One killed in Washington-area subway train collision

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Two Metro subway trains collided between stations north of downtown Washington, D.C., during afternoon rush hour Monday, killing at least one person, CNN has confirmed.

The crash occurred just before 5 p.m. on an above-ground track on the Red Line in Takoma Park, Maryland, just north of the District of Columbia.

Taryn McNeil, a spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, said there were reports of injuries, but she was unable to provide confirmation

Chris Brown – Settlement reached in Chris Brown’s alleged beating of Rihanna

2:09 PM | June 22, 2009

A plea deal has been reached between Los Angeles prosecutors and pop star Chris Brown, who is accused of assaulting singer Rihanna before the Grammy Awards.

Brown will plead guilty to a felony and receive six months in jail or community labor — such as graffiti removal or trash pickup — and five years’ formal probation. He will also undergo domestic violence counseling. Judge Patricia Schnegg said he will be allowed to complete counseling, community labor and probation in his native Virginia, but is to be treated there like any other offender.

[Updated at 2:15 p.m.: Schnegg says she plans to issue “a stay-away” order barring Chris Brown from having contact with Rihanna. But an attorney for Rihanna said she doesn’t want the order. Sources told The Times that Brown’s camp initially rejected the plea agreement and had been mulling the settlement for several days.]

[Updated at 2:26 p.m.: “I think it is comendable you took responsibility for your conduct,” Schnegg told Brown.

After Chris Brown left with his entourage, Rihanna was brought into the courtroom and informed of the stay-away order by the judge. “Thank you,” she told the judge and then left through a back door of the courtroom.]

Brown, 20, was arrested in February for allegedly beating and threatening Rihanna during an argument in a rented Lamborghini.

The alleged altercation occurred as the couple drove home from a pre-Grammy party. The news that Rihanna was injured and that Brown was wanted by police surfaced the next day as scores of celebrity reporters awaited the couple’s arrival on the red carpet.

If convicted of felony assault and criminal threats, Brown would have faced a maximum of five years in prison.

— Harriet Ryan and Richard Winton

More:

Live courthouse reports from the Chris Brown-Rihanna preliminary hearing

Michelle Obama kicks off volunteer campaign in SF

By MICHELLE LOCKE – Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO — First lady Michelle Obama plans to kick off a summer of community service Monday by helping refurbish a school playground, while a number of cabinet officials fan across the country donating time to promote the campaign.

The initiative, known as United We Serve, was announced by President Barack Obama in a video message last week.

The president is urging people to help in the nation’s economic recovery by volunteering at schools and hospitals and pitching in on community needs ranging from tutoring to trash pickup.

First lady Michelle Obama eats a pea with fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in the First Lady’s Garden after they harvested some of the vegetables that they planted in a garden on the South Lawn of The White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2009.

Michelle Obama is putting the idea into action by joining California first lady Maria Shriver and local volunteers at Bret Harte Elementary School in San Francisco, where the playground is being refurbished to include an edible garden with a farmers market stand where kids and seniors can sell vegetables to raise money for the school.

Later, the first lady is scheduled to speak at the 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service.

A number of other people are also set to speak, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Earlier, a volunteer driver from the nonprofit Disabled American Veterans participated in the United We Serve program by transporting Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and two Vietnam-era veterans through commuter traffic to a VA hospital in Washington.

Shinseki said he was amused by the advice the veterans gave the driver to quickly get to their appointments.

“Except for them, we’d still be in traffic,” Shinseki told staff members at the hospital after the ride.

More than 80,000 people donated time last year helping with VA-related programs, but Shinseki said there’s concern that there’s been a decline in the number of volunteers.

Other senior VA officials volunteered at homeless shelters and in other ways.

Tammy Duckworth, a VA assistant secretary who lost both her legs and partial use of one arm in an attack in Iraq in 2004, recalled a fellow veteran offering to wash her hair when she was injured and another volunteer pulling up a blanket for her when she was on a gurney in a hospital hall and unable to move her arms.

“Sometimes, it’s the smallest gesture that makes the difference to these vets,” Duckworth said.

Other officials promoting the event included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who was to play basketball and talk with young people at the Police Athletic League in Philadelphia.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was visiting La Mesita Homeless Shelter for Families in Mesa, Ariz. to read to children and serve lunch at the child care center.

Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan was set to help rebuild a home in New Orleans.

United We Serve is led by the government-run Corporation for National and Community Service.

Associated Press Writer Kimberly Hefling in Washington contributed to this report.

US Senate passes detainee photo bill

Senate passes detainee photo bill

Bill sponsor Lindsey Grapham says it will help protect American troops

By JAMES ROSEN – jrosen@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON – Sen. Lindsey Graham urged the House on Thursday to follow the Senate in passing his bill prohibiting the release of classified photos showing abuse and humiliation of terror suspects held by the United States.

The Senate unanimously approved the Graham measure, co-sponsored by Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, late Wednesday

“They’re embarrassing, they’re inappropriate and they would be used by our enemies to put our troops in jeopardy,” Graham said of the photos.

Graham, R-S.C., said the photos were similar to those of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, which caused an international uproar when they were released in 2004.

“Passing this bill is essential to protecting our fighting men and women,” Graham and Lieberman said Thursday in a joint statement. “Each one of these photos would be tantamount to a death sentence to those serving our nation in the most dangerous and difficult spots like Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere.”

Obama initially supported releasing the photos – most of which Graham said depict detainees being held at U.S. prisons in Afghanistan – but changed course last month.

The Senate passed the Graham-Lieberman legislation banning the photos’ release as a stand-alone bill after Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, called Graham earlier Wednesday and asked him to stop blocking a broader war spending measure.

Graham had vowed to filibuster that $106 million supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan and hold up other Senate bills after the House Democratic leadership removed a Graham-Lieberman amendment barring release of the detainee photos.

The Graham-Lieberman amendment and a separate provision providing $1 billion to the auto industry had delayed passage of the war spending bill for days.

Graham said Obama promised to issue an executive order if necessary to ensure the controversial photos weren’t released.

Graham and Lieberman agreed to remove the photo-release ban from the war-spending bill and to offer it as free-standing legislation, which the Senate approved by voice vote Wednesday evening.

Free of the detainee-photo issue, the Senate on Thursday passed the war spending bill by a 91-5 vote.

Graham voted for the $106 million measure, while Sen. Jim DeMint voted against it.

DeMint’s aides said he opposed the bill because it contains “a 108 billion IMF bailout” and the $1 billion to help automakers.

“It is wrong to use our troops as an excuse to force through runaway spending and bad policies,” DeMint said.

The measure provides only $5 billion in direct funding to the International Monetary Fund, as part of a credit line that could go higher.

The Graham-Lieberman bill prohibits the release of the detainee photos for three years, with the defense secretary or the president authorized to extend the ban an additional three years.

Graham said a bill passed by Congress and signed by the president would carry more weight than an executive order.

Graham said Speaker Nancy Pelosi must overcome resistance from Rep. Barney Frank and other Democrats for his measure to pass in the House.

James Rosen covers Washington for McClatchy newspapers in South Carolina.

Mother charged with abusing her 3-year-old

Sunday, Jun. 21, 2009

Mother charged with abusing her 3-year-old

By LEE HIGGINS – lhiggins@thestate.com

The mother of the 3-year-old girl who was kicked in the head and abdomen by her father over “potty training issues” was arrested Saturday, Richland County sheriff’s deputies said.

Nicole D. Ford, 26, was charged with unlawful neglect of a child after being released from a Columbia hospital where she gave birth Friday to her fifth child, sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Chris Cowan said.

Ford is accused of physically abusing the 3-year-old over an “extended period of time,” leaving bruises to her head and body, Cowan said.

The 3-year-old remains in critical condition at Palmetto Health Richland, where she was transferred Tuesday from Providence Hospital Northeast.

The girl’s father, Keion J. Gibson, 30, was charged Tuesday with inflicting great bodily injury upon a child, deputies said.

Investigators were called Tuesday to Providence Hospital, where the girl was being treated for severe bruises and internal injuries to her head and body, deputies said.

Gibson is accused of repeatedly kicking the girl while she was lying on the floor of their apartment, deputies said. He said it was “because of potty training issues,” deputies said.

Doctors confirmed the girl suffered injuries prior to that attack, Cowan said.

The girl, newborn baby and other siblings ages 1, 5 and 6 are in the custody of the State Department of Social Services, authorities said.

