August 11, 2006 – Page 3 – Capitol Hill Blue

Considering Cuba after Castro

August 11, 2006

By DEROY MURDOCK

At this writing, Fidel Castro still breathes. Cuba’s supposedly world-class health system may sustain the dictator a while longer. Or, he may succumb within a medical establishment in which a Havana hospital I once visited grew anesthetic herbs to replace modern surgical painkillers that had vanished, thanks to the magic of scientific socialism.

Whenever Castro moves on to that great collective farm in the sky, America should implement several concrete measures to rescue Cuba and its wonderful people from 47 years of communist tyranny and mismanagement.

America: For better or for worse

August 11, 2006

By JAY AMBROSE

You will know America by knowing Americans, which is to say, the news is both good and bad, heartening and disheartening.

Start with a good man, with Joe Lieberman, a three-term U.S. senator who just lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut, not because of scandal or something badly amiss, but because of integrity, because he put principle above party and his re-election interests.

Living in the ‘right now’

August 11, 2006

By BETSY HART

I’m living a movie.

I recently saw "Click," starring Adam Sandler. While there was gratuitous vulgarity everywhere (OK, it’s an Adam Sandler film) the theme was so poignant: A fellow is essentially fast-forwarding through his life, missing all sorts of things, thanks to an out-of-control remote control. Faster and faster he goes … .

In my case, I’ve decided I’ve got some sort of bizarre time-folding or something involving the future and the past going on. Here it is: In a few weeks my youngest of four, my baby, is going to kindergarten, and so the preschooler-mom years are over for me; a dear niece of mine is off to be a freshman at my alma mater, the University of Illinois, where I spent some of the best and most remembered years of my life; and my 25th high school reunion is fast approaching. High school being where I made some of my best and lifelong friends, I ended up being on the organizing committee for the bash.

New Orleans residents still stressed out

August 11, 2006

Like many other New Orleanians nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina, John McCusker was experiencing the overwhelming stress of rebuilding his life.

Terrorism or discrimination?

August 11, 2006

Attorneys for two Arab-American college students accused of supporting terrorism through the sale of mobile phones said their clients were victims of discrimination, while authorities charged them Thursday with an additional felony.

New Jersey officials charged for taking bribes

August 11, 2006

Six New Jersey state treasury workers were indicted Thursday on suspicion of accepting dinners, entertainment, golf outings and spa treatments from a company hired to collect back taxes.

Oil prices bounce back up

August 11, 2006

Crude oil prices partially recovered early Friday from a drop of more than $2 a barrel sparked by expectations of lower jet fuel demand and weaker consumer confidence due to the thwarted airplane attacks in Britain.

Consumer confidence at 3-month low

August 11, 2006

Consumer confidence slid to a three-month low as people fretted about the direction of the economy and their own balance sheets in the months ahead.

Scientific breakthrough on Alzheimer’s

August 11, 2006

Scientists have discovered molecular janitors that clear away a sticky gunk blamed for Alzheimer’s disease — until they get old and quit sweeping up.

Brits foil plot to blow up airliners

August 11, 2006

British police said Thursday they thwarted a terrorist plot, possibly just days away, to blow up U.S.-bound jetliners over the Atlantic and kill thousands. Chilling accounts leaked by investigators described a plan on the scale of 9/11 that would use common electronic devices to detonate liquid explosives concealed in sports drink bottles to bring down as many as 10 planes in a nearly simultaneous strike.