Your chance to tell politicians: it's we who are watching you
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2068009,00.html
Throughout history, people like Charles James Fox have fought for our
liberty. On Thursday, give his successors your support
Henry Porter
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
On election day this week, the late Tony Banks's collection of
political art comes up for sale at Bonhams in London. Banks, who died
suddenly in 2006, a year after being made a peer, was a passionate and
shrewd collector, particularly of the portraits, busts and medallions
of Whig politician and defender of Parliament, Charles James Fox.
The date for the auction of more than 40 images of the great man, with
his paunch, five o'clock shadow and luxuriant eyebrows, could not have
been chosen better. During the 1790s, Fox resisted twin attacks on
individual liberty and the independence of Parliament which are eerily
similar in motive and pretext to the ones we face today.
For his sake, Harry must go to Iraq
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2068003,00.html
The link between monarchy and the army is historically strong and
should not be ignored
Tristram Hunt
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
These must be nervous days for the Queen but if Britain's monarchy
still has any serious meaning left in it at all then Prince Harry
should be despatched to Iraq. If he is barred from serving with his
Blues and Royals regiment then there remains little point in holding
on to the Royal Family.
Certainly, reports of special units within the Mahdi army militia
dedicated to Harry's capture makes the decision all the more fraught.
Talk of insurgent spies in the British camp at Basra is disturbing.
Nonetheless, senior commanders in Iraq and the MoD are unanimous in
their view that he should go. According to informed sources, the view
of the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, is
clear: Cornet Windsor is in the army, in a combat unit, and that's
what people in the army do. Any plans to rescind his six-month tour
will undermine both Harry's own sense of self-worth and the vital
connection - of loyalty, service and sense of nationhood - which still
exists between royalty and the army.
Sarkozy will be better for Gordon Brown's Britain
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2067983,00.html
Denis MacShane
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
Sometimes the oddest of odd couples produce success on the world
stage. Churchill and Stalin against fascism; Thatcher and Mitterrand
in favour of Cruise and Pershing missiles and the Single European Act;
Nixon linking with Mao against Moscow. Now we can see a new pairing
forming in front of our eyes.
A left-of-centre Prime Minister in London linking up with the man
emerging as the leader of the European right. Nicolas Sarkozy may yet
be beaten by Segolene Royal in the contest to be France's President
next Sunday. In which case, Gordon Brown will work with her. But on
pure foreign policy and EU issues the vision of a Brown-Sarkozy tandem
- or on a tricycle made for three with Angela Merkel - offers the
prospect of Europe shaping a new foreign policy that is coherent and
effective after the disastrous divisions and personal rancour of
recent years.
Come on, Kate, lead the way
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2067979,00.html
Just paying 10p a pair more could double a sweatshop worker's wages.
It's time the high street got ethical
Mary Riddell
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
K-Day is upon us. Tomorrow, Topshop's flagship store at Oxford Circus
will be open until midnight as a curtain-raiser on the Kate Moss
Collection. The arrival of Godot bearing the first PlayStation 3 and
the formula for world peace could not be more eagerly awaited. The
scrum proper starts on Tuesday, when anyone wanting to avoid the
retail equivalent of the anti-turnpike riots can buy online from dawn.
Despite G8-style control measures, the crowds may dwarf the recent
Primark uprising. The British have a long tradition of mass action to
defend their right to livelihood, survival and the last Ikea cut-price
sofa. Their appetite for globally sourced fashion goes back to The
Rape of the Lock, in which Alexander Pope's heroine is decked out,
like an 18th-century Mossite, in 'the various off'rings of the world'.
Murky conspiracy that was just a case of mistaken identity
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2067685,00.html
John Naughton
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
On 1 March last, Professor Walter Murphy, a distinguished legal
scholar, turned up at Sunport airport, Alberquerque, to board a flight
to the east coast. He was heading for Princeton University to attend
an academic conference focused on his latest book, Constitutional
Democracy
At the check-in desk, Murphy was denied a boarding pass because he was
'on the Terrorist Watch List' and instructed to go inside to talk to a
clerk. He explained that he was a former Marine colonel who had fought
in the Korean war, been wounded and decorated for heroism. After the
war he had signed on for a further five years and had then spent 19
years as a reserve officer. Why, he asked, had he been placed on the
no-fly list?