Gibson and Ford are at Richland County jail.

Senate confirms Tenenbaum

Saturday, Jun. 20, 2009

Senate confirms Tenenbaum

Former S.C. schools chief will lead Consumer Product Safety Commission

By JAMES ROSEN – jrosen@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Friday unanimously confirmed Inez Tenenbaum as chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in unusually swift action on a top nominee of President Barack Obama.

Tenenbaum, in her first public comments since Obama chose her last month, said her first major task will be overseeing implementation of a sweeping consumer-safety law Congress passed last year.

“I’m looking forward to being the consumer advocate for the people and for the children of the United States,” she said in an interview shortly after the Senate voice vote.

• Inez Tenenbaum

About the newly confirmed head of Consumer Product Safety Commission

Age: 58

Family: Husband, Sam Tenenbaum

Education: Bachelor’s degree, University of Georgia; law degree, University of South Carolina

Professional experience: Attorney, McNair Law Firm; attorney, Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd (1986-92)

Political experience: S.C. superintendent of education, 1998-2006; ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1994 and for U.S. Senate in 2004

The CPSC

About the Consumer Product Safety Commission

Headquarters: Agency operates out of Bethesda, Md., and has 430 employees

Duties: Oversees safety of 15,000 products, from toys and cribs to ATVs and toasters, focusing on products that pose fire, electrical, chemical or mechanical hazard or can injure children

Authority: Can compel manufacturers to recall products that pose serious risk of injury or death

Outlook: President Obama is seeking $107 million for the agency in 2009-10 fiscal year, 3.4 percent more than current funding.

On deck

President Barack Obama has tapped two more appointees with South Carolina ties who must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Mignon Clyburn, Federal Communications Commission

Clyburn, of Charleston, is a member of the state’s Public Service Commission. She is the daughter of U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat. If confirmed, Mignon Clyburn will be one of the commissioners of the federal agency that regulates mass media such as television and radio.

Charles Bolden, NASA

Bolden, a Columbia native and former astronaut who now lives in Houston, has been nominated to head the nation’s space agency. If confirmed, Bolden will be in charge of the $18 billion agency.

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, who defeated the then-South Carolina public schools superintendent in their 2004 U.S. Senate race, congratulated Tenenbaum.

“I’m confident she has the determination and skills to lead this important commission,” DeMint said. “I look forward to working with her to ensure our nation continues to have the safest products in the world.”

DeMint, a Greenville Republican, had introduced Tenenbaum to other members of the Senate Commerce Committee at her confirmation hearing Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Seneca Republican, also applauded Tenenbaum.

“I know Inez and am confident she will hit the ground running,” Graham said. “She will look out for American consumers and provide the agency with the leadership it needs.”

Congressional and Obama administration sources said Tenenbaum could be sworn into office as early as next week to take the helm of a demoralized agency that saw its staff and budget cut under President George W. Bush.

Tenenbaum, 58, said Obama or Vice President Joe Biden likely would swear her into the post, which carries an annual salary of about $149,000.

Reached at the weekend – and eventual retirement – home she and her husband, Sam, have near Caesars Head State Park in the Upstate, Tenenbaum said she planned to leave for Washington early Monday to shop for furniture for her new home outside the nation’s capital.

The Senate confirmed Tenenbaum in near-record time, approving her scarcely a week after getting her formal nomination papers.

Among 166 Obama administration nominees to date that require Senate confirmation, only three others have been affirmed as quickly, congressional and Obama administration sources said.

“There are a great number of challenges facing the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but the good thing is that Congress voted last year to revitalize the agency in light of the surge of imports and the fact that we live in a global economy,” Tenenbaum said.

Two-thirds of the products the commission regulates come from overseas, most of them from China.

China’s communist government has drawn the ire of consumer advocates because of health and safety problems caused by toys with lead paint, defective drywall and other products.

“One of the important challenges is to address the issue of Chinese drywall to determine what it is that’s corroding electrical wiring within the walls and also causing considerable respiratory problems to people who live in homes that use the drywall,” Tenenbaum said Friday.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 requires tracking labels for all children’s toys and third-party certification of imported goods.

Rosen covers Washington for McClatchy Newspapers in South Carolina.

