NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST December 3, 2006

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LATimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-chait3dec03,0,5168497.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

JONATHAN CHAIT

The right's education fantasy

Conservatives' model for improving schools relies too much on highexpectations, and not enough on money.

Jonathan Chait

December 3, 2006


MY WIFE spent a few years teaching in a mostly low-income elementary school.The main thing I remember her telling me was that parental involvement was anear-perfect predictor of her students' performance. The kids with activeparents did well, and the kids with disengaged parents did poorly.

The great bugaboo of education reform has always been the role of parents.But if a child's family determines his educational future, then there's notmuch point in trying to perfect the school environment. Or so it would seem.

Last Sunday's New York Times Magazine featured a fascinating article by PaulTough on the conundrum of the education gap between rich and poor (and whiteand black). The bad news is that this gap is indeed deeply rooted inparenting styles from a very young age. There is a stark difference betweenthe way middle-class or professional parents raise their children and theway poor parents do. The former talk with their children far more, exposethem to a broader range of vocabulary and give them far more positivereinforcement. "The professional parents were giving their children anadvantage with every word they spoke," Tough wrote, "and the advantage justkept building up."


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The Miami Herald


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/16151888.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp


Posted on Sun, Dec. 03, 2006


SUPREME COURT

Diversity in class on trial
The racial mix at K-12 schools across the nation is at stake in twocases going to the high court.
BY NANCY BENAC
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court is diving into a debate over schooldiversity that is as old as Reconstruction-era efforts to integrate blacksinto the mainstream and as new as the 5:35 a.m. start time on some busescarrying students across town in Louisville, Ky.

At a time of rising de facto segregation in public schools, the highcourt is to hear arguments Monday on lawsuits by parents in Louisville andSeattle challenging policies that use race to help determine where childrengo to school.

The school policies are designed to keep schools from segregatingalong the same lines as neighborhoods.




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latimes.com


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-kotkin3dec03,0,4446501.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

Rebuilding the middle class

Forget tax cuts and minimum-wage hikes; it's time for massive infrastructureprojects that put millions to work in well-paying jobs.
By Joel Kotkin and David Friedman

JOEL KOTKIN is an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation and theauthor of "The City: A Global History." DAVID FRIEDMAN is also a seniorfellow at the foundation.

December 3, 2006


OVER THE LAST 20 years, the United States has regressed into what oneeconomist calls a "plutonomy" - a society in which the largest economicgains flow to an ever smaller portion of the population. According to recenteconomic statistics, from 1999 to 2004, the inflation-adjusted income of thebottom 90% of all U.S. households grew by 2%, compared with a 57% jump forthe richest 10%. Incomes rose by more than 87% for households annuallymaking $1 million and more than doubled for those that take home about $20million a year.

Most disturbingly, workers losing the most economic ground are not theuneducated and unskilled but those with high school, community college andeven four-year degrees. Overall, the middle class, in relative if notabsolute terms, has lost purchasing power, especially in big coastal citieswhere the highest earners and the super-rich have driven up prices forhousing and the cost of living.


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Houston Chronicle


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4374091.html


Dec. 2, 2006, 10:36PM
Pelosi must ride herd on old bulls and young turks


By E.J. DIONNE JR.

The most important tension within the new Democratic majority in the Houseof Representatives is not between liberals and conservatives or free tradersand fair traders. It is between older members who once enjoyed the power andperks of majority status, and their younger colleagues who will experiencereal power for the first time.

The older members - many of whom will be taking over committeechairmanships - came to political maturity in the pre-Clinton, pre-Gingrichera, before the full flowering of the permanent campaign. They governed froma House in which committee leaders typically had more power than the speakerin shaping legislation.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101326_pf.html


Russia's Hidden Power Struggle

By Masha Lipman
Saturday, December 2, 2006; A15



MOSCOW -- "Give the elections back to the people, bastards!" These wordswere emblazoned on a bright yellow banner more than 30 feet long that hungover the Moscow River facing the Kremlin. A couple of young activistspositioned themselves in the ropework holding up the banner for about 30minutes, until they were taken off and delivered to a police station.

Such extravagant political performances may be typical at, say, a Greenpeaceprotest but not over something that has in fact become increasingly common:a government encroachment on voting rights.




