators that gay marriage has replaced abortion as the biggest "flash point" for future confirmation hearings. The Los Angeles Times leads with California Proposition 1A, a measure on the state's Tuesday ballot that would force the government to create a large saving account only to be used in times of crisis. Both opponents and supporters of the measure question its potential effectiveness, and many voters are balking at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger using Prop 1A to keep his recent tax hikes in place.

As detailed in memoranda obtained by the NYT, conservatives have planned specific responses to each individual believed to be on President Obama's short list for nomination to the Supreme Court. The most objectionable are Diane P. Wood, Sonia Sotomayor, and Kathleen M. Sullivan, whom conservatives will attack based on their stances on abortion, gay marriage, and interpretation of the Constitution. GOP senators echo those points of contention in the WP's lead story: Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., says opposition "may reflect the degree to which they think that they're not bound by the classical meaning of the Constitution." Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Republicans mostly want avoid a justice who could lead to another deeply divisive case like Roe v. Wade. The memos in the NYT story suggest that conservatives do find some of the president's potential nominees less objectionable than others.

Republicans get more front-page play courtesy of Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr., whom President Obama selected as his ambassador to China yesterday. Huntsman, who was the national co-chair of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, said he never expected an offer for the post. Obama said the position is "as important as any in the world." Viewed as a rising star in the Republican Party, Huntsman learned Mandarin Chinese during his time as a Mormon missionary. He has seven children.

Prohibition of outside beverages proved to be a deal-breaker for many would-be attendees of yesterday's Preakness Stakes in Baltimore. The event, which once drew as many as 60,000 crazy fans, saw a 30 percent drop in attendance this year and a mostly-empty infield during the race. "Those who stayed home forfeited the chance to see Rachel Alexandra become the first filly to win the Preakness in 85 years," the WP comments.

A front-page NYT story wonders how cap-and-trade, an emissions-regulation policy formerly dismissed as a Republican- and industry-engineered cop-out, came to win the broad political consensus it currently enjoys. For once, credit goes to the politicians, as cap-and-trade "is almost perfectly designed for the buying and selling of political support through the granting of valuable emissions permits to favor specific industries and even specific Congressional districts."

The LAT investigates a May 4 Taliban attack on the Afghan village of Garani, a bloody affair that Afghan officials say killed 140 civilians. The Taliban outnumbered local authorities by as many as three to one before U.S reinforcements were called. But only around 100 American soldiers were within range to respond, still not enough to beat back the insurgents. The Times calls the attack "a stark illustration of the enormous obstacles faced as the new American administration commits greater numbers of U.S. troops than ever before to confront an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency."

Italians are surprised and dazzled by Fiat's "almost overnight" metamorphosis from ailing company to a global auto superpower, reports a WP story. The long-suffering Italian company has effectively consumed Chrysler and is brokering a deal with GM to absorb its Latin and European divisions. Fiat is already the third largest automaker in the world after Toyota and Volkswagen, and if its GM deal goes through, it will produce 6 million cars next year—triple its number from last year. Another Post piece details Chrysler's two-plus-year search for a partner, during which it attempted deals with more than 10 companies.

Everybody's noticed the long, slow decline of NBC, and a NYT story looks into the troubles co-chairman Ben Silverman has had turning the ailing network around. Silverman was the architect of The Office and many of the first popular American reality shows, but "a combination of external factors—like a writers' strike and a battered economy—and internal factors, including some gossip-stoking incidents in his personal life" have made his task at NBC more difficult than he anticipated. His detractors complain about his "arrogance" and his self-interested partnerships with his own company, Reveille, which has profited from his position at NBC. CEO Jeff Zucker says he is still confident in Silverman: "If we weren't supportive of Ben, he wouldn't be here."

Police arrested around 40 gay-rights demonstrators at the Eurovision song contest in Moscow yesterday evening. The LAT has a first-person account.

NYT theater critic Ben Brantley calls the concluding Broadway season "so fully alive and functionally adult it felt as if some brain-freezing, senses-numbing spell, cast perhaps by a singing witch from a Disney show, had at long last been lifted." When Tony award voters cast their ballots next month, they will face "the hardest choices they have had to make in decades."

Thinking about trimming the household budgets by doing some of your own home or car repairs? Think twice, or you could end up wrecking your car trying to fix your overflowing new toilet.

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[News & Politics] from [Double X, Slate's magazine for women]

No Way, Baby
Are market forces the ultimate contraceptive?

By Lauren Sandler
Posted Friday, May 15, 2009 - 7:17am

Buzz up!vote now A couple of years ago, I made a choice that the Agriculture Department estimates will cost me about $260,000 over the next 17 years. Any financial planner would tell you that for a journalist working in a declining industry—married to the same—this was not a wise move. I chose to have a baby.

