Democrats Push Health Care Expansion

From http://www.dogflu.ca
It is being reported that Democrats are introducing a new bill to the Senate that would see the addition of 35 billion dollars to the Children's Health Insurance Program over the next 5 years to offer health insurance for low-income children



It is being reported that a new Democratic written bill to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program is making its way through the US Senate, and will soon be at the desk of the President who has stated that he would simply veto it.

The bill, would see the expansion of the SHIP to include an additional $35 billion over the next 5 years to maximize the amount of low-income children who would receive health insurance coverage. The bill would be paid for by increasing taxes on tobacco products.

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the House bill would "reverse the Republican drive to privatize Medicare," the Times said.

Both the AARP and the American Medical Association are in favor of the expansion of the bill and both have stated that they would be unvailing television ads promoting the bill later this week.

House Democrats are hoping to portray the issue of the bill as a fight between children and older adults, against tobacco and insurance companies.

The Children's Health Insurance Program is set to expire at the end of September. Furthermore if Congress does not act soon, doctors would lose 10% of their Medicare payments starting on January 1.

As one might guess, cigarette makers are angry with the bill due to the meaning that cigarette taxes would be sharply raised to help cover its cost. Furthermore, insurance companies are also voicing their displeasure. “Cuts of this size would mean the end of a lifeline for many seniors,” said Karen M. Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade association.

Gas Tanks Explode at Dallas Facility

Provided By: The Associated Press
Last Modified: 7/25/2007 3:28:27 PM
http://www.11alive.com

DALLAS (AP) -- A series of explosions at a gas facility sent flaming debris raining onto highways and buildings near downtown Wednesday and injured at least three people.

Authorities evacuated a half-mile area surrounding the Southwest Industrial Gases, Inc. facility and shut down parts nearby Interstates 30 and 35 as the explosions continued for more than half an hour. Video footage showed numerous small fires burning in the area as stacks of gas cylinders exploded.

Three hours after the explosions started, fire crews were hosing down the charred metal wreckage. About a dozen cars in a parking lot and a grassy highway median were damaged.

Fire Department Lt. Joel Lavender said it started around 9:30 a.m. with a malfunctioning connector used to join acetylene tanks during the filling process. He said the three people injured included the manager and a worker at the facility, and a truck driver.

Calls to a phone listing for Southwest Industrial Gases weren't answered.

"I thought it was artillery. It was just coming just boom, boom, boom," said witness Tony Love, a former Army soldier.

At the edge of the evacuation zone is Dallas County's main jail and criminal courts building, but operations continued there uninterrupted, said Deputy Michael Ortiz of the Dallas County Sheriff's Department.

"We are prepared to go into any emergency mode that's needed, but we feel pretty secure here in the jail," Ortiz said.

Jan Malone, a spokeswoman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said the gases posed no danger to the public. She said Southwest Industrial has been in operation since 1990 and had no violations with the agency. Environmental Protection Agency emergency responders were on the scene, and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board was sending a team of investigators.

Parkland Hospital spokesman Robert Behrens said two people injured by the explosions had been brought to his hospital in serious condition. A third person was taken to Methodist Dallas Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Sandra Minatra said. She could not release his condition.

About 30 buildings near the blasts were without power and would stay that way until fire crews fully extinguished the blaze, said Carol Peters, a spokeswoman for Oncor Electric Delivery.

Vanessa O'Brien said she was standing in a parking lot a few blocks away when she felt at least 20 vibrations from the explosion.

"We felt the whole building move and the windows rattle," she said.

FCC shuns Google plans for open mobile network

http://www.cbronline.com
25th July 2007
By Rhonda Ascierto

Two Democratic members of the Federal Communications Commission have lent their support to an open-access wireless network proposal, giving it a majority backing, but stopped short of supporting a broader provision proposed by Google.

During a hearing in front of a US House subcommittee, two of the five FCC members said they supported FCC chairman Kevin Martin's proposal to open up about one-third of the forthcoming 700 MHz spectrum, which TV broadcasters are vacating by early next year as they convert to digital signals. The idea is that any device could be used and any software could be downloaded over these open airwaves, in contrast to the existing closed, proprietary networks.
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Google has lobbied that an open network is necessary to give US consumers a third choice in mobile broadband - rather than be limited to buying service from either a giant cable or phone company - and to bring wireless innovation in the country in line with other parts of the world, notably Europe.

The two Democratic FCC members sided with Martin on the proposal, while the remaining two members, both Republican, said they were considering all options and had not yet decided.