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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101402_pf.html


Profiled In Prince George's

By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Saturday, December 2, 2006; A15

I have a question for Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson andPolice Chief Melvin C. High.

It concerns my youngest son, who is 21. He was walking to his car at BowieTown Center after working a shift at one of the stores there Sunday nightwhen a police officer met him at his car and asked if he had seen anything"suspicious." Bryan said no. The officer asked where he was coming from.Bryan told him. The officer asked for his license and registration. Bryangave them to him.

After 20 minutes my son was allowed to drive away. Less than two minuteslater he was pulled over, still at the mall. He asked why. "I'll ask thequestions," said this officer. The questions were: Where are you going,where are you coming from? Again, Bryan answered. Again, he was asked forhis license and registration. A few minutes later, he was ordered out of hiscar with his hands up, and police began to search the vehicle.

Six police cars converged on this scene. Having received a call from afriend who happened to be at the mall, I went, too.




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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101511_pf.html


Move Over, Hoover

By Douglas Brinkley
Sunday, December 3, 2006; B01

Shortly after Thanksgiving I had dinner in California with Ronald Reagan'sbest biographer, Lou Cannon. Like many historians these days, we discussedwhether George W. Bush is, conceivably, the worst U.S. president ever.Cannon bristled at the idea.

Bush has two more years to leave his mark, he argued. What if there is anews flash that U.S. Special Forces have killed Osama bin Laden or thatNorth Korea has renounced its nuclear program? What if a decade from nowIraq is a democracy and a statue of Bush is erected on Firdaus Square wherethat famously toppled one of Saddam Hussein once stood?

There is wisdom in Cannon's prudence. Clearly it's dangerous for historiansto wield the "worst president" label like a scalp-hungry tomahawk simplybecause they object to Bush's record. But we live in speedy times and, thetruth is, after six years in power and barring a couple of miracles, it'ssafe to bet that Bush will be forever handcuffed to the bottom rungs of thepresidential ladder. The reason: Iraq.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/world/europe/03germany.html?pagewanted=print


December 3, 2006

Germany to Restrict Smoking, Joining Other Nations in Europe
By MARK LANDLER

FRANKFURT, Dec. 2 - Yielding grudgingly to the growing European campaign
against smoking in public places, Germany announced Friday that it would
seek to ban smoking in restaurants, discos, schools and other publicbuildings, but not in pubs, bars or beer tents.

The compromise, worked out by the coalition government, would bring thiscountry, Europe's biggest tobacco market, closer to its neighbors incurtailing public smoking. But it would fall short of the recent laws passedby Britain, France, Ireland and Italy, which stamp out cigarettes in pubsand bars as well as other public places.

Antismoking groups said the proposal was a milestone, given Germany's longresistance to any restrictions. They called on the Parliament to broaden theban when it votes on it, probably next year.



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The Miami Herald

Posted on Sun, Dec. 03, 2006

SUPREME COURT
A slide toward segregation

BY RUTH MARCUS
marcusr@washpost.com

A half-century after Brown v. Board of Education, it's come, amazingly, tothis: The Supreme Court, in the name of preventing race discrimination, isbeing asked to stop local schools from voluntarily adopting plans to promoteintegration.

Even more amazingly, the federal government -- a government that sided withthe black schoolchildren in Brown and has spent years helping enforce thecourt's desegregation decree -- has entered the case on the side of whiteparents challenging the plans. Thurgood Marshall must be spinning in hisgrave.

This perverse notion of constitutional rights would mean that the guaranteeof equal protection makes it harder, not easier, to integrate schools. AsJack Greenberg, Marshall's co-counsel in Brown, put it in a recentfriend-of-the-court brief, the justices are being urged ``to hold, ineffect, that integration and segregation are equally offensive to the 14thAmendment insofar as they involve any consideration of race.''



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16142986.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp



Posted on Sun, Dec. 03, 2006


Not Third World, Miami is a new world

OUR OPINION: IMMIGRANTS OFFER AMERICA ADVANTAGES IN A GLOBAL CENTURY

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., doesn't like multicultural Miami. Too badfor him. He's spitting into hurricane-force winds trying to turn away thetide of immigrants, or preaching that doing so would be good for thiscountry.

