WEST VIRGINIA News:

-Wired

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"Canvassers were told to act as if they were nonpartisan, to hide that they were working for the RNC, especially if approached by the media... In letters the firm sent to the libraries, Sproul misrepresented itself as America Votes -- a left-leaning national voter registration group not affiliated with Sproul -- but said that it was interested in registering "all those who wish to register to vote." Shortly after Sproul canvassers began working the libraries, though, patrons began complaining that the canvassers were being especially inquisitive about their political leanings, and some were pushing people to register as Republicans."

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-WashingtonPost

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Barack Obama - John McCain - Military - Terrorism - Iran - Palestine - Israel - Afghanistan - Foreign - South Dakota - Illinois - W.Va. - US - 2008 Election - "Obama criticizes McCain, Bush on appeasement talk." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama rebuked Republican [2008 Election Presidential] rival John McCain and [Republican] President Bush for "dishonest, divisive" attacks in hinting that the Democratic presidential candidate would appease terrorists, staunchly defending his national security credentials for the general election campaign." ... ""I'm a strong believer in civility and I'm a strong believer in a bipartisan foreign policy, but that cause is not served with dishonest, divisive attacks of the sort that we've seen out of George Bush and John McCain over the last couple days, " Obama told about 2,000 voters at a town hall-style meeting in a livestock barn [in South Dakota]." ... "Obama said McCain had a "naive and irresponsible belief that tough talk from Washington will somehow cause Iran to give up its nuclear program and support for terrorism."" ... ""They [Bush and McCain] aren't telling you the truth. They are trying to fool you and scare you because they can't win a foreign policy debate on the merits," said Obama. "But it's not going to work. Not this time, not this year."" ... ""That's exactly the kind of appalling attack that's divided our country and that alienates us from the world," Obama said." ... ""If they want a debate about protecting the United States of America, that's a debate I'm ready to win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for," Obama said. He blamed Bush's policies for enhancing the strength of terrorist groups such as Hamas [in Palestine] and "the fact that al-Qaida's leadership is stronger than ever because we took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan," among other failings." ... "Other Democrats accused McCain of hypocrisy Friday, saying the certain GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] presidential nominee had previously been willing to negotiate with the militant Palestian group Hamas." ... "In Charleston, W.Va. [West Virginia], speaking before Obama's speech, McCain told reporters: "I made it very clear, at that time, before and after, that we will not negotiate with terrorist organizations, that Hamas would have to abandon their terrorism, their advocacy to the extermination of the state of Israel, and be willing to negotiate in a way that recognizes the right of the state of Israel and abandons their terrorist position and advocacy."" -By Mike Glover with contributions by Glen Johnson -AP via -SeattleTimes

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Mother's-Day - Museum - West Virginia - Woman - Mother - People - Consumer - Marketing - Industry - "For the mother of Mother's Day, it's just never been right." ... "Anna Jarvis never had children, but she became the mother of Mother's Day, giving birth to the holiday during a serene church ceremony in her hometown [Grafton, West Virginia] 100 years ago." ... "At first, her creation was perfect and pure. People honored their mothers the way she envisioned it -- with a white carnation, a symbol of maternal purity, a handwritten note or a day off." ... "But then her holiday started acting like a rebellious teenager, selling out to the flower and card industry, leaving Miss Jarvis bitter and disillusioned. She ended her life in a mental asylum." ... "The story of Miss Jarvis and the holiday that she couldn't control come to life in two exhibits more than 20 miles south of Morgantown [West Virginia]. The International Mother's Day Shrine memorializes the first Mother's Day service on May 10, 1908, the anniversary of the death of Miss Jarvis' mother, Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis." ... "Four miles away from Grafton in Webster [West Virginia] is the Anna Jarvis Birthplace Museum, a lovingly restored wooden Civil War-era house." ... "Miss Jarvis likely would cringe if she could see Mother's Day today." ... "The simple white carnation handed out to mothers in the former Andrews Methodist Church 100 years ago has given way to modern marketing -- crowded department store Mother's Day sales, restaurant pitches for elaborate brunches and dinners, ornate floral bouquets and rows upon rows of Mother's Day cards, instead of the handwritten note she urged. On average, Americans are expected to spend $138 each on mom this Mother's Day, ringing up $15.8 billion in sales." ... "In her day, Anna Jarvis was a public figure and irresistible newspaper copy as she crashed confectioners' conferences, broke up a War Mothers' rally and threatened lawsuits -- all in the name of saving her beloved Mother's Day from encroachers." -By Cristina Rouvalis -Post-Gazette.com 

