The conventional wisdom says that gays and lesbians should support Democrats’ efforts to expand the federal government’s role in healthcare. After all, in 2008 more than 70 percent of gay voters supported Barack Obama for president, and Democrats up and down the ballot count on gay dollars to fuel their campaigns and advocacy work. The Democrats would never push healthcare reform that actually hurts gay and lesbian Americans, right? Wrong. The truth is that Democratic efforts to expand government-run healthcare will expand discrimination and make quality, affordable healthcare even less available to gay and lesbian families all across the country. The Defense of Marriage Act, passed by Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support, and signed by a Democratic president — Bill Clinton — prohibits the extension of domestic partner healthcare benefits and denies recognition of any same-sex relationship. Indeed, even the Obama administration admitted that this legislation would bar the extension of domestic partner healthcare benefits. The left’s demand for government-run healthcare, the so-called “public option,” will leave gay and lesbian families completely and totally out. Gays, who currently are able to secure health insurance that provides for domestic partner benefits for their families, will find no such options when it comes to government-run healthcare. Worst, low-income gay and lesbian families, who can’t afford private insurance and will be forced by federal mandate into government-run healthcare, will be hit the hardest. This isn’t the first time that the Democratic Party has put its allegiance to big government over the best interests of gay Americans. GOProud, the only national organization representing gay conservatives and their straight allies, has endorsed the bicameral Patients’ Choice Act, which would make quality, affordable healthcare available to all Americans without creating government-run healthcare.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus sharply criticized a U.N. meeting on climate change on Tuesday at which U.S. President Barack Obama was among the top speakers, describing it as propagandistic and undignified. "It was sad and it was frustrating," said Klaus, one of the world's most vocal skeptics on the topic of global warming. "It's a propagandistic exercise where 13-year-old girls from some far-away country perform a pre-rehearsed poem," he said. "It's simply not dignified." Klaus said there were increasing doubts in the scientific community about whether humans are causing changes in the climate or whether the changes are simply naturally occurring phenomena. Klaus published a book in 2007 on the worldwide campaign to stop climate change entitled "Blue Planet in Green Chains: What Is Under Threat -- Climate or Freedom?" In the book, Klaus said global warming has turned into a new religion, an ideology that threatens to undermine freedom and the world's economic and social order.
With a diplomatic wink and nod, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev opened the door Wednesday to backing potential sanctions against Iran as a reward to President Obama's decision to scale back a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe. While U.S. and Russian officials denied a flat-out quid pro quo, Medvedev told the U.N. General Assembly that Obama's pivot on a missile defense plan long loathed by Moscow "deserves a positive response." Obama himself has said his missile decision may have spurred Russian good will as a "bonus." "We believe we need to help Iran to take a right decision," Medvedev said after the two leaders met on the sidelines of the U.N. assembly. The prospect of a unified U.S.-Russian stance on new sanctions would put Iran under added pressure to yield some ground on its nuclear program. A member of the Russian delegation, speaking on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Russians, said Moscow's final position on the question of imposing further sanctions would be determined, to a large extent, by Medvedev's consultations here. The U.S. and Russia are among six countries that will hold talks in Europe next week with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. Obama wants to reserve the possibility of pursuing tougher sanctions if those meetings lead to no restraint by Iran in the weeks ahead.
Your Sept. 13 editorial “A Clear Assault on the Press” is a timely reminder that Turkey has a considerable distance to cover before meeting the criteria qualifying it for membership in the European Union. It is timely because there is now a concerted effort to promote Turkey’s European Union accession. Cyprus supports its accession, provided Turkey satisfies the necessary criteria. Turkey supported the 2004 Annan plan for Cyprus only because its key conditions were incorporated into it. A balanced, functional compromise would have been acceptable to the Greek Cypriots in 2004, as it would be today if such a plan emerges out of the current talks. The main difficulty is that Turkey has not moved one inch in its key demands (Turkey’s guarantee of a settlement, including the right of military intervention, and legalization of mainland Turkish settlers, among others). The foreign minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, has demonstrated diplomatic acumen and achieved remarkable results in several areas. One could ask why it is only on Cyprus that Turkey’s positions remain inflexible and anachronistic. If Turkey moderated its position and reunification of Cyprus occurred, it would be a win-win situation. The moment should not be squandered. Andreas Jacovides. New York, Sept. 19, 2009. The writer is former ambassador of Cyprus to the United States.
