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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012002267.html
The Moment That Carried This Day
By Allison Silberberg
Monday, January 21, 2008; A15
As we honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. today, it bears remembering howthe holiday came to be.
The legislation proposing creation of a federal holiday was not at allassured in the fall of 1983. The Democratic-controlled House had passed itsbill in August with bipartisan support, but Democrats in the GOP-controlledSenate faced a fight despite support from some prominent Republicans.President Ronald Reagan was against this type of memorial. Many Republicanssaid they opposed it for economic reasons, arguing that our nation couldn'tafford another federal holiday.
At the time, I was an intern for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and wasfollowing the bill carefully. It's fair to say I was rather devoted to thecause. I remember the October day that someone in the office mentioned thatthe senator's speechwriter, Bob Shrum, had crafted an incredible statementin support of the holiday. I begged for permission to go to the galleriesabove the Senate floor to watch Kennedy deliver the speech.
The galleries and the Senate were nearly empty when Kennedy walked onto thefloor. I saw only three members -- Kennedy, the senator who was presiding,and Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who was speaking against the holiday.
After several minutes, Helms said that he thought it "ironic" that "blackcitizens" were the ones who most needed jobs and yet were demanding aholiday. The few of us in the gallery gasped. Helms said repeatedly that thelegislation was being railroaded through the Senate without proper hearings.Having heard enough, Kennedy rose to ask Helms to yield. Helms refused.Kennedy sat down and waited, reviewing his remarks. A few minutes later, herose again, but Helms still held the floor. Finally, Helms said he wouldconclude -- and then he uttered the words that turned the tide of the wholedebate.
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NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-gay.html?sq=gay&scp=2&pagewanted=print
"Universe, " "Housewives" Nominated By Gay Group
By REUTERS
Filed at 4:13 a.m. ET
January 21, 2008
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Julie Taymor's Beatles-tuned "Across theUniverse," the Israeli film "The Bubble," and ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" and"Desperate Housewives" are among the gay-friendly films and TV seriesnominated for the 19th annual GLAAD Media Awards.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation announced its lineup ofnominees -- recognizing works that reflect the lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender communities -- during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City,Utah, on Sunday.
The awards will be handed out during a cross-country series of fundraisersat New York's Marriott Marquis on March 17; at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel& Casino in Hollywood, Fla. (April 12); at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles(April 26); and at the San Francisco Marriott (May 10).
Heading the list of 25 English-language categories and 15 Spanish-languagecategories are the nominees for outstanding film in wide release: "Acrossthe Universe," "The Jane Austen Book Club" and "Stardust."
For outstanding film, limited release, the nominees are "The Bubble," "DirtyLaundry," "Itty Bitty Titty Committee," "Nina's Heavenly Delights" and"Whole New Thing."
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MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/889/v-print/story/387073.html
Obama urges unity; Clinton visits Harlem
By NEDRA PICKLER
Posted on Mon, Jan. 21, 2008
Barack Obama called Sunday for unity to overcome the country's problems andacknowledged that "none of our hands are clean" when it comes to healingdivisions. Hillary Rodham Clinton picked up a Harlem church leader'sendorsement.
Heading into the most racially diverse contest yet in the presidentialcampaign, Obama took to the pulpit at Martin Luther King Jr.'s EbenezerBaptist Church on the eve of the federal holiday marking the civil rightshero's birth 79 years ago. He based his speech on King's quote that "Unityis the great need of the hour."
"The divisions, the stereotypes, the scapegoating, the ease with which weblame the plight of ourselves on others, all of that distracts us from thecommon challenges we face: war and poverty; inequality and injustice," Obamasaid. "We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each otherdown. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is thepoison that we must purge from our politics; the wall that we must tear downbefore the hour grows too late."
In New York, at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, Clinton told howshe had traveled years ago with her church youth group to hear him speak.
"It was a transforming experience for me," Clinton said. "He made it veryclear that the civil rights movement was about economic justice."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/opinion/21cohen.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Columnist: U.S. Soldiers and Shoppers Hit the Wall
By ROGER COHEN
January 21, 2008
Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have pushed the U.S. armed forces to the limit.Many soldiers have scarcely seen their families in recent years. But a muchlarger American army, the one that's spent this century shopping, is evenmore overextended and its pain is now coming home to roost.
Nobody ever made money exhorting people to save. But U.S. banks andfinancial institutions have spent huge amounts in recent years tellingpeople debt is good and savings are dumb.
Their ads - to the effect that "good daughters go into debt to take theirmothers on vacation," as Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor, put it -paid off handsomely as consumers went on a debt-financed shopping spree.Consumption has driven the U.S. economy; the only problem is consumers ranout of money years ago even as they did not run out of credit cards.