South Carolina Governor, missing since Thursday, reportedly located

Monday, Jun. 22, 2009

Sanford, missing since Thursday, reportedly located

By John O’Connor and Clif LeBlanc

The whereabouts of Gov. Mark Sanford was unknown for nearly four days, and some state leaders question who was in charge of the executive office.

But Sanford’s office told the lieutenant governor’s office Monday afternoon that Sanford has been reached and he is fine, said Frank Adams, head of Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer’s office on aging.

Neither the governor’s office nor the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for governors, had been able to reach Sanford after he left the mansion Thursday in a black SLED Suburban SUV, said Sen. Jake Knotts and three others familiar with the situation but declined to be identified.

Sanford’s last known whereabouts had been near Atlanta because a mobile telephone tower picked up a signal from his phone, authorities said. His office now knows where he is, Adams said.

First lady Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press earlier Monday her husband has been gone for several days and she did not know where.

She said she was not concerned.

The governor’s state and personal phones had been turned off and he had not responded to phone or text messages since at least the weekend, a source familiar with the situation said.

Most mobile phones cannot be tracked if they are turned off.

Jenny Sanford said the governor said he needed time away from their children to write something.

The governor’s office issued a statement Monday afternoon: “Gov. Sanford is taking some time away from the office this week to recharge after the stimulus battle and the legislative session, and to work on a couple of projects that have fallen by the wayside. We are not going to discuss the specifics of his travel arrangements or his security arrangements.”

One official familiar with the situation said there was no indication that foul play might have been involved because Sanford occasionally makes trips without his security detail.

Knotts, a longtime Sanford critic, said he contacted SLED Chief Reggie Lloyd Saturday after he heard reports the governor could not be reached.

“Chief Lloyd confirmed that my information is legitimate,” Knotts said. “He shared my concerns” about succession of power in Sanford’s absence, the Lexington Republican said. Lloyd could not be reached immediately on Monday.

“I was recently made aware that Governor Sanford has frequently been eluding SLED agents and disappearing at odd times,” Knotts said. Previously, Sanford has not been out of all contact – including with his own office – for this long before, a source, who insisted on anonymity, said.

Knotts said the state’s chief executive should never be unreachable.

“As the head of our state, in the unfortunate event of a state of emergency or homeland security situation, Governor Sanford should be available at all times to the Chief of SLED,” the senator said.

“If for any reason, including the unknown whereabouts of the Governor, he is unable to perform the duties of his office the Constitution provides that the lieutenant governor assumes the position of governor.

“I want to know immediately ­ who is running the executive branch in the governor’s absence,” Knotts said.

The question of succession came just after Sanford became governor in 2003.

He joined the Air Force Reserve and was sent to Alabama for two week’s training with his unit, the 315th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron based in Charleston. Sanford did not transfer power to Bauer at the time, saying he would be in regular contact with his office.

Sanford said then he would transfer authority in writing to the lieutenant governor only if he were called to active duty.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Reach Clif LeBlanc at cleblanc@thestate.com and John O’Connor at joconnor@thestate.com

Bailed-out firms spend Millions on Lobbying

By Dan Eggen

updated 22 minutes ago

GM, banks find cash to fund bids to sway lawmakers, Obama administration

Top recipients of federal bailout money spent more than $10 million on political lobbying in the first three months of this year, including aggressive efforts aimed at blocking executive pay limits and tougher financial regulations, according to newly filed disclosure records.

The biggest spenders among major firms in the group included General Motors, which spent nearly $1 million a month on lobbying, and Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase, which together spent more than $2.5 million in their efforts to sway lawmakers and Obama administration officials on a wide range of financial issues. In all, major bailout recipients have spent more than $22 million on lobbying in the six months since the government began doling out rescue funds, Senate disclosure records show.

The new lobbying totals come at a time of mounting anger in Congress and among the public over the actions of many bailed-out firms, which have bristled at attempts to cap excessive bonuses and have loudly complained about the restrictions placed on hundreds of billions of dollars in government loans. Administration officials said this week that top officials at Chrysler Financial turned away a $750 million government loan in favor of pricier private financing because executives didn’t want to abide by new federal limits on pay.

The reports revived objections from advocacy groups and some lawmakers, who say firms should not be lobbying against stricter oversight at the same time they are receiving billions from the government through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP.

