Elections May Leave Bush An Early Lame Duck
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701586_pf.html
By Peter Baker and Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 18, 2006; A01
On desks around the West Wing sit digital clocks counting down the days
and hours left in the Bush presidency, reminders to the White House
staff to use the time left as effectively as possible. As of 8 a.m.
today, those clocks will read 825 days, four hours. But if the
elections go the way pollsters and pundits predict, they might as well
read 20 days.
At least that would be the end of George W. Bush's presidency as he has
known it. If Democrats win one or both houses of Congress on Nov. 7,
the result will transform the remainder of Bush's time in office and
dramatically shift the balance of power in Washington. Ending a dozen
years basically passed in exile, congressional Democrats would have a
chance to help steer the nation again -- following a campaign spent
mostly assailing Bush's vision rather than detailing their own.
Sudanese Soldiers Flee War to Find a Limbo in Chad
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/world/africa/18sudan.html?ref=world&pagewanted=all
By LYDIA POLGREEN
Interviews with Sudanese soldiers held in Chad provide a rare glimpse
into the hidden world of Sudan's secretive military.
Alarm Bells for G.O.P. in a Battleground State
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/us/politics/18poll.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all
By JOHN M. BRODER and MEGAN THEE
Ohio voters are strongly favoring Democrats on many issues, according
to a new Times/CBS News poll.
A Lesson From Europe on Health Care
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/business/18leonhardt.html?ref=business&pagewanted=all
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Strangely, we talk about medical spending as if it were nothing more
than a drag on the economy, rather than an investment in the most
important thing of all.
As Europe Grows Grayer, France Devises a Baby Boom
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701652_pf.html
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 18, 2006; A01
JUMEAUVILLE, France -- When the municipal day-care center ran out of
space because of a local baby boom, the town government gave Maylis
Staub and her husband $200 a month to defray the cost of a "maternal
assistant" to care for their two children.
When Staub delivered twins last December -- her third and fourth
children -- the nation not only increased their tax deductions and
child allowances, the government-owned French train system offered 40
percent discounts off tickets for the parents and the children until
they reach their 18th birthdays.
Which Way to Win?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701095.html
By David Ignatius
Wednesday, October 18, 2006; Page A21
As we head toward Election Day 2006, political analysts are focusing on
a few dozen tossup races that will determine whether the Democrats take
the House and Senate. But there's a larger, overarching battle this
year between two visions of America: testing whether it's a country
defined by its political center or one defined by its political
extremes.
What Democrats Would Do
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701094.html
By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, October 18, 2006; Page A21
Against their better judgment, the Democrats are starting to taste it.
In the House, the number of Republican incumbents polling under 50
percent considerably exceeds the number of seats the Democrats need to
pick up to make Nancy Pelosi speaker. Controlling the Senate depends on
winning two of the contests in three Upper South states -- Missouri,
Tennessee, Virginia -- that could go either way.
And then what? Putting a fleet of carts before a herd of horses, let's
look at the legislation that the Democrats would push through the House
and just maybe through the Senate. (Even if they win the upper house,
of course, they'll still need the support of a number of Republicans to
overcome a filibuster.)
A Faith-Based Battle for Voters
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601017.html
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; Page A21
The very fact that it took David Kuo's book, "Tempting Faith: An Inside
Story of Political Seduction," to put President Bush's faith-based
initiative back into the news proves that the author's thesis is right.
His argument -- Kuo went on the record with it long before this book
appeared -- is that the White House never put much money or muscle
behind Bush's "compassionate conservatism." It used the faith-based
agenda for political purposes and always made tax cuts for the wealthy
a much higher priority than any assistance to those "armies of
compassion" that Bush evoked so eloquently.
For Math Students, Self-Esteem Might Not Equal High Scores
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701298.html
U.S. Lags Behind Countries That Don't Emphasize Self-Regard
By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 18, 2006; Page A02
It is difficult to get through a day in an American school without
hearing maxims such as these: "To succeed, you must believe in
yourself," and "To teach, you must relate the subject to the lives of
students."
But the Brookings Institution is reporting today that countries such as
the United States that embrace self-esteem, joy and real-world
relevance in learning mathematics are lagging behind others that don't
promote all that self-regard.
Veiling the real issues
Neil Clark
October 18, 2006 11:13 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/neil_clark/2006/10/a_debate_not_worth_entering_in.html
In that wonderful, but neglected Stanley Kramer masterpiece, Ship of
Fools, the morose baseball star played by Lee Marvin is asked by the
dwarf, Glocken, what's troubling him. Marvin says that he's depressed
because can't hit a home run. Glocken, ever the philosopher, points out
to Marvin that the vast majority of people in the world probably
wouldn't even know what a home run was.
I thought of Marvin's conversation with the dwarf when reading the
headlines of a popular tabloid yesterday, which informed us that 98% of
its readers thought the Muslim veil should be banned. Because, I'd
wager, until Jack Straw expressed his opinions on the issue, the vast
majority of people in Britain wouldn't even have known what a Muslim
veil was.
Rewriting the past
Agnes Poirier
October 18, 2006 10:45 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/agnes_poirier/2006/10/armenian_genocide_bill_a_sad_a.html
Last Thursday, the French national assembly passed a bill that, if
approved by the French senate, would make the denial of the Armenian
genocide between 1915 and 1917 a criminal offence. Even if the senate
knows better and finally rejects this bill, the question remains: how
on earth have we even got to the point where such a bill could be
proposed, let alone adopted by a majority of MPs?
If this sad affair shows anything, it is the disrespect in which the
French prime minister is held by his own majority (Dominique de
Villepin is so badly considered within his own ranks that rightwing MPs
prefer to play a silly and dangerous game: passing a bill which will
make Villepin look even more of a fool to the French and the world, and
present Nicolas Sarkozy as the only adept runner to the presidential
elections). Secondly, the whole affair has proved how inept and remote
from the nation's real concerns the French left is. Not that it is news
but it simply gets worse - and we naively thought we had reached the
bottom.
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