The latest New York Times poll demonstrates what we’ve been hearing from a lot of folks here in Tampa – they know they don’t like Bush, but they have no idea what they think about John Kerry:

President Bush’s job approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The poll found Americans stiffening their opposition to the Iraq war, worried that the invasion could invite domestic terrorist attacks and skeptical about whether the White House has been fully truthful about the war or about abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison.

A majority of respondents in the poll, conducted before yesterday’s transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government, said that the war was not worth its cost in American lives and that the Bush administration did not have a clear plan to restore order to Iraq. The survey, which showed Mr. Bush’s approval rating at 42 percent, also found that nearly 40 percent of Americans say they do not have an opinion about Senator John Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, despite what have been both parties’ earliest and most expensive television advertising campaigns.

Johns Hopkins accedes, reluctantly, to increasing its contribution to the city of Baltimore:

Johns Hopkins says it couldn’t, and wouldn’t, pull up stakes, though it bemoans the taxes it will have to pay on the 33,000 phone lines and $32 million worth of energy used each year by its university, hospital and other institutions. “The city is our home, and the future of the city is the future of Johns Hopkins,” said spokesman Dennis O’Shea. “Johns Hopkins does not thrive if the city does not thrive, so we do understand the importance of this.”

The Supreme Court takes back the Bush Administration’s “blank check” in the detention and prosecution of accused terrorists:

The Supreme Court ruled today that people being held by the United States as enemy combatants can challenge their detention in American courts — the court’s most important statement in decades on the balance between personal liberties and national security. The justices declared their findings in three rulings, two of them involving American citizens and the other addressing the status of foreigners being held at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Taken together, they were a significant setback for the Bush administration’s approach to the campaign against terrorism that began on Sept. 11, 2001.

“Due process demands that a citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant be given a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for that detention before a neutral decisionmaker,” Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote. She and seven other justices held that the detention of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a native-born United States citizen seized in Afghanistan in 2001, was invalid for constitutional or statutory reasons. Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from that basic position. Justice O’Connor wrote that the campaign against terrorism notwithstanding, “a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation’s citizens.”

The US transfers sovereignty – in name – to the new Iraqi government:

In a surprise, secret ceremony that was hastily convened to decrease the chances of more violence, United States officials today handed over sovereignty to Iraqi leaders, formally ending the American occupation two days earlier than scheduled. In a tightly guarded room behind high walls, L. Paul Bremer III, the top United States administrator, presented a formal letter recognizing Iraq’s sovereignty to Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. 30 or so people were present for what Dr. Allawi described as the “historic” handover.

A few hours later, Mr. Bremer flew off on a military plane, leaving behind a country stunned by the sudden transfer of authority. Shortly afterward, Dr. Allawi was formally sworn in as Prime Minister. “This is a historic day,” said the Iraqi interim president, Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar . “We want a free, democratic Iraq that will be a source of peace and stability for the region and the whole world. We would like to express our thanks to our friends in the Coalition for the efforts and dedication they have spent.”…United States officials said the handover — to an interim government, in advance of general elections expected in January — is the crucial first step on Iraq’s path to democracy.

Andrew Sullivan asks a good question:

Isn’t it telling that the Bush administration wants McCain, Arnold and Giuliani as prime-timers for the convention? They’re the three Republicans least in sync with the Bush administration. McCain is as close to a dissident as you can find. And Arnold keeps Bush at arm’s length. A more representative selection would be: Santorum, DeLay, Ashcroft. And then you see why the Bushies won’t let them hog the limelight. Too much honesty could wreck the campaign.

Antonio ponverts traces the prison abuse scandal back to Connecticut, and the shameful conditions under which prisoners are kept in this country:

In May 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft hand-picked a small group of former prison officials to re-make the Iraqi prison system. Many of those chosen, including former Connecticut Department of Correction Commissioner John Armstrong, left their state jobs under a cloud of scandals involving inmate deaths, brutality and unconstitutional practices. All of the men chosen hold extreme correctional philosophies that are in stark contrast to modern concepts of humane and dignified treatment.

Armstrong, who left state office in March 2003 in the wake of a scandal involving the sexual harassment of female guards by male guards, presided over a department whose staff members were responsible for the fatal restraint of at least two mentally ill inmates, the use of unconstitutional and excessive force against others, and a code of silence that allowed and encouraged a culture of brutality and degradation. Notwithstanding the DOC’s internal findings of misconduct in the most notorious cases, Armstrong imposed no meaningful discipline and required no re-training of officers involved. In calling recently for an investigation into Armstrong’s service in Iraq, U.S. Sen. Charles Shumer (D-NY) reminded us of Armstrong’s ill-fated decision to transfer Connecticut inmates to Virginia, where some of them died and others were abused. While Armstrong was not directly responsible for conditions in the Virginia prison, he knew about them and he did nothing to transfer our inmates out of that abusive system until a neutral government investigation threatened to uncover it. Since August 2003, Armstrong has been the Assistant Director of Operations in Iraq.

John Kerry does something right:

Mr. Kerry had planned to give a speech here on Monday morning to the United States Conference of Mayors. But members of the city’s largest police union, who have been working without a contract for two years, along with the firefighters, who are also in contract talks, have been picketing Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the host of the conference, wherever he goes, and were set to do so Monday at the hotel where Mr. Kerry was scheduled to speak. With each side hoping to press Mr. Kerry to embarrass the other, his schedule remained up in the air for more than 24 hours as he debated whether to antagonize a crucial Democratic supporter or a union local and its – not to mention his – allies in organized labor, a core Democratic constituency.

