ARON HELLER, AP - Dressed in sneakers, khaki pants and a sweatshirt, the
chairman of Israel's pro-marijuana Green Leaf party takes a drag from
his cigarette. "If it was up to the youth, I would be the Prime Minister
of Israel," Boaz Wachtel says, sitting on a worn-out sofa in his Tel
Aviv office. That may be a pipe-dream, but the prospect of Wachtel and
his party getting into parliament is not.
Some pollsters say Green Leaf - buoyed by support from young, urban,
secular Israelis - could win two seats in the 120-member Knesset in the
March 28 election, leading the charge of small parties. The ultraliberal
party, whose platform includes legalizing marijuana, gambling and
prostitution, was twice before on the verge of gaining access to the
halls of power. . . Despite widening its platform to include a dovish
attitude toward Palestinians, Green Leaf has remained firmly on the
fringes, and public opinion experts say the legalization of marijuana is
not a campaign issue in Israel.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060311/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_green_leaf
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WAR DEPARTMENT
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BUSH REGIME DECLARES CASIO WATCH A TERRORIST WEAPON
BEN FOX ASSOCIATED PRESS - The U.S. military cites the digital watches
worn by prisoners when they were captured as possible evidence of
terrorist ties. Casios have been used repeatedly in bombs, after all,
including one used by the architect of the 1993 World Trade Center
attack. . . Wearing a Casio is cited among the unclassified evidence
against at least eight of the detainees whose transcripts were released
by the Pentagon after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The
Associated Press. The prisoners, who stand accused of links to al-Qaida
or to the Taliban in Afghanistan, say they have been shocked that
wearing a cheap watch sold worldwide could be used against them. . .
Even guards at Guantanamo wear Casios, noted Usama Hassan Ahmend Abu
Kabir, a Jordanian accused of belonging to a group linked to al-Qaida. .
. "I have a Casio watch due to the fact that they are inexpensive and
they last a long time," the 34-year-old detainee told a tribunal. "I
like my watch because it is durable. It had a calculator and was
waterproof, and before prayers we have to wash up all the way to my
elbows."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Guantanamo_Casio_Connection.html
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OTHER NEWS
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GETTING THROUGH THE BAD TIMES
JENNIFER ELLINGSTON, DC STATEHOOD GREEN PARTY - On March 1st in
Annapolis at a hearing on [a] proposed constitutional amendment to
prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at American
University, was requested to testify. At the end of his testimony,
Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says
marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say
about that?"
Raskin replied: "Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed
your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not
place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."
The room erupted into applause.
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WORD
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President Bush says America has caused an incredible transformation in
Afghanistan. He said everything's being rebuilt, people are getting
jobs, kids are going back to school. He said it works so well that he's
thinking of trying it in New Orleans. -- Jay Leno
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THE MIX
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WOMEN
HELEN THOMAS ON GETTING STARTED AS A WOMAN REPORTER - When I started
out, there was kind of an automatic reflex to assign a woman who comes
knocking on the door of the newspaper--if there's any slot it would be
on the woman's pages, which is ok because there's lots of news in that
field. But it was the tail end of World War II, and they were drafting
every young man who had a pulse. If he was breathing, he was going to
war, and that left a lot of slots in the hard news offices for help. So
women suddenly became the thing to hire.
But after the war, it was a real shocker to me. We had about nine women
fired from our office. I was hiding under a table, knowing this. But
they wouldn't have wanted me; I was going to work at 5:30 in the morning
and I was simply a gofer, really. The presumption was that these male
reporters, young men, 21 years old, 22 years old who had usually been in
college, would want to come back to these jobs for $24 a week. They came
back as colonels, captains, commanders and so forth. And they looked at
those girls and said "Hell no!"
I hate to think that World War II helped me get started--I mean that's
the tragedy. That was true in medicine, law, all these
professions--women had a tough, tough time. Still--they're not there
yet. They should never give up the battle for equality. . .
The Press Club we couldn't go--you had to be escorted by a man if you
were going to get a cocktail or dinner or something. That was shocking.
Even though we were on beats with men, toe-to-toe in competition, they
did not take us in until 1971. And it was because the Club was down on
its uppers, financially, and needed our money, needed our dues. - CAMPUS
PROGRESS
http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/33176/
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