ProgressNow.org Daily News Digest

Justices’ Ruling in Discrimination Case May Draw Quick Action by Obama - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/us/politics/05rights.html?ref=washington President-elect Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress are planning swift action to overturn a Supreme Court decision that made it much harder for people to challenge discrimination in employment, education, housing and other fields. The decision, involving a woman named Lilly M. Ledbetter, who had accused her employer of sex-based pay discrimination, was issued in May 2007. Since then, courts around the country have gone far beyond the facts of that case and cited it as a reason for rejecting lawsuits claiming discrimination based on race, sex, age and disability. In some cases, after initially ruling for employees, judges have reversed themselves and ruled in favor of employers. The judges said they had to switch because of the Supreme Court decision. Ms. Ledbetter, who worked at a Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Ala., for 19 years, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, campaigned for Mr. Obama and made a television commercial for him. She became a hero to many Democrats, their answer to “Joe the Plumber.”

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Activist Unmasks Himself as Federal Informant in G.O.P. Convention Case - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/us/05informant.html?ref=us When the scheduled federal trial begins this month for two Texas men who were arrested during the Republican National Convention on charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails, one of the major witnesses against them will be a community activist who acted as a government informant. Brandon Darby, an organizer from Austin, Tex., made the news public himself, announcing in an open letter posted on Dec. 30 on Indymedia.org that he had worked as an informant, most recently at last year’s Republican convention in St. Paul. “The simple truth is that I have chosen to work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” wrote Mr. Darby, who gained prominence as a member of Common Ground Relief, a group that helped victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. He added, “I strongly stand behind my choices in this matter.” Mr. Darby’s revelations caused shock and indignation in the activist community, with people in various groups and causes accusing him of betrayal.

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Oregon considers subbing mileage tax for gas tax - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gas-tax4-2009jan04,0,4080617.story The governor endorses the program, which would install GPS devices in every new car and free the state from the problem of falling gasoline tax revenue. Some drivers worry about privacy.

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Airline Apologizes For Booting 9 Muslim Passengers From Flight - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR2009010201695.html A U.S. airline apologized yesterday to nine Muslim American passengers from the Washington area who were removed from a flight out of Reagan National Airport, but a Muslim civil rights group said it intends to press a discrimination complaint against the airline for its treatment of the passengers. "It is incumbent on any airline to ensure that members of the traveling public are not singled out or mistreated based on their perceived race, religion or national origin. We believe this disturbing incident would never have occurred had the Muslim passengers removed from the plane not been perceived by other travelers and airline personnel as members of the Islamic faith," said the complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation by the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group. The New Year's Day incident aboard an AirTran flight to Orlando marked the latest case in which Muslim or South Asian travelers have alleged that they were illegally singled out for scrutiny. Contradictory accounts given by airline and federal aviation security authorities also highlight the difficulty of decision-making and affixing responsibility in tense situations involving a perceived threat.

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Defense secretary asks Pentagon to come up with updated plan for closing Guantanamo prison—chicag

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-ap-closing-guantanamo,0,1519331.story Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked for an updated proposal for closing the controversial prison holding terrorist suspects in Cuba in case President-elect Barack Obama asks for one soon after taking office. The Bush administration has studied the difficult issue before but couldn't resolve questions such as where to put the Guantanamo Bay detainees and how to resolve their cases. Gates is revisiting the issue because closing the prison is an Obama priority. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Thursday that Gates requested the update so the Pentagon will be ready to deal with the issue, if asked, as soon as Obama takes office.

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US bracing for Guantanamo closure - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/12/19/us_bracing_for_guantanamo_closure/ The Pentagon is working on a plan to shut the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay that would be available to President-elect Barack Obama when he takes office Jan. 20, a defense official said yesterday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked his staff to come up with an assessment of what it would take to shutter the prison camp that has become a blemish on the international reputation of the United States. "If this is one of the president-elect's first orders of business, the secretary wants to be prepared to help him as soon as possible," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. Gates "has asked his team for a proposal on how to shut it down - what would be required specifically to close it, and move the detainees from that facility, while at the same time, of course, ensuring that we protect the American people from some dangerous characters," Morrell said.

