terça-feira, agosto 31, 2004
Republicanos presentan a Bush como un líder firme para la guerra
RUI FERREIRA / El Nuevo Herald
NUEVA YORK
A escasas cuatro millas donde una vez hubo dos torres gemelas, unos 4,800 delegados a la convención republicana escucharan sendas recomendaciones de que el presidente George W. Bush es el indicado para conducir al país en tiempos de guerra.
''Fue aquí en el año 2001 donde el presidente se paró entre los restos de las torres y les dijo a los terroristas que nos atacaron: nos van a escuchar. Pues ya han escuchado. Nos escucharon en Afganistán y acabamos con los talibanes; nos escucharon en Irak y acabamos con Saddam [Hussein] y su régimen de terror. Por eso, mientras George Bush sea presidente, no habrá dudas que nos seguirán escuchando'', dijo el ex alcalde de Nueva York, Rudy Giuliani.
Giuliani, quien era el alcalde el día que las dos torres fueron derribadas el 11 de septiembre del 2001, fue recibido delirantemente por los delegados en el Madison Square Garden, al final de una sesión que se caracterizó por una defensa a ultranza de la necesidad de seguir con Bush en la presidencia, para acabar con la amenaza del terrorismo.
''El ya tiene experiencia y ha enfrentado el mayor reto de nuestros días y lo saludo. Saludo su determinación de hacer de este un mundo mejor, más seguro, al cual él no le ha dado la espalda. No ha huido de las decisiones difíciles, y no lo hará nunca'', dijo a su vez el senador por Arizona, John McCain, quien hasta la convención demócrata el mes pasado en Boston fue señalado como posible compañero de boleta del candidato John Kerry.
Pero además de Bush, el nombre del senador Kerry fue el más mencionado ayer en la inauguración de la convención, porque los republicanos no perdieron ni un minuto para criticarlo.
''En esta lucha necesitamos un comandante en jefe que sea un faro'', dijo el congresista Heather Wilson, de Nuevo México, en la sesión de la mañana.
''Para combatir el terrorismo hace falta poder de decisión, no dudas'', declaró el ex jefe de la policía de la Gran Manzana, Bernard Kerik, quien dirigió la reconstrucción en Bagdad del nuevo cuerpo de policía iraquí.
En su opinión, ''la Casa Blanca necesita un liderazgo que sea una inspiración. Hay dos candidatos en esta carrera [electoral], pero sólo uno cumple con esas cualidades'', añadió Kerik, refiriéndose a Bush.
''Kerry es débil en la guerra y está equivocado en los impuestos'', declaró el líder del congreso estatal de Illinois, Dennis Hastert, llevando las críticas más allá del tema militar.
Hastert dijo que Kerry tiene una opinión ''equivocada'' de lo que son y como deben ser los impuestos, por lo cual la convención de Boston se transformó en una ``gran fiesta de cómo crearle impuestos a la gente".
En medio de toda la alegoría de exaltación del mandatario, los delegados también escucharon el apoyo musulmán.
''Vengo a decirles que Irak goza ahora de una nueva vida, una democracia, y si no fuera por el liderazgo compasivo del presidente Bush, eso no sería posible, no tendríamos futuro'', dijo Zainab al-Suwaij, directora ejecutiva del Congreso Islámico Americano.
Por otro lado, el Consejo Nacional Republicano divulgó la plataforma del partido, donde se incluye una valoración de la situación cubana y se incluyó como programa partidario las recientes medidas de la Casa blanca de restricción a los viajes de cubanoamericanos a la isla.
''El régimen de Castro es un anacronismo en una región donde la democracia y los mercados abierto se mantienen'', dice el texto, donde además se consigna que ''los republicanos apoyamos la posición del Presidente sobre el embargo económico y las restricciones en los viajes'' y ``entendemos que el régimen cubano no cambiará por su propia decisión''.
La plataforma también hace una corta mención a Venezuela, al decir que los republicanos apoyan los esfuerzos de Bush en ``conseguir una solución pacífica y electoral a la crisis venezolana''.
''No es sólo Cuba donde este Presidente es firme. Diría que Bush es un amigo de los hispanos. Con esto de la guerra ha estado volcado mucho al tema, pero yo anticiparía a partir de ahora varias decisiones en materia de inmigración'', comentó el congresista Lincoln Díaz-Balart.
Una de ellas ''sería la reactivación de la propuesta de conceder permisos de trabajo temporales a trabajadores emigrantes'', indicó.
La Convención Republicana termina el próximo jueves, con el discurso de aceptación del mandatario, para lo cual la sala será rediseñada de modo que los delegados se sienten en círculo alrededor de Bush.
NUEVA YORK
A escasas cuatro millas donde una vez hubo dos torres gemelas, unos 4,800 delegados a la convención republicana escucharan sendas recomendaciones de que el presidente George W. Bush es el indicado para conducir al país en tiempos de guerra.
''Fue aquí en el año 2001 donde el presidente se paró entre los restos de las torres y les dijo a los terroristas que nos atacaron: nos van a escuchar. Pues ya han escuchado. Nos escucharon en Afganistán y acabamos con los talibanes; nos escucharon en Irak y acabamos con Saddam [Hussein] y su régimen de terror. Por eso, mientras George Bush sea presidente, no habrá dudas que nos seguirán escuchando'', dijo el ex alcalde de Nueva York, Rudy Giuliani.
Giuliani, quien era el alcalde el día que las dos torres fueron derribadas el 11 de septiembre del 2001, fue recibido delirantemente por los delegados en el Madison Square Garden, al final de una sesión que se caracterizó por una defensa a ultranza de la necesidad de seguir con Bush en la presidencia, para acabar con la amenaza del terrorismo.
''El ya tiene experiencia y ha enfrentado el mayor reto de nuestros días y lo saludo. Saludo su determinación de hacer de este un mundo mejor, más seguro, al cual él no le ha dado la espalda. No ha huido de las decisiones difíciles, y no lo hará nunca'', dijo a su vez el senador por Arizona, John McCain, quien hasta la convención demócrata el mes pasado en Boston fue señalado como posible compañero de boleta del candidato John Kerry.
Pero además de Bush, el nombre del senador Kerry fue el más mencionado ayer en la inauguración de la convención, porque los republicanos no perdieron ni un minuto para criticarlo.
''En esta lucha necesitamos un comandante en jefe que sea un faro'', dijo el congresista Heather Wilson, de Nuevo México, en la sesión de la mañana.
''Para combatir el terrorismo hace falta poder de decisión, no dudas'', declaró el ex jefe de la policía de la Gran Manzana, Bernard Kerik, quien dirigió la reconstrucción en Bagdad del nuevo cuerpo de policía iraquí.
En su opinión, ''la Casa Blanca necesita un liderazgo que sea una inspiración. Hay dos candidatos en esta carrera [electoral], pero sólo uno cumple con esas cualidades'', añadió Kerik, refiriéndose a Bush.
''Kerry es débil en la guerra y está equivocado en los impuestos'', declaró el líder del congreso estatal de Illinois, Dennis Hastert, llevando las críticas más allá del tema militar.
Hastert dijo que Kerry tiene una opinión ''equivocada'' de lo que son y como deben ser los impuestos, por lo cual la convención de Boston se transformó en una ``gran fiesta de cómo crearle impuestos a la gente".
En medio de toda la alegoría de exaltación del mandatario, los delegados también escucharon el apoyo musulmán.
''Vengo a decirles que Irak goza ahora de una nueva vida, una democracia, y si no fuera por el liderazgo compasivo del presidente Bush, eso no sería posible, no tendríamos futuro'', dijo Zainab al-Suwaij, directora ejecutiva del Congreso Islámico Americano.
Por otro lado, el Consejo Nacional Republicano divulgó la plataforma del partido, donde se incluye una valoración de la situación cubana y se incluyó como programa partidario las recientes medidas de la Casa blanca de restricción a los viajes de cubanoamericanos a la isla.
''El régimen de Castro es un anacronismo en una región donde la democracia y los mercados abierto se mantienen'', dice el texto, donde además se consigna que ''los republicanos apoyamos la posición del Presidente sobre el embargo económico y las restricciones en los viajes'' y ``entendemos que el régimen cubano no cambiará por su propia decisión''.
La plataforma también hace una corta mención a Venezuela, al decir que los republicanos apoyan los esfuerzos de Bush en ``conseguir una solución pacífica y electoral a la crisis venezolana''.
''No es sólo Cuba donde este Presidente es firme. Diría que Bush es un amigo de los hispanos. Con esto de la guerra ha estado volcado mucho al tema, pero yo anticiparía a partir de ahora varias decisiones en materia de inmigración'', comentó el congresista Lincoln Díaz-Balart.
Una de ellas ''sería la reactivación de la propuesta de conceder permisos de trabajo temporales a trabajadores emigrantes'', indicó.
La Convención Republicana termina el próximo jueves, con el discurso de aceptación del mandatario, para lo cual la sala será rediseñada de modo que los delegados se sienten en círculo alrededor de Bush.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 12:05 da tarde 
La Convención Republicana hace hincapié en la seguridad
RUI FERREIRA / El Nuevo Herald
NUEVA YORK
Los republicanos tienen una poderosa tarea por delante. Por primera vez en una convención de su partido, el tema de la seguridad surge como más importante que la economía, un tópico que siempre ha sido decisivo en las elecciones presidenciales.
Para George W. Bush, el tema es espinoso y personal ya que su padre perdió la reelección en 1992, pese a haber ganado la primera Guerra del Golfo, a causa de la crisis económica nacional.
Aunque ayer, el primer día de la convención, el Presidente dijo en una entrevista de televisión que no es previsible ganarle la guerra al terrorismo, la plataforma programática del cónclave, revelada poco después, manifiesta la necesidad de ''ganar la guerra al terrorismo'', y pone ese tema como la prioridad frente a la construcción de una ''economía global, competitiva y innovadora'', o ''el refuerzo de las comunidades'' y ``la protección a nuestras familias''.
Tanto en conversaciones privadas como públicas, los funcionarios republicanos insisten en que lo más importante para el país ahora es proyectar la imagen de liderazgo del presidente Bush en la lucha contra el terrorismo.
Insisten en que el país se ha mantenido a flote a pesar de que el mandatario heredó en el 2000 un país en recesión económica que el 11 de Septiembre sufrió un golpe demoledor.
''Con ese golpe cualquier país se hubiera venido abajo, y él lo aguantó. Después libró una guerra en dos frentes y demostró que puede mantenerla y a la vez fortalecer la economía'', insistió el congresista republicano Mario Díaz-Balart.
Pero ayer, cuando le preguntaron a Bush si la guerra contra el terrorismo se puede ganar, su respuesta sorprendió, ya que chocó con la muralla de invencibilidad que los republicanos han tratado de proyectar últimamente.
''No creo que la podamos ganar, pero creo que podemos crear las condiciones para que quienes usan el terrorismo como una herramienta sean menos aceptables en diversas partes del mundo'', dijo el Presidente.
La Casa Blanca trató de inmediato de disminuir el impacto de la aseveración, asegurando que el mandatario hablaba de ganar la guerra en ``un sentido convencional''.
Pero el ''golpe'' no produjo mucha mella. Seguidamente, Bush añadió que en el mundo de hoy ``no se puede mostrar debilidad porque el enemigo explota las fragilidades''.
Poco después, Díaz-Balart insistía en ese punto recordando que, en estos días, cuando el presidente francés tuvo que enviar a su canciller al Medio Oriente a resolver un asunto que tiene que ver con su política interna, dos periodistas fueron secuestrados y su liberación prometida a cambio de que París permita el uso del velo en las escuelas públicas, un tema que la Constitución seglar francesa no permite.
''Eso es lo que hay que evitar, que los terroristas determinen la política interna de un país. De ahí la necesidad de una seguridad fuerte, porque, además, un estado sólo puede ser verdaderamente democrático si es seguro'', afirmó el también congresista Lincoln Díaz-Balart.
Además, sin seguridad ''no hay una economía viable'', subrayó.
Por eso, añadió Mario Díaz-Balart, ``no es correcto ver estos dos temas separados. Seguridad y economía van de la mano, pero enfatizamos la seguridad''.
La plataforma dedica 40 páginas a la seguridad y 20 a la economía.
Los demócratas tienen explicaciones para ello. Dicen que los republicanos ocultan el hecho de que ha aumentado el nivel de pobreza en los últimos años, que pese a la creación de un millón de empleos en cuatro años ha disminuido la capacidad de compra de muchos estadounidenses.
De todos modos, Mario Díaz-Balart no es el único que hace esa aseveración. El ex asesor político del presidente Bill Clinton, el demócrata Dick Morris, sostuvo ayer que los republicanos tienen el camino abierto en lo que concierne a los éxitos de Bush en la guerra contra el terrorismo, que no necesita concentrarse mucho en defender su política económica o en atacar a su rival demócrata. Ese papel, incluso, lo puede dejar a otro.
``Si Bush usa esta convención con sabiduría para destacar su papel en proteger al país, y al senador [demócrata] Zell Miller para hurgar en el pasado de Kerry, emergerá en gran forma [en los sondeos]``, dijo Morris.
NUEVA YORK
Los republicanos tienen una poderosa tarea por delante. Por primera vez en una convención de su partido, el tema de la seguridad surge como más importante que la economía, un tópico que siempre ha sido decisivo en las elecciones presidenciales.
Para George W. Bush, el tema es espinoso y personal ya que su padre perdió la reelección en 1992, pese a haber ganado la primera Guerra del Golfo, a causa de la crisis económica nacional.
Aunque ayer, el primer día de la convención, el Presidente dijo en una entrevista de televisión que no es previsible ganarle la guerra al terrorismo, la plataforma programática del cónclave, revelada poco después, manifiesta la necesidad de ''ganar la guerra al terrorismo'', y pone ese tema como la prioridad frente a la construcción de una ''economía global, competitiva y innovadora'', o ''el refuerzo de las comunidades'' y ``la protección a nuestras familias''.
Tanto en conversaciones privadas como públicas, los funcionarios republicanos insisten en que lo más importante para el país ahora es proyectar la imagen de liderazgo del presidente Bush en la lucha contra el terrorismo.
Insisten en que el país se ha mantenido a flote a pesar de que el mandatario heredó en el 2000 un país en recesión económica que el 11 de Septiembre sufrió un golpe demoledor.
''Con ese golpe cualquier país se hubiera venido abajo, y él lo aguantó. Después libró una guerra en dos frentes y demostró que puede mantenerla y a la vez fortalecer la economía'', insistió el congresista republicano Mario Díaz-Balart.
Pero ayer, cuando le preguntaron a Bush si la guerra contra el terrorismo se puede ganar, su respuesta sorprendió, ya que chocó con la muralla de invencibilidad que los republicanos han tratado de proyectar últimamente.
''No creo que la podamos ganar, pero creo que podemos crear las condiciones para que quienes usan el terrorismo como una herramienta sean menos aceptables en diversas partes del mundo'', dijo el Presidente.
La Casa Blanca trató de inmediato de disminuir el impacto de la aseveración, asegurando que el mandatario hablaba de ganar la guerra en ``un sentido convencional''.
Pero el ''golpe'' no produjo mucha mella. Seguidamente, Bush añadió que en el mundo de hoy ``no se puede mostrar debilidad porque el enemigo explota las fragilidades''.
Poco después, Díaz-Balart insistía en ese punto recordando que, en estos días, cuando el presidente francés tuvo que enviar a su canciller al Medio Oriente a resolver un asunto que tiene que ver con su política interna, dos periodistas fueron secuestrados y su liberación prometida a cambio de que París permita el uso del velo en las escuelas públicas, un tema que la Constitución seglar francesa no permite.
''Eso es lo que hay que evitar, que los terroristas determinen la política interna de un país. De ahí la necesidad de una seguridad fuerte, porque, además, un estado sólo puede ser verdaderamente democrático si es seguro'', afirmó el también congresista Lincoln Díaz-Balart.
Además, sin seguridad ''no hay una economía viable'', subrayó.
Por eso, añadió Mario Díaz-Balart, ``no es correcto ver estos dos temas separados. Seguridad y economía van de la mano, pero enfatizamos la seguridad''.
La plataforma dedica 40 páginas a la seguridad y 20 a la economía.
Los demócratas tienen explicaciones para ello. Dicen que los republicanos ocultan el hecho de que ha aumentado el nivel de pobreza en los últimos años, que pese a la creación de un millón de empleos en cuatro años ha disminuido la capacidad de compra de muchos estadounidenses.
De todos modos, Mario Díaz-Balart no es el único que hace esa aseveración. El ex asesor político del presidente Bill Clinton, el demócrata Dick Morris, sostuvo ayer que los republicanos tienen el camino abierto en lo que concierne a los éxitos de Bush en la guerra contra el terrorismo, que no necesita concentrarse mucho en defender su política económica o en atacar a su rival demócrata. Ese papel, incluso, lo puede dejar a otro.
``Si Bush usa esta convención con sabiduría para destacar su papel en proteger al país, y al senador [demócrata] Zell Miller para hurgar en el pasado de Kerry, emergerá en gran forma [en los sondeos]``, dijo Morris.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 12:04 da tarde
domingo, agosto 29, 2004
Nueva York blindada para la Convención Republicana
RUI FERREIRA / El Nuevo Herald
Se esperan 250,000 manifestantes, por lo que se han movilizado 30,000 policías alrededor del Madison Square Garden, donde se celebrará la Convención Nacional Republicabna, y 50,000 más en el resto de la ciudad. El cónclave, que comienza este fin de semana en Nueva York, es uno de los mayores rompecabezas a nivel de seguridad con que las autoridades han tenido que lidiar.
En un mundo post 11 de septiembre y con informaciones de inteligencia que indican un posible intento terrorista de interrumpir la Convención o el proceso electoral, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional puso el mes pasado a la ciudad de Nueva York en estado de máxima alerta.
Es la primera vez que se aplica ese nivel de seguridad a un área metropolitana. En el resto de la nación, la alarma de seguridad sigue en un nivel intermedio.
Sin embargo, para el comisionado policial de la ciudad Ray Nelly, ellos tienen la experiencia necesaria para enfrentarse a la situación.
''Somos un gran y experimentado cuerpo de policía'', dijo Nelly hace unos días.
Se estima que el costo total de seguridad de Nueva York durante los cinco días de la Convención llegará a los $90 millones, unos $40 millones más que la Convención Demócrata de Boston, que tuvo lugar el mes pasado.
Como sucedió con las manifestaciones contra la reunión ministerial del Acuerdo de Libre Comercio de las Américas (ALCA) en Miami, el año pasado, este fin de verano grupos anarquistas, pacifistas, ecologistas y socialistas, se han movilizado para llevar a Nueva York a 250,000 personas que protestarán contra la guerra en Irak y el presidente George W. Bush, o simplemente irán para tratar de alterar el orden.
Desde mediados de esta semana el área del Madison Square Garden ha sido acordonada, las patrullas están en la calles y hasta la estación de trenes Pennsylvania ha sido prácticamente tomada por asalto por efectivos policiales, que controlan quién entra a la ciudad por esa vía.
No se puede entrar o salir de esa área sin una acreditación especial, una justificación plausible, y hay que estar dispuesto a responder a todas las preguntas de los agentes del orden.
A ese recinto cerrado, de una treintena de manzanas, le llaman ``la zona congelada''.
''Estamos tomando posiciones una semana antes para disuadir cualquier plan terrorista, aunque no tenemos ninguna información específica de que haya un plan en curso'', indicó el subcomisionado de la policía de Nueva York, Paul J. Browne.
Como sucedió en Miami el año pasado, un objetivo importante de las autoridades son los manifestantes, y el temor de que desaten actos violentos, como ocurrió en Seattle hace cinco años durante la Convención Mundial del Comercio.
Por eso, la Oficina Federal de Investigaciones (FBI) ha comenzado a visitar a potenciales manifestantes que tiene fichados de encuentros anteriores con las autoridades.
