Pretty strong edition of the New York Times today. Warren Hoge reports on some proposals for the UN in "U.N. Report Urges Big Changes; Security Council Would Expand." According to Hoge, among the things being considered are:
* upping the Security Council to 24 member
(including six additional permanent members, though the veto power with the current five: China, England, France, Russia & United States)
* six threats to international peace are named: "interstate conflict, civil war, economic and social threats, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and organized international crime"
Robert F. Worth's "In Falluja's Ruins, Big Plans and a Risk of Chaos" opens strong and is well worth reading:
Standing in the rubble outside an empty medical clinic here, Dr. Basam Mohamed, dressed in a blue blazer and work boots, gazed out at the ruins of his native city. He had just heard a group of American civil affairs officers explain their plans to rebuild the clinic and install a huge water tank behind it until the water pipes - smashed by bombs - could be fixed.
But Dr. Mohamed, a Health Ministry official in the Iraqi interim government, had other worries. His parents are among the residents who fled Falluja just before the American military offensive here earlier this month, he said. They are eager to return but have no idea how badly the fighting damaged the city
"They will feel hard toward the Americans," Dr. Mohamed said with a wince, as his American guides led him off to look at another ruined clinic.
* more than 200 buildings destroyed
* power lines damaged to the point that the city's looking at ripping out everything and rebuilding "from scratch" (a job expected to take a minimum of six months)
* months needed for repairs "to the city's water and sewer pipes"
Big plans, thirty-five million dollars spending project, but we've been down that road before.
Again, worth reading.
Richard W. Stevenson & David Johnston write about Tom "Ridge, First Head of U.S. Security Is Qutting Post." Lizz Winstead did a very funny "tribute" to Ridge to the tune of "Thanks for the Memories" this morning on Unfiltered.
Eli Sanders writes "Washington Has a Governor, but the Race Goes On" ( http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/01/national/01gov.html). Refer to previous blog entry to get the site on the recount if you'd like to make a donation.
On A18 is another article worthy of mention which opens strongly:
An animal rights group released grisly undercover videotapes yesterday showing steers in a major kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa staggering and bellowing long after their throats were cut. The plant, run by AgriProcessors Inc. in Postville, Iowa, is being denounced as inhumane by the group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and by several experts on animal science and kosher practice.
But the plant's supervising rabbi said the tapes were "testimony that this is being done right." And representatives of the Orthodox Union, the leading organization that certifies kosher products, said that while the pictures were not pretty, they did not make the case that the slaughterhouse had violated kosher law.
To read more of Donald G. McNeil, Jr.'s "Videos Cited in Calling Kosher Slaughterhouse Inhumane" click http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/01/national/01kosher.html .
Neil A. Lewis' "Red Cross President Plans Visit to Washington on Question of Detainees' Treatment' notes that IRC head, M. Jakob Kellenberger, would like to visit D.C. and speak with administration officials.
The only recount news in the paper (other than the governor's race in Washington state) is an Associated Press article "Nevada Judge Dismisses Vote Fraud Case" which deals with Peter Breen of Washoe County District Court tossing "out a legal challenge inteded to block Nevada's five electoral votes" from going to Bush. Doesn't it seem like if the Times truly feels that Ohio in and of itself is not enough for a story that with Nevada and New Hampshire recount issues as well, they could assemble some sort of a major article on this topic? (AP article notes that the New Hampshire recount "ended with results changing little." I haven't read anything on the New Hamsphire's results, has anyone?)
Judith Miller turns in "another slam piece on the UN" notes Carl in an e-mail on this morning's Times (Miller's story appears on A12). No one's e-mailed yet to mention the Charlie Rose appearence. (I taped Charlie Rose last month when Katrina Vanden Heuvel was on. Making time to watch it, and I wanted to see that, was almost impossible. I wasn't curious as to Judith Miller or what she had to say.)
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