European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 29, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday april 292007 stars and stripes Page 19 opinion what newspapers Are saying at Home the following editorial excerpts Are selected from a Cross Section of newspapers throughout the United states the editorials Are provided by the associated press and other stateside syndicates abortion ruling narrow valid the pantograph Bloomington Iii the ability of the their elected officials to take a stand for human decency was preserved by the us supreme courts ruling upholding a Feder Al Law Banning partial birth abortions supporters of the landmark Roe v Wade ruling and a woman right to choose whether to have an abortion tend to gloss Over one element of that ruling there is no absolute right to an abortion the government has a legitimate constitutional interest in the life of an unborn child after viability the Point when a fetus could survive outside of the womb the majority of justices in the latest Case Gonzales v Carhart ruled that the partial birth abortion Law did not create a substantial obstacle to a woman right to of the balancing test established in previous abortion related rulings this ruling is not the death Knell for All abortions that is feared by some and cheered by others it applies to a proce Dure used in a limited percentage of cases abortion ruling Broad wrong Lexington by Herald Leader five of the nine us supreme court justices should be busted for practising medi Cine without a License in upholding Congress ban on the most common kind of midterm abortion the justices gave lawmakers the godhead to med dle in decisions that should belong to physicians and patients if s Only going to get worse the court took an unbelievably patronizing View of women saying the ban would protect emotionally frail creatures from making decisions they might regret and by approving for the first time an abortion restriction that makes no provi Sion for a woman health the court invited state Legislatures to throw up More Road blocks to those seeking to safely end a preg Nancy this months ruling is hailed As a prolife Victory but the court did not protect a single fetus the ruling simply Man dates on which end of the birth canal an abortion takes place the ban does endanger women by dictating from Washington medical decisions about me 10 percent to 15 percent of abortions performed after the first trimester the notion that lawmakers and judges can protect women by criminalising Abor Tion is typical of the truth twisting that has typified this administration run the state at Safe speeds the record Seigen county no gov Jon Corzine has inadvertently be come the poster boy for Seatbelt safety he May also help to end the fast Lane travel habits of new Jersey governors now that crisscrossing the state at High Speed has been shown to be so dangerous if s been common knowledge that Gover nors sometimes Speed when there late for an appointment now ifs common knowledge that the practice can land you in the intensive care unit that s Why several other states prohibit High Speed motorcade for Public officials including Massachusetts Ohio South Caro Lina Tennessee Oklahoma California and Washington so does the us secret ser vice new Jersey should join them if obeying the Speed limit requires the prickly City by Scott Stantis Vij Bottoe happened governor to pare Down his schedule so be it governors Are notoriously late and some have gone even faster than confines 91 Mph Pennsylvania gov de renders official car was clocked at Over 100 Mph several times before he promised to slow Down but co Zines near fatal Accident is the ultimate cautionary tale it should serve As a reminder the next time a Public official is tempted to step on the Gas and turn on the emergency lights slowing Down should be state policy brings enough to a Gonzales the Seattle Post intelligencer us attorney general Alberto Gonzales has a wealth of reasons to resign he embarrassed his Justice department by firing Well qualified us attorney in questionable circumstances two aides have already resigned one talking about exercising the fifth amendment even if it turns out Mere was no taint of illegality anywhere in the efforts to influence the attorneys removal the firings were so arbitrary and political As to amount to an abuse of Power ifs no wonder Republican senators gave him Little support at a Capitol Hill hear ing or in the talk shows the ranking re publican on the judiciary committee sen Arlen Specter said on Fox news Sun Day no doubt it is bad for the depart ment of Justice several gop senators have suggested Gonzales cant be effective who could be after failing to recall answers to 71 congressional questions Given president Bush tendency to put loyalty ahead of the National interest Gonzales May have the one excuse he needs to stay the decider could keep Gonzales exercising capacity for inattention misjudgment and mismanagement reminiscent of the mishandled Hurricane katrina response us Justice deserves much better leave no improvement behind the Watertown by Daffy times just Over five years ago Congress approved a Broad expansion of the Federal government s role in education by passing the no child left behind act the land Mark legislation which made it through the Senate and House with overwhelming majorities Aims to bring All