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frishkorn@bellsouth.net
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/washington/23habeas.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Hoover Planned Mass Jailing in 1950
By TIM WEINER
December 23, 2007
A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtimedirector of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspendhabeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty.
Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after theKorean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in militaryprisons.
Hoover wanted President Harry S. Truman to proclaim the mass arrestsnecessary to "protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage."The F.B.I would "apprehend all individuals potentially dangerous" tonational security, Hoover's proposal said. The arrests would be carried outunder "a master warrant attached to a list of names" provided by the bureau.
The names were part of an index that Hoover had been compiling for years."The index now contains approximately twelve thousand individuals, of whichapproximately ninety-seven per cent are citizens of the United States," hewrote.
"In order to make effective these apprehensions, the proclamation suspendsthe Writ of Habeas Corpus," it said.
Habeas corpus, the right to seek relief from illegal detention, has been afundamental principle of law for seven centuries. The Bush administration'sdecision to hold suspects for years at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has made habeascorpus a contentious issue for Congress and the Supreme Court today.
The Constitution says habeas corpus shall not be suspended "unless when incases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it." The planproposed by Hoover, the head of the F.B.I. from 1924 to 1972, stretched thatclause to include "threatened invasion" or "attack upon United States troopsin legally occupied territory."
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/magazine/23wwlnQ4-t.html
Questions for Anthony Lewis: Speech Rules
Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON
December 23, 2007
As a former Op Ed columnist for this paper and a longtime voice ofliberalism who is now 80 years old, you're about to publish an incisive bookon the First Amendment, "Freedom for the Thought That We Hate." Why wouldyou write a book about an amendment we already know and love so well? Weneed to celebrate and understand our unique freedom, and it is unique inthis country - this freedom of speech and press. And I don't actually thinkwe understand it well.
Your book recounts the many times the First Amendment has taken a hit,starting with the Sedition Act of 1798, which made it a crime to publishcriticism of President Adams. The Federalist Party said the law was neededto prevent French Jacobin terrorists from slipping into the United States.But the real reason was to prosecute pro-Jefferson newspaper editors.
This has been a theme in American politics, the use of fear-mongering tojustify repression. Again and again. During World War I, there was theEspionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, under which people whothrew unsigned leaflets from the top of a building in New York protestingWilson's dispatch of troops to Russia were convicted and sentenced to 20years in prison. Twenty years in prison! Amazing.
How would you compare restrictions on free speech since 9/11 with those ofthe past? The speech restrictions today are much less dangerous than thoseduring World War I. You can criticize the president. You can disagree withhim. But. But. There are some other very bad things that have happened,noticeably the use of torture.
Which is not a First Amendment issue. Not at all. The First Amendment isvery important, but it's not everything.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-britain-blair-conversion.html
Blair Conversion Bolsters Catholicism's "Lead"
By REUTERS
December 23, 2007
Filed at 5:35 a.m. ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Former prime minister Tony Blair's conversion toCatholicism means he is now a member of the most popular Christiandenomination in Britain, according to religious research published onSunday.
Despite England's official break with the pope in Rome during Henry VIII'sreign more than 400 years ago, making Anglicanism and the Church of Englanddominant, Catholicism is now the most practiced faith in the land.
A survey by the group Christian Research published in the Sunday Telegraphnewspaper showed that around 862,000 worshippers attended Catholic Mass eachweek in 2006, exceeding the 852,000 who went to Church of England services.
Attendance at Anglican services has almost halved over the past 40 years asthe country has grown steadily more secular, the research showed, with onlyPentecostalism showing any rise in popularity among Christian denominations.
While attendance figures for both Catholic and Anglican services aredeclining, Catholic numbers are slipping by a lesser degree as new migrantsarrive from east Europe and parts of Africa, boosting Catholiccongregations.
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St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/12/23/State/Giuliani_s_lead_erode.shtml
Giuliani's lead erodes; Huckabee gaining ground
By ADAM C. SMITH, Times Political Editor
Published December 23, 2007
Rudy Giuliani returns this week for a three-day Florida campaign swing,including the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday. The visit is perhaps not a momenttoo soon, with his Florida lead melting away in recent polls.
Florida's Jan. 29 primary, which is supposed to be Giuliani's must-winfirewall, increasingly looks wide open as the race begins tightening aselection day approaches.
The average of recent Florida polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.com showsGiuliani backed by 25 percent of Florida Republicans, former Arkansas Gov.Mike Huckabee with 23 percent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 19percent, Arizona Sen. John McCain with 11 percent, former Tennessee Sen.Fred Thompson with 9 percent, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 3 percent.
Not all the recent polls are equally credible, however. The QuinnipiacUniversity poll released last week found Giuliani with 28 percent support,Huckabee with 21 percent and Romney with 20 percent. Among Democrats,Hillary Clinton was leading Barack Obama by 22 percentage points.
"The mayor's base of support in Florida has remained consistent throughoutthe campaign, and he continues to be the candidate best positioned to winFlorida's primary," said Giuliani campaign spokesman Elliot Bundy.
