Battling the 'No Child' Backlash
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
1785.html
By David S. Broder
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A21
The last thing President Bush needs is another fight with his
political base. But that is what he has found as he presses Congress
to renew the No Child Left Behind Act, his signature education program
passed by a bipartisan majority in the first months of his first term.
Last week, 57 Republican legislators signed on as sponsors of
legislation that would -- in the view of the administration -- destroy
No Child Left Behind. The bill would allow any state that objected to
the law's standards and testing to excuse itself from those
requirements and still receive federal school aid.
Musharraf at the Exit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
1786.html
By Ahmed Rashid
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A21
LAHORE, Pakistan -- In the rapidly unfolding crisis in Pakistan, no
matter what happens to President Pervez Musharraf -- whether he
survives politically or not -- he is a lame duck. He is unable to rein
in Talibanization in Pakistan or guide the country toward a more
democratic future.
Since March 9, when Musharraf suspended the chief justice of the
Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, public protests have
escalated every day -- as has a violent crackdown by the police and
intelligence agencies on the media and the nation's legal fraternity.
Was She Covert?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
1788.html
By Robert D. Novak
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A21
Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra could hardly believe what he heard on
television Friday as he watched a House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee hearing. Rep. Henry Waxman, the Democratic committee
chairman, said his statement had been approved by the CIA director,
Michael Hayden. That included the assertion that Valerie Plame Wilson
was a covert CIA operative when her identity was revealed.
As House intelligence committee chairman when Republicans controlled
Congress, Hoekstra had tried repeatedly to learn Plame's status from
the CIA but got only double talk from Langley. Waxman, 67, the 17-term
congressman from Beverly Hills, may be a bully and a partisan. But he
is no fool who would misrepresent the director of central
intelligence. Waxman was correctly quoting Hayden. But Hayden, in a
conference with Hoekstra yesterday, still did not answer whether Plame
was covert under the terms of the Intelligence Identities Protection
Act.
Wallpapering With Red Tape
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
1789.html
By George F. Will
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A21
PHOENIX -- In the West, where the deer and the antelope used to play,
the spirit of "leave us alone" government used to prevail. But
governments of Western states are becoming more like those elsewhere,
alas.
Consider the minor -- but symptomatic -- matter of the government-
abetted aggression by "interior designers" against mere "decorators,"
or against interior designers whom other interior designers wish to
demote to the status of decorators. Some designers think decorators
should be a lesser breed without the law on its side.
D=2EC. Voting: A GOP Issue
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
1787.html
Opposition to a House Seat Goes Against Party Tradition
By Carol Schwartz
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A21
Having personally written to President Bush and Congress numerous
times over the years urging them to support voting rights for the
citizens of our nation's capital, I was disheartened to learn that the
Republican leadership is working to defeat legislation that would add
a voting member from the District of Columbia and a voting member from
Utah to the House of Representatives, and that the president is
thinking about vetoing the bill. As a fellow Republican, I beseech
them to reconsider.
News accounts indicate that Republican opposition is based largely on
"constitutional concerns." However, respected constitutional scholars
have argued that a congressional vote for the District is well within
the bounds of the Constitution. Former solicitor general Kenneth Starr
and Patricia M. Wald, a former chief judge of the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, jointly wrote, "There is nothing in our
Constitution's history or its fundamental principles suggesting that
the Framers intended to deny the precious right to vote to those who
live in the capital of the great democracy they founded." Viet Dihn, a
Georgetown University law professor and principal author of the USA
Patriot Act, argued in a paper submitted to the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform that it is constitutional to give the
District a vote.
Political Spectacle
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
1974.html
President Bush and Congress should step back from a confrontation that
makes them both look bad.
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A20
THE WHITE HOUSE and congressional Democrats have drawn deep lines in
the sand over who will testify, and how, as Congress investigates the
dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. The stubbornness and overheated
rhetoric on both sides threaten an unnecessary constitutional crisis
that would only bog down the inquiry in a distracting fight over
process.
