news20090812bil

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]
August 12
William Blake
English poet and painter William Blake, who died this day in 1827, created a hand-illustrated series of lyric and epic poems that form one of the most strikingly original bodies of work in the Western cultural tradition.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
August 12
1877: Phonograph invented by Thomas Alva Edison
On this day in 1877, American inventor Thomas Alva Edison made perhaps his most original discovery, the phonograph, and his early recordings were indentations embossed into a sheet of tinfoil by a vibrating stylus.

1955: German novelist and Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann died near Zürich, Switzerland.

1944: Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.—U.S. naval pilot, son of Joseph P. Kennedy, and brother of President John F. Kennedy—died in a plane crash while flying on a secret mission during World War II.

1898: The Republic of Hawaii was annexed as part of the United States.

1887: Austrian theoretical physicist Erwin Schrödinger, who shared the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics for his contributions to the wave theory of matter and to other fundamentals of quantum mechanics, was born in Vienna.

1851: Isaac Merrit Singer patented his sewing machine and formed I.M. Singer & Company to market the product.

1676: Metacom (also called King Philip), intertribal chief of the Wampanoag Indians, was killed, ending the conflict between Indians and English settlers known as King Philip's War.


[Today's Word] from [Dr. Kazuo Iwata]
August 12
Time has no divisions to mark its passage,
there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year.
    Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain (died this day in 1955)

時にはその経過を示す区分はない。
Toki-niwa sono keika-wo shimesu kubun-wa-nai.
新しい月や年の初めを知らせる雷雨も喇叭の吹奏も決してないのである。
Atarashi tsuki-ya toshi-no hajime-wo shiraseru raiu-mo rappa-no suiso-mo kesshite-nai-node-aru.


[日英混文稿]

news20090812jt1

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Strong quake hits Shizuoka, injuring 112
Magnitude 6.5 temblor halts two reactors, bullet trains
Kyodo News

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 shook Shizuoka Prefecture and its vicinity, including the Tokyo metropolitan area, at 5:07 a.m. Tuesday, injuring 112 people and causing two nuclear reactors to automatically shut down.

The Meteorological Agency said that while the temblor will not lead to the massive quake feared in the Tokai region — the so-called Tokai quake — it will further study the data on this quake.

There were no reports of deaths or missing people, the National Police Agency said.

Most of the injures occurred in Shizuoka Prefecture, where 103 people were hurt.

Four injuries were reported in Aichi and Kanagawa prefectures and one in Tokyo, local authorities said. Three among those in Shizuoka were seriously injured, they said.

About 3,340 homes were damaged by the quake, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

Tsunami up to 60 cm high were observed in Shizuoka Prefecture, the Meteorological Agency said. It issued tsunami warnings shortly after the quake, but they were withdrawn after 7 a.m.

Elsewhere, the search resumed for 14 people missing in the wake of flooding and mudslides triggered by Typhoon Etau.

The earthquake, which originated about 23 km under the surface of the sea in Suruga Bay, measured a lower 6 on the Japanese seismic scale to 7 at several points in Shizuoka including Izu, Yaizu, Omaezaki and Makinohara, the Meteorological Agency said.

It was the first time since 1944 that a quake stronger than 6 was observed in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The No. 4 and No. 5 reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear plant in Omaezaki were automatically halted, and the radiation level in the No. 5 reactor building temporarily rose, but there was no leakage, according to Chubu Electric Power Co.

"As the reactors were suspended as planned, we see no problems in their quake-resistance," a Chubu Electric official said.

Prime Minister Taro Aso told members of a task force set up at the prime minister's office to collect information about the quake,


Big rift: A man from a fishing cooperative assesses a cracked pier Tuesday in Sagara port in Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture. KYODO PHOTO

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) suspended bullet trains at 6 a.m. for two hours and halted local trains in Shizuoka and parts of Nagano Prefecture.

A roughly 100-meter stretch of the shoulder and adjacent lane on the Tomei Expressway collapsed in Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture, and parts of the highway surface were raised some 10 cm at the Kikugawa interchange, police said.

Due to the collapse, the Tomei Expressway was shut down between the Shizuoka and Fukuroi interchanges headed toward Tokyo, while the interchanges between Shizuoka and Kikugawa were closed in the lanes headed toward Nagoya. Authorities said they would get the expressway up and running by midnight Wednesday.

In Omaezaki, pipes burst at several points and water supplies were cut off, while in the cities of Shizuoka, Kakegawa and Shimada, electricity was cut off at a combined 9,500 households, according to the municipal governments there and Chubu Electric.

In the city of Shizuoka, four fires broke out following the quake, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

Also Tuesday, police and Self-Defense Forces rescue workers resumed their search for 14 people missing after floods and landslides hit western Japan the day before due to heavy rain caused by Typhoon Etau.

In the hardest-hit town of Sayo, Hyogo Prefecture, 13 people were killed and 11 were unaccounted for, including an elementary school boy, while one person in Toyooka and two people in Tokushima across the Seto Inland Sea were missing, according to local police.

About 1,000 people were continuing to take shelter in Sayo.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Tapes kept on Sugaya grillings
Kyodo News

Prosecutors have kept the audio tapes of their questioning of Toshikazu Sugaya, who was imprisoned for the 1990 murder of a 4-year-old girl but freed in June after a DNA test indicated he was innocent, a senior prosecutor said Tuesday.

Sugaya, 62, was convicted of killing Mami Matsuda in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, and sentenced to life based in part on an earlier DNA test that indicated body fluids found on the victim's clothes matched his.

After his arrest, he was also questioned as a suspect in the 1979 slaying of Maya Fukushima and 1984 murder of Yumi Hasebe, both 5 and both killed in the same city. Prosecutors taped those interrogations.

Kept at the Utsunomiya District Public Prosecutor's Office, the cassette tapes recorded the interrogations of Sugaya between 1992 and 1993 over the 1979 and 1984 slayings, according to Kazuhiro Suzuki, chief of criminal investigations at the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office.

Sugaya was not indicted for the other two killings due to lack of evidence.

Prosecutors began partial videotaping of interrogations in 2006, but it is rare to reveal recordings of previous interrogations. Observers said the tapes may help clarify how investigators questioned Sugaya at that time.

Sugaya was sentenced to life and spent 17 years in prison for the 1990 murder of Matsuda, whose body was found along the Watarase River. A retrial is to be held later this year in which he is expected to be acquitted.

Suzuki said the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office became aware of the existence of the tapes while reviewing the investigation process that led to the wrongful accusations against Sugaya.

The chief prosecutor at the time took the discretion to tape Sugaya's interrogations after getting his permission.

The recordings covered questioning for the Fukushima and Hasebe slayings.

Sugaya was served arrest warrants over the two slayings after he was charged with Matsuda's murder in 1991.

Initially, Sugaya admitted his guilt in the two other slayings but later retracted his confession. Prosecutors dropped the charges in February 1993 because they could not find enough evidence.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Nation's food self-sufficiency rate up for second year running, hits 41%
Kyodo News

Japan's food self-sufficiency rate in fiscal 2008 increased 1 percentage point from the previous year to 41 percent in caloric intake, on increased domestic production and decreased imports, rising for the second straight year, the farm ministry said Tuesday.

The amount of such domestic products as soybeans and sugar cane increased, while food imports, including cheese, decreased due to skyrocketing prices globally, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said.

The food self-sufficiency rate still remains at the lowest levels among major advanced nations.

By value, the total rate fell 1 percentage point to 65 percent for the third straight year of decline, due mainly to a decrease in tangerine production and price declines in apples, the ministry said.

The food self-sufficiency rate stood at 73 percent in fiscal 1965 but plunged to 37 percent in fiscal 1993.

After staying at 40 percent from fiscal 1998 to 2005, the rate dropped to 39 percent in fiscal 2006 but recovered to 40 percent the following fiscal year.

The Liberal Democratic Party says in its platform for the upcoming Lower House election that it aims to boost the food self-sufficiency rate to 50 percent, while the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition force, says that it aims to make the country fully self-sufficient in terms of main grains.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
1995 Sakai song tops iTunes chart
Kyodo News

Noriko Sakai's 1995 single "Aoi Usagi" ("Blue Rabbit") was the most downloaded song Tuesday on the iTunes music site following her arrest over the weekend for alleged possession of illegal drugs.

Sakai's recording label Victor Entertainment withdrew her CDs from stores and suspended downloads of her songs on Sunday, the day after the 38-year-old was arrested, but iTunes users are probably obtaining it from compilation albums.

The site does not provide download counts but said it is rare for an old song to rank higher than new releases.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Sakai's songs "Kagami no Doresu" ("The Dress in the Mirror") and "Sekaiju no Dare Yori Kitto" ("More than Anyone in the World") were in 17th and 18th place on the list of top 100 downloads.

Sakai has been major news since her husband's arrest Aug. 3 for alleged amphetamine possession and her subsequent disappearance.

news20090812jt2

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Hiranuma planning new party
By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer

Former Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Takeo Hiranuma said Tuesday he and 16 fellow independent candidates hope to form a new political party after the Lower House election.

"We will run as independents in the upcoming election, and after the battle we will consider forming a political party," Hiranuma told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

But Hiranuma's ambition goes beyond forming a new party.

The Democratic Party of Japan is favored to win the Aug. 30 election and oust the LDP from power. But whether this happens or if the LDP wins, neither would probably be able to run the government on its own, and this is where Hiranuma hopes to step in.

His plan is to become an ally to one of the parties to help capture a majority, giving him the deciding factor.

"I am hoping to get as many of our 17 members a Diet seat as possible so our group can create some kind of third wave in the political world," Hiranuma said. "Japan is in a national crisis, and I believe . . . our group can serve as the glue to stabilize politics."

Although Hiranuma, a former trade minister, did not mention which party he intended to join hands with, he stressed that he went to campaign for LDP heavyweights Makoto Koga, who also heads the Japan War\-Bereaved Families Association, and former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, also a known conservative.

It is also unlikely Hiranuma's group would cooperate with the DPJ because the top opposition party just announced it plans to back a candidate to run against him in the Lower House election.

Hiranuma was one of the "postal reform rebels" who was not allowed to run on the LDP ticket in the 2005 election after opposing then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to privatize the postal services. Although some of his fellow rebels, including Seiko Noda and Kosuke Hori, jumped at the chance to rejoin the LDP, Hiranuma remained independent.

