NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST February 3, 2008

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WashingtonPost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/02/AR2008020202074.html

Contenders Highlight GOP's Ideological Struggle

By Juliet Eilperin and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 3, 2008; A14

CHICAGO -- In the final days before Tuesday's coast-to-coast presidentialvoting, the two leading candidates for the Republican presidentialnomination are laying bare the ideological struggle inside their party overshaping a post-George W. Bush era.

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) offers rock-solid fealty to President Bush's Iraqwar policy but more than hints at creating a new spirit of cooperation withDemocrats on global warming, health-care policy, illegal immigration, ethicsand lobbying regulations.

By contrast, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney pledges to change a"broken" Washington but provides little evidence that he would alter thecourse of Republican ideology, which traces its roots to Ronald Reagan andextends to the current presidency.

"I guess I think there's going to be a real battle here for which way theRepublican Party is going to head," Romney told reporters as he campaignedin Southern California. Speaking later to supporters at a rally, he raisedthe question again: "What's the direction for the Republican Party?"

The answer to that question is likely to come on Tuesday, when millions ofRepublican voters confront the choices that a chaotic, year-long primarycampaign has left them: A Cold War-era soldier with little regard forpartisanship vs. a business chief executive and reformed moderate who hasembraced the conservative agenda.

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03kristof.html?ref=opinion

Op-Ed Columnist: Evangelicals a Liberal Can Love

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
February 3, 2008

At a New York or Los Angeles cocktail party, few would dare make apejorative comment about Barack Obama's race or Hillary Clinton's sex. Yetit would be easy to get away with deriding Mike Huckabee's religious faith.

Liberals believe deeply in tolerance and over the last century have led thebattles against prejudices of all kinds, but we have a blind spot aboutChristian evangelicals. They constitute one of the few minorities that, onthe American coasts or university campuses, it remains fashionable to mock.

Scorning people for their faith is intrinsically repugnant, and in this caseit also betrays a profound misunderstanding of how far evangelicals havemoved over the last decade. Today, conservative Christian churches do superbwork on poverty, AIDS, sex trafficking, climate change, prison abuses,malaria and genocide in Darfur.

Bleeding-heart liberals could accomplish far more if they reached out tobuild common cause with bleeding-heart conservatives. And the Democraticpresidential candidate (particularly if it's Mr. Obama, to whom evangelicalshave been startlingly receptive) has a real chance this year of winninglarge numbers of evangelical voters.

"Evangelicals are going to vote this year in part on climate change, onDarfur, on poverty," said Jim Wallis, the author of a new book, "The GreatAwakening," which argues that the age of the religious right has passed andthat issues of social justice are rising to the top of the agenda. Mr.Wallis says that about half of white evangelical votes will be in play thisyear.

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03sun2.html?ref=opinion

Editorial: The F.D.A. in Crisis: Another Danger Made in China

February 3, 2008

The F.D.A. - and American consumers - got another warning last week aboutthe need for vigilant monitoring of imported drugs from the developingworld, especially from China. The contamination of a drug used to treatChinese leukemia patients should also raise alarms at multinationalpharmaceutical companies that plan to outsource manufacturing to China.

There is no sign that the leukemia drug was exported to the United States.So far, some 200 people in China appear to have been paralyzed or otherwiseharmed. Given the manufacturer's expanding role in the export of drugs andactive ingredients around the world, the lax practices revealed could sooneror later harm patients virtually anywhere.

The case was described last week in an article by The Times's Jake Hookerand Walt Bogdanich. Shanghai Hualian, a division of a huge state-ownedpharmaceutical company, produced a leukemia drug that was somehowcontaminated with another cancer drug during production. When the productwas injected into the patients' spinal area, it caused paralysis and otherside effects.

When Chinese regulators began to investigate the cause of the adversereactions, plant workers tried to cover up what had happened, delayingcorrective action. The government has now closed the factory and detainedtwo company officials in a criminal investigation.

The same company is the sole supplier to the United States of the abortionpill known as RU-486. That pill is made at a different factory that passedan F.D.A. inspection in May and was inspected three times in recent monthsby Chinese drug regulators. Still, in light of the company's currentdifficulties, the F.D.A. would be wise to reinspect the plant promptly toensure that the RU-486 production facility is adhering to rigorous qualitycontrol procedures.

