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Thursday, April 26, 2007
Texans Keep Up Fight for Breast Cancer Cure
Austin resident Ramona Magid pushed Texas members this week to continue breast cancer research funding. The Capitol Hill visit also marked Magid’s eighth anniversary of surviving breast cancer.
Ramona Magid, executive director of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s Austin affiliate, found a lump in her breast eight years ago; shortly after, a mammogram turned up negative.
Magid, 51, pressed all of the Central Texas congressional offices to continue funding research and treatment for the disease.
(cutline) Thirty years after she promised her dying sister she would fight to find a cure for breast cancer and started the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation in her honor, Texan Nancy Brinker told survivors on Capitol Hill Thursday to re-energize their efforts in Congress and “close the gap” in key research and health care spending.
“Younger and younger women are being diagnosed,” Magid said Thursday at a rally outside the Capitol. “You know you think you are invincible when you are 20 years old, but there are 19-year-olds that have been diagnosed. We want to get that message out again and reinvigorate (the cause).”
Magid’s visit to Washington was part of the Komen foundation’s 25th anniversary celebration. Thirty years ago, Texan Nancy Brinker promised her dying sister she would launch a fight to cure breast cancer, and the foundation that bears her sister’s name is now one of the most powerful cancer research organizations in the world.
Since its creation, the foundation has raised more than $1 billion and seen early detection and survival rates increase. But success can generate complacency, Brinker warned. For example, access to treatment and detection remains difficult for poor and minority communities, and women in those communities face tougher odds at beating a cancer diagnosis.
So to mark the foundation’s 25th anniversary, Brinker launched Close the Gap on Thursday, a new cause to equalize levels of access and breast cancer treatment nationwide. The foundation has also pledged to raise another $1 billion in breast cancer funding in the next 10 years.
“It is up to each of us to light the fire under each congressperson,” Brinker said. “Because we must fix the gap here so we can fix the gap around the rest of the world.”
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Is The Bush Administration Planning to Destroy Gitmo Documents?
That’s the fear of some 20 open government organizations.
They sent a letter today to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Allen Weinstein, the national archivist, expressing concern that all documents related Guantanamo detainees could be destroyed under a little noticed court order.
Tucked away in a 2004 federal court case over the detainees is this unusual order: The Amended Protective Order And Procedures For Counsel Access To Detainees At The United States Naval Base In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The order requires that “all documents containing classified information prepared, possessed or maintained by, or provided to, petitioners’ counsel (except filings submitted to the Court and served on counsel for the government), shall [u]pon final resolution of these cases, including all appeals … be destroyed by the Court Security Officer.”
Yet, the protective order states that “counsel for the government may retain one complete set of any such materials…” “We are concerned that the court’s order could be interpreted to authorize or direct destruction of government records that should be permanently preserved,” said Patrice McDermott, executive director of OpenTheGovernment.org, an umbrella organization of 65 conservative and liberal groups concerned about government secrecy.
The letters ask Gonzales and Weinstein to ensure that one set of complete records is maintained. Below is the letter.
April 26, 2007
The Honorable Alberto R. Gonzales Attorney General of the United States Robert F. Kennedy Building 950 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Via facsimile
Dear Mr. Attorney General:
It has come to our attention that the “Amended Protective Order And Procedures For Counsel Access To Detainees At The United States Naval Base In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases, Nos. 02-CV-0299, et al., Slip op. at ¶ 45 (D.D.C. Nov. 8, 2004), permits counsel for the government to retain one complete set of “materials that were presented in any form to the Court.” The Protective Order also states that “[i]n any subsequent or collateral proceeding, a party may seek discovery of such materials from the government, without prejudice to the government’s right to oppose such discovery or its ability to dispose of the materials pursuant to its general document retention policies.” Id. Yet, the Protective Order only states that counsel for the government may retain one complete set of any such materials…” Id. (emphasis added)
We are concerned that the Court’s order could be interpreted to authorize or direct destruction of government records that should be permanently preserved, such as the Combatant Status Review Tribunal record and the interview notes. The court’s order is permissive, allowing the government to retain a set; as you know, federal statutory records retention requirements mandate retention by the government of a set of the records. Further, the government and the public would be best served by the permanent retention of the materials.
Accordingly, we are writing to urge you to ensure that one complete set is retained by the government. Further, given the secretive nature of the process for counsel access to and the tribunals on detainees, we urge you to work with the Archivist of the United States to ensure that any such record sets are preserved permanently.
Please contact Patrice McDermott, Director of OpenTheGovernment.org (202 332 6736) or Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel to the National Security Archive (202 994 7059) if you have any questions.
Thank you.
