Rev. Sharpton faults the Christian right

By KEN KUSMER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 38 minutes ago
INDIANAPOLIS - The Rev.
Al Sharpton' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Al Sharpton criticized the Christian right Tuesday for focusing too much political discussion on abortion and same-sex marriage and said black churches must talk about fighting poverty, equal access to education and other social justice issues.

With comedian/activist Dick Gregory at his side, Sharpton also condemned Indiana's new voter ID law requiring people to present government-issued identification at the polls.
"We have been inundated in the faith community with bedroom sexual morality issues and not dealing with the broader moral issues of poverty, of injustice and of health care," Sharpton said at a news conference amid a two-day meeting of talks and revivals.
"We can no longer be misused by some in the Christian right that will not deal with the broader issue of injustice and fairness and inequity in our society," the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate said.
The Rev. Jeffrey Johnson, whose Eastern Star Church hosted the meeting, said the issues at stake in next Tuesday's election go beyond personal morality to broader questions.
"Why are half of our Afro-American boys not graduating from high school? Why is there 1.1 million more people in poverty over the past few years while we're talking about the better economy, and 11 percent of African-Americans are unemployed?" Johnson said.
Conservative Christian leaders said the problems Sharpton and Johnson cited were symptomatic of more fundamental ills.
"You've got to go beyond that and address the root causes, which is the breakdown of family and morality," said Tony Perkins, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council.
Stable homes for children will lead to better education, higher social attainment and lower incarceration rates, Perkins said.
The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a black conservative who leads the Los Angeles-based Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, or BOND, said Sharpton was most concerned with Democrats regaining political power.
"Jobs and education — those things come when families are united," Peterson said.
Sharpton said his agenda was nonpartisan.
He also criticized Indiana's new voter ID law, which will be tested in a general election for the first time next Tuesday. He compared it to poll taxes and other barriers to voting that blacks have faced.
"Now we don't ask you, 'Did your granddaddy vote?' when you know your granddaddy was a slave. We ask you for identification that we know large percentages of you would not have, given the social circumstances beyond your control," Sharpton said.
The U.S.
Census Bureau' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Census Bureau reported last March that only about 56 percent of blacks voted in the 2004 general election, compared with about 66 percent of whites. Among blacks who registered to vote but did not cast ballots, 7.2 percent cited registration problems.
The
American Civil Liberties Union' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and Indiana Democrats have challenged the voter ID law before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. No ruling is expected before next week's election.
The conference at Eastern Star Church was the third in a series this year by Sharpton's National Action Network, following gatherings last summer in Dallas and Augusta, Ga. The fourth begins Thursday in Detroit.
___
On the Net:
National Action Network: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_el_ge/storytext/sharpton_politics/20789757/SIG=117u949dk/*http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net/
Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_el_ge/storytext/sharpton_politics/20789757/SIG=10qnotk3l/*http://www.bondinfo.org/

Clerk's race down to the wire

Dear Salt Lake County Voter,The Salt Lake County Clerk's race is the toughest race in Salt Lake Countythis year. I have done everything I can to win. I have put up billboards,run radio ads, distributed thousands of signs and fliers, sent hundreds ofauto-dialer messages, knocked on doors, and created a state-of-the artwebsite - http://www.carrieforclerk.com/But, to win this race, I need your help getting my campaign message out. Itis crucial that people visit my website to read about why this is such animportant race before they vote on November 7.Please forward this email to every person in your address book so they canvisit my website, and then pass the word on to other voters. If you haveany additional questions about my stand on the issues, please contact me atany time:Email: cd4cc@yahoo.comCell: 699-9089.Thank you for your time and support but most importantly, for your vote onElection Day!Sincerely,Carrie Dickson,Republican Candidate for Salt Lake County Clerk.

No probe is in sight over DA donations

Is it too late for the Miller campaign to recover from this?