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03dowd.html?ref=opinion

Op-Ed Columnist: There Will Be Blood

By MAUREEN DOWD
LOS ANGELES
February 3, 2008

Suddenly, everyone was in the mood for love. Would the scream team turn intothe dream team?

After Thursday's Democratic debate, CNN's Carol Costello said there were"heart palpitations" and "ripples of joy" in the glittery Kodak Theateraudience at the idea of a Hillary-Obama or Obama-Hillary ticket, after hewas gallant with her and she laughed gaily with him.

How could Hollywood not fall in love with Hollywood's favorite plot? Afterlots of sparking and sparring, the couple falls into each other's arms inthe last scene.

The would-be matchmakers didn't seem to know that in Hollywood, couples whohave chemistry on screen often don't like each other off screen, and oneswho are involved off screen often don't have any chemistry on screen.

And so it is with Barack and Hillary. Thursday night was not the beginningof a beautiful friendship. Just a beautiful, dare we say, fairy tale.

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03sun3.html?ref=opinion

Editorial: Listening to the Jobs Report

February 3, 2008

The most pressing data in the latest jobs report is this: The number ofpeople who were unemployed for six months or more as of January was 1.38million.

The last time the numbers looked that bad - when the nation was mired injoblessness after the 2001 recession - Congress extended unemploymentcompensation for people who had exhausted their initial 13 weeks ofbenefits. This time around, unfortunately, Congress may fail to includethose much needed benefits in the upcoming economic stimulus bill.

The White House is wrongly insisting that lawmakers stick with a bill it
negotiated with House leaders before the new data was released. That versionomits jobless benefits and centers instead on - what else? - tax cuts. Inthe Senate, which may vote this week on its own stimulus bill, Republicansare blocking a Democratic push for jobless benefits. Their objection:Extended unemployment benefits encourage idleness.

Enough. Lawmakers should trim the less effective stimulus measures underdiscussion: tax rebates for the rich in the Senate version and corporate taxbreaks in both bills. They can make room for more effective jobless benefitsin the legislation's final version.

The rest of the jobs report should give Congress even more reason to approvea sensible stimulus package. In January, the economy lost 17,000 jobs, theworst tally in more than four years. Over the past three months, only 42,000jobs were created on average each month, compared with 169,000 in the sameperiod a year ago.

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03carter.html?ref=opinion

Op-Ed Contributors: A Clearer Picture on Voter ID

By JIMMY CARTER and JAMES A. BAKER III
February 3, 2008

THIS is a major election year. Unfortunately, our two major politicalparties - Democratic and Republican - continue to disagree on some of therules that apply to the administration of our elections. This divide isperhaps most contentious when the issue becomes one of whether voters shouldpresent photo identification to vote.

Twenty-seven states require or request some form of ID to vote. Supportersof this policy argue that if voters identify themselves before voting,election fraud will be reduced. Opponents of an ID requirement fear it willdisenfranchise voters, especially the poor, members of minority groups andthe elderly, who are less likely than other voters to have suitableidentification. The debate is polarized because most of the proponents reRepublicans and most of the opponents are Democrats.

In 2005, we led a bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform andconcluded that both parties' concerns were legitimate - a free and fairelection requires both ballot security and full access to voting. We offereda proposal to bridge the partisan divide by suggesting a uniform voter photoID, based on the federal Real ID Act of 2005, to be phased in over fiveyears. To help with the transition, states would provide free voter photo IDcards for eligible citizens; mobile units would be sent out to provide theIDs and register voters. (Of the 21 members of the commission, only threedissented on the requirement for an ID.)

