06.12.09 / UGG / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
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06.12.09 / news / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
LA PAZ, Bolivia – President Evo Morales appeared headed to easy re-election Sunday with a strong mandate for further revolutionary change on behalf of Bolivia’s long-suppressed indigenous majority.
Opponents say they fear the leftist coca-growers’ union leader will use a consolidation of power not just to continue battling racially based inequalities but also to trample human rights and deepen state control of the economy.
An unofficial quick count of 60 percent of the vote by the Equipos-Mori polling firm said Bolivia’s first indigenous president won 61 percent of the ballots.
Jubilant supporters waving Bolivian flags jumped up and down in La Paz’s central Murillo square an hour after polls closed chanting “Evo! Evo!”
Morales’ closest challenger in a field of nine, center-right former state governor and military officer Manfred Reyes, won 29 percent, according to Equipos-Mori.
The results indicated an opposition in disarray, though Reyes did win the opposition bastion of Santa Cruz state in the eastern lowlands with 55 percent.
Voters also chose a new Congress, and an Equipos-Mori exit poll said Morales’ stridently leftist Movement Toward Socialism easily won a majority in both the 36-seat Senate and 130-member lower house.
The movement secured a two-thirds majority in the Senate but not the lower house, according to that exit poll.
It would need two-thirds control of both chambers to dictate terms of a law on indigenous territorial self-rule, make key appointments unchallenged and amend the constitution to allow Morales to seek a third straight term. The 50-year-old incumbent has been evasive on the latter issue.
The quick count gave presidential candidate Samuel Doria Medina, a centrist cement magnate, 7 percent of the vote.
International observers called the voting peaceful and without serious incident.
“We’ll always back Evo Morales’ government because he takes into account the poor,” said Ramiro Cano, a 40-year-old jeweler and a member of Bolivia’s dominant Aymara ethnic group who voted to give Morales five more years in office.
Cano praised Morales especially for the annual subsidy his two children receive for attending school. “He’s been a great help not just for me but for all families in need.”
Morales has used increased profits from Bolivia’s natural gas industry, which he nationalized in May 2006, to fund highly popular subsidies for schoolchildren and the elderly as well as one-time payments for new mothers. Nearly six of 10 Bolivians live in poverty.
Higher prices for the natural gas and minerals that account for the bulk of Bolivia’s exports helped the country’s economy grow 6 percent last year. The government expects 3 percent growth for 2009.
A victory by Morales would extend the stability he has brought to a country notorious for coups and that had five presidents in the five years preceding his December 2005 election with 54 percent of the vote.
The vote comes under a new constitution ratified by voters in January that allowed Morales to run for a second term and that remade Bolivia as a “plurinational” state, allowing self-rule for the poor South American country’s 36 native peoples.
Twelve of Bolivia’s more than 330 municipalities were voting Sunday on indigenous autonomy, which would allow them to abandon modern political structures in favor of traditional Indian governance based on consensus-building.
Still to be defined by the new Congress are larger territorial autonomies for indigenous groups that could redraw the political map and redefine how government funds are disbursed.
A llama-herder’s son, Morales has championed all of Bolivia’s Indians — at the expense of wealthy ranchers and farmers centered in pro-capitalist Santa Cruz. He has been careful, however, not to alienate too many landholders with a land redistribution program in which confiscation of fallow land has been modest.
Morales detractors say the president is leading Bolivia down the same path as what they call President Hugo Chavez’s totalitarian socialism, while similarly forging dangerous alliances with Iran and Russia.
“He’s created a tyranny,” said Mario Orellana, a 65-year-old retired army colonel who said he voted for Reyes. “He does what he likes. There’s no democracy.”
Besides tightening state control over the gas, oil and mining sectors, Morales has nationalized the main phone company and signaled his intention to take over the electrical power industry.
But many analysts believe Morales will be careful not to alienate the foreign investors he needs to increase raw materials output — they just won’t be able to own the mines and wells. Last month, Bolivia received a pledge of a $1.5 billion investment from the Spanish-Argentine company Repsol for natural gas development.
Relations with the United States, meanwhile, have been rocky.
Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador and the Drug Enforcement Administration in late 2008 for allegedly inciting his political opposition.
In a speech on Saturday, Morales claimed Bolivia is confiscating more cocaine now than it did when the DEA was active in the country. U.N. figures show that cocaine production is up, however, from an estimated 80 metric tons (90 U.S. tons) in 2005 to 103 metric tons (115 U.S. tons) last year.