The Democrats sitting on the House Subcommittee on the Telecommunications and the Internet also mostly supported the open-access proposal, known as wholesale provision. The Republicans on the subcommittee generally did not.

Their concern is that limiting the spectrum with open-access conditions would result in fewer companies bidding on the airwaves, which in turn would mean fewer dollars in the coffers of the US Treasury.

Much of the wireless industry shares this concern, including the top two wireless carriers in country, AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Google, however, has lobbied not just for an open-access network but also for rules that would require licensees to lease their networks to wireless service providers, including broadband providers.

"While any embrace of open platforms is welcome, only if the FCC adopts all [Google's] principles will we see the genuinely competitive marketplace that Americans deserve," Google head of special initiatives Chris Sacca said, in his blog late last week. "In particular, guaranteeing open services and open networks would ensure that entrepreneurs starting new networks and services will have a fair shot at success, in turn giving consumers a wider choice of broadband providers."

Google pledged to bid at least $4.6bn in the forthcoming spectrum auction if the FCC agreed to add these open-network requirements.

However, FCC chairman Martin yesterday said Google's proposal to would potentially discourage companies from bidding on the airwaves.

AT&T said Google's request was little more than an attempt to bribe the FCC in order to gain airwaves at bargain-basement prices. "If Google is serious about introducing a competing business model into the wireless industry, chairman Martin's compromise proposal allows them to bid in the auction, win the spectrum, and then implement every one of the conditions they seek," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T VP of legislative affairs, in an email. "Instead, however, Google is demanding the government stack the deck in its favor, limit competing bids, and effectively force wireless carriers to alter their business models to Google's liking."

Martin's draft proposal stopped short of addressing the potential for a copmany to bid on spectrum and then sit on it, without actually building out a network.

The auction must take place by January 28 next year, although no date has yet been set.

Our View

Google said it would not bid in the auction unless the FCC met all its requirements. Now that Martin has said it would not, it remains to be seen whether Google will, indeed, participate in the bidding or not. If it does, expect more accusations from AT&T and Verizon Wireless that Google's proposition and any subsequent actions are little more than a spectrum landgrab.

The dark side of the backyard

Enjoy wildlife from a distance Adam McAllister , Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
As you enjoy summer, be extra careful with bugs, bats, raccoons that pose risks to health by carrying diseases

from http://www.thestar.com
Jul 25, 2007 04:30 AM
Tanya Talaga
health reporter

They're under the deck, hanging from the rafters or buzzing around your head.

Raccoons that harbour parasites. Rabid bats. Mosquitoes with West Nile virus.

While you shouldn't view the backyard with mounting paranoia, you should be aware summer is prime time for some nasty zoonotic diseases – those passed from animals to humans – that lurk in the bird bath and fester on the deck.

The summer's biggest public health threat in the GTA is West Nile, which is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito that has fed on an infected bird. Last year, 42 cases were reported to the provincial health ministry, six in Toronto.

City dwellers shouldn't feel safer than cottage owners. Associate medical officer of health Dr. Howard Shapiro warns some of the worst areas for West Nile are in downtown Toronto, south of Eglinton Ave. "We're not sure why," he said. "It could be because of the trees, the creeks, the homes are older with no air conditioning so the screens are open, or more people are just out and about."

To help you through the wilds of summer, the Star has prepared a guide to critters you should watch.

West Nile virus: Originally from eastern Africa, West Nile first showed up in North America in 1999 in New York City and spread to Ontario six years ago.

It belongs to a family of viruses known as Flaviviridae. Hot, humid days encourage mosquitoes to breed, so the riskiest time is now to early September. Once it gets cold, the mosquitoes die off.

Symptoms, which appear two to 15 days after a bite, include fever, headache, body ache, nausea, vomiting and a rash on the chest, stomach or back.

"A significant proportion will be fatigued for weeks, find it hard to concentrate for a long time," said Shapiro. "For some people, it could be the worst thing they'll ever have."

About one in 100 infected people will feel more serious symptoms such as severe headache, muscle weakness, stiff neck, confusion, tremors, numbness and light sensitivity, and may end up in hospital. In rare cases, people can develop a polio-like illness and become paralyzed.

Bottom line: Get rid of any puddles of water in the yard, cover up, and use DEET-based insect repellent.

Toronto Public Health crews applied a pesticide that kills mosquito larvae to 200,000 catch basins and storm sewers in June in an attempt to reduce the mosquito population.