No state has yet accepted our proposal. What's more, when it comes to IDlaws, confusion reigns. The laws on the books, mainly backed by Republicans,have not made it easy enough for voters to acquire an ID. At the same time,Democrats have tended to try to block voter ID legislation outright -instead of seeking to revise that legislation to promote accessibility. Whenlower courts have considered challenges to state laws on the question ofaccess, their decisions have not been consistent. And in too many instances,individual judges have appeared to vote along partisan lines.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court has taken on a case involving a challenge toIndiana's voter ID law. The court, which heard arguments last month and isexpected to render a judgment this term, has the power finally to bringclarity to this crucial issue. A study by American University's Center forDemocracy and Election Management - led by Robert Pastor, who also organizedthe voting commission - illustrates the problem at hand. The center foundthat in three states with ID requirements - Indiana, Mississippi andMaryland - only about 1.2 percent of registered voters lacked a photo ID.While the sample was small, and the margin of error was therefore high, wewere pleased to see that so few registered voters lacked photo IDs. That waspretty good news.

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03kershaw.html?ref=opinion

Op-Ed Contributor: How Democracy Produced a Monster

By IAN KERSHAW
Sheffield, England
February 3, 2008

COULD something like it happen again? That is invariably the first questionthat comes to mind when recalling that Hitler was given power in Germany 75years ago last week. With the world now facing such great tensions andinstability, the question seems more obvious than ever.

Hitler came to power in a democracy with a highly liberal Constitution, andin part by using democratic freedoms to undermine and then destroy democracyitself. That democracy, established in 1919, was a product of defeat inworld war and revolution and was never accepted by most of the Germanelites, notably the military, large landholders and big industry.

Troubled by irreconcilable political, social and cultural divisions from thebeginning, the new democracy survived serious threats to its existence inthe early postwar years and found a semblance of stability from 1924 to1928, only to be submerged by the collapse of the economy after the WallStreet crash of 1929.

The Nazis' spectacular surge in popular support (2.6 percent of the vote inthe 1928 legislative elections, 18.3 percent in 1930, 37.4 percent in July1932) reflected the anger, frustration and resentment - but also hope - thatHitler was able to tap among millions of Germans. Democracy had failed them,they felt. Their country was divided, impoverished and humiliated.Scapegoats were needed.

It was easy to turn hatred against Jews, who could be made to represent theimagined external threat to Germany by both international capitalism andBolshevism. Internally, Jews were associated with the political left -Socialist and Communist - which was made responsible by Hitler and hisfollowers for Germany's plight.

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03neiman.html?ref=opinion

Op-Ed Contributor: To Resist Hitler and Survive

By SUSAN NEIMAN
Berlin
February 3, 2008

WALKING to work on Tuesday I was startled to see three large wreaths offlowers tossed on the rainy sidewalk like the dead Christmas trees thegarbage trucks just reclaimed. Recalling that the building on that sidewalkhoused the tiny office of Potsdam's Jewish community, and that this week wasthe 75th anniversary of Hitler's seizure of power, I turned to look closer.The carnations and zinnias were mismatched and garish, the cheapestarrangements on the market in a budget-cutting age.

That said, Germany has spent millions of dollars commemorating the Holocaustwith monuments, museums and educational initiatives that show no sign ofletting up. The effort and expense is impressive and is a model for othercountries dealing with their darkest pasts. Indeed, artists andintellectuals at the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade turn totheir German colleagues for advice about coming to terms with the Milosevicera. Historians in Moscow debate whether to take lessons from theironce-mortal enemy when examining their country's Stalinist terror.

What attracts international attention are Germany's largest initiatives. Itwas no small signal to set a Holocaust monument that's larger than afootball field next to Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's equivalent of London's BigBen. It takes more time to discover the smaller memorials: the wreathscommemorating one of the many annual dates marking the steps to theHolocaust or the small brass plaques a German artist placed in front ofapartment buildings listing the name of a Jew who had once lived there,along with the camp to which he or she was deported. There are no plaquesoutside my apartment, but the architect who renovated the building threeyears ago chiseled a long quotation from the playwright Heiner Müllerreminding ordinary Germans of their responsibility for the Nazi regime andleft a large swathe of facade unrenovated to remind tenants daily of themortar holes left by the war.

The effort to find new ways to remember is prodigious, and it can stillproduce emotion among people who think they've seen it all. The Germannewsweekly Der Spiegel published a special issue commemorating the 75thanniversary filled with photos that turn your stomach today. But is nausea -or grief or guilt - what we want to induce to prevent racism and genocide?