It's worth stepping back and putting the supposed scandal in
perspective. President Bush is entitled to replace his U.S. attorneys;
he'd be entitled to do so if he thought they weren't pursuing his
prosecutorial priorities with sufficient vigor, or even if he just
wanted to give other lawyers a shot at the jobs. The many e-mails that
the administration has released for the most part suggest nothing
nefarious in the dismissal process.
Untie the Hand
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
1979.html
It's time for the president to revise his stem cell policy.
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A20
PRESIDENT BUSH has few allies left in the stem cell debate. The
mainstream of his party deserted him last year when the Republican-
controlled Congress went on record opposing Mr. Bush's position on the
issue. And just this week, even the president's chief of medical
research criticized the administration's harmful restrictions on
federal funds before a Senate subcommittee. With popular stem cell
legislation all but assured to pass this year in the Democratic
Congress, perhaps Mr. Bush should reconsider his position.
Elias A. Zerhouni, head of the federal National Institutes of Health
and a 2002 Bush appointee, thinks so. In response to questions on
human embryonic stem cells, undifferentiated cells extracted from
embryos that promise to assist in curing numerous chronic and deadly
diseases, Dr. Zerhouni said, "From my standpoint, it is clear today
that American science will be better served, and the nation will be
better served, if we let our scientists have access to more stem cell
lines." Under Mr. Bush's policy, researchers can use federal money to
study only the 21 viable embryonic stem cell lines that existed before
he drafted his rules. But Dr. Zerhouni said genetic instability made
these lines insufficient for continued research.
In Baghdad, a Flimsy Outpost
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
2653_pf.html
Members of U.S. Unit, Many Untried, Prepare to Test 'a Good Plan'
By Ernesto Londono
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A01
BAGHDAD, March 21 -- The soldiers crept into the abandoned gymnasium
shortly before midnight.
Flashlights provided the only light. Commanders whispered their
orders.
House Panel Authorizes Subpoenas Of Officials
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
0200_pf.html
White House Again Says Aides Will Not Testify
By Jonathan Weisman and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A01
A House panel authorized subpoenas yesterday for top White House and
Justice Department aides, including White House counselor Karl Rove,
setting up a constitutional clash with the Bush administration over
the U.S. attorneys investigation.
With the Senate Judiciary Committee poised to authorize a similar
batch of subpoenas today, the House Judiciary subcommittee on
commercial and administrative law also issued a broad-based subpoena
for documents and e-mails related to the prosecutor firings from Rove,
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, White House Chief of Staff
Joshua B. Bolten, former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers and a
trio of other aides.
Pentagon Is Probing Veterans Home
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
1470.html
Increased Deaths, Grim Conditions Reported by GAO
By Steve Vogel and Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A01
Reports of a rising death rate and rooms spattered with blood, urine
and feces at the Armed Forces Retirement Home prompted the Pentagon
yesterday to begin investigating conditions at the veterans facility
in Northwest Washington.
The Government Accountability Office warned the Pentagon this week
that residents of the home "may be at risk" in light of allegations of
severe health-care problems. Residents have been admitted to Walter
Reed Army Medical Center with "the most serious type of pressure
sores" and, in one case, with maggots in a wound, according to a GAO
letter sent to the Defense Department.
Some Heated Words for Mr. Global Warming
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
2060_pf.html
By Dana Milbank
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A02
Al Gore, star of an Academy Award-winning film, was in town for a
double feature on Capitol Hill yesterday. But instead of giving
another screening of "An Inconvenient Truth," the former vice
president found himself playing the Clarence Darrow character in
"Inherit the Wind."
"You're not just off a little -- you're totally wrong," Joe Barton
(Tex.), the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee,
told the former vice president at a hearing on global warming
yesterday morning.
Episcopal Bishops in U.S. Defy Anglican Communion
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
2511.html
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A03
The nation's Episcopal bishops have rejected a key demand from the
larger Anglican Communion, saying a plan to place discontented U.S.
parishes under international leadership could do permanent harm to the
American church.