Last month he launched the Hiranuma Group, made up of other conservative independents and ex-rebels, including former LDP lawmakers Minoru Kiuchi and Ryuji Koizumi.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Second lay judge ruling due

SAITAMA (Kyodo) A panel of six lay and three professional judges retired Tuesday to consider their verdict for a man who has pleaded guilty to attempting to kill an acquaintance with a knife.

The trial at the Saitama District Court, the nation's second under the new system, ended the testimony and argument phase Tuesday.

Presiding Judge Makoto Tamura said he would deliver the decision on Shigeyuki Miyake, 35, at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Prosecutors sought a six-year sentence for Miyake.

When his lawyers delivered their closing argument they asked for a suspended sentence, saying the victim was partly responsible for the fight. In their plea for leniency, they also said Miyake turned himself in to police and expressed regret for his act.

Five of the six lay judges questioned Miyake about his actions after the crime and about the differences in his depositions to investigators and to the court.

Four of the six lay judges also filed questions with the victim, who appeared as a witness.

At the end of the day's session, Miyake made a verbal statement and offered an apology to the victim, his relatives and various other people for causing them trouble.

Miyake, a demolition worker, was indicted for attempting to kill the 35-year-old unemployed man in May in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, by stabbing him with a kitchen knife.

The victim testified Tuesday that he can't forget his feelings of horror and bitterness at the time of the attack, and said he wants Miyake to be put in prison for life.

The court dismissed two of the trial's four alternate lay judges. It initially planned to pick only two alternates but doubled the number in view of unstable weather due to an approaching typhoon.

In Japan's first lay judge trial last week, the Tokyo District Court sentenced a 72-year-old man to 15 years in prison for killing a neighbor.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
French nuke redress bill praised as model

HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) Bruno Barrillot, a representative of the French nuclear arms watchdog agency, has suggested that a new French bill to compensate victims of nuclear tests could serve as a guide for Japan in pursuing more comprehensive relief measures for atomic bomb survivors.

"I think the criteria for recognizing atomic bomb survivors in Japan are quite narrow," said Barrillot, director of the Observatory of French Nuclear Weapons, an independent antinuclear group.

Barrillot said one of the criteria used in Japan requires in principle that victims were within a radius of 3.5 km from ground zero at the time of the bombings. He said, however, that a measure being considered in France would certify people who were approximately 400 km from the Mururoa atoll where nuclear tests were conducted.

"If France enacts a new compensation policy under a new law, I hope it could serve as a guideline for Japan to expand its criteria in terms of relieving atomic bomb victims," said Barrillot, 69.

He recently visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki to attend antinuclear forums hosted by the Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs as a key note speaker.

The French government announced a plan last November to introduce legislation aimed at compensating military personnel and civilians suffering from illnesses stemming from its nuclear tests. Called the Morin bill, it was adopted by the National Assembly in June and is under deliberation in the Senate.

There are hundreds of legal cases pending in French courts, but plaintiffs have won only a few dozen, according to Barrillot. Improvements in the situation are expected once the new law is in place, he added.

In Japan, the government and groups of unrecognized victims of atomic bomb-related illnesses recently reached a settlement under which the government will provide a blanket resolution to all 306 plaintiffs who have sought recognition as victims of the atomic bombs, bringing an end to their six-year-long legal battles.

The new relief measures feature certifying plaintiffs who have won district court-level lawsuits, even though high courts have yet to rule on their cases. But there are still calls for the government to provide relief to unrecognized survivors who were not involved in the lawsuits.

A significant difference between the two countries is that Japan provides aid in the form of health benefits, while France designates it as government compensation.

Barrillot said he recently began to consider creating international standards for recognizing sufferers of illnesses caused by nuclear radiation, including a list of illnesses and distance from the explosions.

"Maybe it is just my dream, but I hope compensation clauses on nuclear explosion victims, whether they were victims of atomic bombs or nuclear tests, will be included in the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty," he said.

Japan ratified the CTBT, which bans nuclear testing underground, underwater, in the atmosphere and in outer space, in 1997, while France did so in 1998.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Aso, 15 Cabinet ministers likely won't visit Yasukuni on Saturday
Kyodo News

Prime Minister Taro Aso and 15 ministers in his 17-member Cabinet will likely refrain from visiting Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday, the 64th anniversary of the end of World War II, to avoid repercussions from neighboring countries.

Seiko Noda, minister in charge of consumer affairs, was the only Cabinet member to clearly announce her intention to visit Yasukuni.

"I am arranging the schedule right now," Noda told a news conference Tuesday. "Basically, (I will go) as I do every year."

She visited the shrine on the anniversary last year when she was a member of Yasuo Fukuda's Cabinet.

Noda said, however, she would visit the contentious shrine for the war dead "in a private capacity."

The Tokyo shrine is seen by many as a symbol of Japan's wartime military aggression.

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said he will "make an appropriate decision,"but the remaining 15 ministers, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura and Akira Amari, state minister in charge of administrative reform, said they had no plans to visit the shrine on the anniversary.

"I used to visit the shrine on and around the 15th but have refrained from making a visit since I became a state minister because I don't want to it to develop into a political issue," Amari said.

Yuko Obuchi, in charge of issues related to the declining birthrate, and Motoo Hayashi, state minister in charge of disaster preparedness, are also among those who announced they would refrain from visiting Yasukuni on Saturday.

Aso hinted Monday evening he would shun a visit, saying: "I think it is wrong to make people who sacrificed their precious lives for the state a political or election issue or fodder for newspapers. They should be far away from the (media) frenzy and kept in a place for praying more quietly."

news20090812jt3

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Firms rush to gauge damage from quake
Kyodo News

Companies scrambled Tuesday to assess the damage after some manufacturing lines in Shizuoka Prefecture were automatically shut down following the strong earthquake in the Tokai region.

An official at Oji Paper Co. said the company's factory in Fuji that makes white paper boards for candy boxes automatically shut down after the magnitude 6.5 temblor.

Although some steam leaked from a broken incinerator pipe, no major damage that would interrupt production was found, the official said.

Nippon Paper Group Inc. said machines in four of its factories in the same area automatically shut off.

Sapporo Breweries Ltd. said around 5,000 bottles of oolong tea lined up in a storage room at its factory in the prefecture were broken by the earthquake.

McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) closed four outlets in the city of Shizuoka due to disruptions in the water supply.

Hitachi Appliances Inc., a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., said it found cracks in walls and a broken water pipe in a facility that manufactures air-conditioning equipment, but its manufacturing lines were closed for the summer holidays.

Suzuki Motor Corp. has five factories in the prefecture, but a representative said no damage was found during initial checks.

An official at Seven & I Holdings Co., which operates the Seven-Eleven convenience store chain, said there was no damage to factories that make boxed lunches and rice balls, although some delivery delays were possible.

An official at parcel delivery firm Sagawa Express Co. said the arrival of cargo to Shizuoka Prefecture and the Kanto and Chubu regions could take half a day longer after part of the Tomei Expressway in Makinohara was closed down after the quake.

Power safe: Nikai
Industry minister Toshihiro Nikai dismissed concerns that the strong earthquake in Shizuoka Prefecture on Tuesday may cause a serious power shortage.

The comment came as two reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant of Chubu Electric Power Co. in the prefecture automatically shut down after the quake.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Japan, Kazakhstan share fate as nuclear victims

NEW YORK (Kyodo) A three-part exhibit titled "Against Nuclear Arms" opened Monday at the United Nations as testament to the victims of the atomic bombings in Japan and 40 years of nuclear tests carried out in Kazakhstan.

The exhibit is being presented by the Japan and Kazakhstan missions as part of ongoing efforts for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. It will be on display until Sept. 30.

"Both our countries share the experience of the horror of nuclear weapons," Japanese Ambassador to the U.N. Yukio Takasu said. " 'Against Nuclear Arms' tells two tragic stories about the consequences of the very existence of nuclear weapons. The memory of these tragedies should never be forgotten."

While many are familiar with the devastation and great human toll brought by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, few are aware of what transpired in the former Soviet Republic, which gained its independence in 1991.

"The radioactive impact of a nuclear blast causes suffering for generations," Takasu said. "The Japanese people fully share sympathy and solidarity with the victims of the nuclear testing in Semipalatinsk."

He was referring to the largely untold story of nuclear tests carried out in the steppes of central Kazakhstan.

Nearly 500 nuclear and thermonuclear tests were conducted from 1949 to 1989 and gravely impacted the health of the inhabitants. There was also a social and environmental toll.

One portion of the 28 exhibit's panels, called "Hope of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," uses archival photos to focus on the destruction caused by the two atomic bombings. Another part of the display shows the recovery process and survivors' renderings.

There is also a presentation on the work of the Hiroshima International Council for Health Care of the Radiation-Exposed, established after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster to promote international cooperation.

"Today's exhibition clearly shows the true dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction and presents indisputable evidence of the horrors and consequences of nuclear devastation," Kazakhstan Ambassador Byrganym Aitimova said.

"I would like to encourage you to look closely at the pictures in the eyes of the victims, hear the outcry of our people scarred with years of suffering," Aitimova said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Consumer agency opens Sept. 1
Kyodo News

The government said Tuesday the Consumer Affairs Agency, created in response to a spate of food-related scandals, will begin operations Sept. 1.

The Cabinet also decided that the Consumer Commission, a watchdog body to be made up of experts, will debut the same day.

The government has already announced major personnel picks, including the first agency chief. But the Democratic Party of Japan has opposed both the lineup and the agency's launch so soon after the Aug. 30 election.

If the DPJ takes power, it may reconsider the personnel and how the agency should be run.

Former Cabinet Office Vice Minister Shunichi Uchida has been tapped to head the agency, and Hiroko Sumita, a former prosecutor, has been designated the head of the commission.

As the central authority on consumer affairs, the agency will have the power to give instructions and recommendations to ministries and agencies. It will also be tasked with preparing legislation to protect consumers.

The establishment of the agency follows a rash of scandals involving defective products and falsely labeled foods that gave rise to criticism the government places more importance on the needs of manufacturers than consumers.