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/us/politics/03exelon.html?hp

Nuclear Leaks and Response Tested Obama in Senate

By MIKE McINTIRE
February 3, 2008

When residents in Illinois voiced outrage two years ago upon learning thatthe Exelon Corporation had not disclosed radioactive leaks at one of itsnuclear plants, the state's freshman senator, Barack Obama, took up theircause.

Mr. Obama scolded Exelon and federal regulators for inaction and introduceda bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local authoritiesimmediately of even small leaks. He has boasted of it on the campaign trail,telling a crowd in Iowa in December that it was "the only nuclearlegislation that I've passed."

"I just did that last year," he said, to murmurs of approval.

A close look at the path his legislation took tells a very different story.While he initially fought to advance his bill, even holding up apresidential nomination to try to force a hearing on it, Mr. Obamaeventually rewrote it to reflect changes sought by Senate Republicans,Exelon and nuclear regulators. The new bill removed language mandatingprompt reporting and simply offered guidance to regulators, whom it chargedwith addressing the issue of unreported leaks.

Those revisions propelled the bill through a crucial committee. But,contrary to Mr. Obama's comments in Iowa, it ultimately died amidparliamentary wrangling in the full Senate.

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/world/middleeast/03iran.html?hp

A Frail Economy Raises Pressure on Iran's Rulers

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
February 3, 2008

TEHRAN - In one of the coldest winters Iranians have experienced in recentmemory, the government is failing to provide natural gas to tens ofthousands of people across the country, leaving some for days or even weekswith no heat at all. Here in the capital, rolling blackouts every night fora month have left people without electricity, and heat, for hours at a time.

The heating crisis in this oil-exporting nation is adding to Iranians'increasing awareness of the contrast between their growing influence abroadand frailty at home, according to government officials, diplomats andpolitical analysts interviewed here.

From fundamentalists to reformists, people here are talking more loudlyabout the need for a more pragmatic approach, one that tones down theanti-Western rhetoric, at least a bit, and focuses more on improvingmanagement of the country and restoring Iran's economic health.

The mounting domestic challenges, the most serious of which is a grindingperiod of stagflation, with inflation growing and the economy weakening,have apparently deepened tensions between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad andthe religious establishment he ultimately answers to. And they have helpedspur a collective rethinking of Mr. Ahmadinejad's stewardship as Iranprepares to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution thismonth and to hold parliamentary elections on March 14.

"I think the Islamic Revolution is going through an identity crisis, and istrying to mature," said Nader Talebzadeh, a filmmaker who supports Mr.Ahmadinejad. "We are maturing, gradually."

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/world/middleeast/04mideast.html?hp

Egyptian Troops Seal Gaza Border

By ISABEL KERSHNER
February 4, 2008

JERUSALEM - Egyptian troops closed the border with the Gaza Strip on Sundaymorning, witnesses and Hamas officials said, apparently bringing an end to11 days of free movement for Palestinian residents of the blockadedterritory.

The Egyptian troops and police were allowing Gazans and Egyptians to crossthe border to return to their homes, but prevented any new cross-bordermovement.

Egypt has made earlier attempts to close the border, but this time, after avisit to Cairo by senior Hamas officials, Hamas gunmen were cooperating withthe Egyptians instead of seeking to thwart them.

On Saturday, Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official, said that the group,which runs Gaza, would cooperate with Egypt to close the border, breachedbefore dawn a week ago Wednesday by Hamas land mines.

Mr. Zahar said his group's gunmen would be removed from the Gaza side of theborder and that efforts would be made to avoid any violence or confrontationwith Egyptian border guards. Mr. Zahar spoke on his return to Gaza aftertaking part in talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo.

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New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/world/africa/03chad.html

Gun Battles in Chad's Capital as Rebel Forces Storm In

By LYDIA POLGREEN
February 3, 2008

DAKAR, Senegal - A rebel army swarmed the capital of Chad on Saturday, andgun battles erupted around the presidential palace, according to Chadian andWestern officials, in an attack that raised the specter of deeper chaos inone the most war-scarred and fragile regions of the world.