''El mensaje que me dieron fue que están tratando de intimidarnos para que desistamos de participar en cualquier tipo de protestas, y para advertirme que me están vigilando'', comentó recientemente Sarah Bardwell, de 21 años, a The New York Times.
La directora asistente del FBI, Cassandra M. Chander, dijo que ''hizo esas entrevistas sin faltar a la constitución, para así determinar la validez de informes'' que recibieron.
La decisión del FBI de visitar a los potenciales manifestantes fue tomada después que el Departamento de Justicia permitió discretamente que esa agencia federal comenzara a usar tácticas no comunes de investigación criminal, como pedir a los departamentos locales de policía que informen de cualquier actividad política sospechosa o de manifestaciones contra la guerra en Irak.
Según confirmó el portavoz de la policía de Nueva York, las autoridades han concedido 16 permisos de manifestaciones, que abarcan desde 20 a 40,000 personas. Las grandes manifestaciones, como la que pretende realizar la organización United for Peace and Justice --la cual espera reunir a 100,000 manifestantes frente al Madison Square Garden el domingo 29 de agosto y después marchar hasta Central Park--, todavía están en discusión con las autoridades.
Entre otras razones porque el grupo no ha puesto una hora para finalizar la marcha, y según el alcalde de la ciudad, Michael J. Bloomberg, pueden ``estropear el jardín''.
Sin embargo, no podrán manifestarse el Consejo Nacional de Arabes Americanos y a la Coalición contra la Guerra y el Racismo, los cuales pidieron permiso para movilizar 75,000 personas en el Parque Central. Las dos entidades han llevado a la ciudad de Nueva York a los tribunales.
''La convención puede ser un evento político para algunos, pero para otros es un buen pretexto para ampliar las medidas de seguridad post 11 de Septiembre que han erosionado el compromiso de Estados Unidos con las libertades civiles'', dijo Christopher Jun, director asociado de la Unión de Libertades Civiles de Nueva York.
Además de un atentado terrorista, argumentó Browne, a las autoridades no les preocupa tanto las grandes manifestaciones, sino los manifestantes aislados que aparecerán un poco por toda la ciudad.
El diario Newsday informó que la policía de Nueva York ha distribuido entre los agentes un folleto confidencial de 35 páginas titulado Lineamientos legales para la Convención Nacional Republicana, en el cual se alerta de la posibilidad de que los manifestantes puedan vestirse de policías, agredir a otros manifestantes y después ''denunciar'' actos de brutalidad policial.
Según dijeron a El Nuevo Herald fuentes policiales en Miami y en Nueva York, los manifestantes se han organizado a través de la internet, como sucedió en esta ciudad en el 2003.
''Los republicanos van a traer la coronación del emperador a la ciudad de Nueva York. Como vampiros quieren beberse todas las almas de la ciudad y vender el 11 de Septiembre y la lucha contra el terrorismo como su guerra privada, y cuatro sangrientos años de Bush más'', dijo en un pagina web un grupo que convoca a la ``marcha del millón de hombres hippies''.
En otra página, llamada Mundo Socialista, se detalla paso a paso la organización de las manifestaciones, las discusiones con las autoridades y las tácticas a usar durante la convención.
(C) 2004 El Nuevo Herald
Se esperan 250,000 manifestantes, por lo que se han movilizado 30,000 policías alrededor del Madison Square Garden, donde se celebrará la Convención Nacional Republicabna, y 50,000 más en el resto de la ciudad. El cónclave, que comienza este fin de semana en Nueva York, es uno de los mayores rompecabezas a nivel de seguridad con que las autoridades han tenido que lidiar.
En un mundo post 11 de septiembre y con informaciones de inteligencia que indican un posible intento terrorista de interrumpir la Convención o el proceso electoral, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional puso el mes pasado a la ciudad de Nueva York en estado de máxima alerta.
Es la primera vez que se aplica ese nivel de seguridad a un área metropolitana. En el resto de la nación, la alarma de seguridad sigue en un nivel intermedio.
Sin embargo, para el comisionado policial de la ciudad Ray Nelly, ellos tienen la experiencia necesaria para enfrentarse a la situación.
''Somos un gran y experimentado cuerpo de policía'', dijo Nelly hace unos días.
Se estima que el costo total de seguridad de Nueva York durante los cinco días de la Convención llegará a los $90 millones, unos $40 millones más que la Convención Demócrata de Boston, que tuvo lugar el mes pasado.
Como sucedió con las manifestaciones contra la reunión ministerial del Acuerdo de Libre Comercio de las Américas (ALCA) en Miami, el año pasado, este fin de verano grupos anarquistas, pacifistas, ecologistas y socialistas, se han movilizado para llevar a Nueva York a 250,000 personas que protestarán contra la guerra en Irak y el presidente George W. Bush, o simplemente irán para tratar de alterar el orden.
Desde mediados de esta semana el área del Madison Square Garden ha sido acordonada, las patrullas están en la calles y hasta la estación de trenes Pennsylvania ha sido prácticamente tomada por asalto por efectivos policiales, que controlan quién entra a la ciudad por esa vía.
No se puede entrar o salir de esa área sin una acreditación especial, una justificación plausible, y hay que estar dispuesto a responder a todas las preguntas de los agentes del orden.
A ese recinto cerrado, de una treintena de manzanas, le llaman ``la zona congelada''.
''Estamos tomando posiciones una semana antes para disuadir cualquier plan terrorista, aunque no tenemos ninguna información específica de que haya un plan en curso'', indicó el subcomisionado de la policía de Nueva York, Paul J. Browne.
Como sucedió en Miami el año pasado, un objetivo importante de las autoridades son los manifestantes, y el temor de que desaten actos violentos, como ocurrió en Seattle hace cinco años durante la Convención Mundial del Comercio.
Por eso, la Oficina Federal de Investigaciones (FBI) ha comenzado a visitar a potenciales manifestantes que tiene fichados de encuentros anteriores con las autoridades.
''El mensaje que me dieron fue que están tratando de intimidarnos para que desistamos de participar en cualquier tipo de protestas, y para advertirme que me están vigilando'', comentó recientemente Sarah Bardwell, de 21 años, a The New York Times.
La directora asistente del FBI, Cassandra M. Chander, dijo que ''hizo esas entrevistas sin faltar a la constitución, para así determinar la validez de informes'' que recibieron.
La decisión del FBI de visitar a los potenciales manifestantes fue tomada después que el Departamento de Justicia permitió discretamente que esa agencia federal comenzara a usar tácticas no comunes de investigación criminal, como pedir a los departamentos locales de policía que informen de cualquier actividad política sospechosa o de manifestaciones contra la guerra en Irak.
Según confirmó el portavoz de la policía de Nueva York, las autoridades han concedido 16 permisos de manifestaciones, que abarcan desde 20 a 40,000 personas. Las grandes manifestaciones, como la que pretende realizar la organización United for Peace and Justice --la cual espera reunir a 100,000 manifestantes frente al Madison Square Garden el domingo 29 de agosto y después marchar hasta Central Park--, todavía están en discusión con las autoridades.
Entre otras razones porque el grupo no ha puesto una hora para finalizar la marcha, y según el alcalde de la ciudad, Michael J. Bloomberg, pueden ``estropear el jardín''.
Sin embargo, no podrán manifestarse el Consejo Nacional de Arabes Americanos y a la Coalición contra la Guerra y el Racismo, los cuales pidieron permiso para movilizar 75,000 personas en el Parque Central. Las dos entidades han llevado a la ciudad de Nueva York a los tribunales.
''La convención puede ser un evento político para algunos, pero para otros es un buen pretexto para ampliar las medidas de seguridad post 11 de Septiembre que han erosionado el compromiso de Estados Unidos con las libertades civiles'', dijo Christopher Jun, director asociado de la Unión de Libertades Civiles de Nueva York.
Además de un atentado terrorista, argumentó Browne, a las autoridades no les preocupa tanto las grandes manifestaciones, sino los manifestantes aislados que aparecerán un poco por toda la ciudad.
El diario Newsday informó que la policía de Nueva York ha distribuido entre los agentes un folleto confidencial de 35 páginas titulado Lineamientos legales para la Convención Nacional Republicana, en el cual se alerta de la posibilidad de que los manifestantes puedan vestirse de policías, agredir a otros manifestantes y después ''denunciar'' actos de brutalidad policial.
Según dijeron a El Nuevo Herald fuentes policiales en Miami y en Nueva York, los manifestantes se han organizado a través de la internet, como sucedió en esta ciudad en el 2003.
''Los republicanos van a traer la coronación del emperador a la ciudad de Nueva York. Como vampiros quieren beberse todas las almas de la ciudad y vender el 11 de Septiembre y la lucha contra el terrorismo como su guerra privada, y cuatro sangrientos años de Bush más'', dijo en un pagina web un grupo que convoca a la ``marcha del millón de hombres hippies''.
En otra página, llamada Mundo Socialista, se detalla paso a paso la organización de las manifestaciones, las discusiones con las autoridades y las tácticas a usar durante la convención.
(C) 2004 El Nuevo Herald
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 7:36 da manhã
sábado, agosto 28, 2004
Bush anuncia en Miami $2,000 millones para víctimas de Charley
RUI FERREIRA / El Nuevo Herald
Por segunda vez en menos de 10 días, el presidente George W. Bush vino a la Florida y manifestó preocupación por la estela de destrucción dejada por el huracán Charley.
Ayer, al termino de una reunión con el director de la agencia federal encargada de administrar la ayuda, Bush dijo que ha pedido al Congreso que le entregue una ayuda complementaria de $2 mil millones para ayudar a la reconstrucción del suroeste de la Florida, donde se calcula que Charley dejó unos $7 mil millones en estragos.
''Ya había prometido una ayuda en gran escala [...] sin embargo, todavía hay mucho por hacer, por eso le estoy pidiendo esta ayuda complementaria, para seguir la reconstrucción de la Florida'', expresó el Presidente.
''Estos desastres provocan mucho dolor, pero también nos muestran lo mejor de nuestra ciudadanía. Y hay una gran compasión por aquellas personas cuyas vidas se han virado al revés'', agregó el mandatario, al término de la reunión de trabajo con el director de la Agencia Federal de Administración de Emergencias, Mike Brown, realizada en la Segunda Estación de bomberos, en el downtown de Miami.
Bush vino ayer a esta ciudad, con su esposa Laura, para participar en un mítin de campaña que reunió a miles de partidarios suyos en la Arena Miami, en el marco de una gira por seis áreas metropolitanas de la nación, antes de la Convención Nacional Republicana que comienza el lunes en Nueva York.
En un apasionado discurso de poco más de media hora, Bush les habló de la necesidad de mantener la lucha contra el terrorismo, de evitar que se pierdan los empleos llevados al extranjero, de acabar con las demandas frívolas a los médicos para mejorar la calidad de la salud, y les prometió ``seguir trabajando, por cuatro años más, por la libertad de Cuba''.
''Yo quiero que un día los cubanos tengan en La Habana las mismas libertades que disfrutan aquí. El pueblo cubano debe liberarse del tirano, y yo creo que reforzar el embargo comercial es parte de esa estrategia'', dijo Bush, arrancando la mayor de las 14 ovaciones que recibió.
El mandatario atacó a su rival, el senador John Kerry, enfatizando que durante las discusiones en el Senado de la Ley Helms-Burton, el ahora candidato demócrata votó contra el proyecto.
''Y ahora dice que eso no tiene importancia'', recalcó Bush.
El portavoz de Kerry en Washington, Phil Singer, reaccionó de inmediato y dijo que el senador votó dos veces por la Ley Helms-Burton, pero se opuso al borrador final porque no estuvo de acuerdo con el capítulo tres, cuya aplicación el presidente Bush ha vetado constantemente desde que llegó a la Casa Blanca.
En el mítin, el mandatario dijo también que Kerry votó ''por recompensar al tirano levantando la prohibición de viajar [a la isla por parte de ciudadanos estadounidenses]''. Pero no quedó claro a qué votación Bush se refirió, porque en octubre los récords muestran que Kerry no participó en la votación de una enmienda en ese sentido, la cual fue aprobada.
''Durante tres años y medio, él no ha hecho nada por Cuba, y ha esperado hasta el año electoral para presentar una política que no hará nada para acabar con el régimen de Castro, y que sólo hiere a los cubanos'', dijo Singer.
Ayer, Bush insistió en que ''los próximos cuatro años seguiré esforzándome para que Cuba sea libre'', y continuó diciendo que ''hay pasos firmes en ese sentido'' con ``el inicio de transmisiones regulares de televisión''.
''Vamos a acabar con el bloqueo a la información del dictador; una vez más el pueblo de Cuba está escuchando la verdad'', dijo el Presidente refiriéndose a las trasmisiones de Radio y Televisión Martí mediante un avión militar.
Bush fue presentado a los asistentes por el senador demócrata por Georgia, Zell Miller, quien también lo presentará en la convención de Nueva York. La década pasada, Miller cobró notoriedad por sus críticas al padre del actual mandatario, el ex presidente George Bush.
''Ustedes saben que soy un demócrata conservador, pero no soy el único que apoya a este buen hombre. Hay muchos demócratas e independientes aquí y en todos Estados Unidos que han puesto la seguridad de nuestras familias por encima de la política partidaria'', dijo Miller.
Por segunda vez en menos de 10 días, el presidente George W. Bush vino a la Florida y manifestó preocupación por la estela de destrucción dejada por el huracán Charley.
Ayer, al termino de una reunión con el director de la agencia federal encargada de administrar la ayuda, Bush dijo que ha pedido al Congreso que le entregue una ayuda complementaria de $2 mil millones para ayudar a la reconstrucción del suroeste de la Florida, donde se calcula que Charley dejó unos $7 mil millones en estragos.
''Ya había prometido una ayuda en gran escala [...] sin embargo, todavía hay mucho por hacer, por eso le estoy pidiendo esta ayuda complementaria, para seguir la reconstrucción de la Florida'', expresó el Presidente.
''Estos desastres provocan mucho dolor, pero también nos muestran lo mejor de nuestra ciudadanía. Y hay una gran compasión por aquellas personas cuyas vidas se han virado al revés'', agregó el mandatario, al término de la reunión de trabajo con el director de la Agencia Federal de Administración de Emergencias, Mike Brown, realizada en la Segunda Estación de bomberos, en el downtown de Miami.
Bush vino ayer a esta ciudad, con su esposa Laura, para participar en un mítin de campaña que reunió a miles de partidarios suyos en la Arena Miami, en el marco de una gira por seis áreas metropolitanas de la nación, antes de la Convención Nacional Republicana que comienza el lunes en Nueva York.
En un apasionado discurso de poco más de media hora, Bush les habló de la necesidad de mantener la lucha contra el terrorismo, de evitar que se pierdan los empleos llevados al extranjero, de acabar con las demandas frívolas a los médicos para mejorar la calidad de la salud, y les prometió ``seguir trabajando, por cuatro años más, por la libertad de Cuba''.
''Yo quiero que un día los cubanos tengan en La Habana las mismas libertades que disfrutan aquí. El pueblo cubano debe liberarse del tirano, y yo creo que reforzar el embargo comercial es parte de esa estrategia'', dijo Bush, arrancando la mayor de las 14 ovaciones que recibió.
El mandatario atacó a su rival, el senador John Kerry, enfatizando que durante las discusiones en el Senado de la Ley Helms-Burton, el ahora candidato demócrata votó contra el proyecto.
''Y ahora dice que eso no tiene importancia'', recalcó Bush.
El portavoz de Kerry en Washington, Phil Singer, reaccionó de inmediato y dijo que el senador votó dos veces por la Ley Helms-Burton, pero se opuso al borrador final porque no estuvo de acuerdo con el capítulo tres, cuya aplicación el presidente Bush ha vetado constantemente desde que llegó a la Casa Blanca.
En el mítin, el mandatario dijo también que Kerry votó ''por recompensar al tirano levantando la prohibición de viajar [a la isla por parte de ciudadanos estadounidenses]''. Pero no quedó claro a qué votación Bush se refirió, porque en octubre los récords muestran que Kerry no participó en la votación de una enmienda en ese sentido, la cual fue aprobada.
''Durante tres años y medio, él no ha hecho nada por Cuba, y ha esperado hasta el año electoral para presentar una política que no hará nada para acabar con el régimen de Castro, y que sólo hiere a los cubanos'', dijo Singer.
Ayer, Bush insistió en que ''los próximos cuatro años seguiré esforzándome para que Cuba sea libre'', y continuó diciendo que ''hay pasos firmes en ese sentido'' con ``el inicio de transmisiones regulares de televisión''.
''Vamos a acabar con el bloqueo a la información del dictador; una vez más el pueblo de Cuba está escuchando la verdad'', dijo el Presidente refiriéndose a las trasmisiones de Radio y Televisión Martí mediante un avión militar.
Bush fue presentado a los asistentes por el senador demócrata por Georgia, Zell Miller, quien también lo presentará en la convención de Nueva York. La década pasada, Miller cobró notoriedad por sus críticas al padre del actual mandatario, el ex presidente George Bush.
''Ustedes saben que soy un demócrata conservador, pero no soy el único que apoya a este buen hombre. Hay muchos demócratas e independientes aquí y en todos Estados Unidos que han puesto la seguridad de nuestras familias por encima de la política partidaria'', dijo Miller.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 7:38 da manhã
Delegados de Florida con una agenda diversa
RUI FERREIRA / El Nuevo Herald
Los 112 delegados de la Florida a la convención nacional republicana piensan llevar a Nueva York una agenda tan variada como la diversidad que caracteriza a los habitantes del estado.
Los tópicos van desde la seguridad, la lucha contra el terrorismo, Cuba, Latinoamérica, salud, educación, derechos laborales y la conquista del espacio, hasta los problemas agrícolas y la recuperación de los Everglades.
''No hay una agenda conjunta. Los problemas de mi condado son diferentes a los de otros delegados. Cada uno trata de empujar sus ideas y verlas reflejadas en la plataforma que será aprobada'', expresó el legislador estatal David Rivera, uno de los delegados por el condado de Miami-Dade.
Con un desenlace previsto, la elección del presidente George W. Bush y el vicepresidente Dick Cheney como candidatos del partido, no se espera que la convención republicana aporte grandes sorpresas. Los delegados ni discutirán siquiera las interioridades de la plataforma política, porque se supone que ella se ha nutrido de sus recomendaciones en meses anteriores.
''Nos vamos a concentrar en elegir al Presidente. Es un hombre que no escogió los retos que ha encarado, pero los ha asumido con valentía, y eso es lo que queremos explicar al publico estadounidense'', añadió el también legislador estatal y delegado, Marco Rubio.
De hecho, admite Rubio, ``las convenciones sirven sólo para incentivar a los electores, arrancar las dudas de los indecisos y llevarlos a votar por nuestra plataforma''.
A los delegados del sur de la Florida, la mayoría cubanoamericanos, les preocupa ver reflejado en los planes del partido la política del Presidente hacia Cuba, la cual Rivera califica de ''firme'' y el ``segundo tema más importante, detrás del problema de seguridad del país''.
''Mucha gente vincula el problema de Irak con la agenda nacional; yo creo que es nuestra responsabilidad hacer hincapié en el tema de Cuba, porque si no lo hacemos, nadie lo hará por nosotros'', explicó el legislador.
Además, agrega Rubio, otro de los temas de la agenda es las preocupaciones de la masa de electores hispanos a quienes les interesa asuntos como inmigración, establecerse en este país, participar en la vida de la sociedad y disfrutar de su diversidad.
''La comunidad hispana ha mostrado el deseo de mantener una mente abierta hacia el partido republicano. Los hispanos han entendido que al partido también le interesa temas como permitir a todos establecerse aquí, poder desarrollar un negocio, tener su vida independiente y con seguridad'', indicó Rubio.