Do French voters really need to swim with Anglo-Saxon sharks?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2067674,00.html
William Keegan
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
'The Skibbereen Eagle's message to the voters of France is...' It was
with such jocular references that my late colleague Arnold Kemp used
gently to deflate excited colleagues who were developing ideas above
their station. Legend has it that the local paper in Skibbereen, West
Cork, once had a habit of dispensing advice to world leaders - it was
'keeping an eye on the Czar of Russia' - which they were unlikely to
read or take notice of. Arnold's point is pertinent to the way
observers around the world, not least in the US press, are telling the
French that what they need is a prolonged dose of a medicine labelled
Sarkozy.
Protection pips US production
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2067653,00.html
Heather Stewart
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
America has evolved a 'garrison' economy, with more than a fifth of
its workforce employed as security guards, prison officers or police,
protecting goods instead of producing them, according to US
economists.
The proportion of the population involved in this so-called 'guard
labour' has progressively increased over the past 200 years, according
to Samuel Bowles of the Santa Fe Institute and Arjun Jayadev of the
University of Massachusetts, in a polemical article for the online
journal Economists' Voice.
Turkey faces military crisis
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2067955,00.html
EU warns generals as army threatens to step in if Islamist minister
wins presidential election
Helena Smith and Ned Temko
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
Turkey came under mounting pressure from the European Union last night
to rein in the influence of its generals, after the country's powerful
pro-secular military threatened to intervene in the Islamic-oriented
government amid growing turmoil over the election of a new President.
Olli Rehn, the European Union enlargement commissioner, who has been a
keen supporter of Ankara's eventual accession to the bloc, warned the
military to stay out of politics, saying the election was a 'test
case' for the Turkish military's respect for democracy.
Names really do make a difference
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2068023,00.html
Research shows that girls with 'feminine' names steer clear of
'masculine' maths and science
Anushka Asthana, education correspondent
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
Parents are being warned to think long and hard when choosing names
for their babies as research has discovered that girls who are given
very feminine names, such as Anna, Emma or Elizabeth, are less likely
to study maths or physics after the age of 16, a remarkable study has
found.
Both subjects, which are traditionally seen as predominantly male, are
far more popular among girls with names such as Abigail, Lauren and
Ashley, which have been judged as less feminine in a linguistic test.
The effect is so strong that parents can set twin daughters off on
completely different career paths simply by calling them Isabella and
Alex, names at either end of the spectrum. A study of 1,000 pairs of
sisters in the US found that Alex was twice as likely as her twin to
take maths or science at a higher level.
His hope springs eternal
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2067716,00.html
Democrat hopeful Barack Obama looks good and writes well in The
Audacity of Hope - but can his third-way politics carry him to the
ultimate prize, asks Peter Preston
Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
The Audacity of Hope
by Barack Obama
Canongate =C2=A314.99, pp375
The candidate is already 2007's champion fundraiser. He has momentum.
Old Clinton stalwarts desert Hillary to serve at his side. It must be
a Democrat for the White House next time, they say, and this guy, this
eloquent, thoughtful, handsome, black guy, is the real deal. Why,
didn't his quasi-autobiography ***** manifesto, sell 1.3 million copies,
top the New York Times list and win glowing reviews to boot? And
didn't he write it (rather mellifluously) himself? Look, no ghost
hands here! So The Audacity of Hope invites sterner scrutiny than your
average political potboiler. It is a presidential calling card. It may
be all our futures.
Out of America: Going to college? Watch out for Bush's bandits
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2494249.ece
A scandal over privatisation of student loans has all the hallmarks of
this administration's worst habits
By Rupert Cornwell
Published: 29 April 2007
For those of us here with children of 17 or so, it's angst time: where
does he or she go to college, and will they get a place?