In obstetrics-speak, the hard truth of our economic turmoil is almost at term: Nearly nine months ago, American banks first admitted their collective crisis. No wonder hospitals are suddenly reporting fewer births. If you're looking for a growth industry in these dire times, consider birth-control futures. This is hardly unprecedented: As Columbia fertility historian Matthew Connelly points out, the contraception business was just about the only one booming in the 1930s. Are market forces the greatest contraceptive?

When profits radically drop, so do pregnancies. While stocks tumbled in the first few months of 2009, Nielsen reports that sales of condoms and morning-after pills rose more than 10 percent in the United States. Essure, a permanent method of contraception for women, has seen a jump in sales of 28 percent over last year. In Iowa alone, the number of women seeking contraception is up nearly 40 percent. Also up 40 percent are clicks on physician profiles at Vasectomy.com, which Maya Wank, whose name may have fated her position as the company's chief operating officer, told me is the point at which visitors are "decision ready" to get snipped. She added that many urologists say vasectomies are up because salaries are down; clients tell them their sudden desire for sterility is motivated by fear of job loss and that they are rushing to get the procedure while they still have health insurance.

While vasectomies are reversible, they're a pretty solid commitment to stop breeding, as any guy who has considered one could tell you. Which suggests that where family planning meets financial planning, this is no temporary bust. "As Columbo once said, there's no such thing as coincidence," St. Louis University contraception historian Donald T. Critchlow said about the recent popularity of vasectomies and Essure. "It could be seen as an indication that we think the American economy is going to be in for a very tough ride even if we come out of this recession and that we won't return to the golden years when people thought they could afford more kids."

Sure, you're never ready for a kid—tell me about it. Perhaps now more than ever. A new Gallup poll found 12 percent of women know someone who has delayed a planned pregnancy because of the downturn. One in five women, the poll reports, is more concerned today about an unintended pregnancy than she was a year ago. The same number said they were more "conscientious" about using birth control. For women who are unmarried but in a relationship, those numbers jump to one-third. While it's undeniably tough for couples to rethink parenthood because of financial fears, these numbers don't just tell a story of furloughed dreams of family happiness. The tanking economy has delivered an awakening that Planned Parenthood message consultants, sex ed teachers, and confidants have tried to convince women of since Margaret Sanger reimagined our sexual territory: that the choice to have a child is probably the most serious, not to mention one of the most costly, you'll ever make.

Columbo would find no coincidence in history, either: During the Roaring Twenties, women had an average of three to 3.5 children. After the stock market crash, that number sank to two. Call the link between behavior and finance vasectonomics: USC economist Richard Easterlin understands birth rate in terms of a balance between desire for material goods (kids mean cutting back) and job availability (it helps to have one). The so-called boom that just bust created a consumer frenzy unlike one we've seem before, with a sense of entitlement to "luxury" products stretching from end to end of the class spectrum. It's hard to imagine that such stuff-lust will simply disappear to balance the jobs we have: This is the culture that rode right into this mess.

Carl Haub, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau, points out that there was nothing slow and steady about the 1976 birth rate tumbling to 1.7 kids per mother. He says that while the feminist era certainly influenced the total fertility rate, two wage earners were suddenly a necessity—the oil crisis had left people flat broke. "It wasn't just that women wanted to have meaningful careers, that they weren't content with staying home and raising babies. Think about the very significant inflation of the '70s: Without considering the economy, no one knows if the birth rate would have changed." Haub points out that this is not merely an American phenomenon. In Sweden and New Zealand, fewer babies have already been reported, and "in Germany, where the economy has not been doing well, they're close to panic about their low birth rate," he says, adding that he expects to see similar declines here.

But unlike Americans, Germans don't have to worry about whether they will lose their health insurance when they lose their jobs. In 2007, when both the job market and babies were booming, more than 15 percent, or about 46 million, of us lacked coverage. And now, despite the increased vigilance about contraceptive use and deepened fears of unwanted pregnancies, Gallup found that compared with a year ago, 13 percent more women who use hormonal contraception are worried they will not be able to afford their birth control. Since last year, an additional 15 percent of Americans said they had cut back on medications—or stopped taking them entirely—because of the cost. So perhaps it's not surprising that the National Network of Abortion Funds says it's been getting four times the number of calls from women who need help paying for abortions. Or that Planned Parenthood of Illinois reports a record number of abortions performed since the start of 2009.