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/354141.html
Disappointment at the Bali conference
Posted on Sun, Dec. 23, 2007
The science was sobering; the politics were disappointing. After two weeksof reports, speeches, meetings and discussions -- some of it bitter andconfrontational -- the international climate-change conference in Bali endedrecently with a scary assessment of global warming and a half-heartedcommitment to do what is needed.
Compromise may be the best result that can be hoped for when 190 nationswith competing interests, politics and economics meet to forge a plan tofight global warming. But jiminy crickets, this is about saving the planetfrom a calamity. Now is the time for urgency and for setting asidedifferences to avert a global meltdown.
The scientists at Bali uniformly agreed that global warming is a fact, thathuman activity is causing it, that sea levels are rising faster thanpreviously believed and that impacts are already being felt in the form ofspecies extinction and dramatic weather changes.
Despite these dire assessments, the delegates agreed only to negotiate a newplan by 2009 to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.
There was no commitment by the United States and China, by far the biggestproducers of carbon dioxide and other deadly greenhouse gases, to overhaulor upgrade their technologies to reduce emissions. Instead, the U.S.delegates talked sweetly about working together while refusing to agree tomandatory reductions. And they blamed China and other developing nations fornot carrying their share of the burden. As for China, it continued to hidebehind the rubric that it is being singled out and insists that it beallowed to develop its economy using harmful technologies in the same waythat the United States, Europe and other developed countries have done.
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/540/story/354139.html
It's time to re-engage with Latin America
By SEN. HARRY REID AND SEN. THAD COCHRAN
Posted on Sun, Dec. 23, 2007
At a time of heightened partisanship in Congress, when Democrats andRepublicans are finding a consensus to be elusive, we experienced a momentof bipartisan consensus during our recent trip to Latin America.
Distracted by events in the Middle East and South Asia, the United Stateshas neglected Latin America. We believe the time to re-engage is now. Wehope this trip, which included senators from both parties, signals a renewedcommitment by the U.S. Congress to U.S.-Latin American relations.
During our visit to Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia, Paraguay and theParaguay-Brazil-Argentina tri-border region, we were struck by the commonproblems shared by America and our neighbors. The need to find commonsolutions was clear. The scourges of gangs, crime, drug-trafficking andpoverty cross borders and devastate lives both in the United States andthroughout Latin America. And though many in the Senate differ on thesolution to the complex issue of immigration, we can all agree thataddressing the conditions that lead people to cross our border illegally isan important and effective step we can take.
That requires effective and committed leadership by our Latin Americanneighbors and a sustained investment by the United States in improving thequality of life in this region.
Our experience in Guatemala painted a poignant picture of both our sharedproblems and the potential for shared success. Members of the delegation metwith a group of former gang members, rehabilitated through a program fundedby the U.S. Agency for International Development. One former gang member,who learned his gang skills in the United States, told us how he escaped alife of nonstop violence and random murder to become a productive member ofsociety. Yet the modest U.S. commitment for this successful anti-gangproject might not be continued in the midst of cuts to development fundingin the region.
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Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-questions_tankersleydec23,1,7583183.story
When it comes to the issues, it's still red vs. blue
By Jim Tankersley
Tribune national correspondent
December 23, 2007
INDIANOLA, Iowa
Your typical Mitt Romney crowd is as curious about ending the Iraq war asyour typical Bill Richardson crowd is about killing the estate tax -- whichis to say, hardly at all.
Romney audiences, along with the Iowans who turn out to see fellowRepublicans Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee, are more apt to ask aboutpurging "pork" spending and relaxing gun control. The Democrats who come tosee Richardson, Hillary Clinton and their party rivals tend to ask moreabout extending health coverage and limiting greenhouse gases.
To borrow a phrase from John Edwards, there are two presidential electionsraging in the final snowy weeks before Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.And the issues that define them rarely overlap.
Apart from immigration -- a hot topic at almost every forum -- Democraticand Republican crowds are pressing very different concerns in theirconversations with candidates throughout Iowa this year.
The issue divide is almost a caricature of American political parties. IowaDemocrats want to know how their contenders would use the federal governmentto fix problems such as health-care costs and global climate change.Republicans want their candidates to explain how they'd fix the problems ofgovernment, including high taxes and increased spending.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/us/politics/23child.html?ex=1199077200&en=76984beae3f97a70&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERFEATURES
Democrats Make Bush School Act an Election Issue
By SAM DILLON
December 23, 2007
WASHINGTON - Teachers cheered Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton when shestepped before them last month at an elementary school in Waterloo, Iowa,and said she would "end" the No Child Left Behind Act because it was "justnot working."
Mrs. Clinton is not the only presidential candidate who has found attackingthe act, President Bush's signature education law, to be a crowd pleaser -all the Democrats have taken pokes. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico hassaid he wants to "scrap" the law. Senator Barack Obama has called for a"fundamental" overhaul. And John Edwards criticizes the law as emphasizingtesting over teaching. "You don't make a hog fatter by weighing it," he saidrecently while campaigning in Iowa.