Face it, globalization is a reality. Immigration is one of the definingforces of that process in this country. Not only did the United States amasswealth and power as a nation of immigrants, but in this new era the countrywill thrive by cultivating the competitive advantage offered by Americansfluent in multiple languages and cultures.


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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03sun1.html?pagewanted=print

December 3, 2006
Editorial

Is the New Congress to Be Believed?

Well before Election Day, the smart-money lobbyists of K Street were alreadyshifting campaign donations to safe Democratic incumbents, greasing accessto the next Congressional majority. That should be warning enough to theincoming speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate majority leader,Harry Reid, to deliver quickly and credibly on their campaign vows to attackthe corrupt, quid-pro-quo culture that besotted the Republican-controlledCapitol.

Yet even before the new Congress arrives, there is disquieting talk ofadvance compromises on what will be done - or not done. It's fortunate theincoming members will be in the Capitol this week, preparing for Januaryand, not incidentally, observing the lame-duck finale of the Congress thatfailed on this vital issue.




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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/washington/03dems.html?pagewanted=print


December 3, 2006

Democrats Face a Tough Job, Leader Says
By JEFF ZELENY

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 - The Democratic National Committee chairman, HowardDean, warned party leaders on Saturday not to revel too long in thevictories from last month's midterm elections or treat their Congressionalmajorities as a permanent directive from voters.

"The other party made mistakes in the past claiming that elections aremandates," Mr. Dean said. "Elections are not mandates. The voters of thiscountry loaned the Democrats the power of the country for two years. Nowit'sour job to earn it back again."




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http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FB0817F63D5A0C7A8DDDA80994DE404482

November 19, 2006

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 11-19-06: QUESTIONS FOR KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI;

State of the Church

By DEBORAH SOLOMON

Q: You just took office as the first woman to head the Episcopal Church, andcuriously enough, you come from a science background, having worked as anoceanographer for years. I worked on squids and octopuses.

As a scientist with a Ph.D., what do you make of the Christianfundamentalists who say the earth was created in six days and dismissevolution as a lot of bunk? I think it's a horrendous misunderstanding ofboth science and active faith tradition. I understand the great creationstory in the scientific sense -- big bang and evolutionary theory -- as thebest understanding of how we have come to be what we are: not the meaningbehind it, but the process behind it. Genesis is about the meaning behindthat.

Your critics see you as an unrepentant liberal who supports the ordinationof gay bishops. Are you trying to bolster the religious left? No. We're notabout being either left or right. We're about being comprehensive.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03sun2.html?pagewanted=print



December 3, 2006
Editorial
Closer to and Farther From Europe

The strained relationship between Europe and Turkey took two steps forwardlast week and, we fear, at least that many backward.

On the plus side, the visit to Turkey by Pope Benedict XVI helped sootherelations, especially after Benedict backed off his opposition to Turkey'sapplication to join the European Union. The pope - who infuriated Muslims afew months ago with a tone-deaf speech criticizing Islam - may have doneeven more good with his visit to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, where heprayed facing Mecca.

But those efforts at conciliation may be undercut if the European Unionfollows through on a recommendation by its enlargement commissioner, OlliRehn, to freeze part of the negotiating program for Turkey's membershipunless Turkey opens its ports to shipping from Cyprus. To many in Turkey -and to us as well - that looked like another ploy to keep Turkey out of theunion. Some members are pressing for the European Union to suspend the talksaltogether.



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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03kristof.html

December 3, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

A Modest Proposal for a Truce on Religion
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

If God is omniscient and omnipotent, you can't help wondering why she doesn'tpull out a thunderbolt and strike down Richard Dawkins.

Or, at least, crash the Web site of www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com. That's asnarky site that notes that while people regularly credit God for curingcancer or other ailments, amputees never seem to enjoy divine intervention.

"If God were answering the prayers of amputees to regenerate their lostlimbs, we would be seeing amputated legs growing back every day," the Website declares, adding: "It would appear, to an unbiased observer, that Godis singling out amputees and purposefully ignoring them."

That site is part of an increasingly assertive, often obnoxious atheistoffensive led in part by Professor Dawkins - the Oxford scientist who isauthor of the new best seller "The God Delusion." It's a militant,in-your-face brand of atheism that he and others are proselytizing for.