Forces from a coalition of three rebel groups that have taken shelter inSudan for the past few years entered the capital, Ndjamena, early Saturdayafter days of battle dozens of miles outside the city, Chadian officialssaid. The suddenness and stealth of their arrival appeared to take themilitary by surprise.

A spokesman for the three rebel groups, Abdraman Koulamallah, said in astatement posted on a rebel Web site that they were in the capital and were"ready to facilitate, with the guarantee of the African Union, thenegotiated departure of President Idriss Déby and avoid a pointless bloodbath."

But Chad's ambassador in Washington, Mahamoud Adam Bechir, said in atelephone interview that the rebels who had reached the capital were a smallgroup that split from the main column of rebels headed toward the city. Thegroup had circumvented counterattacks by the Chadian military and stoleninto the capital, Mr. Bechir said, but was being chased by PresidentialGuard forces.

"They were able to infiltrate the capital, panic the population, fire at thepresidency and give the impression there is fighting going on at thepresidency," Mr. Bechir said. "But everything is under control. PresidentIdriss Déby is in the palace. The Chadian military forces are chasing theinsurgents."

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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102664.html

Super Tuesday's Shallowness

By David S. Broder
Sunday, February 3, 2008; B07

Now that the long-anticipated "Tsunami Tuesday" is almost upon us, the fullfolly of choosing presidential candidates in what amounts to a nationalprimary has become apparent to everyone.

Voters in 24 states that span the continent and range in size fromCalifornia and New York to Delaware and North Dakota will cast ballots. Theymay well settle the Republican nomination and go a long way toward resolvingthe identity of the Democratic nominee.

Few of those voters will have had more than a quick glimpse of thecandidates, who have had little time to devote to the entire country sincethe last single-state contests in South Carolina and Florida.

What they know is what the surviving candidates -- two Democrats and fourRepublicans -- have told them in TV ads and other communications, plus thedaily bulletins and comments of the media.

Last week I was in Arizona, one of the more vigorously contested smallstates voting Tuesday, and saw what was available to its voters. HillaryClinton and Barack Obama were regularly on the TV screen, with self-servingmessages they have financed from their lavish treasuries. Obama spent a fewhours in Phoenix for a rally, and the next day Bill Clinton showed upbriefly on behalf of his wife.

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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102663.html

Why Republicans Like Obama

By Peter Wehner
Sunday, February 3, 2008; B07

Barack Obama is not only popular among Democrats, he's also an appealingfigure to many Republicans. Former GOP House member Joe Scarborough, now ahost on MSNBC, reports that after every important Obama speech, he isinundated with e-mails praising the speech -- with most of them coming fromRepublicans. William Bennett, an influential conservative intellectual, hassaid favorable things about Obama. So have Rich Lowry of National Review andPeggy Noonan. And so have I.

A number of prominent Republicans I know, who would wage a pitched battleagainst Hillary Clinton, like Obama and would find it hard to generate muchenthusiasm in opposing him.

What is at the core of Obama's appeal?

Part of it is the eloquence and uplift of his speeches, combined with hispersonal grace and dignity. By all accounts, Obama is a well-grounded,decent, thoughtful man. He comes across, in his person and manner, asnonpartisan. He has an unsurpassed ability to (seemingly) transcendpolitics. Even when he disagrees with people, he doesn't seem disagreeable."You know what charm is," Albert Camus wrote in "The Fall," "a way ofgetting the answer yes without having asked any clear question." Obama hassuch charm, and its appeal is not restricted to Democrats.

A second reason Republicans appreciate Obama is that he is pitted against acouple, the Clintons, whom many Republicans hold in contempt. Among theeffects of the Obama-Clinton race is that it is forcing Democrats to come togrips with the mendacity and ruthlessness of the Clinton machine.

Conservatives have long believed that the Clintons are an unprincipled pairwho will destroy those who stand between them and power -- whether they arepolitical opponents, women from Bill Clinton's past or independent counsels.

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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102662.html

Investors We Need Not Fear

By George F. Will
Sunday, February 3, 2008; B07

Although Americans are alarmed by the credit crisis convulsing the economy,they are sensibly placid about one consequence of the crisis. It is thesubstantial investment by sovereign wealth funds -- government-ownedand -run investment funds -- in financial institutions needing infusions ofcash.

