Free Trade: Pause or Fast-Forward?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040100807.html
By Sebastian Mallaby
Monday, April 2, 2007; Page A15
Two months ago an economist named Lawrence Mishel addressed the
fraught politics of trade at a House committee hearing. He was not
against trade, Mishel began; transactions among consenting adults are
seen as a good thing by all respectable economists, and Mishel clearly
wanted to be one of them. And yet, while proclaiming his support for
trade, Mishel opposed actual trade deals. "We need a new approach to
globalization," he counseled. "A strategic pause. No more trade
agreements."
A moment later Mishel probably wished he hadn't said that. Rep.
Charles Rangel, the venerable Ways and Means Committee chairman, bore
down on the witness with the full weight of his twinkly eyed, gravelly
voiced, mustachioed pizzazz.
Darfur on Their Radar
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040100809.html
By Jackson Diehl
Monday, April 2, 2007; Page A15
For months it's looked like the genocide in Darfur has fallen off the
agenda of a White House desperately fighting fires in Iraq and
throughout the Middle East. Yet last Monday President Bush's anger
rocked the Oval Office when aides presented him with a plan for
sanctions against the Sudanese government. Raising his voice, he
demanded that his special envoy for Darfur, Andrew Natsios, and
national security adviser Stephen Hadley come up with something
stronger.
Or so I'm told. The result, according to several sources, is that the
United States and Britain may finally make an effort, beginning this
month, to push for serious punishment of the regime of Omar Hassan al-
Bashir at the U.N. Security Council -- and to shame the governments,
such as China's, that have blocked multilateral action. Britain takes
over Security Council chairmanship this week from South Africa,
another resister of action on Darfur, while the United States' turn
follows in May.
Bypassing the Electoral College
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040100808.html
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Monday, April 2, 2007; Page A15
"The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote
for electors for the President of the United States. . . . "
That is not some reactionary piece of propaganda denying your right to
choose the next president. It is one of the more memorable sentences
from the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, the hard-to-forget
2000 case that put the current occupant in the White House.
Talking Nonsense
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040100731.html
The Bush administration's plan on immigration is divorced from
reality.
Monday, April 2, 2007; Page A14
PREOCCUPIED with scandal at home and war overseas, the Bush
administration is resting its hopes of making a dent in the nation's
domestic agenda largely on its stated goal of overhauling immigration
policy. Yet the White House is doing too little to craft a plan that
can attract bipartisan support and effectively reshape the nation's
unrealistic rules on immigration. Rather than nudge its Republican
allies toward such a strategy, the administration seems more intent on
placating party hard-liners.
Clinton Shatters Record for Fundraising
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040101143.html
Edwards Also Passes 1st-Quarter Benchmark
By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 2, 2007; Page A01
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) raised $26 million in the first
quarter of the year, almost three times as much as any politician has
previously raised at this point in a presidential election, officials
with her campaign announced yesterday.
Democrat John Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, also
topped the previous record, reporting at least $14 million for the
quarter that ended Saturday.
Pleading to Stay a Family
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040101181_pf.html
Raids on Illegal Immigrants Have Their U.S.-Born Children Fearing
Separation -- and Some Are Lobbying Capitol Hill
By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 2, 2007; A01
As the government's crackdown on illegal immigrant workers has
intensified in recent months, so have the consequences for a large
subgroup of U.S. citizens: American-born children of illegal
immigrants.
Numbering at least 3.1 million, according to an analysis by the Urban
Institute and the Pew Hispanic Center, such children range from
teenagers steeped in iTunes and MySpace to toddlers just learning
their ABCs.
Driven by War to a No Man's Land in Jordan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040101148_pf.html
Lives of Palestinian Refugees From Iraq Reflect Six Decades of
Dispossession
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 2, 2007; A01
RUWEISHED, Jordan -- It was 10 a.m. when the desert winds began
blowing sand into the tent, one of a gaggle perched across a moonscape
along Jordan's border with Iraq. Its rickety wooden frame creaked like
a decrepit rocking chair, and Samir Abdel-Rahim, stranded for the past
four years in a no man's land with other Palestinians fleeing carnage
in Iraq, recounted his tale.