The rejection increases the likelihood that Anglican leaders will seek
in the coming months to demote or expel the 2.3 million-member
Episcopal Church from the 77 million-member, worldwide family of
churches descended from the Church of England.
Report Says Corps Miscalculated on Levees
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
1963.html
Agency Denies Sole Responsibility, Calls System a Cooperative Effort
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A03
The design and construction of the New Orleans hurricane levee system
was flawed because the Army Corps of Engineers ignored warnings about
the power of potential storms and made critical engineering
miscalculations, according to a long-awaited investigative report from
a team of Louisiana engineers and scientists.
The "Team Louisiana" report echoed many of the findings of previous
engineering inquiries but offered them in sometimes sterner terms,
while highlighting some of the political forces that affected the
flood system's formation.
Gore Challenges Congress on Climate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
0709_pf.html
Committees Implored to Combat Warming With Unprecedented Controls
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A04
Environmental activist (and former vice president) Al Gore descended
on Capitol Hill yesterday, telling two congressional panels that
global climate change represents the most dangerous crisis in American
history and that the measures needed to fix the problem -- such as an
immediate freeze on new emissions from cars and power plants -- are
far more drastic than anything currently on the table.
Gore, whose documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award
last month, testified before both House and Senate committees in an
appearance that drew international media attention and lines of would-
be spectators trailing through congressional hallways.
Debate Over Iraq Pullout Aside, Bush Needs a War Spending Bill
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
2004.html
By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A06
With the House facing a critical vote on Iraq this week, the White
House finds itself embroiled in a fierce legislative battle to keep
money flowing to the war effort, with the outcome dependent on its
ability to show real progress in Baghdad and keep Republicans in line
behind its veto strategy.
Prodded by liberal activists and emboldened by polls showing the war
becoming more unpopular, Democratic leaders have gone further than
many imagined possible only a few months ago. They have united a cross
section of the party behind a plan for a phased withdrawal of U.S.
combat troops to be completed by August 2008, part of a war spending
package to be considered today on the House floor.
Senate Democrats Float War Bill Similar to That in House
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
2005.html
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A07
Senate Democrats unveiled an emergency spending bill that would
continue funding the conflict in Iraq while requiring U.S. troop
withdrawals to begin this summer, a proposal that tracks closely with
one the House will vote on tomorrow.
The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to approve $122
billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan today, along with
language that would set a March 31, 2008, goal for ending most combat
operations in Iraq. Despite differences between the House and Senate
versions, including over the timetable for withdrawing troops, and
despite repeated White House veto threats, both packages represent a
significant stiffening of Democratic resolve to stop the war next
year.
Democrats Plan to Restore Budget Discipline
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
2018_pf.html
House, Senate Consider How To Reduce Deficit
By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A08
Over the past decade, budget discipline on Capitol Hill collapsed
under the desire for tax cuts and the pressure of war spending,
analysts say. Now, the new Democratic majority says it is ready to put
congressional budget-making back on track and, in the process, reduce
the budget deficit.
The Senate is debating a plan to balance the budget by 2012, allow
modest increases in some programs and require, for the first time in
years, that revenue lost to tax cuts be made up elsewhere. House
leaders announced a similar plan yesterday.
Man Behind the Clinton Clip Worked for Obama's Net Strategists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
2109_pf.html
By Chris Cillizza, Zachary A. Goldfarb and Michael D. Shear
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A12
The creator of a controversial YouTube clip that attacked Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was an employee of the Internet strategy firm
on the payroll of the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-
Ill.).
"I made the 'Vote Different' ad because I wanted to express my
feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show
that an individual citizen can affect the process," Phil de Vellis
wrote on the liberal blog Huffington Post.
Heavy Fighting in Mogadishu Leads to Mutilation of Troops
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
0249_pf.html
Four Bodies Burned in Denunciation of Somalia's Government
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A15
NAIROBI, March 21 -- Somali civilians and masked insurgents burned the
bodies of four soldiers, kicked them, pelted them with rocks and
dragged the bloodied and half-naked corpses through Mogadishu on
Wednesday, witnesses said. It was one of the most violent days since
Somalia's Ethiopian-backed transitional government ousted a relatively
popular Islamic movement in December.