The CDC, meanwhile, has announced that teen birth rates are on the rise, ending a 14-year decline (with one of the steepest increases found in new abstinence spokeswoman Bristol Palin's home state). This baby bust may well be a class-based one, with the boom continuing its swell among women who can least afford more kids. In other words, the recession could result in a drop in birth rates for women with easy access to contraception or abortion. But for women with more limited access, says Larry Finer, director of domestic research at the Guttmacher Institute, we may see the rate climb. "Disruptive life events," he says, can decrease contraception use and raise unplanned births, "like if a woman has moved a couple of times in a year or had changes in partner status." Finer says he's keeping a particular eye on women clinging to the lower rungs of the middle class. "Lowest-income women have a route to services through Medicaid," he explains, "but women who are making too much for Medicaid but don't have insurance and can't afford it—one might hypothesize that this is the group that the recession will have the biggest impact on."

news.notes20090517h

[Today's News] from [The Guardian]

Nick Clegg calls for Speaker to resign over expenses storm
• Lib Dem leader calls Martin 'a defender of the way things are'
• 'This needs resolving in the next couple of days' says Hague

Toby Helm, Gaby Hinsliff, Kirsty Scott and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 17 May 2009 14.58 BST
Article history

The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, today called for the resignation of Michael Martin as Commons Speaker over the MPs expenses scandal, accusing him of being "a dogged defender of the way things are".

Clegg abandoned Westminster convention that party leaders avoid criticism of the Speaker by saying Martin had been "dragging his feet on transparency".

The Tories added to the pressure on Martin, with the shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, saying the situation had reached "crisis point".

Clegg told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show parliament could not afford "the luxury of a Speaker, who is supposed to embody Westminster, who has been dragging his feet on transparency and greater accountability in the way MPs receive their expenses".

"Convention is that political leaders, party leaders, do not talk about the Speaker." he said. "My view is that it is exactly that culture of unwritten conventions, unspoken rules and nods and winks that has got us into that trouble in the first place.

"I have arrived at the conclusion that the Speaker must go. He has proved himself over some time now to be a dogged defender of the way things are, the status quo, when what we need, very urgently, is someone at the heart of Westminster who will lead a wholesale radical process of reform."

Hague stopping short of calling for Martin to go, but offered no support for the Speaker. "This is clearly reaching crisis point now, this has to be resolved immediately if the House of Commons is to go about its business and the country is to have confidence in that," Hague told Sky News. "So this now needs resolving in the next couple of days not over the next few weeks."

Senior MPs of all parties believe that Martin will have no option but to announce within the next few days he is to quit before the next parliament, as MPs move to repair the damage inflicted by the expenses crisis.

Last night, Downing Street appeared to abandon its support for Martin ahead of a no-confidence motion on his leadership which is being tabled by Tory Douglas Carswell tomorrow.

If Martin is ousted, it would be the first time a Speaker has been forced out by a formal challenge since Sir John Trevor was sacked for taking bribes in 1695 during the reign of William of Orange.

Martin stands accused of failing to grasp the scale of public anger and rounding on members who question his handling of the affair.

Gordon Brown has staunchly defended Martin in the past but there are signs that this support is ebbing away. "Things are looking difficult for him," said a senior source close to the prime minister said last night. "I don't detect any particular groundswell of support."

Another Brownite minister said the PM would not intervene, but added: "He [Martin] is a joke, and he should go."

The Labour former minister Kate Hoey today became the latest MP to publicly state that she would sign the no-confidence motion. Hoey was among MPs on the receiving end of a series of Commons rebukes from Martin last week that intensified calls for him to step down.

"MPs should sign, because let's all be frank and honest, Michael Martin is not up to the role," she said.

Carswell's motion, signed by about a dozen MPs but backed by many more, says Martin has "failed to provide leadership relating to hon members' expenses" and demands that a replacement be found to ensure parliament can be "an effective legislature once again".

The Speaker will have to decide whether to risk MPs' wrath by dismissing the motion – or ask the government to find time to debate it. Either way, he will be in such an awkward position that even close friends in the Commons and Lords believe that he may prefer to fall on his sword.

Yesterday, Martin's former media spokesman, John Stonborough, raised the pressure by accusing him of vetoing reform of the expenses system and exploding with rage when challenged about his own second-home allowance claims. Stonborough suggested his former boss should now seek a dignified exit, adding: "We should not have to watch the humiliation of him being voted out of office."

Stonborough, who worked for Martin during a period where the Speaker's own expense claims were headline news, said he had lost his temper at the suggestion that claiming allowances on his Glasgow house did not "look good" while he had a grace-and-favour home in Westminster. The Speaker reacted "extremely violently", Stonborough said, and his officials were scared to challenge his decisions.

Carswell last night called for an urgent contest in parliament, by secret ballot, to install a new Speaker. "I would like there to be a proper open competition so that the public can see that we are selecting the best person to clean up the pigsty," he added.

Those tipped as potential successors include the former Labour minister Frank Field, the former Tory ministers Sir George Young and David Davis, and the Conservative MP John Bercow.