It began in 1948, before he was born, when Israel was created. It
stretched through the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, when
Saddam Hussein was toppled. Its denouement unfolds here, where Abdel-
Rahim, 52, his wife and their four children simply wait.
Democrats To Widen Conflict With Bush
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040100766_pf.html
Some on Both Sides See Plans as Risky
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 2, 2007; A01
Even as their confrontation with President Bush over Iraq escalates,
emboldened congressional Democrats are challenging the White House on
a range of issues -- such as unionization of airport security workers
and the loosening of presidential secrecy orders -- with even more
dramatic showdowns coming soon.
For his part, Bush, who also finds himself under assault for the
firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the conduct of the Iraq war and
alleged abuses in government surveillance by the FBI, is holding firm.
Though he has vetoed only one piece of legislation since taking
office, he has vowed to veto 16 bills that have passed either the
House or the Senate in the three months since Democrats took control
of Congress.
The Decoy Effect, or How to Win an Election
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040100973.html
By Shankar Vedantam
Monday, April 2, 2007; Page A03
If Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ever took a break from
fundraising to bone up on psychology, they might realize the need to
talk up . . . John Edwards.
The same goes for front-runners John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in the
race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. They ought to be
drawing attention to Mitt Romney, or to "Law and Order" star Fred
Thompson, who could be running third in the race if he declared.
Russia Sees Ill Effects of 'General Winter's' Retreat
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040100644.html
By Cheryl Lyn Dybas
Special to the Washington Post
Monday, April 2, 2007; Page A06
Experts have long feared that Earth's warming climate would cause
tropical diseases such as malaria to spread into more temperate zones,
but a dramatic example of an apparently climate-related disease
outbreak cropped up this winter in a cold place -- Russia.
More than 3,000 cases of infections caused by hantaviruses have been
reported so far in Russian cities and towns, including many that are
within a few hundred miles of Moscow, such as Voronezh and Lipetsk.
The viruses can cause a serious, and sometimes deadly, disease known
as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, or HFRS.
Standoff Sparks Protests in Tehran, London
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/01/AR2007040100902.html
By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 2, 2007; Page A10
LONDON, April 1 -- The standoff between Britain and Iran over 15
detained British sailors and marines sparked protests in Tehran and
London on Sunday, as a poll in a British newspaper indicated that 7
percent of Britons believe their country should be readying for
military action against Iran.
About 200 students throwing rocks and shouting "Death to Britain" and
"Death to America" demonstrated outside the British Embassy in Tehran
but caused no damage or injuries. About a dozen protesters also
demonstrated outside the Iranian Embassy in London, demanding that the
captives, taken March 23, be freed.
Taxing Private Equity
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02mon1.html
Excessively favoring one form of income over another encourages
wasteful gamesmanship, creates inequity and crowds out other ways to
foster risk-taking.
A Law Not to Be Trifled With
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02mon2.html
Proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act, leaked to an
environmental group, deserve attention.
Common Defense
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02mon3.html
Europe should remind Washington of the dangers of riling up the
Russians.
Editorial Observer: After an Anti-Immigrant Flare-Up, Texas Gets Back
to Business
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02mon4.html
By LAWRENCE DOWNES
The Texas Legislature took a big step back from the immigration fight
last week, as an unusual alliance rose up in support of humane,
sensible reform.
A Deal With the Devil
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02mcgowan.html
By KATHLEEN McGOWAN
President Hamid Karzai's decision two weeks ago to swap five Taliban
captives for a kidnapped Italian reporter should make perfectly clear
the disaster unfolding in Afghanistan.
New Generation of Qaeda Chiefs Is Seen on Rise
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/world/middleeast/02qaeda.html?ref=world&pagewanted=all
By MARK MAZZETTI
A new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden to
cement control over the network's operations, U.S. officials said.
Wedged Amid African Crises, a Neglected Nation Suffers
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/world/africa/02car.html?ref=world
By LYDIA POLGREEN
The region around the Central African Republic has spawned one of the
world's deadliest and most complex crises.
