Sex and the Single Vote
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=356
By Sarah Wheaton
Felicity Huffman likes "to do it in the morning, when I'm fresh."
"It's kind of personal!" protests Angie Harmon, when asked to
talk about her first time, but eventually she opened up and said she
did "a lot of research on positions that I liked."
Cheney Hits Heartland, and He Can Feel the Love
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/washington/17cheney.html?ref=politics
By MARK LEIBOVICH
As ***** Cheney travels around the country, he exposes the durability
and devotion of his party's base.
Some Democrats Send a More Conservative Immigration Message
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/us/politics/17immig.html?ref=politics&pagewanted=all
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
Several candidates are publicly breaking with the party leadership's
demand for the creation of a guest worker program.
As Talk Radio Wavers, Bush Moves to Firm Up Support
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/us/politics/17radio.html?ref=politics&pagewanted=all
By JIM RUTENBERG
The Republican Party has launched an intensive campaign to reclaim and
re-energize a crucial army of supporters - conservative radio hosts.
G.O.P. Narrows Its Focus
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/us/politics/17PIntro.html?ref=politics
By JOHN M. BRODER
The election battlefield appears to be shrinking as Republicans choose
where to make their stands.
Clinton Says G.O.P. Policies Will Alienate G.O.P. Voters
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/nyregion/17york.html?ref=politics
By PATRICK HEALY and JONATHAN P. HICKS
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton asserted that the Bush
administration's failings in foreign and domestic policy would help
Democrats in the coming election.
Lieberman and Lamont Turn Debate to Home Front
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/nyregion/17conn.html?ref=politics
By JENNIFER MEDINA
The debate took the election focus away from Iraq with the assertions
of the Republican challenger, Alan Schlesinger.
'The Audacity of Hope'
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/books/17kaku.html?ref=washington
By BARACK OBAMA
Reviewed by MICHIKO KAKUTANI
The Democratic Party's new rock star is a rare politician who can
actually write, as his new memoir shows.
After the Fall of a Dictator, the Rise of Confusion
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/arts/television/17fron.html?ref=arts
By ANITA GATES
A disturbing new PBS "Frontline" documentary, "The Lost Year in
Iraq," looks back at the turmoil in the wake of the Iraq invasion.
The General's Misstep
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601024.html
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; Page A21
Gen. Richard Dannatt, the new chief of staff of the British army, was
absolutely right when he said last week that Britain should withdraw
its troops from Iraq "sometime soon" because their presence was fueling
the insurgency, not quelling it. And Tony Blair, the prime minister
whom Dannatt so expertly sandbagged, would have been absolutely right
to fire him on the spot.
I don't know about you, but it makes me nervous when generals start
publicly usurping the prerogatives of elected politicians -- even
misguided politicians such as Blair who loyally follow their
wrongheaded allies into bloody, pointless misadventures.
Interrogators Beware
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601023.html
By Stephen Rickard
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; Page A21
On rare occasions, President Bush and his toughest critics agree on
something. That will happen today when Bush signs the Military
Commissions Act, while claiming "clear" authorization from Congress for
"enhanced" CIA interrogations. Many critics claim the bill authorizes
torture. Fortunately, both sides are wrong.
You can't blame the CIA for demanding clear authorization. It
reportedly was using waterboarding (a terrifying mock execution in
which a prisoner is strapped to a board and convinced he is being
drowned), dousing naked prisoners with water in 50-degree cold and
forcing shackled prisoners to stand for 40 straight hours.
It's China's Problem
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601018.html
By Anne Applebaum
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; Page A21
Conventional wisdom says that if U.N. sanctions don't work, there is
nothing to be done about North Korea's nuclear weapons -- short of
firebombing Pyongyang, thereby ensuring the obliteration of Seoul. Yet
the problem of a nuclear North Korea is not actually insoluble,
provided a certain very large superpower wants to solve it. There is
one significant country, after all, that has the military, economic and
political power not only to pressure North Korea to discard its bomb
but also to topple its regime altogether.
That very large superpower is, of course, China. Despite its recent
expressions of shock and horror -- the Chinese government claimed last
week to be "totally opposed" to the North Korean bomb -- China still
has more ways to influence North Korea than any other member of the
U.N. Security Council. For that matter, China has more ways to
influence North Korea than all of the members of the Security Council
(and indeed the General Assembly) put together. Should China's leaders
want to see the North Korean regime fall, they don't need to play
around with sanctions or blockades. They could just cut off energy
supplies to Pyongyang. Or food deliveries to Pyongyang. Or end all
trade with Pyongyang.
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.
In Close House Races, GOP Incumbents Hold Advantage in Funds
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601120_pf.html
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; A05
Despite a rush of campaign donations to Democrats earlier this year,
Republican incumbents in highly competitive races in the House have a
substantial cash advantage going into the final weeks before the
midterm elections.
Democrats spent more heavily over the summer and early autumn than
their Republican rivals in pivotal House districts, leaving themselves
at a disadvantage of more than 2 to 1 in money on hand, according to a
Washington Post analysis of the latest campaign disclosures.
Losing Faith in the President
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601101.html
Critical Book by Ex-Staffer in Religion-Based Effort Is Out
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; Page A19
White House officials realized they had a problem, former staffer David
Kuo writes in his new book, "Tempting Faith," when they saw how a panel
rated the first applications for grants under the "faith-based
initiative," President Bush's vaunted effort to help religious
charities.
On a scale of 1 to 100, respected national organizations such as Big
Brothers Big Sisters of America scored in the mid-70s to mid-80s,
"while something called Jesus and Friends Ministry from California, a
group with little more than a post office box," scored 89 and Pat
Robertson's overseas aid organization, Operation Blessing, scored 95,
according to Kuo.
The don's watchful eye
Anthony Glees
October 17, 2006 11:38 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/anthony_glees/2006/10/anthony_glees.html
The Guardian's claim that the government has urged universities "to
spy" on Muslim students has been denied by Ruth Kelly. She has told the
BBC: "I don't recognise the way that work [sic] has been portrayed.
This is not about picking on individual students or even spying on
them, it's about sensible monitoring of activities to make sure
individual students on campus are protected."
Ms Kelly is, of course, absolutely right to make it clear to
universities and colleges that there is a "serious problem of extremism
on campuses" (the precise words are those of Bill Rammell, the higher
education minister, interviewed on Sky TV on 4 October - he used the
word "serious" twice). Her suggestion that that universities and
colleges should, however, not "spy" on their students is also spot on
("spying" is to secretly collect secret information and Special Branch
and MI5 are paid to do this, not dons).
How not to tackle terrorism
David Cole
October 17, 2006 09:28 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_cole/2006/10/david_cole.html
"Our aim is simple: just as there be no safe haven for terrorists, so
there be no hiding place for those who finance terrorism." With these
words, Gordon Brown announced plans to expand the government's ability
to freeze the funds of suspected terrorist financiers. Among other
revisions, Treasury will now be allowed to use classified intelligence
to identify suspected terrorists and freeze their assets. But while the
aim may be simple, the implementation is not. Experience with laws
aimed at terror financing in the United States suggests reason for
caution before the United Kingdom again follows the United States'
lead.
Cutting off terrorist financing has been one of President George Bush's
rallying calls since the week after the terrorist attacks of September
11, 2001. US law, like UK law, permits the government to label
individuals and groups as "terrorist," and to freeze their assets. The
designation process takes place behind closed doors, and is generally
based on classified evidence. Once a group or individual is designated,
it becomes a crime for anyone else to provide them with any sort of
"material support," including not only money, but volunteer services,
expert advice, and humanitarian aid.
.
|