By 8 p.m. Sunday, despite what one participant described as “tedious” efforts to broker a solution, Mr. Kerry’s aides gave up hope that a deal could be reached to get the unions to suspend their picketing long enough for Mr. Kerry to attend the conference without having to cross the line. “We know that people on both sides have been working in good faith to resolve this situation,” said Michael Meehan, a Kerry spokesman, in announcing the senator’s cancellation of his speech. “We hope that they will redouble their efforts to find a resolution to this situation.” Seth Gitell, Mr. Menino’s spokesman, said the mayor was disappointed by Mr. Kerry’s decision. Later Sunday night, after attending Mass and receiving communion at St. Vincent’s Waterfront Chapel overlooking Boston Harbor, Mr. Kerry was asked how he would respond to the mayor. “I don’t cross picket lines,” he said. “I never have.”

SEIU proves itself (as the 1199 song declares) a warrior in successfully resisting Governor Schwarzenegger’s gambit to cut home health aides’s wages:

…the union has turned the proposed cut, which would have represented one-tenth of 1 percent of the state’s $103 billion budget, into a show of its growing strength. Using TV ads, Capitol rallies and nonstop lobbying of Democratic lawmakers, they turned the cuts into one of the few major obstacles between the Republican governor and the Democrats who control the Legislature. As both sides push to beat a June 30 budget deadline, SEIU appears to have won. And if their victory stands, labor analysts and legislators said, it will reinforce the growing influence of the 1.6 million-member union rooted in organizing service employees. It could also put SEIU on a collision course with Schwarzenegger, who shares few interests with the union.

…”Our interests are getting people out of poverty,” said Tyrone Freeman, general president of SEIU Local 434B and chairman of the union’s home care workers lobby. “We would work with anyone politician that believes in those goals.” Home care workers have become a growth industry for the union, as it has organized the work force dominated by black and Hispanic women who provide a variety of domestic services to the disabled or the elderly. Their pay comes from a mix of federal, state and local dollars. Although allowed to organize for years, the workers and unions gained more clout in 1999, when they pushed for changes in California law to mandate the state to pay more of the workers’ wages. The new law sparked a rush to organize; in what was the nation’s largest union election since World War II, 74,000 home care workers in Los Angeles County voted to join SEIU in 1999.

Striking Indonesian timber workers takes hostages (bad move) and hunger strike (good move):

At least nine of the thousands of striking timber workers in Samarinda began a hunger strike on Wednesday, to press their demands for their April and May salaries. The hunger strikers have camped out in front of the main gate of the East Kalimantan governor’s office here, after the workers earlier picketed in front of their company buildings. The strike began two weeks ago and on Tuesday they kidnapped two company executives and are still holding them hostage. The workers mostly come from plywood companies, Kalimanis Plywood Industry (KPI) and Santi Murni Plywood (SMP). Giartini, one of the hunger strikers, vowed that the hunger strike would continue until the workers’ demands were met. “The government must show an interest in the fate of the workers,” she said. The hunger strikers also include at least one prominent labor figure, Ismed Soeryo from the East Kalimantan Indonesian Labor Struggle National Front (FNPBI).

Human Rights Watch calls for New Jersey to allow passage of Atlantic City’s needle-exchange program:

An ordinance creating a syringe-exchange program in Atlantic City, New Jersey, provides a lifesaving example of leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch said today. In an open letter to local officials throughout New Jersey, Human Rights Watch urged other municipalities to take similar measures to guarantee injection-drug users access to sterile syringes.

The Atlantic City ordinance, which passed 7-1 on June 16, faces a possible legal challenge from the New Jersey attorney general’s office. The state takes the position that municipalities are not authorized to establish needle-exchange programs, although legal experts dispute this claim. Governor James McGreevey has described local needle-exchange programs as “bad public policy,” but has expressed support for a hospital-based needle exchange program run by state authorities. “New Jersey’s restrictions on needle-exchange amount to a death sentence for many injection drug users,” said Jonathan Cohen, a researcher with Human Rights Watch’s HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Program. “Instead of undermining local HIV-prevention efforts, Governor McGreevey should be upholding access to these lifesaving services.”

The Green Party chooses to nominate David Cobb for President rather than endorse Ralph Nader:

The Green Party nominated Texas attorney David Cobb as its candidate for president Saturday, dealing a blow to independent Ralph Nader’s campaign. Nader, the party’s candidate in 1996 and 2000, had hoped for the party’s endorsement and access to the ballot Greens have in 22 states and Washington, D.C. Instead, he will have to find another way to get on the ballot in those states, including Wisconsin and California. Nader told party officials months ago he would not accept the party’s nomination for president, openly courting their formal endorsement instead. But 408 delegates voted for Cobb on the second ballot to give him the nomination. Cobb has walked a line between praising Nader and questioning what his candidacy as an independent offered the Greens as they try to expand their status as a third party.

…In speeches before the vote, Camejo, who ran for the Green Party’s presidential nomination as a Nader backer, and Cobb tried to stress what they shared, not what divided them. Still, their addresses illustrated the split within the party over Nader’s candidacy. Camejo portrayed Nader as the only option who could truly give voters an alternative to the George Bush and John Kerry campaigns. He said Nader would give the party the profile it needed to successfully build its base. Cobb promised to support whatever decision the delegates made but warned them many state parties could lose their ballot access without a nominated candidate, an obvious warning about the possibility of endorsing Nader.