students up to Grade level in Reading and math skills by 2014 through mandatory testing and penal ties for failing to meet objectives but the future of the Law is in doubt experience has brought with it growing doubts about the wide ranging Impact of the Law which critics say forces schools to focus too narrowly on the tested subjects to show Progress through improved test scores As a result other subjects and activities Are shortchanged with compliance tied to Federal dollars the Law has Given Washington More leverage Over local school districts states have rebelled Connecticut is suing the Federal government for Lack of financial support to implement the Law testing requirements for students with limited English skills Are being challenged in Virginia and Arizona Utah is question ing the Rule requiring teachers to have a de Gree in the subjects they teach a Rule that hurts Small districts with few teachers asked to handle different subjects the Law will probably be reauthorized but the renewal has to take into consideration the complaints and provide More flexibility for states and school districts special environment disturbed Chicago Tribune no sooner had the Wail of sirens re placed the crackle of gunshots on april 16 at Virginia tech than Many of us took ref Uge in a familiar and reflexive question who to blame for not preventing this the people who sometimes do have the Power to prevent the unimaginable Are a far More prosaic lot doctors and pharmaceutical researchers and mental health workers who Deal As Best they can with the cases the medical challenges that they confront but that sort of explanation Doest fulfil our desire for Pat answers we hike our potential serial killers easy to identify like the criminals we meet in to crime dramas who live in dark apartments and mutter to their goldfish Why we de Mand to know didst somebody at Virginia tech Stop this Guy this impractical craving for precise preventions now has a nation parsing of All things Campus Proto cols for email notifications better we ask ourselves this what is More transient More free More untethered in our society than a Young person roaming the grounds of a huge University from there we can proceed to More fruit Ful pursuits How can we be on the Lookout get help around us whose internal rages make them Likely to Hurt someone else us right to confront Sudan the Buffalo by news president Bush has sent the right signal to Sudan Omar Elbashir there will be consequences if he continues to ignore pledges to end violence in the Darfur re Gion of his country but the warning Sig nals need the punch of a real deadline bus sounding the strongest Ever in his warnings to the sudanese president about imposing sanctions initially didst set a timetable but Deputy Secretary of state John Negroponte said monday the White House expects action within weeks meanwhile the sudanese government unabashedly continues its genocide against Black africans so far Between 200000 and 400000 deaths have been re corded and More than 2 million people have been displaced including 200000 refugees in Chad Bush is right to distrust Elbashir on both implementation of the second phase agreement and on other future Steps to reach out to rebels discontinue Aerial bombings by sudanese aircraft cease blocking humanitarian assistance and Stop obstructing the International Community work diplomacy has been done meanwhile people in Darfur still Are dying ifs time for the International Community to give More muscle to the diplomacy Hill ethics Retreat on Reform the Philadelphia inquirer after a promising Start cracking Down on corruption the democratic controlled us Congress is losing its urge to clean House bans on free trips and meals were imposed in the initial Rush for ethics Reform but the most obvious unfinished business is to establish a meaningful system for enforcing these new ethics rules the House ethics committee is responsible for disciplining lawmakers but ifs hard to imagine what magnitude of thievery it would take to get the committees at Tention just in recent weeks two House Mem Bers came under new scrutiny rep John Doolittle Calif gave up his seat on the House appropriations committee after the Fri raided his wife Home there Are re ports that he used his powerful position to help Jack Abramoff and rep Rick Renzi Ariz stepped Down from the House intelligence committee after the Fri raided his family business in an ongoing probe the House ethics panel has Long been stymied by partisan bickering and by Law makers reluctance to file complaints against one another for fear of instigating tit format investigations the House unlike the Senate does not accept ethics com plaints from anyone outside Congress what s needed after a decade of ineffective self policing is an Independent office to investigate ethics charges there was momentum for such a change when democrats took control in january but now a bipartisan task Force studying the Issue appears to be backing away the House democrats have Short memo Ries exit polls showed that a key Factor that thrust them into Power last november was the Public anger at the gop Majori Tys failure to police itself As in the Page scandal involving former rep Mark Foley of Florida if disgusted voters conclude that the new Boss on Capitol Hill is the same As the old Boss it wont go Well for democrats next time at the polls