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U.S. leads world in patriotism, survey says

By TIMES WIRES
Published June 28, 2006

U-S-A! U-S-A! When it comes to national pride, Americans are No. 1, according to a survey of 34 countries' patriotism.

Venezuela came in second in the survey, released Tuesday by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

People rated how proud they were of their countries in 10 areas: political influence, social security, the way their democracy works, economic success, science and technology, sports, arts and literature, military, history and fair treatment of all groups in society.

In the United States, "the two things we rank high on are what we think of as the political or power dimension," said Tom W. Smith, a researcher at the university. "Given that we're the one world superpower, it's not that surprising."

Patriotism is mostly a New World concept, the researchers said. Former colonies and newer nations were more likely to rank high on the list, while Western European, East Asian and former socialist countries usually ranked near the middle or bottom.

The United States ranked highest overall and in five categories: pride in its democracy, political influence, economy, science and military. Venezuela ranked highest in four categories: sports, arts and literature, history and fair treatment of all groups in society.

Ireland came in at No. 3, followed by South Africa and Australia.

Judge: U.S. wrong in pressuring KPMG

A federal judge accused the Justice Department on Tuesday of trying to gain an unfair advantage in white-collar criminal cases by making it tougher for defendants to get a high-priced legal team.

Since at least 2003, federal prosecutors have been warning scandal-plagued companies that the government might consider them "uncooperative" if they pay the legal bills of employees accused of wrongdoing - a serious threat to a company trying to avoid an indictment.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled Tuesday that federal prosecutors made such a threat to the accounting firm KPMG in 2004, and as a result, the company cut off legal aid to 16 employees charged with setting up illegal tax shelters.

Kaplan said prosecutors interfered with defendants' right to a fair trial.

Elsewhere...

VA DATA THEFT: Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson promised Congress on Tuesday he could turn his agency into a "model for information security" but said lawmakers will have to be patient. Nicholson also said the Bush administration was asking for at least $160.5-million in emergency funds for credit monitoring and other measures to protect veterans and military troops whose sensitive personal information was stolen from a VA employee's laptop computer.

ELECTRONIC VOTING: The most widely used electronic-voting systems all have flaws that can be addressed relatively easily, but few states and counties have implemented recommended security measures, researchers said Tuesday. Even the printing of paper records does little good if audits aren't routinely and automatically performed, researchers said. The report, based on interviews with elections officials and analyses of voting systems, came from the Task Force on Voting System Security convened by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice.

ESTATE TAXES: The Senate on Tuesday postponed action on a bill to reduce taxes for heirs. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he did not yet have enough votes to pass a bill, already approved by the House, that would eliminate taxes on the first $5-million of an individual's estate and cut taxes for others.

[Last modified June 28, 2006, 02:28:20]