More than a year before high school graduation, the first scouting
visits have started to possible campuses, and the first serious
worries surface about the Scholastic Aptitude Test. This is the
dreaded SAT, the US equivalent of A-levels, whose points score is the
basic determinant of whether you get in.
Satellite to study world's most mysterious clouds
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2491826.ece
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 28 April 2007
Mysterious clouds that form at high altitudes over polar regions are
to be studied for the first time by a scientific satellite that is
specifically designed for the task.
Scientists hope that the wisp-like clouds - the highest in the world -
will lead them to a deeper understanding of how the Earth's atmosphere
is able to protect the planet from harmful solar and cosmic radiation.
Scientists demand inquiry over Wi-Fi
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2494225.ece
'The research hasn't been done - we cannot assume that wireless
networks have no effects', expert warns
By Jonathan Owen
Published: 29 April 2007
The health risks posed by Wi-Fi technology should be investigated by
eminent scientists to ensure that a generation will not be damaged by
growing levels of "electronic smog".
"The research hasn't been done. Therefore we cannot assume that there
are no effects," said Dennis Henshaw, professor of human radiation at
Bristol University. "I would be in favour of an inquiry into the
dangers of Wi-Fi. This technology is being wheeled out without any
checks and balances."
(((L+As) /2) 2 + ((E+N) /2) + 2A + C + B) x (4/ (S+1)) ... that's the
formula for a perfectly balanced life
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2494237.ece
By Martin Hodgson
Published: 29 April 2007
A British scientist has joined the welter of experts who claim to have
discovered the secret to a balanced life.
Neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis, formerly of the University of
Sussex, has devised what he says is the formula by which anyone can
calculate their ideal work-life balance rating. Expressed as (((L+As)/
2)2 + ((E+N)/2) + 2A + C + B) x (4/(S+1)), the formula is based on
factors including time spent at work or commuting and with the family,
exercising or asleep.
Silenced rivals attack 'sinister' Sarkozy
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2491776.ece
By John Lichfield in Paris
Published: 28 April 2007
France's left and centre joined in a de facto electoral alliance
yesterday to try to paint the centre-right presidential candidate,
Nicolas Sarkozy, as a dangerous and anti-democratic bully.
A week before the final round of voting, the election exploded into
accusation and counter-accusation over a television debate which has
yet to happen, starring a candidate who is no longer in the race.
Details, Details
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18367799/site/newsweek/
In the next two months, Barack Obama will embark on a quest to prove
that he's got as much substance as style.
By Richard Wolffe
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - Barack Obama is a man of grace. With his eloquent
language and compelling life story, he has crafted two best-selling
books and can deliver campaign rhetoric with deftness. At town-hall
meetings, he looks pensive as he carefully answers voters' questions,
like the law lecturer he used to be. He sweeps his hand across the
stage when he sounds expansive, and jabs a finger when he's critical
of President George W. Bush. Even his clothes on the campaign trail
suggest a seriously cool character, with his trademark black suit and
white shirt unbuttoned at the neck.
The Political Winds of War
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18367800/site/newsweek/
By Howard Fineman
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - It is absurdly early in the '08 campaign for
pivotal moments, but Sen. Hillary Clinton's handlers were convinced
they spotted one at the Democrats' first presidential debate, in South
Carolina. Answering a question about how he would react to another
Qaeda strike, Sen. Barack Obama talked about the lack of disaster
preparedness in New Orleans and the need for reliable intelligence. He
said that he would carefully target "some action to dismantle" the
terrorists' network, but do so without the "bluster and bombast" that
would "alienate the world community." The one thing he did not
explicitly mention: the use of military force. Asked the same question
by moderator Brian Williams of NBC, Clinton morphed into the commander
in chief as aggrieved New Yorker. "I understand the extraordinary
horror of that kind of attack," she said. "I think a president must
move as swiftly as is prudent to retaliate." In Clinton's staff
holding room at South Carolina State, there were smiles and high
fives.