Por eso, el legislador descartó acusaciones de los demócratas: ''Es un disparate hablar de que los republicanos marginamos a los hispanos. A mí nunca me marginaron; por el contrario, siempre me aceptaron. Y yo, aunque me siento cubano, soy hispano, y también me siento puertorriqueño...'', puntualizó Rubio. `Los puertorriqueños en el estado han sido una base clave para nosotros. Reeligieron al gobernador Jeb Bush, han apoyado nuestros proyectos, y eso no hubiera sido posible si los rechazáramos''.
De hecho, el analista Darío Moreno, de la Universidad Internacional de la Florida, puntualizó que el avance republicano en el condado Miami-Dade pudiera ser una realidad importante a la luz del aumento de habitantes hispanos desde el último censo realizado en el 2000.
''Este condado, que es tradicionalmente demócrata, se está volviendo cada vez más republicano'', indicó Moreno.
Rubio señaló que hay tres temas que constituyen algo muy importante para los hispanos y los electores en general, y no será obviado en esta convención.
''En primer lugar, claro está, tenemos el de la seguridad; interesa a todo el mundo y a todos preocupa. Pero también tenemos el tema económico, en el cual los hispanos entienden que los republicanos tienen las ideas correctas de desarrollo. O el tema de la salud y educación, donde se rechaza una salud socializada, porque lo importante es tener acceso a una medicina de calidad'', acotó Rubio.
Según Joseph Agostini, director de comunicaciones del partido republicano en la Florida, la convención en sí surge en un momento clave para el país, donde la pluralilidad de temas caracteriza el debate actual.
''El mundo cambió después del 11 de Septiembre, y estamos empeñados en borrar el terrorismo de nuestras vidas'', explicó. Agostini. ``En esta convención vamos a proyectar el liderazgo fuerte que ha tenido el Presidente, a quien le tocó vivir estos momentos. Y después veremos los números [de los sondeos]''.
Los 112 delegados de la Florida a la convención nacional republicana piensan llevar a Nueva York una agenda tan variada como la diversidad que caracteriza a los habitantes del estado.
Los tópicos van desde la seguridad, la lucha contra el terrorismo, Cuba, Latinoamérica, salud, educación, derechos laborales y la conquista del espacio, hasta los problemas agrícolas y la recuperación de los Everglades.
''No hay una agenda conjunta. Los problemas de mi condado son diferentes a los de otros delegados. Cada uno trata de empujar sus ideas y verlas reflejadas en la plataforma que será aprobada'', expresó el legislador estatal David Rivera, uno de los delegados por el condado de Miami-Dade.
Con un desenlace previsto, la elección del presidente George W. Bush y el vicepresidente Dick Cheney como candidatos del partido, no se espera que la convención republicana aporte grandes sorpresas. Los delegados ni discutirán siquiera las interioridades de la plataforma política, porque se supone que ella se ha nutrido de sus recomendaciones en meses anteriores.
''Nos vamos a concentrar en elegir al Presidente. Es un hombre que no escogió los retos que ha encarado, pero los ha asumido con valentía, y eso es lo que queremos explicar al publico estadounidense'', añadió el también legislador estatal y delegado, Marco Rubio.
De hecho, admite Rubio, ``las convenciones sirven sólo para incentivar a los electores, arrancar las dudas de los indecisos y llevarlos a votar por nuestra plataforma''.
A los delegados del sur de la Florida, la mayoría cubanoamericanos, les preocupa ver reflejado en los planes del partido la política del Presidente hacia Cuba, la cual Rivera califica de ''firme'' y el ``segundo tema más importante, detrás del problema de seguridad del país''.
''Mucha gente vincula el problema de Irak con la agenda nacional; yo creo que es nuestra responsabilidad hacer hincapié en el tema de Cuba, porque si no lo hacemos, nadie lo hará por nosotros'', explicó el legislador.
Además, agrega Rubio, otro de los temas de la agenda es las preocupaciones de la masa de electores hispanos a quienes les interesa asuntos como inmigración, establecerse en este país, participar en la vida de la sociedad y disfrutar de su diversidad.
''La comunidad hispana ha mostrado el deseo de mantener una mente abierta hacia el partido republicano. Los hispanos han entendido que al partido también le interesa temas como permitir a todos establecerse aquí, poder desarrollar un negocio, tener su vida independiente y con seguridad'', indicó Rubio.
Por eso, el legislador descartó acusaciones de los demócratas: ''Es un disparate hablar de que los republicanos marginamos a los hispanos. A mí nunca me marginaron; por el contrario, siempre me aceptaron. Y yo, aunque me siento cubano, soy hispano, y también me siento puertorriqueño...'', puntualizó Rubio. `Los puertorriqueños en el estado han sido una base clave para nosotros. Reeligieron al gobernador Jeb Bush, han apoyado nuestros proyectos, y eso no hubiera sido posible si los rechazáramos''.
De hecho, el analista Darío Moreno, de la Universidad Internacional de la Florida, puntualizó que el avance republicano en el condado Miami-Dade pudiera ser una realidad importante a la luz del aumento de habitantes hispanos desde el último censo realizado en el 2000.
''Este condado, que es tradicionalmente demócrata, se está volviendo cada vez más republicano'', indicó Moreno.
Rubio señaló que hay tres temas que constituyen algo muy importante para los hispanos y los electores en general, y no será obviado en esta convención.
''En primer lugar, claro está, tenemos el de la seguridad; interesa a todo el mundo y a todos preocupa. Pero también tenemos el tema económico, en el cual los hispanos entienden que los republicanos tienen las ideas correctas de desarrollo. O el tema de la salud y educación, donde se rechaza una salud socializada, porque lo importante es tener acceso a una medicina de calidad'', acotó Rubio.
Según Joseph Agostini, director de comunicaciones del partido republicano en la Florida, la convención en sí surge en un momento clave para el país, donde la pluralilidad de temas caracteriza el debate actual.
''El mundo cambió después del 11 de Septiembre, y estamos empeñados en borrar el terrorismo de nuestras vidas'', explicó. Agostini. ``En esta convención vamos a proyectar el liderazgo fuerte que ha tenido el Presidente, a quien le tocó vivir estos momentos. Y después veremos los números [de los sondeos]''.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 6:39 da manhã
sexta-feira, agosto 27, 2004
Bush viene a Miami a la caza de los electores indecisos
RUI FERREIRA / El Nuevo Herald
En el marco de una gira por seis ciudades antes de la convención republicana en Nueva York, que comienza la próxima semana, el presidente George W. Bush viene hoy al sur de la Florida, considerada una de las zonas de batalla más intensas en las elecciones presidenciales.
La ambición del mandatario es clara: llenar la Arena Miami y envolver con su mensaje a 20,000 partidarios en Miami. De lograrlo, sería el primer candidato presidencial que lo hace.
Pero también busca atraer el voto de los electores indecisos y moderados, principalmente en el sur de la Florida, donde la comunidad exiliada cubana contribuyó decisivamente a su victoria en el 2000.
Bush, quien visita el estado gobernado por su hermano, Jeb, por la 24 vez desde que llegó a la Casa Blanca, también intentará conciliarse con aquellos que han cuestionado un paquete de medidas hacia Cuba, las cuales afectan los viajes y el envío de remesas familiares.
''Creo que a la larga los exiliados cubanos van a entender que el Presidente se mantiene firme en relación a Castro, que estas medidas contribuyen a sacarlo del poder, y terminarán por entender que con Bush en la Casa Blanca es la única forma de mantener seguro al país'', dijo Joseph Agostini, director de comunicaciones del partido republicano en la Florida.
Pero entender la necesidad del paquetes de medidas pudiera no ser suficiente. Hay otros tópicos en la agenda, y ayer en un anuncio publicado en The Miami Herald y El Nuevo Herald, la Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana (FNCA) llamó la atención del mandatario.
En el anuncio, la FNCA enunció preocupaciones que pudieran condicionar el voto cubanoamericano, como la eliminación de restricciones políticas al encausamiento de Castro por el derribo de las avionetas de Hermanos al Rescate en 1996, la promoción de una coalición internacional contra el régimen de la isla y la asistencia a la oposición interna, así como el seguimiento de las transmisiones de Radio y TV Martí.
Y propugna la eliminación de la política de ''pies secos-pies mojados'', creada por el presidente Bill Clinton y mantenida por Bush.
La visita al sur de la Florida también servirá para apuntalar al candidato a la nominación republicana para el Senado, el ex secretario de vivienda Mel Martínez, quien ayer, por primera vez, sobrepasó a su rival, el ex congresista Bill McCollum en las encuestas.
En el marco de una gira por seis ciudades antes de la convención republicana en Nueva York, que comienza la próxima semana, el presidente George W. Bush viene hoy al sur de la Florida, considerada una de las zonas de batalla más intensas en las elecciones presidenciales.
La ambición del mandatario es clara: llenar la Arena Miami y envolver con su mensaje a 20,000 partidarios en Miami. De lograrlo, sería el primer candidato presidencial que lo hace.
Pero también busca atraer el voto de los electores indecisos y moderados, principalmente en el sur de la Florida, donde la comunidad exiliada cubana contribuyó decisivamente a su victoria en el 2000.
Bush, quien visita el estado gobernado por su hermano, Jeb, por la 24 vez desde que llegó a la Casa Blanca, también intentará conciliarse con aquellos que han cuestionado un paquete de medidas hacia Cuba, las cuales afectan los viajes y el envío de remesas familiares.
''Creo que a la larga los exiliados cubanos van a entender que el Presidente se mantiene firme en relación a Castro, que estas medidas contribuyen a sacarlo del poder, y terminarán por entender que con Bush en la Casa Blanca es la única forma de mantener seguro al país'', dijo Joseph Agostini, director de comunicaciones del partido republicano en la Florida.
Pero entender la necesidad del paquetes de medidas pudiera no ser suficiente. Hay otros tópicos en la agenda, y ayer en un anuncio publicado en The Miami Herald y El Nuevo Herald, la Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana (FNCA) llamó la atención del mandatario.
En el anuncio, la FNCA enunció preocupaciones que pudieran condicionar el voto cubanoamericano, como la eliminación de restricciones políticas al encausamiento de Castro por el derribo de las avionetas de Hermanos al Rescate en 1996, la promoción de una coalición internacional contra el régimen de la isla y la asistencia a la oposición interna, así como el seguimiento de las transmisiones de Radio y TV Martí.
Y propugna la eliminación de la política de ''pies secos-pies mojados'', creada por el presidente Bill Clinton y mantenida por Bush.
La visita al sur de la Florida también servirá para apuntalar al candidato a la nominación republicana para el Senado, el ex secretario de vivienda Mel Martínez, quien ayer, por primera vez, sobrepasó a su rival, el ex congresista Bill McCollum en las encuestas.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 8:35 da tarde
quinta-feira, agosto 26, 2004
RECIBIRÁN 37 MILLONES DE EUROS CADA UNA
EEUU encarga a dos empresas la creación de un sistema antimisiles para los aviones de pasajeros
WASHINGTON.- El Departamento de Seguridad Interior estadounidense encargó a los grupos de defensa británico BAE Systems y estadounidense Northrop Grumman que propongan sistemas de protección antimisiles para los aviones de pasajeros, según ha anunciado el órgano gubernamental.
"Dos equipos, uno dirigido por British Aerospace y el otro por Northrop Grumman recibirán alrededor de 45 millones de dólares cada uno" (37 millones de euros) para desarrollar un prototipo, declaró el secretario adjunto de Seguridad Interior para la Ciencia y la Tecnología, Penrose Albright, en una rueda de prensa vía telefónica.
Tras un período de 18 meses, el Departamento de Seguridad Interior presentará al Gobierno y al Congreso estadounidenses una recomendación que consistirá en adaptar la tecnología ya utilizada en aviones militares y que es, según el Departamento, la solución más viable.
Estados Unidos teme que la red terrorista Al Qaeda adquiera misiles móviles, conocidos por el acrónimo Manpads, para derribar aviones comerciales estadounidenses.
Este tipo de ataque ya lo utilizaron los terroristas cuando lanzaron dos misiles contra un Boeing 757 con más de 200 turistas israelíes que despegó de Mombasa, Kenia en 2002, sin éxito.
Estos misiles móviles tienen un alcance de varios kilómetros y se dirigen hacia la fuente de calor de sus objetivos. Los lanzamisiles, que se pueden llevar a la espalda, son de un tamaño reducido, lo que permite que se puedan llevar cerca de las pistas de un aeropuerto escondidos, por ejemplo, en el maletero de un coche.
Los aviones de pasajeros son especialmente vulnerables durante el despegue y el aterrizaje, ya que los motores que en esos momentos están a plan potencia atraen a los misiles.
EL MUNDO
WASHINGTON.- El Departamento de Seguridad Interior estadounidense encargó a los grupos de defensa británico BAE Systems y estadounidense Northrop Grumman que propongan sistemas de protección antimisiles para los aviones de pasajeros, según ha anunciado el órgano gubernamental.
"Dos equipos, uno dirigido por British Aerospace y el otro por Northrop Grumman recibirán alrededor de 45 millones de dólares cada uno" (37 millones de euros) para desarrollar un prototipo, declaró el secretario adjunto de Seguridad Interior para la Ciencia y la Tecnología, Penrose Albright, en una rueda de prensa vía telefónica.
Tras un período de 18 meses, el Departamento de Seguridad Interior presentará al Gobierno y al Congreso estadounidenses una recomendación que consistirá en adaptar la tecnología ya utilizada en aviones militares y que es, según el Departamento, la solución más viable.
Estados Unidos teme que la red terrorista Al Qaeda adquiera misiles móviles, conocidos por el acrónimo Manpads, para derribar aviones comerciales estadounidenses.
Este tipo de ataque ya lo utilizaron los terroristas cuando lanzaron dos misiles contra un Boeing 757 con más de 200 turistas israelíes que despegó de Mombasa, Kenia en 2002, sin éxito.
Estos misiles móviles tienen un alcance de varios kilómetros y se dirigen hacia la fuente de calor de sus objetivos. Los lanzamisiles, que se pueden llevar a la espalda, son de un tamaño reducido, lo que permite que se puedan llevar cerca de las pistas de un aeropuerto escondidos, por ejemplo, en el maletero de un coche.
Los aviones de pasajeros son especialmente vulnerables durante el despegue y el aterrizaje, ya que los motores que en esos momentos están a plan potencia atraen a los misiles.
EL MUNDO
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 10:56 da tarde
Lawyer for Bush Quits Over Links to Kerry's Foes
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 25 - The national counsel for President Bush's re-election campaign resigned on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he acknowledged that he had provided legal advice to a veterans group that has leveled unsubstantiated attacks on Senator John Kerry's Vietnam War record in a book and on the air.
Hours later, Senator John McCain, a Republican who is both a friend of Mr. Kerry's and an increasingly vigorous supporter of President Bush's, said in an interview that he was so annoyed over the veterans' television advertisements attacking Mr. Kerry's war record that he intended to personally "express my displeasure'' to the president when they campaign together next week.
Mr. McCain said that he was taking the president at his word that he was not responsible for the ads, which were initially largely financed by Texas Republicans, but that he did not think Mr. Bush had gone far enough in condemning them. He also said he wanted the Kerry campaign to stop using images of his own 2000 primary fight against Mr. Bush in its advertising. [Page A24.]
The resignation of the counsel, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, was announced in the morning by the Bush campaign, which released a letter Mr. Ginsberg had written to the president saying he had done nothing wrong but did not want to hamper the president's re-election effort.
"I cannot begin to express my sadness that my legal representations have become a distraction from the critical issues at hand in this election,'' Mr. Ginsberg said in his letter.
The quick resignation suggests that the Bush campaign, which has repeatedly said it has no ties to the Swift boat veterans group attacking Mr. Kerry, is eager to put the issue behind it as it heads into the Republican National Convention.
Republicans, who only a few days ago were saying that the Swift boat controversy was a problem for Mr. Kerry's campaign because it raised questions about Mr. Kerry's war credentials, began to say Wednesday that the issue was not helpful for Mr. Bush.
The Kerry campaign continued to try to keep the issue alive, using Mr. Ginsberg's resignation to push forward its charges that the president was using the veterans as a front for negative campaigning.
Democrats put up a new 60-second ad on the issue, asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to open a criminal investigation into links between the Bush camp and the anti-Kerry veterans group and dispatched to Texas former Senator Max Cleland of Georgia, a triple amputee from wounds received in the Vietnam War.
In the most theatrical event of the president's weeklong Texas vacation, Mr. Cleland turned up at the remote first checkpoint on Prairie Chapel Road outside Mr. Bush's 1,600-acre ranch on Wednesday afternoon, and then tried to deliver a letter asking the president to condemn the television commercials against Mr. Kerry by the Swift boat group. He first approached a Secret Service agent, then a Texas state policeman, but both refused to accept the letter.
Then Jerry Patterson, the Texas land commissioner and a Vietnam veteran who had been asked by the Bush campaign to accept the letter, told Mr. Cleland that he would take it, but Mr. Cleland refused to give it to him.
Later, in a news conference in the hot sun outside the Crawford Middle School gymnasium, Mr. Cleland, a Democrat, said that Mr. Bush was behind the Swift boat group.
"These scurrilous ads are false, and George Bush is behind it,'' he said. "The question is, where is George Bush's honor? Where is his shame?''
Jim Rassmann, a Green Beret in the Vietnam War, accompanied Mr. Cleland. Mr. Kerry had saved Mr. Rassmann's life by pulling him from a river in the Mekong Delta.
The White House fired back that Mr. Cleland's visit to Crawford was nothing more than an effort to grab headlines.
"Senator Kerry says he wants to talk about the issues,'' said Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, after Mr. Cleland had left Crawford. "Today's political stunt is an interesting way of showing it.''
Mr. McClellan called again for Mr. Kerry to join Mr. Bush in denouncing all campaign advertising by outside groups, called 527's committees for the section of the tax code that created them. And Mr. McClellan stood by the assessment of Marc Racicot, the Bush campaign chairman, who insisted last week that "there is no connection of any kind whatsoever'' between the campaign and the Swift boat group.
Mr. Ginsberg's work for the veterans group was just the latest Republican tie to emerge, and the most politically significant. Records show that the veterans received most of their initial financing from prominent Texas Republicans close to the Bush family and to Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist. They have received strategic advice from consultants who have worked with national Republican groups.
Bush campaign officials said they had been unaware that Mr. Ginsberg had been playing dual roles as a lawyer for them and for the veterans group.
The Republicans, in an e-mail message to reporters, listed several Democrats who they said showed connections between Democratic 527 groups, Mr. Kerry's campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Among them were Zack Exley, the former organizing director for MoveOn.org's political action committee who now works for Mr. Kerry's campaign; Jim Jordan, the former campaign manager for Mr. Kerry who now works as a consultant for the liberal groups America Coming Together and the Media Fund; and Joe Sandler, who is a lawyer for both the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org.
Democrats said all of their activities were legal and that the groups are not leveling similarly personal and unsubstantiated charges against the president.
Kerry campaign officials, who said they now saw the Swift boat controversy working to their advantage, took additional steps on Wednesday to keep it burning.
Their 60-second spot, which the campaign said would run on national cable stations and in closely contested states, shows Mr. McCain confronting the president when he was his rival for the Republican nomination in 2000. In a debate, Mr. McCain is shown scolding the president for standing with a member of a "fringe veterans group" that had accused Mr. McCain of abandoning veterans.
"George Bush is up to his old tricks," reads the caption on the screen. "Four years ago it was John McCain. This year, they're smearing John Kerry. George Bush, denounce the smear. Get back to the issues."
Much of the debate set off by the veterans has been over whether Mr. Kerry earned his three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. The critics have also questioned his occasional statements that he was in Cambodia over Christmas 1968, which he made to argue that Vietnam had been in part a secret war.
The Kerry campaign this week released long-ago recordings of statements that John E. O'Neill, a leader of the anti-Kerry Swift boat group, made to President Richard Nixon, in which he put himself in Cambodia. "I was in Cambodia, sir, I worked along the border on the water," Mr. O'Neill told Nixon.