This was to be the year that Congress renewed the law that has reshaped thenation's educational landscape by requiring public schools to bring everychild to reading and math proficiency by 2014. But defections from both theright and the left killed the effort.
Now, as lawmakers say they will try again, the unceasing criticism of thelaw by Democratic presidential contenders and the teachers' unions that areimportant to them promises to make the effort even more treacherous nextyear.
"No Child Left Behind may be the most negative brand in America," saidRepresentative George Miller of California, the Democratic chairman of theHouse education committee.
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Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/tv/5395536.html
Is Oprah backlash gathering steam?
Events bring Winfrey bashers to the surface
By CORILYN SHROPSHIRE
For the Chronicle
Dec. 21, 2007, 4:44PM
Might there be trouble brewing in Oprah-land?
Tens of thousands may have flocked to Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshireto witness billion-dollar media empress Oprah Winfrey sprinkle some of hermagic on Barack Obama's campaign for the White House, but not everyone lovesOprah these days.
Oprah-haters are not a new phenomenon - there have always been theax-grinders, the jealous "haters," and those who simply haven't taken to thepowerful media mogul who compels millions to tune in to her syndicated talkshow on weekdays, gobble up her monthly magazine and run to the bookstore tograb her latest recommendation.
For all those who adore Winfrey, there are plenty who don't - blaming herfor everything from cultish demagoguery to the demise of the marathon.
Beyond the sour grapes and fringe-lurking naysayers, the rumblings ofdiscontent have trickled down to Winfrey's bread and butter - the legions ofeducated, middle-class women, the suburban soccer moms and their urban,single sisters who are more likely to identify Winfrey as friend than foe.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122101923.html
Obama Finds His Address
By David S. Broder
Sunday, December 23, 2007; B07
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Barack Obama has become a one-trick pony. But what atrick it is!
The stump speech he has developed in the closing stages of the pre-Christmascampaign is a thing of beauty, a 40-minute oration delivered without notesthat is powering his gains for the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 and the firstprimary here in New Hampshire five days later.
Hillary Clinton has nothing to match it. John Edwards has periodic bursts ofeloquence. But Obama has reached the point of being able to deliver thespeech on demand and to reach audiences with assured effect. It has becomehis security blanket.
The speech was introduced at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Des Moines morethan a month ago, when Obama was still struggling for leverage againstClinton and Edwards in Iowa. It drew rave reviews from that big audience andfrom Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen, and Obama knew he had awinner.
He gave it again to the Democratic National Committee at its candidate forumin Northern Virginia and won accolades. So he gave it four more times, whenhe toured with Oprah Winfrey through Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa;Manchester; and Columbia, S.C., thrilling about 60,000 people at the fourvenues.
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Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/12/22/why_clinton_will_prevail/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
Why Clinton will prevail
By John Sasso
December 22, 2007
SOME RAINDROPS have started to fall on Senator Hillary Clinton's parade tothe Democratic presidential nomination. In the early primary races of Iowa,New Hampshire, and South Carolina, rival Barack Obama has pulled even orahead and the longstanding Clinton badge of elective inevitability has comeunder question.
Despite the Barack Obama zeal, I believe Clinton will prevail. And if she isthe nominee, I believe she is the most electable and least vulnerableDemocratic candidate to face the Republicans.
I was more uncertain a year ago when she announced her candidacy. Then shehad recognizable strengths but at the same time possessed familiar handicapsboth political and personal. She was routinely portrayed as contrived, awoman whose high intelligence had an impersonal edge and whose real identitywas difficult to locate.
That was then. Today Clinton has forged herself into a formidable politicalleader. She has undergone a remarkable journey. In the face of unendingautopsies on her personal and political past, unrelieved targeting at bothDemocratic and Republican debates, the punishing demands imposed on a womancandidate, she is still standing unflinchingly in place.
This is the mark of thoroughbred candidates. They take the fire. Theysurvive the wounds. And while voters relish the spectacle of office-seekerssquirming under adversity, something else happens at the same moment. Ifcandidates demonstrate they can bear that kind of public barrage withconviction and ready composure -- and Clinton has done that -- they cross acrucial threshold in the public mind. They are viewed as able to compete andwin a national election and able thereafter to govern in perilous times.
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Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/22/richardson_fights_to_hit_home_with_nh_voters/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
Richardson fights to hit home with N.H. voters: Touts his N.E. connection,experience
By James W. Pindell, Globe Correspondent
December 22, 2007
HUDSON, N.H. - Before he was a US Senate aide, a congressman, ambassador tothe United Nations, secretary of energy, governor of New Mexico, or aDemocratic presidential candidate, Bill Richardson was a tall, lanky17-year-old standing on Lowell Road in Concord, Mass., looking for a ride.
Luckily for him, Barbara Flavin had room in her green station wagon.