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John McCain - Health - History - Senior - Politics - Parents - Women - Education - Science - Money - 2008 Election - WVa - "Dean: McCain's Age Worries Voters: DNC Chair Cites Health, 'Old-Fashioned' Views." ... "Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Thursday that swing voters participating in focus groups commissioned by the D.N.C. [Democratic National Committee] bring up [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain's age unprompted." ... ""We didn't bring it up, but they volunteered it," said Dean who explained that voters have two concerns about McCain's age. "One was a health concern, the other was, and this is really interesting . . . that his views are old-fashioned."" ... "At the age of 72, McCain would be the oldest newly elected president in U.S. [United States] history if inaugurated in 2009." ... "Referring to what Dean characterized as the party's most conservative focus group in Charleston, W. Va. [West Virginia], the DNC chairman said "the women in that group were shocked that [McCain] believed health insurance shouldn't cover birth control pills and they were shocked about his belief in abstinence only education."" (1, 2) -By Teddy Davis and Mike Elmore -ABCNEWS.com 

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Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - John McCain - Debt - US- Iraq - Military - Illinois - West Virginia - Indiana - Car - Oil - Household - 2008 Election - "Obama Links Effects of War Costs to Fragility in the Economy." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois] Senator Barack Obama on Thursday blamed the fragile economy on “careless and incompetent execution” of the Iraq war, imploring voters in this swing state [of West Virginia] to consider the trickle-down economic consequences of the war as they choose a successor to [Republican] President Bush." ... "“When you’re spending over $50 to fill up your car because the price of oil is four times what it was before Iraq, you’re paying a price for this war,” Mr. Obama said to an audience at the University of Charleston [in West Virginia]. “When Iraq is costing each household about $100 a month, you’re paying a price for this war.”" ... "“No matter what the costs, no matter what the consequences, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain seems determined to carry out a third Bush term,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s an outcome America can’t afford. Because of the Bush-McCain policies, our debt has ballooned.”" ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton in Indiana:] “We spend $12 billion a month in Iraq, and that does affect the economy,” Mrs. Clinton said. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve gone into more and more debt. We’ve got to begin not only to withdraw our troops, but bring that money back home. We need to put that money to work here in Indiana.”" -By Jeff Zeleny and Michael Cooper with contributions by Patrick Healy -NYTimes 

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Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - 2008 Election - Lawmakers - Illinois - New York - South Carolina - Mississippi - Georgia - Virginia - North Carolina - Tennessee - Alabama - North Dakota - South Dakota - Kentucky - West Virginia - "Eyeing Obama coattails." ... "Democratic lawmakers are becoming persuaded that [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.[Democratic-Illinois]) would have a more positive impact on other Democrats on the November ballot than [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and New York Senator] Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.[Democratic-New York])." ... "Obama’s advantage over Clinton would be most pronounced in the Southern and Western states President Bush carried in 2000 and 2004, say lawmakers interviewed by The Hill. In total, 32 members of Congress from these “red states” have endorsed Obama. Twenty-two lawmakers from those states have backed Clinton." ... "Obama will “bring new people into the process in Southern states, there’s no question about it,” said Rep. James Clyburn, the House Democratic whip from South Carolina. “In these Southern states he’s bringing out more people, young people, African-Americans. They’re being energized by him.”" ... "Clyburn, who has stayed neutral in the primary, said Obama at the top of the ticket would “certainly” do more to help other Democratic candidates, citing South Carolina and Mississippi specifically." ... "Obama has picked up congressional endorsements from Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, North and South Dakota, Mississippi, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Clinton has not collected congressional endorsements from any of these states, according to a tally kept by The Hill." -By Alexander Bolton with contributions by Sam Youngman -TheHill.com

