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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601495_pf.html
Simmering Rage Within the GOP
By David S. Broder
Thursday, July 27, 2006; A25
My weekend visitor was one of the founders of the postwar Republican Partyin the South, one of those stubborn men who challenged the Democratic rulein his one-party state.He was conservative enough that in the greatstruggle for the 1952 nomination, his sympathies were with Sen. Robert Taftof Ohio, not Dwight D. Eisenhower.He has lived long enough to see Republicans elected as senator and governorof his state and to see a Republican from the Sun Belt behemoth of Texascapture the White House. His profession won't let him speak with his nameattached, but he is sadly disillusioned."My wife was thrilled by the veto" Bush administered last week to the billexpanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, because sheshares the president's belief that those clumps of cells destroyed in the
research process represent human life.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601496_pf.html
Try Talking With Syria - Assad Isn't Going Away
By David W. Lesch
Thursday, July 27, 2006; A25
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been a lonely man in international circles of late. Indeed, one of the few Americans with whom he has hadcontact in the past few years has been a professor (me) who wrote a bookabout him -- not exactly high-powered diplomacy. Assad was a tremendous disappointment to many U.S. officials after apromising beginning when he came to power in 2000.Considering the dilapidated, broken-down country he inherited, however, the
expectations were misplaced. And because they were so high, so was the levelof disappointment.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15131262.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
DEMOCRATS
Bill Moyers for president?
By MOLLY IVINS
www.creators.com
AUSTIN, Texas -- Dear desperate Democrats,Here's what we do. We run Bill Moyers for president. I am serious as astroke about this. It's simple, cheap and effective, and it will move theentire spectrum of political discussion in this country. Moyers is the onlypublic figure who can take the entire discussion and shove it toward moralclarity just by being there.The poor man who is currently our president has reached such a point ofbefuddlement that he thinks stem-cell research is the same as taking humanlives, but that 40,000 dead Iraqi civilians are progress toward democracy.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/07/26/democrats_map_out_election_plan?mode=PF
Democrats map out election plan
By Liz Sidoti, Associated Press Writer | July 26, 2006
WASHINGTON --Democrats plan to press for a minimum wage increase and "tough,smart" national security in their final push to wrest power from theRepublicans in the November elections.House and Senate Democrats will hold a joint meeting on Thursday to discussevents planned for the 100 days leading up to midterm congressionalelections and lay out their party agenda, called "A New Direction for America."
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http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/0727eddaniel.html
RELIGION
Clergy too quiet about Bush, war
By KENNETH C. DANIEL
Published on: 07/27/06
A few years ago, there was a popular bumper sticker and bracelet. It was theessence of simplicity; four letters, followed by a question mark - WWJD?What Would Jesus Do? Most of the stickers have either faded into oblivion orhave been replaced by other causes, such as Support Our Troops or God BlessAmerica.As the WWJD bumper stickers disappeared, did the message vanish as well? Theidea began to haunt me. The more I mulled it over, the darker and moreforeboding the tempest swirled, until a single question emerged from thismaelstrom of thoughts and emotions: Where is the voice of our spiritualleaders? Where are the sentinels of our souls, raising their voices, askingthe tough questions, protesting injustice, condemning corruption? So, I ask you, clergy, where is your voice?
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http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-oe-goldberg27jul27,1,3277087.column?coll=la-news-columns
From the Los Angeles Times
Jonah Goldberg: We Don't Need Beavis and Butt-head Voters
A proposed $1-million lottery to amp up voting would cheapen citizenship.
Jonah Goldberg
July 27, 2006
I DON'T KNOW about you, but when that Mega Millions jackpot gets really highI like to go down to the local convenience store and ask the good folkswaiting for hours to buy a fistful of tickets, "Hey, do you think Condi Riceshould cut a deal with Bashar Assad?" Or, "Excuse me sir, I know you're busyfilling out those little ovals for the same 78 numbers you play every week,
but I was wondering whether you think reimportation of Canadian drugs is agood idea?" I mean, where else can you find the distilled genius of the voxpopuli than a line of people at the 7-Eleven who have a lot of time to spareduring working hours?