Prosecutors refuse to open case, and the CEO whose workers gave Miller their bonus says he did nothing wrong
By Derek P. Jensen The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:10/26/2006 01:11:36 AM MDT

Dell Loy Hansen has no idea if bonuses given to his employees then donated to Republican district-attorney hopeful Lohra Miller were illegal. He just wanted to topple Democratic DA David Yocom's "evil empire." "We don't know, we're no lawyers," the Wasatch Property Management CEO said Wednesday. Now, no one will ever know. Prosecutors decided Wednesday that the Salt Lake County ordinance allegedly violated contains no criminal penalty for non-officeholders such as Miller. Therefore, they opted not to waste taxpayer money on an investigation into the $24,000 in alleged "proxy" campaign cash mailed to Miller from Wasatch employees. The joint legal opinion - from nonpolitical appointees in the Utah Attorney General's Office and the county DA's office - did little to appease Miller, who insists the Wasatch donations were voluntary and again blamed her Democratic opponent, Sim Gill, for "dirty campaign tactics." "Having this kind of slanderous allegations made in the last weeks of an election," she said, "the damage can never be repaired." Hansen said he backed Miller because he wanted to do whatever he could do to take out the "evil empire," which he defined as Yocom and Gill. "They're the same person to me," Hansen said. Hansen also disputes the account of former employee Shauna Hardy, who told reporters she was "forced" to give a $2,000 bonus to Miller, calling it unethical. "We were very zealous in trying to get a better prosecutor in Salt Lake than David Yocom," Hansen said. "That's our biggest sin. We will concede that. What we will never concede is that people were coerced." Hansen acknowledged trotting out Miller in June before his employees for an introduction. ''I said, 'This is Lohra Miller. She is running for District Attorney. I'd like to do everything I can to get her elected.' '' Days later, the Wasatch CEO issued 20 employees $2,000 bonus checks along with a letter stating, "please consider donating to the candidate or cause of your choice." Twelve gave the cash to Miller, prompting cries of "proxy" contributions, outlawed by Salt Lake County election rules. Hansen says the money had no strings attached. And since income tax would be charged beyond the bonus amount, he noted, employees would be paying out of pocket if they donated the full $2,000. "They could have gambled it away for all I know," he said. "You've got the money. Have fun. Do something good with it. That's all we said." One employee gave his bonus to a Salt Lake City Council candidate, according to Hansen. Still, nervous Wasatch employees bombarded their boss with calls and e-mails Wednesday, wondering if the donations to Miller were illegal. Sally McPherron, a property manager for Wasatch, donated her $2,000 to Miller in June. McPherron said employees were told to give their bonuses to the candidate of their choice, but it was mentioned that Hansen supported Miller. "I was not at all [coerced]. I was happy to do it," she said. "I would definitely like to see Lohra Miller win." Lance Swedish, another Wasatch employee concurs, insisting there was no pressure to donate to Miller. "I made the donation willingly," he said. Even so, John Flynn, the retired University of Utah law professor who called for a probe, said despite the prosecutors' stand, voters are entitled to know who is financing campaigns. "It still is an ethical issue," he said. "It strikes me that it violates the spirit of [the county] regulation." Hansen counters he simply was compelled by his distaste for Yocom, who he said "crucified [former county mayor] Nancy Workman and crucified us." The latter reference stems from a bidding war over the old First Security Building on 400 South and Main, when Hansen alleges the DA threatened him to stay away from the building, which Yocom coveted for his attorneys. Yocom laughed off the accusation, noting Hansen triumphed in the end. "The last time I saw the man he put his arm around me and sang my praises," he said. "I thought it was an open competition to bid on the property. We lost out." Meantime, Hansen characterized Hardy as a disgruntled employee, who left the company last month in a contract dispute over commission, not the donation issue. He alleges Hardy's husband recently threatened to make the company's chief operating officer "a criminal," which Shauna Hardy disputes. "That's a pretty typical response - try to slander my good name," said Hardy, who adds she left Wasatch when her contract was changed shortly after getting bonus. "It was kind of like two slaps in the face right in a row. This is about doing the thing that is ethically right." And the lesson for Hansen: He's done with politics. "We will never donate to a politician again," he said. "You have inoculated us to that one. You guys are going to save me a ton of money." djensen@sltrib.com --- * Tribune reporter ROSEMARY WINTERS contributed to this story.

What would Democrats do about Iraq?

By Howard LaFranchi, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor 1 hour, 15 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - In poll after poll, prospective voters name
Iraq' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Iraq as the No. 1 issue in the upcoming midterm elections.

So if voters tip one or both Houses of Congress out of Republican control, what impact would that have on the US war effort in Iraq and, more generally, on American foreign policy?
Democrats could conceivably view such an election outcome as a mandate for asserting a markedly different course in Iraq than the one
President Bush' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> President Bush has set.

