NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST January 08, 2007

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/07/AR2007010700978_pf.html


A Bad, Bipartisan Tax Plan

By Sebastian Mallaby
Monday, January 8, 2007; A15


Way, way back, which means before the midterm elections, the House Democratswaxed indignant about the rights of the minority party. When they assumedmajority status last week, they barely gave Republicans a chance to speak,and all of Washington tut-tutted. Meanwhile, in the Senate, there was anoutbreak of bipartisanship fit to make the angels sing. This posed a farmore serious problem.

The outbreak came from Max Baucus, the new Democratic chairman of the SenateFinance Committee, and Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican. Standingshoulder to shoulder, manfully defying the mad partisan cleavage of ourtimes, the two senators called for repeal of the alternative minimum tax --a prescription so fiscally crazy that not even the Bush administrationsupports it.




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Chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4451428.html


Jan. 7, 2007, 7:19PM

Labor
Political shifts may herald raises for world's workers


By MATTHEW BENJAMIN and SIMON KENNEDY
Bloomberg News

Workers of the world are demanding a bigger share of global prosperity, andthis year they may get it.

Political shifts in the U.S., Europe and Asia raise the chances that 2007will bring labor higher pay and stronger job protection after five years inwhich its share of economic gains fell.

"The pendulum of economic power might well begin to shift from capital backto labor," says Stephen Roach, chief global economist with Morgan Stanley inNew York.

While that's good news for workers, the result may be a squeeze on corporateprofits and stock prices, economists say. Roach, for one, foresees "a verychallenging and difficult environment for global stock markets," withheightened risks of protectionism, accelerating inflation and higherinterest rates.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/opinion/08mon3.html?pagewanted=print


January 8, 2007
Editorial

Mr. Schwarzenegger's Modest Idea


Guaranteed health care for children is the new political apple pie. No onecan say he is against it, and it's a sure applause line for politicians whowant to show concern for reducing the number of uninsured in America. Butspecial recognition is due California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, whois reportedly ready to begin his new term with an actual proposal that hisstate insure all children. And by all, he means undocumented immigrants,too.

The proposal seems a challenge to fellow Republicans, and even to much ofthe state's Democratic leadership. Predictably, anti-immigrant groups saidthat including all children would cost billions more than the $400 millionexperts estimate. In truth, the idea is economical and, if anything, quitemodest.

Several states, including Illinois, Maine and New Jersey, already haveprograms that cover all youngsters, including undocumented children whomight not have access to government-subsidized care. California has what maybe the biggest number of uninsured young people, more than 750,000. Most wereborn in the United States and are citizens.




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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/opinion/08mon1.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print


January 8, 2007
Editorial
Testing the Testers


There is by now no doubt that there are serious problems with electronicvoting machines: they fail to record votes, and even flip votes from onecandidate to another. Election officials like to defend the machines bynoting that they have been certified by independent testing labs. But thecertification process has long been deeply flawed, and last week there waseven more disturbing news - that the leading testing lab has been unable tomeet the federal government's standards.

Since last summer, Ciber Inc., the largest tester of voting machinesoftware, has been unable to meet federal quality standards that will takeeffect later this year.

It is disturbing that if Christopher Drew had not reported this in TheTimes, the public still would not know. The Election Assistance Commission,the agency that evaluates the labs, did not reveal that Ciber fell short,and is still not saying what is wrong. Ciber, which is still working onmeeting the standards, did not return our phone call.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/washington/08tax.html?pagewanted=print


January 8, 2007
Bush Tax Cuts Offer Most for Very Rich, Study Finds
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS


WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 - Families earning more than $1 million a year saw theirfederal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as aresult of President Bush's tax cuts, according to a new Congressional study.

The study, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, also shows thattax rates for middle-income earners edged up in 2004, the most recent yearfor which data was available, while rates for people at the very topcontinued to decline.

Based on an exhaustive analysis of tax records and census data, the studyreinforced the sense that while Mr. Bush's tax cuts reduced rates for peopleat every income level, they offered the biggest benefits by far to people atthe very top - especially the top 1 percent of income earners.

Though tax cuts for the rich were bigger than those for other groups, thewealthiest families paid a bigger share of total taxes. That is becausetheir incomes have climbed far more rapidly, and the gap between rich andpoor has widened in the last several years.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/07/AR2007010701281_pf.html


Battling Deportation Often a Solitary Journey
Without Legal Assistance, Thousands Are Expelled Unfairly, Critics of SystemSay

By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 8, 2007; A01


Shortly after 9 a.m., all rose.

The black-robed judge took his seat under the Justice Department seal and infront of the federal prosecutor. People whispering in various languagesspilled out of the cramped courtroom into the hallway of the federalimmigration court in Arlington County, waiting for their chance to fight tostay in the United States, agree to leave or be deported.

Salvadoran Roxana Velasco sat alone in the waiting room. Like several otherpeople listed on that morning's 37-case docket, she had no attorney.