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Alone among major Western nations, US refuses to sign UN condemnation of anti-gay laws—chicagotri

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-un-gay-rights,0,7242721.story Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. In all, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with any-gay discrimination. More than 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality, and in several of them homosexual acts can be punished by execution. Co-sponsored by France and the Netherlands, the declaration was signed by all 27 European Union members, as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries. There was broad opposition from Muslim nations, and the United States refused to sign, indicating that some parts of the declaration raised legal questions that needed further review. "It's disappointing," said Rama Yade, France's human rights minister, of the U.S. position — which she described as in contradiction with America's long tradition as a defender of human rights.

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Racist e-mails fuel an inquiry in Alaska - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/12/19/racist_e_mails_fuel_an_inquiry_in_alaska/ Alaska state officials are investigating e-mail messages that included racist jokes about President-elect Barack Obama and were circulated on state government accounts by state employees. Officials say that the messages apparently originated in a private account but that about 10 state employees appear to have "taken action" on them, like forwarding them to others. Bill McAllister, a spokesman for Governor Sarah Palin, said yesterday that none of the 10 employees worked in the governor's office and that to his knowledge no one in the office had received any of the messages, which, he said, Palin condemns. "They violate state policy - at least that's the prima facie view of things," McAllister said by phone. "They're not state business, and obviously they are offensive, and clearly she doesn't support that. And she does not support racism, and she does not support attacks on the president-elect."

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Bush Says His Post-9/11 Actions Prevented Further Terrorism - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/17/AR2008121702560.html President Bush took credit yesterday for "keeping America safe" from terrorists since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, arguing that his administration had prevented more bloodshed at home through aggressive policies and that such a result should outweigh any second-guessing of his methods. As he nears his final month in office, Bush told a friendly audience at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., that he took "a deliberate and comprehensive approach" to preventing terrorism that combined military action overseas with strong defensive measures at home. "While there's room for an honest and healthy debate about the decisions I made -- and there's plenty of debate -- there can be no debate about the results in keeping America safe," Bush said. "Here at home, we've prevented numerous terrorist attacks." Looking back at Sept. 11, when more than 3,000 people were killed, Bush said that "virtually no one would have predicted that more than seven years would pass without another terrorist attack on our soil."

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O.C. pastor to speak at Obama’s swearing-in - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-warren18-2008dec18,0,489938.story Nationally known author and pastor Rick Warren has accepted an offer to deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural swearing-in ceremony, drawing fury from gay rights activists and opponents of Proposition 8. Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, accepted the invitation to participate in the ceremony within the last few days, said Kristin Cole, a spokeswoman for the 20,000-member, four-campus mega-church. According to a program released by the Joint Inaugural Committee, Warren will give the invocation immediately after opening remarks by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California). Earlier this year, as the debate over same-sex marriage raged in California, Warren publicly endorsed Proposition 8, which amends the state Constitution to declare that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Since the proposition passed in November, hundreds of protesters have gathered near his Orange County church to condemn the stance. Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a gay rights organization that worked against Proposition 8, called the decision to include Warren in the inauguration ceremony a "slap in the face to millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who donated for, worked for and helped elect Barack Obama president." The Human Rights Campaign, a nationwide gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, issued a letter calling the invitation a "genuine blow to LGBT Americans."

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Obama Selects Evangelist for Invocation - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/us/politics/18inaug.html?ref=washington Barack Obama has selected the Rev. Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor and author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” to deliver the invocation at his inauguration, a role that positions Mr. Warren to succeed Billy Graham as the nation’s pre-eminent minister and reflects the generational changes in the evangelical Christian movement.

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Ga. judge orders Muslim woman arrested for refusing to remove her headscarf to enter court—chicag

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-muslim-headscarf-arrest,0,4575419.story A Muslim woman arrested for refusing to take off her head scarf at a courthouse security checkpoint said Wednesday that she felt her human and civil rights were violated. A judge ordered Lisa Valentine, 40, to serve 10 days in jail for contempt of court, said police in Douglasville, a city of about 20,000 people on Atlanta's west suburban outskirts. Valentine violated a court policy that prohibits people from wearing any headgear in court, police said after they arrested her Tuesday. Kelley Jackson, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, said state law doesn't permit or prohibit head scarfs.