“Taxpayers are subsidizing a legislative agenda that is inimical to their interests and offensive to what the whole TARP program is about,” said William Patterson, executive director of CtW Investment Group, which is affiliated with a coalition of labor unions. “It’s business as usual with taxpayers picking up the bill.”

But several company representatives said yesterday that none of the money borrowed from the government has been used to fund lobbying activities – though there is no mechanism to verify that. Financial firms have successfully quashed proposed legislation that would explicitly ban the use of TARP money for lobbying or campaign contributions.

‘Very complicated policy debates’
GM spokesman Greg Martin said that maintaining a lobbying presence is vital to ensure that the automaker has a say when major policy decisions are made. “We are part of what is arguably one of the most regulated industries, and we provide a voice in very complicated policy debates,” Martin said.

According to quarterly lobbying reports that were due Monday, more than a dozen financial firms and carmakers that have received TARP assistance spent money on lobbying during the first three months of this year. After Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase, top lobbyists included American Express, Wells Fargo Bank, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Most of the companies spent less on lobbying this year than they did during the first quarter of 2008. J.P. Morgan, for example, spent $1.43 million in early 2008, compared with $1.31 million this year. Others, however, showed increased spending, including Capital One Financial, which doubled its quarterly lobbying expenditures to more than $400,000.

The lobbying records do not yet include campaign contributions by corporate lobbyists. Bank of America, for example, which spent $660,000 on lobbying in the first quarter, also gave more than $218,000 in campaign contributions through its PAC, according to the Federal Election Commission.

The Citigroup lobbying report provides a glimpse of the troubled company’s interests in Washington, including credit card rules, student loan policies, and patent and trademark issues. Citigroup chief executive Vikram S. Pandit and other company officials lobbied fiercely against a House bill approved in March that would have placed a 90 percent tax on bonuses for traders, executives and bankers earning more than $250,000 at firms that had been bailed out by taxpayers. The proposal stalled in the Senate.

Citigroup spokeswoman Molly Meiners said the company “specifically prohibits the use of TARP funds for lobbying-related activities” and said the funds “are subject to an oversight and approvals process.”

Database editor Sarah Cohen contributed to this report.

More on GM | JP Morgan Chase

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Stimulus Dollars to be Released for Schools

By LIBBY QUAID
AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first round of school dollars from the economic stimulus law is going to states this week.

To mark the occasion, Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Wednesday is visiting first- and fifth-grade classes at Doswell Brooks Elementary School in Capitol Heights in the Maryland suburbs of Washington.

Public schools will get an unprecedented amount of money – double the education budget under President George W. Bush – from the stimulus law over the next two years.

On Wednesday, the administration is making available half of the dollars for federal programs that fund kindergarten through 12th grade and special education. In addition, Duncan will provide applications for states to get money from a special fund to stabilize state and local budgets.

President Barack Obama says the stimulus will save teachers’ jobs, although there is no estimate of how many jobs will be rescued. Nationwide, about 294,000 teachers – 9 percent – may face layoffs because of state budget cuts, according to a University of Washington study.

However, loopholes created by Congress could let states and school districts spend the money on other things, such as playground equipment or new construction.

The White House has stymied efforts by lawmakers in South Carolina to accept that state’s share of $48.6 billion made available under the stimulus law to help states cope with their budgets and keep teachers employed. South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford has said he may decline more than $700 million because the White House won’t let him spend the money to pay down his state’s debt.

In a letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the White House said there was no provision in the stimulus law for a state legislature to accept that money without approval by the governor. In its letter, obtained by The Associated Press, the White House Office of Management Budget urged Congress to change the law.

“It would be an unfortunate (and we believe an unintended) policy outcome if the children of South Carolina were to be deprived of their share of federal stimulus dollars … because the governor chooses not to apply for stimulus funds,” OMB Director Peter Orszag wrote Tuesday.

Duncan said last week he will “come down like a ton of bricks” and withhold the second round of funds from anyone who defies Obama’s wishes.

At the same time, the administration wants to do more than save teachers’ jobs. Obama wants to transform the federal government’s role in education. His administration views the stimulus bill as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put lasting reforms in place.

In their applications, states must show improvement in teacher quality, data systems, academic standards and tests and supporting struggling schools.