And here we are, with the rainy day our grandparents always droned on aboutappearing in the form of a deluge, and no savings stashed for it, andPresident George W. Bush, the debt-spender par excellence, conjuring up a$150-billion stimulus package that evokes the injection of steroids into aprone athlete wrecked by a marathon.
This "shot in the arm," as Bush put it, may dampen a little pain. But thispatient will be in intensive care for a long time.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/us/politics/07web-harwood.html?hp
Political Memo: After New Hampshire, a Rapidly Changing Race
By JOHN HARWOOD
January 7, 2008
The people paying closest attention to the 2008 presidential race have noidea what will happen next. So far, the contest keeps defying precedents.
After defeating Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Iowa Democraticcaucuses, Senator Barack Obama failed to win the New Hampshire primary. Mrs.Clinton followed her victory in New Hampshire by turning out the mostsupporters in the Nevada caucuses over the weekend, only to see Mr. Obamaclaim an edge in the number of delegates collected in that state. She trailsin South Carolina, the next Democratic contest.
The Republican race is even more disordered. Mike Huckabee stumbled in NewHampshire after winning Iowa, Senator John McCain stumbled in Michigan afterwinning New Hampshire, and Mitt Romney abandoned South Carolina afterwinning Michigan.
Overlapping historical currents may be responsible. The first election inhalf a century with no incumbent president or vice president running alsofeatures the first serious female and African-American contenders, theoldest-ever New Hampshire winner, and a primary schedule accelerated likenever before. In the parlance of physics, the result is entropy. In medicalterminology, it is a trend line as flat as the EEG of a brain-dead pundit.
Good Fortune
A little over a week before the Florida Republican primary on Jan. 29, thischaos is a gift for Mike DuHaime, the campaign manager for Rudolph W.Giuliani.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/world/middleeast/21israel.html
Israel Is Set to Promote the Use of Electric Cars
By STEVEN ERLANGER
January 21, 2008
JERUSALEM - Israel, tiny and bereft of oil, has decided to embrace theelectric car.
On Monday, the Israeli government will announce its support for a broadeffort to promote the use of electric cars, embracing a joint venturebetween an American-Israeli entrepreneur and Renault and its partner, NissanMotor Company.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with the active support of President ShimonPeres, intends to make Israel a laboratory to test the practicality of anenvironmentally clean electric car. The state will offer tax incentives topurchasers, and the new company, with a $200 million investment to start,will begin construction of facilities to recharge the cars and replace emptybatteries quickly.
The idea, said Shai Agassi, 39, the software entrepreneur behind the newcompany, is to sell electric car transportation on the model of thecellphone. Purchasers get subsidized hardware - the car - and pay a monthlyfee for expected mileage, like minutes on a cellphone plan, eliminatingconcerns about the fluctuating price of gasoline.
Mr. Agassi and his investors are convinced that the cost of running such acar will be significantly cheaper than a model using gasoline (currently$6.28 a gallon here.)
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/business/21contribute1.html
A Site Follows the Money So Users Can Slice and Dice
By LAURIE J. FLYNN
January 21, 2008
The more people Shelby W. Bonnie can get arguing over politics, the better.
More than a year after leaving CNet Networks, the online media company he
ran for six years, Mr. Bonnie is into his next project, Politicalbase.com,
which is as much an online political forum as a stockpile of election data.
One of a growing number of Web 2.0 companies - a category of Web sites thatlet visitors modify content and contribute material - Political Base hasfeatures ranging from serious blogs and a variety of YouTube videos tocampaign finance data displayed on a Google map.
"I think of it like a big political coffee shop," said Mark Nickolas, anoutspoken blogger on Kentucky politics and a former campaign manager forDemocratic candidates in that state. (Mr. Nickolas's blog,bluegrassreport.org, was blocked two years ago to state employees by ErnieFletcher, then the governor.)
Mr. Bonnie recently named Mr. Nickolas as Political Base's lead editor andcontent manager.
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USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-01-20-states-emissions_N.htm
States combat global warming
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
With proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions stalled in Congress, morethan half the states are moving aggressively to combat the pollution thatcauses global warming.
This year, eight states are slated to release plans to slash emissions ofthe heat-trapping gases and at least several are likely to recommendspecific reduction targets, say state officials and the Pew Center on GlobalClimate Change. Seventeen states already have such targets in place.
States are deploying an array of strategies to reduce pollution. Among them:capping the carbon dioxide emissions of power plants or vehicles, andpromoting energy efficiency and renewable energy.
California and 15 other states sued the Bush Administration this month overits decision to prohibit them from imposing stricter car emissions standardsthan those in the federal energy bill. Two federal court decisions in thepast year have said states have the authority to regulate greenhouse gasemissions from vehicles.
Broader state actions on greenhouse gases could pressure the U.S. governmentinto acting to avoid a patchwork of state laws.