Protective Order Letter April 26, 2007 Page 2 of 2
Sincerely,
Mary Alice Baish, Associate Washington Affairs Representative American Association of Law Libraries
Christopher Finan, President American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
Arnita Jones, Executive Director American Historical Association
Gilbert Bailon, President American Society of Newspaper Editors
Richard Karpel, Executive Director Association of Alternative Newsweeklies
Ronald A. Bosco, President The Association for Documentary Editing
Nancy Talanian, Director Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Elisa Massimino, Washington Director Human Rights First
Keith Robinson, Interim President Indiana Coalition for Open Government
Joan E. Bertin, Esq., Executive Director National Coalition Against Censorship
Lee White, Executive Director National Coalition for History
Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel National Security Archive Sibel Edmonds, Executive Director National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
Carol Wickersham, Coordinator No2Torture
Morton H. Halperin, Executive Director Open Society Policy Center
Patrice McDermott, Director OpenTheGovernment.org
Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, Executive Director Political Research Associates
Lucy Dalglish, Executive Director Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Christine Tatum, President Society of Professional Journalists
Edward Hammond, Director The Sunshine Project
Kenneth J. Hirsh, President. Southeastern Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries, Inc (SEALL)
Paul Magno Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International
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Hispanic Reps to Bush: No More Raids
Three members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with President Bush on Wednesday and asked him to stop the immigration raids which have been taking place at businesses around the country, according to Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.
Gutierrez said Thursday that the Caucus asked for the face time and that the president “certainly said that he would look into” the raids, which are conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security.
In addition, Gutierrez said “it was a very good meeting” and that Bush pledged to work with the lawmakers on “comprehensive immigration reform.”
Gutierrez made the remarks after a seminar at The Brookings Institution in Washington. He said the other two lawmakers who met with Bush were Reps. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., and Xavier Becerra, D-Calif. The latter is an assistant to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Gutierrez introduced a bill last month with Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., that would allow illegal immigrants to become legal residents and citizens if they pay $2,000 in fines, take English classes, wait six years, and leave the United States.
It would also create a temporary worker program for 400,000 foreign workers a year and increase penalties for businesses that employ illegal immigrants.
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Watchdog Group Demands Missing Document in U.S. Attorney Probe
Yesterday, we told you about how the Justice Department failed to turn over an important document revealing that former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton notified the Justice Department last fall when his office received a call from an Arizona Republican congressman under investigation.
People For the American Way president Ralph G. Neas is now calling for the Bush administration to make public all documents related to the contact between Rep. Rick Renzi’s office and Charlton’s office last fall.
Charlton was fired on Dec. 7, just weeks after the investigation of Renzi was made public and the phone call from his chief of staff was placed.
“Again and again this administration has refused to be candid with the American people,” Neas said. “We deserve all the facts about the US Attorney firing scandal, and we deserve them now. Congress has asked for all the documents relating to political interference with the fired attorneys. We need to know why nothing related to Rick Renzi has been released so far.”
The Justice Department has yet to return calls about the missing document.
Neas also called on Congress to investigate the possibility that Department of Justice officials held up the investigation of Renzi to help the Congressman win reelection in November.
According to a story published in the Wall Street Journal, “investigators pursuing the Renzi case had been seeking clearance from senior Justice Department officials on search warrants, subpoenas and other legal tools for a year before the election.”
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John Cornyn: Texas Dems’ Favorite Poll Pinata
In the second Democratic poll this week dooming John Cornyn’s Senate career, the numbers tallied by Survey USA showed that 43 percent of Texans approve of the way Cornyn is handling his job, and 40 percent disapprove.
(An earlier poll released by Hamilton Beattie & Staff this week found that 41 percent of Texans had a favorable opinion of Cornyn — but that another 40 percent of the state doesn’t know who he is.)
The one-two punch brought this gleeful response from Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman (and die-hard UT alum) Matthew Miller:
“Cornyn has a statewide name ID roughly competitive with the third string quarterback for the Longhorns.”
Which of course begs the question, does Miller know who Texas’ third-stringer will be this season?
‘Cause if Texas coach Mack Brown knows, he’s not telling (us, at least.) Will it be red-shirt freshman Sherrod Harris, or true freshman John Chiles who will back up Colt McCoy?
The polls draw attention away from the fact that the Texas’ Dems bench so far hasn’t fielded a Cornyn challenger.
Miller suggested that former Texas Comptroller John Sharp is looking into a race, as is Houston attorney Mikal Watts, former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk and State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston.
Cornyn’s office, slightly annoyed by the second call for a react on poll numbers in a week, especially when the Senator was busy leading reaction to the Iraq War vote, responded with this. It’s an extended version of their response to the week’s earlier Democratic poll:
“It’s a sad sign of disorganized desperation when a political party has to rely on misleading polls and partisan name-calling, in the absence of new ideas or even a candidate to articulate them,” said spokesman Brian Walsh. “This is really nothing more than a transparent attempt to raise Texas trial lawyer money for races in other states, rather than a serious belief by Democrats that they can make Texas competitive in 2008.”
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