WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Capital Comment -- Daily news notes, political rumors and important events that shape politics and public policy in Washington and the world from United Press International.
Coming soon to a bookstore near you -- The Family Research Council, a conservative public policy organization, has announced the release of The Family Portrait, a compilation of data, research, and public opinion on marriage and the family. Edited by Bridget Maher, the resource book is designed to be a research tool for policy makers, activists and educators. The book was introduced Monday during a panel discussion at the National Press Club analyzing the role the culture and public policies have in shaping families and American's attitudes about marriage and family. Participating in the discussion were Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the Department of Health and Human Services; Allan Carlson, FRC's new distinguished fellow for family policy studies; Charmaine Yoest of the department of politics at the University of Virginia and author of "Mother in the Middle;" and Gregory Acs of The Urban Institute's Income and Benefits Policy Center.
Over the hump -- A Department of Defense delegation recently concluded a visit to Yangon, Myanmar, where it laid the framework for operations to recover the remains of American servicemen whose aircraft crashed in the former Burma while flying missions against the Japanese during World War II. Jerry D. Jennings, deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs, met with senior officials in Yangon to discuss U.S. recovery operations.
The U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii has identified four crash sites of C-47 cargo aircraft that crashed in 1944 and 1945 in the northern part of the country. Technical talks are to be held in November to arrange details on the excavation of the four sites in early 2003. During the talks, the U.S. team will seek to visit each site and survey them for subsequent excavation.
According to the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, which oversees U.S. policies on accounting for missing Americans from all conflicts, more than 78,000 Americans are still missing in action from World War II.
Linkage -- Life Dynamics, a non-profit anti-abortion rights' group that conducts research into abortion industry practices, has published a new pamphlet "exposing the partnership" between some national abortion rights organizations and what it calls the sexual exploitation of young women and girls by adult males. Using what it called "a covert survey," Life Dynamics says it placed calls to more than 800 abortion facilities across the country, using a tester pretending to be a 13-year-old girl who had been impregnated by a 22-year-old boyfriend and was seeking an abortion. According to their research, more than 90 percent of the facilities failed to comply with state mandatory reporting laws covering child sexual abuse -- something that a sexual relationship between a 13-year-old girl and 22-year-old male would be under the laws of every state. Copies of the report may be obtained from the group's Web site at LifeDynamics.com.
Here we go again -- With the defeat of Texas state Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen for a federal judgeship, leaders of liberal civil, constitutional, and women's rights organizations are prepared to launch a campaign to defeat the nomination of law professor Michael McConnell to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. At a news conference Tuesday morning, the groups released reports analyzing McConnell's legal philosophy and his potential impact on civil rights, reproductive choice and religious liberty. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing on McConnell on Wednesday, Sept. 18, after letting the nomination lie there for more than 18 months.
Equal rights and lefts -- Just as a coalition of women's organizations led by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., prepares to argue that a substantial correlation exists between welfare and domestic violence, the National Coalition of Free Men has thrown its support behind a Minnesota suit pending before the 8th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals declaring that the state's "Battered Women's Act" does not provide equal protection and benefits for men. It is therefore, they say, unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, the "Equal Protection" Clause. The NCFM notes research by California State University's Martin Fiebert, based on 117 studies, which found that that 38 percent of victims in battering cases are men.
Plaintiffs in the Minnesota lawsuit, taxpayers in that state, claim the right to be heard since their tax dollars are being spent to finance provisions of what they say is a discriminatory statute.
Personnel notes -- Susan E. Rice, former assistant secretary of state for African affairs joins the Brookings Institution as a senior fellow jointly affiliated with the Foreign Policy and Governance Studies programs, and as the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Endowed Fellow. Her initial projects at Brookings will involve transnational security threats, the security implications of globalization, and corporate social responsibility investments. Rice is a former special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs with the National Security Council in the Clinton administration.
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