Remember the patriotic ruckus in 1989 when private Japanese investors boughtRockefeller Center? Remember the frenzied opposition two years ago to theattempt by a company owned by the government of Dubai to become the operatorof some U.S. ports? Last month there was no comparable anxiety when thesovereign wealth funds of Kuwait, Singapore and South Korea bought anestimated $40 billion of equity in Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanleyand the Swiss bank UBS.

Calmness, combined with vigilance, is sensible. Calmness, because the fundsare a small fraction of the world's wealth and are performing necessaryservices. Vigilance, because they pose potential problems concerningtransparency and possible political purposes.

Such funds are not new: Kuwait launched one in 1953. Matthew Higgins, aneconomist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, estimates that thetotal assets of sovereign wealth funds are now $2.5 trillion, much less thanthe $16 trillion, $18 trillion and $22 trillion managed by insurancecompanies, pension funds and mutual funds, respectively. The $2.5 trillionis larger than the combined assets of all hedge funds but is equal to just1.2 percent of the $201.6 trillion combined market capitalization of globalbond and equity markets and commercial banks. Higgins's high-end estimate isthat the funds could be 4 percent of global financial markets by 2015.

Many countries exporting oil, toys or underwear to America are running tradesurpluses. These countries need to do something with their dollars -- it isbetter that they invest them than buy weapons with them -- and wantsomething with a higher return than U.S. Treasury bonds offer. By buyingminority interests in U.S. financial institutions or other companies,sovereign wealth funds are gaining money-management expertise.

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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102665.html

A Pair of Allies, Self-Destructing

By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, February 3, 2008; B07

The presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan fiddle furiously as the fires ofterrorist violence burn across their nations.

Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf suddenly seem more concerned withprotecting their positions and perks than with keeping their countries outof the grasp of extremist Islamic forces.

Rule One of counterinsurgency campaigns is that you can't help foreignleaders who won't help themselves. It is time to apply that rule to therecent quixotic and self-defeating actions of both these men.

Last weekend, Karzai abruptly pulled out of a carefully developed plan toinstall a high-powered U.N. special representative in Kabul to consolidatelagging reconstruction efforts. To make matters worse, the about-face wasreportedly abetted by an American diplomat's free-lancing on Karzai'sbehalf.

Karzai's rejection of Britain's Paddy Ashdown, who gained a reputation as aforceful and imaginative administrator for the United Nations in Bosnia, isat one level a story of diplomatic intrigue and betrayal. But its meaninglies in two broader points.

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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/02/AR2008020201828.html

Help Wanted in Darfur
The Bush administration should put some muscle behind deploying apeacekeeping force.

Sunday, February 3, 2008; B06

THERE HAS BEEN no shortage of outrage in the Western democracies over thegenocidal repression of Darfur's African population. Effective action toforce Sudan to stop it, however, has been harder to come by. The latestillustration of the gap between rhetoric and action is the proposed jointUnited Nations-African Union peacekeeping force, which was supposed to be upand running with 26,000 soldiers by Jan. 1 -- but isn't. In fact, only about9,000 poorly trained and equipped soldiers are on the ground, most of themAfrican Union troops left over from a previous, ineffectual force sponsoredby that organization. Last month, Sudanese troops fired on an African Unionconvoy, leaving a truck driver wounded, and exposing the force's utter lackof retaliatory capability. This follows a militia attack in September thatleft 10 African Union troops dead.

Through administrative harassment and diplomatic obstruction, Sudan'sgovernment has thwarted the deployment of other forces, including those frommore substantial Scandinavian and Asian militaries. The danger is compoundedby the splintering of Darfur's rebel groups, which has made it moredifficult to bring all the parties into peace talks. But in a tacticalmilitary sense, the U.N.-A.U. force's biggest weakness is its lack ofhelicopters. Darfur is a vast, arid territory. Without at least 24helicopters, it cannot be credibly patrolled. That must include a smallsquad of attack helicopters, able to fly and shoot at night, so thatpeacekeepers can deter attacks such as those that occurred recently. Yet themostly Western countries that have such aircraft have refused so far tosupply them, despite high-level pleas from President Bush and Secretary ofState Condoleezza Rice. They cite both the financial cost and the danger totheir soldiers of operating in a region where the ultimate authority,Sudanese dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir, doesn't want them.