A Secret Fax=E2=80=94And an Ethics Slip
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18366824/site/newsweek/
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - Sen. Barack Obama vows to bring a "new kind of
politics" to Washington. But a copy of a 36-page fax from Obama's
Senate office, obtained by NEWSWEEK, shows that the rookie
presidential candidate, riding the biggest wave this side of his
native Hawaii, needs to keep a sharp eye on the details of his own
campaign. Senate ethics rules allow senators with active campaigns to
"split" the work time and salary of official schedulers such as
Obama's Molly Buford. According to Obama's campaign spokesman, Robert
Gibbs, she in fact is paid by both entities. But Senate rules and
federal law forbid the use of official equipment=E2=80=94such as faxes and
phone lines=E2=80=94to conduct campaign business, which was what Buford was
doing last Thursday when she faxed Obama's political "call list" to
the senator's personal aide at a Columbia, S.C., hotel. "These are the
call sheets for tomorrow's call time," she wrote on the official cover
page, emblazoned with the seal of the U.S. Senate.
Trials of the Truth Seekers
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18367806/site/newsweek/
Historians will see the '06 election returns as indispensable to their
work. Without them, we'd never know what's happened to this country.
By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - Henry Waxman looks like your accountant, but he
acts more like a dog with a bone=E2=80=94the hard bone of truth. This short,
bald, mustached California congressman is digging up what really
happened inside the U.S. government during the early years of the new
century. Last week, for instance, Waxman's House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform heard startling testimony about how
the Army lied repeatedly to protect its image, covered up those lies,
then lied again. Instead of depressing me, the hearings left me
strangely exhilarated. Historians will likely see the 2006 midterm
election returns as indispensable to their work. Without a change in
party control, we would never have a chance to get to the bottom of
what has happened to this country.
Fraudulent 'Fairness'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18366765/site/newsweek/
Conservatives dominate talk radio=E2=80=94but no more thoroughly than liber=
als
dominate Hollywood, academia and much of the mainstream media.
By George F. Will
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - Some illiberal liberals are trying to restore the
luridly misnamed Fairness Doctrine, which until 1987 required
broadcasters to devote a reasonable amount of time to presenting
fairly each side of a controversial issue. The government was
empowered to decide how many sides there were, how much time was
reasonable and what was fair.
The Military: Faith Under Fire
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18367801/site/newsweek/
By Eve Conant
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - Army Chaplain Roger Benimoff heard the IED blast
and saw the smoke rising. From his vantage point at a forward-aid
station on the morning of June 7, 2005, he peered through a fog of
dust as .50-caliber machine-gun fire erupted in the distance. Then the
guns went silent. Benimoff helped medics get stretchers ready for the
wounded. But when the soldiers of Fox Troop returned to station near
Tall Afar, all they had was the bloodied corpse of one of their men.
Benimoff began a familiar death ritual. The heat was closing in on 100
degrees; a smell of diesel fumes filled the air. Benimoff gathered the
medics around the corpse of their comrade in the shade of an armored
personnel carrier. Ignoring the din of rumbling engines and radio
chatter, he began to pray in a strong and reassuring voice, quoting
Psalm 121: I lift up my eyes to the hills=E2=80=94where does my help come
from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He
prayed for the soldier's family. He prayed for the medics who had
wanted so much to help. He prayed that God would look down upon their
small circle and surround them with his love.
In God They Trust
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18367804/site/newsweek/
By Evan Thomas and Andrew Romano
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - I walked the floor of The White House night after
night until midnight," President William McKinley recalled. "I went
down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance."
McKinley was trying to figure out whether to annex the Philippines,
captured by U.S. troops in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Finally,
it came to him: "There was nothing left for us to do but to take them
all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and
Christianize them ... "
A Third Way?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18355633/site/newsweek/
Fred Thompson isn't the only 'Law and Order' character eyeing the 2008
presidential campaign. Inside Sam Waterston=E2=80=99s efforts to help promo=
te
a third-party ticket.
