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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/opinion/21taylor.html?pagewanted=print
December 21, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
The Devoted Student
By MARK C. TAYLOR
MORE college students seem to be practicing traditional forms of religiontoday than at any time in my 30 years of teaching.
At first glance, the flourishing of religion on campuses seems to reversetrends long criticized by conservatives under the rubric of "politicalcorrectness." But, in truth, something else is occurring. Once again, rightand left have become mirror images of each other; religious correctness issimply the latest version of political correctness. Indeed, it seems themore religious students become, the less willing they are to engage incritical reflection about faith.
The chilling effect of these attitudes was brought home to me two years agowhen an administrator at a university where I was then teaching called meinto his office. A student had claimed that I had attacked his faith becauseI had urged him to consider whether Nietzsche's analysis of religionundermines belief in absolutes. The administrator insisted that I apologizeto the student. (I refused.)
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Elections.html?pagewanted=print
December 21, 2006
Ahmadinejad Opponents Win Elections
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:37 a.m. ET
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's opponents won localcouncil elections in Iran, final results showed Thursday, in an embarrassingblow to the hard-line leader that could force him to change his staunchanti-Western stance and focus more on domestic issues.
Last week's elections for local councils in towns and cities across Iranwere widely seen as a referendum on Ahmadinejad's 18 months in office.
Since taking power, Ahmadinejad has escalated Iran's confrontation with theUnited States and the West, drawing the threat of U.N. sanctions for pushingahead with uranium enrichment in Iran's nuclear program. He has alsoprovoked international outrage for his comments against Israel and castingdoubt on the Nazi Holocaust.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/opinion/21thu4.html?pagewanted=print
December 21, 2006
Editorial
Free Genarlow Wilson Now
Genarlow Wilson loves reading mystery novels and can't wait for the nextHarry Potter book. The 20-year-old former high school football player andhonor student works in a library, the perfect job for a young bookworm.Unfortunately, that is where the good news ends and a genuine horror storyof this country's legal system begins.
The library in Georgia where Mr. Wilson works is in prison. He is two yearsinto a sentence for engaging in consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girlat a New Year's Eve party when he was 17. He won't be eligible for paroleuntil he has served 10 years, essentially sacrificing his remaining youth toan obvious miscarriage of justice.
As Shaila Dewan reported in The Times this week, Mr. Wilson has beenconvicted of aggravated child molestation even though he and the girl wereboth minors at the time. Even if he could win an early release, Mr. Wilsoncould not go home to his family. He would have to register as a sex offenderand would be prohibited from living with his 8-year-old sister. It is allthe more disgraceful because the Georgia Supreme Court last week refused tohear his appeal.
The sexual act took place during a party involving sex, marijuana andalcohol, all captured on a graphic videotape. But that does not make Mr.Wilson a child molester. When high school students engage in consensualsexual activity, that is not the same as an adult molesting a teenager or ateenager molesting a child.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122001329_pf.html
The Courts Need This Watchdog
By Ronald D. Rotunda
Thursday, December 21, 2006; A29
The Judicial Transparency and Ethics Enhancement Act of 2006, now beforeCongress, would create an inspector general for the courts. It offers modestreforms that would keep our judiciary independent (because no one favors adependent judiciary) and help keep it accountable (because no one favors ajudiciary that is above the law).
Nonetheless, there are those who greet it the way Dracula would greet abouquet of garlic. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for example, has said of theproposal: "That's a really scary idea."
On the contrary, this bill would strengthen judicial independence because itwould give people greater faith that if there were problems, the inspectorgeneral for the courts would deal with them and not sweep them under therug. An inspector general would also protect judges from frivolous or falsecharges.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/business/worldbusiness/21air.html?pagewanted=print
December 21, 2006
Europe Acts to Penalize Jet Pollution
By JAMES KANTER
PARIS, Dec. 20 - In the face of stiff opposition from the airline industry,the European Union moved forward Wednesday with plans to impose extracharges on foreign and domestic carriers that pollute too much.
