Wednesday, July 26, 2006

NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST July 26, 2006


Hillary can't hide
By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist | July 26, 2006

BILL CLINTON searches for redemption. Hillary Clinton searches for cover. Is this any way to run a presidential campaign?

The senator from New York, who is an expected presidential candidate in2008, treated the Democratic leadership Council in Denver this week to arecycled campaign slogan: ''It's the American dream, stupid,'' HillaryClinton told the DLC - a twist on ''It's the economy, stupid,'' the famed,but now overexposed theme of Bill Clinton's first national campaign.While Hillary Clinton channeled 1992, Bill Clinton was in Connecticut,trying to rescue Senator Joseph I. Lieberman from his channeling of GeorgeW. Bush. Lieberman is in a tough primary fight for his seat, mostly over hisembrace of Bush's Iraq war policy.


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The Washington Post

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2006/07/parsing_the_polls_on_bill_and.html#more

Parsing the Polls on Bill and Hillary Clinton

What would we do without the Clintons? No two figures have so captivated the public's interest over the past decade than the former president and first lady, a.k.a. the junior senator from New York.This week once again showed how the former first couple continues to generate plenty of media attention. Bill Clinton made national headlines for his campaign swing through Connecticut on behalf of embattled Sen. Joe Lieberman. On the same day a few thousand miles away, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was delivering a speech at the Democratic Leadership Council's "National Conversation" gathering in Denver, where she presented an economic plan for her party to tout in the midterm elections and beyond.


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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/25/AR2006072501308_pf.html

Ashcroft Nostalgia

By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, July 26, 2006; A17

Alberto Gonzales is achieving something remarkable, even miraculous, as attorney general: He is making John Ashcroft look good. I was no fan of President Bush's first attorney general, who may be best remembered for holding prayer breakfasts with department brass, hiding the bare-breasted statue in the Great Hall of Justice behind an $8,000 set of drapes, and warning darkly that those who differed with administration policy were giving aid to terrorists.But as I watched Gonzales testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, it struck me: In terms of competence (the skill with which he handles the job) and character (willingness to stand up to the president), Gonzales is enough to make you yearn for the good old Ashcroft days.


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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/education/26education.html?pagewanted=print

July 26, 2006
On Education

In Kindergarten Playtime, a New Meaning for 'Play'
By CLARA HEMPHILL

THE word "kindergarten" means "children's garden," and for years has conjured up an image of children playing with blocks, splashing at water tables, dressing up in costumes or playing house. Now, with an increased emphasis on academic achievement even in the earliest grades, playtime in kindergarten is giving way to worksheets, math drills and fill-in-the-bubble standardized tests.Nowhere are the demands greater than at Achievement First East New York Charter School in Brooklyn, which holds classes through this month. On a recent Friday morning, 20 kindergartners in uniforms of yellow shirts and blue jumpers or shorts, many yawning and rubbing their eyes, filed into the classroom of Keisha Rattray and Luis Gonzalez. Some sat in plastic chairs lined up before the teachers for phonics and grammar drills, while others sat at computer screens, listening through headphones to similar exercises.


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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/us/26guards.html?pagewanted=print

July 26, 2006

Borrowing Language of Civil Rights Movement, Drive Is On to Unionize Guards
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

LOS ANGELES - For Michael Johnson, a security guard for 16 years, unionization cannot happen soon enough.Mr. Johnson says the $10 an hour he earns guarding an office tower on Wilshire Boulevard is too little to support his family, so he has taken a second full-time job, guarding a construction site. His long hours exact a toll on him as a father: he leaves home at 6:15 a.m., before his four children wake up, and returns at 11 p.m., after they have gone to bed."Ten dollars an hour is not good," he said. "You have to work too hard to take it. I shouldn't have to work two jobs. I can't do this forever."


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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/opinion/26friedman.html?pagewanted=print

July 26, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

Talking Turkey With Syria
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Damascus, Syria

One wonders what planet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice landed from, thinking she can build an international force to take charge in south Lebanon without going to Damascus and trying to bring the Syrians on board.Two Syrian officials made no bones about it when I asked their reaction to deploying such a force, without Syrian backing: Do you remember what happened in 1983, each asked, when the Reagan administration tried to impose an Israeli-designed treaty on Lebanon against Syria's will? I was there, I remember quite well: Hezbollah, no doubt backed by Syria or Iran, debuted its skills for the world by blowing up the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping battalions. This is not a knitting circle here.


July 26, 2006
Editorial

A Long, Bad Six Weeks

Six weeks ago, President Bush paid a surprise visit to Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, in Baghdad. American forces had just killed the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Iraq's Parliament had just confirmed new ministers to run the army and the police, completing what was billed as a national unity cabinet. Mr. Maliki seized the occasion to announce a major military operation meant to bring security to the people of Baghdad. Mr. Bush took one of his patented looks into the prime minister's eyes and found a worthy partner.This week, as Mr. Maliki returns the visit, things feel very different. It seems possible, in fact, that the two men's brief encounter in Baghdad might turn out to have been the last good moment of the American experience in Iraq.


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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/world/middleeast/26mideast.html?ei=5094&en=117463ec2abf2621&hp=&ex=1153972800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

July 26, 2006

Israel to Occupy Area of Lebanon as Security Zone
By GREG MYRE and HELENE COOPER

JERUSALEM, July 25 - Almost two weeks into its military assault on Hezbollah, Israel said Tuesday that it would occupy a strip inside southern Lebanon with ground troops until an international force could take its place.The announcement raised the prospect of a more protracted Israeli involvement in Lebanon than the political and military leadership previously signaled or publicly sought. Officials have talked about limited raids into Lebanon, but now they seem ready to commit ground forces for at least weeks, if not months.They said the zone would be much smaller than the strip of southern Lebanon roughly 15 miles deep that Israel occupied for nearly two decades before withdrawing in 2000.


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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/washington/26abort.html?ei=5094&en=8f98475eee481bc4&hp=&ex=1153972800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

July 26, 2006

Senate Removes Abortion Option for Young Girls
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, July 25 - The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would make it a federal crime to help an under-age girl escape parental notification laws by crossing state lines to obtain an abortion.The bill was approved on a 65-to-34 vote, with 14 Democrats joining 51 Republicans in favor.A similar measure passed the House last year, and President Bush said he would sign the legislation if the two chambers could work out their differences and send a final bill to him.In a statement, Mr. Bush said that "transporting minors across state lines to bypass parental consent laws regarding abortion undermines state law and jeopardizes the lives of young women."




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