Raccoon roundworm: They might be cute, but 60 to 70 per cent of young raccoons are infected with Baylisascaris procyonis or raccoon roundworm.

The eggs of this insidious parasite are found in raccoon feces. And Dr. Ian Barker, of the Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health Centre at the University of Guelph, says the longer feces sits around, the more infectious it gets.

The parasite is spread hand to mouth, and children are at higher risk because of poor hygiene. The eggs can hatch in the intestine, and the larvae can migrate into the bloodstream and find its way into the eyes or brain, causing severe disease or death. Only a handful of cases have been documented in Canada, but in 2005 a young Toronto boy nearly died after playing in his backyard.

Bottom line: Barker said it's important to wash your hands with soap and water, especially when you come in from the backyard or garden. "Wash your hands before you pick your nose, is what I like to say," said Barker. "People remember that."

Use gloves to pick up raccoon feces, double bag it and throw it in the garbage. Wash the area down with hot water.

Rabies: Human cases of rabies, a fatal virus that affects the central nervous system, are rare in North America. Since 1925, 21 people have died of rabies in Canada.

By the time symptoms start – fever, cough or sore throat, followed by more serious problems such as hallucinations and seizures – it's usually too late. "It infects the nervous system, ending up in the brain, and you die," said Shapiro.

People catch rabies when the saliva from an infected animal touches a wound or scratch or the moist membranes of the mouth, nose or eyes.

Bottom line: If it's not your animal, leave it alone, said Adam McAllister of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. "Animals can shed virus for several days before they can show symptoms," he said. "This is more than avoiding diseased animals. Enjoy wildlife from a distance."

Ontario has almost eliminated the virus in raccoons, foxes and skunks through aerial vaccine baiting.

Rabid bats can bite you and you might not feel it, noted Shapiro. "This may be a problem in cottage country," he said.

"If you wake up in your room and there is a bat, call your health department, especially if there is a young child around."

If you suspect you've been bitten by a rabid animal, wash immediately with soap and water and contact your doctor.

Lyme disease: Lyme disease is caused by the corkscrew-shaped bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi spread by infected deer ticks, also known as black-legged ticks.

The deer tick is found throughout Ontario, mainly on the north shore of Lake Erie, particularly at Long Point, Turkey Point and Rondeau Provincial Park, as well as in northwest Ontario near the Manitoba border and in St. Lawrence National Park near Kingston. Ticks are most active during the summer, though not all of them carry the bacteria.

In 2006, there were 38 confirmed cases; only 11 came from ticks in Ontario. "The number of cases is consistent to what we've seen in the last five years," said Dr. David Williams, associate chief medical officer of health in Ontario. In the U.S., cases of Lyme disease have more than doubled to 64,382 in the last 15 years.

"The tick is not established here in any way, shape or form as it is in the eastern United States," he said.

There are many theories, but chief among them is the lack of white- tailed deer in the province, partly due to hunting and logging.

People can catch Lyme disease from a tick that falls off a migratory bird. Common dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) don't spread the virus.

Bottom line: Symptoms occur within one to two weeks of a bite, which is easy to miss because it is the size of a poppyseed.

Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, fatigue and a red rash that looks like a bull's eye.

Antibiotics are necessary. Untreated, Lyme disease can spread to the joints and heart.

Amazon delivers 250% profit surge
http://business.guardian.co.uk

John Sterlicchi in Florida
Wednesday July 25, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


Forecast-busting results from Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, saw its shares surge 21% in after-hours trading on Tuesday, as analysts applauded the figures.

The giant e-tailer reported 35% sales growth to $2.89bn (£1.4bn), beating estimates by $90m. Net profit was up 257% to $78m, or 19 cents a share, three cents better than expected. Comparable sales in the second quarter of 2006 were $2.14bn and comparable net profit was $22m.


Yesterday's near-$15 jump in the shares, to $84.09, builds on the 55% surge in the price seen since the group delivered strong first quarter earnings in April.

The group has now raised its full-year sales forecast to a range of $13.8bn to $14.3bn. Previously, it was forecasting a range of $13.4bn to $14.0bn. Wall Street, on average, was expecting revenue of $13.86bn, according to Reuters Estimates.


Second-quarter sales on Amazon's US and Canadian sites were $1.6bn, up 38% over 2006, while revenues from its UK, German, Japanese, French, and Chinese operations were up 31% to $1.28bn.