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Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5471830.html
Historians fear MLK's legacy being lost
By DEEPTI HAJELA Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press
Jan. 21, 2008, 8:24AM
NEW YORK - Nearly 40 years after the assassination of the Rev. Martin LutherKing Jr., some say his legacy is being frozen in a moment in time thatignores the full complexity of the man and his message.
"Everyone knows - even the smallest kid knows about Martin Luther King - cansay his most famous moment was that 'I have a dream' speech," said HenryLouis Taylor Jr., professor of urban and regional planning at the Universityof Buffalo. "No one can go further than one sentence. All we know is thatthis guy had a dream. We don't know what that dream was."
King was working on anti-poverty and anti-war issues at the time of hisdeath. He had spoken out against the Vietnam War and was in Memphis when hewas killed in April 1968 in support of striking sanitation workers.
King had come a long way from the crowds who cheered him at the 1963 Marchon Washington, when he was introduced as "the moral leader of our nation" -and when he pronounced "I have a dream" on the steps of the LincolnMemorial.
By taking on issues outside segregation, he had lost the support of manynewspapers and magazines, and his relationship with the White House hadsuffered, said Harvard Sitkoff, a professor of history at the University ofNew Hampshire who has written a recently published book on King.
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Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/20/long_battle_still_ahead_for_top_democrats/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
PRIMARY CONCERNS
Long battle still ahead for top Democrats
Contest could extend beyond Super Tuesday
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | January 20, 2008
LAS VEGAS - For the two leading contenders in the race for the Democraticnomination, the battle is becoming a long, hard slog.
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had hoped that early wins couldcatapult them to status as the presumptive nominee, sparing the dominantcandidate a prolonged primary fight and allowing her or him to focus on thegeneral election.
But after yesterday's results in Nevada, the two are virtually tied. Whilethe field has been winnowed since Iowa - and the campaign of former NorthCarolina senator John Edwards deeply wounded after winning just 4 percent ofthe Silver State vote - the Democratic race still has no clear front-runnerdespite a front-loaded primary schedule that many believed could settle thenomination early.
As a result, some analysts now believe that the primary contest could extendwell beyond the 22 states that vote on Feb 5.
"The shut-off is likely to come at the beginning of March, not the beginningof February," said Tad Devine, a Democratic consultant who is not workingfor a presidential campaign.
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Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/20/in_blacks_obama_seeks_untapped_well_of_support/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
POLITICAL STRATEGY
In blacks, Obama seeks untapped well of support
Get-out-vote push paying off, polls suggest
By Scott Helman, Globe Staff | January 20, 2008
African-Americans had some impact in the 2004 Democratic presidentialprimaries, making up nearly half of the party's voters in South Carolina andGeorgia, a third or more in Virginia and Louisiana, and a fifth or more inNew York, Texas, and Tennessee.
But despite those sizable numbers, only a small fraction of the blackresidents of those and other states went to the polls - 11 percent in SouthCarolina, 18 percent in Georgia, and just 9 percent in Louisiana, accordingto census figures and state election results.
The wide gap reflected in those two sets of figures - between the number ofAfrican-Americans who voted in the 2004 primaries and the number who didnot - is where Senator Barack Obama sees a huge opening as many states withlarge black populations head to the polls over the next month to select aDemocratic nominee.
Obama, the most viable black presidential contender in history, has largelynot made race an issue in the campaign, expressing pride in his biracialbackground but emphasizing commonalities across color, class, geography, andpolitical persuasion. His ability to bridge the black and white worlds hashelped make him a leading contender for the Democratic nomination despitehis recent arrival to national politics.
But beneath Obama's unifying message lies a shrewd political calculation: Heand his campaign, sensing a largely untapped reservoir of potential support,are making concerted efforts to reach out to African-American voters. Thoseefforts are intensifying now that Iowa and New Hampshire have voted andlarger, more racially diverse states are poised to determine the course ofthe primary contest - starting with South Carolina this Saturday.
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Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology10jan21,1,2644716.story?coll=sns-ap-toptechnology
Americans Abroad Can Now Vote Online
By JESSICA BERNSTEIN-WAX
Associated Press Writer
4:25 AM PST, January 21, 2008
MEXICO CITY - This year, for the first time, expatriate Democrats can casttheir ballots on the Internet in a presidential primary for people livingoutside the United States.
Democrats Abroad, an official branch of the party representing overseasvoters, will hold its first global presidential preference primary from Feb.5 to 12, with ex-pats selecting the candidate of their choice by Internet aswell as fax, mail and in-person at polling places in more than 100countries.
Democrats Abroad is particularly proud of the online voting option -- whichprovides a new alternative to the usual process of voting from overseas, asystem made difficult by complicated voter registration paperwork, earlydeadlines and unreliable foreign mail service.
"The online system is incredibly secure: That was one of our biggest goals,"said Lindsey Reynolds, executive director of Democrats Abroad. "And it doesallow access to folks who ordinarily wouldn't get to participate."