But don't expect too much, most experts say.
For one thing, Democrats are not of one mind on what to do about Iraq. And while committees chaired by Democrats might hold more meetings and call more testifiers critical of some White House policies, Mr. Bush would still retain the power of the presidential bully pulpit.
In addition, Bush's foreign policy in the second term has already evolved in a direction - away from unilateralism and toward greater cooperation - that suits both Bush's political opponents and moderates in his own party, some analysts say.
For others, the differences between Bush and the Democrats on the big foreign-policy issues are really a matter of details and not starkly black and white.
"My hunch is that there wouldn't be a large change in American foreign policy with a divided government because there really hasn't been a deep division over the overall direction of that policy," says Julian Zelizer, a specialist in foreign policy and contemporary American politics at Boston University.
"It's ironic because the rhetoric has been so fierce," Mr. Zelizer adds. "But there is general consensus on the war on terror, and even on Iraq it's principally a matter of specifics - for example, the exit strategy and how to handle the Iraqi government. It's not, 'the president says stay' versus 'the Democrats say get out now.' "
Indeed, while some Democratic members of Congress have fielded ideas that have pushed the Iraq debate forward - Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania calling for a withdrawal from Iraq, or Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) of Delaware proposing a confederation of sectarian-based provinces to stem the violence - the Democrats are not united behind one Iraq policy. That can be seen in the disparate campaigning by Democrats on Iraq, with the one common thread a stiff criticism of Bush's "stick with it until victory" policy.
Despite some niche attention to Darfur or
Iran' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Iran or China trade policy, foreign policy in the midterm elections largely boils down to Iraq. Recognizing that, the White House is signaling to voters that it hears and shares their anxiety, some analysts say, while suggesting that adjustments in policy are coming no matter the outcome of the elections.
"It's what I call the law of anticipated reaction," says Lawrence Korb, a former
Pentagon' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Pentagon official in the Reagan administration, now at the Center for American Progress in Washington. "The White House can read the writing on the wall and is already adjusting: They've given up 'stay the course' and are now talking about tactical adjustments," he says. "That way they get ahead of looking like they are being pushed by the Democrats."
That said, a House or Senate controlled by Democrats would not be welcomed by the White House. After all, relatively recent history shows that a hostile Congress can at least slow a president's preferred foreign-policy course.
As a new president in 1974, Gerald Ford received briefings from Pentagon officials saying the United States could stave off a full victory by North Vietnam in the south with a bombing campaign. But the Republican president decided against it. Faced with stiff opposition to more war from a Congress that had increased its Democratic majority in midterm elections, Mr. Ford would later conclude in his memoirs that approving the airstrikes would have gotten him impeached.
Congressional opposition to Bush's Iraq war policy may not have reached that level. But that and other differences over foreign policy could raise the speed bumps for the White House.
For example, Democrats who were earlier forced to hold a kind of rump committee meeting for retired military officers disgruntled over Iraq could now make such hearings official.
"It will cause problems for Bush, that we know," says Thomas Henriksen, a foreign-policy expert at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, Calif. "We could anticipate new troubles for [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld, more debate over what we do with radical Islam."
In terms of foreign policy, perhaps even more important than who controls Congress is the fact that Bush will be entering his last two years in the White House. Mr. Henriksen says Bush faces a "double whammy" of receding power and the unpopularity of his defining foreign-policy action.
"It makes him the ultimate lame duck," says Henriksen, who expects Republicans with presidential aspirations to begin distancing themselves from Bush policies that the public has turned against.
But not even this means that major shifts in US foreign policy are likely anytime soon. Some experts point out that Bush, hardly known as a leader who changes his mind easily, has paid little heed to respected foreign-policy thinkers in his own party with differing views: for example, Sen. Richard Lugar (news, bio, voting record) of Indiana, chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Senate Foreign Relations Committee, or Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record) of Nebraska, a longtime critic of Bush Iraq policy.
Some observers believe that kind of brushoff will end when the congressionally mandated Iraq Study Group, cochaired by former Secretary of State James Baker III, offers its recommendations sometime after the elections.
But there are even doubts in some quarters over how much stock the White House will put in those recommendations. This suggests to some analysts that the Democrats won't expect to make dramatic changes in foreign policy, even if they manage to win both houses of Congress.
"A lot of Democrats will remember the aftermath of 1994 [midterm elections that delivered a huge Republican tide], when one of the biggest mistakes of the Republicans was to overplay their hand the first year out," says Zelizer of Boston University. "The focus then was the domestic agenda, but it will still serve as a cautionary tale to the Democrats about being too bold."