06.12.09 / news / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
WASHINGTON – Osama bin Laden may be slipping back and forth from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Or the U.S. might not have a clue, more than eight years after the al-Qaida leader masterminded the terrorist attacks on America.
Given a chance Sunday to clear away some of the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the world’s most wanted terrorist, Obama administration officials seemed to add to it with what appeared to be conflicting assessments.
President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, James Jones, said bin Laden, believed hiding mainly in a rugged area of western Pakistan, may be periodically slipping back into Afghanistan. But Obama’s Pentagon chief, Robert Gates, said the U.S. has lacked good intelligence on bin Laden for a long time — “I think it has been years” — and did not confirm that he’d slipped into Afghanistan.
The failed hunt for bin Laden has been one of the signature frustrations of the global war on terrorism that former President George W. Bush launched after the Sept. 11 attacks. The main explanation given by both the Bush and Obama administrations for not getting bin Laden is that they simply don’t know where he is.
“If we did, we’d go get him,” Gates said.
Jones, a retired Marine general, stressed the urgency of targeting bin Laden, and spoke of a renewed campaign to capture or kill him. Bin Laden had been sheltered in Afghanistan by Taliban allies while plotting the Sept. 11 attacks. When U.S. forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001, bin Laden fled into Pakistan from his mountain redoubt.
Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether the administration has reliable intelligence on bin Laden’s whereabouts, Jones replied, “The best estimate is that he is somewhere in North Waziristan, sometimes on the Pakistani side of the border, sometimes on the Afghan side of the border.” He did not comment on the intelligence behind that estimate, nor did he cite a time period or describe more specifically bin Laden’s apparent border crossings.
Gates told ABC’s “This Week” that “we don’t know for a fact where Osama bin Laden is,” although he agreed that his likely location is North Waziristan.
That’s part of the loosely governed Federally Administered Tribal Areas of northwest Pakistan where the border with Afghanistan is largely unrecognized and unmarked. There is little Pakistani government or military control in this remote region, and militants affiliated with al-Qaida can move freely across the frontier into Afghanistan.
The U.S. has targeted North Waziristan and other areas on the Pakistan side of the border with drone-launched missile strikes, killing substantial numbers of militants as well as Pakistani civilians. The Pakistani army has undertaken an offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan but it has not expanded the effort into North Waziristan.
Obama administration officials have often asserted, as did the Bush administration, that they believe bin Laden is being sheltered on the Pakistani side of the border, along with other senior al-Qaida leaders. But Jones broke new ground by saying publicly that the al-Qaida chief may have slipped back into Afghanistan.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., made a somewhat similar, if less specific, remark Sunday about bin Laden’s movements. He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that knowledgeable people have told him that bin Laden “moves back and forth.”
McCain did not elaborate, except to say that although bin Laden is not currently able to establish bases for training and equipping terrorists who would attack the United States, “I think it’s important to get him.”
Two Afghan provinces in the country’s northeast held particular attraction for bin Laden in the 1990s: Kunar and Nuristan. The towering mountains there hid bin Laden training camps that date back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. A longtime bin Laden ally, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, holds sway in the area. U.S. troops have targeted Hekmatyar’s security chief, Kashmir Khan, in Kunar.
During his years in Afghanistan as a guest of the Taliban, bin Laden operated mainly in the southern region around Kandahar.
Gates said he does not blame a lack of Pakistani cooperation for the absence of intelligence on bin Laden.
“No, I think it’s because if, as we suspect, he is in North Waziristan, it is an area that the Pakistani government has not had a presence in, in quite some time,” Gates said, adding that although the Pakistani government has its own priorities, any pressure it brings on the Taliban is helpful because it is in league with al-Qaida.
During a visit to Pakistan in late October, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton caused a stir by chiding Pakistani officials for failing to press the hunt for al-Qaida inside their borders. She said she found it “hard to believe” that no one in Islamabad knows where the al-Qaida leaders are hiding and couldn’t get them “if they really wanted to.”
Gates said he could not confirm recent news reports that bin Laden had been seen in Afghanistan earlier this year. BBC News reported last week that a Taliban detainee in Pakistan claimed to have met in January or February with an unidentified associate who said he had seen bin Laden just days earlier in Afghanistan, possibly in Ghazni province.
A recent Senate report said bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan only three months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when American military leaders made the crucial decision not to pursue him with massive force.