"We are showing our determination to fight climate change," said Europe'senvironment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, who announced the proposalWednesday in Brussels. "This is one way to persuade other countries to comealong with us."
The rules, which would be legally binding, would apply to all flights withinthe bloc starting in 2011. Foreign carriers landing and taking off from busyairports like those in Frankfurt, London and Paris would be obliged to jointhe system the following year. If enacted, the measure could drive up costsfor airlines, potentially leading to higher airfares for travelers.
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The Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_politics15dec20,0,3760111.story
Bush Links Minimum Wage to Tax Break
By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer
December 20, 2006, 10:17 PM EST
WASHINGTON -- President Bush endorsed one of the Democrats' top prioritiesfor the new Congress, a $2.10-an-hour minimum wage increase -- and on afaster timetable than they have proposed.
But his support comes with a catch.
Bush said at a Wednesday news conference that any pay hike should beaccompanied by tax and regulatory relief for small businesses, potentially atough sell for Democrats, who are about to reassume control of the House andSenate.
"Minimum wage workers have waited almost 10 long years for an increase,"responded Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, who has said thatboosting the federal minimum wage will be his chief goal when he takes overas chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor andPensions. "We need to pass a clean bill giving them the raise they deserveas quickly as possible."
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-smith20dec20,0,1684692.story?track=mostviewed-homepage
Power to the Swift Boaters!
Why the harsh fines on two so-called 527 political organizations?
By Bradley A. Smith
BRADLEY A. SMITH, who served as chairman of the Federal Election Commissionin 2004, is a professor of law at Capital University Law School in Columbus,Ohio, and chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics.
December 20, 2006
LAST WEEK, the Federal Election Commission fined MoveOn.org, the Swift BoatVeterans for Truth and two other groups a total of $629,500 for violatingcampaign finance laws during the 2004 election. According to the FEC, these"527" organizations (so named for the tax code provision governing theiractivities) ought to have registered as political action committees, whichwould have limited their ability to receive large donations and, in the caseof MoveOn and the Swifties, would probably have shut both groups out of the2004 election altogether.
For decades, only groups that contributed directly to candidates,coordinated their activity with candidates or "expressly advocated" acandidate's election or defeat in public advertising (with phrases such as"support" or "vote against") qualified as PACs.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122002046_pf.html
Mass. Governor's Rightward Shift Raises Questions
By Dan Balz and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 21, 2006; A01
As he prepares for a 2008 presidential campaign, Massachusetts Gov. MittRomney (R) has championed the conservative principles that guided PresidentRonald Reagan, become an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage andsupported overturning the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
It was not always so. Twelve years ago, Romney boasted that he would be moreeffective in fighting discrimination against gay men and lesbians than Sen.Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), distanced himself from some conservativepolicies of the Reagan administration, and proudly recalled his family'srecord in support of abortion rights.
The apparent gulf between the candidate who ran for the Senate in 1994 andthe one getting ready to run for president has raised questions as to who isthe real Mitt Romney. Is he the self-described moderate who unsuccessfullychallenged Kennedy in the year of the Republican landslide, theself-described conservative now ready to bid for the Republican presidentialnomination in 2008, or merely an ambitious and adaptable politician? Theanswer could be crucial to Romney's presidential ambitions.
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Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0612200264dec20,1,6481193,print.column?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
`If I'd only known then...,' says Hillary
Kathleen Parker
December 20, 2006
The coulda-shoulda-woulda chorus just added a new soprano. Sen. HillaryRodham Clinton says she wouldn't have voted for the Iraq war if she'd knownthen what she knows now.
Clinton was one of the last holdouts among the probable 2008 Democraticpresidential candidates to embrace hindsight regarding her vote in 2002 on aresolution approving the invasion of Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein frompower.