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/27/AR2006072700121_pf.html
Shell 2Q Profit Up 40 Pct. on Oil Prices
By TOBY STERLING
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 27, 2006; 8:27 AM
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's second-largest oil company, said Thursday its second-quarter earnings jumped 40 percent as high oil prices offsetproduction difficulties in Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico.Net profit rose to $7.32 billion from $5.24 billion a year earlier. Sales rose less than 1 percent to $83.1 billion from $82.6 billion.Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer said in a statement the earnings were "underpinned by overall good operational performance and not simply high energy prices."Still, the main reason for the increase was higher oil prices, with earnings at Shell's oil exploration and production arm leaping to $4 billion from $2.75 billion, despite an 8 percent drop in production to 3.25 million barrels a day.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601815_pf.html
Overseas Tensions Force Bush to Change Direction
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; A03
The latest crisis in the Middle East has disrupted President Bush's plans domestically and internationally at a sensitive juncture, reopening divisions with allies abroad and jeopardizing attempts to restore public confidence at home, according to officials, analysts and diplomats.The discord at a conference in Rome yesterday over a proposed cease-fire in Israel and Lebanon underscored the widening gap between the United States and Europe over how to stop the fighting. And the images of mayhem from the two-week-old war, combined with the rising death toll in Iraq, have further rattled a domestic audience that polls show was already uncertain about Bush's leadership.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/books/27gugg.html?pagewanted=print
July 27, 2006
Guggenheim Study Suggests Arts Education Benefits Literacy Skills
By RANDY KENNEDY
In an era of widespread cuts in public-school art programs, the question has become increasingly relevant: does learning about paintings and sculpture help children become better students in other areas?A study to be released today by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum suggests
that it does, citing improvements in a range of literacy skills among students who took part in a program in which the Guggenheim sends artists into schools. The study, now in its second year, interviewed hundreds of New York City third graders, some of whom had participated in the Guggenheim program, called Learning Through Art, and others who did not.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Earns-Exxon-Mobil.html?pagewanted=print
July 27, 2006
Exxon Mobil Profit Jumps 36%
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:29 a.m. ET
DALLAS (AP) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday it earned $10.36 billion in the second quarter, the second largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company. The earnings figure was 36 percent above the profit it reported a year ago. High oil prices helped boost the company's revenue by 12 percent to a level just short of a quarterly record.Exxon Mobil's report comes a day after another large U.S. oil company, ConocoPhillips, said it earned more than $5 billion in the quarter and at a time when many drivers in the U.S. are paying $3 for a gallon of gas -- increasing the likelihood of further political backlash in Washington.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/washington/27poll.html?ei=5094&en=5afed1095a20f963&hp=&ex=1154059200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
July 27, 2006
Americans Showing Isolationist Streak, Poll Finds
By JIM RUTENBERG and MEGAN C. THEE
Americans are overwhelmingly pessimistic about the state of affairs in the Middle East, with majorities doubtful there will ever be peace between Israel and its neighbors, or that American troops will be able to leave Iraq anytime soon, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.A majority said the war between Israel and Hezbollah will lead to a wider war. And while almost half of those polled approved of President Bush's handling of the crisis, a majority said they preferred the United States leave it to others to resolve.Over all, the poll found a strong isolationist streak in a nation clearly rattled by more than four years of war, underscoring the challenge for Mr. Bush as he tries to maintain public support for his effort to stabilize Iraq
and spread democracy through the Middle East.The concerns expressed over the direction of foreign policy also highlight some of the pitfalls facing Republicans as they head toward the November elections with national security front and center.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/opinion/27el-zein.html
July 27, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
The Tribes of War
By ABBAS EL-ZEIN
Sydney, Australia
MY grandmother was killed in southern Lebanon by an Israeli "precision" air raid as she fled the Israeli Army in March 1978. My uncle searched for her desperately amid the invasion. News kept coming from different quarters, some confirming she had died, others maintaining she was alive in a hospital in Lebanon or Israel.My uncle finally found her in the village of Abbasiyeh, on the hills overlooking the orchards of the city of Tyre. He recognized her body from the clothes she had been wearing, gathered her remains and buried her. My mother, who had been worn down by the contradictory reports, collapsed upon hearing the news. She had had a trivial dispute with her mother a couple of weeks earlier, and never forgave herself for not making up.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/opinion/27doran.html?pagewanted=print
