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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/14/opinion/meyer/printable2011228.shtml
What If You Want To VoteThem All Out?
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2006
(CBS) This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.
A truism of election strategy for the past 25 or so years has been that the
smartest thing Republicans do is run against Democrats.
Much of the brilliance attributed to wizards with names like Atwater,Gingrich and Rove may be more properly accrued to the shortcomings of justabout every Democrat not named William Jefferson Clinton. It don't take nogeniuses to whup Democrats.
In 2006, Democrats are hoping that running against a sitting Republicanpresident named George Walker Bush in every single race will be enough totake over the House and maybe the Senate. They are counting on somethingRepublicans used to count on: a divided, disoriented and unattractive enemy.
Many polls point in that direction now. I'm skeptical. And I'm skepticalthat even a change of control on one or both chambers of Congress wouldchange control of the nation's direction.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15522780.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
FOCUS ON ISRAEL
Hezbollah war reveals inequality of Arabs
BY URI DROMI
dromi@idi.org.il
JERUSALEM -- Wars, like hurricanes, tend to expose flaws in societies. InIsrael, the recent war with the Hezbollah revealed lack of preparedness forthis kind of war against an elusive enemy, mediocre conduct of theoperations, deficiencies in equipment, shortages of shelters for thec ivilians and more. The fact that Israel after the war is in a betterstrategic position than the pre-war situation doesn't seem to sweeten thepill. People here are vocally demanding a commission of inquiry, wishing tosee heads rolling.
Hurricane Katrina shed light on flaws both in the preparations for suchdisasters and in the U.S. government response to it. Likewise, in Israel,the recent war has triggered great controversy.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15522667.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
IN MY OPINION
Just the facts . . . at least as we know them
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
beg your pardon.
Apparently I made a major error of fact in a recent column. It turns out,contrary to what I wrote, there never was a Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attackon the United States. It wasn't hijacked airliners that brought down thetwin towers of the World Trade Center. Nor did any airplane plow into thePentagon. Nor did United Flight 93 come to Earth in a field in Shanksville,Pa. Rather, this tragedy was staged by the U.S. government in order to dupethe nation into an oil war in the Middle East.
Or at least so I am told by a surprising plurality of readers. Add to thatHugo Chávez, president of Venezuela and renowned loose cannon, who said in aspeech Tuesday it's possible the U.S. government had a hand in attackingitself on Sept. 11.
IMAGINE THAT
Of course, it's also possible the U.S. government doesn't even exist, thatit and we and Chávez himself are only figments of the imagination of alittle boy staring into a snow globe.
Possible, but not bloody likely.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/opinion/15fri1.html?pagewanted=print
September 15, 2006
Editorial
Stampeding Congress
We'll find out in November how well the White House's be-very-afraidcampaign has been working with voters. We already know how it's working inCongress. Stampeded by the fear of looking weak on terrorism, lawmakers arerushing to pass a bill demanded by the president that would have minimalimpact on antiterrorist operations but could cause profound damage tojustice and the American way.
Yesterday, the president himself went to Capitol Hill to lobby for his bill,which would give Congressional approval to the same sort of ad hoc militarycommissions that Mr. Bush created on his own authority after 9/11 and thatthe Supreme Court has already ruled unconstitutional. It would permit theuse of coerced evidence, secret hearings and other horrific violations ofAmerican justice.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401413_pf.html
The Tehran Calculus
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, September 15, 2006; A19
In his televised Sept. 11 address, President Bush said that we must not"leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states andradical dictators armed with nuclear weapons." There's only one such currentcandidate: Iran.
The next day, he responded thus (as reported by Rich Lowry and Kate O'Beirneof National Review) to a question on Iran: "It's very important for theAmerican people to see the president try to solve problems diplomaticallybefore resorting to military force."
"Before" implies that the one follows the other. The signal is unmistakable.An aerial attack on Iran's nuclear facilities lies just beyond the horizonof diplomacy. With the crisis advancing and the moment of truth approaching,it is important to begin looking now with unflinching honesty at themilitary option.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/opinion/15krugman.html?pagewanted=print
September 15, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Progress or Regress?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Is the typical American family better off than it was a generation ago? That'sthe subject of an intense debate these days, as commentators try tounderstand the sour mood of the American public.
