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"Pope Benedict XVI a wedge or a unifier?" NBC News 19 April 2005.
1 - Perhaps no member of the conclave evoked such potent opinions — and has stirred more arguments — as the 78-year-old Ratzinger and the role he’s held since 1981: head of the powerful Vatican office that oversees doctrine and takes action against dissent.
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"Pope Benedict XVI a wedge or a unifier?" NBC News 19 April 2005.
2 - In 1986, he denounced rock music as the “vehicle of anti-religion.†In 1988, he dismissed anyone who tried to find “feminist†meanings in the Bible. Last year, he told American bishops that it was allowable to deny Communion to those who support such “manifest grave sin†as abortion and euthanasia.
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"Pope Benedict XVI a wedge or a unifier?" NBC News 19 April 2005.
3 - Even John Paul apparently needed him close by. Several times Ratzinger said he tendered his resignation because of his age, but each time it was rejected by the pope.
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"Pope Benedict XVI a wedge or a unifier?" NBC News 19 April 2005.
4 - But in 1943, he was drafted as an assistant to a Nazi anti-aircraft unit in Munich. Later, he was shipped off to build tank barriers at the Austian-Hungarian border. He wrote that he escaped recruitment by the dreaded SS because he and others said they were training to be priests.
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"Pope Benedict XVI a wedge or a unifier?" NBC News 19 April 2005.
5 - He deserted in April 1945 and returned home to Traunstein. It was a risky move, since deserters were shot or hanged. But the Third Reich was collapsing
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"Pope Benedict XVI a wedge or a unifier?" NBC News 19 April 2005.
6 - He and his older brother, Georg, were ordained in 1951. He taught theology and earned a reputation as a forward-looking prelate and took part in the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, a major attempt to modernize the faith.
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"Pope Benedict XVI a wedge or a unifier?" NBC News 19 April 2005.
7 - The name he took — Benedict — draws a connection to Benedict XV, the Italian pontiff from 1914 to 1922 who had the difficult task of providing leadership for Catholic countries on opposite sides of World War I. His declared neutrality, and his repeated protests against weapons like poison gas angered both sides.
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"Pope Benedict XVI a wedge or a unifier?" NBC News 19 April 2005.
8 - In 1977, Ratzinger was appointed bishop of Munich and elevated to cardinal three months later by Pope Paul VI. He was one of only two cardinals in the latest conclave that was not chosen by John Paul.
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"Pope Benedict XVI a wedge or a unifier?" NBC News 19 April 2005.
9 - Benedict was also known for reaching out to Muslims and for efforts to close the nearly 1,000-year estrangement with Christian Orthodox churches — a possible signal that this could be an important priority of the new papacy.
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Bishop, Sam. "Anti-filibuster ad campaign gets under way" New Miner 4 May 2005.
1 - Several Republicans have either opposed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's effort to rule out filibusters of judicial nominees or urged him to continue negotiating with Democrats who want the option.
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Bishop, Sam. "Anti-filibuster ad campaign gets under way" New Miner 4 May 2005.
2 - With only 55 Republicans, the wavering support for explicitly ending filibusters makes the outcome of Frist's effort less certain, so interest groups are focusing advertising on the home states of about six senators.
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Shuster, David. "Filibusters and our Founding Fathers" NBC News 5 May 2005.
1 - But filibusters didn't start just recently... it goes all the way back to our Founding Fathers. To break a log jam at the Constitutional Convention, their compromise was this: The House of Representatives would be the popular body representing the will of the people, while the Senate, as the deliberative body, would protect small states and minority views.
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Shuster, David. "Filibusters and our Founding Fathers" NBC News 5 May 2005.
2 - For the first 130 years of our nation, senators believed that meant giving each member an unlimited right to speak. Ending a debate to take a vote or conduct senate business required the approval of everybody.
- "DeLay calls for humility, responsibility." CNN News. 5 May 2005.
- The ethics committee met belatedly for the first time this year Wednesday, the same day a poll showed that 82 percent of Americans believe lobbyist-funded trips are a serious ethical matter.
- "DeLay calls for humility, responsibility" CNN News. 5 May 2005.
- DeLay and House Speaker Dennis Hastert said that Wednesday they hope the committee -- which recently got a 40 percent budget increase -- will hire additional staff so privately funded trips can be reviewed before lawmakers accept them.
- Theimer, Sharon. "Lobbyist Had Close Contact With Bush Team." ABC News 6 May 2005.
- Abramoff, a $100,000-plus fundraiser for Bush, is now under criminal investigation for some of his lobbying work. His firm boasted its lobbying team helped revise a section of the Republican Party's 2000 platform to make it favorable to its island client.
- Marcus, Ruth. "Just Another Lobbyist? No Dice." Washington Post 5 May, 2005.
- But Abramoff also went far beyond the bounds of normal behavior -- even for a lobbyist. He hid from his law firm partners some of the millions he was taking in. Unlike other lobbyists, he dipped twice -- once in his law firm take and again in money he received from Scanlon. He and Scanlon used nonprofits they set up as personal piggy banks to finance their activities. He helped get one tribe's casino shut down -- and then hit up the tribe for $4.2 million in lobbying fees in an unsuccessful bid to get it reopened. He paid the tab for congressional travel on his own credit card, despite ethics rules to the contrary. He invested -- at first behind his law partners' backs -- in a Florida cruise ship line whose previous owner ended up being killed in a gangland-style slaying.
- Neubauer, Chuck. "DeLay's former aides linked to deal giving lobbyist $1.6m." Los Angelos Times 6 May 2005.
- The Mariana Islands, a self-governing US territory subject to acts of Congress, have proven to be a veritable treasure chest for Abramoff. His lobbying successes have been closely linked to his relationship with DeLay.