A law on the agency's establishment was enacted in May. The government had been preparing to launch the agency around October, but Prime Minister Taro Aso later told officials to move up the schedule.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Election monitors for Afghanistan
Kyodo News

Japan will send a team of about 10 observers to Afghanistan to monitor the Aug. 20 presidential and provincial assembly election there, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Takehiro Kagawa, deputy director general of the ministry's Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau, will head the team of ministry officials and Japanese Embassy staff in Kabul.

Japan will help Afghanistan conduct a free and fair election, the ministry said in a statement.

President Hamid Karzai is seeking a second five-year term.

Taliban militants have called on all Afghans to boycott the elections and fight a war to oust foreigners from the country.

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone met his Afghan counterpart, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, in Italy in June and conveyed Japan's decision to send a monitoring team to Afghanistan.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Day laborer enclave gets media center

OSAKA (Kyodo) The Airin district in Nishinari Ward, Osaka, known as a hangout for day laborers, has a new, glass-enclosed information hub.

The Kaman! (Come on!) Media Center was set up in a shopping arcade in June by poet Kanayo Ueda, 39, who hails from Nara Prefecture.

The Airin district, formerly known as Kamagasaki, is considered the largest community of day laborers in the country.

"I wanted to establish a contact point between the day laborers and the community," said Ueda, who leads the nonprofit organization Koko Room, which works on artistic activities and runs the center. She believes "art has a role to play in society."

The center boasts a large screen with pictures of the area between the 1960s and 1990s, and of local workers hanging out together.

The media center plans to gather more information on the district and create an archive, and offer information on local events. Poems and sketches by day laborers will be posted on its Web sites and art workshops are planned. Ueda said she is considering recruiting volunteers to help with these projects.

Ueda came up with the idea for the center at the end of last year after she saw young people hanging out in Airin Park, where hot bowls of rice and soup were being handed out to the homeless.

Having moved the NPO office to Airin from the Shinsekai district in January, Ueda has arranged piano recitals and poetry readings by homeless people. She also has kept in close touch with people who have turned their lives around through such activities.

news20090812jt4

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Caregiver field now finds takers
Conditions still harsh but shortage seen easing as recession idles ranks in other industries
By HARUKO MERA
Kyodo News

There are emerging signs that the serious shortage in care assistants is abating, as statistics show the field's job offers-to-seekers ratio fell from 2.53 in December to 1.28 in June.

People who have experience as care assistants but have worked in other fields are beginning to return amid the tough employment situation.

But the long-standing problem of low wages for hard physical work, which includes night shifts and assisting people with bathing and going to the toilet, continues.

Care assistants receive lower wages than people working in other industries. The monthly pay for a male care assistant was 120,000 below the average in 2007.

The number of care assistants in fiscal 2008 was estimated at around 1.31 million. It is estimated that an additional 190,000 workers will be needed in fiscal 2011.

"Until last year, there was no response to our job offers. But now applications are steadily increasing," said a 41-year-old director of a nursing home in Yokohama.

His view was echoed by another employer in the industry: "I've often heard from facilities that have looked into the possibility of accepting Indonesians and Filipinos that they no longer feel the need."

Such workers can come into Japan through bilateral economic partnership agreements.

Due to the global recession in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September, the job market has deteriorated rapidly and the seasonally adjusted job offers-to-seekers ratio for all industries hit a record low of 0.43 in June.

But in the nursing care field, the ratio remained above 2 even after last September, an indication that even if employers were trying very hard to employ care assistants, the number of applicants was still limited.

The ratio began to decline from the turn of the year and fell below 2 in March. The number of people looking for jobs in nursing care came to around 71,000 in June, compared with about 44,000 in December, an increase of around 60 percent.

"It appears people are flocking to the field of care assistants from other industries where employment conditions are severe," said an official at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

But some employers deny this means more people are being accepted without having experience in the field. In fact, many applications are received from people who have graduated from care worker training schools and those who left the field, they said.

Meanwhile, local governments are also implementing measures to secure care assistants.

In March, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government began a program to provide free lectures to jobless and low income people to help them attain the qualification of "helper second level," which would help them get a job in the field. Around 100 people had obtained the qualification as of early July, and 50 of those have found work in the field.

"There are many examples of housewives seeking to get the qualification to support their families because their husbands' incomes are decreasing drastically," said the official in charge of the metropolitan government's program. Interest in the field is increasing, with more than 1,000 people hoping to attend the lectures, he added.

On the other hand, some employers are concerned about whether they will be able to recruit enough care assistants. "The number of people quitting shows no signs of declining significantly," said an employer in the city of Kyoto. The turnover rate is high, hitting 18.7 percent in fiscal 2008.

In April, the central government raised the nursing care benefit paid to operators of facilities by 3 percent. It also decided to provide monthly subsidies of 15,000 per employee for 2 1/2 years from October to employers who pledge to increase wages. But only a few employers have improved their employees' lot.

The 3 percent increase in the nursing care benefit is like a "drop of water on a hot stone" for medium-size and small facilities. Quite a few employers are choosing to wait until the benefit is actually paid and are reluctant to raise wages because the measure is temporary.

A welfare management consultant in Tokyo said: "People will leave the field unless the way they are treated improves. Employers should make better efforts and think this is the last chance to select excellent personnel."


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
BOJ leaves rate unchanged on deflation fears
By TAKAHIRO FUKADA
Staff writer

As expected, the Bank of Japan left the key interest rate unchanged Tuesday at around 0.1 percent amid continued concerns about deflation, even though exports and production have shown signs of recovery.

The eight-member BOJ Policy Board wrapped up its two-day meeting by voting unanimously to keep the uncollateralized overnight call rate at its current level.

The BOJ last month extended emergency measures to support corporate financing beyond their September deadline to the end of the year.

"Japan's economic conditions have stopped worsening," the central bank said in a statement, leaving its assessment of the current situation unchanged from last month. "The outlook is attended by a significant level of uncertainty stemming mainly from developments in overseas economies and global financial markets."

While public investment is increasing and exports and production are picking up, the BOJ said businesses' fixed investment is declining sharply mainly due to weak corporate profits.

Private consumption also remains generally weak amid the worsening employment and income situation, and the year-on-year rate of decline in the consumer price will likely accelerate, it said.

The BOJ, however, reiterated that the economy will start recovering from the latter half of this fiscal year.

Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at Credit Suisse, also said the economy appears to be on the mend.

"Exports and industrial production have bottomed out and are now on the recovery phase," Shirakawa said.

After bottoming out in the January-March period, the economy has been growing and will continue to do so at least until the January-March period as exports to China and the U.S. keep picking up, he said.

Hiroaki Muto, senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co., predicted the economy will continue to recover as overseas demand revives, and corporate investment in plants and equipment, now sluggish, will also rise next year.

Shirakawa, however, cautioned against optimism, saying the Chinese economy is at risk of deceleration in around the second half of next year.

To support the economic recovery, Shirakawa suggested the government maintain its expansionary fiscal policy and the BOJ keep its financial easing measures through the end of next year.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Economic assessment continues guarded optimism on recovery
Kyodo News

The government maintained its key assessment of the economy Tuesday, saying it is showing signs of recovery on improved exports, production and consumption.

But the monthly report by the Cabinet Office also urges caution over rising unemployment, warning that domestic economic activity is still low amid the global recession.

"The economy has been showing movements of picking up recently while in a difficult situation," the report says.

The government maintained its assessment after upgrading it for three months in a row through July.

It also maintained most of the wording used in last month's report to describe each aspect of the economy.

Exports and industrial output "are picking up" while private consumption has been showing "movements of picking up recently," it said.

On consumption, the report says the government's stimulus policies, including subsidies for the purchases of energy-efficient appliances and environment-friendly vehicles, have had a favorable impact.

The Cabinet Office struck a pessimistic note on business activities, however. Corporate profits and capital spending have declined "very substantially," it said. Employment conditions are "worsening rapidly."

"The environment surrounding households remains severe," Yoshimasa Hayashi, economy and fiscal policy minister, told reporters, adding the government will carefully watch for falls in individual incomes.

The report stresses that employment conditions are "worsening rapidly."

Government data last month showed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed 0.2 percentage point to 5.4 percent in June, hitting the highest level in six years.

The worsening employment situation has added to government concerns over the economic outlook.

The report underlines that the economy "is likely to remain severe for the time being," although further recovery is expected thanks to progress in inventory cuts by manufacturers, the government's stimulus policies and recoveries in other major economies.

The Cabinet Office upgraded its evaluation of the global economy as a whole, as well as on the U.S., Asian and European economies.

It said signs of economic recovery have been spreading especially in Asia, and that the world economy is on the way to bottoming out.

news20090812lt5

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

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Following criticism, DPJ revises platform
Kyodo News

The Democratic Party of Japan unveiled on Tuesday a revised version of its campaign platform that includes a growth strategy centering on domestic demand, following criticism its original manifesto failed to address this and other issues.

The DPJ revised the platform plank on entering a free-trade agreement with the United States by dropping the word "conclusion" and adding the phrase "the promotion of negotiations" to avoid a backlash from domestic farmers.

Party policy chief Masayuki Naoshima said the DPJ recognizes that eventual conclusions of such agreements are "absolutely necessary" and will help boost the nation's food self-sufficiency ratio.

"But our basic stance is to place greater importance on (domestic) farming," he said.

The revisions came after the ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party pounded the DPJ's original platform.

To help couples who want children and to reverse the declining birthrate, the DPJ added language saying it plans to consider applying medical insurance to certain kinds of fertility treatment.

The party is now pledging to pursue economic growth by boosting domestic demand through an increase in disposable income — a departure from Japan's long reliance on exports for growth.

Disposable household income would be increased by implementing the party's major economic proposals, such as monthly child allowances and the scrapping of expressway tolls, the revised manifesto says.

A DPJ-led government would help domestic industry grow by promoting development of cutting-edge and environmental technologies, and would create jobs by expanding agriculture, health care and care for the elderly, the platform now says.

It says the DPJ seeks to promote liberalization of trade and investment by promoting negotiations on an FTA with the United States — not by concluding the accord as was originally proposed.

In so doing, the platform says, the party would ensure that food safety, the promotion of the domestic farm industry and boosting food self-sufficiency would not be compromised.

The LDP attacked the DPJ's original platform, saying an FTA with the U.S. would hit the farm industry hard by leading to massive imports of food products.

The DPJ also revised its platform concerning the decentralization of power at the request of the National Governors' Association. It now promises to install through legislation a consultative panel between the central and local governments.