But it's the wrong debate. For one thing, there probably isn't a rightanswer. Most Americans are better off in some ways, worse off in others,than they were in the early 1970's. It's a subjective judgment whether thegood outweighs the bad. And as I'll explain, that ambiguity is actually thereal message.
Here's what the numbers say. From the end of World War II until 1973, whenthe first oil crisis brought an end to the postwar boom, the U.S. economydelivered a huge, broad-based rise in living standards: family incomeadjusted for inflation roughly doubled for the poor, the middle class, andthe elite alike. Nobody debated whether families were better off than theyhad been a generation ago; it was obvious that they were, by any measure.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/opinion/15fri2.html?pagewanted=print
September 15, 2006
Editorial
Everyday Low Wages
Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago wielded the first veto of his 17-yeartenure this week - and the City Council supported him - striking downChicago's short-lived plan to force behemoth retailers like Wal-Mart to payhigher wages and benefits.
In this round, Mr. Daley, the retailers and local Wal-Mart suppliers arguedthat mandating higher compensation would do more harm than good by drivingbusiness and employment opportunities away from low-income neighborhoods.
But the choice - between no jobs or low-wage jobs - is probably a false one.Wal-Mart and other mega-retailers, like Target and Home Depot, need marketshare. With suburban areas saturated, cities are the logical places to grow.Wal-Mart especially needs more American consumers, having recently pulledthe plug on unsuccessful attempts to expand in Germany and South Korea.It is currently planning to expand in Santa Fe, N.M., where local lawsrequire higher wages than the company normally pays.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0609150316sep15,1,1610793,print.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Ex-rival Hynes tries to start Obama national bandwagon
Comptroller urges senator to jump into race for president
By Crystal Yednak
Tribune staff reporter
September 15, 2006
State Comptroller Dan Hynes urged his former opponent, U.S. Sen. BarackObama, to run for president, just days before Obama heads to Iowa for a major political event.
"We are a nation divided like at almost no other time in our history," Hynes said Thursday during a downtown news conference to announce his support forObama. "I believe Barack Obama can change this, that he, and he alone canrestore the hope and optimism that has made this country great."
The comments from Hynes are among the strongest to date from a Democraticofficial about the prospect of an Obama presidential bid.
For months, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has been encouraging Obama to keep anopen mind about his political future, saying earlier this year: "There is aneed for Barack Obama's leadership in America. I hope that he will seriously consider it."
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/opinion/15friedman.html?pagewanted=print
September 15, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
The Energy Harvest
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
São Paulo, Brazil
Any time that OPEC got a little too overzealous in pushing up oil pricesback in the 1970's, the legendary Saudi oil minister Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamaniwas fond of telling his colleagues: Remember, the Stone Age didn't endbecause we ran out of stones.
What he meant was that the Stone Age ended because people inventedalternative tools. The oil age is also not going to end because we run outof oil. It will end because the price of oil goes so high that people inventalternatives. Mr. Yamani was warning his colleagues not to get too greedyand stimulate those alternatives.
Too late - oil at $70 a barrel has done just that. One of the most promisingof those alternatives is ethanol, an alcohol fuel made from corn, sugar caneor any biomass. I came to Brazil to try to better grasp what is real andwhat is not in the ethanol story, because no country has done more to pioneer sugar ethanol than Brazil.
My impression, after talking to a range of Brazilian experts, is that not only is ethanol for real, but we have not even begun to tap its fullpotential. With just a few technological breakthroughs, Brazil really couldbe the Saudi Arabia of sugar and we could actually achieve that energy dream of getting "barrels from bushels."
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/14/opinion/meyer/main2011228_page2.shtml
What If You Want To VoteThem All Out?
CBS' Meyer: The '06 Elections Unlikely To Really Shake Things Up
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2006
(CBS) This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.A truism of election strategy for the past 25 or so years has been that the smartestthing Republicans do is run against Democrats.
Much of the brilliance attributed to wizards with names like Atwater, Gingrich and Rove may be more properly accrued to the shortcomings of justabout every Democrat not named William Jefferson Clinton. It don't take nogeniuses to whup Democrats.
In 2006, Democrats are hoping that running against a sitting Republicanpresident named George Walker Bush in every single race will be enough totake over the House and maybe the Senate. They are counting on somethingRepublicans used to count on: a divided, disoriented and unattractive enemy.Many polls point in that direction now. I'm skeptical. And I'm skepticalthat even a change of control on one or both chambers of Congress wouldchange control of the nation's direction.