Asked in an interview about those statements, Mr. O'Neill said: "What I was trying to say is, and I believe he understood me, was that I was on the border." He added that Mr. Kerry was assigned to a different region, which he argued made it less likely that Mr. Kerry could have sailed to the same watery border.
In a rare television interview with the anchor Brit Hume on the Fox News Channel on Wednesday, Mr. Rove said that Mr. Ginsberg, whom he described as "a great friend of this president," resigned "in order to remove any possibility of being a distraction to his friend."
Pressed on his relationship with Bob J. Perry, the Texas house builder who gave the Swift group most of its initial funding, Mr. Rove said: "I've known him for 25 years. When I moved to Texas, you can count the wealthy Republicans who are willing to write checks to support Republican candidates on the hand - on the fingers of one hand. It would be unusual if I didn't know him, having been active for 25 years in Texas."
Describing Mr. Perry as "a good friend," he said he had seen Mr. Perry within the last year but that the two had only exchanged pleasantries and "certainly did not discuss with him or anybody else in the Swift boat leadership what they're doing."
Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting from Washington for this article, and Jim Rutenberg and David D. Kirkpatrick from New York.
CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 25 - The national counsel for President Bush's re-election campaign resigned on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he acknowledged that he had provided legal advice to a veterans group that has leveled unsubstantiated attacks on Senator John Kerry's Vietnam War record in a book and on the air.
Hours later, Senator John McCain, a Republican who is both a friend of Mr. Kerry's and an increasingly vigorous supporter of President Bush's, said in an interview that he was so annoyed over the veterans' television advertisements attacking Mr. Kerry's war record that he intended to personally "express my displeasure'' to the president when they campaign together next week.
Mr. McCain said that he was taking the president at his word that he was not responsible for the ads, which were initially largely financed by Texas Republicans, but that he did not think Mr. Bush had gone far enough in condemning them. He also said he wanted the Kerry campaign to stop using images of his own 2000 primary fight against Mr. Bush in its advertising. [Page A24.]
The resignation of the counsel, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, was announced in the morning by the Bush campaign, which released a letter Mr. Ginsberg had written to the president saying he had done nothing wrong but did not want to hamper the president's re-election effort.
"I cannot begin to express my sadness that my legal representations have become a distraction from the critical issues at hand in this election,'' Mr. Ginsberg said in his letter.
The quick resignation suggests that the Bush campaign, which has repeatedly said it has no ties to the Swift boat veterans group attacking Mr. Kerry, is eager to put the issue behind it as it heads into the Republican National Convention.
Republicans, who only a few days ago were saying that the Swift boat controversy was a problem for Mr. Kerry's campaign because it raised questions about Mr. Kerry's war credentials, began to say Wednesday that the issue was not helpful for Mr. Bush.
The Kerry campaign continued to try to keep the issue alive, using Mr. Ginsberg's resignation to push forward its charges that the president was using the veterans as a front for negative campaigning.
Democrats put up a new 60-second ad on the issue, asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to open a criminal investigation into links between the Bush camp and the anti-Kerry veterans group and dispatched to Texas former Senator Max Cleland of Georgia, a triple amputee from wounds received in the Vietnam War.
In the most theatrical event of the president's weeklong Texas vacation, Mr. Cleland turned up at the remote first checkpoint on Prairie Chapel Road outside Mr. Bush's 1,600-acre ranch on Wednesday afternoon, and then tried to deliver a letter asking the president to condemn the television commercials against Mr. Kerry by the Swift boat group. He first approached a Secret Service agent, then a Texas state policeman, but both refused to accept the letter.
Then Jerry Patterson, the Texas land commissioner and a Vietnam veteran who had been asked by the Bush campaign to accept the letter, told Mr. Cleland that he would take it, but Mr. Cleland refused to give it to him.
Later, in a news conference in the hot sun outside the Crawford Middle School gymnasium, Mr. Cleland, a Democrat, said that Mr. Bush was behind the Swift boat group.
"These scurrilous ads are false, and George Bush is behind it,'' he said. "The question is, where is George Bush's honor? Where is his shame?''
Jim Rassmann, a Green Beret in the Vietnam War, accompanied Mr. Cleland. Mr. Kerry had saved Mr. Rassmann's life by pulling him from a river in the Mekong Delta.
The White House fired back that Mr. Cleland's visit to Crawford was nothing more than an effort to grab headlines.
"Senator Kerry says he wants to talk about the issues,'' said Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, after Mr. Cleland had left Crawford. "Today's political stunt is an interesting way of showing it.''
Mr. McClellan called again for Mr. Kerry to join Mr. Bush in denouncing all campaign advertising by outside groups, called 527's committees for the section of the tax code that created them. And Mr. McClellan stood by the assessment of Marc Racicot, the Bush campaign chairman, who insisted last week that "there is no connection of any kind whatsoever'' between the campaign and the Swift boat group.
Mr. Ginsberg's work for the veterans group was just the latest Republican tie to emerge, and the most politically significant. Records show that the veterans received most of their initial financing from prominent Texas Republicans close to the Bush family and to Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist. They have received strategic advice from consultants who have worked with national Republican groups.
Bush campaign officials said they had been unaware that Mr. Ginsberg had been playing dual roles as a lawyer for them and for the veterans group.
The Republicans, in an e-mail message to reporters, listed several Democrats who they said showed connections between Democratic 527 groups, Mr. Kerry's campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Among them were Zack Exley, the former organizing director for MoveOn.org's political action committee who now works for Mr. Kerry's campaign; Jim Jordan, the former campaign manager for Mr. Kerry who now works as a consultant for the liberal groups America Coming Together and the Media Fund; and Joe Sandler, who is a lawyer for both the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org.
Democrats said all of their activities were legal and that the groups are not leveling similarly personal and unsubstantiated charges against the president.
Kerry campaign officials, who said they now saw the Swift boat controversy working to their advantage, took additional steps on Wednesday to keep it burning.
Their 60-second spot, which the campaign said would run on national cable stations and in closely contested states, shows Mr. McCain confronting the president when he was his rival for the Republican nomination in 2000. In a debate, Mr. McCain is shown scolding the president for standing with a member of a "fringe veterans group" that had accused Mr. McCain of abandoning veterans.
"George Bush is up to his old tricks," reads the caption on the screen. "Four years ago it was John McCain. This year, they're smearing John Kerry. George Bush, denounce the smear. Get back to the issues."
Much of the debate set off by the veterans has been over whether Mr. Kerry earned his three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. The critics have also questioned his occasional statements that he was in Cambodia over Christmas 1968, which he made to argue that Vietnam had been in part a secret war.
The Kerry campaign this week released long-ago recordings of statements that John E. O'Neill, a leader of the anti-Kerry Swift boat group, made to President Richard Nixon, in which he put himself in Cambodia. "I was in Cambodia, sir, I worked along the border on the water," Mr. O'Neill told Nixon.
Asked in an interview about those statements, Mr. O'Neill said: "What I was trying to say is, and I believe he understood me, was that I was on the border." He added that Mr. Kerry was assigned to a different region, which he argued made it less likely that Mr. Kerry could have sailed to the same watery border.
In a rare television interview with the anchor Brit Hume on the Fox News Channel on Wednesday, Mr. Rove said that Mr. Ginsberg, whom he described as "a great friend of this president," resigned "in order to remove any possibility of being a distraction to his friend."
Pressed on his relationship with Bob J. Perry, the Texas house builder who gave the Swift group most of its initial funding, Mr. Rove said: "I've known him for 25 years. When I moved to Texas, you can count the wealthy Republicans who are willing to write checks to support Republican candidates on the hand - on the fingers of one hand. It would be unusual if I didn't know him, having been active for 25 years in Texas."
Describing Mr. Perry as "a good friend," he said he had seen Mr. Perry within the last year but that the two had only exchanged pleasantries and "certainly did not discuss with him or anybody else in the Swift boat leadership what they're doing."
Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting from Washington for this article, and Jim Rutenberg and David D. Kirkpatrick from New York.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 10:51 da tarde
Bushism of the Day
"I didn't join the International Criminal Court because I don't want to put our troops in the hands of prosecutors from other nations. Look, if somebody has done some wrong in our military, we'll take care of it. We got plenty of capability of dealing with justice."
— Niceville, Fla., Aug. 10, 2004
— Niceville, Fla., Aug. 10, 2004
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 10:48 da tarde
Bush Dismisses Idea That Kerry Lied on Vietnam
By DAVID E. SANGER and ELISABETH BUMILLER
ARMINGTON, N.M., Aug. 26 - President Bush said on Thursday that he did not believe Senator John Kerry lied about his war record, but he declined to condemn the television commercial paid for by a veterans group alleging that Mr. Kerry came by his war medals dishonestly.
Mr. Bush's comments, in a half-hour interview with The New York Times, undercut a central accusation leveled by the veterans group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose unproven attacks on Mr. Kerry have dominated the political debate for more than two weeks.
In the interview, which included topics like preparations for the Republican National Convention, the reconstruction of Iraq and the twin nuclear threats of North Korea and Iran, Mr. Bush portrayed himself as a victim of the same type of political interest groups - called 527 committees for the section of the tax code that created them - that are attacking Mr. Kerry.
"I understand how Senator Kerry feels - I've been attacked by 527's too,'' he said, adding that he had spoken earlier in the day to Senator John McCain and had agreed to join him in a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission to bar the groups. [Page A17.]
Mr. Bush also acknowledged for the first time that he made a "miscalculation of what the conditions would be'' in postwar Iraq. But he insisted that the 17-month-long insurgency that has upended the administration's plans for the country was the unintended by-product of a "swift victory'' against Saddam Hussein's military, which fled and then disappeared into the cities, enabling them to mount a rebellion against the American forces far faster than Mr. Bush and his aides had anticipated.
He insisted that his strategy had been "flexible enough'' to respond, and said that even now "we're adjusting to our conditions'' in places like Najaf, where American forces have been battling one of the most militant of the Shiite groups opposing the American-installed government.
Mr. Bush deflected efforts to inquire further into what went wrong with the occupation, suggesting that such questions should be left to historians, and insisting, as his father used to, that he would resist going "on the couch'' to rethink decisions.
On environmental issues, Mr. Bush appeared unfamiliar with an administration report delivered to Congress on Wednesday that indicated that emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases were the only likely explanation for global warming over the last three decades. Previously, Mr. Bush and other officials had emphasized uncertainties in understanding the causes and consequences of global warming.
The new report was signed by Mr. Bush's secretaries of energy and commerce and his science adviser. Asked why the administration had changed its position on what causes global warming, Mr. Bush replied, "Ah, we did? I don't think so."
Scott McClellan, Mr. Bush's press secretary, said later that the administration was not changing its position on global warming and that Mr. Bush continued to be guided by continuing research at the National Academy of Sciences.
Mr. Bush conducted the interview in an unusual setting: A cinderblock dressing room, outfitted with a conference table and leather reclining chairs, accessible only by walking through a men's room underneath a small stadium here, where he appeared for a campaign rally. The president was joined by one of his closest advisers, Karen P. Hughes, who is now traveling with him; the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice; former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, who was introducing him at rallies across the state; and his press secretary, Scott McClellan.
In the interview and at three rallies across the state, Mr. Bush appeared relaxed in an open-collared shirt with his shirtsleeves rolled up. Aides said he was in a good mood because of recent polls that showed him gaining ground on Mr. Kerry after months of bad news in Iraq.
A poll conducted by The Los Angeles Times found that Mr. Bush was running ahead of Mr. Kerry for the first time this year and suggested that some of the erosion in Mr. Kerry's support could be linked to the attacks on his military service. But the Times poll and several others released on Thursday showed the race to be deadlocked, with neither candidate holding a lead beyond the margin of sampling error.
One senior political adviser to the president said the shift in Mr. Bush's favor was due to Mr. Kerry's statement two weeks ago that he would have voted to give the president the authority to invade Iraq even if he had known that the country currently possessed no weapons of mass destruction.
"It felt like he had finally made his position clear,'' Mr. Bush said in the interview, referring to Mr. Kerry.
Mr. Bush also took issue with Mr. Kerry's argument, in an interview at the end of May with The New York Times, that the Bush administration's focus on Iraq had given North Korea the opportunity to significantly expand its nuclear capability. Showing none of the alarm about the North's growing arsenal that he once voiced regularly about Iraq, he opened his palms and shrugged when an interviewer noted that new intelligence reports indicate that the North may now have the fuel to produce six or eight nuclear weapons.
He said that in North Korea's case, and in Iran's, he would not be rushed to set deadlines for the countries to disarm, despite his past declaration that he would not "tolerate'' nuclear capability in either nation. He declined to define what he meant by "tolerate.''
"I don't think you give timelines to dictators,'' Mr. Bush said, speaking of North Korea's president, Kim Jong Il, and Iran's mullahs. He said he would continue diplomatic pressure - using China to pressure the North and Europe to pressure Iran - and gave no hint that his patience was limited or that at some point he might consider pre-emptive military action.
"I'm confident that over time this will work - I certainly hope it does,'' he said of the diplomatic approach. Mr. Kerry argued in his interview that North Korea "'was a far more compelling threat in many ways, and it belonged at the top of the agenda,'' but Mr. Bush declined to compare it to Iraq, apart from arguing that Iraq had defied the world community for longer than the other members of what he once called "the axis of evil.'' Nor would he assess the risk that Pyongyang might sell nuclear material to terrorists, though his national security aides believe it may have sold raw uranium to Libya in recent years.
Mr. Bush spoke on the first leg of a multistate tour in advance of the convention: He spends late Friday in Florida, Saturday on another bus trip through Ohio, and Sunday in West Virginia. All are considered crucial swing states, and Thursday, in another reminder of how the two candidates are shadowing each other, Air Force One landed in Las Cruces, N.M., just yards from Mr. Kerry's plane, the "Real Deal Express.''
Mr. Bush did not hesitate when asked about the central charge issued by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the veterans' group that has leveled unsubstantiated attacks against Mr. Kerry's record in Vietnam. "I think Senator Kerry should be proud of his record,'' Mr. Bush said. "No, I don't think he lied.''
But when pressed repeatedly if he would specifically denounce the advertisements, which Mr. Kerry has said were being run with the tacit approval of the Bush campaign, the president refused to condemn then. Instead, he said he would talk only of the "broader issue'' of the political committees that take to the airwaves with attack advertisements.
"Five twenty-sevens - I think these ought to be outlawed,'' he said. "I think they should have been outlawed a year ago. We have billionaires writing checks, large checks, to influence the outcome of the election.''
ARMINGTON, N.M., Aug. 26 - President Bush said on Thursday that he did not believe Senator John Kerry lied about his war record, but he declined to condemn the television commercial paid for by a veterans group alleging that Mr. Kerry came by his war medals dishonestly.
Mr. Bush's comments, in a half-hour interview with The New York Times, undercut a central accusation leveled by the veterans group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose unproven attacks on Mr. Kerry have dominated the political debate for more than two weeks.
In the interview, which included topics like preparations for the Republican National Convention, the reconstruction of Iraq and the twin nuclear threats of North Korea and Iran, Mr. Bush portrayed himself as a victim of the same type of political interest groups - called 527 committees for the section of the tax code that created them - that are attacking Mr. Kerry.
"I understand how Senator Kerry feels - I've been attacked by 527's too,'' he said, adding that he had spoken earlier in the day to Senator John McCain and had agreed to join him in a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission to bar the groups. [Page A17.]
Mr. Bush also acknowledged for the first time that he made a "miscalculation of what the conditions would be'' in postwar Iraq. But he insisted that the 17-month-long insurgency that has upended the administration's plans for the country was the unintended by-product of a "swift victory'' against Saddam Hussein's military, which fled and then disappeared into the cities, enabling them to mount a rebellion against the American forces far faster than Mr. Bush and his aides had anticipated.
He insisted that his strategy had been "flexible enough'' to respond, and said that even now "we're adjusting to our conditions'' in places like Najaf, where American forces have been battling one of the most militant of the Shiite groups opposing the American-installed government.
Mr. Bush deflected efforts to inquire further into what went wrong with the occupation, suggesting that such questions should be left to historians, and insisting, as his father used to, that he would resist going "on the couch'' to rethink decisions.
On environmental issues, Mr. Bush appeared unfamiliar with an administration report delivered to Congress on Wednesday that indicated that emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases were the only likely explanation for global warming over the last three decades. Previously, Mr. Bush and other officials had emphasized uncertainties in understanding the causes and consequences of global warming.
The new report was signed by Mr. Bush's secretaries of energy and commerce and his science adviser. Asked why the administration had changed its position on what causes global warming, Mr. Bush replied, "Ah, we did? I don't think so."
Scott McClellan, Mr. Bush's press secretary, said later that the administration was not changing its position on global warming and that Mr. Bush continued to be guided by continuing research at the National Academy of Sciences.
Mr. Bush conducted the interview in an unusual setting: A cinderblock dressing room, outfitted with a conference table and leather reclining chairs, accessible only by walking through a men's room underneath a small stadium here, where he appeared for a campaign rally. The president was joined by one of his closest advisers, Karen P. Hughes, who is now traveling with him; the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice; former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, who was introducing him at rallies across the state; and his press secretary, Scott McClellan.
In the interview and at three rallies across the state, Mr. Bush appeared relaxed in an open-collared shirt with his shirtsleeves rolled up. Aides said he was in a good mood because of recent polls that showed him gaining ground on Mr. Kerry after months of bad news in Iraq.
A poll conducted by The Los Angeles Times found that Mr. Bush was running ahead of Mr. Kerry for the first time this year and suggested that some of the erosion in Mr. Kerry's support could be linked to the attacks on his military service. But the Times poll and several others released on Thursday showed the race to be deadlocked, with neither candidate holding a lead beyond the margin of sampling error.
One senior political adviser to the president said the shift in Mr. Bush's favor was due to Mr. Kerry's statement two weeks ago that he would have voted to give the president the authority to invade Iraq even if he had known that the country currently possessed no weapons of mass destruction.
"It felt like he had finally made his position clear,'' Mr. Bush said in the interview, referring to Mr. Kerry.
Mr. Bush also took issue with Mr. Kerry's argument, in an interview at the end of May with The New York Times, that the Bush administration's focus on Iraq had given North Korea the opportunity to significantly expand its nuclear capability. Showing none of the alarm about the North's growing arsenal that he once voiced regularly about Iraq, he opened his palms and shrugged when an interviewer noted that new intelligence reports indicate that the North may now have the fuel to produce six or eight nuclear weapons.
He said that in North Korea's case, and in Iran's, he would not be rushed to set deadlines for the countries to disarm, despite his past declaration that he would not "tolerate'' nuclear capability in either nation. He declined to define what he meant by "tolerate.''
"I don't think you give timelines to dictators,'' Mr. Bush said, speaking of North Korea's president, Kim Jong Il, and Iran's mullahs. He said he would continue diplomatic pressure - using China to pressure the North and Europe to pressure Iran - and gave no hint that his patience was limited or that at some point he might consider pre-emptive military action.
"I'm confident that over time this will work - I certainly hope it does,'' he said of the diplomatic approach. Mr. Kerry argued in his interview that North Korea "'was a far more compelling threat in many ways, and it belonged at the top of the agenda,'' but Mr. Bush declined to compare it to Iraq, apart from arguing that Iraq had defied the world community for longer than the other members of what he once called "the axis of evil.'' Nor would he assess the risk that Pyongyang might sell nuclear material to terrorists, though his national security aides believe it may have sold raw uranium to Libya in recent years.
Mr. Bush spoke on the first leg of a multistate tour in advance of the convention: He spends late Friday in Florida, Saturday on another bus trip through Ohio, and Sunday in West Virginia. All are considered crucial swing states, and Thursday, in another reminder of how the two candidates are shadowing each other, Air Force One landed in Las Cruces, N.M., just yards from Mr. Kerry's plane, the "Real Deal Express.''