Flavin lived across the street from the Middlesex School, a boarding schoolin Concord that Richardson attended. It was customary for local people topick up the Middlesex students in town and give them a ride to the school,three miles away. Flavin knew of Richardson because she and her mother hadwatched him play baseball. She offered him a ride that began a seven-yearcourtship that led to a wedding in Medford, Mass., and 35 years of marriage.
"I remember thinking how pretty she was," Richardson said in an interview,reminiscing about the day they met, with Barbara at his side and smiling atthe compliment.
This is a presidential primary season crowded with many candidates, but thelower-tier candidates struggle to get coverage and distinguish themselvesfrom the pack. Yet even though he has lived in New Mexico since 1978,Richardson could make an argument that he is almost as much a New Englanderas campaign rival Chris Dodd, the Connecticut senator.
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Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/22/romney_praise_of_bush_proving_a_key_strategy/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
Romney praise of Bush proving a key strategy: Tactic could lift campaignabove rivals'
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff
December 22, 2007
More than any other Republican presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney is runningas the candidate friendliest to President Bush, surrounding himself withformer Bush advisers, delivering his most closely watched speech at thepresidential library of the president's father, and this week launching astaunch defense of Bush's Iraq policy.
In part, the strategy helps him distinguish himself from rival MikeHuckabee, who this week criticized Bush's foreign policy as "arrogant" andindicative of a "bunker mentality." Yesterday, Romney's campaign sentreporters a copy of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's comments blastingHuckabee's criticism as "just simply ludicrous."
Romney is not casting himself as Bush's heir nor fully embracing his legacy,but rather selectively aligning himself with the president on issues thatappeal to loyal Republican voters, who continue to hold Bush in high regardand who will largely decide the party's nominee.
Yesterday, for instance, his campaign issued a statement applauding Bush forstanding up against pork-barrel spending - a hot button issue forRepublicans, who give Bush a 60 percent approval rating, compared with 30percent for voters overall.
In contrast, he distances himself from Bush on issues that are unpopularwith Republicans, such as Bush's failed plan to offer a pathway tocitizenship for illegal immigrants, which Romney has criticized astantamount to amnesty.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23sun1.html?ref=opinion
Editorial: Trade and Prosperity
December 23, 2007
With most polls showing that voters believe trade with other countries ishurting the American economy, it is not surprising that there has been a lotof posturing about the perils of trade on the campaign trail.
Democrats have been most tempted by the protectionism. John Edwards likes totalk about how trade agreements like Nafta "have hurt workers and familieswhile helping corporate insiders." Senator Hillary Clinton has suggestedthat the economic theories underpinning the cause for free trade no longerhold, and has said she would review all of the United States' tradeagreements.
Even Republican candidates - normally staunch supporters of expandingtrade - can sound skeptical. "I don't want to see our food come from China,our oil come from Saudi Arabia and our manufacturing come from Europe andAsia," complained Mike Huckabee. Mitt Romney defends globalization's recordof improving living standards, but cannot resist drawing an applause line byadding that the government should negotiate better with other countries tomake sure "the American worker gets a fair shake."
It would be unfortunate for the United States if the winner of the 2008election elevated skepticism toward trade from a red-meat sound bite on thecampaign trail to a new wave of protectionist policy.
Many Americans are experiencing economic anxiety. Wages for most workers aregoing nowhere. It is a sad fact that despite enormous gains in productivityover the past few decades, the wages of typical workers are only marginallyhigher than they were a quarter of a century ago. But throttling trade -say, by reconsidering existing agreements - would hurt a lot more peoplethan it helped. There is scant evidence that trade has played a big role inholding down typical workers' wages. There is abundant evidence that it hascontributed substantially to America's overall economic growth. It offersAmerican producers access to foreign markets. It multiplies choices forproducers and consumers. Foreign competition spurs productivity growth athome.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23sun2.html?ref=opinion
Editorial: Bested by the Brits
December 23, 2007
There is good and bad to the news that Britain surpassed the United Statesfor the first time ever in donations to the World Bank's unit to combatworld poverty.
This should help dispel the notion that the bank's International DevelopmentAssociation is an arm of the United States Treasury doing Washington's willaround the world. The more depressing side to the news is that the UnitedStates - with an economy five times the size of Britain's - is doing farless than it could and should to help the world's poorest countries.
Despite steep declines in poverty in China and other developing countries,world poverty is much deeper than was previously thought, according to newWorld Bank estimates. The bank had estimated that economic output per personin Congo amounted to about $2 a day in 2005, one of the lowest in the world.It is 72 cents in the bank's recalculation. The new estimates shaved thosenumbers in Bangladesh to $3.50 a day from $5.60.
The International Development Association is the single largest source ofdonations for basic social services in the world's poorest countries,financing projects in everything from education and health to publicadministration and roads. The $25.1 billion in new pledges that the WorldBank announced this month was a record, 42 percent higher than what it gotin the previous round in 2005.