Analysts estimate that more than half those north American sales were contributed by third party vendors, who sell their wares through its sites, and of which Amazon says there are now 1.1 million worldwide. However, third-party sales figures in the UK and elsewhere internationally could be as low as 5%, according to Jeetil Patel, an analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities.


On a conference call to explain the results, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would not be drawn on how the company intended to drive up those international third party sales, other than to say it would improve product selection to attract new visitors, which in turn would attract more sellers.


Mr Bezos credited Amazon's US revenue growth to low prices and to the success of its Prime shipping service, where shoppers pay an annual membership fee to receive a year's worth of free shipping.


CFO Tom Szkutak added that the company had begun rolling out internationally, with Japan the first country to get Prime outside north America.


Operating profit margins, traditionally worrisome at Amazon, came in at 4% of revenue in the quarter, well above the 2.2% seen a year earlier, when spending on technology and content was significantly higher.


Mr Szkutak said on the conference call that the company's 2007 spending on technology and content would be "significantly less than it was in 2006".


Even before last night's spike in share price Amazon carried a lofty price to earnings ratio compared to its peers. As of Monday's close of $71.74, its shares were priced at 52 times 2008's estimated earnings, while eBay was at 21 times and Wal-Mart 14 times.


Wall Street has begun to reclassify Amazon as a technology company, like eBay, instead of a comparatively low-margin retail company like Wal-Mart, said industry analyst Scott Devitt.


"Amazon was viewed as this low margin retail business, but it's actually a company that will invest in its business and look out to the very long term at the expense of the short term," he told the New York Times. "Right now the company is reaping the reward of its investments over the last 12 or 18 months."

Mountain of money tied to Mexico drug suspect
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/

By Hector Tobar

Los Angeles Times




RICHARD DREW / AP

Zhenli Ye Gon faces criminal charges in two countries.
MEXICO CITY — A week ago, Zhenli Ye Gon was the toast of the Mexican media.

Speaking by telephone from a hiding place, he told a news conference he would one day prove that senior officials of the government of President Felipe Calderón were responsible for the $207 million in illicit cash found in his Mexico City home.

Tuesday, Ye Gon was in a U.S. courtroom, having been captured hours earlier at a restaurant in suburban Washington by U.S. agents who traced his cellphone. He is facing criminal charges in two countries that he trafficked in massive amounts of amphetamines destined for the United States.

Calderón, meanwhile, claimed victory in what was said to be the largest drug-cash seizure in the country's history.

"Today, those who commit crimes should know that my government will not spare any resources or effort to hunt them down wherever they may be," Calderón said at a speech at his alma mater, the Free School of Law.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents arrested Ye Gon in Wheaton, Md., Monday night, about four months after Mexican police entered his Mexico City mansion on suspicion that he was running a methamphetamine-production ring.

With its haul of cash, involving more than 2 tons of U.S. $100 bills, and allegations of official complicity, the case has come to symbolize the great wealth and power behind the international trade in illicit drugs.

Ye Gon, 44, a naturalized Mexican of Chinese descent, was arraigned Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington on drug-trafficking charges. He was ordered held without bond for at least the next 10 days. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 3.

Ye Gon, also known as Charley Ye, said little during the brief hearing.

Mexican Attorney General Medina Mora said officials there had 60 days to file arguments for Ye Gon's extradition on a variety of drug-trafficking charges, although it was unclear Tuesday whether the United States would agree to a quick extradition.

If convicted in Mexico, he faces up to 73 years in prison. U.S. authorities filed their own charges against Ye Gon last month.

Tuesday, U.S. officials released an eight-page affidavit by a DEA agent in Mexico City that offers new details on the scale of Ye Gon's alleged operation. He is said to have imported enough "precursor chemicals" to produce methamphetamines with a street value of $724 million.



A note discovered at Ye Gon's mansion refers to apparent assistance from corrupt Mexican customs officials, the affidavit said.

Ye Gon traveled often to Las Vegas to launder drug money and to gamble, the affidavit said. Between 2004 and 2007, records from Las Vegas hotels and casinos show Ye Gon had gambling losses of $125.9 million.

DEA agents conducted tests in April at Ye Gon's Mexican pharmaceutical plant and discovered ephedrine, a stimulant and decongestant that can be used to manufacture methamphetamines.

Martin McMahon, a Washington lawyer representing Ye Gon, told The Associated Press that the charges against his client were "complete nonsense. ... He has never had drugs, and he didn't have any drugs on him when he was arrested."