After Darfur, Starting Anew in the Midwest
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/us/02indiana.html?ref=africa&pagewanted=all
By SUSAN SAULNY
In Indiana, people fleeing the violence of Darfur find an unlikely new
home that is diverse and welcoming.
China Says New U.S. Duty Disrupts Relations
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/business/worldbusiness/02tariff.html?ref=asia
By DAVID LAGUE
China has called on the Bush administration to reverse a decision to
impose steep duties on Chinese exports of coated paper.
M.I.T. Education in China, Minus the Degree
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/technology/02link.html?ref=asia
By NOAM COHEN
A Taiwanese man is distributing free Chinese translations of material
from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Web site.
Olmert Invites Arab Leaders to Hold Talks
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/world/middleeast/02mideast.html?ref=middleeast
By ISABEL KERSHNER
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel invited Arab leaders to join him
for talks in a regional peace meeting in Jerusalem.
California Seeks to Ban Investment in Iran
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/us/02pension.html?ref=middleeast
By JESSE McKINLEY
A bill would force two pension funds to remove their money from any
foreign company doing business in Iran.
Obama Storms Into Iowa
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/obama-storms-into-iowa/
Senator Barack Obama's "community kickoff."
Stalking Strangers' DNA to Fill in the Family Tree
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/us/02dna.html?pagewanted=all
By AMY HARMON
Inexpensive genetic testing is turning the once-staid pursuit of
genealogy into an extreme sport.
'Tokyo Is All Alone'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17873489/site/newsweek/
The Japanese prime minister and his allies have rewritten painful
chapters of the country's past-in an affront to the dignity of those
who endured the coercive 'comfort women' brothels and the horrors of
Nanking.
Web-exclusive commentary
By Jeff Kingston
Special to Newsweek
Updated: 1:24 p.m. ET March 30, 2007
March 30, 2007 - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has recently rekindled a
nasty controversy over Japan's dark past in Asia by questioning the
degree of coercion used in recruiting the so-called comfort women:
tens of thousands of mostly teenage Korean schoolgirls sent to
frontline brothels for Japanese soldiers during the war. Hideaki Kase
amplified these doubts, as well as questions about the Nanking
Massacre, in his recent commentary ("The Use and Abuse of the Past,"
April 2, 2007).
The Early Money Myth
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17833552/site/newsweek/
The first-quarter fund-raising figures for the 2008 presidential race
arrive Sunday. Do they matter?
Web-exclusive commentary
By Howard Fineman
Newsweek
Updated: 1:40 p.m. ET March 28, 2007
March 28, 2007 - The first "primary" ends Sunday, when the deadline
passes for first-quarter contributions to 2008 presidential
candidates. Inside the Beltway, we make a big deal of these numbers as
the first concrete measure of ... actually, I'm not quite sure of
what.
A Test for Gonzales
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17771345/site/newsweek/
Newsweek
April 2, 2007 issue - When dispirited Justice Department officials
assembled for a senior staff meeting last Tuesday, Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales surprised them. "I just got off the phone with the
president," he said, "and he told me he wants me to keep on fighting.
And that's what we're going to do." At a news conference later that
day, President George W. Bush said he supported Gonzales, defusing
expectations that the embattled attorney general was about to resign.
But behind the scenes, things remain tense between the White House and
Justice over the U.S. attorney mess. A senior White House aide (who
asked not to be ID'd talking about personnel matters) told NEWSWEEK
that Gonzales still needs to "demonstrate competence and confidence."
Beijing's Big Push
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17886723/site/newsweek/
As anti-Americanism grows, China is learning the value of good PR and
beating the United States at its own game.
By Joshua Kurlantzick
Newsweek International
April 9, 2007 issue - Last week Chinese president Hu Jintao arrived in
Russia for a three-day visit. Remarkable as the trip itself-not long
ago, Chinese leaders rarely left home-was the way Hu was feted by this
former enemy. Russia has declared 2007 the "Year of China," and plans
to hold hundreds of China-related business, educational and sports
events in the upcoming months. Hu and Russian President Vladimir Putin
presided over the opening of a massive new Chinese-culture exhibit in
Moscow and pledged to build a series of cooperative energy projects.
They also agreed to work toward aligning their stances at the United
Nations.