The generosity was an endorsement of the new head of the World Bank, RobertZoellick, who has championed the development association's cause. Not onlywas Britain's contribution of $4.2 billion about 60 percent higher, indollar terms, than its pledge during the last round, six countries,including China, pledged money for the first time. The United States' pledgeof $3.7 billion was also 30 percent higher than its previous commitment, butstill $500 million less than Britain's.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23rich.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Columnist: A Résumé Can't Buy You Love
By FRANK RICH
December 23, 2007
WE can only imagine what is going on inside John McCain's head when hecontemplates Mike Huckabee. It can't be pretty. No presidential candidate ineither party has more experience in matters of war than the Arizona senator,and yet in a wartime election he is being outpaced by a guy who has zeroexperience and is proud of it.
"I may not be the expert that some people are on foreign policy," Mr.Huckabee joked to Don Imus, "but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express lastnight." So much for the gravitas points earned during a five-and-a-half yearstay at the Hanoi Hilton.
But if Mr. McCain has so far resisted slapping down the upstart in hisparty, Bill Clinton has shown no such self-restraint about Barack Obama.Early this month the former president criticized the press for notsufficiently covering the candidates' "record in public life" and therebymaking "people think experience is irrelevant." His pique boiled over onCharlie Rose's show on Dec. 14, when he made his now-famous claim that the2008 election will be a referendum on whether "no experience matters." Heinsinuated that Mr. Obama was tantamount to "a gifted television commentator" and likened a potential Obama presidency to a roll of thedice.
Attention Bill Clinton: If that's what this election is about, it's alreadyover. No matter how much Hillary Clinton, Mr. McCain or Rudy Giuliani bragabout being tested and vetted, it's not experience that will be decisive indetermining the next president.
For many, Mr. McCain's long record of experience may be a liability evengreater than his party-bucking moderation on immigration and his bear hug ofPresident Bush on Iraq. What his résumé mainly does is remind ayouth-obsessed culture of his age. When Gallup asked voters in August torate traits as desirable or not in the next president, the "undesirable"percentages for being a member of a racial or ethnic minority group (13), awoman (14), a Mormon (22) or having "strained relationships" with one'schildren (45) all paled next to being age 70 or older (52). It's not morningin America for Reaganesque elders in the political arena anymore.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23friedman.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Columnist: In the Age of Noah
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Jakarta, Indonesia
December 23, 2007
A couple of weeks ago, The Times's Jim Yardley reported from China that theworld's last known female Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle was living in oneChinese zoo, while the planet's only undisputed, known giant soft-shell maleturtle was living in another - and together this aging pair were the lasthope of saving a species believed to be the largest freshwater turtles inthe world.
It struck me as I read that story that our generation has entered a phasethat no previous generation has ever experienced: the Noah phase. With moreand more species threatened with extinction by The Flood that is today'sglobal economic juggernaut, we may be the first generation in human historythat literally has to act like Noah - to save the last pairs of a wide rangeof species.
Or as God commanded Noah in Genesis: "And of every living thing of allflesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alivewith you; they shall be male and female."
Unlike Noah, though, we're also the ones causing The Flood, as more and moreforests, fisheries, rivers and fertile soils are gobbled up for development."The loss of global biological diversity is advancing at an unprecedentedpace," Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's environment minister, recently told theBBC. "Up to 150 species are becoming extinct every day. ... The web of lifethat sustains our global society is getting weaker and weaker."
The world is rightly focused on climate change. But if we don't have astrategy for reducing global carbon emissions and preserving biodiversity,we could end up in a very bad place, like in a crazy rush into corn ethanol,and palm oil for biodiesel, without enough regard for their impact on thenatural world.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23climateintro.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
Op-Ed Contributors: As the World Warms
By MORT ROSENBLUM, JON CHRISTENSEN, ANTONIO SKÁRMETA and JEN LIN-LIU
December 23, 2007
Delegates to the recent United Nations climate talks in Bali decided theyneeded two years to formulate a plan for making "deep cuts in globalemissions." The earth's changing climate seems unlikely to wait. The Op-Edpage asked four writers to report on the weather in their part of the world.
Here are their dispatches.
The Olive Tree Doesn't Lie, by Mort Rosenblum
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23rosenblum.html
Who Moved My Glacier?, by Jon Christensen
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23christensen.html
Chile's Rising Waters and Frozen Avocados, by Antonio Skármeta
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23skarmeta.html
Searching for Local Heroes in China, by Jen Lin-Liu
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23skarmeta.html
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23ahsan.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Contributor: Pakistan's Tyranny Continues
By AITZAZ AHSAN
December 23, 2007
Lahore, Pakistan
THE chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry,and his family have been detained in their house, barricaded in with barbedwire and surrounded by police officers in riot gear since Nov. 3. Phonelines have been cut and jammers have been installed all around the house todisable cellphones. And the United States doesn't seem to care about any ofthat.
The chief justice is not the only person who has been detained. All of hiscolleagues who, having sworn to protect, uphold and defend the Constitution,refused to take a new oath prescribed by President Pervez Musharraf as chiefof the army remain confined to their homes with their family members. Thechief justice's lawyers are also in detention, initially in such medievalconditions that two of them were hospitalized, one with renal failure.