The report asserted that bin Laden’s escape at his most vulnerable in December 2001 laid the foundation for today’s reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan. Staff members for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Democratic majority prepared the report at the request of the chairman, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Tommy Franks, the retired Army general who ran the initial war effort in Afghanistan and chief of U.S. Central Command, wrote in his book, “American Soldier,” in 2004 that he was confident in late 2001 that al-Qaida could not escape the Afghan forces leading the battle around Tora Bora, supported by heavy air strikes from American warplanes.
05.12.09 / UGG / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
Beautiful, isolated Sandpoint, Idaho isn’t known as a hotspot for glamour focused celebrities. Though we are probably the most beautiful city in America, we don’t have enough expensive stores to keep celebs occupied. The first time was when my husband had walked to the post office to mail some UGG slippers and UGG boots from our internet orders. Ben held the door open for him and commented on his cool hat. A friend who was visiting bought him a pair of Cloud Nine sheepskin slippers and he came in to get the correct size. We were excited because we had been avid watchers of his show, “Win Ben Stein’s Money”.
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05.12.09 / news / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus defended recommending his girlfriend for appointment as Montana’s U.S. attorney, saying Saturday his one-time staff member and the former state prosecutor is “highly qualified” but eventually withdrew her nomination.
Baucus said that he began dating former state office director Melodee Hanes after they were both separated from their spouses. The Montana Democrat said they did not have an affair, but began dating while she worked for him.
“As we grew closer and things progressed, we knew it was time to begin the process of Mel transitioning out of my Senate office,” Baucus said in a statement issued by his office Saturday.
He said he recommended Hanes to become Montana’s U.S. attorney while they were dating because she is a highly qualified prosecutor who tried more than 100 jury trials and is widely regarded as an expert in child abuse prosecution.
“Mel would have been an excellent U.S. Attorney for Montana,” said Baucus, 67. “I, for one, did not want her relationship with me to disqualify her from applying for the position.”
Baucus’ office released a resume for Hanes, which listed her only federal court experience as handling personal injury and employment discrimination cases from 1982 to 1986 as a partner in a private Iowa law firm. All of Hanes’ experience as a prosecutor came in state court, mostly in child abuse cases in Iowa and Montana, according to the resume.
Hanes, 53, received prosecutor’s training in 1994 at the FBI’s National Law Institute in Quantico, Va., the resume states.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele called Saturday for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of Baucus’ actions. Steele said the panel should determine “why Senator Baucus put his personal needs above those of the people of Montana.”
Asked by reporters whether there should be an ethics investigation into the matter, Baucus said, “I can’t understand why.
“Everything is straight, on the up and up,” Baucus added.
Baucus, who is helping lead Democratic efforts to expand health care, recommended Hanes for the federal prosecutor job in February. The senator said he appointed an independent, third-party reviewer and established “an open and fair process” that resulted in her name and two others being sent, unranked, to the White House for consideration.
Baucus said he did not whether the reviewer — who is a long-time campaign donor to Baucus — knew about the senator’s relationship with Hanes.
The reviewer is Dana Christensen, a Montana lawyer who contributed $3,400 to Baucus’s political campaigns from 1989 to 2002. Christensen’s role as reviewer was disclosed Saturday night by Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf. A phone message left at Christensen’s law office was not immediately returned.
Hanes withdrew in March, saying she did so because she received other opportunities she couldn’t pass up. Hanes was hired in June as a top official in the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
“We thought it made sense for her to withdraw her name from consideration,” Baucus told reporters Saturday. “She also wanted to come back to Washington” to live with Baucus, which she now does.
“Frankly we didn’t want to live apart,” Baucus said.
Hanes received her Justice job after applying “independently,” Baucus said. “Not surprisingly to anyone who’s looked at her resume, (Hanes) got the DOJ job on her merit,” he said.
Baucus’ office released details of his relationship with Hanes late Friday night in response to questions from Mainjustice.com, a news Web site covering the Justice Department that first reported the circumstances of Hanes’ nomination.
Baucus has played a major role in managing the Democrats’ health care overhaul efforts. He led Senate debate Saturday on the health bill, receiving a nod of support from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“Max is a good friend, an outstanding senator and he has my full support,” Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement released by his spokesman.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she didn’t think the issue would affect Baucus’ leadership in the health care debate. “I don’t think it’s going to distract from the substance of the debate,” she said.