Sibel Edmonds has a story to tell. She went to work as a Turkish and Farsi translator for the FBI five days after 9/11. Part of her job was to translate and transcribe recordings of conversations between suspected Turkish intelligence agents and their American contacts. She was fired from the FBI in April 2002 after she raised concerns that one of the translators in her section was a member of a Turkish organization that was under investigation for bribing senior government officials and members of Congress, drug trafficking, illegal weapons sales, money laundering, and nuclear proliferation. She appealed her termination, but was more alarmed that no effort was being made to address the corruption that she had been monitoring. A Department of Justice inspector general’s report called Edmonds’s allegations “credible,” “serious,” and “warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI.” Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee members Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have backed her publicly. “60 Minutes” launched an investigation of her claims and found them believable. No one has ever disproved any of Edmonds’s revelations, which she says can be verified by FBI investigative files. John Ashcroft’s Justice Department confirmed Edmonds’s veracity in a backhanded way by twice invoking the dubious State Secrets Privilege so she could not tell what she knows. The ACLU has called her “the most gagged person in the history of the United States of America.” But on Aug. 8, she was finally able to testify under oath in a court case filed in Ohio and agreed to an interview with The American Conservative based on that testimony. What follows is her own account of what some consider the most incredible tale of corruption and influence peddling in recent times. As Sibel herself puts it, “If this were written up as a novel, no one would believe it.”
Osama Araban, a Muslim man riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, went on a rampage last week in Egypt, killing 63-year old Coptic Christian Abdo George Younan, in the village of Bagour, before traveling onwards and stabbing with intention to kill two other Copts in two different villages, at least 10 km apart. The funeral procession of Abdo Younan was attended by thousands of Copts, led by Metropolitan Archbishop Benjamin of Menoufia Diocese and seventeen clergymen. Hundreds of banners were held, showing the amount of anger and injustice felt by Copts. Anti State Security chants were heard during the procession, besides calling on President Mubarak and the government to save the Copts from the hands of the fundamentalist who are killing them. The details of the attacks, not told by the media, but exposed by Coptic lawyers and activists, reveal that 35-year old car painter Osama Araban not only stabbed Abdo nine times but also severed his head from his body -- an Islamic ritual beheading. He then meticulously washed his bayonet with the water hose the victim was using, before setting off on his motorcycle to the next two villages, looking for more Coptic victims. Egyptian State Security, which is in charge of drafting press releases and news related to Muslim attacks on Christians, decided from the start which route they wanted the incident to take, and tailor the news accordingly. In an attempt to influence public opinion for the forthcoming acquittal of the Muslim killer, the media reported that the reason for the killing was a "material dispute." No Muslim has ever been sentenced justly for killing a Copt. Consequently, the Egyptian Government's manipulation of facts is not to save the Copt's murderer from a just punishment, but more to save its face in front of the Western world for being blatantly unjust towards the Coptic victim, given that Egypt is a member of the UN Human Rights Council which is responsible for the protection of human rights around the globe.
VII. Green Patriarch: His All Holiness Bartholomew I, to convene environmental meeting in New Orleans
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, will convene dozens of environmental scientists, business leaders and public officials in New Orleans next month to discuss environmental challenges facing people in the Mississippi River Valley. Bartholomew, known in some quarters as the "green patriarch" for his interest in the intersection of religion and the environment, has convened seven prior environmental gatherings around the world since 1995. Although based in Istanbul, Bartholomew has sponsored meetings to focus attention on environmental challenges to the Arctic, the Amazon, the Adriatic, Baltic and Black seas and the Danube river. Beginning Oct. 18, the week-long meeting, which opens in Memphis and continues in New Orleans, will assemble scientists, business leaders and policy makers to discuss environmental challenges to people along the Mississippi River, the patriarch’s office said. Bartholomew recognizes that, "while climate change didn’t cause the levees to break and cause the terrible disaster of Hurricane Katrina, he does recognize that what climate change is doing is causing natural phenomena like storms and droughts to be more severe," with implications for New Orleans, she said. Bartholomew’s visit will be his second to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Four months after the storm he stood on the breached levee overlooking the ruined Lower 9th Ward with Archbishop Alfred Hughes and offered prayers for the living and the dead. Bartholomew is one of several patriarchs of Eastern Orthodox churches, which date from the earliest days of Christianity. Members of the Orthodox world include Greek, Armenian and Russian Orthodox churches, as well as smaller churches based on various nationalities. Bartholomew, sometimes called the Ecumenical Patriarch, has no governing authority over the Orthodox world, but his office is often referred to as a first among equals.