As the chief justice's lead counsel, I, too, was held without charge - firstin solitary confinement for three weeks and subsequently under house arrest.Last Thursday morning, I was released to celebrate the Id holidays. But thatevening, driving to Islamabad to say prayers at Faisal Mosque, my family andI were surrounded at a rest stop by policemen with guns cocked and I wasdragged off and thrown into the back of a police van. After a long andharrowing drive along back roads, I was returned home and to house arrest.
Every day, thousands of lawyers and members of the civil society strivingfor a liberal and tolerant society in Pakistan demonstrate on the streets.They are bludgeoned by the regime's brutal police and paramilitary units.Yet they come out again the next day.
People in the United States wonder why extremist militants in Pakistan arewinning. What they should ask is why does President Musharraf have so littlerespect for civil society - and why does he essentially have the backing ofAmerican officials?
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/world/asia/24thai.html?hp
Party Backed by Thai Junta Loses, Exit Polls Show
By SETH MYDANS and THOMAS FULLER
December 23, 2007
BANGKOK - A political party that supports former Prime Minister ThaksinShinawatra appeared headed for a victory Sunday over a party backed by themilitary junta that ousted him in a coup 15 months ago, exit polls showed.
Two independent polls showed the People Power Party ahead by a wide marginin a strong repudiation of the generals, who had worked hard to discreditMr. Thaksin and to neutralize his supporters.
The strong result means that Mr. Thaksin and his supporters will remain aforce in Thai politics whether or not they form a government and ensuresthat a struggle for power will continue in this deeply divided country.
A Dusit Poll for Suan Dusit University forecast an absolute majority win forthe People Power Party of 256 seats, followed by 162 for the Democrat Partyin the 480-seat parliament. Assumption University's Abac poll showed a largeplurality for the People Power Party of 202 seats, with the Democrat Partywinning 146 seats.
The Dusit poll surveyed 341,000 voters and had a margin of error of plus orminus 5 percentage points. The Abac poll surveyed 500,000 voters and had amargin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/business/23house.html
This Is the Sound of a Bubble Bursting
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Cape Coral, Fla.
December 23, 2007
TWO years ago, when Eric Feichthaler was elected mayor of this palm-fringed,middle-class city, he figured on spending a lot of time at ribbon-cuttings.Tens of thousands of people had moved here in recent years, turning mustyflatlands into a grid of ranch homes painted in vibrant Sun Belt hues: limegreen, apricot and canary yellow.
Mr. Feichthaler was keen to build a new high school. He hoped to widen roadsand extend the reach of the sewage system, limiting pollution from leakyseptic tanks. He wanted to add parks.
Now, most of his visions have shrunk. The real estate frenzy that oncefilled public coffers with property taxes has over the last two years givenway to a devastating bust. Rather than christening new facilities, the mayorfinds himself picking through the wreckage of speculative excess and brokendreams.
Last month, the city eliminated 18 building inspector jobs and 20 otherpositions within its Department of Community Development. They were nolonger needed because construction has all but ceased. The city recentlyhired a landscaping company to cut overgrown lawns surrounding hundreds ofabandoned homes.
"People are underwater on their houses, and they have just left," Mr.Feichthaler says. "That road widening may have to wait. It will be difficultto construct the high school. We know there are needs, but we are going tohave to wait a little bit."
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/22/AR2007122201934.html?hpid=topnews
Splintered GOP Seeks Unifying Presence: Candidates Leave VotersDissatisfied
By Michael D. Shear and David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 23, 2007; A01
DES MOINES -- For three decades, the Republican presidential nominatingcontest has served to unify the national party's coalition of social,economic and foreign policy conservatives in advance of a general electionfight with Democrats.
This year, it is ripping that coalition apart.
Is the GOP grounded in the social issues embodied by Baptist preacher MikeHuckabee or the foreign policy experience of former POW John McCain? DoRepublicans see their futures in a former CEO such as Mitt Romney, whopromises to tackle Washington incompetence, or in a leader such as RudolphW. Giuliani, who talks tough on terrorism and crime? Should the partyembrace anger about immigration or optimism about America's potential?
Among members of Congress, the lobbying shops on K Street and the local GOPcommittees in Iowa and New Hampshire, Republicans are divided, confused andsometimes demoralized about their choices for president. With less than twoweeks left before voting begins, the party's rank and file are being askedto ratify a new direction for the GOP amid the clash of a chaotic andwide-open campaign.
And the party's soul-searching is unfolding in a sour environment: twostates where the GOP was walloped by Democrats in 2006, leaving thesurviving Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire grappling with an identitycrisis of their own. In dozens of interviews last week, many Republicanssaid they are frustrated.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122101918.html
Poppies vs. Power in Afghanistan
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, December 23, 2007; B07
The power to destroy does not carry within it the power to control. Acentury of failed colonial rule and the American misadventure in Vietnametched that lesson on global consciousness for a time. It has taken the hugeproblems that affluent, nuclear-armed nations are encountering in themiserable ruins of Afghanistan and Iraq to drive it home anew.