U.S. citizens wanting to vote online must join Democrats Abroad before Feb.1 and indicate their preference to vote by Internet instead of in the localprimaries wherever they last lived in the United States. They must promisenot to vote twice for president, but can still participate innon-presidential local elections.
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Atlanta Journal-Constitution
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/opinion/stories/2008/01/21/mcdonalded_0121.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17
Voter ID allies betray King and democracy
By LAUGHLIN MCDONALD
Published on: 01/21/08
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a charismatic and eloquent young ministerfrom Atlanta, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957.In doing so, he promised a "crusade for citizenship," which includedencouraging voter registration for African-Americans. One of the first goalsof his organization was to register 2 million to 3 million new black votersbefore the 1960 presidential election. As King asked rhetorically at thesecond Youth March on Washington in 1959, "Do you realize what would happen... if 3 million Negro voters were added to the rolls in the South?"
Southern whites certainly did. They successfully disfranchised blacks in theaftermath of Reconstruction through such devices as literacy tests, polltaxes and the white primary. In response to the new threat to whitesupremacy posed by King and the civil rights movement, Southern statesscurried to enact new restrictions on registration and voting. Mississippirequired the names of new voter applicants to be published in newspapersprior to acceptance to give people an opportunity to object. Another new lawallowed already registered voters to object to the "moral character" ofapplicants. Georgia enacted a new "good character and citizenship" test forvoting, which required new applicants to answer correctly a series ofobscure questions.
Literacy and good character tests were subsequently banned by the VotingRights Act, but shamefully, nearly 40 years after King's assassination,efforts to restrict the right to vote continue in full force.
Earlier this month the Supreme Court heard the ACLU's challenge to Indiana'smost-restrictive-in-the-nation voter identification law, which preventsotherwise eligible voters from exercising the most fundamental democraticright. A federal appellate court majority upheld the law, but acknowledgedits discriminatory effect. In a dissenting opinion, U.S. District CourtJudge Terrence Evans said the law will make it significantly more difficultfor "people who are poor, elderly, minorities, disabled, or some combinationthereof" to vote. He described the photo ID requirement as "anot-too-thinly-veiled attempt to discourage election-day turnout by certainfolks believed to skew Democratic."
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CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/20/ap/politics/main3733205.shtml
Edwards: Dems Need Him To Face McCain
WINNSBORO, S.C., Jan. 20, 2008
(AP) A day after getting his "butt kicked" in the Nevada caucuses,presidential candidate John Edwards said Sunday that he's the only Democratwho can successfully take on Republican John McCain.
McCain won Saturday's South Carolina GOP primary and Edwards, a former NorthCarolina senator looking to make the Democratic contest here a three-wayrace, told reporters that a campaign finance advocate like himself is neededto counter McCain on that issue.
"This is a guy who has made central to his political life campaign financereform. It seems to me we ought to be putting up somebody up against himwho's never taken money from special interest packs or Washingtonlobbyists," said Edwards, who's trailed Hillary Rodham Clinton and BarackObama in polls. "Between the three of us, that's me."
On Saturday, Edwards got 4 percent of support in Nevada, compared withClinton's 51 percent and Obama's 45 percent. The South Carolina native whowon here in 2004 insisted he's not going away.
"Oh, I'm in the race. I'm in the race for the long-term," he said. "Got mybutt kicked and now I'm going to get up in spite. Going to fight for all thethings that I care about _ and those causes have not gone away and haven'tchanged."
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Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-uschina_letter_osnosjan21,1,2101142.story
LETTER FROM BEIJING: Election '08: China's view
Concerns over trade and foreign policy have Chinese sizing up 'Au-ba-ma,''He-ka-bi,' 'Xi-la-li' and the rest, the Tribune's Evan Osnos reports
By Evan Osnos
January 21, 2008
BEIJING
If everything you learned about U.S. presidential politics came from theChinese news, here are some things you would know:
Who is Mitt Romney? Luo-mu-ni, as his name is spelled phonetically inMandarin, is the "white-collar Republican," who showcased his "brilliantmanagement ability" by running the Salt Lake City Olympics "in the shadow ofthe 9-11 terrorist attacks."
How about Barack Obama? Au-ba-ma's "eloquence and splendid smile havecaptured the hearts of Americans" and won "supporters among young people,Libertarians and ethnic minorities."
And Mike Huckabee? He-ka-bi is the one with the "extremely conservativepolitical stance" who "played bass guitar and spoke humorously, even aboutsubjects as serious as WMD, and people grew fond of him."
On the flip side of the planet from the U.S. campaign, China is forming itsown opinions of those who might be president -- or, as China sees it,managing the other side of the world's most important trade and foreignpolicy relationship.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/washington/21military.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Pentagon Weighs Top Iraq General as Chief of NATO
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT
January 21, 2008
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is considering Gen. David H. Petraeus for the topNATO command later this year, a move that would give the general, the topAmerican commander in Iraq, a high-level post during the next administrationbut that has raised concerns about the practice of rotating war commanders.