At least 16 people were killed in several hours of heavy fighting in
the Somali capital, including at least four government troops and two
Ethiopian soldiers, the witnesses said. Several dozen civilians were
wounded.
N=2E Korea Agrees To Extension of Six-Party Talks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
0434.html
Latest Round of Nuclear Discussions Delayed by Dispute Over Frozen
Funds
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A15
BEIJING, March 21 -- After two days of holding up six-nation talks
aimed at dismantling the nuclear program of North Korea, the communist
state's delegation agreed to a request by China to stay another day
for "substantive discussions," diplomats said Wednesday night.
The extension deal came in a brief meeting of all the top envoys to
the talks, after a long day in which negotiators who had hoped to
discuss a schedule for shutting down the nuclear program appeared to
lose patience with the slow progress.
Canada's Extradition Laws Help Make Vancouver a Grifter's Haven
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
2326_pf.html
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A15
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- The Chinese government has been trying to get Lai
Changxing for seven years, repeatedly demanding that Canada hand over
the man who tops China's most-wanted list.
Lai does not want to go. The once-rich businessman, alleged by China
to have run a vast bribery and smuggling empire, is unsure what would
happen if he returned. "I don't know if I will be dragged around and
shot, or beaten, or poisoned," he mused in an interview.
Chirac Gives Tepid Backing to Sarkozy in French Presidential Race
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
1047.html
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A17
PARIS, March 21 -- French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday
endorsed his ruling party's candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, to replace him
in elections less than five weeks away.
Chirac's long-delayed announcement last week that he would not seek
reelection and his tepid backing of Sarkozy so close to the April 22
vote underscored the animosity between the two that has accompanied
Sarkozy's rise as the party nominee.
Inspector General Details Failures of Iraq Reconstruction
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
2418_pf.html
By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A18
The U.S. government was unprepared for the extensive nation-building
required after it invaded Iraq, and at each juncture where it could
have adjusted its efforts, it failed even to understand the problems
it faced, according to the special inspector general for Iraq
reconstruction.
In a stinging, wide-ranging assessment of U.S. reconstruction efforts,
Stuart W. Bowen Jr. said that in the days after the invasion, the
Defense Department had no strategy for restoring either government
institutions or infrastructure. And in the years since, other agencies
joined the effort without an overall plan and without a structure in
place to organize and execute a task of such magnitude.
An Optimist Leads the Charge for Hill Republicans
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR200703210=
2045_pf.html
By Lois Romano
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A19
Rep. Tom Cole is looking pretty cheery for a man with the unenviable
task of winning back the House for Republicans.
Some pols -- those not wanting to self-immolate, for example -- might
have shied away from leading the electoral organ for the House at a
time when the GOP is clearly struggling with an unpopular war and a
free-falling president. But Cole aggressively sought the chairmanship
of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Congress's Challenge on Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/opinion/22thu1.html
The House should vote yes, by an overwhelming, bipartisan margin, to
impose benchmarks for political progress on the Iraqi government - and
link them to the continued presence of American combat forces.
The Much-Needed Return of Pay-Go
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/opinion/22thu2.html
The Senate has a chance to restore discipline to the federal budget, a
first step in remedying years of damage from profligate tax cuts in
the face of immense spending.
Chemical Plant Safety
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/opinion/22thu3.html
Members of Congress have been more worried about currying favor with
the chemical industry, a major campaign donor, than with safeguarding
their constituents.
Focus on the Future in Louisiana
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/opinion/22thu4.html
By deciding not to run for re-election as governor of Louisiana,
Kathleen Blanco has done the best thing for a state desperately in
need of new ideas.
A Smoke-Filled War Room
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/opinion/22edsall.html?pagewanted=3Dall
By THOMAS B. EDSALL
If the Democrats really want to play a role in the current Iraq
debate, they should take a look at what John McCain and Rudy Giuliani
are up to.