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http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03rich.html

December 3, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

Has He Started Talking to the Walls?
By FRANK RICH

IT turns out we've been reading the wrong Bob Woodward book to understandwhat's going on with President Bush. The text we should be consultinginstead is "The Final Days," the Woodward-Bernstein account of Richard Nixontalking to the portraits on the White House walls while Watergate demolishedhis presidency. As Mr. Bush has ricocheted from Vietnam to Latvia to Jordanin recent weeks, we've witnessed the troubling behavior of a president whoisn't merely in a state of denial but is completely untethered from reality.It's not that he can't handle the truth about Iraq. He doesn't know what thetruth is.

The most startling example was his insistence that Al Qaeda is primarilyresponsible for the country's spiraling violence. Only a week before Mr.Bush said this, the American military spokesman on the scene, Maj. Gen.William Caldwell, called Al Qaeda "extremely disorganized" in Iraq, addingthat "I would question at this point how effective they are at all at thestate level." Military intelligence estimates that Al Qaeda makes up only 2percent to 3 percent of the enemy forces in Iraq, according to JimMiklaszewski of NBC News. The bottom line: America has a commander in chiefwho can't even identify some 97 percent to 98 percent of the combatants in awar that has gone on longer than our involvement in World War II.


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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101523_pf.html


In Iraq, an Obligation Coming Due

By Michael Goldfarb
Sunday, December 3, 2006; B07



Every time I read about the United States pulling out while Iraq takes thefinal step into the abyss of civil war, I find myself thinking of aconversation I had with my translator and my driver in April 2003 as thefirst phase of the war was reaching its climax.

We were coming back from inspecting the damage caused by American airstrikesin a small town at the edge of Saddam Hussein's control in northern Iraq. Mytranslator, Ahmad Shawkat, and driver, Sami Abdul Qader, were chatting inKurdish.

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101506_pf.html


At Least He's Not Nixon

By David Greenberg
Sunday, December 3, 2006; B01



In 1950, President Harry S. Truman was under fire for "losing" China tocommunist forces, engaging in deficit spending and seeking to expandunemployment insurance. Harold E. Stassen, a prominent Republican, blastedhim as "the worst president ever to occupy the White House."

Four years later, under Dwight D. Eisenhower, job growth had slowed andwages were down. West Virginia Sen. Matthew M. Neely declared Ike "the worstpresident in United States history."

In 1973, as Richard M. Nixon foundered amid the worsening Watergate scandal,crippling stagflation and increasing social strife, labor leader GeorgeMeany asserted, "He will go down in history as one of our worst presidents."



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101509_pf.html



He's The Worst Ever

By Eric Foner
Sunday, December 3, 2006; B01

Ever since 1948, when Harvard professor Arthur Schlesinger Sr. asked 55historians to rank U.S. presidents on a scale from "great" to "failure,"such polls have been a favorite pastime for those of us who study theAmerican past.

Changes in presidential rankings reflect shifts in how we view history. Whenthe first poll was taken, the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil Warwas regarded as a time of corruption and misgovernment caused by grantingblack men the right to vote. As a result, President Andrew Johnson, afervent white supremacist who opposed efforts to extend basic rights toformer slaves, was rated "near great." Today, by contrast, scholars considerReconstruction a flawed but noble attempt to build an interracial democracyfrom the ashes of slavery -- and Johnson a flat failure.

More often, however, the rankings display a remarkable year-to-yearuniformity. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin D. Rooseveltalways figure in the "great" category. Most presidents are ranked "average"or, to put it less charitably, mediocre. Johnson, Franklin Pierce, JamesBuchanan, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Richard M. Nixon occupy thebottom rung, and now President Bush is a leading contender to join them. Alook at history, as well as Bush's policies, explains why.



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The Miami Herald


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/16087447.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp


Posted on Fri, Nov. 24, 2006

IN MY OPINION
Richards' rant leaves no doubt he's a racist

BY LEONARD PITTS JR.


``Throw his ass out! He's a nigger! He's a nigger! He's a nigger! A nigger!Look, there's a nigger!''

-- Michael Richards,

The Laugh Factory, Nov. 17

``I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this.''

-- Michael Richards, The Late Show with David Letterman, Nov. 20

You'd think one of the first things a stand-up comic learns is how to dealwith hecklers. One recalls Richard Pryor's jab at some fool who blew awhistle during his monologue. ''This ain't Kool and the Gang,motherfornicator!'' Except, he didn't say motherfornicator.