A senior Pentagon official said that it was weighing "a next assignment forPetraeus" and that the NATO post was a possibility. "He deserves one andthat has also always been a highly prestigious position," the official said."So he is a candidate for that job, but there have been no final decisionsand nothing on the timing."
The question of General Petraeus's future comes as the Pentagon is lookingat changing several top-level assignments this year. President Bush has beenan enthusiastic supporter of General Petraeus, whom he has credited withoverseeing a troop increase and counterinsurgency plan credited withreducing the sectarian violence in Iraq, and some officials say thepresident would want to keep General Petraeus in Iraq as long as possible.In one approach under discussion, General Petraeus would be nominated andconfirmed for the NATO post before the end of September, when Congress isexpected to break for the presidential election. He might stay in Iraq forsome time after that before moving to the alliance's headquarters inBrussels, but would take his post before a new president takes office.
If General Petraeus is shifted from the post as top Iraq commander, twoleading candidates to replace him are Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who isrunning the classified Special Operations activities in Iraq, and Lt. Gen.Peter W. Chiarelli, a former second-ranking commander in Iraq and DefenseSecretary Robert M. Gates's senior military assistant.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/opinion/21krugman.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Columnist: Debunking the Reagan Myth
By PAUL KRUGMAN
January 21, 2008
Historical narratives matter. That's why conservatives are still writingbooks denouncing F.D.R. and the New Deal; they understand that the wayAmericans perceive bygone eras, even eras from the seemingly distant past,affects politics today.
And it's also why the furor over Barack Obama's praise for Ronald Reagan isnot, as some think, overblown. The fact is that how we talk about the Reaganera still matters immensely for American politics.
Bill Clinton knew that in 1991, when he began his presidential campaign."The Reagan-Bush years," he declared, "have exalted private gain over publicobligation, special interests over the common good, wealth and fame overwork and family. The 1980s ushered in a Gilded Age of greed and selfishness,of irresponsibility and excess, and of neglect."
Contrast that with Mr. Obama's recent statement, in an interview with aNevada newspaper, that Reagan offered a "sense of dynamism andentrepreneurship that had been missing."
Maybe Mr. Obama was, as his supporters insist, simply praising Reagan'spolitical skills. (I think he was trying to curry favor with a conservativeeditorial board, which did in fact endorse him.) But where in his remarkswas the clear declaration that Reaganomics failed?
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/opinion/21kristol.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Columnist: Thoroughly Unmodern McCain
By WILLIAM KRISTOL
January 21, 2008
In his victory speech after winning the South Carolina primary Saturdaynight, John McCain acknowledged the economic challenges we face, and thensaid: "But nothing is inevitable in our country. We are the captains of ourfate."
McCain comes from a generation that, in its youth, was made to memorizepoetry. And when I was able to get in touch with him Sunday in Florida, hetold me that one of the poems he had memorized in school was William ErnestHenley's "Invictus" (1875). McCain actually recited snatches of the poem inour cellphone conversation - not something he does every day on the campaigntrail, he pointed out.
In any case, here's Henley's Victorian warhorse:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/opinion/21mon2.html?ref=opinion
Editorial: The Truth About Ethics Reform
January 21, 2008
We've long grown used to candidates' cherry-picking each other's records toscore points in a campaign. But the new Congressional ethics law, and therole Senator Barack Obama played in passing it, have been belittled introubling ways that are worth noting.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton voted for the ethics measure, but has latelysuggested that it was neither a landmark change nor particularlycontroversial. Wrong on both counts.
No ethics law is perfect, and much depends on the vigor with which thechanges are enforced. But there was a big cultural shift in the legislation's ban on gifts, meals and travel paid for by lobbyists, and provisionsrequiring greater disclosure of lawmakers' pet projects and making it harderfor former lawmakers to capitalize on their Capitol Hill connections.
The measure ultimately passed the Senate by a lopsided 83-to-14 vote, hardlysurprising because few lawmakers want to go on record against cleaning upCongress, especially in the aftermath of the Jack Abramoff scandal. The hardpart was assembling and passing a strong package of rules against intenseresistance within Congress and from lobbyists.
With Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, Mr. Obama played acentral role in this effort. Forcing fellow members of Congress to disclosethe names of lobbyists who bundle campaign donations is not the sort ofthing that endears you to your colleagues.
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WashingtonPost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012002273.html
'Missing No Blows' In Moscow
By Masha Lipman
Monday, January 21, 2008; A15
MOSCOW -- The stepped-up harassment of the British Council in recent dayssignals a new low in Russia's post-Cold-War relations with the West and afurther slide toward Soviet-style isolationism.