A Web-exclusive commentary
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 4:08 p.m. ET April 27, 2007
April 27, 2007 - The actor Sam Waterston, who plays the hard-hitting
assistant D.A. in =E2=80=9CLaw and Order,=E2=80=9D has a confession to make=
.. =E2=80=9CI=E2=80=99m a
moderate,=E2=80=9D he declared in a speech at the National Press Club. =E2=
=80=9CYou=E2=80=99re
looking at a bird rarely seen in Washington, even in springtime.=E2=80=9D
Waterston was in town to promote Unity =E2=80=9908, an Internet scheme to
launch a third-party ticket, made up of a Republican and a Democrat,
to run together against the two major party nominees.
Fanning the Flame
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18351708/site/newsweek/
In the highly charged run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, even the
traditional torch relay is turning into a political football.
Web-Exclusive Commentary
By Melinda Liu
Newsweek
Updated: 11:24 a.m. ET April 27, 2007
April 27, 2007 - Olympics fever has gripped Beijing. The Games will be
the regime=E2=80=99s coming-out party, marking China=E2=80=99s debut as a m=
ajor world
player. But, already, with the event 15 months away, China=E2=80=99s critics
are trying to rain on the country=E2=80=99s parade.
Spidey the Swinger
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18335265/site/newsweek/
In 'Spider-Man 3,' our once reluctant hero gets a little cocky=E2=80=94until
he discovers his dark side.
By David Ansen
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - Superman has always been the star of "Superman,"
not Clark Kent. Same goes for Batman/Bruce Wayne, only a little less
so. What's different about the Spider-Man series is that it's always
been more about sensitive, vulnerable Peter Parker than about his
superhuman alter ego. Spidey's not a natural-born superhero. It's damn
hard work swinging between skyscrapers, and Parker spent a good
portion of "Spider-Man 2" wondering if it was worth the trouble. Where
was the respect? Where was the glory? He was this close to turning in
his spandex suit.
Reconsidering Mussolini
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18358146/site/newsweek/
More than six decades after the death of Il Duce, a slew of new movies
and memorabilia are prompting Italians to take a closer look at their
nation=E2=80=99s Fascist past.
Web Exclusive
By Barbie Nadeau
Newsweek
Updated: 7:04 p.m. ET April 27, 2007
April 27, 2007 - The Villa Torlonia is one of Rome=E2=80=99s last existing
examples of 17th-century grandeur. But when city authorities recently
unveiled its main palazzo after a $6 million restoration, the result
was anything but majestic. The 20th-century interior is ostentatious,
the chandeliers gaudy and the frescoes grandiose. The reason for the
jarring d=C3=A9cor: to showcase the lifestyle of its last Italian resident,
former dictator Benito Mussolini.
Carolina Combat
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18329374/site/newsweek/
Tonight's Democratic debate, the first of the '08 campaign, will
showcase the battle for black votes=E2=80=94a bloc as vital to the party's
fortunes next year as evangelicals have been to the rise of the GOP.
Web-exclusive commentary
By Howard Fineman
Newsweek
Updated: 10:22 a.m. ET April 26, 2007
April 26, 2007 - If change is in the air, and I think it is, South
Carolina is a good a place to see it. Nearly 20 years ago, George H.W.
Bush (or rather his adviser, the late Lee Atwater of South Carolina)
made white evangelical Christians here the core constituency of his
presidential bid. The result not only was victory, but the evangelized
Republican Party of today. Now, however, the action is among a
different set of voters: in the state's cotton belt, south of the
capital, where African-Americans could well decide the Democrats' next
nomination-race winner.
The Price of Deference
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18317348/site/newsweek/
By nominating Abdullah Gul for Turkey's presidency, the ruling AK
party is bowing to pressure from secularists and the military. How
will this impact the country's volatile border with Iraq?