"The judge said I have to have a lawyer or I have to represent myself," saidVelasco, 30, recalling her first hearing in October. "How am I going to dothat?"

In immigration courts, there are judges and prosecutors, evidence andwitnesses. The consequences can be great: banishment, separation fromfamily, perhaps persecution at home. But unlike in criminal courts, thegovernment does not provide free lawyers for the poor. And in what courtofficials deem a great concern, a growing number of people in immigrationcourt have no legal counsel: Of more than 314,000 people whose cases rantheir course in fiscal 2005, two-thirds went through on their own, or prose.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/business/08private.html?ei=5094&en=a27db51a7c624fec&hp=&ex=1168232400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

January 8, 2007

Private Firms Lure Chief Executives With Top Pay
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and ERIC DASH


Robert L. Nardelli's unceremonious departure from Home Depot may spell theend of the era of super-size pay packages for chief executives of publiccompanies, but a new refuge for lavish compensation and private jets isemerging elsewhere.

Flush with hundreds of billions of dollars, private equity firms arebeginning to offer compensation on a previously unimaginable scale to thechief executives who run the once-public companies that the firms havebought out. At the privately held firms, the executives still get salariesand bonuses, but a crucial difference lies in the ownership positions theycan secure, which can turn into particularly bountiful riches when thesebusinesses are sold or go public again.



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Boston.com

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/01/08/bad_timing_in_the_mideast?mode=PF


GLOBE EDITORIAL
Bad timing in the Mideast
January 8, 2007


THE TIMING couldn't have been worse. An undercover Israeli securityoperation in the West Bank city of Ramallah went awry Thursday, just beforePrime Minister Ehud Olmert was to attend a summit meeting in Egypt with thatcountry's president, Hosni Mubarak. Four Palestinians were killed in theshoot-out, and 20 wounded. Mubarak was obliged to warn Olmert during theirjoint press conference that Israel must avoid actions that could thwart theefforts of Egypt and other mediators to secure a negotiated peace. AndOlmert had to apologize for the unintended killing of civilians in Ramallah.

The juxtaposition of the summit at Sharm el-Sheikh and the bloodshed inRamallah reveals the opposing vectors for and against a Mideast peace. Itshows how close the region has come to a point of no return. But it alsosuggests there is still time for diplomacy to save both peoples fromimpending disaster.



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Boston.com

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/01/08/helping_at_risk_teens_make_hard_changes?mode=PF


MOLLY BALDWIN
Helping at-risk teens make hard changes
By Molly Baldwin | January 8, 2007


WHEN YOUNG people get in trouble at school, at home, or with the law, weexpect them to change their ways. But young people cannot change overnight.Indeed, some young people have a far harder time changing than others.

These young people, deeply disconnected from society and entrenched in theirnegative behaviors, don't stay in school and don't show up for work on aconsistent basis. Many are raising themselves, some are young parents, andmany have been in and out of jail.

The most challenging young people are the unhappiest -- those who act outtheir anger and pain through crime, drugs, and gangs; those who cannot stayin school; those who have children they cannot care for; and those whocannot, without help, overcome the hardships of their childhoods. Theirproblems challenge the tenacity and optimism of even the most patient amongus.




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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/07/AR2007010701163.html


War Against Time
Once Again, a U.S. Plan for Iraq Envisions Months Where Years Are Required

By Jackson Diehl
Monday, January 8, 2007; A15


The new plan for Iraq that President Bush will announce this week willsuffer from the same fallacy that has infected each of his previous warstrategies -- and also most of the counterproposals sprouting up inWashington. That is, the notion that American action can produce decisiveresults in Iraq in six to 12 months.

The administration's original war plan -- to the extent one existed --foresaw the creation of an Iraqi administration and the withdrawal of mostU.S. troops within six months of the invasion. When that failed, theadministration wagered that it could oversee the election of an interimIraqi government, the writing of a constitution, that constitution'sratification and the election of a permanent government in 12 months.Insistence on that timetable produced the half-baked constitution that nowhamstrings the "unity" government. A year ago the administration supposedthat it could train enough Iraqi police and military forces in 2006 to drawdown U.S. troops to 100,000 or fewer. It came no closer than it did in 2005,when it had much the same plan.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/07/AR2007010701359_pf.html


War's Toll on Iraqis Put at 22,950 in '06
Statistics From Health Ministry Official Show Tripling of Civilian, PoliceDeaths

By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 8, 2007; A01


BAGHDAD, Jan. 7 -- More than 17,000 Iraqi civilians and police officers diedviolently in the latter half of 2006, according to Iraqi Health Ministrystatistics, a sharp increase that coincided with rising sectarian strifesince the February bombing of a landmark Shiite shrine.

In the first six months of last year, 5,640 Iraqi civilians and policeofficers were killed, but that number more than tripled to 17,310 in thelatter half of the year, according to data provided by a Health Ministryofficial with direct knowledge of the statistics. The official, who spoke oncondition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release theinformation, said those numbers remained incomplete, suggesting the finaltally of violent deaths could be higher.