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3 Algerians held at Guantanamo are released to Bosnia - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo17-2008dec17,0,2902097.story In the Bush administration's first bow to a court directive to release prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Department of Defense flew three Algerians to their adopted homeland of Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday. The Pentagon acknowledged in a tersely worded announcement that the release was in reaction to a federal judge's order last month to free five Algerians seized in Bosnia in 2001. The men were suspected of participating in a plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, but were ordered freed when authorities there dropped the allegations. The Pentagon did not explain why only three of the five were transferred. The government's decision to abide by the judge's order could signal that the administration has acknowledged in its final days that its controversial detention and interrogation practices are doomed. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to close Guantanamo.

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A gay Muslim, tested by faith and family - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-muslimgay17-2008dec17,0,1438523.story Aliyah Bacchus returns home to offer a choice: Accept her sexuality -- as she has -- or lose her forever.

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Cheney was key in clearing CIA interrogation tactics - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cheney16-2008dec16,0,5456856.story Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he was directly involved in approving severe interrogation methods used by the CIA, and that the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should remain open indefinitely. Cheney's remarks on Guantanamo appear to put him at odds with President Bush, who has expressed a desire to close the prison, although the decision is expected to be left to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama. Cheney's comments also mark the first time that he has acknowledged playing a central role in clearing the CIA's use of an array of controversial interrogation tactics, including a simulated drowning method known as waterboarding. "I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared," Cheney said in an interview with ABC News. Asked whether he still believes it was appropriate to use the waterboarding method on terrorism suspects, Cheney said: "I do."

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Secret Service Defends Shoe Response - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121502723.html The U.S. Secret Service yesterday defended its agents' response to an Iraqi journalist who threw a pair of shoes at President Bush during a Baghdad news conference, saying that they acted with the proper balance of aggressiveness and restraint. Eric Zahren, a Secret Service spokesman in Washington, also said it will be up to Iraqi officials to prosecute Muntadar al-Zaidi, the journalist arrested in Sunday's incident. "No one should read anything more into it than what it was, which was an individual throwing a shoe," Zahren said. Zaidi, a reporter with the Cairo-based al-Baghdadia television network, stood up in the middle of the news conference and threw two shoes, one after the other, at Bush's head. The president, standing alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, dodged both shoes before Zaidi was tackled and restrained by U.S. and Iraqi security agents.

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Ex-detainees’ suit against Rumsfeld revived - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/12/16/ex_detainees_suit_against_rumsfeld_revived/ The Supreme Court revived a lawsuit yesterday brought by four former prisoners at Guantanamo Bay against Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, and other officials. The former prisoners, all British citizens, say they were tortured and subjected to religious persecution. In a brief order, the justices instructed a federal appeals court to take a second look at the case in light of the Supreme Court's decision in June in Boumediene v. Bush granting Guantanamo prisoners the right to challenge their detention in federal court. The appeals court, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, ruled against the men in January, saying that neither the Constitution nor a federal law protecting religious freedom gave them the right to sue in American courts.

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Supreme Court Sends Detainees’ Case Back to Lower Court - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121502944.html The Supreme Court yesterday kept alive a lawsuit by four British citizens who had been detained as terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay and had alleged that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials were responsible for their torture and the denial of their religious rights. The court sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where a three-judge panel had unanimously ruled that the lawsuit could not go forward. The justices vacated that ruling and sent it back "for further consideration in light of Boumediene v. Bush." The reference is to the Supreme Court's controversial 5 to 4 decision in June that said the detainees at the naval base in Cuba have some constitutional rights, including the right to have their imprisonment reviewed by a federal judge.

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V.P. Cheney lauds Obama’s choice of national security team - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-12-16-cheney-obama_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip Vice President Dick Cheney is calling President-elect Barack Obama's national security lineup "a pretty good team." In a wide-ranging interview with ABC News with 35 days left in the Bush administration, Cheney also again vehemently defended going to war in Iraq, said waterboarding of suspects in the war on terror was justified in some instances and opposed closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "I must say, I think it's a pretty good team," Cheney said of Obama's national security choices, in a segment of the interview broadcast Tuesday on Good Morning America. "I'm not close to Barack Obama, obviously, nor do I identify with him politically. He's a liberal. I'm a conservative," he said.