Web-Exclusive Commentary
By Owen Matthews
Newsweek
Updated: 8:18 p.m. ET April 25, 2007
April 25, 2007 - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo=C4=9Fan is Turkey's most
talented and most popular politician. But he's apparently not talented
or popular enough to break through a secularist glass ceiling to the
job of president. On Tuesday, Erdo=C4=9Fan, bowed to political pressure and
nominated Abdullah Gul, currently foreign minister, as the ruling AK
Party's choice for president when the Parliament begins its vote
Friday.
Letting Go of Limbo
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18296718/site/newsweek/
With a new Vatican report, the Pope finally sends unbaptized babies to
heaven=E2=80=94and signals that he may be less conservative than his image
suggests.
Oops, I Did It Again
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18293284/site/newsweek/
New brain research may help explain why some people don't seem to
learn from their mistakes.
Updated: 2:34 p.m. ET April 24, 2007
April 24, 2007 - Benjamin Franklin was no brain scientist. He was a
keen observer of human behavior, and of the natural world, but he was
a couple centuries too early to explore the intricate neuronal
interplay of physics and biochemistry that makes us the people we are:
healthy, wise, quirky, self-destructive. So, when he famously defined
insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting
different results," this 18th-century polymath was really being more
intuitive than rigorously scientific.
The Pragmatists Are Back in Town
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18292334/site/newsweek/
As the 2008 presidential candidates roll out their foreign policy
views, Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft are kibbitzing backstage. The
return of Bush 41's team.
Web-exclusive commentary
By Howard Fineman
Newsweek
Updated: 1:31 p.m. ET April 24, 2007
April 24, 2007 - As he prepared for the Democrats=E2=80=99 first presidenti=
al
debate, Sen. Barack Obama sought advice from a wide circle, including,
I am told, Gen. Colin Powell, who now deeply regrets his role in
making the case for war in Iraq.
Settling the Score
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18291236/site/newsweek/
How David Halberstam set me on my career path.
Web-exclusive commentary
By Mark Starr
Newsweek
Updated: 12:20 p.m. ET April 24, 2007
April 24, 2007 - Several years ago, NEWSWEEK asked me to review David
Halberstam=E2=80=99s latest book, =E2=80=9CThe Teammates,=E2=80=9D a tale o=
f Ted Williams and
his band of brothers on the 1940s Boston Red Sox teams. I was a
natural choice, given my sports position, my Boston roots and my
unstinting admiration for Halberstam=E2=80=99s reporting talents.
The Re-Making of a Quagmire
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18306484/site/newsweek/
What David Halberstam understood four decades ago and Washington still
hasn=E2=80=99t figured out.
Web-Exclusive Commentary
By Christopher Dickey
Newsweek
Updated: 9:17 a.m. ET April 25, 2007
April 25, 2007 - The most fitting tribute to a great author is to take
his books off the shelf and read them again. I suspect--I hope--that
every bookstore in America will be selling out of David Halberstam=E2=80=99s
works over the next few days. As the fine encomiums written by my
colleagues Jon Meacham, Evan Thomas and Mark Starr attest, Halberstam
was an idol for all of us who=E2=80=99ve tried to write first drafts of
history, because his were as good or better than just about any drafts
that have come since.
A Little Less Lonely These Days
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18278508/site/newsweek/
The Syrian ambassador to the U.S. didn't used to get many visitors.
Suddenly, his date book is filling up. What he makes of the new
American outreach=E2=80=94and how Syria hopes to gain from it.
Web-exclusive
By Dan Ephron
Newsweek
Updated: 6:02 p.m. ET April 23, 2007
April 23, 2007 - The inked-up pages of Imad Moustapha's date book have
a story to tell. In the first four months of 2007, the Syrian
ambassador to Washington has had more interaction with U.S. officials
than in all of 2005 and 2006. He has met with every single member of
the Foreign Relations Committee, including many Republicans. He
coordinated the trips to Damascus of at least three congressional
delegations, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's this month. He's
even had talks with a senior official in the State Department. (As
further evidence of the warming trend, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice travels to Egypt next month to meet with representatives of
Iraq's neighbors, including Syria). Many people in Washington still
support the Bush administration's strategy of shunning Syria for its
alleged ties to terrorist groups like Hizbullah and Hamas and its
possible involvement in the assassination two years ago of former
Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. But Moustapha, a computer
scientist by training, says the isolation policy is unraveling. He
spoke recently with NEWSWEEK's Dan Ephron.