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Boston.com

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/01/08/the_lynching_of_iraq?mode=PF


JAMES CARROLL
The lynching of Iraq
By James Carroll | January 8, 2007


THE HANGING of Saddam Hussein Dec. 30 offered a view into the grotesquereality of what America has sponsored in Iraq, and what Americans saw shouldinform their response to President Bush's escalation of the war.

The deposed tyrant was mercilessly taunted. As he stood on the threshold ofthe afterlife and was told to go to hell, the world witnessed a chillingelevation of the ancient curse, making an absolute villain an object ofpity.

And then, in chanting the name of Moqtada al-Sadr, whose family had been aparticular target of Hussein's his executioners made clear that theexecution was an act of tribal revenge, not of national restoration, muchless justice. It was a lynching. This Shi'ite brutality is guaranteed tospawn Sunni savagery. Iraq itself is hell.

Officials of the United States, from military commanders in Baghdad tomembers of the Bush administration in Washington, sought to distancethemselves from the bedlam, but they are essential to what happened at thelast moments of Saddam's life. Decorum would have been the main note of hisdeath if Americans had managed it, but the execution would have been no lessan act of false justice.




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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/07/AR2007010701144_pf.html


Conservatives Decry Terror Laws' Impact on Refugees
Administration's Interpretation Means Many Asylum-Seekers Are WronglyConsidered Security Threats, Critics Say

By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 8, 2007; A03


Conservatives who supported President Bush's reelection have joined liberalgroups in expressing outrage over his administration's broad use ofanti-terrorism laws to reject asylum for thousands of people seeking refugefrom religious, ethnic and political persecution.

The critics say the administration's interpretation of provisions mandatingdenial of asylum to individuals who give "material support" to terroristgroups is so broad that foreigners who fought alongside U.S. forces in warssuch as Vietnam can be denied asylum on the grounds that they provided aidto terrorists.

Advocates for refugees add that people who were forced to aid terroristfighters at gunpoint could be labeled as supporters and turned away; suchcases include a nurse who was abducted and told to treat a guerrilla fighterin Colombia and a woman in Liberia who said her father was killed and shewas raped and forced to stand by as rebels occupied her home for severaldays.



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CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/08/ap/politics/mainD8MGPVPO1.shtml


Dems Look at Tax Cuts for Middle Class
Speaker: Dems won't rule out raising taxes on wealthy to help pay formiddle class tax cuts

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2007
By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press Writer


(AP) Democrats are not ruling out raising taxes for the wealthiest people tohelp pay for tax cuts for middle-income families, House Speaker Nancy Pelosisaid.

She spoke of pursuing an estimated $300 billion that people owe in backtaxes, eliminating deficit spending and reducing wasteful federal spending.

"As we review what we get from ... collecting our taxes and reducing waste,fraud and abuse, investing in education and in initiatives which will bringmoney into the Treasury, it may be that (repealing) tax cuts for thosemaking over a certain amount of money, $500,000 a year, might be moreimportant to the American people than ignoring the educational and healthneeds of America's children," Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview airedSunday.

A budget rule, known as the pay-as-you-go rule, that was approved by theDemocratic-run House on Friday requires that tax cuts have correspondingcuts in government spending or tax increases elsewhere to pay for them.



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CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/07/ap/politics/mainD8MGMID01.shtml


Richardson Hopeful for Darfur Progress
Richardson Hopeful for Darfur ProgressKHARTOUM, Sudan, Jan. 7, 2007
By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer


(AP) New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson got a bleak assessment Sunday of thedeteriorating situation in Darfur, but expressed optimism for a breakthroughwith the Sudanese president he has been able to work with in the past.

President Omar al-Bashir has refused to allow U.N. troops into theviolence-wracked region, allowing only 20 civilians to be deployed forassistance.

The peacekeeping force would provide protection to the 2.5 million peopleuprooted since early 2003 as a result of sectarian conflict. More than200,000 people have died, victims of violence as well as malnutrition anddisease.



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http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/opinion/08herbert.html

The New York Times

January 8, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Working Harder for the Man
By BOB HERBERT


Robert L. Nardelli, the chairman and chief executive of Home Depot, beganthe new year with a pink slip and a golden parachute. The company handed hima breathtaking $210 million to take a hike. What would he have been worth ifhe'd done a good job?

Data recently compiled by the Center for Labor Market Studies atNortheastern University in Boston offers a startling look at just how out ofwhack executive compensation has become. Some of the Wall Street Christmasbonuses last month were fabulous enough to resurrect an adult's belief inSanta Claus. Morgan Stanley's John Mack got stock and options worth inexcess of $40 million. Lloyd Blankfein at Goldman Sachs did even better -$53.4 million.

According to the center's director, Andrew Sum, the top five Wall Streetfirms (Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch andMorgan Stanley) were expected to award an estimated $36 billion to $44billion worth of bonuses to their 173,000 employees, an average of between$208,000 and $254,000, "with the bulk of the gains accruing to the top 1,000or so highest-paid managers."

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