The LDP-New Komeito coalition has criticized the DPJ's moves to revise its platform as yet another example of flip-flops by the leading opposition party.

The DPJ says these revisions are not meant to change its policies but to describe more carefully the policies it has already put together.

Okada on economy
REUTERS Japan's export-led growth is reaching its limits and the government should not intervene in markets to weaken the yen as long as currency moves match fundamentals, the No. 2 executive in the Democratic Party of Japan said.

"What to do with currencies should be left to a new government," Okada, now the DPJ's secretary general and tipped by some as a possible finance minister if the party wins the election.

"But I think trying to move currency rates artificially when they are in line with economic fundamentals could be undesirable in the long run," Okada said Monday.

Many analysts expect the DPJ to avoid upsetting currency markets despite past rhetoric favoring a stronger yen.

Japan intervened heavily in markets earlier in the decade to stop a rising yen from harming exports but has stayed out of markets for more than five years.

To stimulate consumption at home, the DPJ has pledged to put more money in the hands of consumers by providing child allowances, eliminating highway tolls and making fuel cheaper. That marks a shift away from the Liberal Democratic Party's emphasis on steps to help companies.

"Growth that relies on exports to the United States, in particular, clearly has its limits as the U.S. overconsumption is being corrected," Okada said. "For domestic demand-led growth, consumption has to be at the center."


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Regardless of DPJ aspirations, FTA with U.S. would be tall order
By SHINYA AJIMA
Kyodo News

The media have lashed out at the Democratic Party of Japan over its apparent backpedaling on wanting a free-trade agreement between Japan and the United States.

But experts say that regardless of the party's aspirations, an FTA between the world's two biggest economies will never come easily, given not only the expected opposition from Japanese farmers but also the Asia-Pacific "regional structure."

The DPJ, widely expected to win the Lower House election, had said Japan would seek to conclude an FTA as part of its efforts to "establish equal relations of mutual trust" with the United States.

But last week, it suddenly played down parts of its campaign platform, saying a DPJ government would only "promote" efforts to conclude a bilateral agreement among trade deals with other countries.

The flip-flop came after the party faced a backlash from angry farmers who fear an influx of cheaper U.S. food products if trade between the two countries is further liberalized.

Winning the votes of farmers, who are traditionally in symbiosis with the LDP, is critical for the DPJ to win the election, political analysts say.

It has been a long time since Japan's trading partners began criticizing its protection of the domestic agricultural industry as a "sanctuary" at global trade liberalization talks, particularly those under the World Trade Organization.

"It has been recognized although not understood," a senior government official said on condition of anonymity, justifying Japan's policy to keep farmers, especially rice growers, safe from cheaper imports with high tariffs.

Japan avoided serious friction over agriculture when it concluded FTAs with Singapore, Mexico and Chile. The government is currently in liberalization talks with South Korea, India, Australia and Peru.

Usually, the FTA process begins when countries set up a conference to be joined by both the public and private sectors, taking at least a year to discuss the merits and demerits of liberalizing their trade ahead of formal governmental talks. Japan has already launched such task forces with the European Union.

But as for the United States, no such framework has been initiated. Officials from the two counties have only exchanged information on the accords they have concluded with other trading partners.

The DPJ, in backpedaling on its policy platform, showed the maximum consideration to farmers, pledging not to make any quick cuts in import tariffs on rice and other important items.

"It is true we would face difficulty in agricultural issues if we were to conclude an FTA with the United States," the senior government official said.

Trade experts say that even if a quick solution to the agricultural dispute was found, it would never mean a Japan-U.S. free-trade accord should be concluded in a hasty fashion.

There is a widespread view that the Democratic Party in the U.S. is less eager for free-trade deals than the Republican Party. The Obama administration has yet to state its basic trade policies.

Besides, Congress has been forced to take time deliberating other important issues as it recently failed to vote on a health care bill before the summer recess.

Meanwhile, lawmaker attention has shifted to global climate change issues ahead of an international meeting at the end of the year in Copenhagen for a new deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Fallout from the global economic downturn, especially the employment rate of more than 9 percent in the United States, also remains a serious concern for the Obama administration.

The recession may cause a further setback to FTAs because liberalization could entail more imports of cheaper foreign products and additional domestic job losses, experts say. Congress has put on hold its approval of some finalized U.S. free-trade agreements, including one with South Korea.

Given these circumstances, "nobody can say when the momentum could build for a Japan-U.S. FTA," another Japanese official said.

Business leaders see much merit in an FTA with the United States.

Negotiations for an FTA "could . . . serve as a model for a broader regional agreement among like-minded countries and provide impetus for further progress in multilateral negotiations," the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) and the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan said in a joint statement last month.

The message from the business lobbies apparently promises their commitment to trying to establish a wider Asia-Pacific free-trade area at a time governments in the region are working on a web of bilateral or multilateral accords.

Given the regional structure, Japan has made efforts to first achieve liberalization deals with countries in Asia and South America with which Tokyo believes it could find common ground relatively easily, the officials said.

They even said that under such a structure, Japan is not necessarily in a hurry to conclude an FTA with the United States.

"Of course, it will be fine if the DPJ can (conclude a Japan-U.S. FTA)," said a Japanese trade official involved in bilateral contact with Washington. But he also said, "It will never be easy."

news20090812jt6

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
ELECTION 2009
Party platforms offer no quick fix to job woes
By NATSUKO FUKUE
Staff writer

Fourth in a series

With the unemployment rate hitting 5.4 percent in June, experts doubt the labor policies pledged by either the ruling bloc or the Democratic Party of Japan in their platforms for the Aug. 30 election will stave off layoffs anytime soon.

The Lower House election comes as calls grow, particularly from the growing ranks of axed temporary workers, for radical change in government labor policy.

"I want the government to change the worker dispatch law from a law that disposes of employees to one that protects them," said Hiroyuki Sato, a former temp worker at truck maker Hino Motors Ltd. The government should reinstate the ban on dispatching temp workers to the manufacturing industry, he said.

To help stabilize the employment situation for temp workers, who tend to be the first let go when the economy turns sour, the Democratic Party of Japan promises in its campaign platform to revive the ban against sending temp workers to manufacturers.

The DPJ, the Social Democratic Party and Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) submitted a bill to revise the worker dispatch law in June, but it was scrapped when Prime Minister Taro Aso, the Liberal Democratic Party president, dissolved the Lower House July 21.

Sato supports this ban because he was a disposable worker whose contract was terminated after 3 1/2 years.

He started working at a Hino Motors factory in June 2005, then became a seasonal worker because companies are required to directly hire temp workers after three years. But due to the global financial crisis he was dismissed last year.

"I was told to leave a dorm on Jan. 1. I was furious that the company forced me to over work as much as they could and then discarded me," he said.

His employment status changed from a contractual to a temporary basis and then to seasonal. He never got the chance to become a regular employee.

Hoping to provide a safety net to nonregular workers like Sato, the DPJ is also promising to extend unemployment insurance to both regular and temp workers currently not covered due to their short-term contracts, prohibit contracts shorter than two months, and carry out a survey on poverty — something that has not been done since 1965.

According to an estimate by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, nonregular workers who have been axed since last October or will be by next month will number 229,170.

As manufacturers downsize their production due to the global recession, many nonregular factory workers have lost their job and accommodations at the same time because manufacturers often provide housing near their factories.

As soon as they're laid off, they become homeless, said Mitsuo Nakamura, who worked as a day laborer in Tokyo's Sanya district for 25 years. "The number of homeless in Tokyo doubled since last autumn.

"In Shinjuku, homeless people who turn out for free food jumped from 300 to 600," he said. "Of course those former temp workers don't have (unemployment) insurance, and don't have a place to live."

According to senior economist Taro Saito of Nippon Life Insurance Research Institute, the DPJ's plan to offer unemployment insurance to such temp workers is a step in the right direction.

"It is a problem that temp workers are not entitled to unemployment insurance, which was originally designed for regular employees," he said. "Currently, the gap between the employment conditions of regular and nonregular workers is huge."

Saito voiced hope that the next administration acts to close this gap.

{Vocational training
LDP: Provide 1 million people with vocational training in three years, and offer trainees housing and livelihood support.

DPJ: Provide financial support to laid-off temp workers and the unemployed without benefits who are in vocational training.

Safety net for temp workers

LDP: Ban dispatching temp workers on a daily basis, encourage long-term employment and amend the labor dispatch law.

DPJ: Apply employment insurance to all workers. Ban dispatching temp workers on a daily basis and to manufacturing industries, encourage long-term employment and prohibit contracts shorter than two months.

Creating employment

LDP: Provide financial support to create employment in rural areas and in the medical, welfare, child care and environment sectors. Encourage employment of people in their 60s by offering counseling and training.

Support the employment of young people and women

LDP: Assist young part-time workers to become regular employees. Establish a support system for companies hiring mothers who are still raising children.

Poverty

DPJ: Survey the situation. Try to up minimum wage to \1,000.}

But he also said banning the dispatch of temps to manufacturers will not be a good policy for nonregular workers.

"Companies are less likely to hire regular workers instead of temp workers because it will be too costly. I know the DPJ's labor policy is for preventing companies from laying off temp workers. It may stop layoffs but also employment," he said.

Contrary to the DPJ's goal, this could encourage manufacturers to look for cheap labor overseas, he added.

Saito also noted that the DPJ's insurance-for-all policy, if it covers all workers, will be a disincentive for manufacturers to hire temps because companies would have to pay jobless insurance premiums.

Meanwhile, the long-ruling LDP has pledged to combat unemployment by generating more jobs instead of introducing tougher regulations on the temp dispatch law and expanding the scope of unemployment insurance.

The LDP's platform states that it will provide financial support to companies that suffer losses but retain redundant workers, and offer similar incentives to companies in rural areas with little employment opportunities if they start new businesses by hiring laid-off workers.

The LDP also hopes to increase employment in the medical, welfare and child care industries.

Yasuhide Yajima, senior economist at NLI Research institute, calls the LDP's labor policy unrealistic.

"Japan has been implementing economic growth strategies, but the employment situation hasn't improved. If the government cannot create more employment now, how can it do so in the future (via the same strategy)?"

Makoto Yuasa, a social activist and an organizer of the Hibiya Park tent village, said at an antipoverty campaign meeting last month that economic growth is no longer a cure for poverty.