Reality Show
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18341816/site/newsweek/
In their first debate of Campaign 2008, Democrats clearly aimed to
vote one candidate off the island.
Web-Exclusive Commentary
By Richard Wolffe
Newsweek
Updated: 11:11 p.m. ET April 26, 2007
April 26, 2007 - On one point, they all tried to agree. The serious
business of choosing a presidential candidate should not be reduced to
TV entertainment. =E2=80=9CThis isn=E2=80=99t a game show,=E2=80=9D said Jo=
e Biden. =E2=80=9CThis
isn=E2=80=99t a football game. This isn=E2=80=99t win or lose.=E2=80=9D (Th=
e Delaware senator
must have missed the South Carolina State University marching band,
which entertained the TV audience outside the Orangeburg, S.C. debate
hall where the Democrats held their first debate of Campaign 2008.)
Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio congressman who rarely sees eye-to-eye with
Biden, seconded the thought. =E2=80=9CThis isn=E2=80=99t 'American Idol' he=
re,=E2=80=9D he
declared, to the relief of Hillary Clinton, whose singing voice is
less robust than her Iraq policy.
Justice: Still Keeping Score
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18248548/site/newsweek/
Clarence Thomas remains bitter about his confirmation hearings. A new
book explains why he won't let it go.
By Ellis Cose
Newsweek
April 30, 2007 issue - Clarence Thomas is arguably the most powerful
black man in America, one whose position as a Supreme Court justice
merits more than a modicum of respect. Yet as authors Kevin Merida and
Michael Fletcher make clear in "Supreme Discomfort," a new biography,
Thomas has yet to get his due.
Boris Yeltsin's Wrong Moves
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18368748/site/newsweek/
He ruled by fiat, firing judges, governors and legislators who crossed
him. The result: Russia has become less free over the last decade.
By Fareed Zakaria
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - Much of the fulsome praise for Boris Yeltsin has
come from outside Russia. While Russians continue to have a dyspeptic
view of the grand old man, foreign leaders have rushed in to remind
the world what a courageous and pivotal figure he was. It was Yeltsin,
they remind us, who dismantled the Soviet empire. It was his decision
to voluntarily leave office that created Russian democracy. We all
remember Yeltsin on top on that tank in 1991, when he almost
singlehandedly turned back a coup d'=C3=A9tat.
Just Say No=E2=80=94To Bad Science
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18368217/site/newsweek/
No one is saying that researchers cheat, but how they design a study
of sex education can practically preordain the results.
By Sharon Begley
Newsweek
May 7, 2007 issue - When Doug Kirby sat down recently to update his
2001 analysis of sex-education programs, he had 111 studies that were
scientifically sound, using rigorous methods to evaluate whether a
program met its goals of reducing teen pregnancy, cutting teens' rates
of sexually transmitted diseases and persuading them to practice
abstinence (or, if they didn't, to use condoms). He also had a pile of
studies that were too poorly designed to include. It measured three
feet high.
The Joy Of Economics
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18370077/site/newsweek/
Politicians are looking to the dismal science for ways to make us
happier=E2=80=94but is the well-being state a bad idea?
By Rana Foroohar
Newsweek International
April 5, 2007 issue - Quick: think about what would make you really,
really happy. More money? Wrong. 2.5 smiling, well-adjusted kids?
Wrong again. Now think about what would make you most unhappy: losing
your sight or a bad back? No, the bad back. The fact is, we are
terrible at predicting the source of joy. (Sex is the big exception,
but you get the point.) And whatever choices we do make, we likely
later decide it was all for the best.
Growth Is Not Enough
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18246922/site/newsweek/
A new report envisions a 'middle income' Asia by 2020, but only if the
region makes some big changes in the way it does business.
.
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