The News

Bush throws immigration fit; Loving day near

Obama Seeks Powell’s Advice on Policy Issues. What is really going on?
Mr. Powell also said he believed the United States’ military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had become “a major problem” in the way America was perceived around the world. “If it was up to me, I would close Guantánamo — not tomorrow but this afternoon,” Mr. Powell said.—AP/Times

Bush Vows to Get Immigration Bill Passed. While he was gone…
As he heads home from an eight-day European swing to face a hostile Congress, President Bush today lashed out at Democrats for holding a vote of no confidence on his attorney general, and vowed to get his stalled immigration legislation passed, saying, “I’ll see you at the bill signing.” But while the president has been gone, his already diminished clout on Capitol hill has seemed to deteriorate further. The immigration bill was put on hold when Republicans revolted. He was forced to withdraw his nomination of General Peter Pace to be chairman of the military’s joint chiefs of staff to avoid a bruising nomination fight. Mr. Bush put the blame on Congress. —NYTimes

Democrats Say They May Revisit Immigration Bill. Moving on.
With Bush administration officials and Republican authors of the overhaul saying they had not given up on the bill, the spokesman for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said Mr. Reid would be willing to try again if Republicans agreed to a defined number of amendments and a time limit on debate.
“If and when Republicans can agree on a limited number of amendments and agree on the need to get this bill passed, Senator Reid is committed to finding room on the Senate schedule as soon as possible,” said Jim Manley, the spokesman, who said President Bush needed to play a role as well. “The hope is that he can apply enough pressure to provide the votes we need to get the bill out of the Senate.” —NYTimes

Meth Adds Scourge to Troubled Native American Lands. Important read despite use of “savageness.”
In 2001, the Indian Health Service, the U.S. agency that treats Indians and Alaska natives, recorded 2,980 emergency room visits and paramedic calls on reservations related to the drug, which is also known as speed, crank, ice, crystal and glass.—Washington Post

The Senate Confronts a Gonzales Vote. You don’t have to go home, but…
“Each and every senator will have to ask what’s more important - fixing the basic functioning of the Justice Department and upholding the rule of law, or voting in lockstep with a president who’s out of touch with the serious problems in his administration,” Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the sponsor of the no-confidence plan, said Sunday. “ I hope we get strong, bipartisan support for this measure because the president would be hard pressed to ignore such a powerful message.”—NYTimes

Mixed-race marriage gained legal status in Virginia 40 years ago. Time to celebrate.
“Part of the ideology at supported laws against racial intermarriage was… that children of mixed unions weren’t going to succeed.” That old outlook has been punctured, Rosenfeld said, by the success of such multiracial people as Illinois senator and presidential candidate Barak Obama, actress Salma Hayek and golfer Tiger Woods. Still, white Americans have been slower to accept interracial marriages in comparison to other mixed-race situations, such as living next to or working with black folks, said Maria Krysan, a sociology professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago who studies racial attitudes.—Virginia Pilot

Slaves who died at sea being honored. Now where’s the retribution?
On Saturday, offerings of water, honey and rum were to be poured along the shores of South Carolina and elsewhere for Middle Passage Remembrance Day. The remembrance is held the second Saturday in June. —AP

Sheffield overruns, but isn’t far off base. More on the Black athlete’s theory on Latino baseball players.
At the risk of even more generalization, so much is riding on those Latino players’ success that they constantly walk the finest of lines between going along with the program and asserting the aggressive traits they need to thrive.—The Baltimore Sun

Posted at 7:21 AM, Jun 11, 2007 in News | Permalink | View Comments