Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez

An American cattleman.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5 to 4 decision that the 2003 Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act is legal.¹ Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the firing of federal prosecutors; Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) told Gonzales his ability to lead was in question, and Senator Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) asked Gonzales to resign. One prominent Republican said the hearing was like “clubbing a baby seal.”^{2 3} A series of attacks in Shiite districts of Baghdad killed at least 158 people, the largest number of people killed in a single day since President Bush increased the number of troops in Iraq three months ago.⁴ “I wish the war was over,” said Karl Rove. “I wish the war never existed.”⁵ Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, upset that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will not support a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops, convinced six cabinet members to quit. “We are free because we are not in the government,” said Bahar al-Araji, a Sadr legislator. “If the prime minister doesn't do what we want, we can do something to the prime minister. We can make him leave the government.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that if the vacancies were filled with members who could broaden representation in the cabinet, it “probably would be a positive thing.”^{6 7 8} Britain banned the phrase “war on terror,”⁹ and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared that the United States has lost the war in Iraq.¹⁰

Boris Yeltsin died.¹¹ In Rio police clashed with drug gangs in a shootout that left at least 19 people dead. Brazilian Justice Minister Tarso Genro announced that the federal government would send hundreds more police officers to the city. “For young people,” said a spokeswoman for nonprofit Observatory of the Favelas, “this is a genocide. And I don't mean that as a metaphor. It really is a genocide.” ^{12 13} President George W. Bush, who had planned to unveil sanctions against Sudan during a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, agreed to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's request for more time to pursue diplomacy,¹⁴ and Sudan agreed to allow more than 3,000 armed U.N. and African peacekeepers into Darfur, where government-supported militia are accused of killing as many as 400,000 civilians.¹⁵ Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich shut down his campaign website for 24 hours in order to create a virtual “moment of silence” to honor the dead at Virginia Tech.¹⁶ Representative Louie Gohmert (R., Tex.) argued against a hate crime bill from the floor of the House. “If you are going to hurt someone,” he characterized the bill as saying, “if you are going to shoot them, brutalize them, please make it a random, senseless act of violence like Virginia. Don't hate them while you hurt them.” ¹⁷ A senior U.N. inspector revealed that in the past two months Iran has doubled its capacity to enrich uranium,¹⁸ and Senator John McCain entertained a crowd at a campaign rally in South Carolina by singing “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” to the tune of “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys.¹⁹

A Stanford study concluded that pollution from ethanol could be a worse health hazard than that from gasoline, ²⁰ and a report detailing the effects of global warming in North America predicted the end of “a reliable snowmobile season” by mid-century.²¹ One centimeter of snow accumulated on the drought-stricken Qinghai-Tibetan plateau in what China claimed to be the first artificial snowfall.²² A 12-foot-long minke whale spent two days frolicking near the polluted waters of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York, then died. “These are days for tears,” said an onlooker.²³ In Hungary, a truck on its way to a slaughterhouse overturned, releasing 5,000 bunnies; 500 were killed and 4,400 recaptured, but 100 hopped to freedom.²⁴ Restaurant owners in Hong Kong were fining customers who did not eat all their food, ²⁵ and Toto, Japan's leading toilet maker, was offering free repairs for 180,000 bidet toilets after several burst into flames.²⁶ Republican presidential candidate Tommy Thompson gave a speech at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “I'm earning money,” he said, referring to his life in the private sector. “You know that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition, and I do not find anything wrong with that.” ²⁷ Angry crowds in India were burning Richard Gere in effigy,²⁸ and doctors in New York City removed a woman's gallbladder through her vagina.²⁹