Call it the paradox of overwhelming but insufficient force. It is surfacingin a struggle in Afghanistan over the wisdom of chemically eradicating thatnation's expanding poppy fields. They are the source of (1) the livelihoodsof many Afghan peasants, (2) a record flood of heroin into Western marketsand (3) funding for the Taliban and other terrorist forces.
William Wood, the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, has pushed so aggressively foraerial spraying to destroy the poppy fields that he has been nicknamed"Chemical Bill" by NATO officers serving there. President Bush posted Woodto Afghanistan after he oversaw a large eradication-by-air project inColombia, with mixed results.
Wood's priorities have divided U.S. and Afghan policymakers. President HamidKarzai's government fears both environmental damage and the radicalizingpolitical effect that a spraying program might have on the peasants Karzaiis trying to coax away from the Taliban. For the moment, Karzai has gainedthe upper hand over the State Department's narcotics bureau in this ongoingfight.
The argument over how abrupt and how harsh the anti-drug campaign inAfghanistan should be is in fact part of fundamental disagreements overstrategy within NATO. Many alliance officials fear that an approach theyterm as "with us or against us" and which seems to emphasize firepower overreconciliation is proving to be unsustainable.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122101922.html
The Gift Of Doing Very Little
By George F. Will
Sunday, December 23, 2007; B07
Hellbent on driving its approval rating into single digits, Congressadjourned after passing an omnibus spending bill larded with at least 8,993earmarks costing at least $7.4 billion -- the precise number and amount willbe unclear until implications of some obscure provisions are deciphered. Thegusher of earmarks was a triumph of bipartisanship, which often is a synonymfor kleptocracy.
This was the first year since 1994 that Democrats controlled both houses.Consider Congress's agreeably meager record:
It raised the hourly minimum wage from $5.15 to $5.85 -- less than the $7entry wage at McDonald's -- thereby increasing the wages of less than 0.5percent of the workforce. Rebuffing George W. Bush, who advocates haltingfarm subsidies to those with adjusted gross incomes of more than $200,000,the Senate also rejected -- more bipartisanship -- a cap at $750,000. This,in spite of the fact that farm income has soared to record levels, partlybecause Congress shares the president's loopy enthusiasm for ethanol andwants more corn and other agricultural matter turned into fuel.
Although Congress trembles for the future of the planet, it was unwilling toeliminate the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol. But our polymathCongress continued designing automobiles to make them less safe (smaller)and more expensive. It did this by mandating new fuel efficiency -- a 35-mpgfleet average by 2020 -- lest the automotive industry design cars peoplewant. And Congress mandated a 12-year phaseout of incandescent light bulbs.
Bruce Raynor, president of the union Unite Here, expressed organized labor'scompassionate liberalism when he urged sparing workers the burden ofdemocracy: "There's no reason to subject workers to an election." The Houseagreed, voting for "card check" organizing that strips workers of theirright to a secret ballot when deciding for or against unionization of theirworkplace. Unions, increasingly unable to argue that they add more valuethan they subtract from workers' lives, crave the "card check" system. Underit, once a majority of workers, pressured one at a time by labor organizers,sign a card, the union is automatically certified as the bargaining agentfor all the workers. Senate Republicans blocked this, but the SenateDemocrats voted to cripple the Labor Department agency that requires unionbosses to explain how they spend their members' money.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122101920.html
Congress's Bullying Pulpit
By Sally Quinn
Sunday, December 23, 2007; B07
As a child, I went to a small school in rural Alabama near an Army postwhere my father was stationed. It was a very Christian town, and our teacherwas "born again."
This was decades ago, but I remember clearly how she used to tell us that wemust accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior. Then she would ask forhands to see who had. By age 11 I had become a nonbeliever. My father was inthe Army and had fought in World War II and Korea; I concluded quickly thatno loving God could have allowed those atrocities to be committed.
But we had all seen our teacher, when crossed, call an unlucky member of ourclass up to the front of the room, make the student lie down on her desk andbe paddled. The humiliation was worse than the pain. So, when she called onus to admit that we had accepted Jesus as our savior, I dutifully raised myhand.
Thank goodness, those days are over, you might be thinking. Nothing likethat could happen in this country today.
Well, think again. It happened this month, right here in Washington.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122101919.html
A Talent Contest We're Losing
By Craig Barrett
Sunday, December 23, 2007; B07
The European Union took a step recently that the U.S. Congress can't seem tomuster the courage to take. By proposing a simple change in immigrationpolicy, E.U. politicians served notice that they are serious about competingwith the United States and Asia to attract the world's top talent to live,work and innovate in Europe. With Congress gridlocked on immigration, it'sclear that the next Silicon Valley will not be in the United States.
European politicians face many of the same political pressures surroundingimmigration as their U.S. counterparts, and they, too, are not immune tothose pressures. Nationalist and anti-immigrant factions in several WesternEuropean countries have made political gains in recent elections and arewidely viewed as mainstream. Despite the hot-button nature of immigrationissues, though, E.U. politicians advanced the "Blue Card" proposal in lateOctober.