China Scrambles for Stability as Its Workers Age
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/world/asia/22china.html?ref=3Dworld&pagew=
anted=3Dall
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
The number of retirees in China will double between 2005 and 2015,
threatening the underpinnings of the economy.
House Democrats Weigh Plan for Iraq Withdrawal
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/washington/22dems.html?ref=3Dworld&pagewa=
nted=3Dall
By JEFF ZELENY
Democrats on the left and the right have broken with their leaders
over a plan for a deadline for troops to leave.
Brain Injury Said to Affect Moral Choices
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/science/22brain.html?ref=3Dus
By BENEDICT CAREY
The findings show that humans' native revulsion to hurting others
relies on a part of neural anatomy.
In Utah, an Opponent of the 'Culture of Obedience'
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/us/22rocky.html?ref=3Dus&pagewanted=3Dall
By KIRK JOHNSON
The mayor of Salt Lake City has become a national spokesman for the
impeachment of President Bush.
Episcopal Church Rejects Demand for a 2nd Leadership
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/us/22episcopal.html?ref=3Dus
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Bishops rejected a demand to create a parallel leadership to serve the
minority who oppose their church's liberal stand on homosexuality.
Panel Approves Five Subpoenas on Prosecutors
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/washington/22attorneys.html?ref=3Dus
By CARL HULSE
The House panel did not issue the subpoenas, saying it wanted to avoid
a showdown over separation of powers.
Clinton Camp Challenges Obama on Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/us/politics/22obama.html?ref=3Dpolitics
By PATRICK HEALY
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's strategist has highlighted Senator
Barack Obama's votes to finance a war he says he opposes.
New York Poised to Join Move to Earlier Primary
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/nyregion/22primary.html?ref=3Dpolitics
By MICHAEL COOPER
New York State is joining what is shaping up as the presidential mega-
primary next Feb. 5.
Bush's Big-Picture Battle: Presidential Prerogatives
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/washington/22bush.html?ref=3Dwashington
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
President Bush is sending a message to Democrats that he will protect
those closest to him, defend his presidential powers and run his White
House the way he sees fit.
Wary of Hamas, U.S. Is to Trim Aid to Palestinian Forces
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/world/middleeast/22diplo.html?ref=3Dwashi=
ngton
By HELENE COOPER
The Bush administration will also set new conditions for monitoring
aid to the security forces of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud
Abbas, officials said.
The third man
Dominique Moisi
March 22, 2007 5:35 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dominique_moisi/2007/03/frances_third_m=
an.html
Should we be watching the French presidential campaign with admiration
or alarm? Or perhaps a bit of both? It is undeniably a great "show"
with all the ingredients of a Hollywood blockbuster, including a
surprising plot twist: the emergence of a "Third Man," Fran=E7ois
Bayrou.
Even if his victory remains unlikely, Bayrou must now be taken
seriously. First and foremost, he has found in S=E9gol=E8ne Royal and
Nicolas Sarkozy two remarkable spokespersons for his candidacy. The
more Royal returns to the "classics" of the Socialist party, and the
more Sarkozy openly courts the extreme right, the more Bayrou's
popularity rises. Indeed, persistent doubts among the French about
Royal's competence and Sarkozy's character are the primary reasons for
his dramatic rise in public opinion polls, from 7% support at the
start of the campaign to 22% now.
Bishops to primate: drop dead
Stephen Bates
March 22, 2007 5:05 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/stephen_bates/2007/03/bishops_to_primat=
e_drop_dead.html
In the late 1970s, when New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy
and appealing for financial help from federal funds, President Gerald
Ford told the city he would not bail it out, prompting a famous Daily
News headline - Ford to City: Drop Dead. Well, in rather more polite
language, that's just about what the bishops of the US Episcopal
church have said to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Regular readers, as well as those still interested in the ongoing
story of the Anglican communion, the third largest Christian
denomination (and, if you're not, don't bother to read on), will
recall that a month ago the world's Anglican primates met for a week
in a hotel in Tanzania beside the Indian Ocean, and that eventually,
largely at the behest of the archbishops of the so-called Global
South, they delivered an ultimatum to the Americans.
