Authentic Obama
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900919.html
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; Page A13
ORANGEBURG, S.C. -- Is Barack Obama "authentically" black? Come on, be
real. Is the pope Catholic?
Obama made his first campaign trip to this early-primary state over
the weekend, drawing about 3,000 people to a rally in Columbia, the
state capital, and 2,000 to a "town hall meeting" here in the city
where I was born and raised. If those who rose early Saturday morning
to attend the Orangeburg event constitute a representative focus
group, black voters will want to weigh Obama's policy positions
against those of the other candidates before deciding whom to support.
But they won't spend a lot of time pondering his identity.
The Plan That Moved Pyongyang
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900918.html
By Philip Zelikow
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; Page A13
In 2006, the headlines from North Korea were depressing. Pyongyang was
headed down the path of escalation: missile tests in July, testing a
nuclear weapon in October. Now, 2007 has opened with encouraging news
-- a breakthrough in Beijing. In effect, the agreement announced last
week was answering the bomb test with a successful test of diplomacy.
But this deal makes more sense if we understand the broader strategy,
set in motion some time ago, that is starting to play out.
In 2005, the United States energized its flagging North Korea efforts
on two tracks. One was diplomatic, the other defensive. The diplomatic
strategy was never just about North Korea. The Korean Peninsula has
repeatedly been a battleground for the great powers in Northeast Asia.
The United States, particularly Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and her deputy, Robert Zoellick, saw a way to break this mold: China,
Japan and Russia were flexing new diplomatic muscle. The North Korean
problem could be an opportunity to unite potential rivals in common
effort, an enterprise without precedent in Northeast Asia.
The Antiwar Rallying Point
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900920.html
By E. J. Dionne
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; Page A13
Two things are now abundantly clear about the future of U.S. policy
toward Iraq. First, majorities in both houses of Congress have lost
faith in President Bush's approach to the war. Second, the president
will do all he can to resist changing his strategy by trying to split
his critics into ineffectual factions.
Bush's choice is certainly bad for opponents of the war, but it's also
bad for American foreign policy.
The Talented Mr. Romney
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900916.html
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; Page A13
I have been following the zigs and zags of Mitt Romney, the former
Massachusetts governor and now Republican presidential candidate,
watching him grow progressively less progressive, sort of making
himself up as he goes along. As a result, I surf the Web with
trepidation, bracing myself for the story that I fear might be coming:
"Romney Says He Is Not Really a Mormon.''
I joke, of course. But the way things are going, I would not be
surprised if the possibility of a Romney religious conversion has gone
from inconceivable to a focus group for, as they say, further study.
After all, the same bloc of voters -- conservative Christians -- that
once found Romney suspiciously liberal on abortion and gay rights does
not much like his Mormonism, either. This nice touch of intolerance
has got to worry Romney. In recent polls, something like one-third of
all voters have said they would be less likely to vote for a Mormon
candidate -- and the figure is a bit higher (39 percent) among
Republicans. Iowa, where conservative Christians comprise about 37
percent of the GOP electorate, could be trouble.
Black Parents Seek to Raise Ambitions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900952_pf.html
Loudoun Group Works to Keep Sons Interested in Academics and
Achievement
By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; A01
Twelve-year-old Alex Carter is an A student who loves science and
reads a book a week. So it surprised his father when he announced last
year that he didn't want to enroll in an honors class that his teacher
recommended for the following term.
"That class is for the smart people, the nerds," Alex told him. His
father replied, "Well, who are you?"
In S.C., Sen. Clinton Targets Black Vote
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900971_pf.html
Campaign Appearances in Early-Primary State Follow Stop by Rival Obama
By Chris Cillizza
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; A04
COLUMBIA, S.C., Feb. 19 -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York
courted black voters, considered crucial to securing the Democratic
presidential nomination, in a series of campaign stops in South
Carolina on Monday in which she cast the 2008 election as a chance to
make history.
"I believe this presidential campaign is about breaking barriers,"
Clinton said at a town hall meeting in the state's capital. "This is
the campaign, and I am the candidate."
Cubans on Medical Aid Mission Flee Venezuela, but Find Limbo
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021901045_pf.html
Among Thousands of Professionals Sent to Serve Poor, Some Now Wait in
Colombia, Hoping for Entry to U.S.
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; A07
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Ariel Perez was, like thousands of fellow Cuban
doctors, a devoted soldier in Fidel Castro's most important overseas
mission -- providing medical care to the poor in oil-rich Venezuela,
Cuba's most vital ally. But last year, Perez and two Cuban companions,
carrying rucksacks with a few belongings and holding just $1,300 among
them, sneaked across the Colombian border and promptly defected.
"From the moment I got there, I thought of it -- leaving," Perez, 36,
said in an interview in Bogota, where about 40 Cuban physicians and
other medical professionals are living after fleeing from Venezuela.
Honoring a Westerner Who Preserved Japan's Folk Tales
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/world/asia/20matsue.html?ref=world
By MARTIN FACKLER
Descriptions of Matsue, Japan by Lafcadio Hearn, the Irish-Greek
author and muckraking journalist, put this medieval city on the map in
the 1890s.
Russia Will Slow Work on Iran's Nuclear Plant
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/world/europe/20russia.html?ref=world
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Russia contended that Iran had not made the last two $25 million
monthly payments, adding a new twist to a deeply contentious project.
After a Delicately Worded Pitch, Clinton Draws Cheers
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/us/politics/20hillary.html?ref=politics
By PATRICK HEALY
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton told an audience of black voters on
Monday that they would be "breaking barriers" if they supported her
for president in 2008.
