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UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A new U.S. draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, gives Iraq's Governing Council until Dec. 15 to develop a timetable for elections and a new constitution.The draft resolution was given to other members of the U.N. Security Council over the weekend and the United States will seek a vote on it this week, diplomats said.The draft is the latest version of a resolution seeking international troops and money to help the U.S.-led effort to rebuild Iraq. Earlier drafts came under criticism from some European nations seeking a stronger role for the United Nations...

It is full of grammatical errors, legal lapses and overloaded sentences designed to please too many critics. But the drafters of Afghanistan's proposed constitution -- completed last week and delivered to President Hamid Karzai for review -- say it comes close to achieving the impossible. In 182 brief articles and 39 pages, the draft -- a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post -- manages to balance the competing demands of a confused postwar society that is struggling to chart a course between Islamic and secular values, domestic tradition and international norms, immediate political needs and permanent legal...

  In January of this year, 2003, a bill was introduced both in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives which would re-institute the military draft. This bill would not only allow the government to draft our sons however (as bad as that is itself), but it would also allow the government to draft our daughters into the military for two years. Recently, I was listening to a Christian radio talk show discussing this bill. The question laid out to the Christian men was - what do you think about the government wanting to draft your daughters into the...

A federal court in Massachusetts has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to make women eligible for a possible future military draft. According to a conservative group that monitors such issues, the judge upheld the right of Congress to exempt women from Selective Service registration. In his 8-page opinion, U.S. Senior District Judge Edward Harrington invoked the concept of deference to the military. "If a deeply-rooted military tradition of male-only draft registration is to be ended, it should be accomplished by that branch of government which has the constitutional power to do so and which best represents the 'consent of the governed'...

<p>Do you remember the ridicule neocons heaped on critics who predicted a quagmire in Iraq? Now neocons William Kristol and Robert Kagen are calling for more troops and more money — two more Army divisions and an additional $60 billion, to be exact. "Next spring, if disaster looms," they write, "it may be too late."</p>

http://slate.msn.com/id/2087543Slate continues its short features on the 2004 presidential candidates. Previous series covered the candidates' biographies, buzzwords, agendas, worldviews, and claims to fame. This series assesses the story that supposedly shows each candidate at his worst. Here's the one told by critics of Howard Dean—and what they leave out. Charge: In 1971, Dean, who had been a wrestling team captain in high school, received a draft deferment for an unfused vertebra in his back. In the Aug. 15, 2002, Aspen Times, Dean said he "skied 80 days" in Aspen during the winter of 1971-72. The Times reported that Dean "loved...

Analysis: Will Clark sweep the race? By Marie Horrigan Published 8/26/2003 9:32 PM WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Former Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark has a platform. He has funds. He has a budding political infrastructure. Media attention. Television ads. A base of fervent supporters. And a poll, released Monday, ranks him fifth among potential Democratic presidential candidates. The question remains, however, is he a candidate? "No decision," the retired four-star general told United Press International regarding his possible run for the Democratic nomination. Has Clark considered a vice presidential slot, since rumors are swirling in Washington about him joining...

Former NATO Supreme Commander Wesley Clark is on record that he’s just weeks away from declaring whether he will jump in the presidential race. In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, he acknowledges the attention is flattering and that he believes he has valuable experience to offer the nation in its war on terror. The movement to draft him for one more assignment, the nation’s biggest, is “stunning,” he says. The details, however, aren’t so riveting. When NewsMax asks if he has even decided on a venue for the announcement, he says only, “I haven’t worked out anything.” The West Pointer,...

For the first time since the all-volunteer Army began in 1973, significant numbers of U.S. combat soldiers may have to start serving back-to-back overseas tours of up to a year each in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and South Korea top Army officers say.

Granite Status: Kerry puts emphasis on his war service By JOHN DiSTASO Senior Political Reporter Eleven years is a long time, and during that time a man can change his mind about a lot of things. Is that what has happened to John Kerry? No one disputes Kerry’s bravery as a decorated Vietnam veteran. But it appears that between 1992 and 2003, he changed his mind on the importance of service in Vietnam as a qualification for being President of the United States. In 1992, Kerry defended candidate for President Bill Clinton. Then, service in Vietnam didn’t matter, according to...