Mr. Bush did not hesitate when asked about the central charge issued by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the veterans' group that has leveled unsubstantiated attacks against Mr. Kerry's record in Vietnam. "I think Senator Kerry should be proud of his record,'' Mr. Bush said. "No, I don't think he lied.''
But when pressed repeatedly if he would specifically denounce the advertisements, which Mr. Kerry has said were being run with the tacit approval of the Bush campaign, the president refused to condemn then. Instead, he said he would talk only of the "broader issue'' of the political committees that take to the airwaves with attack advertisements.
"Five twenty-sevens - I think these ought to be outlawed,'' he said. "I think they should have been outlawed a year ago. We have billionaires writing checks, large checks, to influence the outcome of the election.''
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 10:33 da tarde
quarta-feira, agosto 25, 2004
Bush Campaign's Top Outside Lawyer Resigns
By JIM RUTENBERG and KATE ZERNIKE
The Bush campaign's top outside lawyer, who said on Tuesday that he had given legal advice to the group of veterans attacking Senator John Kerry's Vietnam War record, said today that he was resigning from the campaign because his activities were becoming a "distraction" to Mr. Bush' re-election efforts.
The lawyer, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, said that the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, called him last month to ask for his help and that he had agreed. The group has criticized Mr. Kerry's war record and his antiwar activism in a book, television commercials and appearances on various news programs, especially on cable.
"I cannot begin to express my sadness that my legal representations have become a distraction from the critical issues at hand in this election," Mr. Ginsberg told the president in a letter distributed today by the Bush-Cheney campaign. "I feel I cannot let that continue, so I have decided to resign as national counsel to your campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated military veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of the law, doesn't distract from the real issues upon which you and the country should be focusing."
The Kerry-Edwards campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, said today that Mr. Ginsberg's resignation "confirms the extent of those connections."
"Now we know why George Bush refuses to specifically condemn these false ads," she said. "People deeply involved in his own campaign are behind them, from paying for them, to appearing in them, to providing legal advice, to coordinating a negative strategy to divert the public away from issues like jobs, health care and the mess in Iraq, the real concerns of the American people."
And in another sign of how the fierce debate about Mr. Kerry's Vietnam record has continued to dominate both campaigns, Mr. Kerry today dispatched two fellow Vietnam veterans — former Senator Max Cleland, Democrat of Georgia, and Jim Rassman, a former Kerry comrade in Vietnam — to Mr. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., to urge him to condemn the television advertisements challenging Senator Kerry's military record.
Mr. Ginsberg, the chief outside counsel to the Bush-Cheney re-election effort, agreed to an interview on Tuesday after several telephone calls to him and the campaign asking that he explain his role. He said that he was helping the group comply with campaign finance rules and that his work was entirely separate from his work for the president's campaign. President Bush has called for an end to advertising by all groups like that of the Swift boat veterans, called 527's for the section of the tax code that created them.
Mr. Ginsberg said in the interview that he had yet to work out payment details with the group and that he might consider doing the work pro bono.
In his letter to the president today, Mr. Ginsberg said his work with the Swift boat group was conducted "in a manner that is fully appropriate and legal and, in fact, is quite similar to the relationships between my counterparts at the D.N.C. and the Kerry campaign and Democrat 527's such as MoveOn.org, the Media Fund and Americans Coming Together."
Mr. Ginsberg said his role was no different from that of Robert Bauer, a lawyer the Kerry campaign shares with America Coming Together, a liberal group that is organizing a huge multimillion-dollar get-out-the-vote drive that is far more ambitious than the Swift boat group's activities.
In an interview on CNN this afternoon, Mr. Ginsberg said that working for both the Bush campaign and the Swift Boat group had been "totally within the bounds of the law."
But he said he quit his campaign duties not because he believed he was doing something wrong, but because publicity about his double role was detracting from Mr. Bush's message.
"Sadly, especially from my perspective, when a lawyer gets in the way of that, it's time to get out of the way," he said.
The Bush campaign had nothing else to say on the matter today, but on Tuesday, Scott Stanzel, a Bush spokesman, said, "There has been no coordination at any time between Bush-Cheney '04 and any 527."
Mr. Bush's campaign aides have repeatedly said they have no connection to the swift boat group, whose challenges to Mr. Kerry and his war record have been largely contradicted by official war records and even some of its members' own past statements.
Mr. Ginsberg, a prominent elections lawyer, was a senior lawyer for the Bush organization in the Florida recount after the 2000 election and was once general counsel to the Republican National Committee. He said he had no involvement in the message or strategy of the Swift boat group and said he had no reason to believe that Mr. Bush knew of his involvement.
"The truth is there are very few lawyers who work in this area," Mr. Ginsberg said in the Tuesday interview. "It's sort of natural that people do come to the few of us for the work. What happened was a month or so ago some decorated Vietnam vets came to me and said: `We have an important point of view to enter into the debate. There's a new law that's complicated, and we want help complying with the law.' "
He added, "I have given them some legal compliance advice."
Mr. Kerry has gone on the offensive over the group's activities, saying it is "a front" for Mr. Bush's campaign and repeatedly calling on the president to repudiate an advertisement from the group attacking his record. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is also a decorated war veteran, has also called on Mr. Bush to repudiate the spots.
The 527 groups are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money as long as they do not coordinate their activities with federal campaigns or political parties. Campaign finance rules do not prohibit lawyers from working for both outside groups and campaigns because they are not considered strategists.
Mr. Bush has declined to take on the group directly but repeated this week that he believed that all outside groups should stop advertising.
Mr. Ginsberg had been at the forefront of pressing the legal case against Democratic 527's, which have spent more than $60 million on advertisements against Mr. Bush.
In complaints against the groups, Republican lawyers have noted that Harold M. Ickes, who has helped raise money for and organize America Coming Together and the Media Fund, both 527 groups, is also on the executive committee of the Democratic National Committee.
The chairman of the Democratic convention, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, has been an adviser to another 527 group, the New Democrat Network. And Jim Jordan, a spokesman for the Media Fund, was Mr. Kerry's campaign manager until he resigned in November.
Mr. Ginsberg said he decided to help Republican groups after the Federal Election Commission declined to imposed strict rules on the 527 groups in May.
"At that point," he said, "I was more than happy to help all Republican groups comply with the law so that there wasn't unilateral disarmament."
An occasional collaborator with Mr. Ginsberg, Chris LaCivita, is also working for the group, advising on media strategy. Mr. LaCivita was political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002 and now works for the DCI Group, a Washington political strategy firm whose partners include Charles Francis, a longtime friend of President Bush from Texas and Tom Synhorst, an adviser to the Bush campaign in 2000, who was an architect of the campaign's effort in the Iowa caucuses.
Mr. LaCivita said on Tuesday that he worked as a private contractor for DCI and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and that there was no coordination between the firm and the group.
"Obviously, I don't work for the Bush campaign," he said.
Mr. LaCivita described his role as providing advice on the news media and placing advertisements. Asked to describe how close his involvement was or how Mr. Ginsberg was involved, Mr. LaCivita referred calls to a spokesman for Swift Boat Veterans, which declined to comment.
Mr. LaCivita and Mr. Ginsberg have also been involved with Progress for America, a group that calls itself the leading organization pushing a conservative agenda. Mr. Ginsberg did not say how frequently he consulted with the group.
This is the second time in recent days that an individual associated with Mr. Bush's campaign has acknowledged working with Swift Boat Veterans. On Sunday, the campaign confirmed an accusation first made by Mr. Kerry's campaign that Kenneth Cordier, a retired colonel who appears in the second of two commercials by the group, had been a member of the Bush campaign's veterans' advisory committee. The campaign said that it had not known that Mr. Cordier, a volunteer, was going to be in the spot and that he had resigned as a result of it.
Mr. Kerry's campaign filed a complaint last week with the Federal Election Commission about collaboration between Mr. Bush's campaign and the Swift Boat Veterans, activities that would violate the laws for the 527's.
Swift Boat Veterans portrays itself as an organic group opposed to Mr. Kerry. On Tuesday, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission defended the group's right to advertise. But it has gradually acknowledged ties to people close to the Republican Party and Mr. Bush's campaign.
"It's another piece of evidence of the ties between the Bush campaign and this group," Chad Clanton, a spokesman for Mr. Kerry, said. Asked about his campaign's use of shared lawyers, Mr. Clanton said, "If the Bush campaign truly disapproved of this smear, their top lawyer wouldn't be involved."
On Monday, the veterans' group acknowledged that a longtime Republican operative, Susan Arceneaux, was working for it and had taken out the post office box listed as the group's address. The group described Ms. Arceneaux's role, also, as "compliance."
Records also list Ms. Arceneaux as treasurer of the Majority Leader's Fund, a political action committee affiliated with the former House majority leader, Dick Armey of Texas, which like the Swift Boat Veterans received significant financing from Bob Perry, a Texan who has long supported Mr. Bush.
Mr. Perry has given $200,000 to Swift Boat Veterans. He is listed as co-host on an invitation to a fund-raiser next week at the Tavern on the Green in Manhattan. The invitation list includes President Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, The Dallas Morning News reported on Tuesday. Mr. Rove has acknowledged through a spokesman to being friends with Mr. Perry.
Maria Newman contributed reporting from New York for this article.
The Bush campaign's top outside lawyer, who said on Tuesday that he had given legal advice to the group of veterans attacking Senator John Kerry's Vietnam War record, said today that he was resigning from the campaign because his activities were becoming a "distraction" to Mr. Bush' re-election efforts.
The lawyer, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, said that the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, called him last month to ask for his help and that he had agreed. The group has criticized Mr. Kerry's war record and his antiwar activism in a book, television commercials and appearances on various news programs, especially on cable.
"I cannot begin to express my sadness that my legal representations have become a distraction from the critical issues at hand in this election," Mr. Ginsberg told the president in a letter distributed today by the Bush-Cheney campaign. "I feel I cannot let that continue, so I have decided to resign as national counsel to your campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated military veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of the law, doesn't distract from the real issues upon which you and the country should be focusing."
The Kerry-Edwards campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, said today that Mr. Ginsberg's resignation "confirms the extent of those connections."
"Now we know why George Bush refuses to specifically condemn these false ads," she said. "People deeply involved in his own campaign are behind them, from paying for them, to appearing in them, to providing legal advice, to coordinating a negative strategy to divert the public away from issues like jobs, health care and the mess in Iraq, the real concerns of the American people."
And in another sign of how the fierce debate about Mr. Kerry's Vietnam record has continued to dominate both campaigns, Mr. Kerry today dispatched two fellow Vietnam veterans — former Senator Max Cleland, Democrat of Georgia, and Jim Rassman, a former Kerry comrade in Vietnam — to Mr. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., to urge him to condemn the television advertisements challenging Senator Kerry's military record.
Mr. Ginsberg, the chief outside counsel to the Bush-Cheney re-election effort, agreed to an interview on Tuesday after several telephone calls to him and the campaign asking that he explain his role. He said that he was helping the group comply with campaign finance rules and that his work was entirely separate from his work for the president's campaign. President Bush has called for an end to advertising by all groups like that of the Swift boat veterans, called 527's for the section of the tax code that created them.
Mr. Ginsberg said in the interview that he had yet to work out payment details with the group and that he might consider doing the work pro bono.
In his letter to the president today, Mr. Ginsberg said his work with the Swift boat group was conducted "in a manner that is fully appropriate and legal and, in fact, is quite similar to the relationships between my counterparts at the D.N.C. and the Kerry campaign and Democrat 527's such as MoveOn.org, the Media Fund and Americans Coming Together."
Mr. Ginsberg said his role was no different from that of Robert Bauer, a lawyer the Kerry campaign shares with America Coming Together, a liberal group that is organizing a huge multimillion-dollar get-out-the-vote drive that is far more ambitious than the Swift boat group's activities.
In an interview on CNN this afternoon, Mr. Ginsberg said that working for both the Bush campaign and the Swift Boat group had been "totally within the bounds of the law."
But he said he quit his campaign duties not because he believed he was doing something wrong, but because publicity about his double role was detracting from Mr. Bush's message.
"Sadly, especially from my perspective, when a lawyer gets in the way of that, it's time to get out of the way," he said.
The Bush campaign had nothing else to say on the matter today, but on Tuesday, Scott Stanzel, a Bush spokesman, said, "There has been no coordination at any time between Bush-Cheney '04 and any 527."
Mr. Bush's campaign aides have repeatedly said they have no connection to the swift boat group, whose challenges to Mr. Kerry and his war record have been largely contradicted by official war records and even some of its members' own past statements.
Mr. Ginsberg, a prominent elections lawyer, was a senior lawyer for the Bush organization in the Florida recount after the 2000 election and was once general counsel to the Republican National Committee. He said he had no involvement in the message or strategy of the Swift boat group and said he had no reason to believe that Mr. Bush knew of his involvement.
"The truth is there are very few lawyers who work in this area," Mr. Ginsberg said in the Tuesday interview. "It's sort of natural that people do come to the few of us for the work. What happened was a month or so ago some decorated Vietnam vets came to me and said: `We have an important point of view to enter into the debate. There's a new law that's complicated, and we want help complying with the law.' "
He added, "I have given them some legal compliance advice."
Mr. Kerry has gone on the offensive over the group's activities, saying it is "a front" for Mr. Bush's campaign and repeatedly calling on the president to repudiate an advertisement from the group attacking his record. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is also a decorated war veteran, has also called on Mr. Bush to repudiate the spots.
The 527 groups are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money as long as they do not coordinate their activities with federal campaigns or political parties. Campaign finance rules do not prohibit lawyers from working for both outside groups and campaigns because they are not considered strategists.
Mr. Bush has declined to take on the group directly but repeated this week that he believed that all outside groups should stop advertising.
Mr. Ginsberg had been at the forefront of pressing the legal case against Democratic 527's, which have spent more than $60 million on advertisements against Mr. Bush.
In complaints against the groups, Republican lawyers have noted that Harold M. Ickes, who has helped raise money for and organize America Coming Together and the Media Fund, both 527 groups, is also on the executive committee of the Democratic National Committee.
The chairman of the Democratic convention, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, has been an adviser to another 527 group, the New Democrat Network. And Jim Jordan, a spokesman for the Media Fund, was Mr. Kerry's campaign manager until he resigned in November.
Mr. Ginsberg said he decided to help Republican groups after the Federal Election Commission declined to imposed strict rules on the 527 groups in May.
"At that point," he said, "I was more than happy to help all Republican groups comply with the law so that there wasn't unilateral disarmament."
An occasional collaborator with Mr. Ginsberg, Chris LaCivita, is also working for the group, advising on media strategy. Mr. LaCivita was political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002 and now works for the DCI Group, a Washington political strategy firm whose partners include Charles Francis, a longtime friend of President Bush from Texas and Tom Synhorst, an adviser to the Bush campaign in 2000, who was an architect of the campaign's effort in the Iowa caucuses.
Mr. LaCivita said on Tuesday that he worked as a private contractor for DCI and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and that there was no coordination between the firm and the group.
"Obviously, I don't work for the Bush campaign," he said.
Mr. LaCivita described his role as providing advice on the news media and placing advertisements. Asked to describe how close his involvement was or how Mr. Ginsberg was involved, Mr. LaCivita referred calls to a spokesman for Swift Boat Veterans, which declined to comment.
Mr. LaCivita and Mr. Ginsberg have also been involved with Progress for America, a group that calls itself the leading organization pushing a conservative agenda. Mr. Ginsberg did not say how frequently he consulted with the group.
This is the second time in recent days that an individual associated with Mr. Bush's campaign has acknowledged working with Swift Boat Veterans. On Sunday, the campaign confirmed an accusation first made by Mr. Kerry's campaign that Kenneth Cordier, a retired colonel who appears in the second of two commercials by the group, had been a member of the Bush campaign's veterans' advisory committee. The campaign said that it had not known that Mr. Cordier, a volunteer, was going to be in the spot and that he had resigned as a result of it.
Mr. Kerry's campaign filed a complaint last week with the Federal Election Commission about collaboration between Mr. Bush's campaign and the Swift Boat Veterans, activities that would violate the laws for the 527's.
Swift Boat Veterans portrays itself as an organic group opposed to Mr. Kerry. On Tuesday, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission defended the group's right to advertise. But it has gradually acknowledged ties to people close to the Republican Party and Mr. Bush's campaign.
"It's another piece of evidence of the ties between the Bush campaign and this group," Chad Clanton, a spokesman for Mr. Kerry, said. Asked about his campaign's use of shared lawyers, Mr. Clanton said, "If the Bush campaign truly disapproved of this smear, their top lawyer wouldn't be involved."
On Monday, the veterans' group acknowledged that a longtime Republican operative, Susan Arceneaux, was working for it and had taken out the post office box listed as the group's address. The group described Ms. Arceneaux's role, also, as "compliance."
Records also list Ms. Arceneaux as treasurer of the Majority Leader's Fund, a political action committee affiliated with the former House majority leader, Dick Armey of Texas, which like the Swift Boat Veterans received significant financing from Bob Perry, a Texan who has long supported Mr. Bush.
Mr. Perry has given $200,000 to Swift Boat Veterans. He is listed as co-host on an invitation to a fund-raiser next week at the Tavern on the Green in Manhattan. The invitation list includes President Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, The Dallas Morning News reported on Tuesday. Mr. Rove has acknowledged through a spokesman to being friends with Mr. Perry.
Maria Newman contributed reporting from New York for this article.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 4:59 da tarde
terça-feira, agosto 24, 2004
Editors Grapple With How to Cover Swift Boat Controversy
By Joe Strupp
NEW YORK - As the John Kerry swift boat controversy navigates itself from the shoreline of the 2004 presidential campaign into the mainstream, newspapers face a dilemma of how to report on the veterans group attacking the Democratic nominee's record without giving them undue credibility or blowing the issue out of proportion.
Alison Mitchell, deputy national editor for The New York Times (Click for QuikCap), points to the changing media landscape and its impact on what newspapers choose to cover. "I'm not sure that in an era of no-cable television we would even have looked into it," she said.
But Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said newspapers can still drive their own agenda. "I don't think we are lessening at all our judgment of the news," he told E&P. "There is much more media, but we still judge for ourselves which facts we report in The Washington Post."
In the past week, Page One stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and other dailies both scrutinizing the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and its accusations against Kerry, while also reporting on the effect the group's advertising is having on the Democrat's strategy.
Since Kerry chose to alter his policy and take the group's criticism head-on, editors contend that made them ripe for front-page coverage.
"Kerry has made his Vietnam service a centerpiece of the Democratic National Convention and the Swift Boat Veterans came out right after that," said Lee Horwich, politics editor at USA Today, which ran a story about the veterans group, and inconsistencies in its accounts, on Aug. 16. "There has been doubt cast on some of their charges and we have reported it. I think scrutiny of the accuracy of the charges has been the thrust of the coverage."
James O'Shea, managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, agreed. But he said the critical approach may have been a bit late, considering that the Swift Boat Veterans ads came out two weeks ago. "I don't think there has been enough scrutiny until now," he said. "Prior to this, we weren't giving it enough attention."
But O'Shea also pointed out that giving the anti-Kerry veterans too much attention, in an attempt to hold them accountable, creates a situation of ignoring other issues. He said this may be an instance of a growing problem for newspapers in the expanding media world -- being forced to follow a story they might not consider worthwhile because other news outlets have made it an issue (in this case, Fox News and talk radio).
"There are too many places for people to get information," O'Shea said. "I don't think newspapers can be the gatekeepers anymore -- to say this is wrong and we will ignore it. Now we have to say this is wrong, and here is why."
Downie said he believes the Swift Boat Veterans coverage had been fair and properly scrutinizing. "We have printed the facts and some of those facts have undermined Kerry's opponents," he said. "We are not judging the credibility of Kerry or the (Swift Boat) Veterans, we just print the facts."