Mr. Bashir has played this game before. He shrewdly resists internationalpressure until it reaches a critical point, then appears to give in -- andthen waits for the West to shift its attention elsewhere. To counter this,the Bush administration has to redouble its efforts to find a helicopterdonor or donors, while using its leverage to make Mr. Bashir admit moretroops. One diplomatic avenue runs through China, which is Sudan's bestfriend on the U.N. Security Council but may just be willing to do the West afavor in the run-up to this summer's Olympics. The Darfur peacekeepingoperation is one part of a solution to a problem that probably calls for aninternational war crimes trial for Mr. Bashir. It might fail even withadequate troops and aircraft. But it will certainly fail without them.



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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/30/AR2008013003012.html

Pakistan Kicked Me Out. Others Were Less Lucky.

By Nicholas Schmidle
Sunday, February 3, 2008; B01

T he police came for me on a cold, rainy Tuesday night last month. Theystood in front of my home in Islamabad, four men with hoods pulled overtheir heads in the driving rain. The senior officer, a tall, clean-shavenman, and I recognized one another from recent protests and demonstrations.Awkwardly, almost apologetically, he handed me a notice ordering myimmediate expulsion from Pakistan. Rain spilled off a nearby awning and fellloudly into puddles.

I asked, somewhat obtusely, what this meant. "I am here to take you to theairport," the officer shrugged. "Tonight."

The document he'd given me provided no explanation for my expulsion, but Iimmediately felt that there was some connection to the travels and reportingI had done for a story published two days earlier in the New York TimesMagazine, about a dangerous new generation of Taliban in Pakistan. I hadspent several months traveling throughout the troubled areas along theborder with Afghanistan, including Quetta (in Baluchistan province) and DeraIsmail Khan, Peshawar and Swat (all in the North-West Frontier Province). Myvisa listed no travel restrictions, and less than a week earlier, PresidentPervez Musharraf had sat before a roomful of foreign journalists inIslamabad and told them that they could go anywhere they wanted in Pakistan.

The truth, however, is that foreign journalists are barred from almost halfthe country; in most cases, their visas are restricted to three cities --Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. In Baluchistan province, which covers 44percent of Pakistan and where ethnic nationalists are fighting a low-levelinsurgency, the government requires prior notification and approval if youwant to travel anywhere outside the capital of Quetta. Such permission israrely given. And the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where thepro-Taliban militants are strong, are completely off-limits. Musharraf'sgovernment says that journalists are kept out for their own security. Butmeanwhile, two conflicts go unreported in one of the world's most vital --and misunderstood -- countries.

There's no doubt that journalists in Pakistan, and throughout Central andSouth Asia, face great risks. Nine Central and South Asian journalists wereamong the 65 newsmen and women worldwide -- more than in any other year inthe past decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists -- wholost their lives while doing their jobs last year. Five were Pakistanis. Onedied in FATA and one in the North-West Frontier Province, areas where theTaliban operate with increasing openness. Two others died in Taliban- oral-Qaeda-related violence, one during the Red Mosque siege last July and onein the terrorist attack on Benazir Bhutto's motorcade as she returned toPakistan last Oct. 18, which left more than 140 dead.

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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102828.html

The Boom Was a Bust For Ordinary People

By Barbara Ehrenreich
Sunday, February 3, 2008; B01

I t begins to sound a bit naughty -- all this talk about the need to"stimulate" the economy, as if we were discussing how to make a porn film. Idon't mean to trivialize our economic difficulties or the need for effectivegovernment intervention, but we have to face a disconcerting fact: For yearsnow, that strange stimulus-crazed beast, the economy, has been going its ownway, increasingly disconnected from the toils and troubles of ordinaryAmericans.

The economy, for example, has been expanding, at least until now, and growthis supposed to guarantee general well-being. As long as the gross domesticproduct grows, World Money Watch's Web site assures us, "so will business,jobs and personal income."