It's been interesting to watch formerly pro-war leaders distance themselves,one by one, as conditions have deteriorated in Iraq. As always, timing iseverything.
Was the first to cut and run from the hawk's nest the smartest? Was the lastone more principled?
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122001718_pf.html
Muslims Mark Solidarity With Jews
Event Held Days After Iranian Meeting That Denied Genocide
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 21, 2006; B05
Local Muslim leaders lit candles yesterday at the U.S. Holocaust MemorialMuseum to commemorate Jewish suffering under the Nazis, in a ceremony heldjust days after Iran had a conference denying the genocide.
American Muslims "believe we have to learn the lessons of history and commitourselves: Never again," said Imam Mohamed Magid of the All Dulles AreaMuslim Society, standing before the eternal flame flickering from a blackmarble base that holds dirt from Nazi concentration camps.
Around the hexagonal room, candles glimmered under the engraved names of thedeath camps: Chelmno. Auschwitz-Birkenau. Majdanek.
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The Detroit News
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061221/POLITICS/612210309/1026/SCHOOLS&template=printart
Dems vow to cut student loan fees
Brady Averill and Rob Hotakainen / McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- Alarmed by a rapid rise in student debt, Democratic leaders inthe next Congress are promising to lower payments on new college loans bycutting the interest rate in half.
During the first 100 hours of the 110th Congress, Democrats plan to reducethe interest rate from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. They contend that wouldhelp the typical undergraduate student borrower -- who graduates with$17,500 in debt -- pocket $5,600.
While the plan to lower interest rates has broad political appeal, it wouldcost an estimated $18 billion over five years, and is likely to testCongress' new commitment to hold down spending as a way to lower deficits.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122001328_pf.html
Labor's Man In '08?
By Robert D. Novak
Thursday, December 21, 2006; A29
While Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama soak up media attention, JohnEdwards has pushed for organized labor's support. No decisions have beenmade, but the former senator from North Carolina and 2004 vice presidentialnominee is the front-runner for winning over the big, dynamic unions thatleft the AFL-CIO almost 18 months ago.
Edwards is a leading prospect for backing from Andrew Stern's ServiceEmployees International Union (SEIU) and James P. Hoffa's InternationalBrotherhood of Teamsters, the unions that led the breakaway, forming theChange to Win coalition. Stern and Hoffa are wary of early decisions, andthere are things about the Edwards operation that their unions do not like.But their interest in him reflects largely unspoken discontent in Democraticranks over a choice limited to Clinton and Obama.
Withdrawal from presidential consideration of former Virginia governor MarkWarner and Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana prompted the analysis that Clinton andObama consume all the political oxygen, leaving nothing for anothercandidate.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/opinion/21thu1.html?pagewanted=print
December 21, 2006
Editorial
Rudderless in Iraq
Anyone looking for new thinking on Iraq, or even candor, had to bedisappointed by President Bush's news conference yesterday. Mr. Bush maywant to defer unveiling his new strategy, but there will be no obligingpause in Iraq's unraveling.
The latest Pentagon status report confirms a spiraling death toll, everdeeper sectarian divisions and near total lawlessness on the streets ofBaghdad, despite repeated American vows to secure the capital. In a furthersign of Iraq's descent, our colleague James Glanz reported this week thatBaghdad gets less than seven hours of electricity a day, as insurgents andlooters dismantle the power grid.
While Mr. Bush contemplates his fast-disappearing options, competingfactions in the administration and the military have been less reticentabout floating their ideas.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/opinion/21thu3.html
December 21, 2006
Editorial
Mr. Bush's Immigration Realism
Every now and then the public gets a glimpse of the George W. Bush who is acalm realist on immigration, a former governor of a border state who knows,likes and understands Latino immigrants. It's an identity sharply at oddswith that of many other members of his Republican Party, especially thesnarlers clustered on its right wing.