He defended a lengthy Post story that ran Sunday which appeared to give equal credibility to both Kerry's version of the events in Vietnam, which is supported by his crewmates and largely backed up by a paper trail, and the Swift Boat Veterans, despite the fact that previous stories in the Post and the New York Times had debunked many of the group's accounts.
Michael Tomaskey, on The American Prospect's Web site, took issue with Downie's decision today: "The Washington Post should not even be running such a story ... in the first place. Len Downie and the paper's other editors would undoubtedly argue that the story represents the Post's tenacity for getting to the truth, without fear or favor. But what the story actually proves is that a bunch of liars who have in the past contradicted their own current statements can, if their lies are outrageous enough and if they have enough money, control the media agenda and get even the most respected media outlets in the country to focus on picayune 'truths' while missing the larger story."
The swift boat controversy and its coverage have also provided fodder for a number of ombudsmen during the past few days. Paul Moore at The Sun in Baltimore cited the need for reporting to include all aspects of the veterans group's activities. "News stories about this group are legitimate, but because the group's televised ads have been paid for by supporters of President Bush, the partisan nature of the material is unmistakable," he wrote.
Dennis Ryerson, editor of The Indianapolis Star, also weighed in with a column about the challenges of the story. "The media are caught in the middle," he opined. "We are often criticized for covering the noise rather than the light, the political infighting as opposed to the substance of major issues. I think we need to cover both."
Finally, Sherrie Mazingo of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis wrote that readers were getting overwhelmed by some of the coverage. "The claims and counter-claims ... have become a significant distraction," she said.
Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is senior editor for E&P.
NEW YORK - As the John Kerry swift boat controversy navigates itself from the shoreline of the 2004 presidential campaign into the mainstream, newspapers face a dilemma of how to report on the veterans group attacking the Democratic nominee's record without giving them undue credibility or blowing the issue out of proportion.
Alison Mitchell, deputy national editor for The New York Times (Click for QuikCap), points to the changing media landscape and its impact on what newspapers choose to cover. "I'm not sure that in an era of no-cable television we would even have looked into it," she said.
But Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said newspapers can still drive their own agenda. "I don't think we are lessening at all our judgment of the news," he told E&P. "There is much more media, but we still judge for ourselves which facts we report in The Washington Post."
In the past week, Page One stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and other dailies both scrutinizing the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and its accusations against Kerry, while also reporting on the effect the group's advertising is having on the Democrat's strategy.
Since Kerry chose to alter his policy and take the group's criticism head-on, editors contend that made them ripe for front-page coverage.
"Kerry has made his Vietnam service a centerpiece of the Democratic National Convention and the Swift Boat Veterans came out right after that," said Lee Horwich, politics editor at USA Today, which ran a story about the veterans group, and inconsistencies in its accounts, on Aug. 16. "There has been doubt cast on some of their charges and we have reported it. I think scrutiny of the accuracy of the charges has been the thrust of the coverage."
James O'Shea, managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, agreed. But he said the critical approach may have been a bit late, considering that the Swift Boat Veterans ads came out two weeks ago. "I don't think there has been enough scrutiny until now," he said. "Prior to this, we weren't giving it enough attention."
But O'Shea also pointed out that giving the anti-Kerry veterans too much attention, in an attempt to hold them accountable, creates a situation of ignoring other issues. He said this may be an instance of a growing problem for newspapers in the expanding media world -- being forced to follow a story they might not consider worthwhile because other news outlets have made it an issue (in this case, Fox News and talk radio).
"There are too many places for people to get information," O'Shea said. "I don't think newspapers can be the gatekeepers anymore -- to say this is wrong and we will ignore it. Now we have to say this is wrong, and here is why."
Downie said he believes the Swift Boat Veterans coverage had been fair and properly scrutinizing. "We have printed the facts and some of those facts have undermined Kerry's opponents," he said. "We are not judging the credibility of Kerry or the (Swift Boat) Veterans, we just print the facts."
He defended a lengthy Post story that ran Sunday which appeared to give equal credibility to both Kerry's version of the events in Vietnam, which is supported by his crewmates and largely backed up by a paper trail, and the Swift Boat Veterans, despite the fact that previous stories in the Post and the New York Times had debunked many of the group's accounts.
Michael Tomaskey, on The American Prospect's Web site, took issue with Downie's decision today: "The Washington Post should not even be running such a story ... in the first place. Len Downie and the paper's other editors would undoubtedly argue that the story represents the Post's tenacity for getting to the truth, without fear or favor. But what the story actually proves is that a bunch of liars who have in the past contradicted their own current statements can, if their lies are outrageous enough and if they have enough money, control the media agenda and get even the most respected media outlets in the country to focus on picayune 'truths' while missing the larger story."
The swift boat controversy and its coverage have also provided fodder for a number of ombudsmen during the past few days. Paul Moore at The Sun in Baltimore cited the need for reporting to include all aspects of the veterans group's activities. "News stories about this group are legitimate, but because the group's televised ads have been paid for by supporters of President Bush, the partisan nature of the material is unmistakable," he wrote.
Dennis Ryerson, editor of The Indianapolis Star, also weighed in with a column about the challenges of the story. "The media are caught in the middle," he opined. "We are often criticized for covering the noise rather than the light, the political infighting as opposed to the substance of major issues. I think we need to cover both."
Finally, Sherrie Mazingo of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis wrote that readers were getting overwhelmed by some of the coverage. "The claims and counter-claims ... have become a significant distraction," she said.
Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is senior editor for E&P.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 12:25 da manhã
segunda-feira, agosto 23, 2004
ESCANDALO
Interrumpe a Bush y pierde el empleo
Un hombre que interrumpió al presidente de EEUU, George W. Bush, durante un mitin electoral denunció que fue despedido de su trabajo por esa acción, se informó ayer.
Glen Hiller, de 35 años, interrumpió un acto electoral de Bush en Berkeley Springs (Virginia Occidental) el pasado martes, justo cuando el presidente defendía la guerra de Irak.
''¿Sacrificaría a su hija para liberar Irak?'', gritó Hiller, antes de ser sacado contra su voluntad del salón de actos del instituto de enseñanza secundaria donde se celebraba el mitin.
Al volver a su trabajo el día siguiente, donde ganaba 35,000 dólares al año, Hiller se encontró con que su empresa, Octavo Designs, una compañía de publicidad y diseño con sede en Frederick (Maryland), le había despedido.
La dueña de la empresa, Sue Hough, ''me dijo que mis acciones perjudicaron la reputación de la compañía'', explicó Hiller en declaraciones que publicó ayer el diario The Washington Post.
Glen Hiller, de 35 años, interrumpió un acto electoral de Bush en Berkeley Springs (Virginia Occidental) el pasado martes, justo cuando el presidente defendía la guerra de Irak.
''¿Sacrificaría a su hija para liberar Irak?'', gritó Hiller, antes de ser sacado contra su voluntad del salón de actos del instituto de enseñanza secundaria donde se celebraba el mitin.
Al volver a su trabajo el día siguiente, donde ganaba 35,000 dólares al año, Hiller se encontró con que su empresa, Octavo Designs, una compañía de publicidad y diseño con sede en Frederick (Maryland), le había despedido.
La dueña de la empresa, Sue Hough, ''me dijo que mis acciones perjudicaron la reputación de la compañía'', explicó Hiller en declaraciones que publicó ayer el diario The Washington Post.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 5:46 da tarde
Democrats worry about runaway focus on John Kerry's Vietnam War service
By BETH GORHAM
WASHINGTON(CP) - Everybody's talking about the wrong war.
Instead of debating Iraq, the U.S. election campaign has been focused for more than a week on John Kerry's service record in Vietnam 35 years ago and his antiwar activism when he got home. It has become a pitched TV advertising battle and a bitter war of words between Democrats and Republicans that has usurped any serious discussion about jobs, terrorism, health care and other issues that matter to Americans.
And recent opinion polls suggested the focus has hurt Kerry's standing with veterans and independents critical to the outcome of the Nov. 2 vote.
Kerry, perhaps, had little choice but to come out swinging last week. He's running two of his own TV ads in key battleground states to counter one from a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that says he lied about his Vietnam service and betrayed his comrades at home by accusing them of war atrocities.
President George W. Bush, himself attacked in countless commercials funded by outside groups, denounced the anti-Kerry ad Monday when he said only official parties and campaigns should be allowed to run them.
"That ad and every other ad" has no place in the election, said Bush, who was at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. "This kind of unregulated soft money is wrong for the process."
"I think Senator Kerry served admirably and he ought to be proud of his record," said Bush. "But the question is, who (is) best to lead the country in the war on terror?"
Democrats were unimpressed.
"The moment of truth came and went and the president still couldn't bring himself to do the right thing," said Kerry's running mate John Edwards.
"Instead of hiding behind a front group, George Bush needs to take responsibility and demand that ad come off the air."
Each side is accusing the other of directing negative ads behind the scenes to smear their candidates.
Democrats say the Swift Boat group has backing from key Republican fundraisers while Republicans counter that anti-Bush ads from liberal groups like Moveon.org are orchestrated by Democrats.
Kerry's vigorous defence of his record, which clearly blames Bush and has been labelled libellous by the president's campaign, is coming at a cost, at least in the short term. It's hijacking Kerry's message on the issues from the front pages and the top of newscasts.
Instead, U.S. journalists have been reviewing in minute detail conflicting reports of Kerry's service in Vietnam, where he earned a Bronze Star, Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.
Men who served with Kerry are divided, for instance, about whether he was under enemy fire when he pulled another soldier from a river in March 1969.
Others are angry that Kerry's 1971 antiwar testimony before a Senate committee accused them of systemic war crimes like raping women, cutting off heads, randomly shooting at civilians, blowing up bodies and razing villages.
A loyal "band of brothers" who served on Kerry's boat in Vietnam were featured at the Democratic national convention last month and the Massachusetts senator has been counting on his hero status to help prove he's the right man to lead Americans.
Analyst David Gergen, who advised four presidents, called the kerfuffle an "extraordinary diversion" and a disservice to the country.
"This controversy is almost raging out of control," Gergen told CNN.
A recent CBS poll suggested Kerry's support has fallen nine percentage points among veterans and six points among independents since the battle over his Vietnam service began dominating the news.
But he was still slightly ahead of Bush overall. The two men have been running neck-and-neck for five months.
Even former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, who was harshly critical of Kerry in an interview Sunday, said he's "probably ahead."
"I'd say right now Kerry has the edge," Dole told CNN. "Even though they didn't get a bounce at the convention, you know, people got to know John Kerry. I think most people liked what they saw."
"There's a little backlash now because of all the Vietnam thing. But he's probably ahead."
WASHINGTON(CP) - Everybody's talking about the wrong war.
Instead of debating Iraq, the U.S. election campaign has been focused for more than a week on John Kerry's service record in Vietnam 35 years ago and his antiwar activism when he got home. It has become a pitched TV advertising battle and a bitter war of words between Democrats and Republicans that has usurped any serious discussion about jobs, terrorism, health care and other issues that matter to Americans.
And recent opinion polls suggested the focus has hurt Kerry's standing with veterans and independents critical to the outcome of the Nov. 2 vote.
Kerry, perhaps, had little choice but to come out swinging last week. He's running two of his own TV ads in key battleground states to counter one from a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that says he lied about his Vietnam service and betrayed his comrades at home by accusing them of war atrocities.
President George W. Bush, himself attacked in countless commercials funded by outside groups, denounced the anti-Kerry ad Monday when he said only official parties and campaigns should be allowed to run them.
"That ad and every other ad" has no place in the election, said Bush, who was at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. "This kind of unregulated soft money is wrong for the process."
"I think Senator Kerry served admirably and he ought to be proud of his record," said Bush. "But the question is, who (is) best to lead the country in the war on terror?"
Democrats were unimpressed.
"The moment of truth came and went and the president still couldn't bring himself to do the right thing," said Kerry's running mate John Edwards.
"Instead of hiding behind a front group, George Bush needs to take responsibility and demand that ad come off the air."
Each side is accusing the other of directing negative ads behind the scenes to smear their candidates.
Democrats say the Swift Boat group has backing from key Republican fundraisers while Republicans counter that anti-Bush ads from liberal groups like Moveon.org are orchestrated by Democrats.
Kerry's vigorous defence of his record, which clearly blames Bush and has been labelled libellous by the president's campaign, is coming at a cost, at least in the short term. It's hijacking Kerry's message on the issues from the front pages and the top of newscasts.
Instead, U.S. journalists have been reviewing in minute detail conflicting reports of Kerry's service in Vietnam, where he earned a Bronze Star, Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.
Men who served with Kerry are divided, for instance, about whether he was under enemy fire when he pulled another soldier from a river in March 1969.
Others are angry that Kerry's 1971 antiwar testimony before a Senate committee accused them of systemic war crimes like raping women, cutting off heads, randomly shooting at civilians, blowing up bodies and razing villages.
A loyal "band of brothers" who served on Kerry's boat in Vietnam were featured at the Democratic national convention last month and the Massachusetts senator has been counting on his hero status to help prove he's the right man to lead Americans.
Analyst David Gergen, who advised four presidents, called the kerfuffle an "extraordinary diversion" and a disservice to the country.
"This controversy is almost raging out of control," Gergen told CNN.
A recent CBS poll suggested Kerry's support has fallen nine percentage points among veterans and six points among independents since the battle over his Vietnam service began dominating the news.
But he was still slightly ahead of Bush overall. The two men have been running neck-and-neck for five months.
Even former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, who was harshly critical of Kerry in an interview Sunday, said he's "probably ahead."
"I'd say right now Kerry has the edge," Dole told CNN. "Even though they didn't get a bounce at the convention, you know, people got to know John Kerry. I think most people liked what they saw."
"There's a little backlash now because of all the Vietnam thing. But he's probably ahead."
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 5:44 da tarde
domingo, agosto 22, 2004
Bush Ad Causes Concern at the Olympics
USOC to Review Campaign Spot's Use of Brand; Iraqis Express Anger
By Sally Jenkins
ATHENS - The U.S. Olympic Committee, concerned that President Bush's reelection campaign is using the Athens Games for political purposes, will review a copy of a televised campaign ad that credits Bush with liberating athletes from Afghanistan and Iraq so they can compete here.
"In 1972, there were 40 democracies in the world. Today, 120," a narrator intones, over images of an Olympic stadium with flags flying and swimmers racing in a pool. "Freedom is spreading like a sunrise. At this Olympics, there will be two more free nations. And two fewer terrorist regimes."
The word "Olympic," as well as the brand and concept of Olympianism, belongs exclusively to the International Olympic Committee worldwide and to the USOC in the United States. The bylaws of both organizations prohibit the use of the Olympics for political ends, as does an act of Congress, which states that the USOC "shall be non-political and may not promote the candidacy of any individual seeking public office."
The Bush campaign, however, defended its usage of the ad and said it would continue to run through August. "We are on firm legal ground to mention the Olympics and make a factual point in a political advertisement," Bush spokesman Scott Stanzel told the Associated Press. The Bush reelection committee contends that the USOC technically only has exclusive rights to the Olympic brand to sell products or promote competition.
A USOC spokesman said the ad would be reviewed by the organization's director of government affairs, Steve Bull. "We're aware of it, but we haven't had an opportunity to review it," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. "We have contacted the reelection committee and asked for a copy, and once we've received [it], that will give us a chance to determine the extent to which marks and terms may be used."
The ad, which can be viewed over the Internet, also shows the flags of Iraq and Afghanistan as swimmers plow through the water. Iraq sent one swimmer here; Afghanistan sent none. The majority of Iraq's Olympic team consists of 24 soccer players, who did most of their training outside of the country, because it was too torn by violence.
Some members of the Iraqi soccer team have said they are angered by Bush's reference to use them. "Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," midfielder Salih Sadir told Sports Illustrated for its online edition. Iraqi head coach Adnan Hamad said, "What is freedom when I go to the stadium and there are shootings on the road?"
The Iraqi soccer players have asked their countrymen to support them in the interest of national unity, regardless of differences.
By Sally Jenkins
ATHENS - The U.S. Olympic Committee, concerned that President Bush's reelection campaign is using the Athens Games for political purposes, will review a copy of a televised campaign ad that credits Bush with liberating athletes from Afghanistan and Iraq so they can compete here.
"In 1972, there were 40 democracies in the world. Today, 120," a narrator intones, over images of an Olympic stadium with flags flying and swimmers racing in a pool. "Freedom is spreading like a sunrise. At this Olympics, there will be two more free nations. And two fewer terrorist regimes."
The word "Olympic," as well as the brand and concept of Olympianism, belongs exclusively to the International Olympic Committee worldwide and to the USOC in the United States. The bylaws of both organizations prohibit the use of the Olympics for political ends, as does an act of Congress, which states that the USOC "shall be non-political and may not promote the candidacy of any individual seeking public office."
The Bush campaign, however, defended its usage of the ad and said it would continue to run through August. "We are on firm legal ground to mention the Olympics and make a factual point in a political advertisement," Bush spokesman Scott Stanzel told the Associated Press. The Bush reelection committee contends that the USOC technically only has exclusive rights to the Olympic brand to sell products or promote competition.
A USOC spokesman said the ad would be reviewed by the organization's director of government affairs, Steve Bull. "We're aware of it, but we haven't had an opportunity to review it," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. "We have contacted the reelection committee and asked for a copy, and once we've received [it], that will give us a chance to determine the extent to which marks and terms may be used."
The ad, which can be viewed over the Internet, also shows the flags of Iraq and Afghanistan as swimmers plow through the water. Iraq sent one swimmer here; Afghanistan sent none. The majority of Iraq's Olympic team consists of 24 soccer players, who did most of their training outside of the country, because it was too torn by violence.
Some members of the Iraqi soccer team have said they are angered by Bush's reference to use them. "Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," midfielder Salih Sadir told Sports Illustrated for its online edition. Iraqi head coach Adnan Hamad said, "What is freedom when I go to the stadium and there are shootings on the road?"
The Iraqi soccer players have asked their countrymen to support them in the interest of national unity, regardless of differences.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 1:36 da tarde
Cut-and-Paste Propaganda Infiltrates Opinion Pages
by Paul Farhi
The Washington Post
Reader, beware! Some of America's newspapers have become unwitting conduits for campaign propaganda.
Thanks to some nifty Internet technology, the campaigns of President Bush and John F. Kerry are making it easy for their supporters to pass off the campaigns' talking points as just another concerned citizen's opinion. Pro-Bush or pro-Kerry letters bearing identical language are flooding letters-to-the-editor columns.
The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., for example, ran a letter last month from a local reader that stated, "New-job figures and other recent economic data show that America's economy is strong and getting stronger, and that the president's jobs and growth plan is working."
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) denies any connection to the appearance of the signs
The Washington Post
Reader, beware! Some of America's newspapers have become unwitting conduits for campaign propaganda.
Thanks to some nifty Internet technology, the campaigns of President Bush and John F. Kerry are making it easy for their supporters to pass off the campaigns' talking points as just another concerned citizen's opinion. Pro-Bush or pro-Kerry letters bearing identical language are flooding letters-to-the-editor columns.
The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., for example, ran a letter last month from a local reader that stated, "New-job figures and other recent economic data show that America's economy is strong and getting stronger, and that the president's jobs and growth plan is working."
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) denies any connection to the appearance of the signs
and blames Frost. [AP]
The exact same phrasing also appeared in letters printed in about 20 other daily newspapers, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Idaho Statesman and the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.
It wasn't a remarkable coincidence. The letters -- known as "AstroTurf" for their ersatz quality -- were generated by a special cut-and-paste form on Bush's campaign Web site. In addition to providing helpful, ready-to-plagiarize phrases about the president's economic policies, the site also offers faux-letter fodder about such topics as homeland security, the environment, health care and "compassion" ("The President's compassion agenda is touching lives across the globe. . . .").
Kerry's campaign has a similar feature that entreats his supporters to "write" letters as part of his campaign's "MediaCorps." Both campaigns offer tips, such as the Bush campaign's advice to "keep your letters brief and to the point."