The plan is designed to attract highly educated workers by creating atemporary but renewable two-year visa. A streamlined application processwould allow qualified prospective workers to navigate the system and startworking in high-need jobs within one to three months.
This contrasts starkly with the byzantine system in place in the UnitedStates, which increasingly threatens America's long-term competitiveness.
The United States relies primarily on two programs to augment its workforcewith highly educated, highly skilled foreign professionals. The H-1B visa isa three-year temporary visa that can be renewed once. The employment-based(EB) green card is the program for permanent residency. Both programs servethe needs of U.S. employers seeking to fill job vacancies in highly skilledprofessions. Extreme shortages of visas in both these programs are welldocumented.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/22/AR2007122201492.html
Is It War?: The presidential candidates on terrorism
Sunday, December 23, 2007; B06
FOR SIX years President Bush has told Americans they face a "long war"against a global Islamic terrorist movement that, like the Cold War, willchallenge a generation. A crucial if so far understated issue of thepresidential campaign is whether that sweeping vision of U.S. nationalsecurity will survive past January 2009. For the most part, the Republicancandidates agree with Mr. Bush about the dimensions and centrality of theIslamic extremist threat. Most of the Democrats do not. From thatideological difference flow contrasting practical approaches to Iraq,Afghanistan and Iran, as well as differences in the weight the nextpresidentmay give to other foreign policy challenges.
It's not true that the Democrats view al-Qaeda as a threat best managed bylaw enforcement. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama unambiguouslydefine the fight against terrorist networks as a global war, and even JohnEdwards, who has condemned the phrase "war on terror" as a "bumper-stickerslogan," adds that "there is no question that we must confront terroristgroups such as al-Qaeda with the full force of our military might." TheDemocrats, however, downplay Islamic extremism, as opposed to terroristnetworks, as a threat. Ms. Clinton even omits the word "Islam" from herdiscussion of terrorism.
In contrast, Rudolph W. Giuliani talks of "radical Islamic fascism," whileMike Huckabee has said flatly, "It's a theological war." Such terminologystrikes us as misguided and harmful. It greatly overstates the ideologicalappeal of groups such as al-Qaeda in the Muslim world and leads to theirconflation with movements that pose little threat to the United States --such as nonviolent Islamic fundamentalists -- and even mainstream Islam. Itsuggests to Muslims around the world that the United States is engaged inthe very religious war Osama bin Laden says he wants to provoke.
Republicans basically accept Mr. Bush's vision of himself as a latter-dayHarry S. Truman who has reorganized U.S. policy to meet thisall-encompassing global threat. Like Mr. Bush they see the wars in Iraq andAfghanistan as part of the larger conflict with Islamic extremism, and Iranand its clients in the Middle East as yet another front. Democratsdisaggregate these problems and balance them against challenges that havereceived too little attention from the Bush administration: the rise ofChina; the return of an autocratic and relatively hostile Russia; the dangerof unsecured nuclear materials in unstable parts of the world; and globalwarming, among others. Ms. Clinton's definition of the world the nextpresident will inherit in a recent Foreign Affairs magazine essay fills afat, 140-word paragraph and speaks of "an unprecedented array ofchallenges." In contrast, Mr. Giuliani begins with a single sentence: "Weare all members of the 9/11 generation."
Ms. Clinton's view strikes us as more realistic. Al-Qaeda remains a gravethreat, and the United States has a vital interest in supporting moderateMuslims against the extremist minority. But threats such as Shiite Iranshould be understood and addressed differently than Sunni jihadistmovements; and the rest of the world does not fit neatly into a bipolarstruggle between two camps. The next president needs to be prepared to checkaggression from China or Russia, or combat a pandemic.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/22/AR2007122201580.html?hpid=sec-world
Ecuador President Proposes Drug Pardons
The Associated Press
Saturday, December 22, 2007; 7:47 PM
QUITO, Ecuador -- Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa proposedSaturday pardoning the lengthy jail sentences of low-level drug couriersknown as "mules" and drafting new laws that better reflect the severity ofdrug crimes.
In his weekly radio address, Correa said he will ask a special assemblydrafting a new Ecuadorean constitution to pardon the couriers. He saidsentencing them to more than 10 years in prison for carrying as little as3.5 ounces of cocaine is "absurd."
The assembly has taken on legislative powers after suspending the nation'sCongress last month. Correa allies control more than 60 percent of theassembly.
Ecuador's current drug laws, which Correa said were drafted under pressurefrom the U.S., do not differentiate between big-time traffickers and thelow-level bagmen who smuggle drugs for them. So-called mules often swallowor carry small amounts of drugs across borders for money.
The current law "treats as the same the boss of the Cali cartel and a poorunemployed single mother who dared to carry 300 grams of drugs," Correasaid, referring to an amount equal to about 10 ounces. "It's a barbarity."
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