THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN NEWS 11A WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2008
OLYMPICS
OLYMPICS House members pressure Bush to rethink decision
WASHINGTON — Fifteen House members, citing China's human rights abuses, on Tuesday urged President Bush to reconsider his decision to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.
"It would be clearly inappropriate for you to attend the Olympic Games in China, given the increasingly repressive nature of that country's government," the lawmakers wrote in a letter organized by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
The letter cited China's recent crackdown of protests in Tibet, the Beijing government's close economic ties with the government of Sudan and recent suppression of religious and human rights advocates. It noted that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had said he may not attend the opening ceremonies because of the situation in Tibet and that leaders in other countries were considering a boycott of the opening ceremonies.
The letter was signed by 14 Democrats and Republican Dana Rohrabacher of California, a longtime critic of the Chinese government.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in an interview with ABC Television, also told Bush to consider staying away the opening ceremonies as a symbolic gesture against China's actions in Tibet. She said she did not support a boycott of the games by athletes.
Bush has taken the position that the Olympics are about athletic competition, not politics, but he sharply confronted China's President Hu Jintao recently about Beijing's harsh crackdown in Tibet.
ENTERTAINMENT McCain, Letterman spar in friendly late-night quarrel
NEW YORK — Republican presidential candidate John McCain good-naturedly sparred with David Letterman on Tuesday night"s "Late Show."
During his monologue, Letterman joked that the Arizona senator reminded him of "the guy at the hardware store who makes the keys" and "the guy who can't stop talking about how well his tomatoes are doing."
After Letterman added that McCain looked like "the guy who points out the spots they missed at the car wash," the senator appeared on stage.
"You think that stuff's pretty funny, don't you?" McCain asked, then added: "Well, you look like a guy whose laptop would be seized by the authorities."
McCain also said the host resembled the guy caught smuggling reptiles in his pants, to which Letterman replied, "Don't knock it if you haven't tried it."
The candidate also likened Letterman to the manager of a creepy motel, the guy who enjoys watching his swim trunks inflate in a hot tub and the guy about whom neighbors later say, "He mostly kept to himself."
Later in the show, the two discussed more serious issues, including the national credit crisis, Iraqi casualties, the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Bear Stearns and accusations that McCain's not a true conservative Republican.
"I think maybe some people think that you ought to have exactly the same position they have on every issue," McCain said.
ELECTION Obama focuses on McCain ignores race with Clinton
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Sen.
Barack Obama is talking about
the elephant in the room — Rep-
ublican rival John McCain — and
all but ignoring the Democrat
who stands between him and his
party's presidential nomination.
Even though Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was campaigning miles down the Northeast Extension in Philadelphia, Obama criticized the likely Republican nominee's policies on the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, trade and tax cuts. In his town-hall session Tuesday, and in other campaign appearances in recent days, Obama has sought to frame the race as a general election matchup between him and McCain.
Of course, there's the little matter of a Pennsylvania primary on April 22, and Clinton's double-digit lead in recent state polls.
The extended presidential nomination contest has resulted in an odd political triangle, with each candidate taking alternate turns criticizing one or both of their competitors.
"He's on a biography tour right now," Obama said of McCain. "My argument with John McCain is not with his biography, it's with his policies."
Democratic race should run its course, Pelosi says
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the superdelegates who may ultimately decide the Democratic party's presidential nominee have a right to vote as they wish, and that the drawn-out contest between candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama should be allowed to reach its conclusion.
"These superdelegates have the right to vote their conscience and who they think would be the better president, or who can win, but they also then should get involved in the campaigns and make their power known there," Pelosi said in an interview aired Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Pelosi recently drew objections from Clinton backers when she said she shared Obama's view that superdelegates — nearly 800 elected officials and party leaders — should be guided by the vote for pledged delegates. Obama leads Clinton in pledged delegates earned in primaries and caucuses, but Clinton leads Obama in endorsements from superdelegates. Overall, Obama has 1,632 delegates to Clinton's 1,500, according to the latest Associated Press tally. It takes 2,024 delegates to win the nomination.
Pelosi repeated her view that it would it be harmful to the party if superdelegates were perceived to overturn the will of voters, but made clear she was not suggesting Clinton withdraw from the race.
"I think the election has to run its course," Pelosi said. "I think that for all that I have said about respecting the will of the people that the inference to be drawn from that is that we have to continue the election in terms of hearing from the people."
WASHINGTON Rice keeps ball rolling with morning workout
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she realizes few other people are willing to rise at 4:30 a.m. to get in a daily workout.
"That's my own particular strangeness," says the gym rat diplomat.
Actually, some days it's 4 a.m., and she considers 40 minutes on an elliptical exercise machine a "light cardio" day. She adds a tough regimen with weights on those wimpy days, under the tutelage of a hardbody trainer.
"Like everybody, I get up some mornings and think, 'I can't do it.' And then I think, 'Sure you can, because you won't feel as alert if you don't,'" Rice said in an interview with Fitness magazine.
HAVANA — Shoppers snapped up DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers Tuesday as a slew of consumer products went on sale to all Cuban citizens for the first time. Possibly more significant, Cuba announced it will lend unproductive state land to private farmers to boost agricultural production.
WORLD Cubans less restricted under new president
Combined with other reforms announced in recent days, the measures suggested that substantial changes are being driven by new President Raul Castro, who vowed when he took over from his brother Fidel to remove some of the more irksome limitations on the daily lives of Cubans.
Many shopper mourned the fact that the newly available goods were unaffordable on the government salaries they earn. But that didn't stop them from lining up to see electronic gadgets previously sold only to foreigners or companies.
Associated Press