A Saudi Desert Fox
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17886726/site/newsweek/
King Abdullah brushes aside the United States and seeks to take the
lead in a strife-torn Middle East.
By Christopher Dickey
Newsweek International
April 9, 2007 issue - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah often has the weary
air of a simple man who's lived long enough to see it all, and in many
ways he has. He was born more than 80 years ago, into a world of
desert warriors where his father had yet to conquer the holy cities of
Mecca and Medina or found the nation that Abdullah rules today. No oil
flowed from beneath the sands. No Israel existed. The whole of the
modern Middle East, for better or worse, has been created in his
lifetime.
Lining Up the Loan Angels
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17886720/site/newsweek/
Critics put trendy poverty lenders to the test, and find they're
neither a real business nor a real help.
BY MAC MARGOLIS
Newsweek International
April 9, 2007 issue - Fighting poverty has along and divisive history,
but nothing's shaken up the pundits, wonks and windbags like
microfinance. The United Nations declared 2005 the year of microcredit-
small loans for the penniless-and last year's Nobel Peace Prize went
to Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, which pioneered such
lending. Governments from Brazil to Bosnia have launched massive
microloan programs, and commercial banks like ABN AMRO, HSBC and
Citicorp are rushing down-market. Some 500 million poor worldwide have
reportedly benefited from some $6 billion in microloans, which
aficionados want to ramp up to $300 billion. "One day," Yunus
predicted, "our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty
was like."
Grading the Presidents
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17886725/site/newsweek/
None since the cold war earns more than a B.
By Gary Rosen
Newsweek International
April 9, 2007 issue - For many veterans of the cold war, the demise of
the Soviet Union in the early 1990s was a moment of happy vindication.
For the famously dour and blunt Zbigniew Brzezinski, it was an
occasion for deep concern. What would replace the certainties of the
superpower rivalry? In "Out of Control" (1993), he worried that a
decadent, materialistic United States would retreat from the world's
growing anarchy. In "The Grand Chessboard" (1997), he lamented the
absence of a new American geostrategy and set out his own plan for
maintaining U.S. hegemony, an exercise that he repeated, more or less,
in "The Choice" (2004).
Borderless 'Dream'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17886722/site/newsweek/
Shakespeare's comedy is transposed to India.
By Carla Power
Newsweek International
April 9, 2007 issue - For Londoners, who live in a city where one in
three inhabitants is foreign-born, there's nothing more banal than
exotica. Except, perhaps, for yet another production of a Shakespeare
comedy. So it's testimony to British director Tim Supple that even
jaded Londoners are surprised by his rich and strange new production
of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which re-imagines the comedy as a
bawdy romp through rural India. Athens becomes a village built on a
stage of red earth hauled to North London from Rajasthan. Mismatched
lovers couple and recouple in a jungle of bamboo scaffolding and
scarlet silks. Most controversially, the dialogue tumbles out in eight
South Asian languages, and English, spoken by 23 Indian and Sri Lankan
actors. Somehow, it comes together intelligibly.
The God Debate
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889148/site/newsweek/
At the Summit: On a cloudy California day, the atheist Sam Harris sat
down with the Christian pastor Rick Warren to hash out Life's Biggest
Question-Is God real? A NEWSWEEK exclusive.
Newsweek
April 9, 2007 issue - Rick Warren is as big as a bear, with a booming
voice and easygoing charm. Sam Harris is compact, reserved and,
despite the polemical tone of his books, friendly and mild. Warren,
one of the best-known pastors in the world, started Saddleback in
1980; now 25,000 people attend the church each Sunday. Harris is
softer-spoken; paragraphs pour out of him, complex and fact-filled-as
befits a Ph.D. student in neuroscience. At NEWSWEEK's invitation, they
met in Warren's office recently and chatted, mostly amiably, for four
hours. Jon Meacham moderated. Excerpts follow.
JON MEACHAM: Rick, since you're the home team, we'll start with Sam.
Sam, is there a God in the sense that most Americans think of him?
SAM HARRIS: There's no evidence for such a God, and it's instructive
to notice that we're all atheists with respect to Zeus and the
thousands of other dead gods whom now nobody worships.
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