Baucus and his ex-wife Wanda announced last April that they planned to divorce after 25 years of marriage, his second. In a joint statement, they said they had “parted ways amicably and with mutual respect.”
Hanes started working for Baucus in 2002 and was his state director before leaving his office for the Justice Department position.
President Barack Obama eventually nominated Helena attorney Michael Cotter for the U.S. attorney post, which supervises prosecutors of all federal crimes committed in Montana and the state’s seven Indian reservations. Cotter is awaiting Senate confirmation.
Thomas Towe, a Billings, Mont., lawyer and former state lawmaker, said Hanes is highly regarded in the state’s legal circles. Many lawyers in the state considered her to be a shoo-in for U.S. attorney, he said.
Towe, a Democrat, said both Hanes and Baucus had acted honorably in acknowledging their relationship and withdrawing her name. “I think it hurt her career-wise. It would have been a good career move for her to be U.S. attorney,” he said.
05.12.09 / news / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
KABUL – U.S. Marines and Afghan troops have killed at least seven Taliban fighters during the first U.S.-led offensive since President Barack Obama announced a new American war plan this week, Afghan officials said Saturday.
American and Afghan troops have met little resistance since Operation Cobra’s Anger was launched Friday to disrupt Taliban supply and communications lines in the strategic Now Zad Valley of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, Marine officials said.
About 1,000 Marines and 150 Afghan troops are taking part in the offensive, including hundreds of Marines dropped behind Taliban lines by helicopters and MV-22 Osprey aircraft. A second, larger Marine force pushed northward from the Marines’ main base.
“We’re not taking for granted the low level of contact,” Marine spokesman Maj. William Pelletier said Saturday. “Just because it’s quiet now doesn’t mean it will be in 24 hours. Part of the operation is to have a disruptive effect on the Taliban resupply activities. The Marines and Afghan forces are continuing the clearing operation, continuing to move through the valley.”
No coalition casualties have been reported. Daood Ahmadi, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, said 11 Taliban fighters have been killed and five captured. The Afghan Defense Ministry said seven militants were killed and two captured.
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in charge of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, told The Associated Press on Friday that the offensive was part of preparations for the arrival of 30,000 new U.S. reinforcements. Petraeus said the military has been working for months to extend what he called “the envelope of security” around key towns in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
Now Zad was one of the largest towns in Helmand until fighting drove away the 30,000 inhabitants. Now the area is a major supply and transportation hub for Taliban forces that use the valley to move drugs, weapons and fighters south toward major populations and to provinces in western Afghanistan.
Back in August, U.S. forces launched “Operation Eastern Resolve II” in the Now Zad Valley to help provide security for the Afghan presidential elections and disrupt enemy activity in the area. Pelletier said the latest offensive was launched before the reinforcements arrive because it was the best time to limit the militants’ freedom of movement in the area.
“We have sufficient forces to clear this area, especially when you consider that our number of Afghan partners has almost quadrupled since July,” Pelletier said. “So we felt this was a mission we could do without additional troops and without stretching our forces too thin.”
The Afghan government has approved a new seventh corps of the Afghan National Army — Corps 215 Maiwand — to be based in the Helmand capital of Lashkar Gah where the first fresh U.S. troops are expected to arrive. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the Afghans have vowed to deploy 5,000 members of the new Afghan army corps to Helmand, to be partnered by British troops next year.
Elsewhere, three Taliban militants were killed Friday during a gunbattle with Afghan National Police at a checkpoint in Nimroz province, provincial Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad said Saturday. Five other militants and five policemen were wounded in the clash in the Khash Rod district. The battle started after the Taliban fighters attacked the checkpoint with mortars and machine guns, he said.
NATO reported that a joint Afghan-international security force detained a handful of militants Saturday in Logar province, including an individual linked to senior leadership in the province who allegedly was helping militants move and train in the area.
The joint security force targeted a compound near the village of Sejawand in the Baraki Barak district of Logar in eastern Afghanistan and recovered AK-47 rifles, pistols, fragmentation grenades and chest racks fully loaded with AK-47 magazines, NATO said.
03.12.09 / UGG / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
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03.12.09 / news / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
CONAKRY, Guinea – A renegade faction of Guinea’s presidential guard opened fire on the African country’s leader Thursday, slightly wounding him amid rumors of deep divisions within the army nearly three months after a military-led massacre of protesters at a peaceful rally.