Offices of the British Council, which promotes the English language andBritish culture around the world, were forced to close in St. Petersburg andYekaterinburg last week. The organization withstood earlier pressures butgave in after Russian employees were contacted by the Federal SecurityService (FSB), the former KGB. Agents intended to warn the Russians thatthey might fall victim to "provocations," the Russians say. They wanted tointimidate the employees into quitting, the British counter.
Russian authorities don't hide the political roots of this conflict. ForeignMinister Sergey Lavrov has linked it to the expulsion of four Russiandiplomats from Britain last summer; that was London's response to Moscow'srefusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer whom Britishprosecutors seek to charge with the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko.Unofficially, it has been suggested that the British Council is a front forBritish intelligence.
Relations between Russia and Britain have been strained since Litvinenko, aformer security officer who had defected to Britain, was poisoned in Londonwith a radioactive agent. Britain resents Moscow's flat refusal to extraditeLugovoi. A further insult to British justice came last month, when Lugovoiwas made a member of the Russian parliament. Given the Kremlin's totalcontrol over political life, Lugovoi could not have been elected withoutKremlin consent.
But relations were actually damaged earlier. Russia has long been frustratedby Britain's refusals to extradite businessman Boris Berezovsky and Chechenseparatist Akhmed Zakaev, both deemed criminals here. British courts ruledagainst extradition because the charges were found to be politicallymotivated. Both men were granted political asylum.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/business/21green.html
Multinationals Fight Climate Change
By REUTERS
January 21, 2008
LONDON (Reuters) - Eleven companies are teaming up to see how they can workwith thousands of their suppliers to curb greenhouse gas emissions, anenvironmental consultancy said on Sunday.
The companies in the program, called the Supply Chain LeadershipCollaboration, include giants in their sectors like Cadbury Schweppes, Dell,Nestlé, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Tesco.
The venture is being coordinated by the Carbon Disclosure Project, a Britishnonprofit organization that helps companies and investors to cooperate inthe battle against climate change.
"Multinationals are seeking to understand where the emissions are lying intheir supply chain and what risks and opportunities from climate change willbe presented," Paul Simpson, chief operating officer for CDP, said.
In the pilot phase, until the end of March 2008, each company participatingin the program has selected 50 suppliers to work with, the group said.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012002273.html
'Missing No Blows' In Moscow
By Masha Lipman
Monday, January 21, 2008; A15
MOSCOW -- The stepped-up harassment of the British Council in recent dayssignals a new low in Russia's post-Cold-War relations with the West and afurther slide toward Soviet-style isolationism.
Offices of the British Council, which promotes the English language andBritish culture around the world, were forced to close in St. Petersburg andYekaterinburg last week. The organization withstood earlier pressures butgave in after Russian employees were contacted by the Federal SecurityService (FSB), the former KGB. Agents intended to warn the Russians thatthey might fall victim to "provocations," the Russians say. They wanted tointimidate the employees into quitting, the British counter.
Russian authorities don't hide the political roots of this conflict. ForeignMinister Sergey Lavrov has linked it to the expulsion of four Russiandiplomats from Britain last summer; that was London's response to Moscow'srefusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer whom Britishprosecutors seek to charge with the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko.Unofficially, it has been suggested that the British Council is a front forBritish intelligence.
Relations between Russia and Britain have been strained since Litvinenko, aformer security officer who had defected to Britain, was poisoned in Londonwith a radioactive agent. Britain resents Moscow's flat refusal to extraditeLugovoi. A further insult to British justice came last month, when Lugovoiwas made a member of the Russian parliament. Given the Kremlin's totalcontrol over political life, Lugovoi could not have been elected withoutKremlin consent.
But relations were actually damaged earlier. Russia has long been frustratedby Britain's refusals to extradite businessman Boris Berezovsky and Chechenseparatist Akhmed Zakaev, both deemed criminals here. British courts ruledagainst extradition because the charges were found to be politicallymotivated. Both men were granted political asylum.
In recent months, in the discourse of Russian officials and loyalists,Britain has challenged America's primacy as Russia's main adversary. TheBritish ambassador was subjected to repeated harassment by the pro-Kremlinyouth group Nashi. Last year, a prime-time TV documentary series depictedBritain as a perennially hostile nation invariably seeking to harm Russia(the World War II alliance was apparently dismissed). An earlier television"documentary" accused British diplomats of spying and associated them withRussian human rights organizations that had been awarded grants by theBritish government.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012001967.html
Taiwan's Democratic Lesson: China's Communist leadership still doesn't getit.