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Telecom - Amnesty - Corporate - Government - Spying - Intelligence - Politics - Investigation - Censorship - EMail - West Virginia - Nevada - Noteworthy - "Amnesty Day for Bush and lawbreaking telecoms." ... "The Senate today -- led by [West Virginia Democratic Senator] Jay Rockefeller, enabled by [Nevada Democratic Senator] Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] caucus -- will vote to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and will also provide full retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, thus forever putting an end to any efforts to investigate and obtain a judicial ruling regarding the [Republican President] Bush administration's years-long illegal spying programs aimed at Americans. The long, hard efforts by AT&T, Verizon and their all-star, bipartisan cast of lobbyists to grease the wheels of the Senate -- led by former [Republican President] Bush 41 Attorney General William Barr and former [Democratic President] Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick -- are about to pay huge dividends, as such noble efforts invariably do with our political establishment." ... "It's worth taking a step back and recalling that all of this is the result of the December, 2005 story by the New York Times which first reported that the [Republican President] Bush administration was illegally spying on Americans for many years without warrants of any kind. All sorts of "controversy" erupted from that story. Democrats everywhere expressed dramatic, unbridled outrage, vowing that this would not stand. James Risen and Eric Lichtblau were awarded Pulitzer Prizes for exposing this serious lawbreaking. All sorts of Committees were formed, papers written, speeches given, conferences convened, and editorials published to denounce this extreme abuse of presidential power. This was illegality and corruption at the highest level of government, on the grandest scale, and of the most transparent strain." ... "What was the outcome of all of that sturm und drang? What were the consequences for the President for having broken the law so deliberately and transparently? Absolutely nothing. To the contrary, the Senate is about to enact a bill which has two simple purposes: (1) to render retroactively legal the President's illegal spying program by legalizing its crux: warrantless eavesdropping on Americans, and (2) to stifle forever the sole remaining avenue for finding out what the Government did and obtaining a judicial ruling as to its legality: namely, the lawsuits brought against the co-conspiring telecoms. In other words, the only steps taken by our political class upon exposure by the NYT of this profound lawbreaking is to endorse it all and then suppress any and all efforts to investigate it and subject it to the rule of law." ... "FDL has a petition, jointly sponsored by me, directed at House members, demanding that they reject this lawless, authoritarian Senate bill and defend their own, previously passed bill (the RESTORE Act). I encourage everyone to sign it. You can do so here." -By Glenn Greenwald -Salon

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Consumer - Health - Safety - Food - Agriculture - Country - Peoples - Labor - Law - Money - Politics- Language - West Virginia - "Democrats Use Fine Print to Stymie Bush's Deregulation Agenda." ... "It is a single sentence, on page 147 of the annual appropriations bill funding the [Republican President Bush] White House, listed under the title ``Additional General Provisions.''" ... "The 18-word clause eliminates the money to pay for political appointees in each federal agency whose jobs are to approve any new regulations. By cutting the money for the positions, Congress would effectively repeal President George W. Bush's 11-month old initiative." ... "Democrats, writing the budget for the first time since Bush took office, are using their power over the purse to thwart Bush's campaign to loosen federal regulations. Lawmakers have added fine print to must-pass appropriations bills that sets new policy goals and increases funding for regulators such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission." ... "``It is critically important when we are facing beef recalls, toy recalls, mine collapses and workplace infringements that Congress provide the necessary resources to the relevant agencies for them to do the jobs they are required to do,'' said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, 90, a West Virginia Democrat." ... "Lawmakers also want agencies to file periodic reports to Congress charting their progress toward a host of Democratic policy goals, such as developing workplace ergonomic guidelines for a dozen industries, requiring country-of-origin labels on meat products and regulating a flavoring chemical that has been linked to lung disease." -By Brian Faler -Bloomberg 

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Julie MacDonald - Animals - Environmental - Science - Politics - Agricultural - Business - California - WVa - "7 federal wildlife decisions to be revised: A [Republican President Bush] political appointee had overruled recommendations by staff scientists on endangered species. She quit under a cloud." ... "Federal wildlife regulators will revise seven controversial decisions on endangered species and critical habitat made by an Interior Department political appointee who quit in the spring amid charges of improper meddling in scientific decisions." ... "California's arroyo toad and red-legged frog could regain protection that federal biologists determined was crucial to their survival, according to a letter the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent Friday to House Natural Resources Committee Chairman [West Virginia Democratic Representative] Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.). Rahall released the letter publicly Tuesday." ... "Former Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald, a civil engineer from California with no formal training in natural sciences, routinely questioned and sometimes overruled recommendations by biologists and other field staffers, according to documents, interviews and a review by the department's inspector general. The review outlined instances in which MacDonald advocated altering scientific conclusions in ways that led to reduced protection for imperiled species and that favored developers and agricultural businesses. And she was rebuked for providing internal documents to lobbyists." ... "Under her direction, proposed habitat protection for the endangered arroyo toad, a tiny amphibian that once inhabited many Southern California creek regions, was slashed by 93%. Similarly, the protected area proposed for the threatened California red-legged frog was reduced from 4.1 million acres to 450,000 acres." -By Janet Wilson -LAtimes

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