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Three Algerian Detainees Set for Transfer to Bosnia - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121502479.html The Bush administration has decided to transfer three Algerian detainees to their adopted homeland of Bosnia, a decision that partially complies with the order of a federal judge who said last month that five Algerians should be released "forthwith," rejecting government allegations that the men were dangerous enemy combatants. But Lakhdar Boumediene, the Algerian whose name is associated with a landmark Supreme Court decision regarding the legal rights of those held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, remains in limbo despite the U.S. District Court ruling and the imminent release of his countrymen. Administration officials and other sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said yesterday that authorities at the base have begun to prepare for a transfer, a process that includes moving detainees to a pre-release facility at Guantanamo and having them undergo exit interviews with the International Committee of the Red Cross. Three have had exit interviews in recent days, sources said.

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Justice lawyer told of domestic spying - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/12/15/justice_lawyer_told_of_domestic_spying/ A former Justice Department lawyer says he tipped off the news media about the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program because it "didn't smell right," Newsweek magazine reported yesterday. Thomas Tamm, whose suburban Washington home was searched by federal agents last year, told the magazine he leaked the existence of the secret program to The New York Times 18 months before the paper broke the story. "I thought this was something the other branches of the government and the public ought to know about. So they could decide: do they want this massive spying program to be taking place?" Tamm told Newsweek. "If somebody were to say, who am I to do that? I would say, 'I had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution.' It's stunning that somebody higher up the chain of command didn't speak up," the magazine quoted him as saying.

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Hungarian court annuls domestic partnerships law - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121501070.html Hungary's Constitutional Court says it has annulled a law giving rights to domestic partners because it would diminish the importance of marriage. The law, passed by parliament a year ago, would have allowed unmarried or gay couples to register their domestic relationships beginning Jan. 1, 2009. The court says the new legislation is unconstitutional because it would give unmarried heterosexual couples practically the same rights as married ones, "downgrading" the institution of marriage.

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Rumsfeld blamed in detainee abuse scandals - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-interrogate-abuse12-2008dec12,0,2238629.story A bipartisan Senate report released Thursday concludes that decisions made by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were a "direct cause" of widespread detainee abuses, and that other Bush administration officials were to blame for creating a legal and moral climate that contributed to inhumane treatment. The report, endorsed by Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is the most forceful denunciation to date of the role that Rumsfeld and other top officials played in the prisoner abuse scandals of the last five years. The document also challenges assertions by senior Bush administration officials that the most egregious cases of prisoner mistreatment were isolated incidents of appalling conduct by U.S. troops. "The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 was not simply the result of a few soldiers acting on their own," the report says. Instead, the document says, a series of high-level decisions in the Bush administration "conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees in U.S. military custody."

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Bipartisan Report on Detainee Abuse Blames Rumsfeld, Other Top Bush Officials - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121101969.html A bipartisan panel of senators has concluded that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and that their decisions led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere. In the most comprehensive critique by Congress of the military's interrogation practices, the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a report yesterday that accuses Rumsfeld and his deputies of being the authors and chief promoters of harsh interrogation policies that disgraced the nation and undermined U.S. security. The report, released by Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), contends that Pentagon officials later tried to create a false impression that the policies were unrelated to acts of detainee abuse committed by members of the military. "The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own," the report states. "The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees."

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Move May Help Shut Guantánamo Camp - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/world/europe/12portugal.html?ref=washington The announcement was the first sign in the tangled history of the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that other countries might be willing to accept the Bush administration’s assertion that they should play a role in shutting it down. “The time has come for the European Union to step forward,” Portugal’s foreign minister, Luís Amado, said in a letter to other European ministers released Thursday. “We should send a clear signal of our willingness to help the U.S. government in that regard, namely through the resettlement of detainees,” the letter said. Mr. Amado pledged that Portugal would participate in a European Union resettlement program. Although there is no specific agreement yet on the transfer of detainees, Bush administration officials described the announcement as a critical step toward solving the problem that has been referred to as “Guantánamo’s hard cases.” That refers to some 60 of the remaining 250 detainees whom the Pentagon has cleared for release but who cannot be sent to their home countries, often out of concern that they would be tortured or persecuted. They are from countries including Algeria, China, Libya and Tunisia.

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