At his news conference yesterday, Mr. Bush commented on the raids at Swift &Company, the meatpacking giant that, to nobody's surprise, seems to have hadhundreds of illegal immigrants with forged papers on its low-skill workforce. Mr. Bush did not condemn the detainees as border-crossing evildoers.He spoke with startling tolerance.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-goldberg21dec21,0,4491039.column?coll=la-opinion-center
JONAH GOLDBERG
Giuliani: the man to defend American culture
To win the GOP nomination, socially liberal Giuliani must burnish toconservatives the tough-guy credentials he earned as New York mayor.
Jonah Goldberg
December 21, 2006
AMERICA NEEDS a Pym Fortuyn, and Rudolph Giuliani may be the man for thejob.
Pim Fortuyn, you may recall, was the gay, flamboyant sociology professorturned "right-wing" Dutch politician who took a hard-line position againstimmigration and Islamic extremism - two issues inextricably linked in acountry where whole communities have become enclaves of Sharia law. Fortuynwas labeled as right wing by identity-politics leftists for his unapologeticview that the Netherlands should stay both liberal and libertine.
His basic view was that the Netherlands has a culture too, and there's noshame in defending civil liberties, free expression and tolerance againsttheir opponents, even if those opponents exploit liberal guilt by castingthemselves as victims. In other words, Fortuyn wanted to keep the partygoing, and that meant taking a strong line against the killjoys. ThatFortuyn could be both libertarian and tough-minded caused great cognitivedissonance in the media and on the left - there and here. He wasassassinated by a left-wing extremist.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/commentary.aspx?id=17897
Fear spoils freedom's promise
Inside the First Amendment
By Paul K. McMasters
First Amendment Center ombudsman
12.15.06
The First Amendment turns 215 years old today. At its birth as it is today,this constitutional guarantee was a breathtakingly beautiful testimony tothe value of freedom of conscience and expression.
When it was ratified as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the FirstAmendment secured all other freedoms because it provided protection for anation of citizens to question their government, to foment change, to fightinjustice. It encouraged a democratized conversation in which individualscould freely create and criticize, give voice to passion and pain, givesubstance to their dreams.
It invited all Americans to proclaim their power as citizens and their worthas human beings.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122002046.html
Mass. Governor's Rightward Shift Raises Questions
By Dan Balz and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 21, 2006; A01
As he prepares for a 2008 presidential campaign, Massachusetts Gov. MittRomney (R) has championed the conservative principles that guided PresidentRonald Reagan, become an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage andsupported overturning the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
It was not always so. Twelve years ago, Romney boasted that he would be moreeffective in fighting discrimination against gay men and lesbians than Sen.Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), distanced himself from some conservativepolicies of the Reagan administration, and proudly recalled his family'srecord in support of abortion rights.
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The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/12/21/why_wont_carter_debate_his_book?mode=PF
ALAN DERSHOWITZ
Why won't Carter debate his book?
By Alan Dershowitz | December 21, 2006
YOU CAN ALWAYS tell when a public figure has written an indefensible book:when he refuses to debate it in the court of public opinion. And you canalways tell when he's a hypocrite to boot: when he says he wrote a book inorder to stimulate a debate, and then he refuses to participate in any suchdebate. I'm talking about former president Jimmy Carter and his new book"Palestine Peace Not Apartheid."
Carter's book has been condemned as "moronic" (Slate), "anti-historical"(The Washington Post), "laughable" (San Francisco Chronicle), and riddledwith errors and bias in reviews across the country. Many of the reviews havebeen written by non-Jewish as well as Jewish critics, and not by"representatives of Jewish organizations" as Carter has claimed. Carter hasgone even beyond the errors of his book in interviews, in which he has saidthat the situation in Israel is worse than the crimes committed in ApartheidSouth Africa. When asked whether he believed that Israel's "persecution" ofPalestinians was "[e]ven worse . . . than a place like Rwanda," Carteranswered, "Yes. I think -- yes."
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