July 27, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Cold, Hard Facts
By PETER DORAN
Chicago
IN the debate on global warming, the data on the climate of Antarctica has been distorted, at different times, by both sides. As a polar researcher caught in the middle, I'd like to set the record straight.In January 2002, a research paper about Antarctic temperatures, of which I
was the lead author, appeared in the journal Nature. At the time, the Antarctic Peninsula was warming, and many people assumed that meant the climate on the entire continent was heating up, as the Arctic was. But the Antarctic Peninsula represents only about 15 percent of the continent's land mass, so it could not tell the whole story of Antarctic climate. Our paper
made the continental picture more clear.My research colleagues and I found that from 1996 to 2000, one small, ice-free area of the Antarctic mainland had actually cooled. Our report also
analyzed temperatures for the mainland in such a way as to remove the influence of the peninsula warming and found that, from 1966 to 2000, more of the continent had cooled than had warmed. Our summary statement pointed out how the cooling trend posed challenges to models of Antarctic climate and ecosystem change.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/opinion/27thu4.html?pagewanted=print
July 27, 2006
Editorial
Parental Notification
The anti-abortion bill approved by the Senate this week, which makes it a federal crime to help an under-age girl cross state lines to avoid parental notification laws, is a mean piece of legislation, which takes a politically popular concept and applies it to a range of cases that could include particularly desperate young women.No one knows how many under-age girls seek out the help of a friend or a relative to get them out of a state that requires parental consent for an abortion and into one of the two dozen states that don't. The number may not
be very large. The underlying intent of the bill's sponsors was to score re-election points with social conservatives who are looking for reassurance that the Republican majority still cares about the abortion issue, and to do it in a way that would not alarm moderate voters who
believe that parents should know if their child is pregnant and considering an abortion.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/opinion/27thu3.html?pagewanted=print
The New York Times
July 27, 2006
Editorial
More Hope for the Truly Rich
For the past five years, Congress has passed every tax cut championed by President Bush - except one. A handful of Senate Republicans and most Senate Democrats have, to their credit, blocked four attempts since 2001 to repeal the estate tax on America's wealthiest families.But the heirs to America's mightiest fortunes may be shielded from taxes anyway. This week, David Cay Johnston reported in The Times that the government is on the verge of eliminating the jobs of nearly half of the Internal Revenue Service lawyers who audit estate-tax returns - 157 of the
agency's 345 estate-tax auditors. The I.R.S. says the layoffs are warranted because the Bush tax cuts mean fewer people are obliged to pay estate taxes.
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http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/opinion/27herbert.html?pagewanted=print
The New York Times
July 27, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Failure Upon Failure
By BOB HERBERT
Imagine a surgeon who is completely clueless, who has no idea what he or she is doing.Imagine a pilot who is equally incompetent.Now imagine a president.The Middle East is in flames. Iraq has become a charnel house, a crucible of horror with no end to the agony in sight. Lebanon is in danger of going down for the count. And the crazies in Iran, empowered by the actions of their
enemies, are salivating like vultures. They can't wait to feast on the remains of U.S. policies and tactics spawned by a sophomoric neoconservative fantasy - that democracy imposed at gunpoint in Iraq would spread peace and freedom, like the flowers of spring, throughout the Middle East.
If a Democratic president had pursued exactly the same policies, and achieved exactly the same tragic results as George W. Bush, that president would have been the target of a ferocious drive for impeachment by the G.O.P.
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http://news.com.com/Congress+spanks+naughty+sex+sites/2100-1028_3-6098325.html
Congress spanks naughty sex sites
By Declan McCullagh
Story last modified Wed Jul 26 05:52:43 PDT 2006
The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill that would makeit a federal felony for Webmasters to use innocent words like "Barbie" or"Furby" but actually feature sexual content on their sites.Anyone who includes misleading "words" or "images" intended to confuse a minor into viewing a possibly harmful Web site could be imprisoned for up to20 years and fined, the bill says.Because the U.S. Senate already approved the measure in a voice vote last
week, it now goes to President Bush for his signature. Bush, who previously endorsed the bill, has scheduled a signing ceremony for Thursday afternoonon the White House grounds. "America's children will be better protected from every parent's worst nightmare--sexual predators--thanks to passage" of the legislation, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in a statement on Tuesday.