Monday, January 21, 2008; A14
AS IT HAS more than once during the past two decades, Taiwan is providing anexample of democracy's virtue. Chen Shui-bian, the island's twice-electedpresident, long ago wore out his welcome with voters; during his eight yearsin office, economic growth has lagged and corruption has flourished, whileMr. Chen's aggressive and occasionally cynical promotion of the cause ofTaiwanese independence has backfired. A week ago, he got his just reward: alandslide victory in legislative elections by the opposition Nationalistparty (KMT), which won 81 of 113 seats, compared with just 27 for Mr. Chen'sDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP). Mr. Chen was obliged to step down asparty president, and the DPP's underdog candidate in the presidentialelection scheduled for March 22, Frank Hsieh, has adopted a considerablymore moderate line toward China.
You'd think even China's Communists would be toasting Taiwan's freeelections, which have served to humiliate Beijing's foremost politicaladversary and discredit his agenda. Nationalist leader Ma Ying-jeou, a heavyfavorite in the presidential election, has promised a rapid improvement inties with the mainland, including direct flights, more tourism and directinvestment.
Yet rather than pocket its victory, the government of President Hu Jintaospent two days last week browbeating visiting Deputy Secretary of State JohnD. Negroponte about a referendum Mr. Chen has scheduled on the same day asthe presidential vote. In a ploy to boost turnout for the DPP, the outgoingpresident is asking voters to decide whether the government should apply formembership in the United Nations under the name Taiwan, rather than Republicof China. Though the vote is meaningless -- Taiwan will not gain U.N.membership under any name -- and though the Bush administration has alreadyloudly condemned the referendum as "provocative," Mr. Hu's foreign ministerdemanded that the United States "more firmly oppose" holding the vote. HowWashington is supposed to stop Taiwan's president from conducting ademocratic exercise permitted by the country's constitution was notexplained.
The odd thing about this contretemps -- in addition to China's presumptionthat the best way to prevent an undesired political development in Taiwan isto publicly order Washington to dictate to Taipei -- is that the referendumis widely expected to fail, for the same reasons that Mr. Chen's party wasjust swamped in the congressional election. If Mr. Chen's proposition, orhis party's presidential candidate, has any hope of victory, it is thatChina's heavy-handed pressure tactics will touch off a backlash. Not for thefirst time, Mr. Hu's contempt for democracy is risking the vital interestsof his own party.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012002368.html?hpid=topnews
Highly Skilled And Out Of Work: Long-Term Joblessness Spreads in MiddleClass
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 21, 2008; A01
An unusually large share of workers have been out a job for more than sixmonths even as overall unemployment has remained low, a little-notedweakness in the labor market that analysts said threatens to intensify theimpact of the unfolding economic downturn.
In November, nearly 1.4 million people -- almost one in five of thoseunemployed -- had been jobless for at least 27 weeks, the juncture whenunemployment insurance benefits end for most recipients. That is about twicethe level of long-term unemployment before the 2001 recession.
The problem is ensnaring a broader swath of workers than before. Onceconcentrated among manufacturing workers and those with little work history,education or skills, long-term unemployment is growing most rapidly amongwhite-collar and college-educated workers with long work experience, studieshave found, making the problem difficult for policymakers to address even asit grows more urgent.
"What has happened is a polarization of the labor market. It was very strongat the very top and very strong until recently at the bottom," said LawrenceF. Katz, a labor economist at Harvard University. "But in the recent weakrecovery, and now recession, demand has been very weak" for jobs in themiddle.
Caroline Dixon never contemplated any of that when she resigned in Aprilafter nine months as a program officer with the Spina Bifida Association.She left because the job was "a bad fit," and she said she was confidentthat the economy was strong and she would soon find work. For a long time,she never stopped in the unemployment office on Naylor Road near herSoutheast Washington home.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/21/AR2008012100231.html?hpid=moreheadlines
World stocks routed on economy fears
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent
Reuters
Monday, January 21, 2008; 9:57 AM
LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks nosedived and demand for safe-haven bondsand currencies soared on Monday as fears gripped investors that adeteriorating U.S. economy would drag others down with it.
MSCI's main world stock index <.MIWD00000PUS>, a benchmark gauge of stockmarkets globally, sank 2.6 percent, falling below its 2007 bottom to lowslast seen in December 2006.
Its emerging market equities counterpart <.MSICEF> lost more than 5 percent.Meanwhile, the spread between emerging market bond yields and U.S. Treasuryyields, a key gauge of risk appetite, was just off its widest in two years.
"A mixture of weak global economic data, poor corporate data, increasingfears about the possibility of a recession ... have left investors drowningin a sea of red," said Henk Potts, equity strategist at BarclaysStockbrokers.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> was down 4.2 percent, taking its2008 year-to-date losses to more than 13 percent.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012002388.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Creating a Car Culture in China
New Owners Among Growing Middle Class Find Sense of Freedom, 'Taste the Fun'
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 21, 2008; A10
BEIJING -- Three years ago, Chen Chao was a clean-cut insurance broker whowore suits and cuff links to work. Today, the 27-year-old founder of theK-One Car Club is most often found in his auto tuning shop, sporting aleather jacket and long dark hair with light streaks.