"If poverty spreads while the economy grows, we have to question what the economic growth is for," he said.

But even if the DPJ ousts the LDP from power, economic think tanks estimate the unemployment rate will keep soaring toward year's end, Yajima said.

"Companies may see higher profits by cutting costs and not investing in plants and equipment, but their sales are dropping sharply," he said, offering no prediction on when the job situation might improve.

In this series, we take a close look at possible changes under a DPJ-led government and compare them with current policies under LDP rule.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Sato delays parcel service integration
Kyodo News

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Tsutomu Sato asked Japan Post Holdings Co. on Tuesday to postpone its planned integration in October of parcel delivery operations with Nippon Express Co., Sato said.

In a meeting with Japan Post President Yoshifumi Nishikawa, Sato said the ministry would like Japan Post to reconsider the timing of the integration due to concerns that it may cause problems for customers and services to deteriorate.

Japan Post Service Co., the mail delivery unit of the government-owned Japan Post Holdings, submitted the integration plan last month for Sato's approval. He said he cannot approve it at this point.

With Sato's request, the integration may be delayed. He plans to give the plan his nod after Japan Post re-examines the timing of the business integration.

The plan also includes a hike in fees for the company's parcel delivery services in mountainous areas in response to earlier requests from Sato's predecessor, Kunio Hatoyama.

In Tuesday's meeting, Sato pointed out that concerns about the quality of parcel delivery services for major customers and personnel distribution after the integration have not yet been resolved.

Sato also asked Nishikawa to consider how he would respond if parcel service integration affects earnings of Japan Post Service.

In January, Japan Post and Nippon Express said they would postpone the integration planned for April until October due to delays in unifying their computer systems.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Builder shares up on quake news
Bloomberg

Contractors such as P.S. Mitsubishi Construction Co. and Fudo Tetra Corp. advanced in Tokyo trading Tuesday after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck near the coast of Japan.

P.S. Mitsubishi, which builds disaster-prevention facilities, climbed 5.6 percent to close at \413. Fudo Tetra, which performs ground improvement work, rose 5.1 percent to \82.

news20090812lat

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

[National News]
Karl Rove took active role in U.S. attorney's firing, documents show
Newly released documents show Bush's top political aide focused on GOP calls to oust New Mexico's top U.S. prosecutor. Other Bush aides lobbied the Justice Dept. on other issues, the documents show.
By Tom Hamburger and David G. Savage
August 12, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- Karl Rove and other officials in George W. Bush's White House played an active role in the firing of the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico, according to documents released Tuesday that also show Bush political aides tried to influence Justice Department officials on other matters.

The e-mails and interview transcripts made public by the House Judiciary Committee show Rove and other White House aides paying particular attention to complaints from Republican officials in New Mexico that U.S. Atty. David C. Iglesias had failed to help their election prospects by prosecuting alleged instances of voter fraud.

Iglesias was fired in 2006, one of nine dismissals of U.S. attorneys that Democrats said were motivated by politics. The firings became the subject of a long-running political fight in Washington.

House Democrats called Rove the driving force in several of the firings and said the new evidence confirmed that partisan politics played an unusual role in the dismissals.

"Honest and well-performing U.S. attorneys were fired for petty patronage, political horse-trading and, in the most egregious case of political abuse of the U.S. attorney corps -- that of U.S. Attorney Iglesias -- because he refused to use his office to help Republicans win elections," said Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in a written statement.


Rove, who was Bush's top political advisor, has said he merely passed objections to the Justice Department about some of the U.S. attorneys. In a statement Tuesday, he said the newly released documents supported his position.

"They show politics played no role in the Bush administration's removal of U.S. attorneys," Rove said, "that I never sought to influence the conduct of any prosecution, and that I played no role in deciding which U.S. attorneys were retained and which replaced."

When the unusual midterm firings of the U.S. attorneys came to light early in 2007, the Bush administration denied that the White House played a role. Then-Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales initially referred to the dismissals as a routine personnel matter.

But several congressional hearings and a lengthy report by the Justice Department's inspector general released last year showed that Bush aides in both the White House and the Justice Department were closely involved in the firings.

The new documents were produced as part of an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee, which subpoenaed Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and questioned both in recent weeks.

A current federal prosecutor, U.S. Atty. Nora Dannehy, also has been investigating the firings to see if any laws were violated. The House documents were forwarded to Dannehy, who has already interviewed Rove and Miers.

Democrats say the documents show that top Bush administration officials breached a tradition of generally keeping U.S. attorneys free of political interference.

In the case of Iglesias, the new documents show that White House officials held an active conversation about his performance.

"I would really like to move forward with getting rid of NM USATTY," wrote J. Scott Jennings, a Rove aide in the Office of Political Affairs, to another White House aide, referring to Iglesias. New Mexico lawmakers "are really angry over his lack of action on the voter fraud stuff. Iglesias has done nothing. We are getting killed out there."

Miers told House members at a closed hearing that Rove called her while he was on a trip through New Mexico. He was "getting barraged" with complaints about Iglesias and was "agitated" about him.

"It was clear to me that he felt like he had a serious problem and that he wanted something done about it," Miers told House members. She passed Rove's complaints to the Justice Department.

The documents also show that former Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) called both Rove and Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, to lobby for Iglesias' removal.

White House officials were consulted in at least some of the other firings of U.S. attorneys, according to the new documents.

In a 2005 e-mail to Miers, a colleague says that "Karl is fine" with a plan to replace Todd Graves, then the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo. Other e-mails say that Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) had requested that Graves be replaced.

The 94 U.S. attorneys are appointees of the president and can be ousted by him. By tradition, however, these federal prosecutors are left to carry out their duties without political interference from Washington. The usual term of appointment is four years.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), a former prosecutor who led the judiciary committee's questioning of Rove, said the panel's work confirmed that Rove's involvement was much greater than he had admitted before.

"He was the dominant voice," Schiff said in a phone interview from Los Angeles. "The White House involvement began earlier than we had thought, and their input went well beyond what they had stated publicly."

The documents released Tuesday also reveal an unusual White House effort to get the Justice Department to help a beleaguered Arizona Republican congressman on the eve of the 2006 election.

News accounts in early fall 2006 had reported that then-Rep. Rick Renzi was under FBI investigation for pursuing a federal land transfer in which he had a hidden financial stake.

According to Miers' interview with the House committee, one of Rove's subordinates contacted Miers, who called then-Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul J. McNulty to seek a statement that would have "vindicated" Renzi.

Miers said she was concerned about leaks to the news media that the FBI was investigating Renzi, and she called McNulty to ask whether someone in Renzi's situation could be "vindicated in the event that nothing is going on." Miers said she was told that this kind of statement was not customary under Justice Department guidelines.

Nonetheless, the transcript of Miers' interview shows that a few days after she made her request, unnamed Justice Department officials told reporters in Arizona that the Renzi investigation was preliminary and that news stories about the inquiry contained unspecified inaccuracies.

Renzi was reelected, but in February 2008 he was indicted in a federal conspiracy case that alleged he used his position in Congress to influence a federal land deal that yielded him hundreds of thousands of dollars. He later stepped down from his congressional committee assignments and left office when his term expired after the November election. He has yet to come to trial.

The newly released Judiciary Committee documents could also become an issue in the closely fought race for governor in New Jersey, where a former Republican U.S. attorney, Chris Christie, is running against incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

In his testimony last month, Rove revealed that Christie talked with him twice in the last few years about running for governor. By tradition, U.S. attorneys eschew politics after they assume office.

Christie has recently been fending off attacks from Corzine that he was close to the Bush White House.

"I talked to him twice in the last couple of years . . . not regarding his duties as U.S. attorney, but regarding his interest in running for governor," Rove told the House committee, "and he asked me questions about who -- who were good people that knew about running for governor that he could talk to."

Rove's testimony has already been noted in New Jersey. The Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor told the Newark Star-Ledger on Tuesday that Rove's statements appear to contradict Christie's claim that he was not preparing to run for governor while still serving as U.S. attorney.

news20090812nyt

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

[Politics]
E-Mail Reveals Rove’s Key Role in ’06 Dismissals
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and ERIC LIPTON
Published: August 11, 2009

WASHINGTON — Thousands of pages of internal e-mail and once-secret Congressional testimony showed Tuesday that Karl Rove and other senior aides in the Bush White House played an earlier and more active role than was previously known in the 2006 firings of a number of United States attorneys.

Aides to former President George W. Bush have asserted that the Justice Department took the lead in the dismissals, which set off a political firestorm that lasted months. Mr. Rove played down his role in the firings in a recent interview and in closed testimony last month before Congressional investigators.

But the documents, released by the House Judiciary Committee after a protracted fight over access to White House records and testimony, offer a detailed portrait of a nearly two-year effort, from early 2005 to 2007, by senior White House officials, including Mr. Rove, to dismiss some prosecutors for what appear to be political reasons.

Internal e-mail messages in the spring of 2005 at the White House showed that there was widespread unhappiness with David Iglesias, the United States attorney in New Mexico, because of the perception among top Republicans that he was dragging his feet on voter fraud and corruption investigations involving Democrats.

In a June 2005 message, Scott Jennings, a top political aide to Mr. Rove, wrote a colleague that Mr. Iglesias should be removed because Republicans in New Mexico “are really angry over his lack of action on voter fraud stuff.”

“Iglesias has done nothing,” it continued. “We are getting killed out there.”

Mr. Iglesias was ultimately let go in December 2006, along with seven other federal prosecutors in an unusual dismissal of top presidential appointees. Mr. Iglesias had received positive evaluations from the Justice Department in Washington for his performance and his “exemplary leadership.” It is unclear who made the final decision to have him dismissed.

“The amount of backstabbing and treachery involved is just breathtaking,” Mr. Iglesias said of the White House e-mail, in an interview on Tuesday. “It’s astounding that without reviewing the evidence or talking to the F.B.I. or anything, the White House would assume that these were provable cases and that I needed to file them for the political benefit of the party. That’s not what U.S. attorneys do.”

Robert Luskin, a lawyer for Mr. Rove, said the material released Tuesday demonstrated that there was “absolutely no evidence” the White House had used inappropriate political motivations to punish federal prosecutors. Mr. Luskin said Mr. Rove and other White House aides were legitimately concerned about voter fraud and were debating “completely reasonable and legitimate policy questions.”