The Hot Ticket in Hollywood: An Evening With Obama
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/us/politics/20obama.html?ref=politics
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
A-list stars, movie and music moguls, and top Hollywood dealmakers
will toast Senator Barack Obama at a Beverly Hills fund-raiser
expected to raise at least $1 million.
McCain Offers Harsh Criticism for Rumsfeld
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-McCain-2008.html?ref=politics
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
John McCain said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years
and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one
of the worst in history.
Trial Spotlights Cheney's Power as an Infighter
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/washington/20cheney.html?ref=politics
By JIM RUTENBERG
The trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. shows a vice president with free rein
to operate inside the White House as he saw fit.
Defending Nation's Latest War, Bush Recalls Its First
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/washington/20bush.html?ref=washington
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
President Bush drew an analogy between the Revolution and what he
called "a new war to defend our liberty and our people and our way of
life."
Student, 16, Finds Allies in His Fight Over Religion
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/nyregion/20teacher.html?ref=education
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
A high school student drew some legal heavyweights into his battle
with school officials over a teacher's proselytizing in class.
The Problems in Modeling Nature, With Its Unruly Natural Tendencies
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/science/20book.html?ref=science
By CORNELIA DEAN
A new book argues that nature is too complex and depends on too many
processes that are poorly understood or little monitored to be modeled
using computer programs.
In India, Showing Sectarian Pain to Eyes That Are Closed
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/movies/20parz.html?ref=arts
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
A critically-acclaimed film on race-related riots is not being shown
in Gujarat, where it was set, for fear that it could inflame tensions
by resurrecting recent history.
Scandal on the Nile
Jim Giles
February 20, 2007 3:17 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jim_giles/2007/02/amid_all_the_stories_about.html
Amid all the stories about the extraordinary investments that China is
making in Africa, the shooting earlier this month in Abu Hamad seemed
a minor incident. Security forces fired on a group of protestors,
scuffles broke out and a car was set alight. No one was hurt. Only the
English-language Sudan Tribune noted the events.
The protestors came from the Manasir people. Abu Hamad, which sits on
the banks of the Nile north of Khartoum, is their land. It is also
close to the site of one of China's ugliest projects in Africa. The
seven-kilometre wall of the Merowe dam will be 65 metres tall when it
is complete, high enough to create a reservoir that will stretch over
170 kilometres upstream. The homes of many Manasir will be lost.
Pedalling terror?
Matt Seaton
February 20, 2007 2:45 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/matt_seaton/2007/02/man_held_over_letter_bombings.html
"Man held over letter bombings is a cyclist"
That's today's front-page headline in the printed edition of the
Times.
An unwarranted intrusion
Shami Chakrabarti
February 20, 2007 2:15 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/shami_chakrabarti/2007/02/an_unwarranted_intrusion.html
Why should privacy matter?
We live in dangerous times when even the world's greatest democracies
punish without trial and make excuses for torture. We live in
iniquitous times where too many children suffer poverty and neglect.
The shelter of the net curtains can seem a rather bourgeois
preoccupation, as might today's revelations from the Interception of
Communications Commissioner.
Labour may be past saving
Martin Kettle
February 20, 2007 1:15 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/martin_kettle/2007/02/labour_may_be_past_saving.html
Whatever they claim, all politicians read all polls. But only some
polls send an electric charge through the political system. Today's
Guardian ICM poll is certainly one of them.
The headline message of this poll is about personalities - David
Cameron seems to have survived the drugs headlines of a week ago,
while Gordon Brown's energetic promotion of an England world cup bid
that even the FA hasn't yet got round to discussing has not pumped the
sought-after growth hormones into his own ratings.
Just the ticket
Richard Gott
February 20, 2007 12:46 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_gott/2007/02/probably_no_international_agre.html
Probably no international agreement has been quite so unusual as the
deal being signed today between Ken Livingstone, London's mayor, and
the European branch of Venezuela's state oil company.
In exchange for up to $32m-worth of diesel oil, intended to subsidise
bus travel in London for the poor (defined as those on income
support), the Greater London Authority will provide its expertise to
the Venezuelan government on a wide range of projects, from transport
to housing, and from cleaning up rivers to the promotion of tourism.
Wanted: an Erich Fromm party
Neil Clark
February 20, 2007 12:17 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/neil_clark/2007/02/wanted_an_erich_fromm_party.html
"A healthy economy is only possible at the expense of unhealthy human
beings".
I wonder what the social philosopher and psychoanalyst Dr Erich Fromm,
the man who wrote those words over 30 years ago, would make of Britain
today.
Swedish lessons
Guy Rundle
February 20, 2007 9:38 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/guy_rundle/2007/02/the_sweden_thing.html
There's a character in Jon Stewart's Daily Show who introduces herself
by asking: "Do you mind if I tell you how we do things in Canada?" - a
refrain that comes to mind whenever Sweden is mentioned these days.
Twenty years ago, Sweden was the epitome of deadening welfarism. Now,
most recently with the UK's wooden spoon performance in child welfare,
Sweden has been a rehabilitated as a ... well ... poster child for a
well-functioning advanced industrial society.
Hijab for men
Brian Whitaker
February 20, 2007 9:07 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brian_whitaker/2007/02/the_male_hijab.html
In the endless debates about hijab there's a common misapprehension
that it applies only to women.
This is not altogether surprising because Islamic scholars (all of
them male) have spent far more time over the years prescribing
detailed and often very restrictive dress codes for women than they
have for men.
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