Newspaper editors tend to red-pencil outright campaign dogma in news stories. But a letter, ostensibly from a reader, can fly beneath the radar.
Problem is, editors -- like English teachers -- prefer that letter writers think for themselves. "Our policy is that everything published on our letters page has to be an original piece by the author who signs the piece," said Thomas Tobin, deputy editorial page editor of the Rochester paper. Tobin wasn't aware that his paper had printed the Bush-generated letter. In fact, the Democrat and Chronicle printed virtually the same letter twice, under different names, a week apart.
Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor of The Washington Post, said, "We want letters that are actually written by the people who sign their names to them. I can't be sure we screen out every precooked missive, but we do our best."
One Kerry backer may have found a way to scam the scam. In a recent letter printed in the Salinas Californian, Ed Smiley of Santa Cruz stole one of Bush's "compassion" talking points and then made a quick U-turn: "In his inaugural address, President Bush called on Americans to be citizens, not spectators -- to work together to improve their communities and touch the lives of their neighbors," he cribbed, and then added: "But what has he actually done? . . . His unprecedented commitment to violating international law and human rights is without precedent."
A Kerry Bounce?
Remember all the spin and counter-spin about how much bounce in the polls, if any, Kerry would get from the Democratic National Convention?
Well, national polls haven't shown anything dramatic, but statewide polls are another story.
The Kerry-Edwards campaign has surged in a few of the states that will probably determine the electoral college winner, according to Realpolitics.com, which polls the polls. In Florida, the biggest swing-state prize, a seesaw race seems to have swung, for the moment at least, Kerry's way. Two polls, including the Quinnipiac University survey, show the Democratic ticket with beyond-the-margin-of-error leads of between 6 and 7 percentage points in Florida, post-convention, compared with a statistical dead heat a month earlier.
Kerry also has improved his standing in Michigan (he led by 7 percentage points in one early August survey); Minnesota (8 points up during the convention); Pennsylvania (5 to 6 points in mid-August); and New Hampshire (7 points). Kerry also grabbed a slight advantage over the president in West Virginia during the convention.
In other August poll action, Kerry has cut into Bush's lead in Washington state and Arizona. And two formerly solidly red states look much more competitive: Colorado and Tennessee were showing virtual ties in mid-month polls.
Of course, convention bounces are a two-way street. Look for Bush to enjoy similar benefits in the state races during and immediately after the Republican convention in New York from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.
Looking for a Sign
From the Ain't-Politics-Grand file: The race for a Dallas-area House seat devolved last week into a heated argument over . . . yard signs.
Reps. Martin Frost (D) and Pete Sessions (R), who are running against each other in one of the most expensive races in the country, traded accusations about who placed Frost's campaign signs around an elementary school attended by Sessions's son.
Sessions angrily claimed that Frost's people put the signs around the school to "intimidate" his son. Frost's campaign countered that Sessions's minions actually stole Frost's signs and placed them at the school to "embarrass" Frost. Both sides deny whatever the other side is saying about them.
By mid-week, the contest took another turn when Frost's campaign produced a police report from 2002 showing that Sessions and a campaign aide had been stopped by Dallas police and questioned about . . . removing campaign signs.
It seems Sessions and an aide were pulling up signs for his then-opponent, Pauline Dixon. No charges were ever filed; Sessions said he was just removing signs that had been placed along the road illegally.
Frost is Texas' most senior congressman. He is running against Sessions in a GOP-leaning district as a result of redistricting.
Staff writer Jonathan Weisman contributed to this report.
The exact same phrasing also appeared in letters printed in about 20 other daily newspapers, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Idaho Statesman and the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.
It wasn't a remarkable coincidence. The letters -- known as "AstroTurf" for their ersatz quality -- were generated by a special cut-and-paste form on Bush's campaign Web site. In addition to providing helpful, ready-to-plagiarize phrases about the president's economic policies, the site also offers faux-letter fodder about such topics as homeland security, the environment, health care and "compassion" ("The President's compassion agenda is touching lives across the globe. . . .").
Kerry's campaign has a similar feature that entreats his supporters to "write" letters as part of his campaign's "MediaCorps." Both campaigns offer tips, such as the Bush campaign's advice to "keep your letters brief and to the point."
Newspaper editors tend to red-pencil outright campaign dogma in news stories. But a letter, ostensibly from a reader, can fly beneath the radar.
Problem is, editors -- like English teachers -- prefer that letter writers think for themselves. "Our policy is that everything published on our letters page has to be an original piece by the author who signs the piece," said Thomas Tobin, deputy editorial page editor of the Rochester paper. Tobin wasn't aware that his paper had printed the Bush-generated letter. In fact, the Democrat and Chronicle printed virtually the same letter twice, under different names, a week apart.
Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor of The Washington Post, said, "We want letters that are actually written by the people who sign their names to them. I can't be sure we screen out every precooked missive, but we do our best."
One Kerry backer may have found a way to scam the scam. In a recent letter printed in the Salinas Californian, Ed Smiley of Santa Cruz stole one of Bush's "compassion" talking points and then made a quick U-turn: "In his inaugural address, President Bush called on Americans to be citizens, not spectators -- to work together to improve their communities and touch the lives of their neighbors," he cribbed, and then added: "But what has he actually done? . . . His unprecedented commitment to violating international law and human rights is without precedent."
A Kerry Bounce?
Remember all the spin and counter-spin about how much bounce in the polls, if any, Kerry would get from the Democratic National Convention?
Well, national polls haven't shown anything dramatic, but statewide polls are another story.
The Kerry-Edwards campaign has surged in a few of the states that will probably determine the electoral college winner, according to Realpolitics.com, which polls the polls. In Florida, the biggest swing-state prize, a seesaw race seems to have swung, for the moment at least, Kerry's way. Two polls, including the Quinnipiac University survey, show the Democratic ticket with beyond-the-margin-of-error leads of between 6 and 7 percentage points in Florida, post-convention, compared with a statistical dead heat a month earlier.
Kerry also has improved his standing in Michigan (he led by 7 percentage points in one early August survey); Minnesota (8 points up during the convention); Pennsylvania (5 to 6 points in mid-August); and New Hampshire (7 points). Kerry also grabbed a slight advantage over the president in West Virginia during the convention.
In other August poll action, Kerry has cut into Bush's lead in Washington state and Arizona. And two formerly solidly red states look much more competitive: Colorado and Tennessee were showing virtual ties in mid-month polls.
Of course, convention bounces are a two-way street. Look for Bush to enjoy similar benefits in the state races during and immediately after the Republican convention in New York from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.
Looking for a Sign
From the Ain't-Politics-Grand file: The race for a Dallas-area House seat devolved last week into a heated argument over . . . yard signs.
Reps. Martin Frost (D) and Pete Sessions (R), who are running against each other in one of the most expensive races in the country, traded accusations about who placed Frost's campaign signs around an elementary school attended by Sessions's son.
Sessions angrily claimed that Frost's people put the signs around the school to "intimidate" his son. Frost's campaign countered that Sessions's minions actually stole Frost's signs and placed them at the school to "embarrass" Frost. Both sides deny whatever the other side is saying about them.
By mid-week, the contest took another turn when Frost's campaign produced a police report from 2002 showing that Sessions and a campaign aide had been stopped by Dallas police and questioned about . . . removing campaign signs.
It seems Sessions and an aide were pulling up signs for his then-opponent, Pauline Dixon. No charges were ever filed; Sessions said he was just removing signs that had been placed along the road illegally.
Frost is Texas' most senior congressman. He is running against Sessions in a GOP-leaning district as a result of redistricting.
Staff writer Jonathan Weisman contributed to this report.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 1:20 da tarde
sábado, agosto 21, 2004
Recupera su lustre la imagen de George Bush en la Florida
RUI FERREIRA / El Nuevo Herald
En los últimos días, el presidente George W. Bush tuvo un repunte en su popularidad en la Florida, posiblemente por su presencia en el área de desastre del huracán Charley a principios de la semana.
Según una encuesta divulgada ayer por Strategic Vision, una firma de Atlanta, el mandatario tiene un indice de aprobación del orden de los 50 por ciento.
Pero si las elecciones fueran hoy, el candidato demócrata, John Kerry, tendría un 48 por ciento de los sufragios y el mandatario un 46.
''Florida es el punto cero de estas elecciones, y el huracán Charley es parte ya de esta ecuación. Lo que esta encuesta nos muestra claramente es que los números desfavorables a Kerry están subiendo, y esto debería ser particularmente preocupante para él porque se está aproximando la convención republicana'', dijo el presidente de Strategic Vision y organizador del sondeo, David E. Johnson.
Kerry vino ayer a la Florida para visitar el área del desastre, pero casi una semana después que Bush, lo cual indica cierta lentitud de su campaña en reaccionar a los acontecimientos y oportunidades electorales.
Es el caso de las acusaciones de las que Kerry ha sido blanco en las últimas dos semanas por parte de antiguos colegas suyos combatientes en Vietnam, quienes han tratado de descalificar su conducta en el frente de combate.
Pero Kerry esperó hasta el miércoles para argumentar que sus antiguos colegas son presuntamente pagados por fuerzas republicanas, lentitud que según Johnson no sólo pudiera serle fatal, sino que parece ser un comportamiento típico del candidato.
''Ahora la gente lo está mirando desfavorablemente'', apuntó el encuestador. Un sondeo la semana pasada indicó que el margen entre los dos superaba un cinco por ciento. Pero la situación cambió.
Al punto de que ''Kerry tendrá que tomar grandes decisiones, [porque] con estas cifras necesita ganar la Florida y todos los estados del Medio Oeste que Gore ganó, como Iowa, Minessotta y Wisconsin. No se puede dar el lujo de ganar la Florida y perder esos estados'', dijo Johnson.
Por otra parte, si en las elecciones participa el independiente Ralph Nader, los electores de Kerry bajarían a 47 por ciento, pero Bush mantendría un 46 por ciento.
El margen de error es de menos de tres por ciento. Y además hay un seis por ciento de indecisos. Se encuestó a 801 electores en el estado, el martes y miércoles pasados.
''La diferencia entre el senador Kerry y el presidente Bush es mínima. Kerry tiene que decidir la atención que va a dar a la Florida, igual que el Presidente'', añadió Johnson.
El indice de aprobación de Bush sigue sólido y en algunos casos aumentó. Un 47 por ciento cree que ha manejado bien la economía y un 53 por ciento la guerra en Irak.
''Las buenas noticias para Bush son que se encuentra en la cifra mágica del 50 por ciento para alguien que ya ocupa el cargo. Son cifras más altas que las de las demás encuestas'', dijo Johnson.
En los últimos días, el presidente George W. Bush tuvo un repunte en su popularidad en la Florida, posiblemente por su presencia en el área de desastre del huracán Charley a principios de la semana.
Según una encuesta divulgada ayer por Strategic Vision, una firma de Atlanta, el mandatario tiene un indice de aprobación del orden de los 50 por ciento.
Pero si las elecciones fueran hoy, el candidato demócrata, John Kerry, tendría un 48 por ciento de los sufragios y el mandatario un 46.
''Florida es el punto cero de estas elecciones, y el huracán Charley es parte ya de esta ecuación. Lo que esta encuesta nos muestra claramente es que los números desfavorables a Kerry están subiendo, y esto debería ser particularmente preocupante para él porque se está aproximando la convención republicana'', dijo el presidente de Strategic Vision y organizador del sondeo, David E. Johnson.
Kerry vino ayer a la Florida para visitar el área del desastre, pero casi una semana después que Bush, lo cual indica cierta lentitud de su campaña en reaccionar a los acontecimientos y oportunidades electorales.
Es el caso de las acusaciones de las que Kerry ha sido blanco en las últimas dos semanas por parte de antiguos colegas suyos combatientes en Vietnam, quienes han tratado de descalificar su conducta en el frente de combate.
Pero Kerry esperó hasta el miércoles para argumentar que sus antiguos colegas son presuntamente pagados por fuerzas republicanas, lentitud que según Johnson no sólo pudiera serle fatal, sino que parece ser un comportamiento típico del candidato.
''Ahora la gente lo está mirando desfavorablemente'', apuntó el encuestador. Un sondeo la semana pasada indicó que el margen entre los dos superaba un cinco por ciento. Pero la situación cambió.
Al punto de que ''Kerry tendrá que tomar grandes decisiones, [porque] con estas cifras necesita ganar la Florida y todos los estados del Medio Oeste que Gore ganó, como Iowa, Minessotta y Wisconsin. No se puede dar el lujo de ganar la Florida y perder esos estados'', dijo Johnson.
Por otra parte, si en las elecciones participa el independiente Ralph Nader, los electores de Kerry bajarían a 47 por ciento, pero Bush mantendría un 46 por ciento.
El margen de error es de menos de tres por ciento. Y además hay un seis por ciento de indecisos. Se encuestó a 801 electores en el estado, el martes y miércoles pasados.
''La diferencia entre el senador Kerry y el presidente Bush es mínima. Kerry tiene que decidir la atención que va a dar a la Florida, igual que el Presidente'', añadió Johnson.
El indice de aprobación de Bush sigue sólido y en algunos casos aumentó. Un 47 por ciento cree que ha manejado bien la economía y un 53 por ciento la guerra en Irak.
''Las buenas noticias para Bush son que se encuentra en la cifra mágica del 50 por ciento para alguien que ya ocupa el cargo. Son cifras más altas que las de las demás encuestas'', dijo Johnson.
(C) 2004 El Nuevo Herald
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 6:08 da tarde
Journalist Breaks Silence to Defend Kerry Against Swift Boaters
By E & P Staff
NEW YORK - A Chicago Tribune metro editor who commanded a boat alongside John Kerry in Vietnam broke a 35-year silence on Saturday to say that stories told by Kerry's "Swift Boat" detractors are untrue.
William Rood wrote on the newspaper's Web site, and in an article published Sunday, "There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago -- three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers remain to talk about what happened on February 28, 1969
"One is John Kerry ... who won a Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other."
Rood had long refused interviews, but Saturday he declared, "It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there."
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have sought to undermine Kerry's record in TV ads and a bestselling book.
In the Chicago Tribune article, Rood said Kerry urged him to go public, but he added, "what matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did."
It was a very difficult decision for Rood to write the first-person account, Tribune Managing Editor James O'Shea said in an interview Sunday morning on WBBM-TV in Chicago.
"Bill came to us Wednesday (Aug. 18) after receiving a call from Senator Kerry," O'Shea said. "He had refused to speak about it publicly, even with our own Tribune reporters. He didn't want to become embroiled in a political campaign."
But Rood told Tribune editors that he believed the recent ads from other Swift Boat veterans of the Vietnam war "was tarnishing the reputations" of all those involved in the disputed Feb. 28, 1969 incident on the Dong Cung tributary of the Bay Hap River.
"We will respect your silence,'' O'Shea said he told Rood. "If you don't want to express yourself, that's okay. You can just go your way and be a metro editor." But O'Shea also told him, "if you are going to talk about it, I want you to write about it in the Chicago Tribune and not in a competing publication."
The Tribune has no axe to grind in the dispute between Kerry and his critics, O'Shea said: "This is one person's account of what happened, and we feel we owe it to the readers to share it with them."
NEW YORK - A Chicago Tribune metro editor who commanded a boat alongside John Kerry in Vietnam broke a 35-year silence on Saturday to say that stories told by Kerry's "Swift Boat" detractors are untrue.
William Rood wrote on the newspaper's Web site, and in an article published Sunday, "There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago -- three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers remain to talk about what happened on February 28, 1969
"One is John Kerry ... who won a Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other."
Rood had long refused interviews, but Saturday he declared, "It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there."
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have sought to undermine Kerry's record in TV ads and a bestselling book.
In the Chicago Tribune article, Rood said Kerry urged him to go public, but he added, "what matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did."
It was a very difficult decision for Rood to write the first-person account, Tribune Managing Editor James O'Shea said in an interview Sunday morning on WBBM-TV in Chicago.
"Bill came to us Wednesday (Aug. 18) after receiving a call from Senator Kerry," O'Shea said. "He had refused to speak about it publicly, even with our own Tribune reporters. He didn't want to become embroiled in a political campaign."
But Rood told Tribune editors that he believed the recent ads from other Swift Boat veterans of the Vietnam war "was tarnishing the reputations" of all those involved in the disputed Feb. 28, 1969 incident on the Dong Cung tributary of the Bay Hap River.
"We will respect your silence,'' O'Shea said he told Rood. "If you don't want to express yourself, that's okay. You can just go your way and be a metro editor." But O'Shea also told him, "if you are going to talk about it, I want you to write about it in the Chicago Tribune and not in a competing publication."
The Tribune has no axe to grind in the dispute between Kerry and his critics, O'Shea said: "This is one person's account of what happened, and we feel we owe it to the readers to share it with them."
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 10:14 da manhã
sexta-feira, agosto 20, 2004
Many Newspapers Plan Extensive Coverage of RNC Protests
By Charles Geraci
NEW YORK - Leading newspapers across the country are planning to pay a good deal of attention to those protesting the Republican National Convention, which begins here Aug. 30. Several papers, including The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Daily News, Newsday of Melville, N.Y., and The Dallas Morning News, will have reporters on hand whose primary duty will be to cover protests and security.
"If there's a convention where you'll have upwards of a million people protesting a sitting president and his party, that's newsworthy by any definition," said Michael Powell, New York Bureau Chief for the Washington Post (Click for QuikCap).
The Plain Dealer of Cleveland is "approaching the protests as a very serious potential news story," said Mark Naymik, political writer for the paper. "One of the reasons we are going in early is to cover the protests."
The Dallas Morning News will also probably assign a couple of extra staffers to report on the protests on the night before the convention starts, since that's when protesters plan to hold a massive march to Madison Square Garden, the site of the convention. "The bigger it gets, or the more violent it gets, the bigger the story for us," said Ryan Rusak, the paper's assistant political editor.
Joycelyn Winnecke, the Chicago Tribune's associate managing editor for national news, said, "The protests are something we will look at every day and, I imagine, they will merit a daily presence in the paper." The Tribune will have two to three full-time reporters on duty to cover this aspect of the Republican convention.
The Philadelphia Daily News will be sending its columnist known as "Riotgrrrl."
But most of the editors and political reporters interviewed by E&P do not think this year's RNC protests will rival those of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago or the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami.
The Post's Powell does not expect "wide, broad violence" in New York. "The demonstrators and police seem to have a general interest in allowing mass protests to occur without violence," he said. "Broad violence strikes me as possible but unlikely."
"I don't think they will get as violent or intense as Chicago in '68," said Dane Smith, political reporter for the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. "Anybody who wants Kerry elected knows that out-of-control protests is not going to help him at all." The Star Tribune will not assign a full-time reporter to cover the protests unless they get as bad as Chicago in '68, according to Dennis McGrath, the paper's national/international editor.
Smith also believes that "the protesters' concern about propriety in the place where 9/11 occurred" will be a factor along with tightened security controls.
Philadelphia Inquirer Editor Amanda Bennett believes the social climate in the United States today does not compare to that in 1968, and does not foresee this year's demonstrations as being as intense or violent.
Powell of the Washington Post said that the paper's decision to vigorously cover GOP opponents is not connected with its recent admission that the paper's coverage prior to the Iraq war lacked proper balance and was tilted to the Bush administration's claims. "No matter what the circumstances, we would be covering this," Powell said.
The hometown New York Times has already been covering the protest plans almost daily, with a major article today on what anarchists hope to pull off.
Protesters were also present during the recent Democratic convention in Boston, but in small numbers.
Charles Geraci (cgeraci@editorandpublisher.com) is a reporter for E&P.
NEW YORK - Leading newspapers across the country are planning to pay a good deal of attention to those protesting the Republican National Convention, which begins here Aug. 30. Several papers, including The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Daily News, Newsday of Melville, N.Y., and The Dallas Morning News, will have reporters on hand whose primary duty will be to cover protests and security.