Apparently, Michael Richards was absent from Comedy 101 the day they studiedHeckler Management. Hence, his epic, headline-making meltdown. It happenedlast week after Richards was razzed -- benignly, by most accounts -- by someblack folks in the crowd.



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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org

California leads way to hybrid democracy

California leads way to hybrid democracy By Steve Geissinger Sacramento
Bureau San Gabriel Valley Tribune Saturday, December 2, 2006 Expectsurprises. It's no longer politics as usual.

Want to overhaul the Legislature into a single, non-partisan house?How about creating universal health care or a bullet train? Voters may soonget the chance.

Californians are so tired of Sacramento and Washington that they arecreating a "unique, hybrid democracy" to dissolve political gridlock on keyissues - a trend that could spread across the nation.

That's the conclusion reached by California's two foremost pollsters,looking back to the Nov. 7 election and ahead to coming sessions of theLegislature and Congress.




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From the Washington Post

More Muslims Gaining Political Ground
Although Md. Delegate-Elect Doesn't Trumpet Faith, His Win Signals New Surge

By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 30, 2006; A01

Since Gaithersburg software engineer Saqib Ali was elected to the MarylandHouse of Delegates this month, he has been flooded with calls and e-mailsfrom across the country asking: How'd you do it?

The calls come from American Muslims like Ali, who, longtime politicalwatchers and Muslim activists in the area say, is the first Muslim electedto a statewide -- or districtwide -- office in Maryland, Virginia or theDistrict.

Although the 31-year-old made little of his faith during the campaign -- infact, he bucked those who said he should put it on his campaignliterature -- he is part of a concerted march of Muslims into civic andpolitical life. His campaign was part of a push that began after Sept. 11,2001, with worries about civil liberties and immigration policy and hasblossomed this year.



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Forwarded from Rusty Gordon and Davy Whims
The Whimsy Loops
twpchwpb@BellSouth.Net


Subject: Democratic Congressman, Henry Waxman, Has The Bush AdministrationIn His Sights

Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006


THE PALM BEACH POST / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nov 25, 2006

Waxman has Bush administration in sights

By: ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The lawmaker poised to cause the Bush administration'sbiggest headaches when Democrats take control of Congress may just be agrocer's son from Watts who's hardly a household name off Capitol Hill.

Rep. Henry Waxman has spent the last six years waging a guerrilla campaignagainst the White House and its corporate allies, launching searinginvestigations into everything from military contracts to Medicare pricesfrom his perch on the Government Reform Committee.

In January, Waxman becomes committee chairman and thus the leadcongressional hound of an administration many Democrats feel has blunderedbadly as it expanded the power of the executive branch.



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Forwarded from Rusty Gordon and Davy Whims
The Whimsy Loops
twpchwpb@BellSouth.Net


http://www.nytimes.com/

November 24, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
When Votes Disappear

By: PAUL KRUGMAN

You know what really had me terrified on Nov. 7? The all-too-realpossibility of a highly suspect result. What would we have done if theRepublicans had held on to the House by a narrow margin, but circumstantialevidence strongly suggested that a combination of vote suppression anddefective, or rigged, electronic voting machines made the difference?

Fortunately, it wasn't a close election. But the fact that our electoralsystem worked well enough to register an overwhelming Democratic landslidedoesn't mean that things are O.K. There were many problems with voting inthis election and in at least one Congressional race, the evidence stronglysuggests that paperless voting machines failed to count thousands of votesand that the disappearance of these votes delivered the race to the wrongcandidate.



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Muslim women planning to form council on rights

Associated Press

Nov. 18, 2006

NEW YORK - Muslim women from the United States and around the world aremeeting this weekend on forming the first international Islamic advisorycouncil for women.

The American Society for Muslim Advancement, the lead organizer of theevent, said the goal of the council is to promote women's rights thatadvocates say are part of Islamic teaching.

"Women's rights often get debated in the press or they get debated amongscholars who are not women," said Daisy Khan, executive director of theAmerican Society for Muslim Advancement, which is based in New York. "Wefeel there are many Muslim women who are coming of age who have thescholarly background to be able to step up to the plate to speakauthoritatively about it."



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