But hellooo, we've had brisk growth for the past few years, as the presidenthas tirelessly reminded us, only without those promised increases inpersonal income, at least not for the poor and the middle class. Accordingto a study just released by the Economic Policy Institute, real wagesactually fell last year. Growth, some of the economists are conceding inperplexity, has been "decoupled" from widely shared prosperity.

I first began to sense this in the boom years of the late 1990s, when I wasworking in entry-level jobs for my book "Nickel and Dimed." While the stockmarket soared and fortunes were being made in the time it takes to say"IPO," my $6-to-$8-an-hour co-workers lunched on hot dog buns because thatwas all they could afford and, in some cases, fretted about whether theycould find a safe place to sleep.

Growth is not the only economic indicator that has let us down. In the pastfive years, America's briskly rising productivity has been the envy of muchof the world. But again, there's been no corresponding increase in mostpeople's wages. It's not supposed to be this way, of course. Economists havelong believed that some sort of occult process would intervene and adjustwages upward as people worked harder and more efficiently.

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Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/404332.html

Polls show McCain leads GOP, Dems race very close

BY STEVEN THOMMA
Posted on Sun, Feb. 03, 2008

Republican John McCain leads in all four corners of the country heading intoa rush of primaries on Tuesday, while Democrats Hillary Clinton and BarackObama were locked in a close struggle for delegates coast to coast,according to a new series of McClatchy-MSNBC polls.

McCain led challengers Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee in California in theWest, Missouri in the Midwest, Georgia in the South and New Jersey in theEast -- a regional cross-section of the 21 states holding Republicanprimaries.

Many of the contests are winner-take-all delegate bonanzas, so the surveyssuggest that McCain could emerge with a commanding lead for the Republicannomination for president.

''For the Republicans, McCain is clearly the front-runner. He's ahead inevery state,'' said Brad Coker, managing partner of Mason-Dixon Polling &Research, which conducted the nine polls Jan. 30-Feb. 1.

On the Democratic side, Clinton held the edge in four key regional states --Arizona, California, Missouri and New Jersey. But Obama was close in most ofthose states, and led in Georgia.

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Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/403365.html

Why Clinton can count on Latinos

By HARRY P. PACHON and RODOLFO O. DE LA GARZA
Posted on Sat, Feb. 02, 2008

Hillary Clinton is doing extraordinarily well among Latino voters, comparedwith rival Barack Obama. According to a Los Angeles Times/CNN/Politico pollTuesday, she's running 2 to 1 ahead of Obama among California Latinos. Inthe Nevada caucuses, exit polls indicated that she received roughly 2 out of3 Latino votes. Nationally, polls show only a slightly lower level ofsupport.

These findings are particularly significant because Latino voters in thegeneral election are projected to total more than nine million, mostconcentrated in states rich in Electoral College votes, such as Californiaand New York, or in key ''swing'' states, such as New Mexico and New Jersey,in which past voting patterns show it takes only a small percentage of theLatino vote to push a candidate's totals up or down.

Pundits are explaining the failure of Obama to ignite the allegiance of themajority of the Latino electorate to date in terms of anti-black prejudices.But there are better explanations.

. First, and most obvious, is the name recognition that the Clintons enjoyin the Latino community. Bill Clinton was the first president to have twoLatino Cabinet members serve simultaneously. Moreover, during the Clintonyears, rising economic tides lifted Latino boats along with many others.Even at the height of the impeachment controversy, polls by the Tomas RiveraPolicy Institute indicated that Clinton had a 70 percent approval ratingamong Latino voters. In contrast, Obama is a relatively new face and voicefor all but Illinois Latinos.

Perhaps more significant, Hillary Clinton has done her homework by gainingearly endorsements from Latino leaders who have demonstrated influence amongtheir constituencies. Five of the seven Latino congressional representativesin California are on her side. In addition, nationally recognizedpoliticians -- such as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and HenryCisneros, a former San Antonio mayor and U.S. Housing and Urban Developmentsecretary -- have endorsed Clinton. California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunezand Raul Yzaguirre, who for 30 years headed the National Council of La Raza,are national co-chairmen of her campaign. Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton'scampaign manager, is the first Latina to run a presidential campaign.

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