VALDA FORD Ford is director of community and multicultural affairs at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She said today: “We have a responsibility for our most vulnerable citizens. Why are our senior citizens being put through this arcane program? Imagine people who are frail, disabled, who have English as a second language or who…

DEAN BAKER Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker wrote the just-released report “The Savings from an Efficient Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit.” Baker said today: “The Medicare Modernization Act costs the government and beneficiaries considerably more than is necessary. If Medicare could negotiate directly with drug companies it could save the federal…

The Arabic-language satellite network Al-Jazeera today aired portions of an audio tape purporting to be by Osama bin Laden. Al-Jazeera’s English-language webpage features a story titled “Bin Laden Offers Americans Truce.” The following analysts are available for interviews: BEAU GROSSCUP Author of the book The Newest Explosions of Terrorism, Grosscup said today: “Assuming the validity…

JOHN ZOGBY Pollster John Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, said today: “We’ve found that a slight majority of respondents — 51.7 percent — agreed with the following: ‘If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment?’…

The Baltimore Sun reports today: “The National Security Agency used law enforcement agencies, including the Baltimore Police Department, to track members of a city anti-war group as they prepared for protests outside the sprawling Fort Meade facility, internal NSA documents show. “The target of the clandestine surveillance was the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a group…

DOUG CASSEL Cassel is director of Notre Dame Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights. He said today: “At a time when the commander in chief asserts that his war powers give him carte blanche, it is critical that the Supreme Court be composed of individuals committed to the rule of law. Justices must…

Judge Samuel Alito has stated in the course of the hearings that he subscribes to the concept of the unitary executive. While in the Reagan administration, he helped expand the practice of presidential statements upon signing of legislation. Presidential signing statements may express how a president interprets the law he is signing. The Washington Post…

FRANCIS BOYLE Boyle is professor of law at the University of Illinois. Today Sen. Patrick Leahy asked Judge Samuel Alito: “If the Congress passed a law prohibiting torture,” could the president “immunize people from prosecution if they violated our laws on torture?” Said Boyle: “Instead of just saying ‘no’ to Leahy’s question, Alito is prepared…

[Imperial Presidency Fears:] MICHAEL AVERY HEIDI BOGHOSIAN Avery is president of the National Lawyers Guild and professor of constitutional law at Suffolk University. He said today: “We are particularly concerned that Samuel Alito will not impose necessary limits on presidential power and insist upon the checks and balances required by the Constitution. His long membership…

NASEER ARURI Aruri is chancellor professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and author of the book Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role in Israel and Palestine. He said today: “Sharon tried to redefine himself into a centrist, and therefore presumably a moderate when he established his new Kadima Party. That…