President Moussa “Dadis” Camara was shot at by his military aide, who heads the presidential guard, Communications Minister Idrissa Cherif said. A statement read on state TV said the 45-year-old president had been slightly wounded but that his life was not in danger.
“The president of the republic is still the president of the republic and he is in good health,” Cherif said as military helicopters and sporadic shooting could be heard in downtown Conakry.
Cherif said Camara had left the country’s main military barracks from where he has been running the country since seizing power in a military-led coup 11 months ago. He headed downtown to a military camp housing hundreds of men under the control of Abubakar “Toumba” Diakite, the president’s aide-de-camp. The shooting occurred inside the camp.
The incident underscores the deep rifts inside the military clique that grabbed control of the nation of 10 million on Africa’s western coast just 11 months ago. Camara had initially promised to quickly organize elections, but then reversed course and began hinting that he planned to run for office, prompting a massive protest Sept. 28.
Toumba is accused of having led the presidential guard that opened fire on the peaceful demonstrators that had gathered inside the capital’s national stadium. At least 157 people were killed and dozens of women were raped by the red beret-wearing presidential guard who also assaulted them with bayonets, rifle butts and with pieces of wood. At least 20 women were kidnapped and driven away in military trucks to private villas where they were drugged and videotaped while they were being gang raped over several days, according to three survivors as well as several human rights groups.
The massacre led the European Union and the African Union to impose sanctions on Guinea, including on top members of the junta, who are now the subject of a travel ban. Sources inside the military say that it deeply aggravated divisions that were already present and has led to the clique fracturing further. Members of the junta, including Toumba, are believed to lead private armies that are faithful only to them.
A U.N. mission was in Conakry this week investigating the massacre and interviewed top military commanders in order to try to understand how the order to kill protesters was given. Toumba, as well as Camara and several others, may face charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
The government has denied all wrongdoing and blamed opposition leaders for going ahead with the banned protest. Earlier on Thursday, one of Camara’s top commanders, Moussa “Tiegboro” Camara, testified before a national commission investigating the killings and said that he saw no bodies inside the stadium and that footage captured on cell phones of women being raped by the presidential guard are “montages.”
Human rights groups and country experts believe that Camara most likely ordered the killings, but did not carry them out, leaving that to trusted commanders like Toumba and Tiegboro. They say that with the U.N. now investigating, it’s possible that they will turn on each other. Both Toumba and Tiegboro were seen by numerous witnesses at the stadium ordering the attacks, but some witnesses said that Tiegboro showed a degree of restraint, at one point throwing a piece of cloth to a woman who had been stripped naked by men about to rape her, according to her account to the AP.
By contrast, witnesses were unanimous in saying that Toumba was recklessly violent — even sadistic — in his attack. Analysts say that if the junta is to split, the easiest way is for them to hand over Toumba to authorities and in return, arguing for amnesty for Camara, Tiegboro and others.
Cherif said that it was clear that Toumba’s intention was to kill the leader. “When you pull a gun on someone, is it your intention to scare him? No. Your intention is to kill him,” he said.
He declined to say whether the shot grazed or wounded Camara, or whether anyone else in his entourage was hurt. He repeated that he is “doing well” and that “the situation is under control.”
In the early evening, residents and tourists near Camp Koundara said they heard repeated volleys of shots. The camp is also close to the prime minister’s office, who was out at the time but received a call from his aide telling him to avoid returning. “I was told to go home,” said Prime Minister Kabine Komara, who was reached on his cell phone. “I am trying to reach the head of the army to find out what is going on,” he said.
The shooting came a day before the U.N. mission is due to depart Conakry. Guineans have been shocked that not a single soldier has so far been arrested and charged. Country experts have argued that Camara, who is not believed to have been at the stadium during the massacre, did not have the power to arrest Toumba, as it could have prompted him to lead a countercoup.
In a recently released report, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said that Toumba was clearly aware of the rapes being committed by men under his control and yet did nothing to stop them. They cite an opposition leader who described how he was led away by Toumba and passed women in agony.
03.12.09 / news / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
WASHINGTON – Unflinching on a critical first test, Senate Democrats closed ranks Thursday behind $460 billion in politically risky Medicare cuts at the heart of health care legislation, thwarting a Republican attempt to doom President Barack Obama’s sweeping overhaul.
The bid by the bill’s critics to reverse cuts to the popular Medicare program failed on a vote of 58-42, drawing the support of two Democratic defectors. Approval would have stripped out money needed to pay for expanding coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans.
