U.S. wrestles with new role as owner (Politico)

Politico - The government struggles to set parameters on how it will act now that it has become the owner of a significant swath of Corporate America.

Sadly, History Repeats

The procedure Dr. George Tiller performed was barbaric, but even so, it did not justify this.

(CNN) -- A suspect in Sunday's killing of Dr. George Tiller, whose women's clinic in Kansas was the epicenter of the state's battles over abortion for nearly two decades, was in police custody Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Tiller, one of the few U.S. physicians who still performed late-term abortions, was killed Sunday morning by a single gunshot at the Lutheran church he attended in Wichita, police said. He was 67.

In 1995, a man named John Salvi murdered two women in Massachusetts. I was in college at the time, and responded with the column below the fold, which sums up what I still believe on this subject.

Only slightly less overwritten. Remember, I was in college at the time. Overwriting is a requirement for undergraduate journalism students. This was printed in the local paper in January of 1995. It's sad that these words have become relevant again.

Giving them a kicking

The election turnout next Thursday could either have nose dived, as people walked away from the election process as a whole, or they could flock to the polls as a protest vote. We wonder which way it would go, but now The Times seems to be pointing the way.

Relying on its Populus poll, it is suggesting that we might make 41 percent, up on the 38 percent in 2004, itself higher than the previous poll. That is completely bucking the general EU trend, with turn outs of 12 percent expected in member states such as Latvia.

There is no doubt as to why the British euro-elections have suddenly become so popular – and it has nothing to do with a sudden enthusiasm for MEPs. Simply, nearly four out of ten voters have decided to give their domestic politicians a kicking, the only way they can short of a lynching.

With UKIP leading the polls of the tiddlers – depending on which polls to take notice of – an exercise which the "colleagues" would love to think is the ultimate expression of confidence in the project is descending into pure farce. To protest against corrupt politicians in Britain, voters are set on sending even more corrupt politicians to Brussels, where the gravy train is even richer and the pickings easier.

There is no logic to this, and there is every logic to it. Since the whole exercise of sending MEPs to Brussels is meaningless, the voter reasons that they might just as well make the best of it and use the election for a purpose not intended.

When the results come in, they will be just as meaningless – a protest vote that will have no effect whatsoever on the domestic scene, as Brown battens down the hatches and stays in office for the full term.

Somehow, though, as even the saintly Mr Cameron is smeared, politics will never be the same. Estate agents will never, ever again be at the bottom of the popularity stakes.

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US-Cuba talks on immigration to resume (AP)

AP - Cuba has agreed to resume talks with the Obama administration on legal immigration of Cubans to the United States and direct mail service between the two countries in a move welcomed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

On This Day … in 1666 & Others

First day of the Four Days Battle. George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, chose to attack de Ruyter's Dutch fleet of 85 ships anchored off the North Foreland in the Channel, despite only having 54 ships - Prince Rupert's squadron was...