It this moment, Democratic optimism is understandable. In the past twopresidential elections, the Democrats seemed to believe that their populistmasses would somehow recognize the fine nobility of the limousine liberalsthey nominated and the crassness of George Bush the Younger. It didn't workout that way.
But 2006 is a midterm election, and the Democrats aren't encumbered by anational punching bag. The Republicans are, though - they're shackled to anunpopular president, one who many candidates don't even care to bephotographed with.
This year, the Democrats have no illusions that voters will affirmativelyembrace their chosen national leaders - Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and HowardDean. This is a sign of reality-based strategy, something the Republicanshaven't had to contend with in a while. They don't seem to have anyillusions that thy have a message or a platform or a "vision thing" that people affirmatively vote for. That is realistic, though pathetic.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Americans believe in four Gods, Baylor religion study finds
http://www.abpnews.com/1361.article
Associated Baptist Press
By Hannah Elliott
Published September 13, 2006
WASHINGTON (ABP) -- Americans believe in four different Gods, according to a massive new study from Baylor University.
To be more precise, the study found that four different perceptions of Godpervade American thought today. Researchers from the Texas school'ssociology department and Institute for Studies of Religion conducted thesurvey.
Called "American Piety in the 21st Century," it used survey data from1,721 American citizens and was the largest such study conducted to date.Its 350 questions asked Americans their thoughts on a gamut ofreligion-related topics -- from piety to politics to the paranormal.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/opinion/15krugman.html?pagewanted=print
September 15, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Progress or Regress?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Is the typical American family better off than it was a generation ago? That'sthe subject of an intense debate these days, as commentators try tounderstand the sour mood of the American public.
But it's the wrong debate. For one thing, there probably isn't a rightanswer. Most Americans are better off in some ways, worse off in others,than they were in the early 1970's. It's a subjective judgment whether thegood outweighs the bad. And as I'll explain, that ambiguity is actually thereal message.
Here's what the numbers say. From the end of World War II until 1973, whenthe first oil crisis brought an end to the postwar boom, the U.S. economydelivered a huge, broad-based rise in living standards: family incomeadjusted for inflation roughly doubled for the poor, the middle class, andthe elite alike. Nobody debated whether families were better off than theyhad been a generation ago; it was obvious that they were, by any measure.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/49190.html
Study finds immigrants quick to adopt English print
By BARBARA FERRY | The New Mexican
September 14, 2006
Research shows Spanish dies out within two generations, even in Latino enclaves
People who fear Latin American immigrants don't assimilate well into theUnited States and might threaten the country's English-language culturalidentity should relax.
So says Rubén Rumbaut, a University of California, Irvine sociologist andprincipal author of a new study on the "life expectancy" of Spanish amongLatin American immigrants and their children.
Some scholars, notably Samuel Huntington of Harvard University, have arguedthat Spanish-speaking immigrants are less likely to learn English thanearlier generations of European immigrants.
In his 2004 book Who Are We? The Challenges to American Identity, Huntingtonwrote that large-scale Latino immigration could "divide the United Statesinto two peoples, two cultures, and two languages."
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/content/2006/09/its_the_system.html
It's the system, stupid
September 14, 2006 6:53 AM
By DOUG THOMPSON
America is in free fall - a failed nation led by failed leaders with failedideas serving a lemming- like populace that views failure as an acceptablealternative.
Today's America is flawed in so many ways that analysis of the complexevents that led us to the precipice is difficult at best.
How did we get here? Can we save what once was a great country built uponnoble notions of freedom? Is redemption possible or even desirable?
It is easy to point blame at George W. Bush. He is a monumental failure as aPresident, a serial liar who led this nation into a war that cannot be won.He and those who both serve and advise him systematically dismantled theConstitution, trampled the freedoms upon which that hallowed document isbased and destroyed a democratic republic that has stood the test of time,bad leaders and assaults for more than two centuries.
Bush, however, capitalized on a system of government that has been failingfor decades, seizing opportunity made possible by an ever-increasing federalbureaucracy, rampaging government waste and corruption and constant,unrelenting assaults upon our individual freedoms and rights.
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