Bush administration officials have publicly suggested that Mr. Iglesias was dismissed because of a subpar performance and absences from the office — he was a Navy reservist.

Those issues do not surface in the newly released e-mail. Rather, the dissatisfaction of New Mexico Republicans over the investigations was the focus in 2005 and 2006. Nonetheless, one message shows that the White House was told that the Justice Department planned to say the New Mexico investigations played no role in the dismissal.

In that exchange, in February 2007, William K. Kelly, of the White House Counsel’s Office, wrote an e-mail message to several senior officials, including Fred Fielding, the White House counsel, and Tony Snow, the press secretary. Referring to the Justice Department, Mr. Kelly wrote, “They are planning to deny that the investigation in question played any role in DOJ’s decision, and to deny that any Member contacted main Justice to complain about the conduct (or not) of any particular investigation.”

In fact, Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, had called Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to complain about Mr. Iglesias and his failure to bring voting fraud cases. The messages also show that Mr. Domenici had contacted Joshua B. Bolten, the White House chief of staff, about removing the United States attorney. And the senator’s staff had contacted the White House to complain about Mr. Iglesias’s failure to pursue a corruption case against local Democratic officials in New Mexico.

In closed testimony last month before Congressional investigators, Harriet Miers, a White House counsel under Mr. Bush, recalled getting a telephone call from a “very agitated” Mr. Rove in the fall of 2006, making clear to her that he wanted action taken against Mr. Iglesias.

“It was clear to me that he felt like he has a serious problem and that he wanted something done about it,” Ms. Miers said, recalling the call from Mr. Rove. “He was just upset. I remember his being upset.”

In a recent interview, Mr. Rove said he viewed himself as only passing the complaints about Mr. Iglesias on to Ms. Miers.

Ms. Miers said she could not explicitly recall being asked to have Mr. Iglesias fired. But she called the deputy attorney general, Paul McNulty, to ask him to follow up on the matter.

“He is getting lots of complaints,” Ms. Miers recalled telling Mr. McNulty, referring to Mr. Rove. “And it was a problem.” Ms. Miers did not reply to a message for comment on Tuesday.

The Senate Ethics Committee last year admonished Mr. Domenici for his efforts to have Mr. Iglesias removed.

The documents also provide new evidence about Mr. Rove’s push to have an aide and protégé, Timothy Griffin, tapped as United States attorney in Arkansas to replace Bud Cummins, who was told to resign. “It was no secret I was for him,” Mr. Rove acknowledged to the Congressional investigators.

Even so, the Justice Department in February 2007 told members of Congress in a letter as the controversy was unfolding that it was “not aware of Karl Rove playing any role in the decision to appoint Mr. Griffin.” Both Mr. Rove and Ms. Miers distanced themselves from the letter in their Congressional testimony, saying the Justice Department’s statements were incomplete and in some cases inaccurate.

A federal prosecutor, Nora Dannehy, is continuing to investigate the firings, including whether officials gave false or misleading statements to Congress. The testimony of Mr. Gonzales, the former attorney general who resigned amid the controversy over the firings, appears to have received particular scrutiny, according to lawyers with knowledge of the case.

A separate review released last year by the Justice Department inspector general faulted Mr. Gonzales’s misstatements to Congress about the firings and his “extraordinary lack of recollection about the entire removal process.”

news20090812wp

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

[Health-Care Reform 2009]
Obama Faces 'Scare Tactics' Head-On
He Hits the Road To Quell Public Fears About Reform Efforts
By Anne E. Kornblut and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Aug. 11 -- President Obama began a personal effort Tuesday to reclaim momentum for his health-care initiative with a direct rebuttal of what he called "scare tactics," rumors and misrepresentations.

At a town hall meeting that had the feel of a campaign rally, administration officials sought to tap the skill in confronting public doubts and fears that helped Obama win the White House. Aides who worked on his campaign are now sharpening his health-care message, they said.

"Every time we come close to passing health insurance reform, the special interests fight back with everything they've got," the president told a friendly crowd of 1,800. "They use their influence. They use their political allies to scare and mislead the American people. They start running ads. This is what they always do. We can't let them do it again. Not this time. Not now."

Obama delivered the message as anger flared outside his event and at congressional town hall gatherings nationwide, sentiments that his top advisers say they take seriously even as they decry what they view as a mix of genuine outrage and ginned-up activism.

As the president spoke, demonstrators outside held posters declaring him a socialist and dubbing him "Obamahdinejad," in reference to Iran's president. People screamed into bullhorns to protest a bigger government role in health care. "Nobama Deathcare!" one sign read. A young girl held up a sign that said: "Obama Lies, Grandma Dies." Images of a protester wearing what appeared to be a gun were shown on television.

Senior adviser David Axelrod said the president had for weeks been "relishing" the opportunity to engage with people to defend his efforts to overhaul the health-care system.

"His instinct whenever there is controversy or debate is to wade in and speak directly to people," Axelrod said. "There is a whole lot of misinformation out there. The best way to deal with it is directly."

He said the angry crowds at congressional town hall meetings do not reflect the larger society.

"Most Americans are interested and concerned about this issue and are listening intently," he said. "There are people on all sides of the debate who are a little over the edge. They tend to be the best TV."

In Pennsylvania, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) faced an unruly audience that booed and jeered as he attempted to respond to accusations that the legislation pending in Congress would allow the government to deny them care, steal money from their bank accounts and obliterate private insurance.

"You can do whatever the hell you please to do," one angry man yelled at Specter. "One day God's going to stand before you, and he's going to judge you and the rest of your damned cronies up on the Hill. And then you'll get your just desserts."

Obama's top advisers said they have been adjusting their tactics and message to confront the often caustic public debate.

"We've definitely made some changes in the last week or so to be more aggressive," one senior adviser said, "as it became clear that this was a debate that was going to play itself out in a campaign-like way."

Tuesday's town hall gathering was the start of what White House officials promise will be a more pointed response to the crescendo of what Obama called "misinformation" coming from critics of his health-care reform efforts.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel argued that the contrast between Obama -- whom he described as "reasoned, calm, looking like an adult in the room" -- and some of the more bombastic protesters would also work to the administration's advantage.

"I think the public looks at screaming, swastikas, attacks. . . . It's not a persuasive argument," he said Tuesday. "If anything, it is the opposite."

Aides also took pains to point out that they were not trying to pack the crowd with Obama supporters. Aides said 70 percent of the tickets were given to people who signed up online, and were distributed at random. The rest went to the schools and local lawmakers' offices.

On Friday, Obama is scheduled to hold a town hall meeting in Bozeman, Mont., to discuss the plight of people who have lost their health insurance because of an illness. And at a third session, on Saturday in Grand Junction, Colo., he intends to raise the subject of high out-of-pocket costs, such as copayments and deductibles.

But many of Obama's closest advisers are also cautioning him against panicking about the fate of his top domestic initiative. They said that cable news stations tend to focus on the loudest voices, not necessarily the majority, and stressed that some town hall meetings have been civil discussions.

"The key here is to not overreact to the cable TV catnip of the moment and lose focus on the overall plan for passing comprehensive health insurance reform," White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said.

The president's senior aides argue that the seething anger at gatherings nationwide recalls the strident language that erupted at rallies for then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in the waning days of the presidential campaign last year. Internal polling during the race reassured Obama's staff that independent voters were "turned off" by the tone of some of the Republican vice presidential nominee's supporters, an adviser said.

"There's a very legitimate debate to be had about health care on the merits," a senior White House official said. "But by hanging their hat on provably false claims that tend toward the absurd, the opposition delegitimizes their argument."

Digging into the specifics of those accusations, Obama on Tuesday denounced the claim by Palin and other conservative critics that he supports assembling a panel of experts that would decide whether patients live or die.

"The rumor that's been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for 'death panels' that will basically pull the plug on Grandma," Obama said.

He said the provision in question would allow patients to receive counseling on living wills and end-of-life care -- a concept that has "gotten spun into this idea of death panels."

"I am not in favor of them. I just want to clear the air," he said. In his opening remarks, he said: "Let's disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations."

Obama moved to refocus the discussion on voters' interest in what people would gain from his health insurance overhaul. He seemed eager to seek out critics, repeatedly calling for skeptical audience members to raise their hands.

While a few of the nine questions Obama fielded challenged how his plan would work, none of them was harsh -- a sharp contrast to the hectoring audiences showing up to challenge lawmakers over the past week since Congress took a break from health care deliberations and headed home for a recess.

Obama answered polite questions from one man who identified himself as a Republican and another who professed to be a "skeptic," using the opportunity to pitch his proposals, blast some practices of private insurance companies and knock down what he called critics' "scare tactics."

"What is truly scary, what is truly risky, is if we do nothing," Obama said. In that case, he warned, health insurance premiums will continue to skyrocket and the national deficit will continue to grow, because Medicare and Medicaid "are on an unsustainable path."

The president cited the case of his mother, who died of cancer in 1995. He also mentioned one woman who testified that her insurance company would not cover her internal organs because of an accident she was in when she was 5 and another whose chemotherapy was stopped because she has gallstones.

"That is wrong, and that will change when we have health-care reform," Obama said.

In addition to rebutting the "death panel" idea, the president dismissed allegations that he is keeping an "enemies list" compiled from the people who write to the White House with questions. His intent, he said, is simply to address voters' concerns, and he chastised news outlets that have portrayed it as otherwise. "Now come on, guys, here I am trying to be responsive to questions that are being raised out there," he said.

Regarding the question of a reduction in Medicare benefits, Obama repeatedly said that senior citizens should be reassured by the fact that the AARP is supporting the overhaul effort.

"Another myth that we've been hearing about is this notion that somehow we're going to be cutting your Medicare benefits. We are not," Obama replied. "AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay?"

But after the event, AARP issued a clarification. "While the President was correct that AARP will not endorse a health care reform bill that would reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate," the statement by chief operating officer Tom Nelson said.

news20090812wsj

[Today's Paper] from [The Wall Street Journal]

[U.S. Politics]
AUGUST 12, 2009
Under Pressure, Obama Defends Health-Care Plan
In Town Meeting at New Hampshire School, President Faces Friendly Audience in the Hall as Protesters Chant on Streets Outside
By JONATHAN WEISMAN

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- President Barack Obama, confronting protests out on the street and serious questions about his health plan inside a high school, slammed talk of euthanasia "death panels" and Medicare cuts, urging supporters to confront the opposition that has forced him onto his political heels.