In good weather, he organizes unofficial road races that attract hundreds ofspectators in Beijing's distant suburbs.
As China's middle class expands, Chen and his customers are among thehundreds of thousands of new car owners hitting the roads each year, drivingup imports of luxury cars, snarling traffic, creating a car culture andreveling in what many Chinese describe as a newfound sense of freedom. InChina today, owning a car is what owning a television set was in 1950sAmerica.
"I've been to Sichuan, Shandong and Jilin provinces, and I plan to spendChinese New Year driving to Yunnan," said Zhu Chao, a Web site engineer andK-One club member who often takes long drives during his holidays. "I reallylike what the car brings to my life -- convenience, freedom, flexibility, aquick rhythm. I can't imagine life without it."
In Chen's case, he has loved cars since childhood and learned how to driveat a military academy in Hebei province, where instructors taught him how tooperate trucks at night, navigate by the moon and recognize trafficobstacles in the dark.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/21/AR2008012100218.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Liberian Ex-Rebel Confesses to Killings
By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH
The Associated Press
Monday, January 21, 2008; 5:33 AM
MONROVIA, Liberia -- One of Liberia's most notorious rebel commanders, knownas Gen. Butt Naked, has returned to confess his role in terrorizing thenation, saying he is responsible for 20,000 deaths.
Joshua Milton Blahyi, who now lives in Ghana, returned this week to face hishomeland's truth and reconciliation commission, this time wearing a suit andtie. His nom de guerre is derived from his platoon's practice of chargingnaked into battle, a technique meant to terrify the enemy.
Other warlords, though, have refused to ask forgiveness, dismissing acommission many in Liberia see as toothless. Blahyi is urging other formerkillers to come forward as the country founded by freed American slaves in1847 struggles to recover from past horrors.
"I could be electrocuted. I could be hanged. I could be given any otherpunishment," the 37-year-old Blahyi said in a weekend interview followinghis truth commission appearance last week. "But I think forgiveness andreconciliation is the right way to go.
"I have been looking for an opportunity to tell the true story about my life_ and every time I tell people my story, I feel relieved."
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012001660.html?hpid=sec-nation
Second L.A. Times Editor Is Ousted for Balking at Budget Cuts
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 21, 2008; C03
The Los Angeles Times was in turmoil last night after its top editor wasfired for resisting budget cuts by the paper's parent company for the secondtime in 15 months.
Jim O'Shea, sent by Chicago's Tribune Co. to take over the Times after theprevious editor, Dean Baquet, was dismissed in a similar budget battle, losthis job after refusing to cut the newsroom budget further, sources familiarwith the situation said.
O'Shea's ouster came after real estate mogul Sam Zell took over the TribuneCo., but the battle lines seemed little changed: a Chicago conglomeratedemanding increasingly deep cuts in its Los Angeles property, which has wona string of Pulitzers but feels disrespected by the out-of-town landlord.
Sources who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of thesituation -- a company spokeswoman would not even confirm the firing -- saidO'Shea prided himself on holding the budgetary line and did not want ashrunken newsroom to be his legacy. While they said the proposed cutbackswere relatively small -- about $4 million, out of a budget of $120million -- and did not involve significant layoffs, the reductions wouldfollow a steady pace of budget-slashing since the Tribune Co. bought theTimes in 2000, including about $10 million last year. The Times editorialstaff has been cut from 1,200 to fewer than 900 since then, whilecirculation has declined from a peak of 1.1 million to about 800,000.
John Carroll, a former Baltimore Sun editor, resigned unexpectedly as Timeseditor in 2005, blaming "financial pressures" from the parent company as onefactor in his decision.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012001173.html?hpid=sec-world
Kenyans Hacked to Death With Machetes
By MICHELLE FAUL
The Associated Press
Monday, January 21, 2008; 1:03 AM
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Several people were beaten and hacked to death withmachetes in a Nairobi slum Sunday in renewed ethnic fighting over Kenya'sdisputed election, residents said.
Elsewhere, police managed to quell more than two days of fierce fightingaround a Catholic monastery that killed 22 people and left 200 homes burnedin the Rift Valley, 190 miles northwest of the capital Nairobi, officialssaid.
The re-election of President Mwai Kibaki has tapped into a well ofresentments that resurfaces regularly at election time in Kenya. But neverbefore has it been so prolonged or taken so many lives.
A government commission says more than 600 people have been killed inviolence that erupted after the Dec. 27 election, which opposition leaderRaila Odinga accused Kibaki of stealing.
As Kibaki's power becomes more entrenched each day, the opposition's besthope may rest in wrangling a power-sharing agreement that might make Odingaprime minister or vice president. International mediation has so far failedto broker such a deal.
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Disturbing Photos at the following website:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2007/12/31/GA2007123102000.html?hpid=sec-world
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