Give the surge a chance
Tim Montgomerie
March 22, 2007 4:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tim_montgomerie/2007/03/give_the_surge_=
a_chance.html
For most of the last four years the largely anti-war British media has
been playing one giant and self-indulgent came of "Gotcha." "I told
you that this war was wrong" has been the only media template in town.
Few commentators (with the very honourable exception of Christopher
Hitchens) will defend either the war or the handling of the post-
invasion situation but the lack of editorial commitment to explore
alternative strategies for success is much more disappointing.
Comment is free's Iraq - four years on series has been interesting to
read but it fits the pattern of retrospection and blaming. Only
Michael Boyle's article noted some of the initial signs of success of
the troops surge but it quickly moved on to look at the likelihood of
it failing.
We must end greener-than-thou politics
Stanley Johnson
March 22, 2007 3:16 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/stanley_johnson/2007/03/having_been_the=
_man_who.html
It came as no surprise when Mr Brown, the man who sponsored the Stern
report, yesterday in his budget announced a series of measures wholly
consistent with Mr Stern's recommendations.
Among other things, he proposed that until 2012 all new zero-carbon
homes up to =A3500,000 should be exempt, from stamp duty, that
pensioners should get grants for installing insulation in their homes,
that mortgages should be available for energy-efficient investment,
and that the most polluting cars should from next year pay a whacking
=A3400-a-year duty while the lowest band would continue to benefit from
a zero rate.
All the president's privileged men
Sanford Levinson
March 22, 2007 2:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sanford_levinson/2007/03/rove_and_subpo=
enas.html
The US seems to be gearing up for another constitutional imbroglio, if
not a full-scale crisis. Democratic majorities in both the House of
Representatives and the Senate appear insistent on subpoenaing the
testimony of several White House officials with regard to the
circumstances surrounding the dismissal of eight US attorneys.
Was the dismissal provoked by rank political considerations, including
anger at their refusal to use (and abuse) the law against Democratic
party antagonists? Or, as the administration originally suggested,
were they in fact not very competent?
Going to the dogs
Seth Freedman
March 22, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/seth_freedman/2007/03/ami_le_taxi.html
Staggering along the road, I managed to utilise the last of my
strength and flag down a passing taxi. Collapsing into the seat, I was
immediately told: "Shut up - the news is starting". Happy to oblige, I
fell silent and watched the driver's face contort in ever-deepening
rage.
Switching off the stereo, he turned to me and spat: "They're all
thieves, the lot of them." Assuming he was referring to the collective
mass of Jerusalem cabbies, notorious for skinning tourists and
immigrants like they were buffalo carcasses, I concurred, and waited
for him to go on.
The rape of Iraq's oil
Michael Meacher
March 22, 2007 1:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_meacher/2007/03/the_recent_cabi=
net_agreement_i.html
The recent cabinet agreement in Baghdad on the new draft oil law was
hailed as a landmark deal bringing together the warring factions in
the allocation of the country's oil wealth. What was concealed was
that this is being forced through by relentless pressure from the US
and will sow the seeds of intense future conflict, with serious knock-
on impacts on the world economy.
The draft law, now before the Iraqi parliament, sets up "production
sharing partnerships" to allow the US and British oil majors to
extract Iraqi oil for up to 30 years. While Iraq would retain legal
ownership of its oil, companies like Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP that
invest in the infrastructure and refineries would get a large share of
the profits.
It's not funny
Brian Whitaker
March 22, 2007 12:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brian_whitaker/2007/03/its_not_funny.ht=
ml
I was disappointed to hear about the sudden cancellation of a seminar
by the noted Egyptian linguist, Dr Abdul Wahab al-Meseiri, on "the
classification and analysis of jokes".
People who turned up on Sunday for his talk at a cultural centre in
the smart Cairo neighbourhood of Zamalek were told that Dr Meseiri had
been taken ill. Imagine their surprise, therefore, when Dr Meseiri
arrived a few minutes later - in excellent health.