Draft Clark 2004 for President Committee Opens Headquarters in Little Rock; Momentum Builds in Drive to Draft Gen. Wesley Clark for President To: National and State desks, Political reporter Contact: Jeff Dailey, 501-690-9800, e-mail: jeff.dailey@mail.arkansansforclark.com Michael Frisby, e-mail: MikeFrisby@draftclark2004.com, both for the Draft Clark 2004 for President Committee LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Aug. 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Draft Clark 2004 for President Committee, the nationwide grassroots movement to support the candidacy of retired General Wesley K. Clark, has established its national headquarters in Clark's hometown of Little Rock. On Saturday, Aug. 9 at noon, doors will open to the...

If the U.S. were to reinstate the draft and you were called up, would you go? Heck no, I wouldn't go!!! 54 votes : 24% Probably not 16 votes : 7.1% I'd be ambivalent about the idea 6 votes : 2.7% I would look for some way out of it but would go if I had to 53 votes : 23.6% I would do whatever my country asked of me 96 votes : 42.7% (As of 9:18 pm tonight.)

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is firming up a plan to draft thousands of doctors, nurses and other health-care specialists in the event of a worst-case crisis. The Selective Service System is dusting off its plan for a "health care personnel delivery system," which has been on the shelf since Congress authorized it in 1987 to cope with military casualties from a large-scale biological or chemical attack. At the Pentagon's direction, the agency also is examining whether that plan for a "special skills" draft could be adapted to address critical shortages that might arise for military linguists, computer experts or engineers....

<p>If all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they still wouldn't reach a conclusion. So goes the joke.</p> <p>Most of that reputation for wishy-washiness comes from economists trying to predict things like next year's interest rate. You might as well toss a coin.</p>

GO PISTONS!

SALZBURG, Austria--Middle Europe on a sunny afternoon is one of the more pleasant delights of civilization. A well-ordered Hapsburg city like Salzburg, with its parks, statuary, open air cafes, German cuisine (lighter these weight-conscious days but still delicious), and Mozart concerts in the castle overlooking the river that snakes through the town, attracts American and other tourists avid for history and Austria's famous gemutlichkeit. Yet beneath its sheen of prosperity, Europe is in trouble. Its economy is still mired in stagnation and, unlike the U.S. economy, there are as yet no signs of a cyclical recovery. Its population is steadily...

The Nashville Tennessean writes about the latest developments in the movement to draft Al Gore back into the Presidential race.A rally to draft Gore is scheduled in Nashville tomorrow on Saturday. (the day of the first 2004 Democratic Straw Poll in Wisconsin-Results Announced Noon EST) Organizer Jim Tate of West Virginia has set high expectations, saying that 8,000 to 9,000 people from across the country may attend.Organizers of the Draft Gore rally say they have enough support to elect delegates to the Democratic National Convention to block the nomination of any of the nine contenders.The Gore rally will be at...

NBC's Today Show aired the final part of its interview with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) Some highlights: HRC asked if President Bush was beatable in 2004-'Absolutely.'HRC on if she would run if the Democrats 'drafted her' in 2004: 'That's not going to happen..We have very good candidates..I said I am not running and that is the answer... I am confident that we will have a candidate who will emerge from this process and will be very strong against President Bush.HRC asked if she would run for Vice President: 'No, no. I am so happy being Senator from New York.HRC...

In the theory of the state that John Stuart Mill sketched in On Liberty, the government's role is to provide an unobtrusive framework for private activities. Government provides certain goods, such as national defense and (in some versions) education, that private markets will not provide in sufficient quantities. But beyond that it merely protects a handful of entitlements (property rights and some personal liberties) that are necessary to prevent markets from not working at all or from running off the rails, as would happen, for example, if there were no sanctions for theft. Limited government so conceived--the conception most commonly...

<p>IN THE MONTHS LEADING up to the military action in Iraq, calls for a return to compulsory military service took on a new urgency. In January, Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) proposed legislation to renew the draft, noting that few of his colleagues have children serving in the military, and that his fellow African-Americans are overrepresented in the all-volunteer forces. Congressman Rangel, along with the sociologist Charles Moskos and the columnist Mark Shields, argued that a draft would get the children of America's elite into uniform and help create a broader sense of national solidarity. Other commentators have called for making the now-voluntary AmeriCorps national-service program the basis for a new draft.</p>