The broader legislation aims to extend health coverage to 31 million who now lack it, while barring insurance industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. Though the overhaul is estimated to cost about $1 trillion over a decade, the Congressional Budget Office has said it would cut federal deficits by $130 billion over that period, and probably reduce them further in the 10 years beyond that.
“Our bill does nothing to reduce guaranteed Medicare benefits,” said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., as several fellow Democrats accused Republican critics of making false claims of potential harm during three days of debate.
The AARP supported the 10-year package of cuts in projected spending, giving Democrats political cover for their decision to pare back subsidies to private Medicare plans as well as payments to hospitals, hospices, home health agencies and other providers.
Republicans disagreed vigorously. “Medicare is already in trouble. The program needs to be fixed, not raided to create another new government program,” said the party’s leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
The Medicare vote came not long after the Senate backed a guarantee for all insured women age 40 and older to receive mammograms with no out-of-pocket costs. The breast cancer screening test would be included in an array of preventive measures that insurance plans would be required to cover. The proposal cleared on a near party-line vote of 61-39, one more than the 60 needed for passage. It essentially wiped out a federal advisory committee recommendation to defer routine mammograms until women reach the age of 50.
The day’s votes were the first since the Senate’s health care debate began on Monday, and demonstrated the ability of Democrats to move ahead in the face of implacable Republican opposition.
At the same time, Democrats worked in private meetings to settle controversies within the party that are still standing in the way of the bill’s passage. The most contentious of these involves proposals for the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies, an approach supported by liberals but opposed by most Democratic moderates and conservatives.
“Our caucus is now in the process of negotiating with ourselves because we need all 60 of us to get this done,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., after one closed-door meeting. Senate procedures require 60 votes to overcome Republican delaying tactics designed to kill the bill.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he expected all such issues to be worked out soon, but he did not specify precisely when.
For the time being, that left the two parties free to engage in an intensely political debate on health care, an issue that is certain to play a role in next year’s midterm elections.
Unwilling to allow Republican charges on Medicare to go unanswered, Democrats responded with an alternative that stated no guaranteed benefits would be cut from the program and its finances would be strengthened.
The lead proponent of that provision was Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, who was appointed to his seat earlier in the year and faces a difficult campaign in 2010. “This is a message amendment,” his office informed fellow Democrats in an e-mail unintended for publication, indicating its purpose was partially political.
The bill “does not take away any seniors’ guaranteed Medicare benefits,” Bennet said on the Senate floor. “We know that the bill extends Medicare solvency for five additional years.” It passed 100-0.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Obama’s Republican opponent in last year’s presidential race, laid bare the political nature of the debate by making a recording to be telephoned automatically to thousands of voters in states represented by Democrats, urging the deletion of the Medicare cuts. The calls were paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and took aim at Bennet as well as Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, who is seeking a new term next year, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
In the end, Nelson and Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia were the only Democrats to support McCain’s proposal.
On the other side, Republicans would not allow the Democrats to go unchallenged on women’s health with a proposal long backed by Sen. Barbara Mikulski requiring the government to develop a list of tests to be covered at no additional cost to the patient.
On Wednesday, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., made it explicit that mammograms would be covered for women at age 40.
More broadly, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, backed an alternative that gave GOP senators opposed to the Democratic proposal a measure they could support. It urged the insurance industry to consult with medical experts in deciding what preventive tests to provide. But it provided no government guarantee that any would be required, did not rule out copays for patients undergoing the procedures, and would have wiped out a list of free tests for men and women that Democrats wrote into their legislation.
It failed on a vote of 59-41 with Nelson siding with the Republicans.
Political philosophy played a hidden role in the struggle over women’s health. Republicans have accused Democrats for months of supporting a federal takeover of health care. Murkowski quietly shelved an earlier draft of her amendment that would have given the government authority to require additional preventive tests and raised the cost of the bill by $30 billion over a decade. One Republican said conservatives objected, forcing the switch.
Overall, the $1 trillion legislation would require most Americans to purchase insurance and provide federal subsidies to lower and middle income individuals and families to defray the cost. Businesses would not be required to provide coverage to their employees, but large firms would face a penalty if they did not and if any of their workers received federal subsidies.
Consumers would be allowed to shop for insurance in a new marketplace in which companies would compete for business by selling policies that provide benefits according to standards established by the federal government.
02.12.09 / UGG / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
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