Businesses Seek Protection on Legal Front – New York Times
Now that corruption cases like Enron and WorldCom are falling out of the news, two influential industry groups with close ties to administration officials are hoping to swing the regulatory pendulum in the opposite direction. The groups are drafting proposals to provide broad new protections to corporations and accounting firms from criminal cases brought by federal and state prosecutors as well as a stronger shield against civil lawsuits from investors.
Although the details are still being worked out, the groups’ proposals aim to limit the liability of accounting firms for the work they do on behalf of clients, to force prosecutors to target individual wrongdoers rather than entire companies, and to scale back shareholder lawsuits.
To alleviate concerns that the new Congress may not adopt the proposals — regardless of which party holds power in the legislative branch next year — many are being tailored so that they could be adopted through rulemaking by the S.E.C. and enforcement policy changes at the Justice Department.
The proposals will begin to be laid out in public shortly after Election Day, members of the groups said in recent interviews. One of the committees was formed by the United States Chamber of Commerce and until recently was headed by Robert K. Steel.
Mr. Steel was sworn in last Friday as the new Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, and he is the senior official in the department who will be formulating the Treasury’s views on the issues being studied by the two groups. nytimes.com
They need to get it done while they can. Need to watch these guys really carefully for the next two months!
Russia Led Arms Sales to Developing World in ’05 – New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 — Russia surpassed the United States in 2005 as the leader in weapons deals with the developing world, and its new agreements included selling $700 million in surface-to-air missiles to Iran and eight new aerial refueling tankers to China, according to a new Congressional study.
Those weapons deals were part of the highly competitive global arms bazaar in the developing world that grew to $30.2 billion in 2005, up from $26.4 billion in 2004. It is a market that the United States has regularly dominated.
Russia’s agreements with Iran are not the biggest part of its total sales — India and China are its principal buyers. But the sales to improve Iran’s air-defense system are particularly troubling to the United States because they would complicate the task of Pentagon planners should the president order airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities. … nytimes.com
My guess is, we didn’t cut down on much; they just beat us out for the contracts.
U.S. Jobs Shape Condoms’ Role in Foreign Aid – New York Times
EUFAULA, Alabama — Here in this courtly, antebellum town, Alabama’s condom production has survived an onslaught of Asian competition, thanks to the patronage of straitlaced congressmen from this Bible Belt state.
Usaid buys condoms from Alabama at twice the price of Asian ones.
Behind the scenes, the politicians have ensured that companies in Alabama won federal contracts to make billions of condoms over the years for AIDS prevention and family planning programs overseas, though Asian factories could do the job at less than half the cost. …
In recent years, the state’s condom manufacturers fell hundreds of millions of condoms behind on orders, and the federal aid agency began buying them from Asia. The use of Asian-made condoms has contributed to layoffs that are coming next month.
But Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, has quietly pressed to maintain the unqualified priority for American-made condoms and is likely to prevail if the past is any guide. nytimes.com
What do they call that? Let’s see…hyperbole? No. Hypoxia? No. Oh yeah! Hypocrisy!
Bishops Draft Rules on Ministering to Gays – New York Times
The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have drafted new guidelines for ministry to gay people that affirm church teaching against same-sex relationships, marriages and adoptions by gay couples, yet encourage parishes to reach out to gay Catholics who feel alienated by their church. …
“There certainly is some lovely language that sounds welcoming in here,” said Sam Sinnett, president of DignityUSA, an organization for gay Catholics, “but essentially they’re repeating all the spiritually violent things they’ve been saying about gay and lesbian Catholics for a couple of decades — that we are ‘objectively disordered’ and our relationships are intrinsically evil.” nytimes.com
If they’re nice to them, next thing you know they’ll want to become priests.
Nicaragua Bans Abortion – New York Times
The rights and safety of Nicaragua’s women took a giant step backward last week when the country’s legislature passed a law criminalizing all abortions, with no exceptions. The previous law permitted an abortion if the mother’s life was in danger. …
If Nicaraguans want to see the possible consequences of their new law, they can look next door to El Salvador, where all abortions have been banned since 1998. If doctors find evidence of an abortion, they are required to report their patients to the police. Women who sought medical help after a botched abortion have been handcuffed to their hospital beds. And some women with late-term abortions have been given 30-year prison terms. nytimes.com
It’s not the church so much as politics. Women get uppity when they aren’t busy raising lots of kids. They want to vote, and stuff like that. They run for office. Sometimes they get elected, or you have to kill them and that looks bad. Better to keep ‘em knocked up. Come to think of it, that’s how the church probably looks at it, too.