If extradited, Ye Gon will not receive a fair trial in Mexico, McMahon said.

Ye Gon has said the chemicals imported by his company, Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico, were intended for use in prescription drugs to be made at a factory he was building in Toluca, just west of the Mexican capital.

Michelle Wong, described by U.S. officials as Ye Gon's co-conspirator, was arrested Monday in Las Vegas on federal charges.

Before his arrest, Ye Gon said Mexican officials had forced him to store the money in his home. He said the funds were destined for use in Calderón's 2006 presidential campaign and "terrorist" activities. Calderón called the statements a "tall tale."

Ye Gon's arrest comes amid growing concern in Mexico that his alleged drug operation may have flourished because of the cooperation and complicity of corrupt officials.

According to news reports, an investigation by the Mexican attorney general's office is focusing on the role of drug regulators and of a high-ranking tax and customs official, Luis Roberto Patrón Arregui.

Jul 25, 12:50 AM EDT from http://hosted.ap.org

MySpace finds 29,000 sex offenders

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer


Interactive
How MySpace is Changing the Face of War
MySpace finds 29,000 sex offenders

ComScore: MySpace teen visitors drops

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- MySpace.com has found more than 29,000 registered sex offenders with profiles on the popular social networking Web site - more than four times the number cited by the company two months ago, officials in two states Tuesday.

North Carolina's Roy Cooper is one of several attorneys general who recently demanded the News Corp.-owned Web site provide data on how many registered sex offenders were using the popular social networking site, along with information about where they live.

After initially withholding the information, citing federal privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests.

At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it helped create to remove about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders, out of a total of about 180 million profiles on the site.

Cooper's office said Tuesday, however, that now the figure has risen past 29,000.

"I'm absolutely astonished and appalled because the number has grown so exponentially over so short of time with no explanation," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who also had pressed the company earlier for sex offender data.

MySpace declined to comment on the figure, focusing instead on its efforts to clean up its profile rolls.

"We're pleased that we've successfully identified and removed registered sex offenders from our site and hope that other social networking sites follow our lead," MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a prepared statement.

Cooper is pushing for a state law that would require children to receive parental permission before creating social networking profiles, and require the Web sites to verify the parents' identity and age. For example, social networking sites would have to compare information provided by a parent with commercial databases. Sites could also force parents to submit credit cards or printed forms.

Cooper is working with law enforcement officials in other states in pressuring MySpace to use age and identity verification methods voluntarily. Based on media reports, Cooper's office found more than 100 criminal incidents this year of adults using MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children.

Most recently, a Virginia man pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping and soliciting a 14-year old girl he met on MySpace.

"All we're doing is giving parents the right to make a choice whether their children can go online," Cooper told a state House committee considering the bill on parental involvement and verification. He said the measure would lead to "fewer children at risk, because there will be fewer children on those Web sites."

Advocates for Internet companies and privacy issues testified against the proposed restrictions, saying the broad parental verification standards would be found unconstitutional because they prohibit free speech or impede interstate commerce. The experts who testified also said Cooper's idea isn't foolproof, because children could fabricate their parents' information and purported consent.

The parental verification requirement "makes promises to consumers that cannot be kept. It is dangerous language," said Emily Hackett, executive director of the Washington-based Internet Alliance, whose clients include Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Yahoo Inc. and VeriSign Inc. "There is no way to eyeball a user."

The bill has already passed the North Carolina Senate. Now it goes to a House subcommittee for more consideration.

State Sen. Walter Dalton, a Democrat who is a primary sponsor of the bill, acknowledged that it won't stop all sexual predators from getting on social networking sites. But he said it addresses a problem that shouldn't be ignored, Dalton said.

"There is obviously a compelling state interest to protect our children from sexual predators," he said.

posted http://www.usatoday.com
By Laura Parker, USA TODAY

Execuitive Director of Veterans for Common Sense Paul Sullivan is part of a class-action lawsuit filed Monday against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that is struggling to meet growing demands from veterans returning home from the wars abroad.

WASHINGTON — A coalition of disabled Iraq war veterans sued the Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday, accusing the VA of illegally denying or delaying claims for disability pay and mental health treatment.

The lawsuit names Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, among others, and asks for sweeping changes in the way the federal government handles claims of more than 1.6 million veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11.