"If there's a convention where you'll have upwards of a million people protesting a sitting president and his party, that's newsworthy by any definition," said Michael Powell, New York Bureau Chief for the Washington Post (Click for QuikCap).
The Plain Dealer of Cleveland is "approaching the protests as a very serious potential news story," said Mark Naymik, political writer for the paper. "One of the reasons we are going in early is to cover the protests."
The Dallas Morning News will also probably assign a couple of extra staffers to report on the protests on the night before the convention starts, since that's when protesters plan to hold a massive march to Madison Square Garden, the site of the convention. "The bigger it gets, or the more violent it gets, the bigger the story for us," said Ryan Rusak, the paper's assistant political editor.
Joycelyn Winnecke, the Chicago Tribune's associate managing editor for national news, said, "The protests are something we will look at every day and, I imagine, they will merit a daily presence in the paper." The Tribune will have two to three full-time reporters on duty to cover this aspect of the Republican convention.
The Philadelphia Daily News will be sending its columnist known as "Riotgrrrl."
But most of the editors and political reporters interviewed by E&P do not think this year's RNC protests will rival those of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago or the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami.
The Post's Powell does not expect "wide, broad violence" in New York. "The demonstrators and police seem to have a general interest in allowing mass protests to occur without violence," he said. "Broad violence strikes me as possible but unlikely."
"I don't think they will get as violent or intense as Chicago in '68," said Dane Smith, political reporter for the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. "Anybody who wants Kerry elected knows that out-of-control protests is not going to help him at all." The Star Tribune will not assign a full-time reporter to cover the protests unless they get as bad as Chicago in '68, according to Dennis McGrath, the paper's national/international editor.
Smith also believes that "the protesters' concern about propriety in the place where 9/11 occurred" will be a factor along with tightened security controls.
Philadelphia Inquirer Editor Amanda Bennett believes the social climate in the United States today does not compare to that in 1968, and does not foresee this year's demonstrations as being as intense or violent.
Powell of the Washington Post said that the paper's decision to vigorously cover GOP opponents is not connected with its recent admission that the paper's coverage prior to the Iraq war lacked proper balance and was tilted to the Bush administration's claims. "No matter what the circumstances, we would be covering this," Powell said.
The hometown New York Times has already been covering the protest plans almost daily, with a major article today on what anarchists hope to pull off.
Protesters were also present during the recent Democratic convention in Boston, but in small numbers.
Charles Geraci (cgeraci@editorandpublisher.com) is a reporter for E&P.
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 10:16 da manhã
quinta-feira, agosto 19, 2004
Woman's Dying Wish: Bush Defeated
MIAMI BEACH - A South Florida woman who died this week had an unusual last request. Instead of flower or contributions in her name to a charity, she asked those who loved her to try to make sure President George W. Bush is not re-elected.
Joan Abbey, shown here before her death, wanted most of all to have President George W. Bush lose the November election. Loved ones said that Joan Abbey was committed to her political passions, even in death.
Abbey was born in Montreal, but lived for many years in Miami Beach and Aventura. Family and friends came from as far away as Canada and California to remember Abbey at the Mount Nebo Jewish Cemetery in Miami.
Abbey, who was a lifelong Democrat, died Monday--coincidentally on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.
Her sister, Tillie Shapiro, said, "She was just a caring person...She cared about people, and people who were disadvantaged."
Abbey was buried the day after the Democratic convention ended. Her unusual death notice in the Miami Herald said: "You can honor Joan's values by voting against George Bush and contributing to a liberal or Democratic cause."
Abbey's nephew, Martin Shapiro, said, "What she cared most about was improving circumstances in this country... getting rid of George Bush and making this a better country for all people."
Coincidentally, the presiding rabbi, Brett Goldstein, is a registered Democrat but is voting for Bush, and he questioned the timing of Abbey's message at such a sensitive time.
"My contention is that if there's any situation that's sacrosanct, it should be devoid of political ramifications," Goldstein said. "Although people have the opportunity and they can do it if they want to, it is not really appropriate at this time."
Shapiro said, "It was her (Abbey's) essence. It was her core value to try to see this country become a better place and become a more just society. And I think that was the last word she'd want to leave."
Abbey did not want her age known. Many friends said she remained forever young in spirit and staunchly committed to her beliefs.
August 3rd, 2004 2:24 pm
Joan Abbey, shown here before her death, wanted most of all to have President George W. Bush lose the November election. Loved ones said that Joan Abbey was committed to her political passions, even in death.
Abbey was born in Montreal, but lived for many years in Miami Beach and Aventura. Family and friends came from as far away as Canada and California to remember Abbey at the Mount Nebo Jewish Cemetery in Miami.
Abbey, who was a lifelong Democrat, died Monday--coincidentally on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.
Her sister, Tillie Shapiro, said, "She was just a caring person...She cared about people, and people who were disadvantaged."
Abbey was buried the day after the Democratic convention ended. Her unusual death notice in the Miami Herald said: "You can honor Joan's values by voting against George Bush and contributing to a liberal or Democratic cause."
Abbey's nephew, Martin Shapiro, said, "What she cared most about was improving circumstances in this country... getting rid of George Bush and making this a better country for all people."
Coincidentally, the presiding rabbi, Brett Goldstein, is a registered Democrat but is voting for Bush, and he questioned the timing of Abbey's message at such a sensitive time.
"My contention is that if there's any situation that's sacrosanct, it should be devoid of political ramifications," Goldstein said. "Although people have the opportunity and they can do it if they want to, it is not really appropriate at this time."
Shapiro said, "It was her (Abbey's) essence. It was her core value to try to see this country become a better place and become a more just society. And I think that was the last word she'd want to leave."
Abbey did not want her age known. Many friends said she remained forever young in spirit and staunchly committed to her beliefs.
August 3rd, 2004 2:24 pm
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 5:45 da tarde
quarta-feira, agosto 11, 2004
Encendido el debate sobre Teresa Heinz
RUI FERREIRA / El Nuevo Herald
Congresistas republicanos acusaron ayer en Miami a Teresa Heinz Kerry, la esposa del candidato demócrata para ocupar la Casa Blanca, de presidir una fundación que ha hecho contribuciones financieras a una entidad que distribuye fondos a grupos radicales estadounidenses.
Sin embargo, en una reacción inusualmente rápida, los demócratas negaron enfáticamente la acusación y aseguraron que se trata sencillamente ``de una mentira''.
Teresa Heinz
Según los representantes federales Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln y Mario Díaz-Balart, la Fundación Heinz ha dado cerca de $6 millones a la Fundación Tides, que se encarga de distribuir fondos entre organizaciones ''antinorteamericanas'' y ``radicales''.
''No decimos que sea ilegal, pero importa saber hacia dónde va al dinero'', puntualizó Ros-Lehtinen.
Los congresistas sostuvieron que entre los fondos distribuidos por Tides, cuya sede está en San Francisco, algunos han ido a parar al Institute for Global Communications (IGC).
Presuntamente, IGC ayudó al gobierno cubano a acceder a la internet en la década pasada, facilitando la creación de redes electrónicas y proveedores de direcciones de correo electrónico a organizaciones de amigos del régimen de la isla, entre ellos la Sección de Intereses de la Habana en Washington.
Los congresistas presentaron como evidencia recortes de periódicos estadounidenses y canadienses, algunos de los cuales aseguran que Heinz Kerry ha financiado a Tides, pero sin especificar.
''Aquí cabe preguntar por qué la señora Heinz Kerry no ha cuestionado el que la Fundación Tides da a esos fondos. ¿No le preocupa? Se sabe que en ocasiones han ido a parar a una organización que apoya al grupo [terrorista] Hamas. Y no olvidemos que Cuba está en el listado de países terroristas'', dijo Mario Díaz-Balart.
Según el alcalde de Hialeah, el demócrata Raúl Martínez, ''decir eso es sencillamente faltarle el respeto a una dama honorable'', porque ``es una mentira''.
''Hace meses que en internet circulan versiones al respecto, y ellos [los congresistas] las repiten. Pero lo cierto es que no han llamado a la Fundación Heinz a preguntar qué pasó, no les interesa su versión, porque saben que nada es verdad'', dijo Martínez.
El portavoz de la Fundación Tides, Christopher J. Herrera, secundó a Martínez y añadió a El Nuevo Herald que ``es falso que dinero de la Fundación Heinz entregado a Tides haya ido a apoyar a IGC u otra organización asociada''.
Ileana, Lincoln y Mario, con Dan Burton, en otro momento.
''Es increíble que tres miembros del Congreso acusen sin tener la delicadeza de contactarnos antes si tienen dudas'', añadió Herrera.
El IGC es un proyecto de la Fundación Tides que entre 1993 y el 2002 recibió $12,7000 para operaciones. ''Ninguno de estos fondos provino de la Fundación Heinz'', precisó Herrera.
Según los récords públicos de contribuciones de la Fundación Heinz, indagados por El Nuevo Herald, la primera donación a Tides fue el 26 de octubre de 1994 y ha continuado hasta el 2003.
En total, entregó $8.1 millones, que han sido distribuidos por programas de protección del ambiente, educación y artes y cultura, casi todos en el área de Pittsburgh, donde radica la Fundación Heinz.
''Ningún programa nuestro tiene que ver con internet. Lo que hay son donaciones educacionales en Pittsburgh para abrir locales de internet en barrios pobres'', informó el portavoz de la Fundación Heinz, Douglas Root.
''Todos los fondos que se envían a Tides tienen un destino específico decidido por nosotros. Como también lo hace el gobierno federal que usa a Tides para administrar sus donaciones'', añadió Root.
El acceso de Cuba a un servicio de correo electrónico internacional comenzó en enero de 1991, a través de la compañía Sprint, mientras en la isla se crearon dos redes internas.
''No había internet como tal, sino que se hacía un envío todas las noches a un servidor en Canadá, que recogía y enviaba los correos acumulados'', dijo el profesor de la Universidad de Nuevo México, Nelson P. Valdés, asesor además de los nexos.
En 1994, el Departamento de Estado, a través de la oficina de asuntos cubanos autorizó el envío y recepción de correos electrónicos entre Cuba y Estados Unidos, y en 1996, vino el acceso a internet cuando la Academia de Ciencias comenzó con el servicio, añadió Valdés.
''Siempre hubo una resistencia enorme a crear correos electrónicos o acceder a internet en Cuba; no veo qué impacto pudiera tener en ellos cualquier cosa que Tides quisiera hacer allí'', manifestó Valdés.
(C) 2004 El Nuevo Herald
Congresistas republicanos acusaron ayer en Miami a Teresa Heinz Kerry, la esposa del candidato demócrata para ocupar la Casa Blanca, de presidir una fundación que ha hecho contribuciones financieras a una entidad que distribuye fondos a grupos radicales estadounidenses.
Sin embargo, en una reacción inusualmente rápida, los demócratas negaron enfáticamente la acusación y aseguraron que se trata sencillamente ``de una mentira''.
Teresa Heinz
Según los representantes federales Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln y Mario Díaz-Balart, la Fundación Heinz ha dado cerca de $6 millones a la Fundación Tides, que se encarga de distribuir fondos entre organizaciones ''antinorteamericanas'' y ``radicales''.
''No decimos que sea ilegal, pero importa saber hacia dónde va al dinero'', puntualizó Ros-Lehtinen.
Los congresistas sostuvieron que entre los fondos distribuidos por Tides, cuya sede está en San Francisco, algunos han ido a parar al Institute for Global Communications (IGC).
Presuntamente, IGC ayudó al gobierno cubano a acceder a la internet en la década pasada, facilitando la creación de redes electrónicas y proveedores de direcciones de correo electrónico a organizaciones de amigos del régimen de la isla, entre ellos la Sección de Intereses de la Habana en Washington.
Los congresistas presentaron como evidencia recortes de periódicos estadounidenses y canadienses, algunos de los cuales aseguran que Heinz Kerry ha financiado a Tides, pero sin especificar.
''Aquí cabe preguntar por qué la señora Heinz Kerry no ha cuestionado el que la Fundación Tides da a esos fondos. ¿No le preocupa? Se sabe que en ocasiones han ido a parar a una organización que apoya al grupo [terrorista] Hamas. Y no olvidemos que Cuba está en el listado de países terroristas'', dijo Mario Díaz-Balart.
Según el alcalde de Hialeah, el demócrata Raúl Martínez, ''decir eso es sencillamente faltarle el respeto a una dama honorable'', porque ``es una mentira''.
''Hace meses que en internet circulan versiones al respecto, y ellos [los congresistas] las repiten. Pero lo cierto es que no han llamado a la Fundación Heinz a preguntar qué pasó, no les interesa su versión, porque saben que nada es verdad'', dijo Martínez.
El portavoz de la Fundación Tides, Christopher J. Herrera, secundó a Martínez y añadió a El Nuevo Herald que ``es falso que dinero de la Fundación Heinz entregado a Tides haya ido a apoyar a IGC u otra organización asociada''.
Ileana, Lincoln y Mario, con Dan Burton, en otro momento.
''Es increíble que tres miembros del Congreso acusen sin tener la delicadeza de contactarnos antes si tienen dudas'', añadió Herrera.
El IGC es un proyecto de la Fundación Tides que entre 1993 y el 2002 recibió $12,7000 para operaciones. ''Ninguno de estos fondos provino de la Fundación Heinz'', precisó Herrera.
Según los récords públicos de contribuciones de la Fundación Heinz, indagados por El Nuevo Herald, la primera donación a Tides fue el 26 de octubre de 1994 y ha continuado hasta el 2003.
En total, entregó $8.1 millones, que han sido distribuidos por programas de protección del ambiente, educación y artes y cultura, casi todos en el área de Pittsburgh, donde radica la Fundación Heinz.
''Ningún programa nuestro tiene que ver con internet. Lo que hay son donaciones educacionales en Pittsburgh para abrir locales de internet en barrios pobres'', informó el portavoz de la Fundación Heinz, Douglas Root.
''Todos los fondos que se envían a Tides tienen un destino específico decidido por nosotros. Como también lo hace el gobierno federal que usa a Tides para administrar sus donaciones'', añadió Root.
El acceso de Cuba a un servicio de correo electrónico internacional comenzó en enero de 1991, a través de la compañía Sprint, mientras en la isla se crearon dos redes internas.
''No había internet como tal, sino que se hacía un envío todas las noches a un servidor en Canadá, que recogía y enviaba los correos acumulados'', dijo el profesor de la Universidad de Nuevo México, Nelson P. Valdés, asesor además de los nexos.
En 1994, el Departamento de Estado, a través de la oficina de asuntos cubanos autorizó el envío y recepción de correos electrónicos entre Cuba y Estados Unidos, y en 1996, vino el acceso a internet cuando la Academia de Ciencias comenzó con el servicio, añadió Valdés.
''Siempre hubo una resistencia enorme a crear correos electrónicos o acceder a internet en Cuba; no veo qué impacto pudiera tener en ellos cualquier cosa que Tides quisiera hacer allí'', manifestó Valdés.
(C) 2004 El Nuevo Herald
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 6:10 da tarde
sábado, agosto 07, 2004
Bush recurre a medio probado para captar el voto hispano
RUI FERREIRA / El Nuevo Herald
Además de ser hermanos y republicanos, ¿qué tienen políticamente en común el presidente George W. Bush y el gobernador Jeb Bush?
No son mera coincidencia las semejanzas entre el anuncio electoral por televisión que la campaña del Presidente estrenó esta semana y el que hizo el Gobernador hace dos años.
En ambos anuncios, dirigidos al electorado hispano, el mensaje hace hincapié en las posibilidades que en este país se abren a los inmigrantes latinos, pero donde el Gobernador habla de la Florida, el Presidente colocó el nombre Estados Unidos.
Por lo demás, son iguales.
En el anuncio de Jeb Bush en el 2002, sobre la imagen de banderas de Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua y de la Florida, una voz dice: 'No importa de dónde venimos o por qué venimos. Nosotros encontramos en esta tierra una mejor oportunidad, una mejor educación para nuestros hijos, la atención médica que nuestras familias merecen, un estado que nos ha abierto su corazón y nos ha dicho `esta es nuestra casa' ''.
En el anuncio del Presidente, aparecen las mismas banderas y en el mismo orden, pero esta vez sobrepuestas a imágenes de hispanos.
Mientras, un narrador dice: ``No importa de dónde venimos o por qué venimos. En esta tierra encontramos oportunidad, una mejor educación para nuestros hijos, el cuidado médico que nuestras familias merecen. Vivimos en un país que nos ha abierto su corazón, nos ha dado una verdadera oportunidad, los Estados Unidos, nuestro país''.
La similitud de los anuncios ha sido resaltada incluso por los demócratas, quienes ven en ello prueba de que el mensaje que el Gobernador usó para su reelección le dio tan buen resultado que su hermano decidió repetirlo.
Según el encuestador demócrata Sergio Bendixen, el anuncio del Gobernador fue tan exitoso entre los hispanos no cubanos en el centro de la Florida, que el reflejo en las urnas fue espectacular. ``En las presidenciales del 2000, en Orlando, el apoyo al [ex vicepresidente demócrata Al Gore] fue de 65 por ciento frente a 35 por ciento de los republicanos. Pero dos años después, Jeb Bush le gana a Bill McBride por un 55 a 45. O sea, ¡un cambio de casi 40 por ciento! Espectacular, nunca se había visto''.
Según Bendixen, el éxito se debió ``a la eficacia del mensaje. Siempre he apuntado ese anuncio como la clave, por lo bien logrado y el impacto que tuvo''.
(C) 2004 El Nuevo Herald
Además de ser hermanos y republicanos, ¿qué tienen políticamente en común el presidente George W. Bush y el gobernador Jeb Bush?
No son mera coincidencia las semejanzas entre el anuncio electoral por televisión que la campaña del Presidente estrenó esta semana y el que hizo el Gobernador hace dos años.
En ambos anuncios, dirigidos al electorado hispano, el mensaje hace hincapié en las posibilidades que en este país se abren a los inmigrantes latinos, pero donde el Gobernador habla de la Florida, el Presidente colocó el nombre Estados Unidos.
Por lo demás, son iguales.
En el anuncio de Jeb Bush en el 2002, sobre la imagen de banderas de Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua y de la Florida, una voz dice: 'No importa de dónde venimos o por qué venimos. Nosotros encontramos en esta tierra una mejor oportunidad, una mejor educación para nuestros hijos, la atención médica que nuestras familias merecen, un estado que nos ha abierto su corazón y nos ha dicho `esta es nuestra casa' ''.
En el anuncio del Presidente, aparecen las mismas banderas y en el mismo orden, pero esta vez sobrepuestas a imágenes de hispanos.
Mientras, un narrador dice: ``No importa de dónde venimos o por qué venimos. En esta tierra encontramos oportunidad, una mejor educación para nuestros hijos, el cuidado médico que nuestras familias merecen. Vivimos en un país que nos ha abierto su corazón, nos ha dado una verdadera oportunidad, los Estados Unidos, nuestro país''.
La similitud de los anuncios ha sido resaltada incluso por los demócratas, quienes ven en ello prueba de que el mensaje que el Gobernador usó para su reelección le dio tan buen resultado que su hermano decidió repetirlo.
Según el encuestador demócrata Sergio Bendixen, el anuncio del Gobernador fue tan exitoso entre los hispanos no cubanos en el centro de la Florida, que el reflejo en las urnas fue espectacular. ``En las presidenciales del 2000, en Orlando, el apoyo al [ex vicepresidente demócrata Al Gore] fue de 65 por ciento frente a 35 por ciento de los republicanos. Pero dos años después, Jeb Bush le gana a Bill McBride por un 55 a 45. O sea, ¡un cambio de casi 40 por ciento! Espectacular, nunca se había visto''.
Según Bendixen, el éxito se debió ``a la eficacia del mensaje. Siempre he apuntado ese anuncio como la clave, por lo bien logrado y el impacto que tuvo''.
(C) 2004 El Nuevo Herald
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 6:14 da tarde