States and districts will also have a chance to compete for money from a $5 billion fund solely for these kinds of innovations. Previous education secretaries had a fraction of that, about $16 million a year, to distribute for their own priorities.

Associated Press Writer Jim Davenport contributed to this story from Columbia, S.C.

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President Obama Repeats Bush Folly on UN Racism Conference

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

President Obama got it right and terribly wrong on the UN Racism Conference in Geneva. He rightly demanded that the conference convenors drop the stock Zionism is racism plank from the draft resolution of the conference. The Israel knock was the same sticking point that former President Bush used to dodge going to the anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa in 2001. The convenors complied and sanitized the objectionable language from the resolution. That should have been enough to get a U.S. delegation on a plane to Geneva.

For a brief moment it looked like it would be enough. An Obama spokesperson went so far as too publicly praise the move and say that the administration was deeply grateful for the change. The Obama administration wasn’t grateful enough though to attend.

This is where President Obama gets it terribly wrong. The 20 nations that initially put the anti-Israel language in the resolution as well as certain other rhetorical points that the U.S. can’t stomach can’t be challenged in absentia. There is still too much bitter racial and ethnic hate and turmoil in too many places in the world that have nothing to do with Israel and Middle East problems that scream for attention. Attention that President Obama can’t duck. The United States has the money, muscle, and political clout to take the lead in the continuing fight against racism, repression, genocide, state sponsored ethnic war and cleansing in every part of the globe. That’s all state or group sponsored racial and human rights abuses and that includes abuses by some of the nations that ritually target Israel for its human rights abuses.

Obama seems to welcome that chance to confront those nations on their abuses saying repeatedly that he will engage them whenever and wherever he can. He’s shown signs of keeping that promise on Cuba and Iran. But they are relatively soft targets since there is broad international consensus that the US must dump its archaic, outdated, and failed policy on Cuba, a policy that’s out of step with all of Latin America. In the case of Iran, US outreach is a matter of international security since Iran is a looming regional and international nuclear threat.

Diplomatic détente with Cuba and Iran, though, doesn’t do much to spotlight caste oppression in India, the plight of the Kurds in Turkey and other Mid East countries, skinhead violence in Germany and Britain, the continuing theft of Indian lands in Brazil, Mexico, and Guatemala, and the genocidal ethnic attacks in Darfur and the Congo. Nor does it prod Canada and Australia to do even more to right the historic wrongs against Indians and Aborigines. The US must also call on the carpet those corrupt African and Asian dictatorial regimes that elevate violence and terror to state policy against dissidents, many of whom are invariably of different ethnic groups.

In 2001, a clearly conflicted Secretary of State Colin Powell understood this. He thought the decision to bail out of the Durban conference was a grave mistake, and that the U.S. should and could do more good by being there to prove that it did take the fight against global racism seriously. Powell understood that the racism conference was supposed to draw up a battle plan to combat racism wherever it reared its ugly head in the world.

In the provisional agenda the UN Racism conference drew up in 1997 it called for nations to identify victims of discrimination, develop prevention, education, and protection measures, and provide long term strategies to bolster national and international efforts to combat discrimination. The obsessive focus on Israel just kept getting in the way of making any real headway on that agenda. The disputed resolution equating Zionism with racism passed in 1975 by a deeply divided U.N. was vague and ill-defined and had no force of law.

It did nothing to alleviate Palestinian suffering. Instead, it made Israel dig its heels in deeper and refuse more concessions on Palestinian rights. The U.N., with the consent of Arab nations and the Palestinians, wised up to the blunder and overwhelmingly voted to dump the resolution in 1991. However, it still keeps cropping up as a barrier to getting the US to the conference table.

The big danger in a one track focus on Israel is that the conference will again give short shrift to the ethnic warfare that still rages in these countries.

The Congressional Black Caucus has been one of the Obama administration’s loudest cheerleaders. Yet it flatly called the Obama administration’s decision to skip Geneva disappointing. It’s more than disappointing. It’s yet another opportunity the US blew to struggle against global racism. Bush didn’t do that, and that was no real surprise. But Obama is not Bush and for him to blow the opportunity to engage against global racism at Geneva repeats Bush’s folly.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, “The Hutchinson Report” can be heard on weekly in Los Angeles on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and nationally on blogtalkradio.com.

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