At his first town-hall meeting since opponents began roiling such gatherings, the president was faced with respectful questions and real concerns head-on. Questioners worried that a government-sponsored option would overwhelm the private-health-care market, and one participant said he was pushed off his name-brand high-cholesterol medication by Medicaid officials. "I'm dealing with the same thing that you're telling me the insurance companies are doing," said Bill Anderson of New Hampshire.

The town-hall meeting here was the first of three this week, as the president tried to regain his political footing. It also featured the largest protests of the Obama presidency. Mr. Obama has acknowledged for weeks that passing a plan to rein in health-care spending, cover most of the 46 million uninsured Americans and mend the holes in the private insurance market would be difficult.

"History is clear. Every time we come close to passing health-insurance reform, the special interests fight back with everything they've got. They use their influence. They use their political allies to scare and mislead the American people. They start running ads. This is what they always do," Mr. Obama said. "We can't let them do it again. Not this time. Not now."

Inside Portsmouth High School, Mr. Obama faced a friendly crowd, so much so that he sought out some tough questioners. Participants had signed up online for the event and then were picked in a lottery.

Outside, the gathering verged on a street brawl. The opposing forces lined up like screaming armies on either side of the street, about 1,000 people a side. Diane Campbell of Kingston, N.H., held a sign with Mr. Obama's face superimposed on a Nazi storm trooper, a sign, she said, that was made by her chronically ill mother.

Her mother's hereditary autoimmune disease is treated with expensive transfusions of gamma globulin, paid for by Medicare. Her sister, Louise, was born with no arms and one leg, and is also covered by Medicare, the government-run, health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

"Adolf Hitler was for exterminating the weak, not just the Jews and stuff, and socialism -- that's what's going to happen."

The two sides swapped taunts and chants, with the pro-Obama forces, especially union members, giving as much as they took.

David Matayabas, of Waltham, Mass., said the Communications Workers of America leadership had rallied members to come out in force.

"I think they're ill-informed, they're not very smart, and they're regurgitating talking points from Rush Limbaugh," said Mr. Matayabas, who was recently laid off from Athena Health Care in Watertown, Mass., where he worked claims. At one point, he said, he worked on the board trying to figure out how to deny claims. Now he pays $900 a month to keep his coverage through Cobra, the U.S. plan that lets workers who lose health benefits continue to receive them for a limited time.

New Hampshire State Rep. Steve Lindsey, a Democrat, stood on the pro-Obama side taking in the scene. Over the din, he noted that the clamor was remaining peaceful, "typical New Hampshire," he said, bemused.

"It's a chance for people to emote. I don't think people are listening to each other," he said.

Inside, the president tried to defuse such anger by going after the fuel that has supplied it: the sense among the vast majority of Americans -- those with health insurance -- that his plan has nothing for them.

For them, Mr. Obama tried to emphasize one issue, a prohibition in the legislation on insurance companies denying coverage to Americans with pre-existing medical conditions. He was introduced by Lori Hitchcock, a 52-year-old single mother who has been unable to purchase health insurance since she was diagnosed in 2003 with the Hepatitis C virus, which can give rise to the same disease that took the life of her husband.

"I am the face of the uninsured. I am uninsurable. I have a pre-existing condition," an emotional Ms. Hitchcock said.

The questions were pointed, and by design. Mr. Obama acknowledged that if he only got softballs, he would be accused of stacking the gathering with plants. Jackie Millet of Wells, Maine, worried that Mr. Obama's talk of increasing the efficiency of Medicare would cut her benefits. Justin Higgins, a student from Stratham, N.H., wondered how the president would cover the cost of his plan without raising taxes on the middle class.

Linda Arsenault, a teacher from Portsmouth, questioned how health-care providers already straining to cover their patient load would handle the 38 million uninsured that the president hopes to get covered.

Another questioner, Republican Ben Hershenson of Algonquin, Maine, said creating a public option like Medicare would break the private insurance market. "Who can compete with the government? The answer is nobody," he said.

Mr. Obama's answer evoked the public-private competition in the mail business. "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right?" the president said. "It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

news20090812usat

[Today's Paper] from [USA TODAY]

[News > Nation]
Feds try to detect 'lone offenders'
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

Federal authorities have launched an effort to detect lone attackers who may be contemplating politically charged assaults similar to the recent murders of a Kansas abortion doctor and a Holocaust museum security guard.
The effort, known as the "Lone Wolf Initiative," was started shortly after President Obama's inauguration, in part because of a rising level of hate speech and surging gun sales.

"Finding those who might plan and act alone, the so-called lone offenders ... will only be prevented by good intelligence, the seamless exchange of information among law enforcement at every level, and vigilant citizens reporting suspicious activity," said Michael Heimbach, the FBI's assistant director for counterterrorism.

Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said the FBI is sharing information with his agency.

Agents from all of the FBI's 56 field offices have been dispatched on a range of assignments, said two U.S. law enforcement officials who were not authorized to speak publicly about details of the program. Among the duties:

• Reviewing records in domestic terrorism investigations that may point to more suspects.

• Analyzing records for suspicious purchases at fertilizer or chemical suppliers whose materials could be used in bombmaking.

• Checking rolls of prisoners scheduled for release or who have been recently released for past links to extremist groups.

One of the goals, FBI officials said, is to develop more comprehensive information on possible lone attackers to disrupt plots before they are launched.

ACLU policy spokesman Michael German, a former FBI agent, said the government effort resembles a form of "predictive policing" that can sometimes result in the improper profiling of people based on race, ethnicity or political leanings.

Yet former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff said the lone attacker has been a "persistent problem," primarily because information about those plots is very closely held.

Federal investigators spent years chasing Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph before capturing them.

Hate groups have multiplied across the USA, from 602 in 2000 to 926 in 2008, reports the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups and works to limit their activities. Mark Potok, director of the center's Intelligence Project, said the lone attacker is an extension of the "leaderless resistance" concept of activism advocated by white supremacist Louis Beam.

Potok cites the attack by James von Brunn, an elderly white supremacist charged with fatally shooting black security guard Stephen Johns at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in June. That attack came 10 days after abortion provider George Tiller was shot to death at his church. "No one in the world would have expected an 88-year-old man would do that," Potok said of von Brunn.

news20090812slt1

[Today's Paper: A summary of what's in the major U.S. newspapers] from [Slate Magazine]

Obama Takes on Health Care Critics
By Daniel Politi
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009, at 6:44 AM ET

The Washington Post (WP) and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) 's world-wide newsbox lead with President Obama's personal involvement in a town hall meeting on health care, the first of three this week in which he intends to directly confront misinformation about the overhaul efforts. Obama said that just like every other time "we come close to passing health insurance reform," special interest groups "use their political allies to scare and mislead the American people." USA Today (USAT) leads with word that shortly after Obama's inauguration, federal authorities stepped up efforts to find lone attackers who could be considering carrying out ideologically based assaults, such as the recent murder of the abortion doctor in Kansas. Known as the "Lone Wolf Initiative," FBI agents are working to gather more information about possible suspects to disrupt attacks before they materialize.

The Los Angeles Times (LAT) leads, and the New York Times (NYT) off-leads, new internal documents released yesterday that show how Karl Rove and other senior officials in the Bush administration played a greater role in the firing of several U.S. attorneys than was previously known. The e-mails and congressional testimony made public by the House judiciary committee show how the dismissals were the result of a two-year effort that appears to have targeted certain prosecutors for political reasons, and was part of a larger pattern of trying to influence Justice Department officials on several issues. The NYT leads with a look at how Iraqi Shiites have so far resisted retaliating against the recent wave of violence in which they are frequently the victims. This is a marked contrast to a few years ago, when Shiites and Sunnis seemed locked in an endless stream of retaliatory attacks. Now, even as hundreds are killed and some of the Shiites' holiest sites are attacked, they are listening to political and religious leaders who are urging followers to remain peaceful in the face of violence.

In the town hall meeting, Obama talked about the claim that lawmakers "voted for 'death panels' that will basically pull the plug on Grandma" and highlighted that he's "not in favor of them," urging critics to "disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations." It was one statement, but, as USAT notes, the very idea that Obama felt the need to deny he has a grand plan to kill grandmothers illustrates just how much the loudest critics of health care reform have been able to dominate the debate.


Outside the meeting, those critics were out in full force, and "the gathering verged on a street brawl," reports the WSJ. Demonstrators began arriving early in the morning and gathered on either side of the street for a good old-fashioned shouting match. Opponents carried signs, including ones that called Obama a socialist; "Obamahidinejad," in reference to the Iranian president; and even one that superimposed his face on a Nazi storm trooper. "Adolf Hitler was for exterminating the weak, not just the Jews and stuff, and socialism—that's what's going to happen," explained the woman who was carrying that particular sign, which was apparently made by her chronically ill mother who gets expensive treatments courtesy of Medicare.

According to senior aides, the president has been looking forward to the opportunity to defend his efforts at health care reform. But the mood inside the town hall meeting was all quite respectful, even after Obama encouraged skeptics to speak up. People may be more reluctant to harshly criticize the president to his face, but it was a whole different story for some members of Congress. In Missouri, Sen. Claire McCaskill was frequently shouted down during a town hall meeting and security officials had to remove two people. Another scheduled meeting had to be canceled due to security concerns. In Pennsylvania, a mere 15 minutes after Sen. Arlen Specter's town hall meeting got underway someone was already accusing him of "trampling" on the Constitution. "One day God is going to stand before you, and he's going to judge you!" the man continued to loud applause.

The NYT devotes a front-page piece to Specter's town hall and says that it looked like the vast majority of those who attended the meeting were against the efforts to overhaul health care. But to them, it's more than that. They see the health care efforts as another example of a federal government obsessed with interfering in the private sector. Indeed, the WP's Dan Balz notes the issue, and particularly the public insurance option, has become "an easy target for opponents who say his administration is behind the most significant enlargement of the federal government since the Great Society programs." The White House insists everything Obama did to prop up the economy was necessary and not the result of some big-government ideology, but it's easy for Republicans to argue otherwise. Balz goes on to say that Obama might have no choice but to give up on the public option early in the process in order to reshape the debate.

"I think it is very hard because [Democrats] don't have the message machine the Republicans do," a linguistics professor tells the LAT. "The Democrats still believe in Enlightenment reason: If you just tell people the truth, they will come to the right conclusion."