RELATED: VA chief Jim Nicholson resigns

"We're asking the court to set time standards. When veterans apply for medical care, it takes months and years," said Gordon Erspamer, one of the attorneys who filed the suit. He said changes are needed now "because of the huge influx of claims that will be coming through the pipeline in the next year or two."

Filed on behalf of an estimated 750,000 veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, the lawsuit is the latest in a list of complaints about the quality of medical care provided to veterans returning from war. This month, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ordered the VA to pay retroactive benefits to Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange who have contracted leukemia.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iraq | Va | Veterans | Jim Nicholson | By Paul Sakuma, AP

VA spokesman Matt Smith declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. He told the Associated Press that the VA "ensures … servicemembers have access to the widely recognized quality health care they have earned."

Some of the alleged shortcomings named in the suit include:

• A backlog of up to 600,000 disability payments, with delays of up to 177 days for initial claims.

• A shortage of treatment programs for post-traumatic stress disorder.

• A classification of post-traumatic stress disorder claims as "pre-existing personality disorders" in order to deny veterans disability or medical treatment.

Steve Edwards, an Army sergeant who returned from Iraq in 2005, said he almost lost his house while he waited 14 months without income for disability compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder. "The system is broken," he said Monday.

posted http://www.usatoday.com
By Susan Page, USA TODAY
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The questions, and the questioners, were different in this debate.

An American aid worker at a refugee camp demanded to know what the Democratic presidential candidates would do to ensure that the children crowded around her could return to a safe Darfur. A lesbian couple from Brooklyn asked whether they would be allowed to marry. The mother of a U.S. soldier being deployed to Iraq for a second tour of duty asked whether politics were the reason Democrats hadn't ended the war.

USA TODAY ON POLITICS: See how the debate unfolded
DEBATE TRANSCRIPT: Read the questions and answers

And the answers in the debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube on Monday were in many cases sharper and more confrontational than in the candidates' first three debates. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards in particular targeted the candidate ahead in the polls, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Obama needled Clinton for boasting she had demanded the Pentagon devise a plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, his most direct challenge to her on the issue. "The time to ask how we were going to get out of Iraq was before we got in it," said Obama, noting that he had opposed the invasion at the start. "That is something too many of us failed to do."

Edwards suggested that Clinton wasn't in a position to deliver on promises to change the country's course. "Do you believe that compromise, triangulation, will bring about big change?" Edwards said, a reference to President Bill Clinton's strategy of "triangulating" differences between Democrats and Republicans. "I don't."

Clinton, who seemed unfazed by all the attention, parried a question from a Kansas University student about commentary that she wasn't "satisfactorily feminine." "Well, I couldn't run as anything other than a woman," Clinton said to laughter.

When Obama was asked if he was "black enough," he replied, "When I'm catching a cab in Manhattan … " a wry reference to the difficulty African-American men can have in getting a taxi to stop. "I think I've given my credentials."

While CNN's Anderson Cooper moderated the forum, the two-hour debate held at The Citadel military college was driven by fuzzy, 30-second videos shot in backyards and bedrooms. Some questioners were in suits, others in jeans. Several discussed family health crises, including a mother's Alzheimer's disease and a Long Island woman's breast cancer.

In one, a snowman "asked" about global warming.

Participating were all eight Democratic contenders: Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Clinton and Obama; former senators Mike Gravel of Alaska and Edwards; Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Each aired a 30-second campaign video that was generally edgier and more irreverent than typical TV ads. In Dodd's video, he explained why he had so much white hair to an interviewer who turned out to be a large white rabbit. Edwards' video — making pointed fun of the furor over his $400 haircut — showed photos of Iraq and Katrina over the theme song from the musical Hair.

"What really matters?" it asked at the end. "You choose."

The fact that the debate was co-sponsored by YouTube — a video-sharing site that didn't exist during the 2004 campaign — reflected the change the Internet has brought to politics. Nearly 3,000 videos were submitted. CNN chose 41 to air.

When a questioner asked whether the contenders would meet "during the first year of your administration" with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, Obama said he would. Clinton said she wouldn't, saying a president shouldn't "promise a meeting at that high a level before you know what the intentions are."

Richardson said that, unlike the senators on stage, he had promised to remove U.S. troops from Iraq within six months. Biden said he would send 2,500 U.S. troops to Darfur to end the civil war there.

While some of the questions were on topics routinely raised in candidate forums, others were subjects rarely broached by journalists: whether the candidates had discussed sex education with their children, for one, and if speculation about Al Gore as a presidential contender "had hurt y'all's feelings?"