Show us the money
Jared Bernstein
March 22, 2007 12:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jared_bernstein/2007/03/democrats_budge=
t=2Ehtml
Well, with both the Democratic House and Senate having weighed in on
President Bush's 2008 federal budget, the battle lines are taking
clear shape.
Today, the House Budget Committee released its mark-up of the budget
resolution, a document that sets broad budgetary outlines and
preferences - on spending and revenue targets, for example - for the
forthcoming debate. In this case, there are some clear lines of
demarcation from the president's budget that are worth noticing.
Absent-minded killers
Jeffrey Sachs
March 22, 2007 10:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jeffrey_sachs/2007/03/absentminded_kill=
ers.html
As a species, human beings have a major self-control problem. We
humans are now so aggressively fishing, hunting, logging, and growing
crops in all parts of the world that we are literally chasing other
species off the planet. Our intense desire to take all that we can
from nature leaves precious little for other forms of life.
In 1992, when the world's governments first promised to address man-
made global warming, they also vowed to head off the human-induced
extinction of other species. The Convention on Biological Diversity,
agreed at the Rio Earth Summit, established that "biological diversity
is a common concern of humanity." The signatories agreed to conserve
biological diversity, by saving species and their habitats, and to use
biological resources (eg forests) in a sustainable manner. In 2002,
the treaty's signatories went further, committing to "a significant
reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss" by 2010.
Nobody wears fur any more
Poorva Joshipura
March 22, 2007 9:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/poorva_joshipura/2007/03/nobody_wears_f=
ur_any_more.html
In his defence of the fur industry and other forms of cruelty to
animals, columnist Brendan O'Neill resorts to all the faulty arguments
used since slave-trading days to support the exploitation of beings
who can't defend themselves. You've heard them all before: Africans
are inferior and suited to slavery. Women aren't intelligent enough to
attend universities, own property or vote. Children born into poverty
need the discipline of 10-hour workdays in factories and mines.
These arguments rest upon the assumption that a certain group of
people is capable of deciding who is worthy of respect and compassion.
It should come as no surprise that this group always benefits
economically from the enslavement of "lesser" beings and only stops
exploiting other beings when it is forced by compassionate people to
do so.
No longer the silent partner
Josh Freedman Berthoud
March 22, 2007 8:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/josh_freedman_berthoud/2007/03/dance_mo=
nkey_dance_my_girlfrie.html
My girlfriend is Italian. Or, to be more precise, she is Italian,
Israeli, Moroccan, Lebanese and French. I am English. Or, to be more
precise ... I am English. Together, our sparkling relationship
encompasses a rainbow of international colour and resonates with an
orchestra of world tongues. She sings her way through a chorus of
Italian, French, English, Hebrew and Spanish. I speak English.
Sometimes I speak English with an Italian accent. Mostly I just speak
English. Next week I am going to visit her in Italy and I just know
that once again my language skills are going to make me look like a
complete twat.
I know how it works, because I've done it countless times before.
We'll get dressed up and go to a bar, me excited to meet her friends,
she anxious to introduce me. The friends will be there radiating
Italian exuberance at the thought of meeting the boy they've heard so
much about. We'll meet, shake hands, do the double-cheek-kiss dance,
I'll say "ciao, piacere" when they tell me their names and then I'll
close my mouth, smile inanely and look at the floor, mumbling
incoherently about having not quite mastered Italian yet. They, in
turn, will regard me with an expression of sympathy normally reserved
for an aging, incontinent labrador.
A 21st century Muslim model
Asim Siddiqui
March 22, 2007 8:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/asim_siddiqui/2007/03/a_21st_century_mu=
slim_model.html
"People say I have two of the most important government portfolios:
climate change and terrorism," joked Dr Yaacob Ibrahim to me on my
visit to Singapore last week. Dr Ibrahim is Singapore's dynamic yet
down-to-earth minister for the environment and water resources and
minister for Muslim affairs. He epitomises the meeting of the
religious and the worldy in Singapore.
Singapore - a country that has transformed itself from a third world
to a first world country within 40 years - has levels of inter-racial
and inter-religious harmony that other nations would die for.
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