Some senior White House aides are cautioning against overreacting to the more outlandish and loud protesters at the town hall meetings, noting they could end up working in Obama's favor. "I think the public looks at screaming, swastikas, attacks. ... It's not a persuasive argument," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said. "If anything, it is the opposite."

In a front-page piece, the WSJ notes that, particularly when it comes to economics, Obama is a big fan of details. Every weekday morning, Obama gets an update on the economy from his advisers, and unlike many presidents who choose to focus on the big picture, he often "dives into the minutiae." This attention to detail "has helped give a paradoxical cast to his first months," declares the paper. He has talked about overhauling certain sectors of the economy to such an extent that even Democrats have raised objections. But after expressing grand ambitions, he "has shown last-minute caution on many fronts," which result in much more modest initiatives.

The NYT takes a front-page look at how two retired military psychologists took the lead in devising the CIA's post-Sept. 11 interrogation program even though they never carried out a real interrogation, had no particular expertise on the issue, and weren't even scholars of al-Qaida. The story of the two contractors has been told before, but the paper does a good job of recounting how Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen quickly built up a lucrative contracting business that has come crashing down ever since the CIA terminated its contracts last spring. Shortly after Sept. 11, the two men used a seized al-Qaida manual on resisting interrogations to create the American interrogation program. When Abu Zubaydah was captured, the CIA was ready to implement the brutal techniques, despite the objections of many officials present. And despite the fact that the torture techniques weren't really effective in eliciting more information, the CIA kept using them.

The papers go inside with news that a Burmese court sentenced pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi to an additional 18 months under house arrest for violating the terms of her detention when she hosted an uninvited American in her home. The move ensures that the country's most popular opposition figure will be out of sight as the government prepares for controversial elections next year. Separately, the American, John Yettaw, who swam across a lake to get to Suu Kyi's home, was sentenced to seven years in prison, including four years of hard labor. The LAT highlights that while Western countries harshly criticized the court's decision to extend Suu Kyi's house arrest, Burma's neighbors, China and India, remained silent.

The papers publish two must-read pieces for John Hughes fans. In the NYT, Molly Ringwald writes about a conversation she had with Anthony Michael Hall shortly after hearing that Hughes had died, where they reminisced about the man who had made them famous. Neither of them had talked to Hughes in more than 20 years. Apparently Hughes "was able to hold a grudge longer than anyone" and never forgave the fact that the actors he once took to concerts and for whom he had made "endless mixed tapes" refused to appear in some of his later work.

CONTINUED ON newsslt2

news20090812slt2

[Today's Paper: A summary of what's in the major U.S. newspapers] from [Slate Magazine]

Obama Takes on Health Care Critics
By Daniel Politi
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009, at 6:44 AM ET

CONTINUED FROM newsslt1

In the WP's Style section, Edward McNally, the rumored inspiration behind Ferris Bueller—he attended the same high school as Hughes, where he was "relentlessly pursued by a remarkably humorless" dean and had a best friend named Buehler—writes about how the "Ferris-ian high jinks were the everyday stuff of our boyhood lives." The man who later worked in the White House had 27 absences in his last semester of high school and once took his dad's purple Cadillac El Dorado for a Chicago adventure. And, yes, he apparently did try to erase the extra mileage by putting the car in reverse, but rather than fly backward, the move took off 10,000 miles from the odometer. "[O]ne key lesson from Ferris is his repeated message to his despondent buddy Cameron," writes McNally. "Your current situation doesn't have to be your fate. There's always another way."

news20090812gc1

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Energy]
Scientists explore how the humble leaf could power the planet
Researchers at Imperial College London embark on 'artificial leaf' project to produce power by mimicking photosynthesis
Alok Jha, Green technology correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 August 2009 17.10 BST
Article history

It is one of evolution's crowning achievements - a mini green power station and organic factory combined and the source of almost all of the energy that fuels every living thing on the planet.

Now scientists developing the next generation of clean power sources are working out how to copy, and ultimately improve upon, the humble leaf. The intricate chemistry involved in photosynthesis, the process where plants use sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar, is the most effective solar energy conversion process on Earth. And researchers believe that mimicking parts of it could be the ticket to a limitless supply of clean power.

The untapped potential for using the sun's rays is huge. All human activity for a whole year could be powered by the energy contained in the sunlight hitting the Earth in just one hour. Harnessing even a small amount of this to make electricity or useful fuels could satisfy the world's increasing need for energy, predicted to double by 2050, without further endangering the climate.

Most solar power systems use silicon wafers to generate electricity directly. But although costs are coming down, these are still too expensive in many cases when compared with fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Scientists are keen to develop more efficient and cheaper alternatives sources of energy.

At Imperial College London, researchers have embarked on a £1m project to study, and eventually mimic, photosynthesis. Part of a project called the "artificial leaf", involves working out exactly how leaves use sunlight to make useful molecules. The team then plans to build artificial systems that can do the same to generate clean fuels such as hydrogen and methanol. These would then be used in fuel cells to make electricity or directly to power super-clean vehicles.

Similar projects are gathering pace around the world: the US is poised to approve a federal research budget of around $35m a year for ideas that could create fuels from sunlight and the Dutch government has allocated €40m for similar research.

According to James Barber, a biologist at Imperial College London and leader of the artificial leaf project, if artificial photosynthesis systems could use around 10% of the sunlight falling on them, they would only need to cover 0.16% of the Earth's surface to satisfy a global energy consumption rate of 20 terawatts, the amount it is predicted that the world will need in 2030. And unlike a biological leaf, the artificial equivalent could be placed in the arid desert areas of the world, where it would not compete for space agricultural land.

Ultimately, Barber hopes to improve on nature's own solar cell. "If the leaf can do it, we can do it but even better," he said. "[But] it doesn't mean that you try to build exactly what the leaf has. Leonardo da Vinci tried to design flying machines with feathers that flapped up and down. But in the end we built 747s and Airbus 380s, completely different to a bird and, in fact, even better than a bird."

Photosynthesis starts with a chemical reaction where sunlight is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is released into the atmosphere while the hydrogen is used to create sugars and other organic molecules for the plant. The aim of Barber's artificial leaf project is to find an efficient way of mimicking that water-splitting reaction to create a clean and limitless source hydrogen. Unlike normal leaves, the new devices would not suck CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Hydrogen is a clean, energy-rich fuel that could be used in fuel cells to make electricity or else combined with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (or from the exhaust of fossil-fuel power stations) to make methanol, a fuel that could be dropped into vehicles without the need for any engine modifications. "The challenge is to get hydrogen out of water using a ready supply of energy," said Barber.

For domestic purposes, Dan Nocera, a chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has calculated that using artificial leaf to split a few litres of water a day into hydrogen and oxygen would be enough to supply all a home's energy needs.

Scientists can already produce hydrogen by splitting water but current techniques are expensive, use harsh chemicals and need carefully controlled environments in which to operate. The critical part of the artificial leaf project is developing catalysts made from cheap materials that can be used to split water in everyday conditions.

John Loughhead, executive director of the UK Energy Research Centre, described the artificial leaf idea as very promising because "we know that plants have already evolved to do it and we know that, fundamentally, it's a workable process on a large scale."

He added: "Ultimately, the only sustainable form of energy we've got is the sun. From a strategic viewpoint, you have to think this looks really interesting because we know we're starting from a base of feasibility."

Barber's colleagues at Imperial, led by chemist James Durrant, have recently developed a catalyst from rust that carried out part of the water-splitting reaction. So far the process is not very efficient, so Durrant's team is looking at improving this by engineering the surface of the rust. "We're looking at adding small catalytic amounts of cobalt onto the surface of the iron oxide to make it more efficient."

Nocera is also working on a catalyst made from cobalt and phosphorus that can split water at room temperature. Speaking last year, when he published his preliminary results in the journal Science, he said efficient water-splitting technology would be useful as a way of storing solar energy,which is a major problem for anyone who wants to use large amounts of solar power. During the day, an artificial leaf could use sunlight to split water and, at night, the stored hydrogen would be used to make electricity as it was needed. Chemical fuels such as hydrogen can store far more energy per unit mass than even the most advanced batteries.

Both Durrant's and Nocera's catalysts are many years from becoming commercial products.


[Environment > Activism]
Coalmine activists charged after confrontation with Labour councillor
Three men involved in the occupation of the opencast coalmine in Scotland have been charged with breach of the peace
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 August 2009 17.02 BST
Article history

Three climate activists involved in the occupation of a proposed opencast coalmine at Mainshill in Scotland have been charged with breach of the peace after a confrontation at a local councillor's house.

Dan Glass, a climate campaigner who tried to glue his hand to Gordon Brown's hand at a Number 10 reception last year, and two other men were released on bail after appearing at Lanark sheriff court this afternoon.

The trio – Glass, 25, Jonny Agnew, 23, from Glasgow and James Holland, 37, a Greenpeace press office assistant from Bow, London – were held in police cells overnight after being arrested on Monday at the home of the Labour councillor Danny Meikle in the nearby town of Coalburn.

They pled not guilty and were granted bail after Sheriff Nicola Stewart rejected prosecution requests for Glass and Agnew to be remanded in custody until their trial on 11 November.

Glass and Agnew are already on bail after being arrested during a Plane Stupid occupation of Aberdeen airport in March, where the protesters dressed up as Donald Trump in protest at its expansion and his £1bn golfing resort.

They claim that Meikle, former chair of South Lanarkshire council's planning committee and whose family runs a local building firm, was instrumental in allowing the first opencast mines in the area.

The three men said they wanted to question him about health problems in the area on behalf of local residents. But after a heated confrontation, they allege that one of them was assaulted by another man at Meikle's home. The protestors have made a complaint about the alleged assault to Strathclyde police, said Claire Ryan, their lawyer.

Ryan added: "They deny that they caused a breach of the peace; their position is that they wanted to question the councillor concerning his involvement with opencast mining in the area."

Meikle was not available for comment.

Their arrests came after other activists from Mainshill climate camp, near Douglas in South Lanarkshire, protested outside the council's headquarters in Hamilton, dumping coal on its doorstep. They also confronted Meikle.

Last week, activists also briefly disrupted coal supplies from Glentaggart, the area's largest opencast site, after cutting through its 6.5km long coal conveyor belt.